14. Kaden

Chapter 14

Kaden

" I 'm capable of walking," my little mermaid insists as I lift her into my arms. That feistiness of hers that I adore roars to life.

"I know," I answer, carrying her across the expansive cave underneath my mansion to where the water laps at the edge of the stone floor. She's so light and yet glaring at me. "You're not going anywhere until I clean you up. You're covered in my cum, and it's going to get everywhere if you try to walk."

She bursts out laughing. "Oh, that's what you're worried about? Surely, a kraken like you has the ability to command the water to wash the mess you make."

I grin at her quip. "What fun would that be?"

Stepping into the cold water brings me to life. Something about the iciness awakens me and my beast. Though for the first time in too long, he's calm… sated from getting exactly what he's craved—me fucking Sasha.

She's cradled against me, wriggling to get out, but I tighten my grip. In my eyes, she's the most beautiful woman in the world. She's all I see, all I need.

Moving deeper into the waters has her flinching as the cold laps up against her naked body. She presses against me, leaving me as the happiest man in the world.

"Are you sure you're a mermaid?" I tease and dunk us both beneath the water. She squirms, and I bring us back up, with her splashing me in the face.

"That's freezing," she yelps. "I don't have thick squid skin like you. Give a girl a warning before you ice her to death."

I laugh again, finding her beyond amusing. "Squid—is that what you think a kraken is?"

"If the tentacle fits," she murmurs, then pinches her lips as if holding back a smile. "Sure, I know you're not, but you're annoying me. In fact, I've actually read up on how many sailors back in the day would mistake giant squid for kraken, and clearly, things got mixed up with your origin. Though I'm not sure why the kraken destroyed all those ships."

I watch her mouth, still tasting her on my lips, wanting more. Instead, I lower her to her feet in the water that reaches just under her full breasts. I start splashing her across the chest and collarbone, my large palm wiping her clean of my cum.

She pushes my hand away as I grope her breast, unable to resist. When she pulls completely away from me, I snatch her arm and haul her to my side.

"Thing is… kraken have a wild temperament."

"Oh, I can tell." She pushes against me again as my arm wraps around her, wiping clean my stickiness from her chest and stomach, especially around those delicious breasts with her dusty pink nipples. I remember them being aquamarine in her mermaid form, and I look forward to tasting them that way, too.

"When those boats fished in their waters," I explain, "they threw waste into it, so the kraken burst into fury, and, well, they destroyed the boats. Can't really blame them. What would you do if someone came and threw their garbage into your home?"

"Or came into your home and took you away from it," she attests sarcastically.

"Sasha," I coo, drawing her against me. I drop myself to my knees, so I don't tower over her, wrapping her in my arms. She's soft, so warm against me, and I can't get enough of her body pressed against mine, skin to skin. "This is your home; you just didn't know it at the time."

She rolls her eyes while I smirk and run my palm down the valley of her breasts and over her stomach and right to between those beautiful thighs. In a heartbeat, my fingers are on her sweet pussy, running the length of her seam, the silkiness covering her from her own arousal.

"Hey," she reacts in a split second, shoving against my shoulders.

"I'm making sure you're thoroughly clean." I have a tight grip around her waist.

"I don't need you to do that!" she gasps. She's still fighting me, pushing against my arm, but I'm not pausing.

"But I do, my sweet. When I make a mess, I'll fix it up. It's either in the water here with my hand, or I place you back up on the table and use my tongue. Your choice."

She blinks while I slip a finger between her pussy folds, leaving her trembling, those nipples tightening for me once more.

"You wouldn't?"

"Try me." It'd be so easy to claim her right here, over and over. My cock's already throbbing at piercing her tight cunt again.

I chuckle, holding her firm, keeping my word, and finish stroking her gorgeous pussy free of her slick, my cock hard as a rock, ready to fuck her. I contemplate bending her over for being a bad girl and fucking her hard, that adorable ass in the air, my finger pushing into it.

Grinding my jaw, I'm torturing myself.

Her expression belongs to a serial killer, yet her body sways, leaning into me. So sweet, loving me playing with her little pussy.

When I finish, I release her and she stumbles from me, then tosses water at me in anger.

"Don't ever do that again. I can take care of myself."

"Not promising that because now you've got me looking out for you as well," I reply, smirking as she storms out of the water. My gaze lowers instantly to that curvy ass that's calling for my touch, for my cock, each cheek wiggling with the fast steps she takes.

"For all I know, I'll wake up in the morning tied up on that sacrificial table. That's what it's for, right?"

Her tenacity is admirable. "The table belonged to my grandfather, as did the whole mansion. He built it, I was told."

"So, I'm not wrong, then, hey?" Daggers fly at me from her gaze. "Sacrificing is in the family line."

I chuckle at her anger; she's so damn adorable. "I can't speak for my grandfather because, for all I know, he did use it for that. Me, I haven't found the need… yet."

She heads for the doorway.

"Going already?" I call out sarcastically.

