Mermay #2 - NB octomer x reader (nsfw) (Patreon)

Wow, somehow it's already the second Friday in Mermay! How did that happen? I hope you're all keeping safe and well, and that our little trips to the beach for Mermay are bringing a little fresh air if you're unable to go out and enjoy it. Don't forget that there's the Discord server too, which should join you up automatically if you have your Discord linked to Patreon. No obligation to take part if you don't want to, but it's there nonetheless, even if you're not intending to stay a patron after Mermay is over. 

Now it's time to meet Mottle, to whom you were briefly introduced earlier in the week. Next up is a female kelpie with a male reader, and she's not your average shy and retiring forest spirit... 

In this one we have a gender neutral reader, but there is penetrative sex, though anatomy is left vague as usual. The reader has had a rough breakup in the relatively recent past, and is struggling with the aftermath of being treated badly, although no details are mentioned. Eli, our tiefling best friend, wants to use the power of the Starfall Coven to bring some good into your life, but you're a little reserved about the idea to begin with... 

I'm inluding a bit more in the content because someone asked me to (so that they know what kind of nsfw it contains), so I hope that's ok with everyone. I usually put anything I feel needs a warning in there, but they asked for a little more detail. 

Content: fluff, magic, talk of love potions, alcohol (not drunk sex though), nsfw, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, tentacles, and some tender aftercareWordcount: 5451

“What you need, sweetheart, is a fucking love potion,” Eli grinned, drunk as anything and listing perilously to one side. The tiefling meant well, you knew that, but seriously? A fucking love potion?

You rolled your eyes and leaned back in the creaky pub chair. The Inglenook Inn was about as traditional a pub as it was possible to get, with dark, scuffed, slightly sticky wooden flooring, a few old horse and centaur brasses nailed to the wall, heavy beams, and of course, the eponymous inglenook fireplace, large enough to hatch a dragon. 

“I don’t need a love potion. I’m not going to trick someone into wanting to go out with me. That’s not the point.”

“I didn’t say what kind of love potion,” the tiefling said, leering playfully across the table at you. “There’s more than the nasty old ‘date rape’ ones, you know? No one uses those anyway now - no one will brew them either. Well, maybe only douche bags.”

“Only douche bags say ‘douche bags’,” you grunted, but Eli just laughed and lounged back in his chair, sharp chin raised as he closed his eyes and chuckled softly. 

There was more than one set of eyes on him that night, you noticed, but then again, there always was. His skin was colourlessly white, with snaking black tattoos up his neck and just sneaking up onto his striking face over his jaw, with blood red eyes, and massive ivory horns like a ram’s that curved through his long, dead-straight, white hair. He was also one of the most powerful witches in the Starfall Coven, so you supposed he probably knew what he was talking about when it came to the love potion thing. It did still just felt like a cop-out to you though. 

As if he’d read your mind, he turned serious and said, “Let me help you. Seriously, I think I know something that will help nudge things along. It’s not fake, it just… expedites circumstances.”

“Eli, I…”

“Think about it,” he said, backing off. “I won’t push you, and I won’t do it without your permission, but I know what I’m doing. It’s how I got Martha and her beau together after all…”

“You’re a meddling little busybody,” you said without any sting. 

“You love me,” he smiled and you nodded. 

“Gods help me, but I do.” He had been your best friend for almost as long as you could remember and there was almost nothing you wouldn’t do for each other. That, apparently, included getting each other steaming drunk on a Friday night.

“Another?” he asked, standing and somehow managing not to look the least bit unsteady. His white cervine legs and long, feline tail kept him balanced all the way to the bar, and he ordered you both another round, returning without spilling a drop.

It was a fortnight before he brought up your love life again. 

The pair of you had met up after you’d finished work, but instead of heading to the pub, you went for a walk along the harbour wall since it was such a beautiful evening. Fishing boats bobbed and rocked in the late spring breezes, and the salt air was stronger here, more potent and somehow even fresher.  It blew the cobwebs away almost instantly, and you paused with Eli at the harbour railings, leaning your forearms on the metal and sighing. 

