Chapter 13

Kai was visibly shaking.

His reflection in the lit-up mirror showed the tension in his body, the tremor in his tentacles. They were also giving him the worst kind of nerve pain. He didn’t feel like a hero.

So far from it.

With shaking fingers, he applied the Leberon shell dust to his face.

In this morning’s round he’d almost been tempted to let the blundering great anaconda win, with its ungainly tail and big claws. He’d let it swipe him into the mud and lain there for a second longer than he needed as he heard the referee start to count. But in the end, he couldn’t let himself be defeated by an amateur lizard from the wastelands, just so he wouldn’t have to fight Luna today.

He’d gotten up in a swirl of limbs and tentacles and dragged that anaconda so fast into the dungeon it didn’t know what had hit it.

Afterwards, when Shen asked him what the hell had gotten into him, he said it was all part of his strategy. “It got the crowd roaring.”

Shen had eyed him hard, then shrugged and grinned. “Yeah, it was a good party trick. At least you kept them on their toes.”

“Just making sure I’m not predictable.”

But now… he had no prediction for tonight, did he…

Meeting her in the hot pools last night had completely thrown him. At first, he’d lain there, his eyes hovering above the water line, thinking maybe she knew he was there, maybe she’d followed him there to seduce him… His libido had gone nuts at the thought, especially when she slid in opposite him completely naked. But when she’d lain her head back and looked up at the stars, he’d realized she had no idea he was there.

Honor demanded he show himself.

At first, he was sure they were kinda flirting—in that rough way Luna had that excited the fuck out of him. He’d felt his cock swell, his balls tighten.

And then she’d dropped that fucking bombshell.

Over and over since then, he’d told himself she must be lying. His people would not have killed humans fifteen years ago. They knew the potential costs of starting up conflicts again after the Treaty. The death of their younglings from human ammunition was a cost they would not have risked. But… even before that, kraken would never attack a lone civilian boat. And would never leave children, even human ones, to die. It was against all their moral codes.

She had to be lying. She wanted to unnerve him by making him take pity on her.

First, she’d seduced him, now she was playing on his sympathetic hearts.

Bitterness sat in his mouth, metallic and ugly as he stared back at his reflection. All his life he’d wanted to compete in the games, but now… it felt hollow. The posturing, the play acting, the pulling, pushing, tugging, thumping, hollering. It was all so damn nonsensical.

Victory felt good for a few moments while the adrenalin rushed through your blood, but it was transient, and then the hollow feeling was back, eating at your gut. Like you were never going to measure up. And that wasn’t all. Working his scarred tentacles this hard was playing havoc with the pain. It was like red hot rods shooting into his body at night, keeping him awake. It hadn’t been this bad for years.

His eyes reflected pain back at him, like the chasms of the ocean out past Thedaka. Bottomless, said to be full of the ghosts of kraken killed by… killed by humans. Was that all he was destined for—pain and empty victories? And falling for a human woman who hated his guts?

He jerked, and all his tentacles jerked along with him. A wake-up call.

This was all he’d ever wanted, wasn’t it? To compete in the games. It was the highest pinnacle a kraken male could attain.

To be The Chosen.

To be a warrior. To reach Metan with honor.

That scowly little human could bleat all she liked about losing her loved ones. His people had lost whole generations to humans over the centuries. It was even said that humans hung krakens’ remains on the bows of their boats to warn off others.

The krakens had no choice but to retaliate. It was sink human boats or perish.

Kai hardened his hearts.

So what? So what if one or two wreckings had happened since the Treaty? Who was he to sit in judgment of his own people? There had been centuries of bloodshed before that. The havoc humans wrought during the Great War. Cannon balls littered the streets of Thedaka still, the old buildings pocked by ammunition.

He set his jaw, flexed his arms and fingers, smoothed them through his hair.

Was she putting on her costume? Applying her war paint? Some of the contestants sure got themselves up for the occasion. There was no dress code.

Just no exposure of genitalia.

Despite himself, a little quirk of humor kicked his mouth up. She’d slay him in minutes if she flashed her hot little pussy at him, pathetic male that he was. The image gave him a whoosh of adrenalin, sending a tingle down to the root of his cock.

Tonight, he would be victorious. And that little human would wish she’d never tangled with him.

Shen’s head popped around the door. “Ready?”

“Almost. Is she here?”

“Been prepping in her dressing room for an hour now.”

Kai thinned his lips, rotated his shoulders. And stared at his reflection until he felt like nothing more than a machine. Then he turned and strode out of the change room.

Outside in the arena, the lights seemed brighter, the crowds denser. He guessed everyone was here for the final fight.

There had been so much publicity, so much talk. He’d had to laugh reading the Motham Times this morning. They’d tried to interview Luna but all they had was a photo of her walking away at speed with her hoodie pulled over her face.

