~Dante~
I looked forward to every passing moment with Alessa. We visited each other every day and made love frequently, but I could never kiss her enough to sate the ache she created in my heart.
The inner stallion in me wanted more than sensual matings in her bed, and every time I caught her performances at the mermaid tank, the drive to claim her grew more irresistible.
I didn’t know how long I could last. How long I’d have the restraint to keep the wild beast in me at bay. The past weeks had been both heaven and hell, worsened when she revealed our first attempt at pregnancy ended in failure. With no alternative, we tried again.
“How do you know she doesn’t want it?” Teo asked me. Swimming no longer distracted me from the pressing need to make Alessa mine, so I’d abandoned my trunks and weighed them to the bottom of the ocean with a rock before hurrying to Teo’s island. My father’s useless proclamations rang in my ears, making me desperate for advice from a man who would understand.
Feline eyes peered at me from the thick foliage bordering the garden where we chatted. Teo’s free range jaguars always kept out of sight whenever I visited; I hadn’t yet earned their trust. Or they were waiting for me to let down my guard to eat me. I hoped it was the former.
Bright pink hibiscus bloomed from several bushes and the sweet smell of orchids floated on the balmy afternoon breeze. Behind us, a hot spring pool gently bubbled. Teo’s home was an island paradise.
“While you have the privilege of living beside your mate every day of the year, I’m not so fortunate, Teo. I’ll be away in the ocean half of our lives. No woman wants that.”
“Allow her to make her own decision,” Teo insisted. “A smart woman knows what she wants, and Alessa is no exception.”
Teo’s mate arrived bearing a tray in her hands. The voluptuous human woman wore a scarlet sundress, neatly coiffed black waves against her bare shoulders. For her comfort, Teo and Kekoa kept spare clothes around for shapeshifting visitors. I wore a modest pair of board shorts and a big smile when the scent of sugar and vanilla reached my nose.
“Are you boys hungry?”
“Cookies?” Teo straightened in his seat, resembling an eager school child.
“I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation but...” Marcy bit her lower lip. “I think my husband is right this time. This rare, singular time,” she repeated for emphasis while lowering a plate of still warm cookies in front of the dragon. He sulked until she set the glass of milk beside them.
“Where is Javier?” I twisted around and searched for their little boy. I’d given the child a ride in the water a week ago and found myself longing even more for a foal of my own. I hoped for a little colt with Alessa’s gray eyes.
“Down for his nap,” Marcy replied. “Otherwise he’d be out here eating all the cookies with his daddy. Don’t worry, I saved him some.”
“In that case.” I helped myself to several cookies from the plate. They were warm and gooey, filled with cheesecake and caramel centers. The sweet delights melted on my tongue.
“Anyway.” Marcy ran her fingers over Teo’s hair, combing her slim digits through his shoulder-length waves. “You men need to trust us to know what we want sometimes. Don’t make decisions without consulting with us.”
I washed down a couple more cookies with my glass of milk. “How long has it been since you both became mated?”
“Nearly ten years now,” Marcy said happily. Teo swept the woman into his lap and fed her a cookie. They were the definition of contentment, the kind of peace any shifter would aspire to possess for himself.
“I have no regrets about the path our lives have taken together,” Teo said.
I wanted a semblance of his life for my own. Hours later, when leaving their home after dinner, the ocean raised my hopeless spirits and carried me toward the resort. Thoughts of Alessa weighed heavily on my mind, along with my inner beast’s yearning to make her mine and to be owned by her in return.
***
My stallion’s possessive and jealous nature made attending Alessa’s shows unsafe for the people around me. For the third time in a row, I missed her performance, but this time, I had a damned good reason. A surprise for her. The girls all squealed when I cracked the dressing room door open to shout inside.
“Keep your swimsuit on, Alessa! We have plans!”
“Dante!” She popped into view and squeezed outside to shove her palm against my chest. The color flushing her cheeks matched her hair. “Do you mind, pervert?”
“I didn’t step inside,” I grumbled. “I didn’t think you’d hear me through the door.”
“I would have heard you loud and clear.”
My eyes swept over her body, lush curves, thick thighs, and rounded hips perfect for childbearing. The green bikini bottom snugly clung to her fair skin. I hardened in seconds.
“Maybe I couldn’t wait to see you.”
“Maybe you need to learn to wait a few minutes,” she shot back. Her voice softened and a smile crept onto her face. “Why do I need my suit on?”
