Page 14 of Not So Stranded (Delaney’s Sea Monsters #3)

Whispering voices woke Kit. He blinked his eyes open, not quite sure where he was at first, only to discover he was surrounded by little cecaelia. “Oh! Good morning.”

Ten kids giggled at him, and the three sitting on the arm of his chair said good morning back to him in squeaky baby voices.

Kit bit his bottom lip, not sure if proclaiming them all adorable was okay.

He knew from talking to Hiaka that six years old was considered mature for a cecaelia, but he couldn’t tell whether these were toddlers or teenagers.

“How old are you?” he asked the littlest ones.

Each of them held up one finger.

“Really?” he teased. “I thought you had to be at least three.”

“No, me and Keoni are three!” one of the biggest kids said. “They’re all one, and they’re two.” They pointed, and each smaller child held up the appropriate number of fingers.

“Oh, I see now,” he said. “And who are your parents?”

“Paka’a and Sextus,” the three-year-old said.

Those names sounded familiar. Maybe he’d met them yesterday? There might be a big size difference between them.

“Cinqus and Daddy,” one of the two-year-olds said.

“Not Daddy,” the older one said. “His name’s Steve.”

“Oh, right.”

“Our-our-our daddy— Our daddy is Kevin,” the littlest said as their tentacles grabbed onto Kit’s biceps. Another tiny one tried to push the first out of the way, but their grip on Kit kept them right where they were.

“And Catchus,” the last little one said with a grin for Kit.

“Qua-trus,” the older one said slowly.

“Qua-trus,” the three littlest said in unison.

Kit couldn’t help it, he laughed out loud. “You’re all absolutely adorable.”

“Grandpa Eric says we’re a handful,” Keoni said with clear pride.

Kit laughed again. “And what are your names?”

All of them spoke at once, and Kit wasn’t sure what he heard, but then Keoni thrust into Kit’s face the absolute littlest cecaelia ever, big eyes bugging out and tentacles waving frantically. “This is Marius.”

“Keoni!” the talkative three-year-old hollered as they shoved Keoni’s arm back underwater, submerging the tiny baby. “You know you can’t take newborns out of the water!”

Oh, shit. “Uh, hey,” Kit said, “maybe we shouldn’t be running around with newborns at all, huh?”

“But they’re so cute...”

“Right, but they’re—”

“I’m missing a baby!” came a frantic cry from the other side of the lagoon. Was that Larkin? “I’m missing a baby!”

“Here!” Kit yelled as he stood up and made Keoni turn around while keeping their arm down. “They’re here!”

Larkin and another man made to swim over, but a cecaelia shot across the lagoon like a bullet.

The wave that created pushed Kit back into his chair and had the kids he wasn’t holding onto squealing as they were washed away.

Kit reached down to make sure Keoni hadn’t lost the newborn, but then the frowning cecaelia was there and taking the baby from Keoni’s grip.

“I’m sorry,” Keoni whispered, sounding close to tears.

“That’s the last time,” the newborn’s parent said through a clenched jaw. They turned around and swam to Larkin and the other man, who were still standing near a…playpen?

“Keoni, Whetu,” a redheaded man said from the beach behind Kit’s chair, “you’re both on time out.”

It turned out that the kids hadn’t gotten washed away very far, because now the older ones tentacle-walked over to their father with their heads down, while the rest of them zoomed in every other direction like they were fleeing a crime scene.

And maybe they were.

“You are such a troublemaker.”

Kit turned around to find Hiaka. “I didn’t do it!”

They tsked at him, shaking their head. “I leave you alone for two minutes…”

“Oh, shut up.” Kit flopped into his chair.

“Giving you breakfast now seems like a reward for bad behavior.” Hiaka set a plate of fruits and pastries on the arm of the chair.

Kit snorted. “If you’re practicing for parenthood, well done, but shut your pretty face.”

Hiaka laughed wickedly and stole a piece of pineapple.

