Four

"You have a private island?" Hobie demanded, eyes wide, and I nodded.

"Yeah, I only bought this place around...a decade or two ago, I think."

I wasn"t really the best at keeping track of time. After living for so long, months and years started to matter less and less, though I had a feeling that would change now. I"d need to remember Hobie"s birthday, after all. And maybe someday soon our anniversary?

"When"s your birthday?"

Hobie gave me a strange look, making me realize I"d popped that question out of nowhere.

"Uh, it"s 19 August."

I blinked.

"Oh, that"s close!" I wondered what kind of celebration Hobie would enjoy. Something big and flashy, or something small and private?

"Yeah, apparently." He gave a dry laugh, and I shook my head, bringing myself back on track.

"I"m sorry. I should"ve told you all of this after you woke up. We"re on my private island, and other than us, Tarika and Nala are the only other residents. They take care of the place when I"m not around, and they have their own house close by. I usually live in the water, but sometimes I"ll come here when I want to indulge in some reading or just soak up the sun," I explained as Hobie listened to me with rapt attention.

"Sooo... you"re a rich kraken, then?" His lips tilted up in a small smile, making me chuckle.

"I have collected some wealth over my considerable lifetime."

"Okay, I have to ask now. Just how old are you? You said you met my previous incarnation a few centuries ago, and you said you"ve lived everywhere, so..."

I gazed at him, wondering if this would be the answer he would freak out at. So far, he"d taken everything in stride, but he couldn"t be that easygoing, could he?

"Well, I"ve lived for close to twenty-five centuries now, but I only started interacting with humans around eight centuries ago."

I watched as Hobie"s eyes went as wide as saucers, his fingers curling around his empty soup bowl.

"Twenty-five centuries?" He shook his head. "Please don"t tell me you"ve been alone all this time. That you"ve been waiting for me all this time."

"I"ve made many friends over the years, and some lovers too. But yes, I"ve always been waiting for you." I was unable—and unwilling—to lie to him, not about something like that.

"Oh," he mumbled, then turned his gaze to his lap. "You must have a lot of expectations from your mate, then. From me. I think I"ll disappoint you." His voice wavered as he spoke, and he sounded like he truly believed what he was saying.

"I don"t have any expectations from you." I brushed the tip of my slimmer tentacle against his cheek. "All I want is for you to be healthy and happy. You could never disappoint me, Hobie."

I"d also love it if he stayed with me, if he allowed me to love him, and maybe loved me back, but I didn"t say that, not wanting to put pressure on him when he"d just gotten out of a traumatic situation.

Hobie looked at me as if he didn"t believe me, but then dipped his head in a nod before letting out a wide yawn.

"You should get some sleep."

A scowl covered his face. "It feels like all I"ve been doing is sleeping," he grumbled, then made a face. "I need to go."

"Go where?"

The look he gave me could"ve scared a dragon. "The. Bathroom," he bit out as his cheeks flushed, and it took all the self-control my age granted me to keep myself from smiling.

"Of course. Let me help you up." With assistance from my tentacles, he managed to make the short trek across the room to the en-suite bathroom, hopping on one leg to keep the pressure off his injured one and refusing my offer to carry him as he dragged the IV pole with him. Humans could be such prideful creatures sometimes.

I opened the door, and he stepped inside, his needle-free hand wrapped tightly around the IV pole. "Let go."

"You might fall. I"ll come with you."

"No, you won"t." He shook his head adamantly, and I sighed.

"Hobie, please. You could get hurt worse."

"I"ll be fine." His voice grew sharper with every word. Why was he being so stubborn?

I didn"t want to push him too much, so I slowly slid my tentacles off him, though I kept them close in case he fell.

"Don"t lock the door. Please."

He gazed at me for a moment before nodding and shutting the door. I heard the squeak of the pole as he used it to support himself, and waited for him to finish up. He moved around slowly, which I was grateful for, and I almost rushed in when I heard him stumble, but he seemed to right himself quickly.

When Hobie was done, I helped him back to the bed, where he settled on the edge before glancing down at himself. Biting his lower lip, he looked up at me. "Would you maybe have a spare shirt I could change into? This one"s icky with sweat."

I smiled at the way he scrunched up his nose, then walked over to the dresser. I hadn"t mentioned it to Hobie yet—only because it hadn"t come up—but it"d been three days since I"d rescued him, and while he slept, Tarika and Nala had done a shit-ton of shopping for him. He had outfits of all kinds, and for the first time, the refrigerator in this house was actually being used.

Fetching a pajama set similar to the one he wore, I walked back to the bed and offered it to him. "You can change your pants too, if you wish." The clothes I"d found him in had been filthy, and I"d burned them the same day. I was glad he hadn"t asked.

"Okay." His voice was heavy with sleep. He was all tuckered out, wasn"t he?

Removing and then reattaching his IV line as I helped him put on his shirt—the doctor had left us with enough medicine for a week since Hobie had been undernourished for a while, and he"d come by on Friday to check on him again—then used my tentacles to change his pants. I"d noticed he was much more relaxed when I touched him with my tentacles rather than my hands, and I wondered if that was because he was afraid of human touch. It would explain the way he"d reacted to Nala, but I didn"t want to remind him of that by asking him directly.

Once he"d changed, I helped him slide under the blankets, and then turned off the lights.

