One

Everything hurt. I didn"t know where I was. I couldn"t see anything, still with that damned blindfold on my face.

Everything hurt, but the pain in my leg overshadowed all other pain. It felt like someone had set fire to it, and I was dying. I knew I was dying. There was no way I"d survive this.

I"d always known I wasn"t meant for much, but I"d hoped that someday I"d at least get to live an ordinary life. Get a job, come back home to a man who loved me, maybe get a few puppies together. Something normal, something that made me feel content, gave me a sense of home, something I"d never had. Something I would never have, because soon, I"d be dead.

I was moving, I realized. I was on a vehicle, the motor loud and rumbling under me. A faint breeze washed over me, and I tasted salt on my tongue. Were we out on the sea?

Suddenly, there were arms on me, and I groaned as someone hefted me up, as my burning thigh pressed against something hard, the smooth surface digging into the wound and making me dizzy.

The person holding me touched the back of my head, and I flinched, afraid of more pain. Instead, the blindfold fell away, and I snapped my eyes shut as the sudden brightness sent agony lancing through me.

A push shoved me forward, and for a few moments, I was weightless. I was free.

Then I was plunging into cold water and sinking, sinking as the pain in my thigh finally started subsiding, as a soft, cloudy numbness enveloped me.

Maybe…maybe dying wouldn"t be so bad after all.

I stirred from my sleep, disturbed by the scent of blood spreading through the water.

The presence wasn"t an unusual thing. Bigger fish ate smaller ones every day, and blood was spilled in the sea every day.

This wasn"t the scent of fish blood, though. This was human blood.

While I tried not to get involved with humans, I couldn"t just sit by if there was a chance I could save this one. I made my way in the direction I could scent the blood from, knowing that it was very likely the human was already dead. A human couldn"t make it this far into the sea without a boat or ship of some kind, and it could either be an accident…or someone was trying to use the sea to erase evidence of their crime.

Either way, I couldn"t stop hoping I"d make it in time and not find a dead body. Any death out of the natural order was unacceptable to me, and if I could prevent one from happening, I was going to try as hard as I could to do so.

There. I swam faster as I spotted the human form sinking to the bottom with a trail of blood following after them.

I caught the form in my tentacles, afraid to hope, and yet mildly surprised when I realized his body was still warm, and I could hear the faintest hint of a heartbeat. Clothed in a tattered, stained t-shirt that might"ve once been white and torn jeans, the human was small, with dark blond hair that clung to his forehead, and sallow, sunken cheeks that spoke of starvation, possibly dehydration. The most pressing concern was the wound on his thigh, still leaking blood.

There was no sound of motors or shifting water from above, so I assumed whoever had dumped him was long gone. Because someone had definitely dumped him here. The injuries on his body didn"t appear to be accidental. They were all intentional, burns and cuts and bruises that spoke of unimaginable horror committed against this man. Someone had hurt him, and then dumped him into the sea, expecting him to drown and die. Well, I wasn"t going to let that happen.

With a few of my tentacles, I put pressure on his largest wounds, then used my magic to create an air bubble big enough for the human, my magic making sure he wouldn"t suffer any ill effects from being underwater for too long. Putting pressure on his chest, I used a tentacle to blow air into his mouth.

Come on, let me save him, I prayed to whoever might be listening. Was an Otherworlder close by, just waiting for this human to die so they could take away his soul?

Shaking myself, I focused on the human in my hold and attempted to get him breathing again.

Just when I was ready to give up, the human gave a soft gasp and then started coughing. Water spilled out of his mouth, and I helped him hack it out as I tried to figure out the next step.

Now that I"d saved his life, what was I supposed to do? I couldn"t get close to the humans in this form, and transforming into a human to carry him out would require too much explanation if he woke up partway, much more than I was capable of coming up with.

The human still wasn"t conscious, though his heart was beating at a somewhat normal rhythm. My tentacle was keeping him from bleeding out, but I"d need to patch up his wounds soon to make sure his condition didn"t decline.