That familiar, aching loneliness threatened to choke you and you bowed your head. 

Eli, perceptive as ever, rested an elegant, tattooed hand on your back and rubbed circles between your shoulder blades. Down below in the water, a pair of selkies coiled around each other, splashing and yipping, and you turned away. “I don’t want to be some bitter old arsehole about this, Eli,” you said. “I just…”

“You went through one of the roughest breakups I’ve ever heard of,” he said gently. “The way you were treated…” His solidly red eyes flared and glowed as his own power rumbled inside him and he let sparks dance along the fingertips of his free hand. “Seriously, it’s alright to feel so rubbish still. I just wish I could help.”

Sparks continued to fizzle along his fingers for a while and you stared at them, thinking. 

“Eli…?” 

“Mmm?”

“You know, I think… I think I’d like to try that love -” You didn’t get to finish your sentence because the sea frothed and bubbled beneath the harbour wall, and your joint attention was caught as another of the merfolk surfaced. 

“Eli?” she called in surprise, her inky grey hair plastered to her face and half obscuring it. “Thought that was you! Lucky coincidence.”

“What’s up?” the tiefling asked, leaning so far over the railings that you thought he might topple into the murky harbour water headfirst. Grabbing a fistful of his shirt, you tugged him back a bit and he grinned at you. “Cheers, love.”

The mermaid in the water lounged on her back to relay her news, namely that one of their coven was apparently keen to attend the Flower Moon meeting. “Mottle says they’d love to join for the blessing, and that they have a few things they need the whole coven for anyway, so is it alright if they come?”

“Of course it’s alright!” Eli beamed, looking from the mermaid back up to you for a moment. Some idea seemed to be dawning in his red eyes, but he kept it to himself for now. “Tell Mottle we’d all be delighted to have them there this time. I was going to invite them anyway, by the way,” he added with a softly petulant huff. “We should have the meeting on the beach down by the Old Castle - we can light a bonfire. I should have organised it sooner, but Maeve wanted to do it.”

“Is she still unwell?” the mermaid asked, and Eli nodded. 

You frowned, not knowing anything about the coven’s activities or members. It wasn’t that they were necessarily secretive, just that you didn’t have a scrap of magical talent, so had never bothered to take an interest. 

Eli shot you a look and said, “Nasty cold. She’ll be fine in a few days, I’m sure.”

Not knowing how else to react, you just nodded and silently wished her better. 

“Well, that’s all I had to say. I was going to ask one of the Landfolk to pass my message on, but I’m glad I caught you. You’re looking radiant, by the way,” she added with a wink. Light glittered on the mermaid’s tail for a moment before she waved both of you goodbye and headed off along the harbour wall on business of her own. 

“What was that all about?” you asked Eli as he turned and rested his back against the railing now, a thoughtful look in his eyes. His hair lifted softly in the breeze, wafting like white seaweed on the currents for a moment and lending him even more of an otherworldly look than he already had. 

Tapping his chin with his fingertip, the nails all painted black that day, he said after a moment, “I forgot about the Flower Moon…”

“What about it? What is it?”

“It’s a super moon,” he explained. “Come on, let’s walk. I’m getting chilly.” And with that, he headed back towards the town. His hooves clopped on the flagstones of the old harbour road as he talked. “It’s a really good time to perform certain rituals. A few of us have been asked to bless certain objects and such, and it’s easier to imbue things with power when we’re all together.” He paused and shot you a look. He still hadn’t got to the crux of his mysterious plottings.

“What?”

Licking his lips, he said, “So… How would you feel about coming along?”

“Me?” you asked, taken off-guard. “But I’m not a witch… Don’t you prefer to do that sort of thing behind closed doors?”

“A witch you most certainly aren’t,” he laughed, not unkindly. “Maybe we can weave a little luck around you while we’re at it… speed you along to finding your true love…? What do you say?”

Your initial reaction was to pull away. You weren’t necessarily against it, but the idea of being the focus of all that communal magic… it made you shiver. A love potion you could chug in the privacy of your own home sounded preferable.