“Because, despite how much I’d like you to be without it right now, I want to introduce you to some of my friends.” I set my hands on her hips and squeezed, enjoying the pliable flesh beneath my fingers.
“We have most of the same friends, Dante.”
“No. My friends.”
When the understanding dawned on Alessa’s face, her mouth formed a small ‘o’ of surprise. “Let me grab my stuff then.”
After a stop by her house for her to dump her belongings and fetch her digital camera, we headed down to the dock and borrowed Teo’s spare boat. He’d given us permission to meet on the cove at his personal island. Less than a half hour later, we reached Teo’s dock and I moored the boat in place.
“You ready?”
“I’m not sure. Do they know you’re bringing a human?”
“They know everything about you,” I confirmed.
Alessa shot me a skeptical look then we made our way onto the wooden dock and across the sand. With her camera secured in an expensive, waterproof case, she’d hoped to capture the afternoon with us magical creatures in digital form.
I’d never allowed anyone to photograph me before, but I knew my father would flip his shit if he found out.
Screw him, I seethed internally. Let her take a hundred photos.
“Dante? You okay?”
“Hm?”
“You looked...” She gestured helplessly with a hand, a worried expression causing her lips to press together in a thin line. “Upset.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re n—mmph.”
I kissed her, hard. Pressing my fingers against her ass, holding her tight against me, letting her feel the hard-on she could inspire with only a press of her lips alone. Thinking about my father dampened the mood, but being with her chased away his unjust expectations. I palmed one full breast and slipped my hand between it and the bikini triangle cupping her flesh. She moaned into my mouth, question forgotten and her lust unmistakable.
Breaking the kiss, I turned my lips to her throat and skimmed my mouth down the slender column. “They don’t have clothes. Is that okay with you?”
“Okay, so cove full of naked hotties. Gotcha. Oh, yeah... fine with me,” she breathed out.”
I pinched her nipple, earning another quiet moan. “Can you remember that we won’t hurt you?” Alessa’s body was so damned responsive I couldn’t stop touching her, and skin to skin contact had become an addiction.
“I trust you, and if they’re your friends, I trust them... but...” She trailed her fingers over my cock. The hard length jumped beneath her fingers and eagerly twitched. “We’re never going to make it to the cove if you keep doing this.”
“I’ll stop,” I said, chagrined. The guys would beat me to the bottom of the ocean and bury my corpse in the sand if I didn’t make good on my promise to let them meet an actual human. One of them had no experience whatsoever with his human body, but they were all eager, as if she were the mythical creature that belonged in fairy tales.
Somehow, I managed to cool off along the walk to the cove. With her hand in mine, she chattered about the show, how well the female audience members responded to the addition of two mermen, and how much she’d secretly missed playing the part of the mermaid princess.
“Alessa?”
“Hmm?”
“There’s something I want to try, and I know it’s going to sound crazy to you.”
“Is this a baby making thing? I told you not to get discouraged. My period isn’t due again for another week so we’ll know soon.”
“No. It’s not about that exactly. Loosely related but not entirely.”
Alessa peered up at me. “What then?”
“I want to...” Licking my lips nervously, I searched for the words to voice my desires. “I want to make you mine, but if you accept it, it’s kind of a one-way road for me.”
“Yours?”
“It’s a soul bond meant for mates, like the mark on Marcy’s shoulder.”
“She told me he bit her.” Alessa raised one hand to her bare shoulder and touched the flawless skin. “Would you bite me there, too?”
I shook my head. “No. We don’t bite. That’s a dragon thing.”
“And she said it’s like being married. So... are you asking me to marry you?”
My heart hammered against my chest. “In the only way my kind do it, yes.”
Alessa was quiet for the next few steps, her expression contemplative. “So, how does it work?”
“I’ve never done it, but everyone says it comes naturally once the beast takes over.”
“Do you mind if I think on it for a little while? I mean, in case I have something else I want to ask you about it?”
“Of course,” I replied. The last thing I wanted was to rush her. “Look, I see Hyrum and Lycus. They’re both a little unfamiliar with their human bodies, so you’ll have to excuse them if they don’t greet you on two legs.”
“How many friends are coming? You never said.”
“Hyrum and Lycus are on the rear guard with me, but Zeno and Helena are mated.”
A worried expression flickered across her face. “She’s not going to hate me for stealing you away from the herd is she?”
“Oh no. Most mares are friendly,” I explained. “They may be choosy, but they’re not unkind. These two would have brought their foal, but they’re unsure of you.”