I could return him to the humans, leave him at a hospital, but what if the person who"d hurt him found him again?

Glancing at the human in my hold, I used a tentacle to push his hair away from his eyes. With me in my true form, he looked so small, like a bunny would to a human. His face was screwed up in a pained expression even in sleep, and I started swimming as I used what little healing magic I had to try to give him some relief from his pain.

While I had some fae magic from my mother that allowed me to use some basic healing, I hadn"t been permitted the chance to learn how to use it beyond the things my mother and her close friends had managed to teach me. I"d taught myself some things over the centuries, but healing humans still wasn"t something I excelled at.

If his condition started to deteriorate, I would have to take him back to the human world, damn the consequences. His life mattered more than whatever trouble I"d have to deal with to keep him safe.

It was only when I turned my full attention to him—on his aura, his soul hidden deep in his chest—that I realized I was in serious trouble—and so was the human who"d hurt this man.

I blinked twice, just to make sure it wasn"t wishful thinking, but no, there it was. Just beside his heart—his now steady, evenly beating heart—was the warm glow of the bond that connected him to his other half, to me.

What were the chances of me finding my mate like this? After thousands of years, I"d once again almost missed him. If he"d died, I might"ve had to wait another few hundred before he"d have returned to this world.

Whoever had hurt him was going to pay, but for now, all I needed to focus on was making sure my mate healed. There was absolutely no way I was letting him slip from my grasp a second time. I wasn"t going to let anything—and especially not death—take him away from me when I"d already lost to it once before.

Glancing down at his pale face, at his bitten, almost colorless lips, at the shadows under his eyes and the small cuts on his cheeks, I made a silent promise to keep him safe and bring him back to health, no matter what it took.

Taking him to my island was the only possible course now. I could get Tarika and Nala to go to one of the human towns and fetch a doctor to treat him, and there was nowhere he"d be safer than on an island owned by a kraken and guarded by two territorial sirens.

I couldn"t move. What was happening? Where was I? Why did I feel like someone had put me through a grinder to make a human smoothie?

I couldn"t hear anything over the sound of my thundering heartbeat, so I tried to search through my memories instead. What was the last thing I remembered?

Darkness…flashes of pain…and nothing. Nothing at all.

I searched my mind for something, some memory that would give me a hint of where I was.

Blue. There was so much blue. And purple. Warm purple that held me secure and safe, that pushed the pain away for a few blissful moments.

Bright gold eyes peeking through the purple, looking unbelievably tiny on a head that was larger than my body and most definitely not anything close to human.

I was sure I was remembering wrong. After all, how else could I explain the giant—and I meant "bigger than a house" giant—octopus I remembered saving me?

Slowly, I opened my eyes. Ignoring the pounding headache, I scanned the room I was in. The space was clean and furnished, but sparse. It didn"t look like a hospital. In fact, it looked like someone"s bedroom, with soft brown walls, warm wooden furniture, and a silky canopy over the bed I lay in. I moved my fingers just a little, and they brushed against smooth silk.

I tried to raise my hand and realized I was hooked up to an IV drip, which did nothing to resolve my confusion. Where exactly was I? What was I doing here? What had happened? And why did everything hurt so bad?

There was no one else in the room, and I was too scared to call out, so my only option was to wait for someone to come, which wasn"t any less scary. Some instinctive fear told me that I needed to be wary, that I could be in danger.

Why couldn"t I remember anything except that giant octopus, which was obviously a creation of my imagination? How had I ended up here? Where had I been before I got here?

As I waited, I took stock of my body, trying to figure out where exactly I was hurting.

It didn"t take me long to realize it"d probably be easier to tell where I wasn"t. My right leg ached the worst, and moving it a little sent a sharper stab of pain through my body, making me suck in a breath.

My chest hurt too, and I could feel bandages covering it. A glance down my body showed both my wrists wrapped in gauze as well. What exactly had happened to me?

The sound of a door opening somewhere close made me shut my eyes on reflex, and I forced myself to breathe evenly as the footsteps neared. I wasn"t sure if I needed to be afraid of whoever was coming—what if it was someone who planned on hurting me more? Then again, they wouldn"t have patched me up if they wanted to, right? Not unless they were a psychopath.

