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Another two-legged had been here before and lived. My tentacles informed me that the rock wasn’t that rough. She would probably be fine.
But probably wasn’t good enough.
Not where the ocean was concerned—nor where my mate was.
I was pinned to the spot by a knifelike need to protect her. Cayoni had been a kraken, and thus had some agency beneath the water, but being mated with a human down here?
I would never know a good night’s sleep again.
And then thoughts of Cayoni ambushed me and I felt a wave of sorrow over everything that I’d missed with her, and it reverberated off of this, my current betrayal and?—
“Cepharius? Are you all right?”
Elle’s voice on the ’qa was timid, and I glanced up to where she’d paused, slightly looking back and at the ground, probably trying not to blind me.
“No. I am concerned. Tell your helper to release as much slack on your cable as he can to me.”
“Give me a second,” she said, then followed up with, “He says he will.”
I started to pull her cable forward quickly, unspooling it from her habitat. It was hard work, the cable was almost as thick as a palm-span, and I wanted to do it quickly so that she could carry on with her mission—I wasn’t entirely sure what it was yet, but I knew that it was important to her. Clouds of silt burst up from my movement, and I kept going until I heard Elle give a panicked, “Stop!”
I did as I was told, then physically carried the massive pile of looped cable to the rock’s far side, where it could unspool much more safely.
I didn’t realize until then though, as the silt settled down, that she’d come back to watch me.
I threw up one of my arms, to block my large black eyes—darting into the shadows would’ve just made it seem like I was hiding something.
“Sorry!” she said, quickly looking away—which made it easier for me to look at her.
The pale light she carried within her illuminated her face inside her helmet. It made her seem like a pearl trapped inside a shell, and I was filled with urges that the physicality of pulling her cable forward hadn’t helped.
“I just need you to be safe,” I said. I was breathing hard and my thoughts felt rough.
She gave a nervous laugh. “I want that, too.”
Then confusing concepts burbled inside of her mind, and I dearly wished for clarity.
“What do you think of me?” I asked her before I could stop myself.
She snapped back to looking at me. Whatever her answer was instantly made her panic further, and I pulled my mind away from hers rather than find out things I didn’t want to know.
But it was a good question.
I braced myself. If she found me horrific, better to know now than later.
I threw an arm up in front of my face to block the beams from her lights, as they landed at the height of my chest, then scanned higher as she looked up slowly.
And then all of her thoughts were a confusing jumble of things I didn’t understand. “Oh my God—I’m sorry, you’re—” she started, and then her voice and thoughts both faded.
The only thing that came through on the ’qa clearly was shame.
Same as when she’d thought of that other human man in the habitat earlier.
Why?
I lowered my arm slowly, as my eyes grew used to the brightness, letting her take all of me in. My large black eyes were made to see things in almost utter dark, and while my mouth was somewhat like hers, and my lips capable of smiling, I had a solid beak of bone instead of teeth inside it, and beneath that were the grasping line of tentacles that flowed down from my chin, which helped me hold living prey still to eat. “I’m...?” I pressed her, curious what she would answer.
“Pretty,” she offered, and I saw her cheeks grow darker.