“A foal...” She gazed dreamily at the water, clutching the Nikon resting against her abdomen. It dangled from the black nylon strap secured around her neck. “I see them!”
Four equine heads rose from the waves, leading powerful frames made for cutting effortlessly through the waves. Hyrum, a six-year veteran of the rear guard, fearlessly came ashore first. Like me, his pelt was in darker shades, but dappled gray and black swirled with hints of white.
Alessa squealed and adjusted her camera lens. It clicked, focused, clicked, and focused anew with each photo of the hippocampi emerging from the ocean. “Oh my God. He looks like a horse! Like a stallion with fins! Are these flippers or hooves? What do you call them? Can I touch him?” She whirled to face me. “Is it okay to touch him? Is that breaking a rule?”
I translated her request to Phoenician then my bold friend moved across the sand on his flippers. Our hooves varied from our land counterparts. Instead, they flattened out into a webbed, flipper shape to help us propel in the water. Lacking hind legs, his barrel-shaped equine ribcage tapered to a scaled, sapphire blue fishtail packed with muscle. Hyrum lacked a dorsal fin, and for that reason, he’d been found unsuitable for mating by our eligible fillies.
While the other three hung in the shallow surf, he marched up to her and dipped his head in respect.
“He’s telling you it’s okay.”
A trembling hand raised to touch the black fur covering Hyrum’s equine face. The stallion remained still, taking my warning to heart. I’d told them all she was shy and had never met a supernatural creature before up close and personal except for the island’s owner.
Then Zeno had demanded to know why I’d never let her see me.
Because I’m terrified. Because if she sees the real me, that I’m a sea monster, she won’t want me anymore. I’ll lose her.
“His fur feels like sealskin... Oh my God, oh my God.” Alessa repeated herself over and over while running her fingers over Hyrum’s mane. He soaked up the attention while I watched, jealous and wanting to be in his place instead.
Maybe she can love me and see I’m still her Dante under all the fur and scales.
“He’s magnificent. Thank you.” Alessa’s smile lit up her entire face. Watching her flooded my heart with joy and an undeniable urge to throw off my clothes and show her my stallion.
Zeno and Helena moved from the water next, taking their human forms mid-stride and joining hands. Helena’s body brought to mind photos of old renaissance paintings I’d viewed online while surfing the internet. Like Aphrodite in the Birth of Venus, she had thick thighs and a soft stomach beneath two pert breasts. Waist-length strawberry blonde hair slicked behind her shoulders, and like most mares, she easily stood six feet tall while on legs.
Helena waved shyly and Zeno watched us from beside his mate. He was nearly six and a half feet tall, solid and muscular with a frame like an American footballer. Lycus moved up alongside them in his human body, his chestnut hair hanging wetly around his shoulders. Smaller than the rest of us guys, he’d gone his entire adult life without attention from the fillies in our herd. At least they’d flirted with me and shown me attention.
“They don’t speak much English,” I told Alessa. “But I can translate anything you want to say.”
“Is that why you won’t show me your horse, too? Cause you have to translate?”
She wanted to see? “Er... That wasn’t why.”
“Well? Are you going to let me see you then?”
“Do you want to?”
Alessa nodded and tightly clutched her camera. “More than anything.”
Slipping my thumbs into the waistband of my shorts, I shoved them down and stepped free. The prompt transformation overtook me, contorting the bones of a human body into the frame of a seahorse. My muscles grew and my spine elongated. A sharp arc of short-lived, exquisite pain shot through me.
Alessa stared at me, her bright eyes large in her oval face. In my animal form, every sense became amplified except for my eyesight. My field of vision broadened at the cost of including blind spots I didn’t have as a human. I tilted my head to watch her approach, wanting to see her for every second.
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “You’re... exactly as I saw you in my dream.” Elation filled me at the first stroke to my face, then she kissed my nose. Curious fingers threaded through my black mane and slid over the ink-colored fur covering my upper body. I stood still as she moved around me to my hindquarters where a sleek fishtail lay over the damp sand.
“Your color is amazing. I knew you’d be beautiful but....” Her voice trailed. “Do I get to ride you?”
No human rode a hippocampus. It was a tradition long ended when my ancestors retreated from their former Phoenician masters and we were lost to myths and legends. We were all friends once — now we hid from humanity.
Flattening my body to the gritty sand, I lowered so Alessa could swing one leg over my back. The others watched with mixed expressions, curiosity and bewilderment.
