Page 3 of Kiss for My Kraken (Fairhaven Falls #8)

N ina was dreaming, floating through a world of midnight blue water and sparkling bubbles.

A handsome, inhuman face surrounded by long, dark hair.

A big, muscular body gleaming silver in the moonlight—the handsome prince from one of the forbidden fairy tales that her friend Mel had secretly shared with her.

“Can you hear me?”

For a moment, she thought her prince was speaking to her, but then the dream vanished, and her eyes popped open. Two people were leaning over her, neither of them her prince. A handsome human man and a big, red-headed male who was most definitely not human.

“There you are.” The redhead grinned, revealing long, sharp canines. A shifter, she realized, and fought the urge to scramble away. What had happened? Where was she?

An anxious whine interrupted her thoughts.

Ozzie’s head popped up next to her, his paws resting on the edge of the couch.

Couch? She was lying on a couch in what looked like an office of some kind, with a big desk to one side and music posters plastered on the rough-hewn pine walls.

The muffled sound of music drifted through the walls.

“Where am I?” she asked as she gave Ozzie a reassuring pat.

“You’re at the Moonlight Tavern,” the human said, his voice cool and professional. “I’m Dr. Victor Jackson, and this is Aidan.” He nodded at the red-headed shifter. “As for what happened, we were hoping you could tell us. We found you on the back porch, wet and unconscious.”

Wet. She shivered as she realized that her clothes were soaked beneath the blanket that was covering her, and the remnants of her dream floated back through her mind. Water. The river.

“I was next to the river, and I must have lost my balance and fallen in.” Had she fallen?

She couldn’t escape the feeling that she’d been pushed, but there’d been nobody around.

It must have been my imagination. “But I don’t know how I got from there to here.

I can’t believe I made it out of the water. I don’t know how to swim.”

The two males exchanged a quick look before the doctor frowned at her.

“Do you remember your name? Are you experiencing any other memory issues?”

“I’m Nina Albright.” She thought for a moment, but everything else was clear enough—the long drive and the quiet parking area by the river. “I remember everything before I fell in.”

“Good. I don’t believe you’ve suffered any long-term ill effects,” the doctor said, “although you do appear somewhat malnourished.”

Malnourished? She felt the heat rise to her cheeks, but before she could say anything, the door slammed open, letting in a blast of music and a huge male with grey skin and very tall pointed ears.

“What the hell are you doing in my office, Jekyll?” he snapped as he slammed the door shut, but neither of the two males standing over her seemed bothered by his bad temper.

“Don’t use that ridiculous nickname,” the doctor said coldly. “We found this young lady on the back porch. It appears she fell into the river.”

The newcomer’s nose twitched as he stared at her. “You one of my customers?”

“No.”

“Good. I don’t want some drunken idiot falling into the river and blaming it on me.”

“I’m sorry.” She started to struggle upright, and a wave of dizziness swept over her.

“Sit down before you fall down!” he snapped, and stomped back out of the office.

“Who was that? Is this his office?” she asked anxiously. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. And his couch is all wet.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Aidan grinned at her. “Ben’s always like that. Now, where do you live?”

Her mind went blank. She didn’t want to tell them she was living out of her car, let alone where her car was parked. But she couldn’t think of another answer. “In town,” she finally said vaguely.

They exchanged another look, but even though they clearly didn’t believe her, they didn’t pursue it.

“I should probably take you back to my surgery and keep an eye on you overnight,” the doctor said, and she immediately panicked.

He seemed nice enough, but she knew that appearances were deceptive. It wasn’t the first time a seemingly nice man had turned into a monster. And even if he was as decent as he seemed, she certainly couldn’t afford a medical bill.

“I’m fine,” she said quickly and tried to stand up again. The dizziness wasn’t as bad this time, but her legs were shaking too much for her to remain on her feet.

“Sit down,” the doctor said, gently but firmly pushing her back down on the couch. “And I really think?—”

The door slammed open again, and the big, grumpy male reappeared, carrying a tray and a plastic bag. “Clothes,” he said, dropping the plastic bag on the floor before putting the tray down on the small table in front of her. “Food.”

The tray contained an enormous bowl of chicken and dumplings, along with a large glass of iced tea and two huge biscuits with butter dripping down the sides. It looked and smelled wonderful, but she shook her head. “I can’t pay for this.”

“Did I ask you to?” Ben snapped. “I don’t want you fainting on my property again. Now, eat.” He stalked back out of the room before she could respond, and Aidan laughed.

“Don’t worry, his bark is worse than his bite.”

“If you want to get out of here on your own two feet, then you need to eat,” the doctor said firmly.

She looked from his determined expression to Aidan’s smiling face and gave in. “All right.”

“I suggest you change first.” The doctor pointed at the bag of clothes. “We’ll give you some privacy.”

Both of them left, leaving her staring at the closed door.

The doctor probably had a point. She had been short on both food and sleep for several weeks now.

She drank some tea—sweeter than she normally preferred, but the coolness felt good on her sore throat, and it provided a welcome rush of energy.

She had drunk half of it before it occurred to her that she was alone in a bar where she didn’t know anyone, and a strange male had just handed her a drink.

God she hated this. Hated being suspicious of everything and everybody, but the world outside her community had taught her how naive and sheltered she’d been.

It’s still worth it , she reminded herself.

Still better than a narrow, restricted life where she wasn’t supposed to think, let alone dream of anything different, where all of her actions dictated by others.

And if the grumpy male really did have evil intentions, it seemed unlikely that he would have brought her food.

Or tried to drug her in front of two witnesses.

Her wet clothes were clinging unpleasantly to her body, and she gave the bag Ben had left a longing look.