Sensing your uncertainty, Eli gripped your upper arm in a brief and reassuring hug. “Think about it, ok?”

“When is this Super Flower Moon?” you asked, wondering how long you had to come to a decision. 

“It’s this Thursday.” 

“Oh.” Apparently you had just three days to decide. 

A text from Eli that Thursday lunchtime made your stomach roil. You’d still not given him a reply, which you knew was rude, but you couldn’t quite muster the courage. In the end you agreed to go, but Eli suggested that you see what you felt like when you got there. 

“We’ll have to do one or two things first, just coven stuff,” he added as he called you because it was easier than texting it all. “But you could come an hour or so after sunset? Say, half nine?”

“Sure. Should I… you know… bring anything?”

There was a pause and a chuckle. “Some alcohol wouldn’t go amiss, I’m sure.”

You grinned. That you could do.

So it was that you walked the mile or so out of town along the quiet lanes towards the old, crumbling Starfall Castle, where, on a secluded sandy cove, the group of witches had apparently lit a large, cosy bonfire at the top of the beach. The crescent moon of the sand seemed to glow in the answering light of the extraordinarily large moon in the sky above, as though the earth was trying to echo the moon.

Squinting through the dancing light of the flames and the strong shadows cast by the moon, you could just make out six figures gathered around the fire. A vampire with glowing red eyes and extraordinarily pale skin, almost as colourless as Eli’s, was the first to notice you. She nudged Eli and he yipped in excitement and turned around where he sat, scuffing a line through the sand with one milk-white hoof and spraying fine particles over another figure beside him who, you saw immediately, was an octomer. Good-naturedly, they didn’t react, but just brushed the sand off their limbs with an elegant gesture and a soft chuckle. 

Eli called to you and waved you over, trotting up to meet you and hugging you. “I’m so glad you came, love,” he said earnestly as he embraced you. He’d always called you that, and it made you smile as the familiar gesture set you at ease. “Come and meet the others. Felicity I think you know?”

“Mmn,” you nodded, smiling at the drider who was crouched on the far side of the fire, her spindly legs and curved body casting nightmare shadows up the beach. It was hard not to be intimidated by her, but she greeted you so heartily that you soon relaxed a bit. 

“Then there’s Šárka,” he continued, extending a hand to the vampire beside the drider, whose lips were painted with a red so dark it might have been black, “And Mercer,” he went on, indicating a half-orc who smiled broadly and raised a hand, but didn’t meet your eye but instead stared downwards at the fire for a bit. “He doesn’t see so well,” Eli explained. “But he’s wicked good with potions.”

“Best nose you’ll find,” the orc chuckled, tilting his slightly pointed, sage green ear in your direction in a half bow. As he moved, you saw that his eyes tracked back and forth in a lazy, constant pattern. “Pleased to meet you. Eli’s told us a lot about you.”

“Oh no,” you groaned as you took your seat beside the final person in the coven. “I’m sorry if he bored you all.”

The octomer retracted their limbs which had been sprawled luxuriantly over the spare space in the circle, the action somehow reminiscent of a cat tucking its paws under, and smiled prettily to reveal slightly larger, sharper canines than a human. “Not at all,” they said in a clear, musical tenor that instantly made something inside you thrum. It was a feeling that had been dormant in you for so long that it took you by surprise. 

Unaware of your sudden reaction, Eli flopped down to sit cross legged on the large, dark blue blanket on your other side and said, “This is Mottle. They’re probably the most powerful of the Starfall Coven, but don’t let that intimidate you.”

“Eli,” Mottle scolded playfully. “I’m intimidating enough as it is to you Landfolk…” And they turned to you and said, “I’m sorry.”

“You’re fine,” you grinned. And really, they were.

They were tall, their torso and arms willowy but corded with tight bands of muscle, and the way the firelight glinted off the myriad tones of red and amber on their body almost made you giddy to look at. They were like a mirage; all constantly shifting, sinuous lines and fluid gestures, and their eyes were a rich, speckled gold, with strange, horizontal pupils. They didn’t talk much, letting Eli and Šárka carry most of the conversation. 

