Nothing coherent crossed my mind as I felt my body respond to Sybil’s unexpected touch. I breathed deep, and the slightly familiar, attractive smell filled my head. My attempt to calm myself had served to cloud my thoughts further, and I exhaled before speaking. My voice had become throaty and husky without my conscious thought.

“Do you wish… to join me?” The double entendre in my words was deliberate as Sybil remained with her head near my own. In response to my question, Sybil simply stepped around me and let her tail lightly brush my face before stepping into the loose sands of the bath. She maintained maddening eye contact with me as her body slowly sunk into the bath’s sand.

I couldn’t stop myself from leaning forward in the bath until I was right next to Sybil, breathing in her increasingly intoxicating scent. The small part of me that wasn’t indulging in and enjoying every moment realized I’d smelled this a couple of times before, but most notably when I had stumbled into Rulac’s rutting session. The smell of a keelish who was ready.

“Why?” I couldn’t muster up any thought beyond that simple question, and again, Sybil didn’t answer me. Instead, with a coy smile quirking at the corner of her mouth, she leaned in close to me. I stopped in place as Sybil again nipped at my neck before nuzzling into my chest. Then, finally, she raised her head and pressed her body close to me as she spoke, her voice an alluring purr.

“Will you keep me waiting?”

I didn’t want to, and with that direct invitation, I couldn’t hold back any longer. With a growl of my own, I lifted her out of the bath.

—

Sex as a keelish was different, but, in the end, not that different. We both laid comfortably on my wolf pelts as we recovered, and Sybil, surprising me again, nestled and nuzzled more comfortably into my arms. As we laid there, getting more comfortable, Sybil nipped at my throat again, though this time without the underlying sense of need. The little bites were the same as the kisses shared between human lovers, though I felt they were somehow more of a communication of trust. With my mind finally unclouded by the unadulterated lust from before, I could communicate my feelings clearly.

“Sybil, why now? Why at all?”

She didn’t look up at me as she remained in the comfortable position she had assumed. “Why not now? Did you not enjoy yourself?”

I scoffed. “Of course I did. And I’d guess you did too, or you wouldn’t still be here.”

Sybil’s light chuckle tickled my chest. “That much is true. Do you need more of a reason than that?”

“I… Well, no, I don’t. I would like to know why you decided that now was a perfect time to seduce me, though.”

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Sybil sighed, and pulled her head back to look into my face. “You truly did not realize that I was attempting to beguile for all this time?”

I propped my head up on my hand and regarded Sybil’s slightly disappointed face. After a moment’s consideration, I decided to tell the full truth. “Until today, I never would have thought you’d ever want to ‘beguile’ anyone.” Her face fell slightly at my words, and I stumbled to make my point clear, “After bathing together these few times, and helping the other get clean while bathing, I just thought that maybe you didn’t have any desire for sex.”

“So it was my responsibility to make advances on you? Would that not be improper, given that you are my Alpha?”

“Sybil. What do you mean by ‘proper’??”

“I… I… I do not know!” As she buried her face once more in my chest, I realized that, perhaps for the first time in her life, Sybil was unsure. And, disregarding keelish impropriety and lack of morals, it did make sense, from her point of view, that it would be difficult to approach me in that kind of way. I was her Alpha, and she my Beta, and as the one in the position of power, it would make better sense for me to approach her than the other way around.

“I’m sorry, Sybil. Truthfully, I thought that you just liked my company, and not that you wanted anything to do with mating.”

“But why not? It is enjoyable for both of us.” Her voice was slightly confused, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the simplicity of her statement. So different from the complexity that humans surrounded sex with.

“True enough, I suppose. But again, why did you do this? I can’t imagine that it was your idea–” As I asked, I realized I knew the answer. Even so, Sybil answered and confirmed my suspicions.

“Shemira told me how best to approach you so as to best appeal to your sexual desires.”

I couldn’t help but let myself laugh a little. “I bet she’s been bothering you to do this from the start.”

Sybil sighed. “Yes. She said that you males will jump on any female who did that.” I nodded in acknowledgement, then, with both of us comfortable in the other’s arms, we drifted off to sleep.

I woke to Sybil extricating herself from my arms, and I blearily opened my eyes to watch her stretch and then step into the bath. Unlike me, she didn’t luxuriate in the act of bathing, but instead let herself sink to her knees before setting to scrubbing herself with a businesslike haste. I watched her, a sly smile unwittingly spreading across my face. Though I’d thought myself unnoticed, Sybil quickly shattered that illusion.

“Do you want to help me scrub my back?”

With a groaning approximation of a yawn, I roused myself, stood, and stepped into the bath. As I grabbed handfuls of sand, I appreciatively ran my hands over Sybil’s back, shoulders, neck, and waist. Before I could pull her close to me once again, though, Sybil gently swatted away my hands. “No, not right now. We both have things to do, and I do not wish to make myself smell like sex once again when I have made special care of cleaning myself of the scent.”

Then, with a quick swat of her tail, Sybil got out of the sands and left. I’d been about to do the same, when I realized what she had said. Thanking my own ability to realize what she had meant, I quickly submerged myself to my neck in the sands and set my entire body to vibrating. Quickly, the exfoliating grains scrubbed over each inch of me, and before long, I was out of the bath.

I stepped out of my quarters, and there was Shemira. She didn’t say anything, but the proud smile that covered her face said enough. I shook my head and was about to say something, but was interrupted by Rulac’s voice.

“Ashlani. The Swarm Alpha needs you down in his den. Come down now.”