Page 4

Chapter 4

Bjorn

I ’ve gone absolutely fucking insane. Walking away from the human, I flee to the side of the house. I need to get out of sight before the woman sees a man spouting tentacles.

That wasn’t just any woman. It was her. The reason for my new rune. My kraken rages at me, determined to go back to her. The rune on my wrist burns, the magic like acid in my veins.

The veil that separates my Beast and me feels too thin, his tentacles squeezing through the cracks in my mind. He yanks on my skin, trying to wrestle for control. Feelers spout along my arms and back like goose bumps beading in the breeze. They’re after a taste of her.

This is all her fault.

My mate. A small human with hair as dark as ink, lush round curves, and eyes so light they’re the misty violet of the crocus that grows in the woodlands near my oldest home. I curse her beauty, her very existence. The moment I saw her, I knew she was meant to be mine and I loathe her for it.

The distance stretches between us, but she remains a presence in my chest, pulling me back like an anchor chain. The strain of the taut line aches, but it’s nothing compared to the agony of my betrayal. I want to rip the link between us out with my hands, dig and claw until the parasite in my chest is dead and I can toss it back to the sea.

Don’t think of them.

Sweat beads along my brow as I wrestle to keep control. My eyes shift, the haze of my kraken changing the world into a kaleidoscope of riotous color. I blink, forcing back the Beast, and my sight returns to normal. My lungs burn with the strain of holding my skin.

She is nothing to me. She never will be. I will not give in to the pull between us.

I repeat the lie to myself as I grab my ax and head to the chopping block, needing to busy my body as a distraction. My Beast laughs at me in the corner of my mind. He’s biding his time, waiting for me to slip so we can claim her. He knows we cannot resist the call of our mate, that it is unnatural to try.

Fuck the gods.

The swing of my ax is too hard, and splinters of firewood spit in every direction. I line up another piece and do it again. And again.

A faint trace of flowers carries on the salty breeze and my muscles tense. She is still here. I curse. My Beast is on high alert, too close to the boundary once again. If I thought he would help, I would take to the sea, but there’s no doubt that if I give him control, he will claim her. Refusing to give in to the tug in my chest, I return to chopping wood.

“Hello.” Her voice is sweet like honey. Still it scratches and chafes at old wounds.

I swallow as a pair of colorful galoshes appear in the grass, leading up to black pants molded to curvy thighs and shapely hips. My eyes refuse to stay put, following up her rounded waist to the ample cleavage that spills from the top of her white shirt.

Her scent is thicker now that she’s near. She smells floral and earthy, like the start of spring when the world wakes up after a long winter sleep. I don’t want to like it, don’t want to thaw for her.

“You’re the lightkeeper?”

Her question is laughable, the light having been gone from my life before she was a thought in the universe. If I was a lightkeeper, I was a shitty one.

She tucks a strand of her dark hair behind her ear and looks away from the intensity of my gaze. I’m making her nervous, and my Beast rumbles his displeasure. Red splotches appear on her neck and chest as she flushes with embarrassment. My cock twitches against my leg, plumping in anticipation.

“Okay. You’re not a talker. That’s fine. I talk enough for everyone.”

I don’t respond, situating another piece on the stump and swinging my axe. The crack of the firewood is a jarring, angry sound between us. Splinters of wood cover her boots and she steps back.

“I’m a researcher for Sable University. A marine biologist working out at the NOAA lab on the other side of the bay. The villagers said you may be able to help me identify a symbol I saw on a dive earlier this week. Maybe you can tell me what it’s on?”

Her words are breathy this time, and when she speaks, I imagine her coming on my cock as I stuff her full of my tentacles. I can almost hear her moans, the way the honey in her voice would turn thick. I shake myself, horrified by the thought.

She thrusts her phone into my face, her arm shaking. “Do you know what this is? What animal or symbol it could be?”

I blink. Once. Twice. I set down my ax and take the phone. The image remains the same. In the grainy watery depths, there is a glowing white light. It’s a picture of me. Well, my Beast. The rune on my back is unmistakable.

My Beast throws up an image of a diver under the water, wrapped in our appendages.

Mate.

Protect.

