Page 22

After my conversation with Holly and Kenna, I did some research into the way mating and mating bonds work. If the articles I read and videos I watched are any indication, it can be a little… intense. There’s not a lot out there on krakens—they seem pretty rare in the whole paranormal landscape—but for other species, it sounds like something that just reaches out and smacks them in the face. No warning. No preventing or getting around it. Just an instinctual draw to another person or being.

Sounds kind of miserable, to be honest. What if your mate turns out to be a person who’s rude to restaurant servers, or who hates all the TV shows and movies you love? What if they end up being a huge bore, or have completely different life goals and ideologies?

Or is someone with a massively messy past and trust issues up to her ears?

“All of this sounds like a passion of yours,” I say when we stop by a tidal pool display that’s open to touch and explore. I crouch down and skim my hand over the water before glancing back up at him.

Elias is looking at me with a soft smile on his face, watching as I reach into the pool and run my fingers along a couple of sea stars.

“It is,” he says. “I thought this might be a nice way to share a little more about myself.”

Peeking out from a small rock cove in the pool, a long, red tentacle reaches out to meet my searching fingers. An octopus. Too curious to resist, I reach out and give it a gentle stroke. The bumpy, rubbery skin is strange under my fingers, but not unpleasant.

“Oh really?” I ask, glancing over my shoulder at him. “And you didn’t just bring me here to get me comfortable with the idea of touching sea creature skin?”

The off-color joke slips out before I can stop it, and seems to surprise Elias as much as it surprises me.

His eyes widen, darting down to where my hand’s still sunken into the tide pool, stroking the octopus. “That’s not—gods, I didn’t mean for—”

He stops talking when I break out in giggles, snapping my dry hand over my mouth to stifle the sound.

“S-sorry,” I stutter. “I couldn’t resist.”

His face is slack with surprise for a few moments, but when he finally smiles back at me, it’s not just with humor.

No, there’s a pulse of darker amusement there as well. A bit of that pirate’s roguish promise, a sliver of undeniable hunger. Strangely, it doesn’t frighten me in the slightest.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Still, he’s all innocence as he replies. “And what do you think? How does that skin feel beneath your fingertips, Nora?”

My palms twitch, fingers curling a little as I draw my hand back out of the water. “It’s… alright, I guess.”

He laughs softly, and I’m suddenly flushed again at the reminder of who exactly I’m on a date with. Is this what Elias would feel like when he shifted? How would that even work? The idea of going to bed with an octopus isn’t exactly appealing, but a human man with some extra appendages that he could use to…

Elias’s smirk only deepens, like he can follow the path my mind’s going down, and I quickly straighten and dry my hands with a paper towel from the nearby dispenser.

“What’s next?” I ask, a little more breathlessly than I intended.

“Dinner,” he says, reaching for my hand and clasping it in his as he leads me on through the aquarium.

We walk through a short tunnel, and my breath catches as we step into a massive, domed room with glass-paneled walls and a ceiling looking out into a tank filled with fish and other marine life. In the center of the space, a table, two chairs, and a couple of pizza boxes and takeout containers.

“Nothing too elaborate,” Elias says. “Just pizza.”

Turning to face him with a wry smile, I shake my head. “I think all of this counts as elaborate.”

He’s absolutely unrepentant as he pulls out my chair for me. “I would apologize, but if you do end up wanting to date me, I fear you may have to get used to this. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had anyone to spoil.”

“How long?” I ask, before I think better of it.

Are we already to the point of discussing our exes? Maybe not, and God, I hope he doesn’t ask me about mine.

Elias’s smile is a little sad when he answers. “A while.”

For him, that could be decades. And who do krakens date, anyway? Other krakens? Other paranormals? Humans?

Opening up a pizza box, he elaborates. “The last time I had a serious relationship was maybe twenty, twenty-five years ago.”