Epilogue

EPILOGUE

KRIS

Christmas Eve

“Are you sure Levi is comfortable doing this?” Stan looked out at the open water, scanning the horizon.

“I’m sure. He wouldn’t have volunteered if he wasn’t. He said he wants to give you guys this as a Christmas gift.” I looked at the eight men who had accepted me and my mate with open arms from day one. At this point, though, I thought they might like Levi more than they liked me, seeing as how Levi could give them something I never could—a legit kraken sighting.

Okay, I guess on a technicality, what was Levi’s was mine, so we were giving the guys a kraken sighting.

I steered Marvin’s boat a little bit farther out, heading for the spot Levi and I had agreed upon. I wondered if any of the guys would recognize where we were.

Pete was making notes in a leatherbound journal and tracking our coordinates with our KELPS chapter’s handheld chartplotter. His readers were perched on his nose as he scribbled in the journal, then flipped back to other pages to review previous notes. I had a feeling he was piecing it together, and his sudden shout of triumph made me smile. I pulled us into position and let the boat idle.

“Kris, these are the same coordinates as the last kraken sighting in Lifeboat in 1897,” he exclaimed.

“Are they? I hadn’t noticed.”

Stan slapped my arm. “You planned this on purpose, didn’t you?”

I shrugged. “It was Levi’s idea.”

“I can’t believe it’s his grandfather in that old photo,” Abe said, emotion thick in his voice. “I never thought I’d see a real live kraken. I don’t believe this is happening.” The night Levi and the rest of the town had revealed themselves, Abe had sat alone and cried because seeing a kraken and meeting other sea monsters had been his lifelong dream, one he’d never thought he’d realize.

George put an arm around him and guided him toward the bow of the old fishing boat. Levi had texted me five minutes ago, letting me know he was getting in the water. We both thought it would be more fun for the guys if it was a surprise when Levi would appear.

I had to admit I was pretty excited too. Sure, I had seen Levi in his kraken form already, in all its iterations, multiple times, but I hadn’t yet seen him in his full kraken form now that he had the leviathan powers possessed by all haven town leaders. I’d tried to reconcile the drawings I’d seen of the leviathan with what I knew Kris looked like in his full kraken form, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around what he would look like, and like the guys, I couldn’t wait to see.

“Look!” Bill pointed to a spot in the distance where the ocean was churning, white water erupting in the middle of the sea, and I held my breath.

Levi’s tentacles broke the surface first, and I noticed his color had darkened a little, and there were new bumps and ridges along his tentacles in this form that weren’t present in his other forms. His massive head emerged from the water next, his eyes glowing yellow. A new ridge of pointed scales ran down the back of his head, and I could swear he was larger, his tentacles stretching out even longer from his body than they had before. He opened his mouth, revealing sharp teeth, and let out a mighty roar that made the boat rock and the guys cheer. He dove under the boat, and the ocean went still and silent, but I knew what was coming. We’d discussed this next part at length because he wanted the guys to get an up-close view of him, but he also didn’t want to accidentally harm anyone.

When his first tentacle rose out of the water on the starboard side of Marvin’s boat, water cascading onto the deck, I heard one of the guys yell that this was the greatest day of his life. When seven more tentacles joined the party, popping up around the whole perimeter of the vessel, several of the guys wiped at teary eyes.

“You can touch him if you want.” I moved toward one of the tentacles and pressed my palm to one of the exposed suckers that was at least double the size of a dinner plate. “Levi and I talked about it, and he said it’s okay.” Most of them moved to the sides of the ship, taking Levi up on his offer. This was the first time I’d touched Levi in this form, and I was surprised to note that the flesh under my fingers felt rougher than his suckers did when he was in his human form and let his tentacles out to play.

But I understood why.

This Levi was the fierce protector. He was made to keep his territory and his people safe, and it made my heart—and other areas—clench knowing that only I got to experience the pleasure his tentacles could provide.

Tom and Joe snapped pictures of everyone touching my kraken, and I took a group picture with Levi’s tentacles twisting in the background.

My mate dropped his tentacles back into the water, making the boat rock, and swam around for a little while showing off, then he dove deep letting his tentacles trail out behind him until he faded into the distance. The KELPS members on the boat crowded around me. Some of them still had tears in their eyes as they each shook my hand or pulled me into a hug, showing their gratitude for the day. All they could talk about on the way back was how amazing seeing Levi had been.

Levi met us on the dock, fully clothed.

“I don’t even have the words to thank you for that.” Pete wiped happy tears from his eyes, then held out his hand, and Levi shook it before pulling the older man into a tight hug. He did the same with each of the guys as he helped them off the boat, and they walked past him up the dock, heading to where they’d parked at the marina.

He jumped up onto Marvin’s boat, and we worked together to secure it. The day after tomorrow it would be dry docked for the rest of the winter, and the timing couldn’t have worked out better.

On the dock, Levi grabbed my hand. “Are you ready to head home?”

The sun was just starting to set, and I nodded. “Definitely.”

The next day we were going to be splitting our time between celebrating the last day of Poseidonia with Marvin and Clara and the Kringle family Christmas pajama party—Kyle had gotten to pick this year’s theme—but tonight was just for us.

“Should we grab something for dinner on the way home?” I asked as I turned my truck out of the marina parking lot, heading toward town.

“Uh, why don’t we get home first, then we can decide.”

