The Alpha's Temptation

Eltanin growled at Thyr dangerously, his fangs lengthening as he pressed Tania's face into his chest. Thyr was done for. He started trembling with fear. His face flushed, suddenly he spun and swam away as fast as possible.

"Elty!" Tania pushed his chest with her hands and tried to move away, but it was a futile effort. "He izz urtt!" she said.

"He will be fine!" Eltanin growled as his chest heaved up and down. Most courtiers who were around them started moving away. "We need you back in the main hall." He released Tania when he saw that Thyr had left and wasn't visible anymore. She spun around immediately. "Where is he?" she jerked her head back, scanning the pool.

"He will be fine, Your Highness," said Esmeralda in a low, cautious voice.

"But-- but he was unwell!" Tania persisted.

Eltanin pulled her out of the pool shaking his head. "No more touching the tails!"

"Calaman's horns!" she said through clenched teeth. "You are so controlling. I will do what I want!"

He grabbed his wife's waist and set her outside of the pool, as if she was as light as a feather. He then pulled himself out of it in one swift motion. Both of them were dripping wet. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the main hall, where the conversation dropped to murmurs as they saw that the prince and princess of Stourin were walking in with soaked clothes.

"You both look... wet," Fafnir remarked.

Eltanin's growl was enough to make him back off.

Tania was so angry with Eltanin that she didn't talk to him the entire time until they reached their bedchamber. The servants helped them dry and change and during that time, her anger swelled and her pouty lips pouted all the more.

"Tania--" Eltanin said. "You have to understand--"

"You are too controlling Eltanin. Every time I do something, you have to stop me. I want to explore the world and all you do is keep constraining me! I am fed up. Why can't you just trust me?"

"Tania, you can't go around--"

"--Touching the tails?" she started pacing the room, puffing hot breath in anger. "Why?"

Eltanin didn't know how to tell her that it was not right. His cute, innocent wife. If he told her about the sensitivity of the tails of mermen, he was going to ruin her naivety and she would be extremely embarrassed to go to the main hall. However, if he didn't tell her, she would go exploring them. So, he stared at her blankly for a long time as he watched her pacing the room. She was wearing a simple maroon gown with a gold choker and a gold tiara.

When she sat down on a couch, in a very guarded voice he said, "Tania, have you ever thought how mermaids and mermen go to the bathroom to relieve themselves? It's not that they shift into their human forms every time." He decided to tell her in an indirect way and if she caught the hint, it was well and good.

"But what connection has that got to do with me touching their tails?" she asked innocently.

Eltanin smacked his head and sucked in a sharp breath. "Stroking their tails is like stroking their private parts. What happens when you stroke my erection?"

Tania frowned. A moment later, she blushed hard. "You mean-- you mean--" Tania's hands flew to her mouth. Her cheeks caught fire and she blushed to the roots of her hair.

Eltanin nodded his head once, tightly.

"Oh, my God!" she rasped. "So Thyr wasn't hurt. He was..." she gulped. "He was erect?"

"Yes!"

Tania was mortified. Her embarrassment was replaced with anger. She stomped over to Eltanin and slapped him across his chest. "Why didn't you tell me about it sooner?" she shouted.

"There were always people around us when you asked the question."

"So what? Couldn't you let me know when we were alone?" She smacked him on his arm.

"Tania?" he stepped back.

"Now how will I go to the celebrations?" She raised her hands in the air, growling at him. "Calaman's horns!"

"Just be normal..."

"Get out!"

Eltanin ran out of his bedchamber.

The journey back to Draka was full of emotional tears. Taiyi didn't want Alrakis to go back. Only after he had promised that he would return within a month, did she let him go. Tania was thankful that she hadn't  seen many people when they were leaving, otherwise she would have been very embarrassed.

Taiyi hugged her and said, "Keep the pearl I have given you next to you always."

Tania smiled. She took out her chain and showed her the pearl. It was there hanging along with the tangerine soul stone. Taiyi looked at the soul stone sadly. She took it in her palm and said, "I wish I knew how to help you with it."

"Do you know what it is?" Tania asked, amused.

Taiyi chuckled humorlessly. "I know about it." Then she cupped Tania's cheeks and kissed her on the forehead. She said, "I wish I had been able to meet your mother or that she was alive. Things would have been different."

Tania's lips parted as flashes of her dreams bounced around in her head. She didn't say anything about them. Taiyi hugged her and said, "Give me a grandson soon, okay?"

Tania lowered her head feeling a hundred shades of shy.

The journey back to the land was equally exciting. Fafnir had refused to be with them until he was forced to. When Tania saw his blurred silhouette in the water, she thanked her stars that she never tried to stroke his tail. She had reluctantly gone back to the party and remained confined to the main hall.

When they reached Draka, it was midnight. When they returned, Eltanin insisted that she wore her veil. Tania was so exhausted that she had fallen asleep immediately.

Next day in the morning, Eltanin received a letter from Menkar.

"He is asking you for updates on me," Eltanin said as he tossed the letter on the bed. He was standing next to the table with one hand on his waist and the other in his hair. Tania was still lying in the bed. She mumbled something and then turned to the other side. "Tania!" he called her.

"Eltanin... it is nothing. If he wants an update, we will update him." She pulled her fur over her head.

He walked over to her and threw himself on top of her. He wrapped her from all sides. "I don't like this." His heart was racing wildly.

She pulled down the fur from her face and their gazes met. His weight pressed her into the mattress. "Maybe we should find out what he really wants from me."

"You should start with Yunabi arcana as soon as possible. I suspect something ominous..." his voice trailed off.

"I can start it today."

Eltanin pulled out her chain and stared at the tangerine soul stone. This time it didn't pulsate with energy inside. In fact, thick clouds appeared in it. It surprised him. He rubbed it with his fingers, but the clouds thickened. Feeling that this was something bad, he let go of it. "What is wrong with it?" he said. "Are you okay, Tania?"