Kit looked over toward Larkin with concern. “Can the newborns really not go above water?”

“Yeah, their lungs need time to develop more so they can breathe air. Larkin hosted for Moa’ali’i, my sibling, and the hatchlings were born last week. They need another week probably.”

“And the older man is…”

“Oh, that’s Dean. Larkin, Dean, and Mo are all mated.”

“Ah, okay. I think I met Dean last night. And I know Eric mentioned that it’s the three of them, like us.”

“I swear, you’re going to have to meet everyone again,” Hiaka said with a chuckle. “You were so not present when you first got here.”

Kit blushed but agreed. “I’ll go over and say hello again. Make sure Marius is okay.”

Hiaka handed over the breakfast plate and then leaned against Kit’s leg. “You can ask Larkin about the reef, too.”

“Oh, right! He’s the one doing the research there?”

“Larkin’s the one who brought the abalone to the reef here. It’s a rare kind?” They wrinkled their nose at him. “Or something?”

Kit chuckled. “Okay, I’ll ask him.”

He ate his breakfast while Hiaka leaned against him, the two of them surveying the lagoon.

There were definitely a lot of kids playing all over the place, but it wasn’t as crowded as he’d thought it would be from Hiaka’s descriptions.

It was easy to see Zenori near the gate talking with two other cecaelia…

about the gate? Maybe. There was a lot of gesturing toward it, like the others were explaining how it worked.

“Zenori’s making friends,” Kit commented.

Hiaka groaned. “They want to know about everything. Like they woke me up asking about an umbrella.”

Kit smiled. “I mean, this is all new to them. Really new.”

“The sun wasn’t even up yet.” They rubbed their eyes. “Ty and Serion built a lot of the gate in the beginning, so I gave him to them. They can talk about that thing for days.”

Chuckling at them, Kit set his plate aside and reached under Hiaka’s arms, intending to bring them onto his lap. But that was the moment when he realized he wasn’t wearing his shorts. Hadn’t, in fact, ever put anything on after last night’s sex.

“Oh, my god,” Kit moaned as he hugged to conceal himself. “I’m naked.”

Hiaka laughed and wiggled around, covering Kit with tentacles. “Did you just now notice?”

“Yes! Oh, no… I stood up during that whole thing with the baby.”

“And no one passed out or screamed, so you’re fine.” Hiaka patted him when Kit buried his face in their neck. “When you’re done hiding, you might want to look around at the humans. Some are wearing various clothing and others are really not. You do you.”

Kit snorted but lifted his head and looked around.

He’d been so focused on Larkin and Dean—who wore swim shorts—that he really hadn’t seen what others were doing.

And he’d been staring at the cecaelia, too.

But now he could see that Angelica was still topless, another woman was entirely naked, Eric and Michael wore shorts, while Keoni’s dad and Kevin were naked.

“So if I stay naked, no one’s going to think that’s weird or quick or anything?”

Hiaka scoffed at him. “Literally no one’s going to care.

I mean, they might tease you, and somebody might tell the story about how Jonah took off his shorts when he first got here and then jumped right into Primus’s arms a second later.

But there’s no judgment about it. And some of them might be taking their cues from you as to whether to wear something or not. ”

“Well, okay.” It still felt entirely taboo, but knowing that he wouldn’t be the only one did help some. “I’ll see how it goes.”

“Some people put something on if they’re going to sit on the dock or the grass. Most anyone who’s in the water is usually naked, though.” Hiaka gave him a peck on the lips. “And before you ask, sex is always after the kids are asleep or outside the gate.”

Kit felt himself blushing and went back to hiding his face in Hiaka’s neck as they giggled at him all over again.

After taking a snorkel tour of the lagoon with Hiaka and Zenori, Kit decided to go over and visit with Larkin, Dean, and Moa’ali’i—who everyone called Mo. He’d swum around naked on the tour and now swam over to them the same way, only slightly self-conscious about it.