“Don’t worry,” Eli said, leaning conspiratorially down to you and latching his arm around your shoulders. “We’ve done all that we wanted to do as a coven already. It’s basically just a party now.”

“Good job I brought drinks then,” you said, proffering the two bottles of clear elderflower liqueur that you’d got in town that afternoon. 

“Well, would you look at that?” Eli grinned, grabbing one and tugging his empty glass over. “Who’s up for some of the good stuff?”

Some time later, as the conversation flowed around you and laughter followed the dancing sparks upwards into the night air, you leaned back a little on your hands and accidentally brushed against one of Mottle’s long, coiled limbs. If you hadn’t happened to be looking in their direction when you did it, you might have missed the way their eyes suddenly flashed from gold to bright, glowing blue all over, with no visible pupils. 

They gasped and dropped their empty glass into the sand as a violent shudder swept through their whole body before they fell utterly still again. 

Everyone else went very still, and although it was over in a few seconds, no one seemed to want to speak. The fire cracked and popped, spraying a fresh handful of sparks into the night, but it wasn’t until Mottle blinked a few times, eyes very much back to their normal, mesmerising gold, and laughed awkwardly that a collective breath was released. 

“You good?” Eli asked. 

“Mmn,” Mottle grunted. “Fine. Just a funny turn. Nothing of note this time.”

Baffled, you looked around the faces of the others, hoping to glean some information from their expressions, but you garnered nothing and the conversation drifted on again. 

By the time the moon was almost at its zenith, Mercer announced that he was going to head back, and Felicity nodded and stretched. “Think I’ll go as well. It’s getting late.”

Šárka remained for a bit longer with you, Eli, and Mottle, but she and Eli decided to leave as well. As he stood, Eli suddenly went still, tail going bottle-brush fluffy with alarm, and he looked down at you with a look of mingled regret and horror in his eyes. 

“What?” you asked, alarmed. 

“We didn’t do your blessing!” he squawked. 

Relaxing again with relief, you laughed. “You know what, I don’t think I want one after all. I’m glad you invited me though.” Eli still looked pained, but you smiled and added, “Besides, something about your special moon might have worked enough magic anyway. I feel good. I think I’ll stay out here a bit longer.”

“Fair enough,” Eli nodded. “Mottle, you need a hand getting back in or are you good?”

“I’m…” Mottle shot you a quick look and gave a half smile. “I think I’ll stay out a while longer too, if you don’t mind the company.”

“Mind?” you snorted. “Hardly…”

Eli took his leave and you flopped back onto the soft blanket behind you with a grunt as you lay down and looked up at the sky. There were only a few stars visible, probably because of the sheer luminescence of the moon, but it was peaceful in a way you’d not really allowed yourself to feel in a long time. 

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Mottle leaned back on their hands and sighed cavernously. “I’m sorry,” the said softly. 

“For what?”

“I read you by accident earlier…”

“Read me?”

“Mmm,” they hummed. “I… I saw a glimpse of what you’re feeling, of who you are… I’m sorry. I usually have no problems controlling the gift, but sometimes it does just happen with an unexpected touch.”

“Oh,” you breathed, remembering the vibrant blue of their eyes and the way they’d shivered. “That’s what that was then… Must be a pain for you.” 

Mottle turned sharply to look at you, their dark red hair just brushing their shoulders as it swirled with the movement. “What do you mean?” Their beautiful, porcelain-smooth face was set in a new expression of confusion. 

Chuckling darkly, you looked back up at the moon and said, “I feel sorry for you if you got to poke around in my head, that’s all.”

The nearest limbs coiled softly around each other, as though Mottle had become suddenly nervous. “Most people don’t react that way, you know?”

Your brows flickered. “How do they normally react?”

With a bitter snort, they sighed. “Either they get angry with me for prying around in their mind - it’s not as if I can hear their thoughts, mind you, just… sensations - or they ask me to ‘tell their future’ or some such nonsense.”

“Can you?” you asked before you could stop yourself. “Tell the future, I mean?”

