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Any other night, I might have considered it. They had threatened my mate, tainted my nest, destroyed months of work. Now, other predators would smell the blood and come. We weren’t safe.
I pushed up, lifting one hand from the ground to sniff the air. There was another lake nearby, somewhere to the southeast. Going by land would take time. It would be faster to swim, but the rivers all ran underwater, and my mate didn’t have gills. We needed to move, and quickly. That left me with a difficult decision.
I scrambled back down the rock and held my hand out to Axel, hoping he would understand that I wished to communicate with him. While I could attempt speech, the mechanics were exhausting. This way was easier, more effective, and I found touching his mind to be pleasant.
Axel inhaled sharply and put his hand in mine. “Okay.”
I lifted his hand to the glowing lure dangling from my head. The connection was stronger this time, more comfortable, and he opened his mind to me more willingly. I slithered into the surface of it, careful not to dive too deep, sending images of diving into the water, of offering him my breath, of building a new nest and caring for him, feeding him. Building him fires.
When I pulled back, I cocked my head in question, waiting for some sign that he’d understood.
The thick knot in his throat bobbed. “I know you don’t feel safe here now, Ghost, and I don’t blame you, but I can’t stay out here with you forever. I need to go home.”
“Axel is home,” I managed.
He sighed and looked down at the dirt. “I don’t know how to make you understand. I’m not meant to be out here.”
I snorted. Did he think I was incapable of protecting him?Maybe my nest wasn’t good enough, I thought, looking around.The next one will be better. I’ll build a grand nest, one with walls like he had before. Then he’ll stay with me.
“Brace,” I advised.
Axel’s eyes widened as I let the tentacles running along my ribcage unfurl and wrap tightly around him. He gasped as Ipulled him tight against my body, but he didn’t pull away, although he stiffened when we dove into the water. I knew it was cold, knew that his protection against the cold was limited and that my body barely warmed him. My mate needed new body coverings, which I would have to see to quickly.
The one he’d fashioned for himself at my former nest, however, was annoyingly bulky and in the way. It slowed our progress enough that I worried we would be down there too long. With a bubbling snarl, I sliced through the crinkly fabric and yanked it away. That was better. Now, there was nothing between me and the soft skin of my mate. So much better.
I paused in the depths to offer a shared breath to my mate, and this time, he didn’t hesitate, taking it willingly. After a few breaths, he handed it back to me. Strong arms wrapped tight around my shoulders. My mate was holding onto me willingly. Unafraid! The realization made warmth bloom deep in my belly, but I tried not to focus on it. After all, we needed to get out of the water before his body cooled too much.
I dove, navigating the darkened waterways and low light with ease. My lure blinked and glowed, lighting narrow passages and small tributaries. Too small. I kicked my way along the submerged river, again offering a breath to my mate, which he took with ease. His dark hair floated in the water, dancing like anemone in the current. I had the strangest urge to paw at it and play with it.
When we finally emerged, it was in a small cove surrounded by trees the color of fire. My mate immediately started shivering, which meant I had to move fast. I swam to shore and released him long enough to dig a small pit, filling it with twigs and dry leaves. There were rocks near the shore that were good for starting fires, though it took me a few tries to get enough sparks to catch. I dragged several fallen branches closer and widened the pit, quickly building up the fire.
Axel moved closer to the fire, curling up tight, teeth chattering.The fire isn’t enough, I realized.He needs something to cover him.
I glanced around, but there was nothing for miles. No sign of human settlements to steal body coverings from. Silently, I scrambled up a large tree, perched in the high boughs to look out over the starry sky. There. A short distance away. A small clearing with a cabin. There was no smoke coming from the building, and no lights. Maybe it was empty.
“Stay here,” I urged Axel from above. “Back soon.”
Then I flung myself from the branches, catching another on the way down, and another, propelling myself through the forest as quickly as I could.
I made it to the small clearing and crept up to the edge of the house, peering in through the glass. It was covered in dust, and there were spiderwebs everywhere inside. No sign anyone had been living there for some time. Perfect.
The glass was easy enough to break, and with my hardened exoskeleton, I didn’t have to worry about cutting myself. I lifted myself through the broken window and into a simple human-style dwelling with two rooms. A display of canned things humans liked to eat sat to one side, but I left it alone, making a mental note that it was there just in case my mate asked for human food. Instead, I snatched a blanket from the bed, sending up a cloud of dust, and slid back outside, hurrying back to my mate.
He was curled up into a tight ball next to the fire when I arrived, shivering violently. It hurt to see him in such a state, enough that I let out a small whine as I wrapped the blanket tightly around him. Though I knew my body didn’t generate heat like his, I curled myself around him protectively just the same. At least this way, he would be protected from predators through the night. He’d be safe.
I nuzzled up against him, wrapping my tentacles tightly around him until he stopped shivering and his breathing evened out, and then I stayed there through the night, watching the trees.
I woke up witha hard-on and a tentacle wrapped around my dick. At first, I wasn’t sure what was happening or where I was. I thought maybe I was still asleep until I blinked and nothing changed. I was still lying on the rocky ground with a stiff neck and an even stiffer cock. The tentacle wrapped tightly around the base of it didnothelp.
A tentacle belonging to a monster.
An irqed…
Fuck. That should have been an instant boner-killer. The irqed were famous for one thing and one thing only: their violent natures. But the one spooning me didn’t seem violent, at least not at that moment. If anything, he was kind of cute. He was curled around me, making small snarly breath sounds that might’ve been snoring. At least, I hoped it was. If he were asleep, maybe I could somehow gracefully untangle myself from this awkward mess.
But first, I had to figure out how to detach the tentacle currently trying to strangle my dick.
I shifted under the itchy blanket, thinking maybe if I woke him up just enough, the tentacle would unwrap itself and go back to…wherever it was from. He seemed to have them everywhere. I distinctly recalled two lines of them on his torso, though they seemed retractable, and he had them on his wrists as well. Maybe it was because my lower brain was doing all my thinking for me, but it made me wonder just where else he might have tentacles.
