Chapter 2: Claiming in the Coral Depths
The silence in the crushing dark was louder than the submarine’s death throes. Only the rhythmic pulse of escaping bubbles marked time, silver streams rising from their lips into the infinite black. Lois floated, suspended in Mera’s desperate grip, the Queen’s arms still locked around her like iron bands. Her body thrummed with the aftershocks of a climax ripped from her in the abyss, but the ice in her veins now was deeper than the ocean’s chill. Mera’s face, inches away, was a mask of shattered certainty. Horror warred with the lingering heat in her green eyes, reflecting the ghost-light of her own power back at Lois. The taste of salt and Mera was still on Lois’s tongue, a brutal, undeniable truth.
Arthur’s wife. Clark’s wife. Oh god, what have we done?
Mera flinched as if Lois had screamed the thought. Her grip spasmed, then tightened convulsively. No words. Just a violent twist of her powerful body, dragging Lois with her. She kicked hard, propelling them away from the dissipating debris field and the crushing grave of the sub. Away from the evidence. Lois, dazed, exhausted, her muscles screaming, could only cling on, the alien sensation of breathing seawater a constant, terrifying reminder of her vulnerability.
They moved through the darkness, a nightmare escape. Mera navigated the lightless pressure with preternatural ease, her emerald aura casting long, distorted shadows on the canyon walls they skimmed. Lois saw nothing but the furious set of Mera’s jaw, the rigid tension in her shoulders. Shame radiated off the Queen like heat, warring with something else – a feral, desperate energy that crackled in the water between them. Minutes bled into an eternity of tension until Mera angled sharply upwards, towards a fissure in a sheer rock face Lois hadn’t even seen. They plunged into a narrow tunnel, the rock scraping close, then burst into sudden, breathtaking space.
The grotto.
It stole Lois’s breath anew, even amidst the wreckage of her world. Bathed in a soft, ethereal glow from millions of bioluminescent organisms clinging to walls of iridescent coral, it was a hidden cathedral beneath the sea. The water was impossibly clear, magnifying the intricate structures – towers of pink and blue coral, forests of gently waving anemones, schools of tiny, glittering fish darting like scattered diamonds. But the air hummed not with peace, but with the raw, unspent energy crackling from Mera. She propelled Lois forward, not towards the soft sand at the center, but towards the glowing wall itself.
"No! Mera, wait—!" Lois gasped, the words bubbling out. Futile.
Mera slammed her hard against the coral. The impact knocked the watery breath from Lois’s lungs. Jagged edges bit through her ruined blouse, scraping her back. Pain flared, sharp and bright. Mera’s body pressed against her, trapping her, every hard line of muscle and royal fury pinning Lois to the unyielding structure. Her eyes, blazing with a chaotic mix of self-loathing and unquenched lust, locked onto Lois’s. The Queen’s chest heaved.
"You," Mera snarled, the word vibrating with fury and something perilously close to anguish. "This... insanity... is because of you."
Lois bristled, defiance flaring through the shock and guilt. "I didn't drag you into the wreckage! I didn't—"
Mera’s mouth crashed down on hers. Not a kiss. An assault. Possession. Teeth scraped Lois’s lip, drawing the faintest metallic tang of blood that mixed with the saltwater. Mera’s tongue invaded, demanding, punishing. One hand fisted in Lois’s short hair again, yanking her head back against the coral, exposing her throat. The other hand ripped what remained of Lois’s blouse apart. The sodden fabric tore like paper, baring her skin to the cool water and the Queen’s burning gaze.
Mera broke the brutal kiss, her lips trailing wet, biting heat down Lois’s throat. Her hand, calloused and demanding, slid down Lois’s stomach, over the waistband of her skirt, already rucked up from the earlier frenzy. There was no preamble, no exploration. Mera’s fingers shoved roughly under the elastic of Lois’s panties, plunging straight into the slick heat waiting there.
"Fuck!" Lois cried out, arching against the coral, the pain in her back a counterpoint to the sudden, brutal invasion. Mera’s fingers were thick, unyielding, curling inside her with no finesse, just raw, claiming pressure. "You goddamn—!"