Gracefully, Mottle bowed their head and sat back upright, slumping and hunching forwards. “Sometimes. It’s a bit… vague. I can use the Tarot cards to read people, and I can sometimes see a little glimpse into things with the use of a crystal ball, and tea leaves have always been spectacularly easy for me to read, but… touching someone and reading them is different.”

“This is all new to me,” you mumbled. “I mean… Eli says I’m about as dead as a block of concrete when it comes to magic.”

“It’s nice,” Mottle smiled. “You’re not throwing off all sorts of energy. It’s… calming.”

“I’m glad. You know,” you ventured, “You’re pretty calming yourself…”

They smiled. “I don’t get to hang around with many landfolk, but I’m enjoying your company immensely.”

You talked a bit more after that, delving unexpectedly into some of the more painful areas of your past when Mottle asked why Eli had wanted to bless you in the first place. They listened, and you found yourselves gradually leaning closer and closer until you rested your head against their arm and yawned. You felt yourself drifting a little, eyes heavy. 

A soft, strong pressure around your back made you look round and you found that their limbs had begun to wrap around you, carefully, leaving you plenty of chance to wriggle free if you found you didn’t like it. But you found it was the opposite, and you sagged gratefully back against them. 

On the subject of partners, Mottle shot you a look and said quietly, “I thought you and Eli were a couple at first.”

“Really? No. He’s about as in love with his boyfriend as the moon is full tonight,” you smiled. “We’re just good friends. I’ve known him since we were kids.”

Mottle took you at your word and tilted their head back again, exposing their throat as their hair just brushed their strange, dappled shoulders and they sighed heavily. You watched the plains of their chest heave with the force of their unvoiced emotions, and dared ask, “What about you?”

“What about me?” they asked blandly, eyes closed but still facing the moon, like a lizardfolk soaking up the rays of the midday sun. You wondered if they were somehow charging their own magic and shivered slightly at the thought. 

“Do you have anyone out there?” you clarified, nodding at the lapping waves only a few metres away from the fire. 

“No.”

“No?” you blurted, surprised, and Mottle laughed. 

“Magic is rare among octomer. They don’t trust it, and those who do are often… encouraged to leave.”

Something constricted painfully in your chest at the thought of this gentle creature being driven away from an otherwise loving family. “Oh. That sucks.”

“It’s alright. I found a family with Eli and the coven for the most part.” After a little pause, they added, “And now I have you to add to that circle of friends.”

You couldn’t help the grin that spread across your face and you nuzzled your cheek gratefully against their smooth, cool skin. 

It was only then that you noticed how shallow and rapid their breathing was. 

“Mottle?”

“Mm?”

You sat up and they swayed a little at the loss of your contact. “Everything alright?”

They took a moment to reply and you saw how the tips of their limbs writhed together slightly, reminding you of a human anxiously twisting their fingers together. They licked their lips. “Yes, forgive me.” They took another shallow, wispy breath. 

“Are you hurt?”

A pretty, rich, deeply amused laugh trilled on the night air and they shook their head, eyes glinting. “Oh no. Not that…”

“Then…? Oh…” you added, feeling heat coiling between your own legs as realisation dawned on you. 

“I’m sorry,” they panted. “It’s the moon… it’s… heightening everything for me. The magic is so strong tonight and… I probably shouldn’t have lingered. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

Feeling brave, you reached out and placed your palm right atop the thickest part of their nearest limb. They jerked and trembled and threw their head back with a low keen. “You’re beautiful, Mottle,” you breathed. 

“Are you offering…?” they asked, eyes rolling open to reveal that ethereal blue filling the whole eye again. “Oh gods… you look… so good…” Their slim chest heaved but they never made a move towards you, waiting for you to offer yourself to them instead. 

To your surprise, you found yourself entirely willing, after months of second guessing yourself. You were absolutely certain that you wanted this, and Mottle’s patient intensity awoke everything inside you again that had lain dormant for months. 

