Page 20 of The Baker and the Kraken

I’m awake. Come now.

Please.

Calder broke into a jog and ran the rest of the way.

Adam buzzed him up, and Calder climbed the stairs two at a time. The door was open when he got there, and Adam ushered him in. Calder couldn’t quite figure out the expression on his face, but he could see the tension in every line of Adam’s body. He looked terrible, circles under his puffy eyes, not enough color in his face, and hair a bird’s nest like he’d been running his fingers constantly through it.

And then Adam grabbed something off the little hall table and whacked him with it. Calder deserved it, so he didn’t move.

Adam’s cheeks went crimson. “Oh, shit, sorry. These are for you. Shit.”

Calder took the… flowers?

They were, unmistakably, flowers. It was a mixed bouquet of what looked like lilies, daisies, fronds of some sort, and tiny purple flowers he didn’t know the name of. They looked slightly bedraggled from being smacked against him, but he finally realized that Adam hadn’t been trying to hit him. He’d been trying to hand Calder flowers.

“What are these?” he asked a bit blankly, feeling like he was woefully behind on what was happening right now.

Adam cleared his throat, looking everywhere but at Calder.

“I, uh, wanted to apologize, and I know it’s a cliché, but it seemed better than chocolates or a stuffed animal or something, and I really didn’t mean to hit you with them, I just wanted you to know that I’m so sorry, and I didn’t mean to be such a terrible person, and I swear if you give me another chance, I’ll do better, but I totally understand if you don’t want to give me another chance, I just wanted to make sure that you knew I was sorry!”

Adam’s chest was heaving by the end of this speech, which was no wonder given that Calder hadn’t seen him take a breath once as all his words tangled together.

Calder had no idea what was going on, but it seemed pretty clear that Adam wasn’t trying to break up with him.

“Sweetheart,” Calder said, and Adam flinched, making Calder change his mind practically mid-word. “Come here.”

Cautiously, Adam approached, and Calder carefully pulled him into his arms and wrapped him up in a hug. Adam buried his face in the crook between Calder’s neck and shoulder and clutched at him.

Calder held him for a long moment, relishing in the feel of his mate tucked up against him, feeling him calm the longer they stood there.

Finally, Calder drew back slightly, though he didn’t let Adam go completely.

“You’re definitely not a terrible person,” Calder said firmly. “What’s this all about?”

Adam’s gaze slipped away from his, but then he seemed to firm his resolve and raised his eyes again. He swallowed visibly.

“I didn’t realize how prejudiced I was against shifters. Simon set me straight. I thought I was being reasonable after what happened to my family. But of course it’s asinine to act like all shifters are to blame for two bad things that happened.”

Frowning, Calder stroked Adam’s back with the hand that wasn’t holding the flowers. He wished desperately he could use his arms and tentacles and have enough limbs to hold Adam exactly the way he wanted, but it seemed a little early for that. Something had hurt his pretty mate. Calder was entirely prepared to drag that something to the depths of the ocean and destroy it utterly.

First things first.

“Is that why you don’t want to bond?” Calder asked gently.

Adam nodded. Then his brow furrowed. “I always thought so. I mean—” He made a frustrated sound. “You know how a witch can’t bond with a witch?”

Calder nodded. “Or with a human. You need a shifter.”

Adam’s voice was raw. “My mom and dad were both witches.”

“No bond,” Calder theorized.

Adam blew out a breath, nodding once more. “And when I was eight, my mom fell in love with a shifter. She wanted me to go live with them overseas, but I didn’t want to leave my dad or my friends, and so she just… left.”

Calder could hear the underlying childish hurt, the wound that had never quite healed.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Calder said, even as he decided “screw it” and used a tentacle to place the flowers on the hall table so that he could use both arms properly to pull Adam back into a hug.