How predictably Luna.

Kai played the crowd. Bending over the rope, he scooped up some brown gloop, flipping it playfully at the folks in the front row, who squealed in revulsion. Those at the front knew they’d end up covered in the stuff. They paid a higher price for those seats.

Inside though, he still wasn’t feeling it. His hearts were pounding. He tightened his muscles to hide it. And then a huge roar erupted, and he looked to the other edge of the stage as Luna entered in a toweling robe with Marrick.

He could feel the pulse throbbing in his throat as he watched her. She looked so small. So fucking vulnerable. Like she would break. Was he really supposed to do this? It was cruel. The succubi who’d fought Acha had been a big muscular female. She’d had Acha’s head locked between her tits for five minutes before he defeated her, much to the amusement of the crowd.

But Luna, she was as ethereal as moonlight. How the fuck was he going to avoid hurting her?

He stared over at her, narrowed his eyes, flexed his biceps, willing her to look his way.

She didn’t.

Her mouth a thin line, she shed the garment, exchanging a few words with Marrick. As he took the robe from her, she nodded. Moving her head from side to side, she danced on the spot, wearing just shorts and a plain white tee.

Forcing himself to turn toward the crowd, Kai held up his fingers in a pinch gesture to show how small she was, shaking his head and grimacing. The laughter rang louder through the arena. Gods, he hated them for that. Hated himself for making fun of her.

As the bell dinged for round one and he turned to defeat his human opponent, Kai’s hearts felt like two hard rocks in his chest.

Over the speakers, the words rang out.

“Let the game begin.”

Focus, Luna!

That one-pointed talent she’d developed when out fishing, when swimming in the deep holding her breath, the mindful awareness of “just this”—she had to have it now.

She watched him advance toward her in the battle-ready posture, knees slightly bent, biceps flexed, fists lightly clenched. More feline than sea creature right now. No tentacles yet, but she knew where they would break loose from his torso, knew how two of them were weaker. She wasn’t sure how much his injured tentacles could do, they had barely played a part during the matches she’d watched so far. He kept them close and seemed to defend his torso with them more than anything.

She bit into her lip and focused. Here at the edge of the ring the mud sat in a thin layer, and she could move well, but as they tackled each other they would slide deeper into the muck, toward the dungeon.

And when that trap door opened, which it inevitably would, she’d need to be able to hold her breath as well as that kraken could, while at the same time escaping his hold.

Kai was prowling around her, his movements fluid, still no sign of tentacles. The blue skin of his chest was smooth, glistening.

They circled; she darted forward to trip him, he blocked her, she ducked around the back of him and tried again, but damn it, failed as her foot slid sideways. Scooting away, the mud squelched between her toes. As she retreated, she felt something slither around her waist. Ah, a tentacle, the first of the match, and one of his primaries, big and powerful. It looped around her hipbones, then another snaked around her solar plexus.

Winded, she cursed herself for not predicting that move, too intent on tripping him up, not watching his torso. Now she employed a move Marrick had taught her. An elbow to his belly, hoping to hit one of those weaker tentacles. She felt him recoil briefly, felt his hold on her loosen. Luna pushed her arms up, like a diver, and wriggled through the space she’d managed to make. When she landed, the mud was up to her ankles already. Which meant that somehow, he’d already maneuvered them closer to the dungeon. And all those damn tentacles were well and truly out now.

Fuck the bastard.

He lunged; she ducked and dodged behind him, and before he could circle to face her, she’d jumped onto his back and clawed at his neck. Digging her thumbs into the soft flesh at his throat, she heard him gag.

Nice one.

Suddenly a tentacle coiled back and slapped her butt so hard she yelped—but still she clung on. Another hard slap, then it coiled around her thighs, pinning them together, while a second coiled around her ribs, crushing her breasts painfully, even though she had reinforcements in her bra. Ripping her off his back, Kai swung her around until she was clamped onto his chest, cradled against him in the grip of two strong very human arms.

She heard the crowd making aww and ahh noises and realized he was mimicking rocking her and cooing. Grinning his head off, he mouthed, “Isn’t she cute?” The crowd bellowed with laughter. Cocky bastard. Luna lifted her fist and punched him straight in the jaw.

She felt the crack, his head kicking back, a grunt of pain and surprise.

“Ha, didn’t expect that, fucker,” she gritted out.

Shoving at his chest with her fists now, she somersaulted out of his grip, falling on her hands and knees. A bare second later, he’d dropped down into the mud with her. She could smell his musky male scent, salty, pungent and sweet all in one, and oh fuck! it reminded her stupid brain of the make-out they’d had. She tried to push him away, but her fingers slid on the mud on his chest, and she lost her balance.