Straddling the three tentacles that were currently in front of them, you sat down astride them and groaned as their hard, muscular curves pressed back against you and you felt them snaking up your back and around your shoulders. Mottle reached their hands for your face while their other limbs stabilised the pair of you perfectly. 

Something even harder than the limbs beneath you rubbed against you and you groaned. “I need to take my clothes off,” you whispered, and they nodded. But instead of letting you get up and get undressed, they kissed you. 

They moaned against your lips and tugged your hair, surging up against your body and rocking rhythmically beneath you. 

Finally, you extricated yourself long enough from those now-writhing limbs to undress, all the while under the fierce blue gaze of Mottle’s magic eyes. You felt wanted, desired, in a way that you hadn’t ever before, and as you stepped back over to them, they reached two of their foremost limbs out and snaked them around your hips, drawing you down. Between those front limbs, a slit had opened, and a short, writhing tentacle was visible, with a bulbous head, leaking profusely. 

The pre-come glistened in the moonlight as it rolled freely down the head of what you assumed was their cock, trailing down to the base and pooling there. “Gods, I’m so wet,” Mottle whispered, apparently in awe. “Look at what you’ve done to me…”

“I did that? I thought you said the moon made you all horny…”

They laughed and kissed your hips and stomach, making you tense and shiver while more tentacles than you thought seemed possible snaked up your back again, sticking and popping as the suckers dragged and pulled slightly. It was a delicious onslaught and you let yourself go to it. 

“The moon heightened what I’m feeling, for sure,” they said, “Made it harder to hide just how beautiful I find you - gods, look at you -” they added in a reverent croak as they trailed their hands over your chest and pinched your nipples briefly. “Can I taste you?” they asked. 

“I won’t be able to stay standing if you do,” you laughed nervously, already feeling weak-kneed. 

The world tilted unnervingly and unexpectedly and you found yourself being eased down onto the blanket again by the immensely strong limbs behind you. They could have torn you in half if they wanted to, but instead they spread you out before them like an offering, nudging your thighs apart and slowly bringing their mouth to where you wanted it most. 

The heat of them was unexpectedly delicious and as they worked, they swallowed thickly, moaning against you so that you felt the vibrations of it deep within you. 

All the while they teased you with their tongue and sucked gently, their tentacles coiled over you, and the sensation was almost overwhelming. As the stimulation mounted, you bucked and heaved against them, but they never backed off. You cried out, hands clutching at the blanket beneath you and they finally teased you all the way to a blinding orgasm that left you weak and dizzy. Perhaps the moon had had an effect on you too.

Mottle was practically drooling from their cock, the liquid rolling out of them now and pooling to leave a mess on your legs and the blanket. It tingled a little and suddenly you wanted them inside you. It had been a long time since you’d wanted anyone inside you, but you wanted Mottle with a fierceness that almost overwhelmed you in your post-orgasmic daze. 

“Mottle…” you rasped. “Mottle, I want you…”

Their eyes widened. “Are you sure?” 

“Please…” you begged, spreading your legs, though your muscles felt weak and heavy already. 

Mottle surged forwards, using their limbs to spread you wide and lined themselves up with your entrance. Their slickness made entry so easy, despite the fact that this hadn’t happened for you in over a year. The blunt, almost mushroom shape of the tip of their cock nudged you wider, stretched you gently until you groaned with how good it felt. There was no pain, and you wondered if Mottle’s magic had anything to do with it. 

Finally, although you had no idea how long they had taken to do so, they sheathed themselves inside you and you clenched around them, making them pitch forwards suddenly, landing with a gasp, sprawled on your chest. Their whole body began to shake and tremble, and all their limbs wrapped around your legs, holding you firmly apart, and they thrust experimentally just once. Both of you gave a low, guttural groan at the sensations. Their slick fluid made each slide of their cock inside you utterly delicious, and they filled you so full you thought you might burst. 

“More,” you panted. “More…”

Mottle began to move in a rolling motion like the sea itself; powerful, fluid, and unyielding. 

They lost themselves in how good you felt, their back arching up to give them better leverage before they grunted and hunched over, driving more powerfully into you. One of their smaller limbs coiled suddenly across your hips and you felt them start to work you again with it, with one sucker right over your most sensitive spot. 

