Just as my eyes threaten to slide closed and give in, something dark and huge cuts through the water. I can barely make out the creature through my rapidly declining vision, but I see the second creature come up behind the octopus and grab it, ripping it away from me.
I find a fight deep inside of me I didn’t know I had and propel myself to the surface. I’m weak, and my kicks don’t do much, but I’m not so far from the surface that I can’t reach it. Kicking as my lungs threaten to explode, I finally break through the waves with an audible gasp and choke on the water still in my lungs. My vision is fuzzy, but I force myself to swim toward the distant shore. I’m in danger here, and I need to get out. Despite the peril, I can’t help but look behind me as I swim, noting the massive tentacles churning up the water as the fight carries on. There are more than I can count, and they are bigger than the boats I saw in the water.
Yeah, fuck that.
I turn and swim as hard as I can with my weak limbs, still gasping for air and trying to ease my burning lungs, but the tide is rough and water splashes in my eyes, making it hard. My limbs are already exhausted, and I go from keeping myself above the water to barely able to take a breath as I begin to sink. I start going under again, the exhaustion too much after the fight beneath the waves. As I gasp for breath, the water around me turns red with blood, and something achingly soft wraps around my waist. It’s huge, big enough that I’m cocooned in it, and lifts me above the waves again.
A tentacle, different than the last, appears as I’m lifted from the water and pushed toward the shore. I feel it slide gently around my body as we move, the water dripping from me as I’m lifted up and out of the ocean completely. The shore comes close fast, as if the creature carrying me toward it propels itself through the water far easier than I do. Just as suddenly as it curls around me, it unfurls, and I’m sliding along the soft texture, the suckers gently touching and releasing as I find myself on the sand again—well, technically wood.
The tentacle places me on the broken ship bow nearest the small hut, leaving me gasping as I drop to my knees and try to come to my senses. I watch as that massive appendage slides back into the water, disappearing beneath the dark waves. I start struggling to my feet to attempt to climb from the ship and call after it, panicking that I didn’t get to thank the creature that dared help me, when the beast rises from the water.
Eyes wide, I stare at the towering monster.
A kraken.
A fucking kraken saved me.
Red in color, the creature stares at me with large, slitted eyes. Its body is so much like that of the octopus but larger than any ship. As I stare at it, it seems to study me closer, the red skin shifting between beautiful colors as if unsure which one to choose. It doesn’t attack or rush toward me. It just lingers there in the waves.
As quickly as the beast rose before me, it swiftly melts away. Water splashes down from its body, so I have to cover my face and eyes against the stinging droplets, and when I drop my arm again, there’s a man standing before me. Balanced on the edge of the ship, his eyes as dark as the ocean he swam in, he watches me closely. I have to drag my eyes up high to meet his. He must easily be eight feet tall, with muscles that make my mouth dry and tan skin that almost glimmers like he’s the moon reflecting on the waves. His hair is dark and moves in the breeze like his tentacles did, curling around his head. His eyebrows slant down, and his pink lips curl up as he watches me. Then my eyes drop lower, and I realize he’s naked.
I cover my eyes, but I can’t help peeking through my fingers, because nestled around a very huge cock are tentacles. They are small, almost like an extension of his cock, and I can’t seem to stop staring as his cock hardens. I’ve never seen anything like it before.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you it was rude to stare,measma?” His voice is loud, rumbling like water crashing on rocks and just as silky, and my eyes dart back up to meet his amused gaze.
“Tentacles. Tentacle penis,” I blurt out.
Great going, Cora, really.
ChapterFourteen
ZETROS
Ican’t help but laugh at her obvious embarrassment, her cheeks heating as she slaps her face and mutters to herself. When she seems to gather herself, she drops her hand.
“Sorry about that. It, er…just slipped out. I meant—Fuck, okay. I mean, thank you for saving me and all that, er…Mr. Kraken.”
“Zetros,” I respond as I step down onto the wood of the boat so I am closer. I hate humans. They are responsible for my kin’s death and for ruining the water, the place I grew up in, and yet I can’t find it in me to hate her. There’s something different about her, and I am drawn to her like I am the water. I sense no greed or destruction, only curiosity, and when she wandered so willingly into my water, I couldn’t resist a touch.
I even went so far as to save her from someone I tolerated before he attacked her. He’s dead now, so it doesn’t matter, but I cannot control my curiosity about the little human. I wander around her when she comes close, picking up her wet hair, which is the color of the gold resting below my water. Her eyes are bright and curious, and her skin is pale and so smooth, I ache to touch more. She’s tiny compared to me, but that magic…
I inhale deeply, seeing it swirling through her.
“Sure, because no monster has easy names. I’m Cora, Cora Black,” she says, interrupting my musings, and I stop before her, making her crane her neck back to meet my gaze. Her mesmerizing eyes slip lower for a moment, tracing my skin like a physical touch, before jerking back to my face.
I grin. “Well, Cora, Cora Black, you are welcome. Now, what are you doing in these lands,measma?”
“Erm, I was the hunt.”
I tilt my head curiously. Through the years, I have heard about the hunt, but never before has a human made it this deep into my lands. I haven’t laid eyes on a human female in centuries, and certainly never one this beautiful. She shines as brightly as the jewel I call her. “And you’ve made it this far?”
“I’m trying to survive. I made a deal.” She shrugs sheepishly.
That makes my eyebrows rise as I follow her gaze back to the shore, where I finally see a minotaur pacing, almost puffing smoke, and a bored, curious fey. Interesting. They are not characters one would usually see together, but when I look back at her, I understand why. She drew them together. She is a curiosity, but I already feel the webs of obsession taking hold, not just for the magic, but for the woman who stands before me totally unafraid. I catch not one whiff of fear from her, when only moments before, she was overcome by it before I saved her. There’s only interest, which I inhale deeply as I watch her.
“What kind of deal?” I find myself asking.
“They can, um, taste my magic if they get me to the palace and safety,” she replies as if she’s unsure, smiling meekly.