With Alessa secure, I dragged my body into the surf and kept to the surface. She laughed, a delighted sound that warmed my heart. She wasn’t afraid. Wasn’t repulsed. I sped through the water, salty spray lifting into the air.
“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” Alessa cried out with a peal of laughter. “Can you take me under?”
I hesitated before we reached the sea shelf. With her behind my head, I couldn’t see Alessa to judge her expressions or how she felt about treading into deep, open water.
“Come on. You scared?” Alessa teased. She threaded her fingers over the damp strands of dark hair below my fin. “Well?” As if sensing my concern, she devised the perfect system. “If I need air, I’ll tug your mane, okay? Just a light tug. We’ll pretend I’m freediving and you’re my inflatable balloon to bring me to the surface.” When I remained reluctant, Hyrum bit my shoulder. I called him a few unpleasant names in our language, grateful Alessa couldn’t hear our mental thoughts.
Helena chastised me, too. According to her, I should have had more faith in my chosen mate. Before the mare finished fussing at me, Zeno capitalized on the pause and charged ahead despite our plans for a race.
Cheater, I thought, spurred to action. I lurched forward and rushed after him with a big breath of air in my lungs. Alessa’s strong thighs squeezed my ribs, a sign of her readiness. Taking her queue, I plunged beneath the surface and propelled forward through the cold water into the beautiful ocean. My home.
Of the four of us, Helena was the swiftest. We cut through a colorful school of fish and took Alessa on a merry chase through rock formations and vibrant coral growths. Each time she pulled on my mane we breached the surface for air then returned to our underwater exploration.
We played a variant of tag often reserved for foals and young hippocampi. With her on my back directing me, we hid and sometimes stealthily caught one of my herd mates unaware.
Her impressive breath control — years of training, diving practice, and a testament to her athleticism — astounded my friends while filling me with pride.
The final test came when we returned to shore and sprawled across the pale sand in our human bodies. They wanted to know more about her, and through me, asked multiple questions.
“Her skin is very pretty,” Helena commented in our native tongue, touching Alessa’s bikini-covered breast. My girl squeaked and slapped a hand over her own tit to shield it from further prodding. “Are all humans so colorful?”
“Dante, why did she poke my boob? What are you guys saying?”
I dropped my face into one palm and sighed. With no small amount of laughter, I described clothing and human modesty to my eager friends then in English, I explained their interest to Alessa.
“They think I’m funny because I’m wearing clothes?”
I nodded. “They’ve never seen swimsuits or clothes before up close, but you’re welcome to take it off and join us if you want.”
“Off?” she squeaked.
“My friends won’t ogle you. Trust me.”
I learned early on about Alessa’s taste for exhibitionism when she allowed me to finger her on the porch our first night together. Testing her limits, I raised one hand to the back of her neck where the string secured her bikini in place. She didn’t stop me. Her eyes remained on my face the entire time until the scrap of spandex fluttered to her lap.
While the men spectating her swim performance had leered with lust in their eyes, my fellow stallions gave only cursory glances.
Helena clapped with joy as Alessa helped her try on the bikini top. “Dante, can I have one of my own?” she asked, which I translated.
A warm, rose tint spread over Alessa’s cheeks, the cool breeze tightening the pink peaks of each plump breast. “She’s given me an idea. Dante? Invite them to come onto the island next time. We can show them so many things and introduce them to my world. Please? I want to pay them back for today.”
Four curious faces studied me, waiting eagerly for the translation. Hyrum jumped at the opportunity, and before Zeno could decline, Helena accepted for both of them. He shot her a dirty look, sighed, and nodded his head.
“We will come. My mother will not be thrilled, but she will watch Dido while we are gone.”
“Excellent. And what of you, Lycus?”
“Did you need to ask?” He grinned. “I would like to meet a fine human woman, too.”
“Oh I cannot wait to return. She and I will have fun,” Helena declared. She hugged Alessa close and pressed their cheeks together. “Dante, tell her I am very glad to know her.”
“I think she’s figured that out.”
These two will become good friends, I decided.
Alessa painted a picture of the world beyond the sea. She told them of movies, restaurants, and evenings out with friends at dance clubs. In turn, Helena told her of our everyday life in and out of the ocean, our hobbies, and our Grecian island where we grazed in the Mediterranean sun. She even spoke of the berries our mares fermented back home.
“Dante was stinking drunk,” Helena said. “He declared himself king of the sea and dragged himself into the water where he nearly drowned himself before Lycus saved him.”
“I am not translating that.”