"Shut up," Mera growled against her collarbone, her voice thick with fury and desire. Her thumb found Lois’s clit, pressing hard, circling with relentless friction. "Just feel it." She bit down on the tendon where Lois’s neck met her shoulder, a sharp sting that made Lois gasp. "Feel what you do."
Lois tried to fight the rising tide, fueled by anger, by the sting of coral on her skin, by the sheer, overwhelming wrongness of it all. But Mera’s fingers were pistoning inside her now, deep and rough, the stretch bordering on pain, the heel of her hand grinding against her clit. The Queen’s other hand released her hair to roughly knead Lois’s breast, pinching the nipple hard, sending jolts of sharp pleasure-pain through her. The conflicting sensations – the punishing grip, the demanding fingers, the bite of coral, the relentless friction – coalesced into a terrifying vortex.
"Bitch," Lois choked, writhing against the unforgiving coral and the iron grip, but her body was arching, seeking more of the punishing touch. "Fucking... ruthless... queen..."
Mera responded with a guttural sound, half-snarl, half-moan. She slammed her hips forward, grinding the hard muscle of her thigh against the back of her own hand, increasing the pressure on Lois’s clit impossibly. Her fingers crooked, finding that spot inside Lois that made stars burst behind her eyelids even as the coral scraped raw lines down her spine. "Yes," Mera hissed, her hot breath puffing against Lois’s damp skin. "Call me that. Hate me. Want it."
Lois was breaking. The fury, the shame, the impossible, electric connection – it all shattered under the relentless assault of sensation. Her defiance crumbled into a ragged moan. "Mera... oh god... yes... like that... fuck me... fuck me harder!" The words tumbled out, filthy and desperate, feeding the frenzy.
Mera’s rhythm became brutal, punishing. She fucked Lois with her fingers, deep and fast and hard, grinding the heel of her hand down with each thrust, her own body rocking against Lois, pinning her firmly to the glowing wall. The grotto shimmered, the glowing flora seeming to pulse in time with Mera’s demanding strokes. Lois clawed at Mera’s back, fingers digging into the scales of her royal garment, seeking purchase, seeking more. She could feel the coiled tension in Mera’s body, the tremor in the arm pinning her, the ragged breaths puffing against her skin. The Queen was as lost in this maelstrom as she was.
"Going to come," Lois gasped, the words a ragged plea. "Mera... please... I'm gonna—"
"Do it," Mera commanded, her voice raw, her eyes burning into Lois’s. "Come. Now." She slammed her fingers deep one final time, grinding her thumb down hard and relentless on Lois’s clit.
The orgasm tore through Lois like a riptide, violent and all-consuming. It ripped a guttural scream from her throat, a sound muffled by the water but echoing in the hollow of her bones. She convulsed, clamping down hard on Mera’s fingers, her body bowing against the coral, oblivious to the new scrapes, lost in the white-hot explosion of pleasure that felt like both ecstasy and annihilation. Wave after brutal wave crashed over her, stealing thought, stealing breath, leaving only the shuddering aftershocks and the iron grip of the Queen holding her upright.
As the tremors subsided, leaving Lois boneless and gasping seawater against the coral, Mera didn’t soften. Her body remained rigid against Lois’s, her fingers still buried deep within her, her breath hot and ragged against Lois’s temple. The fury in her eyes hadn’t dimmed; it had merely banked, smoldering like lava beneath the sea. Her gaze, heavy with self-recrimination and a terrifying hunger that felt far from sated, locked onto Lois’s. The grotto’s ethereal glow illuminated the flush on her cheeks, the wild tangle of her fiery hair, the hard set of her mouth. Her knuckles, Lois noticed dully, were white where her hand still gripped her hip, pinning her.
Lois felt hollowed out. Used. Exquisite. Guilty. More alive than she’d felt in years. The saltwater tasted like tears. The silence, broken only by their ragged breathing and the soft hum of the grotto, was deafening. Mera didn’t move. Didn’t withdraw. She simply held Lois pinned against the glowing wall, a silent, furious conqueror surveying the ruins, her stormy green eyes demanding an answer Lois didn’t have. The cold seeped back in, deeper than the ocean, coming from the frozen conflict within the Queen herself.