Word Count: 2367

~Aesira

Watery dawn light guides me down onto the beach, the sound of the water lapping against the shore making my skin tingle.

Digging my toes into the sand, I look it at the water. It's perfectly still this morning, deep blue and coral light drenching the roiling surface.

Closing my eyes, I inhale the scent of the sea, wondering how I could ever be parted from this.

I didn't get much sleep last night after my failed attempt to kill Campbell. I couldn't stop thinking over what Everin said, wondering if there is any legitimacy to his claim that I've been taught the wrong history.

It's hard to know what to believe. I can't trust anyone.

Sighing, I open my eyes again. I want to swim, but I'm cloaked in this horrid dress with nothing alternative to wear.

Fuck it.

Reaching behind me, I swiftly unlace the bounds of my corset until it loosens around my ribs. I tug off the bundles of fabric, one layer at a time, until it's at a heap at my feet and I'm in only my underthings. With a glance back at the manor sitting atop the dunes to ensure I'm alone, they follow the rest of the clothing off my body.

It's so early. The house won't wake for at least another hour.

The breeze brushes against my skin as I dart quickly toward the sea, my feet sinking into dry sand, and then wet.

I hold back my yelp as the cold water laps at my ankles. Regardless I continue sloshing through the water, desperate to drape my body in the waves.

Once I make it waist deep, I dive under the surface and emerge a few feet ahead.

Back home, I used to swim in our large pond at the back of our property, wishing I could be in the sea. Now that I am, I feel relieved, even as my skin prickles as I slowly adjust to the cool temperature.

Dull sunlight half concealed behind clouds bathes my face as I lay on my back. The water is still enough that I float with ease, ears dipping below and above the surface.

Eventually I rise, sweeping my wet hair back over my head. My eyes wander back to the beach to make sure I haven't drifted down the shore too far, only to see a figure standing near my clothes.

I dip low, the water covering my shoulders.

It's Everin.

"Enjoying yourself?" He calls out, looking between my discarded dress and me.

I wrap my arms over my breasts beneath the surface, even though there is no way he could possibly see them from this distance.

"What are you doing out here?" I question anxiously.

"Exercising my free will, I suppose." He shrugs loosely, hands seated in his pockets. "Why are your clothes on the beach?"

I swallow, the water lapping against my chin. I thought he would be too busy dealing to his father to come out here this early. He must have seen I was gone and went to ensure I didn't make a run for it.

"I don't exactly have any swimwear, and if I wore that dress in here I would likely drown," I exclaim back, my voice almost lost over the waves tumbling up the beach.

He angles his head at the pile, leaning down a little.

"What about your underthings?"

"Don't look at those!" I yelp, going to wade closer but I stop myself before anything is revealed.

I can hear his faint chuckle, even from here. The bastard is relishing in my shame, which isn't at all uncommon for him.

He straightens, pinning me with an accusatory look. "You're naked, aren't you?"

My skin warms against the frigid cold the sea water. His deductive skills aren't exactly spectacular, but I'm irritated he knows regardless. This was supposed to be a meditative experience for me, as I contemplate how I almost killed his father.

"I figured I might as well go all the way. Its liberating," I tell him, hoping he'll take the hint and return to the manor.

Instead, he reaches for the stays on his trousers. "I could take your word for it, but I think I want to see for myself."

"Everin, no!"

He smirks. "Why not?"

His thumbs hook into the waistband, tugging it down slightly. Even from here, I can see the definition of his hips, see the sharp lines forming a V right down to his...

"I was in here first. I claim this space," I snap, slapping my hand on the surface of a wave as it rolls by me.

He shrugs unbothered. "You can share."

"I don't want to see your...ugh!" I turn, plunging under the water until I'm entirely submerged. I really can't handle seeing him naked. Not after how close we came last night to taking it further than we should.

The sea churns in my ears, a beast of its own. It's oddly satisfying to block out the world for a moment. Even as the salt sting my eyes and grains of sand graze my skin.

I don't raise my head above the surface until my lungs burn. Wiping the salt water from my lashes, I risk a look to the beach to see Everin has waded into the water, mercifully waist deep already.

"Don't come any closer," I warn, my arm still protectively banded over my breasts beneath the water.

"I can't see your body. Don't worry," he flashes me a smile that makes my skin warm against the chill of the water.

I really shouldn't but I can't help but watch him approach me. The way the waves lap at his defined abdomen and watery sunlight curves against every muscle of his visible body makes my mouth dry.

Him being less beautiful would make my time here so much easier...

"This is incredibly improper of you. Don't you have manners?" I mutter once he's near.

"Improper? You're my wife," he reminds me. "As for my manners, I promise I will keep my hands to myself. Unless of course, you ask for otherwise."

I ignore the taunt, the bait for a game we played last night that I can't allow a repeat of. It was too real — I enjoyed it too much.

"I was enjoying the peace until you compromised it." This was supposed to be a time for thinking, which I'm suddenly uncapable of when he's so close.

"How do you know how to swim, anyway?" He asks.

"Lake by my home. It defrosted over summer," I explain. "My sister taught me to swim."

Something shifts in his eyes. They are gilded by the sun, shining like burnished gold.

"Aaliyah?"

"Yeah. You've met her?"