She didn’t like the idea of taking charity, but it would be foolish to take a chance on getting sick just because of her pride.

She climbed carefully to her feet, gratified that her knees actually held her this time, and made her way over to the door.

It had a nice solid deadbolt on the back, and she pushed it closed before returning to the couch.

The bag contained two thick white towels that smelled vaguely of lavender, a pair of soft cotton sweatpants that were far too big for her, and an oversized hoodie.

Keeping a wary eye on the locked door, she stripped quickly out of her wet clothes and toweled herself dry.

The sweatpants were too long, but she was able to tighten the drawstring enough for them to stay up.

The hoodie was ridiculously large, hanging down to the middle of her thighs, and she had to roll the sleeves up a dozen times before her hands were free, but there was something comforting about the giant garment, and she immediately felt better and considerably warmer.

She looked down and laughed. Ozzie hadn’t gone as far as to steal any of the food from the tray, but his nose was only about an inch away from the biscuits.

“All right,” she said, “I get the message.”

She only made it through half a biscuit and half the bowl of chicken and dumplings, picking out pieces of chicken to share with Ozzie, before her stomach protested and she pushed the tray away.

It had tasted every bit as delicious as it smelled, and she sighed happily as she sat back.

She packed her wet clothes neatly into the plastic bag, wiped down the couch as best she could with a towel, and arranged the blanket that had been on top of her across the back of the desk chair to dry.

It wasn’t much, but it was the best she could do.

Taking a deep breath, she walked over and unlocked the door, then cautiously pulled it open.

The walls of the narrow corridor outside were also lined with music posters.

To the right, the bar was visible through a beaded curtain, and voices mingled with the sound of the music.

Not just voices—growls and hisses and distinctly inhuman noises—and she bit her lip nervously.

A swinging door with a round glass window was at the other end of the corridor.

Based on the other restaurants where she’d worked, it would lead to the kitchen

There were two doors across from her, each of them with a dog painted on the door. She frowned at them for a moment, wondering which one was the ladies’ room, then blushed when she realized the dogs were anatomically correct.

Ozzie had rolled onto his back, his feet in the air as he snored gently.

He clearly wasn’t concerned about being in a strange place.

She grinned and left him in the office and she crossed the hallway.

The ladies’ room was surprisingly clean and spacious, with a little bouquet of flowers on the shelf beside the sink and a stack of soft cotton hand towels.

After she was through she started to return to the office, then looked down the corridor again.

She didn’t quite have the nerve to go through into the bar, but maybe the grouchy male was in the kitchen, and she could thank him.

She pushed through the swinging door and gave a horrified gasp.

The kitchen was empty, but it was a disaster, with dirty dishes piled everywhere.

She was about to turn around and leave when it suddenly occurred to her that perhaps this was a way she could repay the owner’s hospitality.

The scale of the kitchen was a little larger than she was used to, but she’d worked in enough restaurants to recognize all the equipment.

She pushed the sleeves of the hoodie up another couple of inches and set to work.

She’d just taken the second load of dishes out of the big industrial dishwasher and was stacking them on the shelves when the door swung open and the big grumpy male appeared.

“What the hell did you do?” he snapped, looking around at the now clean kitchen.

“I was just trying to repay you for the food,” she said nervously.

“Told you you didn’t have to pay. But thank you,” he added begrudgingly. “I’m short on help right now.”

She bit her lip. She’d never worked in a bar before, and the owner was definitely not the nicest person she’d ever met, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“Does that mean you’re looking to hire someone?” She couldn’t quite prevent her voice from shaking, and when he turned around to glare at her, she had to fight to keep from shrinking away. His nose twitched again.

“Got any references?”

And there it was. She shook her head and looked down, determined not to let him see the tears.

“Are you a thief?” Her head snapped up at the abrupt question.

“No, I’m not,” she said indignantly.

He grunted, but she thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. “You obviously know your way around the kitchen.” His gaze swept over the now gleaming surfaces. “I’ll give you a week’s trial. Be back here tomorrow at nine for lunch prep.”

“Really? Oh, thank you!” A huge sigh of relief escaped before she could prevent it, and he shook his head, his mouth twitching again.

“You didn’t even ask how much I’m going to pay you.”

In her experience, it was never very much. But with any luck, it would be enough to supply her and Ozzie with food and gas for the car, and perhaps even save enough for a place to live.

“How much?” she asked, bracing herself. Her eyes widened when he named a sum that was twice what she’d made in her last job.

“Food’s included,” he added, scowling at her. “You don’t have a problem with eating, do you?”

The heat was rising to her cheeks again, but she raised her chin.

“No, I don’t have a problem with food. Oh, and I’m Nina.”

“The doc told me. I’m Ben.”

He gave an abrupt nod and turned to leave.

“Is it… is it all right if I wear these clothes home? I’ll bring them back tomorrow. Washed and dried,” she added quickly, determined to find a laundromat but he just shrugged.

“There’s a washer and dryer in the back room. Just toss them in when you come back tomorrow.” He looked at her and scowled again. “You can use it for your clothes as well if you want.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of crumpled twenty-dollar bills. “Here.”

“I can’t take that.”

“I pay the people who work for me.” He put the money in her hand and closed her fingers around it. She realized with a shock that instead of normal skin, he was covered with very short, dense grey fur. She was still trying to process that when he disappeared back through the door.

By the time she followed him, he was already pushing through the bead curtain at the end of the corridor so she returned to the office instead. “Maybe things are looking up, Ozzie,” she said slowly.

He opened one eye and looked at her, his stubby tail wagging. She had a job, a full stomach, and money in her pocket. Maybe the prince in her dreams was a magic prince. Maybe her luck had finally changed.