Elle

elle

I lost track of how many times I came. All I knew was that occasionally there'd be some moment of respite, when Ceph would feed me—which made him obscenely pleased for some reason—and then he'd take the old arm out and fuck me with a new one, until both of us came. Then he'd twist it off and I was trapped again, my eyes rolled back, my whole body pliant as I gave in—and once I stopped fighting them and being scared...

It was like riding a wave out in the open sea. I would come down, but not all the way, and soon enough I would be going up again, and other krakens all around would be going with me, I could feel all their bliss, everyone urging everyone else higher, until nothing mattered anymore, there was just being, and it was good. I couldn't even remember what life before the caves was like, and Cepharius watched after me the entire time, holding me, stroking me, saying perfect things, how beautiful I was, how good a mother I would be, how utterly in love he was, how he couldn't wait to meet our baby, and I was so exhausted and wrung out by what felt like fifty million orgasms that even if I'd had a splinter of resistance left, which I didn't, I'd still have been forced to believe .

It was like I imagined it would be to join a cult...only to discover that their goddess was me.

"Ceph," I whispered. There were new people on the 'qa next to us, some other couple had finished and been replaced, and I wondered if that would ever happen for us, or if we would just be trapped here in a haze of pleasure for the rest of our life.

"Are you still hungry?" he asked, offering another fresh leg of crab.

I shook my head and gave him a dazed smile. "Not for that," I said, and he laughed, swinging his pumping arm up to meet me, asking for me to stroke him without words. I took him in hand and closed my eyes, letting myself rest before we rejoined the flow.

And that was when I felt it.

One second I was alone—as alone as I ever got to be on the 'qa—and then after that there was the feeling someone was with me.

Someone I hadn't met yet, but who I couldn't wait to see.

I sat up at once. Cepharius's energy matched mine, holding me closer immediately.

"Yes?" he asked, and I could feel the ache and tension in his voice.

He wanted to know if I held the answer to all our dreams within me.

"I—I think so!" I said, squirming to throw my arms around his neck. "I can feel them, Ceph! Can you?"

He shook his head quickly. "No. I will not be able to feel their 'qa until I finally touch them, but—oh, Elle," he said, and I could feel emotions far beyond the raw fucking we'd been doing surge through his body: care, love, protection, joy, and hope, most importantly.

Not that I would become with child—he'd been certain of that—but that he would be the father he'd always wanted to be.

"You will!" I exclaimed at him, as he picked me up so that his face was even with my stomach and started kissing my belly.

I'd spent my entire life researching histories, learning all I could about other people from the tiny scraps they'd left behind, but for the first time I knew what it felt like to be carrying a future .

I couldn't help it, I started crying.

The second he tasted my tears in the water, Cepharius lowered me. He used to be afraid of them, because krakens didn't cry, but now he knew better, and took my face in his hands to wipe them away with his thumbs as he gently smiled. "You have always carried oceans in you, Elle—but now you also hold our baby."

Thanks so much for reading Guarded by the Kraken !

Guarded by the Nightmare , my next book in the Monster Security Agency Series releases in October 2024!