"Are you leaving?" His eyes searched for me in the dark, and I was tempted to stay. I had a feeling I"d never leave his side if he asked me to, even if that meant I had to go hungry for a while.

"I"m going to hunt, but I"ll be back right after." While I could wait months without eating if I didn"t use much energy, a body the size of mine required a lot of fuel, especially when I"d used so much magic to try to heal Hobie, not that it"d done much good.

"Okay."

"Good night, Hobie."

"Night, Ebenezer," he whispered, and I wondered why my name sounded so special on his tongue.

The next day, when Eben realized I was going a little stir-crazy cooped up in the room, he excused himself for five minutes, and then returned with a determined look on his face.

"All right, we"re going outside."

I raised a brow at his declaration as he wrapped a tentacle around my chest and helped me upright.

"We are?"

He nodded as he basically manhandled—kraken-handled? tentacle-handled?—me into a bridal carry, only instead of arms, there were tentacles holding me. He grabbed the IV pole with a free tentacle, then opened the door with another tentacle—I"d lost count of how many he had—before heading outside.

I glanced around, taking in the short hallway that opened into a living room tastefully decorated in dark, wooden furniture similar to the ones in the bedroom. A huge flatscreen was mounted on one wall, with a comfy-looking couch sitting opposite it. There were a few armchairs placed before an empty fireplace, and a door that I guessed led to the kitchen.

"I could"ve walked," I grumbled, knowing full well I probably couldn"t have. Stumbling alone in the bathroom last night and this morning had been hell, and if I was being honest, I was perfectly happy being carted around. Not that I was going to tell Eben that. As much as I knew about him, I had a feeling he"d insist on carting me everywhere, always, if he knew.

"Of course. I just like carrying you." He smiled down at me with soft pink lips and sparkling eyes of gold.

I squinted as he walked across the room and through a glass sliding door, and out into the sunlight. The backs of my eyelids were a warm red that still looked too bright, and I turned my head into Eben"s warm chest to shield them.

I wondered distantly if maybe I"d accepted things too quickly. Accepted Eben too quickly. For all I knew, Eben had kidnapped me and used some mind-magic to erase my memories.

Shaking my head, I cursed myself for thinking like that. Eben had been nothing but kind and considerate to me since I woke up. He"d been at my side all the time, stayed when I asked, left me alone when I asked, offered to have me dropped in a human city if I wished... He was good. The faint recollections I had of my missing time weren"t. They were full of pain and hurt, and if Eben had in any way been involved with it, I didn"t think I could"ve trusted him so easily.

"Hey, you okay? Do you want to go back in?" Eben asked softly, and I shook my head.

Slowly, I turned my head away from him and opened my eyes incrementally. The sun was still too bright, but I slowly got used to it, and the sight before me had a stunned "Whoa!" leaving my lips.

The sea stretched for miles and miles everywhere I could see, sapphire blue with hints of green, and no other land in sight. Bright, almost white sand glittered in the sun, while trees that I couldn"t name to save my life swayed gently in the wind. We"d walked out onto a patio that opened right onto the sea, with only a thin strip of beach separating us.

That strip of beach was where four chairs sat under two giant umbrellas, along with a cooler and what looked like a picnic basket.

"Uh, what"s going on?" I blinked as I spotted Tarika and Nala walking toward the chairs from the other direction.

"We"re having a picnic. Sort of."

Eben carried me the rest of the way before settling me on a chair. Before I"d gotten my bearings, he picked something off the top of the basket and showed it to me. A giant bottle of sunscreen.

"What..." I started, only to trail off as Eben squirted a humongous amount of it onto his tentacle, then shared it with a few other tentacles...before attacking me.

"Eben!" I gasped as his tentacles curled around my arms, my neck, the visible parts of my legs, and finally my face. Five tentacles worked in unison until I was completely covered in sunscreen, and I sputtered through it, searching and failing to find my words.

"I don"t think you used quite enough of that, Eben," Tarika said mildly, and I bit back a chuckle that turned into a groan when Eben shot her a worried look.

"You think so? Maybe I should apply another layer."

"No!" I stopped him as he reached for the bottle. "It"s enough, Eben. It"s more than enough," I said faintly, sighing in relief when his tentacle retreated.

"Hey, Hobie. Sorry about last night," Nala said, and I turned to look at him, shaking my head.

"No, it"s fine. It wasn"t your fault."

"Even if it hadn"t triggered you, I shouldn"t have touched you without your permission," Nala said with a small smile. "So let me apologize, okay? I"m truly sorry, and I"ll be careful now."

Smiling, I dipped my head in a nod. "I accept your apology, then."

"Great, we"re all friends," Tarika said, then shot me a small, barely there smile. "So, Hobie, have you seen the big guy?" She waved at Eben as she asked, and I assumed she meant his kraken form.

"Uh, I did when he saved me, but I only remember it faintly. I just remember he looked like a giant oct—" Eben"s loud growl cut me off, and I grinned up at him unapologetically. He was so warm and sweet most of the time, I liked seeing this side of him. Comparing him to an octopus never seemed to fail to make him a little testy.

"Come on, Eben. Show your mate your glorious form," Tarika teased, and Nala grinned.

"Yeah, maybe then he won"t call you an octopus," Nala joked, and my eyes widened when Eben picked him up with a single tentacle and threw him straight into the water like he weighed nothing. Holy fuck, Eben was strong.