I shot my mate a quick look. He was staring straight ahead, obviously not making eye contact. He was up to something. “Are you sure? I know you’re always starving after being in your full form, and I promise you tomorrow’s festivities are not for the faint of heart. If you thought my siblings were bad before, you’ve never seen them when bragging rights and presents are on the line. They are vicious.”

Levi laughed. “I’m not worried. I think I can take them.”

“Oh, you sweet summer child. They are going to eat you alive. You’ve read the texts in the group chat. You know they’ve already banned the use of extra appendages in all the games.”

“That’s true and probably only fair, but I have a secret weapon.”

“Do tell.”

“I plan to distract them every chance I get by kissing you.”

My hand found his on the seat between us. “I love a man who knows how to play dirty.”

The lights were on in my house when we pulled up, and I glanced at Levi again. He was back to avoiding my eyes.

“Did you leave the lights on, babe?” I opened his door and helped him out of the truck just because I wanted an excuse to touch him.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t, and my suspicion grew. What the hell was he up to?

It didn’t take long to find out.

My house—our house—looked like some sort of winter wonderland threw up in it. White glitter stars and purple and blue streamers had been hung from the ceiling, the streamers pulled back so they draped around the room. Shell garlands I recognized from Levi’s box of Poseidonia decorations had been given a glittery facelift and strung across the mantle above the fireplace, and white twinkle lights now framed my bookshelves and wrapped around the banister leading upstairs. A fire crackled in the fireplace.

In the middle of the worn kitchen table, a huge bouquet of white, blue, and purple flowers stood among takeout containers that could only have come from Kori, and a small stack of presents all wrapped in white paper were positioned at the far end of the table.

I looked over my shoulder at Levi, who hadn’t said anything. “What is all this?”

“The lesser of two evils.”

He stepped up next to me, and I pulled him close. “Explain.”

“Your mom and sisters were a little upset they didn’t get to throw us an engagement party. I could tell they were up to something when I met Karla in town for coffee yesterday, but she wouldn’t say a word, so I called Kimmy.”

“Well played. She’s the weakest link.”

He smiled and rested his head on my shoulder. “I know. She sang like a canary, telling me they were planning an ambush at the party tomorrow, but I didn’t think you would appreciate that, so I called your mom and negotiated this surprise instead.”

“So this is our solo engagement party?”

“It is.” He swept a hand out to encompass the table. “Food from Mizu Mizu, presents, and decorations, though they definitely did more than they promised they were going to. I convinced your mom we needed time to decompress together after the other night and yesterday.”

Levi had spent the day in the mayor’s office with Lawrence Tidewell, who’d agreed to stay on as assistant mayor, and he hadn’t made it home until almost midnight.

I turned Levi around and pressed my lips to his. “This is exactly what we need. Thank you.”

We took the takeout containers into the living room and settled on the couch, eating side by side while we watched the flames dance in the hearth.

When we were done eating and the containers were stacked neatly on the coffee table, Levi curled into my side. “I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve done this.”

I stroked a hand over his forearm, encouraging his tentacles to rise away from his body. “We’ve never done this. We’ve always had something hanging over our heads. It feels good to be able to slow down without worrying about wraiths or the former mayor.”

“You’re right. Though you do realize worrying about the town is kind of my job now, right?”

“I do. But it’s not for this moment.”

Levi curled tighter into my side, his tentacles and body wrapping around mine. We took the time to enjoy the moment, kissing and holding each other, until the last log in the fireplace burned down to ash.

“Ready for bed?” my mate asked, stirring against my side and looking up at me with a devilish glint in his eyes.

I nodded. “I just want to grab something first. I’ll meet you up there.”

“Okay.”

Levi made his way up the stairs, and I snuck out to my workshop. Since he’d been gone most of the day yesterday, I’d finally had a chunk of uninterrupted time to finish his gift. I’d wrapped it up in a white box with a big red bow. My heart tripped in my chest as I cradled the present in my arms and went to meet Levi in our bedroom.

He was sitting up in bed, his torso bare and one of his tentacles holding his phone as he scrolled. The second I walked through the door, his gaze swung my way. “I thought you got lost.” Then he noticed the box. “What’s that?”

I set the box on my nightstand and stripped out of my clothes, knowing Levi was naked under the sheets. When I was snuggled in beside him, skin to skin, I reached for the box and passed it over.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.”

I smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I didn’t.”

He raised an eyebrow, and I nodded toward the box. “You’ll see.”

One of his tentacles tugged at the bow until the ribbon fell away, and Levi lifted the lid then carefully extracted the glass bottle from the tissue paper inside the box. He gasped when he held it up and saw what was inside.

“Oh my gods. Kris, this is amazing!” A happy sob slipped from his mouth. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Inside the bottle, I’d constructed a nineteenth century clipper ship, but the ship wasn’t the most impressive part. I’d also formed eight purple-blue tentacles coming up from the water that wrapped around the ship, two of them twisted into a heart over the bow.

A tear slipped from one of Levi’s gorgeous golden eyes, and I swept it away with my thumb. “I love you, Levi. I’ll spend the rest of forever trying to show you how much.”

He set the ship carefully on his nightstand and launched himself into my arms, his mouth colliding with mine in a kiss that said more than words could ever convey.

I spent the rest of the night tangled in his tentacles and wrapped up in his arms.

And there was nowhere else I would rather be.

THE END

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