Salt to Her Sea ✔️

14. the truth spills

there is another private chapter ! go read it if you want the more descriptive verison...

THADAL

I carried her to the tub. She was light in weight and her blood spilled across the lower part of my abdomen to the top of my pants. The scent of all this blood was making me want to gag, but I didn't. Sure, I was a predator, blood didn't phase me, I loved the taste. But this much of her blood had me shuddering, a symbol of death. 

"Hang on," I held her a bit tighter, her head lolled onto my shoulder. Shifting her into one arm, her body was almost completely limp. I could hear her sniffing my neck in her dazed, exhausted state. I turned the water on, making sure the temperature wasn't too hot or cold.

With one hand, I unbuttoned my pants and kicked them off before stepping into the tub and lowering us both, bare, into the rising water. The tub was a larger than most, but between the two of us, her sat in front of me, between my legs... It was a snug fit.

Once the water was high enough, I shut it off, wrapping my arms around her and burying my face into her neck. She smelled faintly of sweat, desire, and fatigue. Such an unbearably sexy scent, but such a wrong time.

"You should be mad," I murmured into her throat.

"I'm not. Just tired," came her slow reply. Head tipped back against my chest, eyes shut and thoughts elsewhere.

"I was a bad mate," I replied, somber. My throat felt thick with shame, shoulders trying to sag beneath the weight of my actions. They would if they could, but really they don't do that sort of thing.

"We make mistakes."

Did she know what she was saying? Was she forgiving me so easily? I felt the need to grovel at her feet, a fucking Alpha at this little female's feet. I let my fingers slide up the inner part of her wrist to the crease of her extended arm. The skin was smooth and naturally tanned, there was Native blood within her. We all knew she came from that tribe, her returning memories only solidified that.

"It was probably better that you were away. Your parents thought so," she murmured softly. One hand caught mine, stopping its upward trail along her knee that poked out of the water. "I don't want a pup right now, and I want our first time to be special."

Images passed into my head, taking me by surprise. She was passing them to me through the link. I could see us in the forest, a tangle of limbs, a bare back peeking out beneath the concealment of a white, down comforter. I didn't have anything to say, so I said nothing at all. Instead, I replayed the images over and over. They were her creation, and they said what words couldn't.

I pressed a kiss to her mark, soft, subtle. I sent her an image of me with my palms spread wide and faced against the blistering wind.

"I love you too." She was learning my language.

---

Later on, we laid in bed together, she was curled into my embrace. Her nose tucked into the crook of my neck, inhaling my skin endlessly. I did the same with her hair, relishing the scent of roses and salt, still wet from the bath. The night was fairly still, the roar of the Ocean was a low white noise.

"There was salt," she said, soft and sudden. So sudden and unexpected that I had to look down at her to see her face when she said it. "And then there was the Sea. A beast, a beacon, an essence."

We both held our breaths.

"It was Sea and salt, part and whole..."

There was silence and more silence. Her face had drawn together in thought.