In a split second her arms were wound up in tentacles, forced behind her back. And then an arm came up, a hand tilting her chin up to meet his glittering dark eyes.

“My people will never meet with you,” he ground out. “Give up, Luna.”

Panting, she wheezed, “I’d rather die!” Jerking her jaw out of his grip, she lunged for his hand and sank her teeth into it.

He let out an expletive in Kraken, deep and guttural. His grip loosened and she somersaulted away again, landing with an unctuous splat in the thick mud.

And then he was on top of her, pinning her down.

Fuck, fuck, FUCK. Out the corner of her eye, she could see the dungeon getting closer.

Luna felt like she was wrestling to the death now, arms and leg and tentacles all writhing, contact points beyond acceptable. She punched and pummeled and gouged a finger in his eye. He grabbed her hand and twisted it.

She bit him again. He cursed and yanked her arm back. She kicked at him with the heel of her foot and heard him curse. She was sure she’d got him on a damaged tentacle. But he didn’t give—not a fucking inch.

The crowd was hysterical as she used every move in her repertoire, kicking wildly, squirming, wriggling to free herself.

Kai’s tentacles tightened, all of them around her now. She karate chopped at scar tissue and felt him flinch, recoil, cursing.

But still he managed to edge her toward that trap door, until they were teetering on the edge of the dungeon.

There was no breath for words, but inside her head she cursed him.

He looped her up as if she weighed nothing, slamming her against his chest, both of them panting hard, his face raw and covered in sweat, eyes fiery bright.

Like when he kissed you.

She spat in his face. “I fucking hate you.”

For the briefest of seconds his features contorted. “Feeling’s mutual,” he growled. “You—are—going—down.”

The sound of the drum roll, the squeak of the trap door pulleys, it was like she was heading to her execution.

Luna wheezed in a breath. Not enough.

Somehow, somehow, she had to take a bigger breath to sustain her down there, it was her only chance… But as they plunged into the icy water, Kai squeezed her chest so hard that what little remaining air she had was punched clean out of her lungs.

Kai saw horror dawning on her face as they went down, knowing he’d pulled a dirty trick on her. To steal the air from her lungs as he dragged her into the dungeon would give her less than a minute before she needed to take a breath.

But when she told him she hated him… hated him, with such venom, the rage he’d felt in that moment had made him want to hurt her back.

As they sank lower, lower, he knew she didn’t have the energy to free herself. It was all going on maintaining homeostasis.

He felt her heart’s staccato beat against his chest. Soon she would give the sign that she needed to be released, and he’d return her to the surface, defeated.

Only she didn’t.

She kept holding her breath, her eyes popping, veins standing out on her temples, staring at him. Locked into some crazy game of wills, they stayed bound together.

Thirty seconds, forty seconds, then fifty.

A minute. More. Much more.

Alarmed, he noted the rigidity of her body changing. She started to go limp, the fight in her eyes replaced by haziness, and then they suddenly rolled upward, exposing only whites.

Oh gods, she was about to lose consciousness.

The water would gush into her lungs.

It hit him with sudden clarity. Hell, she’d meant it. She would die rather than give up. All the anger and hurt drained from his body, and suddenly he knew he had to give her this chance. Whether she hated him or not.

He had to help her find out the truth.

He had to let her win.

It made no logical sense, but right now, the need to save her was stronger than the need to save himself.

Kai plastered his mouth over hers, pinched her nose, and breathed. His second lung had the capacity to hold five minutes of oxygen in his current half shift state, and if she used up all his, he could revert to water breathing though the tiny gills next to his ears.

He breathed slow and steady into her lungs, then gently pumped her chest with his closed fist. After a moment she came to. Her gaze widened as once again he dived onto her mouth and sealed it with his.

He breathed in, breathed out, breathed in.

Come back, Luna, come back, baby.

He held her gently now, cradling her in his tentacles as he sealed her mouth once more, and felt how she took his air, received it. Bubbles emerged from her nostrils as she breathed out.

They stayed like this, bound together, Kai sealing her mouth, breathing into her lungs, motioning for her to exhale. It was as if time stood still, down here in the deep.

Just him and Luna.

Four minutes had passed before he was confident she could rise to the surface. He made a sign with his hand.

“Go.” The words bubbled through the water, distorted, but whether she read his lips or heard him, he didn’t know.

“You’ve won,” he mouthed.

She stared at him blankly. Then comprehension dawned. There was no triumph in her eyes, only a strange hollowness. He forced himself to smile, to nod encouragement as he uncoiled his tentacles from her. He felt her body pulling away, her legs kicking feebly. She turned and looked back at him, still treading water as if not sure what to do.

“Go,” he repeated.

And with that, he gave her a push with one of his tentacles, until her own momentum took hold and she swam up toward the surface.