The door to the room I was in clicked, then slowly—noisily—opened. I kept my eyes shut as the person walked into the room, their steps light as they approached the bed.

"Hello," the person greeted, and their voice was deep, a little rough, but somehow familiar, but I was sure I"d never heard it before. It was comforting, and had a warmth that made me relax, even if I still couldn"t open my eyes.

"I"m sure you"re confused, and probably afraid. I can"t imagine what happened to you before I found you, but you"re safe now. My name"s Ebenezer, and this is my home. We"re very far from the place I found you, so whoever hurt you can"t get to you here, okay? You can have all the time you need to heal. I"ll take care of you."

Considering I couldn"t remember what had happened to me at all, I really needed to be more careful. No matter how kind this man"s voice sounded, he could just as easily hurt me worse.

Then again, I wouldn"t be able to run even if I wanted to, and who knew how long I"d been out for? If he"d wanted to harm me, surely he"d have done it already?

A wave of pain washed through me again, stinging my legs, my chest, and sending my headache into overdrive. I shuddered and squeezed my eyes shut tighter, forgetting for a moment that I was supposed to be acting like I was asleep.

The man moved, and I froze, holding my breath as I waited for him to do something.

Would he touch me? Hit me?

Nothing happened, and then something covered me...a blanket?

"You looked like you were cold. I"ll bring you some warm soup in a bit, okay? You"ve been asleep for a while, so you probably need sustenance," he said, then murmured in a low voice. "Humans need to eat often, don"t they?"

It didn"t sound like he"d said that to me, but I wondered what he meant. The way he"d spoken made it sound like he... wasn"t human. That couldn"t be right. Had I misheard him? I must have, right? Or he was some crazy person, in which case I was well and truly fucked.

The image of the giant purple octopus flashed in my mind again, but I shook it off, rolling my eyes at myself.

While I was lost in thought, his footsteps retreated, and the door closed behind him. After waiting a few extra seconds, I opened my eyes and took another look around the room.

It looked like a guest room in someone"s house. His house? If he"d saved me, why hadn"t he taken me to a hospital? Why bring me to his home?

I was confused, my head hurt, and I was hungry. If I allowed myself to stop thinking, my mind strayed back to the memories I couldn"t find, which made it impossible to relax now that I was awake.

They"d said I"d been asleep for a while. Just how long had I been out for?

There was a knock at the door, and I startled, then snapped my eyes closed, then opened them again. I"d have to face him sooner or later, right? What was the point in hiding?

"You"re awake," the man with the kind voice said, a small smile appearing on his face as he carried a tray into the room. He placed it on the nightstand, then turned to me. "Would you like some soup?"

I stared at him, probably for a bit too long as I took in his tall, built form. He had red hair, buzzed on the sides and standing up on his head, and weirdly familiar warm gold eyes that reflected the same kindness his voice had. I found myself nodding as he walked closer, and he reached for me before stopping short. "May I help you sit up?"

I didn"t feel like I could move at all, so it wasn"t like I could say no. Still, he was very gentle when he helped me sit, and he even adjusted the pillows so I could lean on them.

He handed me the bowl of warm soup, and I carefully took it, holding it close. Taking a small, experimental sip, I sighed when the warm liquid slid down my throat. It tasted too good to be poisoned, or so I told myself because I was honestly too hungry to care.

As I ate, I looked around the room for…something. I wasn"t sure what. Maybe some clue, something that would jolt my memory, tell me if this place, this man, was something I needed to be afraid of. If I could trust this kindness, or if it was going to be what killed me when whatever injuries I"d sustained hadn"t managed to do it.

"Hey, are you okay?" The man—what had he said his name was? Aben? No, something longer—asked, his brows furrowing in concern.

I gave him a small nod before taking another sip of the soup and finishing my circuit of the room. Nothing, not even an image, except that damned octopus with purple skin and gold eyes. Oh. Gold eyes…