Hands grabbing me. Hitting me. Snarls. Jeers. Taunts. Sharp pain in my side as a chain is wrapped around me.
Make it stop.
I heave for air. They’re screaming, louder and louder. I’m going to die. And my mate—I need to protect my mate.
Make it stop.
“Silence,” I roar, breathing hard. Think.Think.I bare my teeth and slash my tentacles across the water. Krakens jump out of the way. I want to hit skin—needto see blood.
“You told me to pick a bride, so I pick this one.” I motion to my mate, whose burnt scent permeates the air. My fury multiples tenfold.
When Mailien barks “It’s hideous,” I lose it.
No rational thought takes hold. The ugly beast inside me rears its head. The hatred and pain curdles, boiling until it breaks out of my skin. Years of hate, a lifetime of cowering, the grating silence—it all comes out.
The cage is broken. Only blood will settle the beast.
I’m bigger. Faster. Stronger. Mailien’s head is ripped clean from his shoulders before he can blink.
A sentry lunges for me, staff raised, and I dodge it easily, cracking his body beneath my tentacles.
The world is tinged red. Blue bleeds from the krakens onto the shore. I can’t hear their screams, can’t see the disdain written across their faces.
More.
They all need to die for what they’ve done.
I prowl forward, claws poised to tear into skin. Only the softest voice coming from behind me stops me in my tracks.
“Ordus.”
Cindi.
The beast halts long enough for a single thought to break through: if I kill my people, more will come.
They’ll circle the island so we’re trapped until we’ve finished our food reserves. Once I’m weak from starvation, they’ll attack. I won’t risk Cindi’s safety by attempting to swim for the mainland. I can’t kill them.
“You want me to be a monster? Then I am your monster,” I snarl, chest rising and falling, looking every kraken in theeyes. Some bow their heads in fear while others raise them in challenge. “Does anyone else dare insult my mate?”
Lazell glares at me in mortification, blue splatter on his striped skin. “Your mate? Have you gone mad? The Waste has gotten to you.”
The rest of the Council are stiff in their spots, glancing between me and Lazell. They’ll flee the first chance they get. The krakens before me are no true warriors. Some may have fought alongside my brother and sister, but they’ve weakened since then. I may not be afflicted by Waste, but I have had no issue with hunger or sickness.
Still, they’ll be hard to take as a group. Too many for me to ensure Cindi remains protected, even with Vasz’s assistance.
I wrap a tentacle around her, needing to know she’s safe. “I marry her, or I marry no one.”
“Even if mates exist, the Goddess would not curse a land creature to be your mate.” Lazell scoffs, and my limbs flex. One day, his hearts will stop beating beneath my hands.
“I recognize my own mate,” I defend. Her scent may not call to me as the tomes described a mate would, but I feel her in my chest. A pull. A thread connects me to her, even though our scriptures only describe matings between krakens, never a human.
“Please,” Lazell sneers. Krakens cast nervous glances between us. I’m sure they’re wondering if they’re burying another friend today. “You are an abomination who calls himself a kraken. You don’t recognize your own reflection, yet you think you’d recognize yourmate?” A snarl rips from my throat. He ignores it. “Since you are incapable of logic, let me put it in simple terms for you. The Witch would have never forced a human to suffer the fate of marrying the very kind that killed her offspring. You have one chance. Do notwasteit on pests.”
My nostrils flare. I have no rebuttal. Other than my grandmother, a mating of any kind between a kraken and human is unheard of. There is nothing for me to go off.
“Watch how you speak of your future queen. It is an affront to the Goddess to question her will. Is that what you intend to do? Offend Edea?”
“The Goddess has no domain over humans,Your Majesty.”He says my title in mockery.
