Chapter 68

chapter 68

CEPHARIUS

I spent two weeks tending to Elle, introducing her to her new world underneath the waves, mapping out a journey I would take her on as soon as she was well enough—there were so many sights I wanted to show her, and many of them were from civilizations she'd only read about, that had crashed below the waves and been forgotten.

We were in my old room in Thalassamur, having evacuated all of Gerron's toys from it for me and Elle and privacy. Gerron was working on forgiving me—and luckily for me, he was entirely enamored with Elle.

"Tell me the story again," he would ask her, and she would—any story, really. She was full of them, all sorts of monster history, the history of the two-legged, and then all of the things she had seen on her TV. I gathered from Sylinda that Gerron was becoming very popular as he translated these things to his friends outside, and they were eager to meet a human too—but as much as it was possible, I wanted to keep Elle just for me.

Until I was sure she was completely healed, feeling better, and certain about her destiny .

Because I knew that there were things that she'd miss from up above that had no corollary here below. Petting a cat , eating ice cream , talking with others of her kind—through her, I knew what it was like to touch grass, and sleep on the ground outside, beneath the stars.

But she seemed to have no regrets, being here with me, and when I felt her mind on the 'qa, talking to Sylinda or Gerron, even Balesur, it was always a delight.

"Are you well, my pearl?" I asked her as she woke one morning.

"I think so," she said, waking up. "Are . . . you?"

The extra blood in her eye had almost gone away, and I was still holding her, chastely, in my tentacles, just as I did to sleep each night.

"I have not been this well in a long, long time," I told her truthfully, bowing my head to hers.

"Are you certain?" she asked, pushing away, tinging the 'qa between us with concern.

"Utterly," I swore, and she gave me a tentative smile.

"Then why haven't we..." she asked, her thoughts drifting nervously, like she was afraid to put them on the 'qa.

My tentacles pulled her closer without thinking. "I wanted to be sure you were healthy enough first." I'd been horrified to see so many of my marks upon her, once I realized they were from me.

"And it's not because you have regrets?" Her thoughts were hesitant and full of memories—of her human husband who had left her to have children with another, and her knowledge of all the other krakens I could mate with in the sea.

"Absolutely not," I said, giving her a tender smile. "How long have you been holding these feelings inside of you?"

"A few days," she said. "It's been hard."

I clicked my beak at her. "Ahh. How about next time, rather than deciding to torture yourself, you just ask me?" I asked, winding myself around her slowly .

She pulled her full lips into a pout. "I just thought—" she started, and I clicked my beak again.

"I love it when you think, Elle. But I also like it when you are thoughtless, because you are full of me." I let my pumping arm emerge and ran it up and down the outside of her thigh—and her jaw fell open as she gave me a complicated look, mirrored by all her thoughts and feelings tangled up inside.

"It's not really a breeding hole if we can't breed, Ceph."

"So? Not all krakens can. I told you our cycles are erratic. That does not stop us from seeking pleasure in the meantime." I took her hand and placed it on my pumping arm, thrilling at her touch, and making sure to push that sensation onto her. "It is yours as much it is mine."

Her eyes read my face, as her fingers tightened to hold me—and then she flushed. "But what if other krakens hear?"

"Have you not heard them?" I asked, knowing we were not so insulated from the 'qa.

I watched her swallow—and I could begin to taste her in the sea. "What if I'm loud?"

"I would be ashamed if you were not," I told her. "I want everyone to know I make you happy." I watched her panic, and then I moved to kiss her temple. "I love you, Elle, but I believe in this one case, you are thinking too much," I said. "Trust me."

I took her waist in my hands and pulled her up so that our faces were even.

She looped her arms around my neck at once, and wound her legs around my body. "Next you're going to tell me to relax, and breathe," she complained with an adorable pout, because she wasn't really complaining, I knew.

"Yes," I agreed. "Breathe—and let me enter you."

I sent my pumping arm searching up the inside of her thigh, so she could feel its heat against her skin, and her eyelids got heavy as her gaze dropped. "Ceph," she said, as I found her hole, just as hungry for me as the last time I'd left it .

"My beautiful pearl," I whispered, pushing my way in.

What had happened inside the spaceship had needed to happen the way it had—when we'd been given one abnormal chance to be together, and had needed to drain the moment of its every last drop.

But now that she was my mate for life, I could take so much time with her—in fact, I was so slow that she groaned and rocked, trying to capture more of me.

"I want you to be ready," I told her.

She made a face. "I want you to be in. "

I laughed at that, and began to take her. Now that I had less seed, it was easier, and claiming her hole was a delight—as was everything else about the moment being with her. Holding her in all my arms, the taste of her skin, the noises she made on the 'qa, becoming turned on—I ran a tentacle down to grasp at her clit and marveled at how touching something so small could matter so much.

Her knees clenched me, and she began to drop back, working in opposition to my arm, making me go deeper.

"Oh my God, Ceph," she groaned.

"Is your deity really involved so much with your breeding?"

Her eyes flashed open. "No," she said, then laughed. "Except for the fact that you're the answer to all of my prayers."

"I like knowing that," I told her, slowly winding.

I ran my hands and tentacles all over her body, trying not to suck on her, except for all the times I couldn't help it, and she seemed to love it besides—and then I couldn't help myself.

"Prepare yourself to not think," I promised, as I started thudding into her.

The change in her was instant. She arched her hips in a certain way, and my sucker on her clit followed. "That's so good it's almost unfair," she said.

I reached up and pressed against her lips with a line of suckers, until she opened her mouth with surprise and let me hold her jaw.

"And what did I say about thought?" I asked her on the 'qa. She looked fit to defy me, then melted as I sped up. " There should be nothing else going through your head right now, except how well your breeding hole fits me."

She groaned, starting to tense.

"Think it," I told her. "Loud enough for everyone to hear."

Elle's eyes flashed open again, and she bit the tentacle that was in her mouth lightly.

"Little pearl, think it now, or I will take you outside to breed you, where everyone else can see." Her heartrate spiked, I could feel it against my chest—at the same time as I could feel her hips fill with desire, tasting her with every stroke. "Do not deny me."

She bit me again, and I felt her hands clenching, and that traveled through the rest of her body as she tensed, the muscles of her hips and ass and stomach preparing. "Fine. You fit—oh God— you fit ."

I pumped her even faster, while working that single solitary sucker at her clit and holding her in all my arms. I wanted to release with her, I wanted our shouts to join the 'qa as one?—

"Cepharius!" she screamed, and I felt her shake, squeezing and releasing, squeezing and releasing, her strong breeding hole making me fight to stay in where I belonged.

"Yes," I grunted low, jetting my seed into her in one lengthy burst after another. I imagined all of her small human womb covered with it, filled to the brim, until it couldn't contain anymore, and began to leak out the sides of our seal.

"Cepharius," she said more quietly, still shuddering, still pressed to my chest—and from somewhere else on the 'qa, I heard several distant cheers.

"What a way to wake up," said another kraken—thankfully not my brother.

"—honestly I did not think a human would fit—" said someone else.

"She is one of us now—do not think of her as human." And that was definitely Sylinda, ever the stateswoman, amplifying her opinion .

Elle looked up at me in a combination of shock and horror. "Ceph!" she hissed, punching my shoulder without moving from my chest.

I let my pumping arm fall from her, briefly satisfied—but I knew it would fill with seed again quickly.

"Do not think of it in your human way," I told her, stroking her cheek with the tentacle she'd bitten. "Think of it as me proving to everyone I know how much I love you."

"Well, when you put it like that." She glared at me for half a second longer, and then a smile curved her lips.