We razzed one another a while longer until the sun kissed the horizon line. After my pals waded into the water, Alessa wasted no time in flinging her body against mine, pressing her stiff nipples to my chest.
I was hard as a rock in seconds, pulsing to full arousal.
“Yes,” she half-whispered against my lips. Her tongue darted between them, questing for mine.
“Huh? Yes what?”
“Today was... absolutely beautiful, and I want to be your mate. I want you to claim me as your own.”
It was the only encouragement I needed.
With her naked limbs molded against me, I drew her legs up around my waist, placing us in perfect alignment, and plunged into her tight grip. The most heavenly sensation sheathed every inch. As I throbbed inside her, Alessa clung to my shoulders, her nails biting into my skin.
“Deeper, Dante. God this is amazing.”
“I love the way you feel,” I groaned out. My breaths turned shallow as I maintained the feverish rhythm she and my inner stallion preferred. Faster, more, deeper, she never hesitated to voice her needs to me.
Alessa leaned back, letting her arms fall away from my shoulders. Trusting me not to let her drown. I dipped forward and claimed one pink nipple between my teeth. Nibbling the sensitive peak made her core clench around me in a brilliant series of contractions. The taste of the salt water on them, her natural scent, and everything about her sensational body drove me crazy.
The buoyant ocean water made our position easy to maintain. I snuck a hand between our bodies and found her clit. Teased it. One flick was enough for Alessa to arch and moan my name.
I became wild with lust, surrendering to the animal inside me. My withdrawal provoked a startled cry of protest, but I ignored it to cradle Alessa in my arms. In five long steps through the water, I reached a jutting section of rock where I set her down facing away from me, her back to my chest.
“Hold on,” I rumbled against her ear, a single warning for what was to come.
With her weight braced on the rock, its surface worn smooth from the waves, the feral beast in me took over and drove my aching cock straight into her with a single stroke before pulling back and thrusting into her again. Every time felt like the first, so tight she squeezed me almost to the point of pain. I groaned a guttural, low sound of pleasure and set my cheek against her shoulder.
Alessa’s hips moved on a perpetual loop. Forward and back, she met the clash of my pelvis into her bared ass. With one arm around her waist to secure her against me, the other remained free to explore and squeeze one dimpled cheek.
The gentle waves crashed around us, rising as far as Alessa’s waist at their highest. Sand shifted beneath our feet, the water dragging at us, but I held strong and firm.
“I’m yours Dante. All yours,” she cried out in wild abandon. “Please, I’m so close.”
“Mine,” I agreed with her on a growl.
Nothing mattered but making her come again and again as she screamed my name. I wanted to lose myself in her body. My balls slapped against her upraised ass, a rhythmic thump of skin against skin each time our bodies joined.
She came on the next stroke. I fucked her through every contraction, riding her through toward a second climax because once wasn’t enough for my filly.
When it came to her pleasure, I was insatiable. My stallion demanded more, urging me to bring her to the ultimate fulfillment. I had to drive out the memory of all other men who came before me until no one else mattered, no one existed, until her only sexual memory was of my cock plunging inside her.
“Dante,” Alessa gasped. “I can’t... I can’t take... take anymore.”
“You will,” I moaned against her ear, nipping it with my teeth afterward. “Come for me again, baby.” To guarantee it, my arm dropped from around her, slipping my hand between Alessa’s thighs to find her swollen clit. One pass of my index finger over the small nerve bundle tensed her body from head to toe.
“Oh God, oh God...!”
As I strummed the sensitive pearl, Alessa’s wet, tight heat squeezed my cock a second time and her knees buckled. Her orgasmic screams created a harmony with the crashing waves. She clutched the rock while her body quaked and trembled in my hold.
“Dante!”
I loved this woman so much it hurt. As she wailed my name, waves of euphoria swept through me and branded my soul. Mine. She was mine. And in claiming Alessa, I’d also given myself to her. The building tension finally burst, and in several hot pulses I emptied inside her.
Motionless, I savored the final moments in my mate’s hot channel, treated to a series of delicious mini-spasms around my cock. I inhaled a deep breath, closed my eyes, and let my cheek rest against the back of her shoulder again. I didn’t need to see her trembling legs to know they were useless beneath her. If not for me holding her up, she would have slipped beneath the water.
“Lessa?”
“M’fine,” she slurred, drunk from passion.
Even if our child and I could only be in her life five or six months of the year, I would make each week count. I’d make every day a new adventure and do the best to fill her life with only joy.
I would, because she deserved nothing less.