Page 1 of Not So Stranded (Delaney’s Sea Monsters #3)

It turned out that Kit should’ve paid more attention when they told him about what to do during a storm on Ikaika, one of the many uninhabited islands northwest of Kaua’i.

He’d thought he had done great by tying the boat to a fallen tree before checking all of his little tent’s tie-downs.

And the tent had done beautifully through the night—he’d stayed dry and been able to sleep when the thunder hadn’t woken him up.

But now his boat was gone.

Standing there on the beach and staring out to sea wasn’t going to get anything done, but he couldn’t quite believe that his converted trawler had disappeared.

It hadn’t sunk just offshore—the water was so clear, he’d be able to see that.

It wasn’t miles away bobbing on the waves—he had binoculars.

It was simply gone, and he had no idea how that could happen.

The University of Hawai’i wasn’t going to like that at all, but more than the fact that he’d lost their boat was the fact that he was stranded.

As the shock faded, Kit settled into figuring things out logically.

Scrubbing at his bearded face for a moment, he took a deep breath before he turned back to his camp.

He already knew he was screwed when it came to water and food because he’d left most of that on the boat.

The island was crawling with rats that weren’t afraid of him and liked to break into anything that smelled enticing, so he’d thought leaving everything on the boat would save him from having to protect it.

The water barrels they’d given him had been too heavy for him to bring ashore, even if he’d wanted to do so.

So, he needed to find a source of water first and foremost.

When he’d initially explored Ikaika, he’d found a lagoon with a generous cave and a waterfall about a ten-minute walk inland.

That was probably his best bet for fresh water.

He had kept the water treatment kit and an empty gallon jug in his tent, so he got both of those items and his knife and started walking.

It was August, so the dry season was here with higher temperatures, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t storm from time to time.

Though last night had been fierce, it hadn’t lasted more than a couple hours.

Just long enough to remove his boat, apparently.

But the occasional storm did offer the possibility of leaving a container out to catch rainfall next time, so that was good.

Maybe he could rig up something with a tarp since he had a couple extra ones of those, too.

Food was another issue. The biggest problem was the fact that he didn’t want to contribute to the demise of any one of the rare or threatened flora or fauna on the island.

While his speciality was the conservation of green sea turtles, he was well aware of the unique biodiversity of these islands.

He was pretty sure the rats were fair game since there were projects on other islands to eradicate them.

Could he eat a rat? Kit shuddered, but if it came to it, he might have to.

He could stick to fishing, but he’d have to make sure and avoid the reef areas. The little bay where he’d anchored the boat didn’t have a reef, so maybe that was his best bet. Or did he want to fish the reef because that was where the bigger fish would be, preying on the rest?

Not to mention the fact that there were plenty of plants he could eat if he could figure out which ones weren’t poisonous.

And now Kit realized why he should’ve let Doctor Hadley join him.

That old goat might be a horny bastard who couldn’t keep his hands to himself, but at least he knew how to survive on these islands.

Kit had thought he could easily handle his first field assignment alone and hadn’t wanted to spend most of his time avoiding Handsy Hadley.

But if the old man’s many tales were to be believed, he was definitely aware of which critter and plant he could eat out here.

“Fuck.”

Kit stopped walking. As far as he knew, he was the only person on this island, so who had just cursed?

“Fucking fuck-fuck.”

Seriously, who was that? Kit stepped more quietly through the underbrush of dead leaves and vines, now looking ahead of him instead of at the ground for snakes.

Someone was definitely up there and they were…

slogging through mud? He could hear thick squelching noises.

Lots of them, actually. Maybe it was more than one person?

If they had a boat he could call in to the university for help—because all his communications equipment had been on his missing boat, too.

But when he came to where the creek should’ve been, the one that flowed from the lagoon to the beach, Kit found a swath of mud and… “Holy god,” he whispered, hardly believing his eyes.

There in the mud was a blue-skinned person whose lower body was a mass of tentacles.

Even though they were filthy from crawling through the mud, Kit could clearly see a humanoid upper body and a tentacled lower body.

But what was he seeing? He just…couldn’t be seeing what he thought he was seeing. Tentacles!

“Please don’t freak out,” they said, holding a muddy hand out toward him. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

They spoke English? And used slang? Kit looked behind himself, almost expecting to see his own dead body back there or something. This couldn’t be real.

