Chapter 17

Kai untangled his tentacles from Luna slowly. Her head rested limp and heavy against his chest, his cock still hard inside her. He held her gently as their breathing calmed in unison.

Yet again, their lovemaking—yeah, he dared to call it that—had blown him away, his shuddering release transporting him to a place beyond reason, beyond thought.

Slowly she brought her head up from his chest and looked at him, her eyes washed clean by her orgasm, her face soft and vulnerable. A look he’d chased since that first surprised encounter in the sea.

She placed a palm on one pec, then the other. “You have two heartbeats,” she whispered.

“That’s because I have two hearts.”

“I never knew…”

“Makes for feeling twice as much.”

They gazed at each other, and silently he begged for her face to stay gentle and open and vulnerable. But he knew her hard shell would soon return and cover up what they’d shared.

Sure enough, after another moment she pulled away, hopped off the rail and groped for her clothing, and he realized he was naked on her balcony. Not that there seemed to be anyone else around. He watched her dress, lithe and muscular. No wonder she gave him a run for his money in the ring. Her bouncy breasts and the swell of her butt were the only softness in all that rippled muscle. He’d never been this attracted to any creature, and she was even more alluring to him now, knowing how compatible they were when they fucked.

My Luna.

She’s not yours. Never will be.

Truth was, Luna was a free spirit. Tonight she’d simply needed the pain in her soul salved, he decided bitterly as she turned to him, her expression unreadable. “I guess you better leave.”

“That’s it?” he said hoarsely.

“Except to remind you I need you to talk to your elders.”

His lips twisted. “So what was this, just now… a bribe fuck?”

“One up on a hate fuck.” She dared to smirk. He grabbed the towel, and as he went to cover himself he saw her eyes rest briefly on his cock, still wet and fluffed up from their intimacy.

Kai stomped off down the corridor, silently cursing under his breath.

Yet again, she’d opened to him, like she was opening the door to her soul, only to slam it shut again. Playing him for the fool he was.

Except… it wasn’t just his insatiable thirst for her—hell, as if that wasn’t enough. No, he needed to solve this puzzle. If his clan had blown up ships after the Treaty—why? And what had happened to her baby brother? Had they… had they drowned him too? An innocent human infant?

The thought made bile rise up his throat. Surely his people would not… When they had lamented the loss of their own younglings just a few short years before, surely they would not cold-bloodedly murder a human baby.

And why had they left Luna floating in the vast ocean, a little kid, alone? Ostensibly to die out there.

He had to get to the bottom of this. He’d seen the picture in her locket now, and that only made him more determined.

He was about to leave the way he’d come, through the bathroom window into deep water, when to his surprise the door opened. Luna stood there, biting her lip. He froze, eyeing her warily, wondering what her game was now. She took a step closer, then another, until she was so close he could feel the brush of her breasts, her nipples hardening against his pecs.

Kai’s skin goose bumped.

“It wasn’t just a bribe,” she said, so quietly he barely caught it. “You reached something inside me no one ever has by letting me win today. And I—I don’t know how to handle that. But please… do what you can.” Her voice held a plaintive edge and without thinking, his arms came up to circle her.

“No, don’t.” She stepped back sharply.

He jolted like he’d been submerged in icy water.

“Touch is—is hard for me,” she said gruffly. “When you’ve had so little of it… apart from… sex… It’s difficult. I do sex, but I don’t do love.”

Both his hearts dropped simultaneously. “Ha, who said anything about love?” He shrugged, but inside he was dying a little. Yeah, he’d toyed with those words in his head. But he needed to accept she couldn’t reciprocate.

Didn’t stop the feelings though.

“So you will help me to speak to your leaders?”

“Yes.” He huffed a sigh. “Truth is, I need to know for myself. I’m not just doing this because you fucked me.”

“Thanks.” She was back by the door now, hugging her arms around herself, rubbing her fingers up and down them, as if for comfort.

He held the towel over his tackle. “So if you don’t mind, I’ll just get dressed.”

“Yeah, sure, no worries,” she said, and walked out.

Afterward, he found her in the kitchen, putting the whisky into the cupboard. He noticed that apart from a can of baked beans, it was bare. “I need a way to contact you,” he said.

She nodded. “I’ll give you my phone number. How do you make contact from down there?”

“We have a sonar system under water, but I can engage with a phone on land using a special app. We use it to correspond with Thedaka during the games.”

“Cool, I’ll go grab my cell.” She disappeared into another room, was gone an inordinately long time.

When she came back her face was pinched, worried.

“My phone’s disappeared. I can’t find it anywhere.”

“When did you last have it?”

“It was in my belongings. Maybe I left it in the water taxi coming home. Guess I’ll have to go back and check.”

