The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 313: You lured Ari

I stared at Damar’s outstretched hand, my heart still trying to hammer its way out of my chest. The cool night air felt like a physical weight against my skin, especially where Thalor’s arm still held me firmly against his bare chest.

I looked from Damar’s calm, waiting hand to Thalor’s defiant, glowing eyes.

The difference made me dizzy, honestly.

Damar was offering me a way out, a chance to hide behind the excuse of a ’siren song’ and retreat to the warmth of our tent. But Thalor... Thalor was standing there like a pillar of the deep, his grip silent but unyielding.

At this point, I know for sure that my mind is clear. And I know that not being able to push Thalor away as he kissed me was not as a result of being ’lured’ by a song.

If I decided to cover it up as Thalor’s schemes, what would that make me?

Yes, he did do it before receiving permission from me, but I hesitated. If it were true, I wouldn’t have hesitated and told him off right from the start.

I am not without fault here. And I do not plan to let him carry the burden alone.

"Damar, he didn’t force me," I whispered, my voice sounding small even to my own ears.

"He didn’t have to," Damar replied, his gaze flicking back to Thalor with a lethal sharpness. "The song does the work for him. It finds the cracks in a person’s resolve and fills them with salt water until they can’t see the shore anymore. You are my mate, Ari. And currently a queen. You are not a plaything for a prince who doesn’t know how to respect a host’s boundary."

His tone was sharp and lethal, and it looked like, despite what I said, he planned to blame the fishman regardless.

Thalor’s grip tightened around me a bit, as if sensing I was about to be ’stolen’ from him, and there was nothing he would be able to do about it.

"I did not weave a web. I sang my truth," he admitted. "It was a song not meant to deceive, but to expose. If she followed it, it is because she wanted to hear it and she had something she ’wanted’ from me that she could not say."

"Are you trying to say Ari had hidden intentions towards you and that was how she heard your song?" he asked, his tail suddenly moving in a frantic motion, his eyes narrowed, and his gaze glowing dangerously under the moonlight.

"I did not say that," Thalor said. "But she did want something from me," he looked back at me, staring at my confused eyes. "Can you not feel the pulse of the crest? It beats in time with mine because we are connected."

"It beats because you trapped her in a debt," Damar hissed, his tail snapping against the sand again, closer this time, as if he planned to pierce the tip through Thalor’s chest. "Now, release her. I will not ask a third time."

I felt the vibration of a low growl starting in Thalor’s chest, a sound I hadn’t expected from someone so ethereal.

He was actually going to fight. Right here, in the middle of the village, over a kiss and a drink of water.

"Thalor, let go," I said, placing my hand over his thick forearm. My skin looked pale against his tanned chest, but that wasn’t important at the moment.

He looked down at me, his violet eyes swirling with a mixture of hurt and stubbornness.

"You would return to them? To the heat that makes you weary?"

"Huh? The heck are you saying?" I began to struggle in his hold, finding my voice at last. "Why wouldn’t I return home?"

He looked at me, a bit confused. Did he think we created ’something’ in this little moment we had? Do merfolks take a kiss, and a water-to-mouth act was a ritual to promise each other their forever?

Well, it’s their ritual, not mine.

"I listened to what you had to say, and you had the chance to kiss me, but that’s it. A kiss doesn’t mean much. Aside from the connection of the crest, there is nothing else that binds us yet. I have just three husbands and three cubs."

"But..."

"I’m going back to my cubs," I said, "And to my husbands. This time, even if I indulged you, it’s still a fact that you..." I pursed my lips, the words suddenly feeling heavy on them. "...you crossed a line, Thalor. Damar is right about that much."

Slowly, almost reluctantly, his arm slid from my waist. The loss of his cold touch felt like a sudden fever, the night air rushing in to fill the gap. I took a shaky step toward Damar, my legs feeling a bit like jelly, the purple scales on my ankle glinting mockingly with every movement.

Damar didn’t wait. He closed the distance in a single, fluid glide, his hand catching mine and pulling me firmly to his side. His skin was cool, but it lacked the magical chill of the sea; it felt like home.

"The sun will be up soon," Damar said, his eyes never leaving Thalor as he began to lead me away. "And when it rises, we will see if your ’miracle’ water is worth the trouble you’ve brought into this camp. Stay by the well, fish. I do not let go of a grudge easily. If you cross the line one more time," he glared, his tail whipping a tree by the side and slitting it in half. "I will not be gentle."

I didn’t look back, but I could feel Thalor’s gaze burning into my back, and I could somewhat tell what he was feeling through the crest.

Envy.

No more, no less. It was a deep-seated envy that he could not wash away just by finding another.

As we walked toward the tent, the silence of the village felt loud.

I have to apologize. I pursed my lips, knowing what I did was wrong, no matter what angle I looked at it from. And I don’t want them to forgive me right away.

"Ari," Damar suddenly murmured as we reached the dying embers of the fire outside our tent. He stopped and turned me to face him, his hands resting on my shoulders. "I know you didn’t seek this. But Noah and Fenric... they aren’t like me. To them, Thalor had done something awful to you and stolen that which is theirs, your lips. And pray the crest stays dim until we can figure out how to break his hold on you."