Hazy memories float one after another. Yesterday when I returned to shore. The scavenging of a camera and a metal box outside my territory. Stalking the coast in the water, back and forth along a small strip of beach. I remember breaking the surface to bring treasures to her door.

My kraken recognized her as our mate and led her to me. The Beast doesn’t understand why I’m refusing the mate call. He has grieved for our lost and he avenged them, but he does not believe a new mate is a betrayal. I am not the Beast. I wrench control, sealing the cracks in the veil. Her phone crunches in my palm, the glass and metal breaking.

Not only did the gods send me a mate, but they’ve also sent me a scientist. Even if my Beast desires to claim her, a scientist can’t know of our existence. Already she is asking questions of the villagers. How long before this scientist has me in a lab? How long before shifters are exposed?

“What the hell? You have serious issues with phones. Is it a hermit thing?” She huffs at me, trying to rescue the broken object from my grasp. Her scent doesn’t reek of fear, only annoyance.

Trusting, reckless human.

The rumble from my chest does nothing to deter her. I hold the phone over my head, pulling it from her reach, but she jumps and grabs for it, moving her soft curves against me.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Her small hands push against my chest. “First you barge in on a call and now you break the damn thing. Is this, like, an anti-technology conspiracy theory?”

“Who else have you told?” I clutch her with one hand, my fingers digging into her bicep and caging her to me. My teeth ache from how hard I’m clenching my jaw. I want to make her disappear forever. And I want to pull her closer, kiss her lips, and never let her go.

Her pupils dilate, her scent growing thicker between us. She takes a harsh breath and another. “Do you know what it is? Or what’s happening between us?”

“Answer me. Who have you told?”

“No one.”

My eyes narrow and a warning sounds from my throat. She will not lie to me. Already her actions may have put us both in danger. “The villagers?”

She looks away, a guilty expression on her face. “Why? What do you know? Why is it secret? Why am I drawn to you?”

I tug her chin, forcing those violet eyes to me. “Answer me.”

Her pink lips part and I’m overcome with the urge to taste her.

“The villagers, some folks at the diner, the captain of the boat I’m using for my work, and my ex-husband. He studies old languages. He’s the one you hung up on.”

I curse my luck. An academic like her. If he’s curious, he’s going to be trouble. The last thing I need is attention on the area.

Actually, no. The last thing I need is a mate. And she may have blown my hiding spot. I’ve got safe houses along the eastern coast that I move between when I outlive my human age and it’s time for a new identity. But this one is my home base, and I don’t want to lose it.

I want her gone. No matter how beautiful she is, how good she smells, or how much I want to protect her from her dickhead ex, I refuse to claim her. But I can’t let her go back out into the world and risk her exposing me. And no matter the anguish in my heart, I can’t hurt her. Even if a part of me wishes she didn’t exist.

“Tell him you made a mistake. We don’t want scientists up here making our town into a spectacle.” I shove the broken cell into her palm and push away from our embrace, too harshly for a delicate mate. She needs to run as far and as fast from me as possible.

I should feel shame for treating her this way. My Beast does—he curses me from the veil. Mates are gifts from the gods, meant to be treasured and protected. But this woman is proof that I failed in my promise to protect. Nothing but my own fear courses through me when she looks at me with wide eyes. She has come to wreck me, and I want no part in it.

“Leave my property and keep out of our bay. There is nothing here for you to discover.” I turn away from the beauty the sea has sent me.

Her shaky voice calls to me. “I’ll tell him whatever you need me to say, but I know you’re hiding something. It involves me and I’m not afraid.”

I stop and turn back to stalk toward her. She glares at me, but it’s filled with a smug kind of victory. Her hands are at her hips, and she stands her ground in challenge.

“You should be afraid because I’m a monster.” I scoop her up and toss her over my shoulder.

She kicks and screams, wildly scratching at my back. “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”

Her tiny claws do nothing to slow me down. This woman has zero survival instincts. Attacking a predator. Putting her curious nose in other people’s business. Taunting me with her fearlessness.

Her scent billows, but it’s not fear. She’s wet at the thought that I’ve taken her captive. My cock responds, straining against my jeans. I swallow my words, refuse to get lured in by the bait.

The crashing waves along the rocky coast seem to magnify in a crescendo. The sea laughs at my resistance as I carry my captured mate inside.