She twists toward me, and I admire her full-frontal nudity. She's absolutely spectacular, dripping in water. I especially love that small patch of hair between her thighs, a darker shade of her aquamarine hair.

"Yeah, I've had my fill of possessive crazy for one night," she declares.

I hold her stare, admiring her strength to stand up to me. And I can't exactly deny her accusations when they're plain as day true.

"Good night, Sasha," I say, then turn from her, already feeling my beast pushing out of me. The transformation comes effortlessly, as easily as changing clothes, my body growing, extending. Knowing that my intention isn't to remain in my cave in my kraken form, I dive into the water, the cave open, as is the enormous underwater passage carved out from the stone, large enough for a kraken to swim through.

It's liberating, fucking freeing to unleash him, to swim unrestricted. I enter the fjord with black water, the moonlight somewhere overhead, but as I propel myself ahead, my thoughts remain on Sasha.

It seems there's something in the coming times to look forward to. My kraken is obsessed with her, and maybe, just maybe, I can see a future where she's by my side, taming the beast within me.

My thoughts remain locked on my mermaid, her taste on my tongue, her scent fogging my head, and yet, I swore I felt something different about her, something I can't quite pinpoint. It's an energy deep inside her that I haven't sensed before, something primal, definitely not what I've picked up with any mermaid I've fucked.

Maybe it's our fated-mate connection bringing forward this undercurrent of power she carries just below the surface. My curiosity heightens. Whatever's going on with her, it's something I'll keep an eye on, determined to understand why she feels so different.

The cold fjord waters ripple around me, my massive tentacles sliding through its darkness. Gliding through the depths, I let the current carry me when a surge of images suddenly crashes into my mind, dragging me away from the present. The fjord fades fast, replaced by a vision that feels too real.

I 'm standing on the edge of a natural hot spring located in a valley surrounded by rocky, snow-tippled mountains that rise imposingly into the sky. Steam curls up from the blue lagoon, creating a mist that hangs in the air.

My focus is drawn to my grandfather and a red-haired woman in the water. She's splashing playfully, her gold-and-green tail calling out to my grandfather, her voice singsong and filled with laughter.

"Water's so hot it's beautiful," she says, her piercing green eyes gleaming with joy.

Recognition strikes me instantly.

Is it her?

The mermaid painted down in the cave beneath the mansion, near the stone table? The sacrificial table, as Sasha called it. A table that is used by some sea creatures in the waters I lived with in Tartarus as a birthing altar. Some also call it a celebration altar for when fated mates mark their first mating… something I was fully aware of when I fucked my little mermaid on there. It's all ritual, nothing with magic, but I'm not above inserting some customs into my life.

With my attention back on my grandfather, he appears slightly older but unmistakably himself. He strips in seconds and joins her in the water. The hot springs ripple around him, seemingly aware of his power as a kraken. He reaches the mermaid in moments, drawing her into his arms. Her beauty is striking but doesn't come close to comparing to Sasha's.

"I'm so happy you brought us here," she chirps.

He spins her away from him by her shoulders so her back is flush against his chest, his arms wrapped around her shoulders. His chin rests on her shoulder as he steals a small kiss that leaves her giggling.

"I needed to get away," he admits, his voice softer than I've ever heard it. "Business has been demanding as we keep growing it."

"You work too hard," she answers. "Though I really want to know what you do. It's been eight months since we met, and you still won't tell me." She pouts.

He kisses her on the cheek, breaking into loud laughter that echoes off the surrounding rocks. "It's boring, trust me. The last thing I want is for you to see the dull things I do, then you'll think that's me."

She faces him, eyes locked on him, clear she absolutely adores him. "Nothing you do could ever be dull. Not you, my love."

He cups her face. "I've never loved anyone before, but now you have my heart, Nixi."

I groan inwardly at the sight of my grandfather being so romantic. It's slightly sickening, but it makes me wonder if this is how I appear when I'm sweet to my Sasha. The thought is both amusing and unsettling.

The real question gnawing at me is who is this red-haired mermaid Nixi? My grandfather never spoke of anyone he loved, not even the female kraken he impregnated in Tartarus. They never stayed together, so when she passed from an illness, he took my father under his tentacle.

But the man was a closed book, offering nothing of himself or his past. Yet here he is, with this woman, sharing a moment so intimate it feels like an invasion to witness it. I don't doubt his love for her, especially not when he'd had her mural painted in the basement of his mansion.

So, what happened to her? Why didn't he ever mention her?

T he vision fades, and I'm back in the fjord, the cold water wrapping around me, though the image of my grandfather lingers in my mind, more vivid than any memory. I glide forward, the dark waters swirling around me, silver fish darting away from me, while a Greenland shark coming directly in front of me jolts to the side, vanishing into the dark with speed.

Still, I can't shake the image of my grandfather and the red-haired mermaid. The secrets he kept, the women in these visions—how do they all connect to his imprisonment in Tartarus?