Page 49 of Salt and Knot

But I’m wrong. There is something special here. An intricate pattern of stones in the sand is revealed as he circles us around. And then he stills, and I’m really running out of air.

I trust him, but the panic is just at the edge of my vision as he lowers me away from his eyes. If this is how I die, I guess so be it, I think as he drifts me down, and down, until his other tentacles surround me, a small forest of tree trunk-thick limbs. Then he’s pulling me up, through his arms, shadowing me, and beneath the skirt of his tentacles. I can’t see anything between the darkness and my eyes being unfamiliar with what I’m looking at.

I tilt my head to expose my neck. Inviting. I close my eyes, my lungs screaming from lack of air, but I’m at peace. This is my mate, and he knows what he’s doing.

There’s a sharp pinch on the side of my neck, just like Dylan’s human bite, and then I’m flooded with bliss.

And water. But instead of drowning me as it did before, it’s lifegiving. The same oxygen is extracted from the water, and I find I can breathe, the water flowing through me. All the pressure and discomfort have gone, and it’s heady.

Dylan bites me harder, and pure arousal comes with it, pulsing into me. My pussy heats again, and I know I’m leaking slick into the water. I’m still surrounded by my kraken mate on all sides. In the dark, shadowed by his body, held in place by his tentacles tight around me. A treasured female, his beloved mate.

The companion he wanted. The bite continues to strengthen our connection, and flashes of the kraken’s experiences play in my mind. Huge wooden ships. Other sea monsters. Kraken, merfolk, and whales. Every beautiful and awe-inspiring vision he’s seen, as though he was storing them up just for me. To show me, share with me.

And the pleasure. I’m tingling all over.

I moan, but no sound comes out, my throat made for noises in air. But something must transmit through the water, because that deep, resonant call I heard the first day I met Dylan pulses around me.

The kraken singing to his mate. To me.

And then he releases me from his bite, and it’s done. Euphoria fills me as he shifts and in a moment he’s pulled me up, out of the darkness. The water is sweet and light like air now, and when I open my eyes, it’s as comfortable and I’m looking into one intense eye of my kraken mate, and his tentacles are teasing at my breasts again. I can’t help it. I throw my arms around him. I guess I’m hugging his nose, and this is a stupid, human response, but I’m so incredibly happy.

And I can feel it in him too. See it, as well. He’s the turquoise of the shallow summer ocean, pure and clean. Pulsing with happiness and content. My breasts push against his cool skin, and it’s only then that I realise I’m hot again.

I’m in heat. It makes sense. I’ve just been claimed and bitten by my mate. I need him. Suddenly desperate and craving this connection—though mercifully not in the pain I had during my first heat—I try to reach for one of his tentacles and get it on me.

Dylan gazes at me as I press the suckers of the tentacle wrapped around my waist up and stroke my breast to try to show him. Then he gets it.

Instantly, there’s a touch to my inner thigh.

I open for him. Willing. Eager. And this time when he runs the tip of a tentacle through my slick and over my clit, I’m ready. I know what to expect, and I’m fully in the magic of being able to breathe underwater, with this wonderful monster loving me. He’s as attentive as before, but with the extra intensity of looking me in the eyes as his tentacle—I know without checking this is his horny tentacle—slowly penetrates me.

“Yes,” I try to say. I’ve no idea if it works, but he swells inside me, triggering rolls of bliss. A sucker latches onto my clit, and the tentacle that holds me at the waist slips and retightens at my breasts. The pleasure comes from everywhere as he fucks me in pulses—bigger then smaller, focused right at my entrance where I’m most sensitive. And my clit. I’d scream if I could as an orgasm crashes into me, seeming to originate with that tentacle that will get me pregnant.

I expect it to recede, but instead, it only gets stronger. I’m shaking. Totally within his control, but utterly cherished.

I’m overwhelmed as I come in wave after wave that flows from my pussy right to my toes, and up to my scalp.

And then a tentacle teases over my bottom cheeks. I can’t stop coming to say that I’ve never done that before, or I’m unsure. With slow deliberation, he slips downwards, between my cheeks, and touches at my back entrance.

I grip onto him as best I can, and his skin changes beneath my hands, going textured rather than smooth, as though he knows I need to be able to clutch at him.

He pushes inside, the outpouring of slick from my pussy easing the way. And as I let him enter me there as well, the sensation doubles. I’m still shuddering as I come, but it’s heightened. Sweeter and sharper than before, like salt added to a sugary dish.

It’s through my whole body, like every inch of my skin is as sensitive as my clit. He has me completely, in every way.

And then I feel it. He’s ejaculating inside me. He fills me up, providing extra pressure that gives my pussy even more to hold onto as it spasms.

“Give it to me,” I mouth. There’s so much it seeps out, the milky white clouding the water around my hips.

The pleasure goes on and on, a swelling tide that drags me with it. The will and unique capabilities of my mate in his monster form. And I understand fully, as it gradually ebbs away, leaving my pussy and my heart filled with love and satisfaction, that this is what he wanted. What he needed, was me and him, together.

Bonded.

A vision of us swimming underwater hits me. A dream maybe, or what Dylan is thinking through our newly formed mate bond. I can see myself. Naked, and swimming more elegantly than I usually do. My whole body is undulating as if I’m a fish rather than a human. I turn and look up, my hair flowing around my face, and colourful fish darting away behind me. We’re exploring.

I’m so grateful, as I return to reality, where I’m held by this creature with centuries of knowledge who somehow wants me. I’m so lucky to have a guide for underwater exploration who’s as strong and deadly as he is.

To be his mate.