Gasping, you must have clenched unexpectedly tight around them because their building rhythm faltered and they cried out, exposing their sharp teeth as their lips parted in ecstasy. “Oh gods, I’m going to come,” they moaned. “I… can I… inside you?”

“Yes,” you found yourself saying and knowing you wanted nothing else but that. “Please… come inside me, fill me…”

At your request, the last of Mottle’s self-control snapped and they pounded up into you, holding you aloft with their tentacles so that all you could do was dangle there, immobile with pleasure, and let them worship you with their whole body. 

You both came almost at the same time, Mottle’s release beginning first like rolling, distant thunder, and tipping you over the edge as they cried out, eyes cast to the sky and blazing a brilliant, white-hot blue. All their tentacles contracted tightly around you, suckers pulsing in unending waves as they spilled inside you, filling you so full that it began to drip out of you almost immediately. Their orgasm went on and on in rippling, searing waves until finally they lowered you to the blanket again and fell forwards over you, limp and shaking. 

Their steel grip on your body went slack and their tentacle limbs lay twitching occasionally across your naked and now marked body. Numerous circles like love bites now dotted your legs, torso and neck, and you smiled as you trailed a finger over one of them, just over your hip bone. 

Mottle lay, breathing hard and apparently the next thing to passed out for a long time before they finally withdrew and slid out of you with another rush of their release that poured down your leg and onto the ruined blanket. 

“You alright?” they asked in a husky voice, sounding thoroughly wrecked. “It wasn’t too much? I… lost control a little there.”

You nodded. “That was amazing…”

They smiled, suddenly shy. “I haven’t… It’s never been like that before.”

“No?”

They shook their head. “Are you sure I didn’t hurt you?” they asked, gaze now back to its usual burnished gold as it snagged on one of the sucker-marks near your shoulder. “These look sore… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I like them,” you said and their eyes blazed blue again. 

You looked up at them. “What does it mean… when they do that?”

Mottle gave a hoarse chuckle. “It means my magic is surging, that’s all. You’re not in any danger. It’s… You just… Doing that with you has left me… uh… charged a little…”

“Oh. Like a succubus?” Maybe that was why you felt so drained.

They shrugged. “Not quite, but it’s similar. You’re not in any danger though.”

“Didn’t think I was,” you smiled. 

Exhaustion washed through you as if a wave from the sea had swept up the beach and taken everything you had in a rush, and you let your head fall back onto the blanket. You didn’t even care that you were a sticky mess at that point. 

Mottle, however, did appear to care, and with a swipe of one tentacle, they cleared it away to leave clean, dry skin behind. 

“Magic?” you asked and they nodded. 

“How else do you think I kept all the sand from getting everywhere?” they grinned. 

“Oh yeah… never even thought about that.”

With a chuckle as they lay down beside you, coiling limbs around and over you and wrapping the other half of the colossal blanket over you to keep you warm, they murmured, “I suppose that’s a compliment…”

“That was fucking fantastic,” you grinned. 

They tugged you close. “I’m glad we met tonight,” they said. “I wouldn’t normally just sleep with someone I just met, but it felt…”

“Right, me neither,” you finished and yawned. “Gods, I’m tired,” you added in an amused hiss.

“Sleep,” they murmured. “It’s warm enough tonight, and I’ll keep the fire going.”

“But… what about you? Won’t you dry out?”

They stroked your hair suddenly and although the gesture was pretty chaste, you shivered at the delicate touch. “No, I’ll be alright for at least another day or so. I don’t dry out as easily as other merfolk. You rest… you’ve earned it.”

The way they said it spoke of more than just your own sexual efforts - admittedly minimal compared to theirs - towards Mottle that evening. They’d read you and they knew how you’d been hurting. You’d earned a night of safety in the arms of someone who cared about you, and you decided then and there to take it without question.

And with that, you slid into the soft blankness of a deep sleep. 

___

Don't forget to check out the Patreon Masterlist, in case you missed anything from before.