Page 35 of Salt and Knot

“It’s easier to be friends with other species. A wolf. A dragon. A bear.”

“Like a supernatural bachelor’s club.” She shakes her head disbelievingly. “Must be tricky finding locations suitable for everyone.”

My mouth tugs into a reassuring smile. “We meet as humans. Our shifted selves have never met, and krakens are solitary. It’s been lonely centuries for him, on his own.” I swallow. “It was a dark, dark place. For a long time.”

“Your kraken side was depressed because he didn’t have any friends,” she deadpans.

My heart sinks, as my kraken senses that she’s not ready to be with him yet, and breaks a little.

“Because he was waiting for you.”

Chapter 17

Isla

This was the thing he was holding back. His eyes are clear blue again. Not happy, but honest.

I push away from him again, confusion swirling around me. I need space to think, and with Dylan’s knot causing pleasure to keep pulsing through me, I have no idea what’s me, and what’s biology. “Let me go,” I whisper, wrenching again. There’s a bolt of pain from my pussy as I manage to drag out an inch.

Dylan rumbles dissent, but he releases my arms. Painful seconds later, my body screaming at me that this is wrong, I’ve worked myself off his cock, and I’m panting. I swim to the edge of the jacuzzi, and pull myself out to sit on the side, wrapping Dylan’s shirt around my shoulders to cover myself.

His scent is still a comfort, even as I’m rocked by his revelation. But my head is clearer.

“He, I…” Dylan takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” His expression is devastated as he meets my gaze, and it’s as though the distance I’ve put between us pulses. The water itself trying to bring us back together.

“You didn’t.” My face heats, because I think we both know that wasn’t what happened.

“I scared you,” he replies, rough and low. He sounds racked with guilt.

I nod. “I was frightened, but only really when you dragged me underwater.”

“I’m so sorry.” He reaches for me, but stops, and the hurt of the distance I’ve put between us shoots through me as I see it on his face. “Let me show you that I can be better than that.”

I bite my lip, unsure. I should probably run a million miles from here, but the sense that this man is who I’m meant to be with is impossible to shake. Even the small space I’ve opened between us feels wrong. And I’m so exhausted of being alone.

“What do you mean?” I ask cautiously.

“I can half shift. Not my full kraken form,” he hastens to add as my alarm must show on my face. “I can’t fit in this pool fully shifted.” Dylan smiles wryly. “And besides, he doesn’t like the jacuzzi. I think he thinks it’s cramped, and too hot.”

A vision of the endless ocean and the cool salty water fills my mind. “He prefers the sea.”

“Yes.” Dylan nods. “But you can see me, and I promise I’ll be under control this time. You can stay safe on dry land if you prefer.”

“Or…” I like to know all my options.

The corner of his mouth hooks up. “Tentacles can feel good. Very good.”

And what did Dylan say? He’s more himself, more honest in his kraken form. As a human, he was saying that we should slow this down, and wait until I’m ready.

Perhaps if his kraken side wanted to bond me immediately… Would Dylan be more liable to being tempted into stepping over his self-imposed honourable line if he was half-shifted?

Do I still want that?

This is all so fast. The kraken at the beach, Dylan, my heat. But any doubts I might have are tiny compared to how alone I’ve been all my life, and how right it feels with Dylan.

And the thing I can’t deny is that I loved those tentacles all over my body.

“Show me.”