“Dante is to remain under my care and protection. I can continue the duties of my title, and that is final. If you wish to harm him, then it will start a war that I do not think you are ready for.”
It was odd that my body was so ready to protect a mate I had just met. My tentacles had curled around my arms, and some up and over my shoulders. I would strangle and pulverize anyone who laid a finger on Dante. No matter who they were. Be they a high-ranking lord in Brasil, or not.
“You have only served four hundred years of your thousand-year contract, Xexon. You know if you break the curse, your soul will be ours to filet alive for the next six hundred years.” Lord Aephrim cackled. “The High King will see this as an act of aggression, regardless of your reasoning. You best prepareyourself and be present when he makes his judgment. Or it will only become worse for you.”
Heart tightly knotted, my anger held at bay by my clenched jaw, I steeled my resolve and canceled the call by chucking the shell at the cavern wall. It shattered, the milky substance dripping down the side.
Shoulders heavy, I returned to the main cavern, only to be greeted with the most surprising sight. There, amidst the tranquil waters of my bathing pool, sat Dante, his bare feet making circles under the water. He was perched on the edge, his slacks rolled up to stay dry.
I stood there for a moment, just watching his back as it moved with each breath. He was a miracle, one I never thought I’d receive in this lifetime.
Making sure he heard me approach, I joined Dante at the pool; the water rippling softly as I slid several of my tentacles into its depths. Even as he didn’t know what we were to one another, Dante had decided to remain behind, and not escape through the sea. It shouldn’t mean anything more than he was unsure of how to survive on his own, but I couldn’t help the giddiness that filled my chest.
As the gentle current of the pool swirled around us, I looked at him from the corner of my eye. “Why did you stay? You could have escaped while I was gone.”
Dante looked up from the water, meeting my gaze with his own, steady and resolved. “There is this pull I feel, Xexon. Something I can’t explain. I know you feel the same thing, and even though I don’t know what it is, I know it means I am safe with you. You would not harm me.”
Swelling pride puffed out my chest before I could stop it and a ridiculous grin cracked my lips apart. “Of course. I will always protect you. It does not matter from who, or if you stay or leave once more for the mainland. I will always watch over you.”
There was a soft crease in his brow now as my words settled over him. Was I coming on too strong? Humans didn’t have the connection with their lovers like we did with mates. It might be too strange for him.
“Can I ask what you really are?” Dante shifted his body, looking away, but his hand landed on the rock edge near one of my tentacles.
The urge to move it just a little, to feel his warmth, it was almost too great to fight. I swallowed these heated thoughts and cleared my throat. “What am I? It’s hard to explain. I am a shifter, of sorts. I know that for sure. Yet I have not known of another water-dwelling creature being born of shifters. They are usually land or air animals. I suppose it may be a mutation in my ancestry. I am also the official protector of Brasil, as you already know.”
Dante nodded and kicked his feet around in the water, his ankle brushing one of the tips of my tentacles. I shuddered, the brief contact so euphoric I almost caved right then. Did he know just a mere brush of his body against mine would have me going feral? My alpha designation awoke long ago, when I was first attacked by a fisherman’s boat as a child. Yet here, now, with my mate, the need to seal the bond and bind us as one blurred the edges of my vision and rippled across my skin.
I couldn’t let him go, ever. No matter what Lord Aephrim or the others wanted from me.
The five kingdoms would not welcome Dante, and I did not need empty promises. If I were to bring him within a league of the main gates, they’d have him drowned. But I had duties I must uphold. If I did not go to Brasil now, when a ship has passed into their territory, I would forfeit my title and my life.
Yet Dante’s innocent features and the way his brow pressed together with worry as he peered up at me had my chest tightening. An odd sensation, one that I never knew was possiblefor me to feel. That’s how I knew he was my mate. Only a true mate could make me this emotional or indecisive.
If I brought Dante with me, he’d die. If I went alone, he’d still probably die with no way of leaving the cavern. Especially with the certainty that the leaders wouldn’t let me leave so quickly. I’d defied orders and broken my contract by letting him live. They’d probably kill me, or at least cut off a few of my arms to make sure I understood my place. But I didn’t want to leave Dante. He was mine, even if he didn’t know it yet. There was no way I was going to leave him here all alone. Without a guardian or a way home.
“Xexon?” Dante leaned forward, his legs still swirling within the small pool as he tried to catch my eye.
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong?” Satisfied he’d gotten my attention, Dante returned to his normal position, but tilted his head as he waited for an answer.
“It’s nothing to worry yourself about.” I tried to give him a smile of reassurance, but when his brow then dipped down in a furrow, I knew that wouldn’t happen. This human from above was a gift I did not deserve. He cared for a creature that killed his crewmates and pulled him down to the depths of the sea with no way home.
How was it he had not tried to escape or kill me yet? It would only be right that he did that. As a human, he could not feel the mate bond as I did. Although I was a creature far different than a shifter, I still had the same characteristics when it came to mating.
Chapter 3
Dante
Even though Xexon’s body was in the frigid sea water, his tentacles left heat behind as they moved around my legs, curling up and around my hips. Though he was in a deep slumber, his body still craved mine, his human hand joining his tentacles by grabbing a hold of my side and pulling me in close.
I had to suck in a breath to not wake him as need exploded in my groin, awakening my cock. Eyes tightly closed, I did whatever I could to pretend that it wasn’t Xexon holding me close, that it was some random creature or even an awkward blanket that was wrapped around every curve of my body.
In his slumber, Xexon moved against me, as though every other second he needed to make sure I was still there. His little suckers popped across my flesh on each exhale and through the heated need, I pressed my lips to not laugh at the act.
His hair truly was like silk. It slipped through my rough fingers like the finest spun fabric as it fell back down to the cavern floor. I smiled up at his sleeping form, knowing that in this moment, I didn’t want to be anywhere else.
It would be difficult to believe anything other than the truth. Xexon still had yet to tell me why he was drawn to me, to protect me, but I knew. How could I not? This odd feeling that I had never felt before. This pull that brought us together. It could only mean one thing, especially for a creature like Xexon. We were mates.