Page 4 of Something Real with the Sea Monster (Kraken Cove #3)

FOUR

Jack

I’m still thinking about Tegan after she leaves with Luke and Mia. Being around Mia’s pretty friend all day every day might be more temptation that I can handle right now. It’s sure as fuck more temptation than I’ve faced in a long time.

Tegan is exactly the kind of girl who could be like kryptonite to me.

Self-assured, outspoken, stunningly gorgeous, funny.

I mentally check myself before I write a whole list. I can’t do that.

Because I made myself a promise years ago after my one and only failed relationship left me broken hearted: unless she’s my fated mate, I’m not going there.

But I sure could use the help at the Inlet Views.

I’m still thinking about it when I lock up and get ready to head underwater for the night. Grabbing my phone from its spot on the kitchen counter, I text Luke.

Jack: do you think Tegan was serious about wanting the job? Do you know much about her? Would she be any good?

I’m debating whether I should wait around for an answer or just check in the morning when Luke’s reply pops up.

Luke: Well, I don’t know Tegan all that well, but I do know she doesn’t say stuff she doesn’t mean. She’s a straight shooter. As for whether or not she’d be any good, you’re better off asking Mia.

Jack: thanks

I tap the phone against my lip, thinking. Like I said to Tegan, it would only be temporary.

She’s only in town for a while, and I’m sure I can keep things professional.

After all, it seems like she’s not even thinking about dating right now, and it’s probably the last thing on her mind.

Even if she was, she wouldn’t pick me. I should be glad about that.

Instead, I can’t help the way my thoughts wander to what if?

What would it feel like to find my fated mate like my younger brothers have?

Will I ever find her? What if the pull I feel to Tegan is my first sign that I just might have found her?

Dangerous thoughts. That’s the trouble with life in a small town. Every new face is exciting. Every time a new guest walks in the door, I catch myself wondering. That’s all this is.

I wish there was a better cure for my loneliness than another date with online porn and my own hand.

I put my phone on charge and change, ready to shift. As soon as I feel the water on my skin, I sigh, bubbles floating to the surface of the water.

I must be really tired tonight because, for a moment, the purple of my tentacles looks different from its normal color. More vibrant.

Dismissing the thought, I drift through the inlet, unable to settle.

The mangroves are in good condition these days.

Ever since the council put down the boardwalk and started replanting the trees, the wildlife has started to return to this area.

Not just gulls either. A startled heron squawks and flaps its wings as I surface a few meters from where she’s roosting on the low branch of a mangrove tree.

Hardly any rubbish today. I find only a single flip flop wedged into the sand and a plastic bottle floating in the water. Whereas in the past I’ve filled bags and bags, which I had to haul to shore. I like to think we can keep it that way, but it’ll take the whole community making the effort.

The water is choppy around the headland and saltier where the tide washes in from the bay.

That makes it easy to float toward the surface through the little particles the moon illuminates into tiny stars.

Sometimes I let myself imagine what life might be like if I wasn’t a kraken.

How I might have chosen a path that led me away from Kraken Cove and to somewhere more exciting.

To a big city or overseas, without the need to feel so tied to the ocean, to a place.

As good as I feel in the water, though, it’s not the ocean that ties me to Kraken Cove.

It’s my family. And even if I wasn’t a sea monster, I’d be tied to them.

Of all my brothers, I know I feel this most. I know as my parents age it will primarily fall to me to take care of them.

I wouldn’t have it any other way, but there are days that feels like more of a burden than others. Especially on days like today, when I’m thinking about what I might have given up.

Unwilling to let my thoughts roll in that current longer, I swim to my usual nook in our family cave and anchor myself with my tentacles wrapped around a bar fixed to the ceiling. Then I close my eyes and let the gentle motion of the water rock me to sleep.