Larkin waved at Kit from a small ledge of grass where he and Dean sat with only their lower legs in the water. Beside them was the octagonal playpen. When Kit was close enough, he could see five tiny faces peering up at him.

Kit went down to his knees in the water and asked, “Is Marius okay?”

“Oh, yeah, they’re fine,” Larkin said, his face turning pink. “I panicked a little.”

“It was justified.” Mo came around from behind Kit. “Keoni’s a menace.”

Kit couldn’t exactly disagree since what they’d done had been dangerous.

“But Keoni’s not allowed anywhere near the playpen,” Dean added patiently, “we’re all going to be more vigilant, and everyone’s healthy, so let’s take a deep breath and let it go.”

Kit watched Mo take a deep breath, but since they kept frowning afterward, he wasn’t sure they’d let anything go.

“Well, I’m glad Marius is okay. I’m also sorry if I was the cause of all this. Like impressing the new guy? Look what I can do?”

Dean waved that away. “No, no, it’s nothing to do with you. Keoni and a couple of others have been very interested in the hatchlings for their whole lives. It’s an ongoing problem.”

Kit winced. “Here’s hoping this morning left an impression then.”

Mo held up both hands with fingers crossed.

Looking to Larkin, Kit asked, “Do you mind if I ask some questions about hosting?”

“Oh, no, that’s totally cool,” he said with a smile. “What would you like to know?”

Kit sat back on his heels. “So you gave birth last week, right?”

“Yes.”

“How’re you feeling?”

“Awesome,” Larkin said on a laugh. “I mean pushing them all out was crazy and a kind of painful, but also amazing because…” He held his hands over the playpen, the little hatchlings seeming to play on plants, rocks, and twigs.

“And your body’s back to normal,” Dean prompted.

“Oh, yeah. I was fine within a couple of hours. Like nothing happened.”

“Wow. Okay.” Kit appreciated knowing that. “While you were hosting, was that painful?” He glanced over to where Jonah and Primus floated not too far away. “I heard Jonah moaning a little while ago.”

Dean chuckled, Larkin blushed, and Mo said, “Jonah’s only been drinking elixir for the past week, so he’s completely drunk and seriously horny. Those were nice moans.”

Kit snorted and covered his eyes for a moment. “Well, that’s, um, good to know.”

“I’ll be honest,” Larkin said, his face still bright red, “even the water felt sexual so I was literally on the edge of coming the entire time. I wanted to sleep and get blowjobs. That’s it.”

Blushing in sympathy or maybe because none of that made him reconsider, Kit laughed with Dean and Mo, both of whom poked and tickled Larkin until he was laughing, too. And then Kit heard a sort of burbling noise and looked down to see that the hatchlings were laughing as well.

“They’re so small.” He finger-waved down at them, and they waved back. Their fingers were the size of grains of rice.

“You’ll be glad of that,” Larkin said like a warning.

Kit’s ass clenched. “Oh. Right.”

“The best thing?” Dean said. “Put your ear in the water.”

Not sure why, Kit went along with him and leaned over so his ear was underwater.

“Can I play with that next?”

“I like blue ones.”

“Did you poo again?”

Kit sat back up with a gasp. “They can talk!”

All three parents laughed, and Mo said, “They also have our memories, so they knows things relevant to a hatchling, and if they don’t know something or need anything, they’ll ask for it.”

“We’ve been told to brace ourselves,” Dean said with a smile, “for when they can breathe air.”

Kit laughed and it was definitely with relief. He didn’t need to know everything because his future hatchlings could ask questions or tell him what they needed. Underwater or above! He touched a hand to his heart, that was such good news.

“That helped, didn’t it,” Larkin said with a knowing smile.

Kit nodded. “It did. We’re going to wait until Jonah’s given birth, but then…” He grinned and shrugged.

As their parents congratulated him, Kit could’ve sworn he heard the hatchlings cheering.