He wrote a code. “When you find it, punch in this number. It will allow you to access the app. Keep it to yourself, it is strictly for kraken folks on land. That code relays messages to my personal number. Use that, and I’ll be able to message you back.”

He hesitated at the door. “But don’t expect an answer for a week at least. I will be put in isolation.”

Her eyes widened. “They’ll isolate you? Why?”

“To contemplate my folly in letting a human win,” he said with a grim smile.

For a moment emotion flared in her golden eyes. Was it sympathy? Regret? But then it was gone, and again she was hugging her arms tight, her knuckles white, her mouth a thin line in her pale face.

Ice maiden Luna was back.

Maybe he’d dreamed the way she broke apart in his arms.

Kai hauled in a deep breath as he turned to leave.

No, it hadn’t been a dream. It had been magical. For him at least.

He was going to hold onto the memory of tonight in the difficult days ahead.

Kai sat on his folded tentacles on the Rock of Penance, his head bowed low in front of the elders.

He felt Razad’s eyes boring into the top of his head. With him were Kai’s father and the other powerful kraken from professional roles in Thedaka—lawyers, doctors, academics—all with their gazes trained on him.

He set his jaw. He would not repent. This wasn’t just about his feelings for Luna. This was about uncovering secrets from the past. It was about acknowledging that krakens broke the Treaty and dishonored their people. And that they tore a beautiful brave woman’s family apart when she was an innocent child.

The idea that these gnarled and barnacled krakens could have done this disgusted him. His people. Whom he’d loved and trusted. How could they?

He lifted his chin, a muscle twitching in his jaw as he awaited their questioning.

“What happened, boy?” Razad said quietly, too quietly.

“You saw what happened, sir. You have cameras down in the dungeon.”

“We saw that you saved the human. Laid your mouth on hers, gave her your air, then helped her to the surface.”

“I had reasons, sir; ones I will divulge to the assembled elders if you’ll permit me.”

Razad’s face darkened into a scowl. “We already know all the sordid details.”

“W-what?”

“You lay with this human. Succumbed to her insidious charms.”

Kai stared at his grandfather’s livid face. Hell, could they tell from his actions in the ring that he’d slept with Luna? No way. They were making assumptions; he needed to bluff his way through this.

“There are things I learned from her that have brought the past into question, sir.”

“Oh yes.” Razad laughed bitterly, slamming his staff onto the cave floor. “You sure learned things. Things that clouded your judgment.”

“I disagree, sir.”

“Do you indeed? Then we will have to provide you with the evidence.”

Razad gestured to another elder, who brought forward a computer. He laid it on the rock and turned it to face Kai.

Holy. Fuck. Kai felt his face turning vivid blue. Picture after picture scrolled over the screen; of him sprawled on that fucking dragon head bead, just a sheet over his privates, his scarred tentacles clearly visible.

He felt like throwing up.

“She played you, you na?ve young fool. You let your cock rule your head. And now she’s sold these shots to humans to prove kraken are a species with low morals and weak, damaged bodies.”

“It wasn’t… I…” The words felt like they were burning his throat. He cast a look around the assembled male kraken. Heads bowed, none of them looking at him. But worst of all was his father’s face, tight and pale. So deeply disappointed in his only son.

Shame washed over Kai.

Oh, gods of the deep, He knew this feeling. Of never measuring up, of failing. His childhood had been all about that. His whole life he’d fought to become strong, to be a kraken who could fight… and win. And he’d been on the verge of success. His people had trusted him to bring the games out of the mire, and instead he’d landed them in a ton more shit.

He’d blown it spectacularly.

But worse, worse even than all that was the bitter realization that Luna had deceived him. She’d reeled him in like a prize fish on the end of her line. Of course she was a spy. Why else would she have taken those photos? And displayed them to the world, with his maimed tentacles the star of the fucking show. Kai ground his teeth together until it felt like his jaw would break. That whole sob story of her childhood had been a lie, every last word of it. Razad was right, his cock had ruled his head. And worse, fool that he was, he’d thought it was his heart.

She was dead to him now.

“You will spend a week in the Cave of Contrition,” Razad growled. “In darkness. Contemplating how your behavior has laid kraken kind open to human manipulation. And you will do penance for a year thereafter. You will work on the outskirts of Thedaka to clean up the plastic rubbish their low-life species are responsible for dumping.”

Kai said nothing, He knew what came next. He waited, head bowed, body tensed for the first blow. The staff fell on his shoulders again and again. But he did not flinch, not once. He took his punishment in silence.

With every strike, he vowed that one day he would make it up to his people.

And as for her… Luna fucking Storm.

He would take his two hearts—the ones that yearned to love and be loved—and he’d turn them into cold hard stone.

Because if she could hate enough to do this to him, then so could he.