I woke in a strange place, my scream piercing the silence.
Every breath my lungs took felt like fire in my chest, as if the air I breathed was poison.
My dream contained wild images of eyes, glowing eyes hiding in the deep, and thick, muscular arms pulling me toward a solid chest.
And tentacles, clutching me close, protecting my body from falling debris.
It ended with a kiss that seemed to say more with the emotions poured into it.
My feet kicked the air, but I didn’t move.
Using all the strength I possessed, I turned my head and took in the strange surroundings.
Dim blue light filtered through a vaulted cavern of living stone and translucent membranes.
The walls pulsed with soft bioluminescent patterns, like slow ocean heartbeats.
Spiraled tendrils of strange flora clung to every crevice.
When touched by the light, they shimmered.
Pools of water dotted the floor, glowing faintly, giving off steam.
Dry land!
I forced my body to move from my current position toward a place I considered safe.
A second scream tore from my throat when I realized I was underwater.
Not only was I under water, but breathing with relative ease.
The more breaths I took, the less pain radiated in my lungs.
Confused, I gasped at the realization, and my mouth filled again, not with water as I expected, but with cool, oxygen-rich vapor my body processed from the water.
The vapor clung to my skin like mist, leaving miniscule bubbles on my skin.
Entranced, I wiggled my arms and watched the bubbles rise to what I assumed was the ceiling or surface.
Parts of my forearm sparkled as if healing from a burn; if the burn healed in shades of blue and green.
If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn the colors on my arm looked almost like scales.
But that was crazy.
It had to be my mind playing tricks on me.
I didn’t have scales.
Out of the corner of my eye, a glimmer of light drew my attention.
Wherever I was, it was beautiful, and I was positive I was no longer on the planet’s surface.
Once I crawled onto the damp ground near one of the tidal pools and breathed, a shudder wracked my body.
The steam rising from the pool filled the air with a faint, metallic tang.
I flopped onto my back, stretching my arms.
After a while, I sat up slowly, my limbs heavy from whatever had happened during the descent.
The explosion tore my suit, but my private parts remained covered.
Next, I checked my wrist for the data wristband provided as a perk of the mission.
It still blinked, though weakly.
I tapped at it, trying to access the built-in emergency beacon, but the signal either wasn’t strong enough to pass from the depth or through the surrounding material of the cavern.
I exhaled and remembered the explosion, but something else niggled at the back of my mind.
Eyes.
Glowing eyes that belonged to a muscular body with powerful…
what?
Somehow, that creature saved me.
It brought me to this place.
But where was here, exactly?
And how was I breathing water?
There was a massive gap in my memory.
I shut my eyes again to recall what happened after I hit the water.
Falling - yep, I remembered; kicking to the surface and getting hit with something on my upper back by my shoulder, remembered that too.
My pulse surged at the memory of warm lips pressing against mine.
Now I remembered everything.
The handsome face and torso of a man wearing a crystalline crown over his soft brown hair with otherworldly glowing eyes could breathe underwater.
He wasn’t human, and yet, I wanted him.
Wanted his lips on mine again.
I shook my head.
This wasn’t like me.
I never kissed on a first date.
Date?
I’d been painfully single for years.
Whatever happened, I knew this man hadn’t taken me on a date.
I wasn’t dating an alien.
Now that each breath felt normal and not like a burning fire in my chest, I stood, turning in place slowly, drinking it all in.
The cavern with a few dozen tide pools was massive.
As I turned, I felt a presence.
I wasn’t alone.
“Who’s there?” I called.
From a pool at the far end of the chamber, something emerged from the water.
First, a crown; the crystalline crown I’d seen on the man.
His face was severe, regal, inhuman, with intelligent eyes glowing like sapphires with a mixture of caution and curiosity.
Coral-like markings and scales peppered his neck and sharp cheekbones.
Then his broad shoulders and his torso, powerful and alien, covered in a surface that looked like armor breached the water.
I gasped.
My feet froze to the ground.
I couldn’t run, so I stood, heart pounding.
He stalked closer to me, and the water parted, exposing a writhing mass of thick tentacles.
He rose on his appendages.
They shone in the bioluminescent flora growing on the walls, sleek, fluid, shimmering with bands of pale light.
He raised a hand, extending his palm up to me.
He was enormous, easily over seven feet tall.
His muscles had muscles.
And I wanted him.
“Kraken,” I squeaked.
So much for making a good first impression.
Did kraken eat humans?
I didn’t know.
He gestured with his hand again.
The motion wasn’t threatening, more of an invitation.
Although webbed and clawed, his hand exuded grace.
My instincts warred.
He scared me, though he had done nothing other than stand in front of me.
Yet something inside pulled deep in my chest, as if a part of me recognized him.
“Where am I?” I rasped, voice hoarse.
The kraken cocked his head, and then, to my astonishment, answered in perfect, but accented English.
“You are in Nonmore Chasm,” he rumbled.
“You are far beneath the tides of Sanos. I am Bourne, ruler of the Chasm. You fell. I caught you.” His tone was calm, but his eyes never left mine, as if willing me to believe him.
“Why?” I asked.
“The ocean chooses what it keeps,” he replied.
“As do I.”
Before I could respond, the chamber shimmered with shifting light.
I turned and saw a pool beginning to boil.
Bourne’s expression darkened.
“It is an alarm of sorts,” he explained.
“Danger lurks. You disrupt the balance.”
“What?” I asked.
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course not. You are not from my world, yet you fulfill the prophecy.”
“What prophecy?”
“You made my second heart beat for the first time in my life.” Bourne reached out for my hand again.
This time, I placed my hand in his.
He raised our joined hands to his chest.
With his free hand, he unclasped a lock on the shell armor, exposing a broad swath of his chest.
He pressed my hand against his skin.
“Feel that?” he asked, his voice a low rumble.
Against my palm, I felt two distinct pulses, heartbeats.
“Yes.”
“Only my mate can awaken my second heart.”
“What? Where’s your mate?” I yanked my hand back, balling it into a fist at my side.
“You misunderstand, little one. You are my mate. As I surfaced, my body sensed your presence. I do not know how to explain it. Mates are sacred, and though I do not yet know your name, you awakened my heart.”
“Me?” I squeaked.
“I’m not a kraken.”
“Little one, you are.” Bourne took both my hands in his.
He tugged me close, pressing my chest against his.
Together, we disappeared underneath the water’s surface.
I fought to free myself.
“Breathe.” He spoke underwater, and I understood.
“What? How is this possible?” I asked.
I gasped as I realized I wasn’t struggling to breathe.
He shrugged.
“You are my mate. Mine. What is your name, little one?”
“Kendall.”
“Kendall. A beautiful name for a beautiful female.”
“Bourne?”
“Yes, beautiful little one?” He leaned into me, his lips millimeters from mine.
“What did you mean by there was danger?”
His eyes darkened, and his voice turned solemn.
“There are many factions on Sanos. Some would tear our world apart for our resources that lie beneath. And now, you are part of our battle because you are mine.”
“Bourne, I can’t stay. I have to get back to the others.”
Bourne shook his head.
“Kendall, you don’t understand. You’re no longer fully,” he paused, searching for the word, “whatever species you are.”
“Human? I’m not human?” I jerked away.
“What did you do to me?”