“Can you help me? I’m really stuck.”

Kit gulped and looked back to the…person. Okay, yes, it wasn’t like he’d come across a some kind of animal stuck in the mud. This was an intelligent, self-aware person asking for his assistance. Whatever they were wasn’t the most immediate concern.

Nodding, Kit set down his supplies and walked closer.

“Not too close,” they said urgently. “It’s deeper than it looks, and I’ve only made it worse. Maybe—” they sort of threw themselves toward him. “Can you pull me out to where it’s drier?”

Kit didn’t say anything as he grasped a pair of slick hands, had to wipe some of the mud off, and then held on again.

He honestly didn’t know what to say yet, his mind swirling with questions, so he only gripped them and pulled.

Behind them, their tentacles worked to push.

Suddenly, a pair of longer tentacles shot out and grabbed two tree trunks.

Kit jerked so hard he fell back on his ass, but that actually helped pull the blue person closer. A few more tugs, and they were mostly free of the muddy creek bed.

Nearly nose to nose with them now, Kit finally found his voice. “What are you?”

“Cecaelia,” they said like that meant something. “My name’s Hiaka Kahale.”

“Oh, okay. I, um… I’m Kit Tennant.”

Hiaka pushed up to sort of stand on their tentacles, making them about four feet tall. Well, technically those were arms and the long ones were tentacles, but that was only if they used the same terminology as applied to squid. Was that what they were?

“Are you an evolved cephalopod from the Architeuthidae family?”

Their blue eyes widened in clear alarm. “Are you…a scientist?”

Kit gulped. “Yes?”

Hiaka rolled their eyes and dropped their head back to groan at the sky for a moment. “Of fucking course you are. I find a suitable island, and there’s a scientist on it. Fuck my life.”

A laugh jumped out of Kit. He found a new species of sentient being and they cursed like a teenager.

They could glare like one, too.

“Um, if it helps,” Kit offered, “I’ve lost any way of communicating with anyone else because my boat is missing. It came unmoored somehow during the storm and is literally gone I don’t know where.”

“Oh.” They took a deep breath and sighed. “Yeah, okay. I mean, there’s no cell reception out here anyway.” They squinted at him. “Unless you’ve got a dedicated satellite?”

Kit couldn’t believe his ears. “You know about—”

“Oh, dude, don’t even.” They held up a muddy hand, mouth quirked in disgust. “Save your amazement about how I could ever possibly know about human tech. It’s fucking everywhere. How could I not know?”

Biting his bottom lip to keep from smiling—because even pissy and muddy, they were still kind of adorable—Kit just nodded.

Hiaka made a grumbling noise and huffed a breath. “Sorry. I’ve had a shit day. I mean, not that you haven’t, but you know…” They tried to swipe some of the mud off their chest but quickly gave up.

Even as muddy as they were, Kit could see that their dark turquoise skin was dappled with a pattern like sunlight underwater.

A natural camouflage maybe? They were also leanly toned, with high cheekbones, full lips, and brilliantly blue eyes.

Their gender wasn’t blatant, so Kit decided to keep thinking of them as a them.

“Hiaka!”

Kit flinched and looked in the direction of that holler only to slowly pan back to stare at Hiaka.

“Okay, so that’s a friend of mine,” they said. “Hold on a sec.” They cleared their throat before yelling, “I’m okay!”

“Are you in the lagoon?” the deep voice yelled back. “The mud is terrible!”

A fond sort of look came over Hiaka’s face. “I’m in it, too! And I found a human!”

“What?!”

“It’s fine,” Kit shouted. “I’m harmless! I promise!”

They didn’t say anything back.

Kit stood and looked down the muddy creek toward the ocean. “Do you want to try walking down there? I don’t know how far it is.”

“I don’t have a choice.” They gestured at the former creek. “This is the only way in and out of the lagoon. It’s not an option anymore.”

“Did you need the freshwater for some reason?” He looked in the direction of the lagoon, realizing he couldn’t hear the waterfall. “Is anyone else down there?”

“No, it was just us. Neither of us realized the waterfall could just stop like this.” They moved farther away from the mud, their tentacles coordinating their forward momentum effortlessly.

“Given the amount of rain we had last night, I wouldn’t have thought that whatever feeds the falls could dry up.”

“Yeah,” they said with a frown back the way they’d come. “Weird.”