It's so easy to forget who Everin is sometimes. Not because he doesn't embody all it means to be an Alpha at all times, but because there's an easier air between us these days. I forget I'm supposed to be afraid.

And I really forget he knows about my family. I've shared almost nothing with him about my life out of fear I'll say the wrong thing and he'll learn something he shouldn't. But that doesn't mean he isn't aware of a lot I haven't told him.

Including my screwed up family dynamic.

"No I haven't met her, but I will when your father passes. That is, if I haven't dealt to his reign by then." Amusement softens the corners of his mouth.

I tilt my head coyly. "What are your plans for that again?"

"Wouldn't you like to know..." He smiles as he splashes me, the spray of water cascading across my face.

As I brush the water from my eyes, I wonder about all that he keeps from me. I don't blame him, of course, but it irks me being kept in the dark.

"It doesn't seem like you're being very proactive," I point out. "You have so much anger, yet nowhere for it to go."

He wades a little closer. "I could have somewhere for it to go now, if you're up for it?"

This time, it's me who splashes him.

"Yuck," I mutter, although something dark and forbidden twists in my stomach.

He shakes his head, sending droplets of water flying. When he sweeps his hand through his now damp hair, I have to keep my breath from stuttering, getting a mouthwatering glimpse of the sharp angles his face.

"I have plans. None you'll ever be privy to, least you swear your fealty to my pack in some way or another. A way I deem believable enough," he muses, droplets of water dragging effortlessly down his skin.

"This sea would sooner freeze over." I smile sardonically.

"So I thought." His eyes lower to where my dip in and out of the water. "I could fill you with my heir. Our child would also have a legitimate claim to your fathers position."

I blow out a breath at the mental image that conjures. My father would be infuriated that his bloodline was corrupted by Everin's.

"Good luck with that. My sister is pregnant with her third child, the first of which to reign after her passing." I swear she keeps popping them out just to spite me. She's never wanted me to so much as to think I could ever get a lick of power. "I am officially out of the line of succession anyway, since you married me."

He rolls his eyes. "Your packs politics are ridiculous."

I want to remind him that his pack politics hinge largely on him finding his mate. Has he ever considered that he might not, that he won't get his heir? Does that haunt him?

"I hope you have other plans, for that one isn't going to work for you, clearly," I say.

"You'll see what I have in mind in due time," he murmurs, and I believe. That is, if I don't kill him first.

"How ominous," I say in a hushed, conspiratorial tone.

"What plans to end my reign has your father put into action?" He wanders even closer. I fear he could reach out and he would touch my naked body. "Are you one of them?"

I swallow thickly, assessing the minefield suddenly placed in front of me.

I wove around the worst of his suspicions when we were visiting the village at the pack border, and I didn't kill him when the perfect opportunity presented itself. But he doesn't trust me, and he probably never will — he knows all is not what it seems.

"I think we have established by now that I'm not here to kill you. I've been given ample opportunity."

He sighs. "See, I wish I believed you."

Out here, in the sea, where he could shove my head below the surface and claim I went out and lost myself to the current, it's best not to play with fire.

"What if you never find this mate that you speak of so often?" I ask. I'm surprisingly curious.

He shrugs. "It is possible, but I believe the goddess will bring me her when her and I are ready."

I suppress my groan. Romantic fool. It's pathetic, really.

"And are you ready?" My brow raises.

"I have wanted my mate since I could conceive of the concept, so I assume the Goddess is waiting on her." He levels a look. "Do you not want that kind of unconditional love?"

"I suppose I haven't thought about it," I admit. "I don't think I am guaranteed a mate that I will like."

I've been perfectly content with Lincoln. He was all my firsts, and I care about him. Sure, we've had issues in the past, and I didn't like it when he refused to step down from his duties in my father's army to be with me, but I could see a future with him.

Even though my perceptions have been somewhat altered during my time here.

"That is the beauty of the mate bond. You are made for you mate, so completely compatible. There is no reason to worry about anything like that," he says, like it's so easy, like nothing could ever go wrong.

I wish I had this level of faith in anything. Unfortunately I'm bitter and struggle to see how I could ever naturally encounter a male made for me in every conceivable way.

"What if there is something getting in the way?" I ask softly.

His gaze dips, then suddenly flicks away to the horizon. I frown, watching him go from relaxed to tense in a moment.

"Why aren't you looking at me?"

His jaw flexes, gaze fixed elsewhere. "I'm trying to be respectful."

Lowering my gaze downward, I realise during our conversation, I rose high enough above the surface of the water to reveal my breasts.

"Oh shit, doesn't tell me you saw that." I dunk low again, my skin immediately flushing red. And to think, I was starting to get cold wading passively out here.

"I only saw a glimpse." He risks a glance back at me. "If it is any consolation, you are stunning."

I grit my teeth in frustration. Damn him. At least he looked away.

"I need to get back to my towel." I gesture at the beach. "You go first."

He smirks. "Something you want to see?"

"Hardly." I wave at him again, to hurry him. I've reached the end of my limit of bearing to be so naked around him, when he is equally so.

"Alright fine. I'll head back in." He gives me one last look, before he turns, heading back to shore.

I look away, studying the straight line of the distant horizon. After a few moments, I risk a look back to see him walking across the packed sand to our clothing.

My mouth dries at his muscled back and spectacular ass on display, before I force my head under the freezing water.

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~Midika 💜🐈‍⬛