“What’s wrong?” she asks, breathless. “You don’t like this?”
“I love it. Rhea, I love you.”
Her eyes widen and she gasps, but I need to pour my heart out now before I lose my courage.
“I love you so much, and that’s why I need to tell you who I am and what happened to me. I need to tell you about Olivia.”
Rhea stays quiet, but she doesn’t pull away. She just looks at me with those blue eyes and waits.
“My parents were weak symbiotes who struggled to find willing hosts to feed from, and their vulnerability made them targets when I was young. A trafficking ring attacked us, humans and monsters working together, and they killed my parents and kidnapped me.
“Young symbiotes are valuable to traffickers because we don’t know how to feed ourselves yet. We have to be fed by our parents, who merge with us partially and transfer energy directly from their own reserves. A young symbiote merged with a host can’t instinctively draw energy. The host has to intentionally direct their bioelectrical energy to us, and that creates a dependency that traffickers exploit.
“I was trafficked for years during my adolescence, forced to merge with multiple hosts against my will, people who paid money to experience having a symbiote’s power. I had no control over who I bonded with, or when I could separate, or how I was treated. Some hosts were cruel, others were just indifferent, but none of them saw me as a person. I was property, an object to be rented out for profit, and it left me with trauma around intimacy, touch, consent… and merging.”
Rhea’s hands tighten inside my chest, but she doesn’t interrupt.
“Of all the people who used me, Olivia was the worst. She was young then, before she became Olivia Kyzer, and she paid the trafficking ring good money to be merged with me repeatedly.While we were merged, she forced me to have sex with her in our shared dreams, and I couldn’t resist her prompts because she was mentally stronger. I was just a kid and didn’t know how to protect my mind yet. The dream sex was violating and traumatic, but what was worse was what she made me do while merged during her waking hours.
“She would have sex with men while I was trapped inside her body, and she forced me to give her my strength during these encounters, forced me to improve her stamina so she could have sex with more men in one night. I was stuck inside her feeling everything she felt, unable to escape, having to enhance her physically while she used me as a tool for her pleasure.
“This went on for an extended period until I finally escaped the ring, and after that I lived on the streets for a while before I managed to build something resembling a normal life. It took me years to recover.
“That’s why I had such a visceral reaction when I saw her at Viktor’s party. Seeing her again after all these years brought everything back. Now she’s in jail, though, and I can finally move on with my life.”
I look into Rhea’s eyes and whisper, “If you’ll have me, broken as I am.”
Rhea hugs me, pressing my head to her chest.
“You’re not broken, Zeth,” she whispers in my ear. “You are mine, and I would know better than anyone. I love you, Zeth. You’re mine, and I’m yours. You’re not broken.”
I sob into her chest, my whole body shaking and trembling even though I don’t produce tears. This is as close to crying as I can get, and Rhea holds me through it.
“Shh,” she whispers, pressing my head harder against her. “You’re here with me now.”
I pour inside her slowly, my matter dissolving and flowing into her body like I’m melting into her skin. It’s not rushedor desperate, just the slow merging of two people who belong together.
Rhea curls up on the couch, and I curl up inside her. We hold each other like this, merged and connected, sharing one body and one soul.
No matter what happens, no matter what the future brings, I know I’m not alone anymore. I will never be alone again, because Rhea will contain me, and I will contain her.
Epilogue
Rhea
I stand on the balcony of our Hawaiian suite, taking in the view that still doesn’t feel real even after three days. Lush green mountains rise beyond the white sand beach, turquoise waves roll gently toward the shore, and palm trees sway in the warm breeze. The morning sun casts golden light across the water, and I feel like I’m on another planet. I never want to leave. Behind me, the sheer white curtains billow through the open doors, and I hear rustling from inside. Zeth stirs awake in bed. I smile to myself and turn to look at him.
He’s stretching, the sheets tangled around his waist, and I drink in the sight of him. His charcoal-gray skin glistens in the morning light filtering through the curtains, and his silver markings shift and pulse as he moves, running through his body like living veins. His shoulders roll back, his muscled chest and arms flexing, and God, he’s beautiful. Strong, and powerful, and mine.
My eyes travel lower, pausing when I see the sheet has slipped down to reveal his massive cock resting heavily against his stomach. I bite my lip. This is our third day of vacation, and I’ve already done everything with that gorgeous cock – had it in every way possible – but looking at him now, I can’t help myself. I need to taste him.
I move from the balcony into the bedroom, running my hands slowly over my body as I walk. The sheer white nightdress slides against my tanned skin, the silk doing nothing to hide my hard nipples. I’m dripping wet just from looking at him. Zeth’s eyes open and lock onto me. I can see how much he wants me.
I crawl onto the mattress between his spread legs.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning,” he says.
