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TIFFANY

Cold. It’s very, very cold.

I open my eyes, and immediately realize something is wrong. It’s dark, for one. And for another, I’m not lying down. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure every time I wake up, I find myself in a horizontal position.

Not hanging, completely vertical, strung up by my wrists and ankles against a rocky wall and surrounded by dark, wet–

Wet.

I’m underwater.

I can’t breathe underwater!

I gasp for air, reaching to clutch at my throat but held back by the slimy weeds knotted around my wrists. Where am I, where–

“Relax, human. Your thoughts are so loud. You’re as bad as the blonde one.”

My heart beats double-time in my chest. How am I not dead by now? Who is that? And why does her voice sound so familiar?

Ti..ff..nee…

Dean?

Dean! I shout with my mind as I see my fiancé dangling across from me, hanging by his hands and feet like I am. He seems much groggier than I feel, his eyes barely flicking open as his chin lolls against his chest.

Oh, Dean. My rich, spoiled boyfriend. He’s hopeless in a crisis.

So I guess that means it’s up to me to face our mystery captor.

Until we suffocate, I guess.

Who are you?

“You humans and your pesky memories. Always so slow to return when you wake from comatose…”

Coma…?

And then it hits me. Girls’ trip, at the lake with Lillian. Dean sneakily following behind us the whole drive so he could “surprise” me with midnight trysts.

He’d known how nervous I was for this trip, but he hadn’t known why.

“You are a very lucky human, Tiffany.”

Oh yeah? I turn to face the goddess lurking in the shadows.

Or Titan. Primordial sea creature. Whatever She is.

She pushes herself out into the hazy light that just barely filters into the cave, enough to highlight the seafoam glow of Her skin, and the hypnotising silver of Her eyes, and the dozens of yellow eyes of Her mane of snakes.

What makes me so lucky?

“You’re about to be set free.”

What? I look at Dean, wondering if maybe he stood up for me after all. Made some unholy sacrifice for me and our child.

Never, in all my years, would I have ever imagined I’d get to hear a goddess snort.

“Oh, Tiffany. As if.”

As if?

“As if he would ever possess the fortitude to resist me.”

I sigh. Keto is right. I may love Dean with all my heart, but a Golden Retriever has more bite than that man ever will.

Poor guy is gooeyer than a cinnamon roll. No wonder he’s out cold.

“Don’t despair, child. You have someone looking out for you.”

My blood freezes in my veins as the rest of my memories come pouring back.

My fight with Lillian. Her swimming away, not returning. My absolute panic when I realized something must have gone terribly wrong, and sending Dean out for help, only to–

You’re going to set us free? But I thought you were keeping us prisoner. So you could claim our child to pay off my debt.

From the deal we made, years ago.

“Please, God, just lift her grief away. Give my friend her happiness back, I will trade anything…”

Anything?

Keto, like a glowing, sexy Ursula rising from the waves. Making me an impossible deal. Convinced that, without Lillian, I’d never have a family of my own anyway.

And then I met Dean.

“I no longer require your child. I am going to have many of my own.”

My eyes flicker to Her stomach, which is taught and flat. No sign of pregnancy.

She snorts again.

“Even if my body shared the odd quirks of yours, young human, the days of delivering my own young are behind me.”

What do you mean?

“I’ve found a surrogate to have my children. She was more than willing. Eager, even, one might say, given her attraction to her partner. And once I gave her an offer she couldn’t refuse, convincing her was child’s play.”

Why are you telling me this?

“Because it is good news, Tiffany! Once they have been born, I will remove your gills and you can return to shore!”

Gills? Ah. So that’s why I’m not suffocating. You’re really letting us go? Why? What does finding a surrogate have to do with paying my debt?

A smile curls at the corners of Her lips, and She rockets toward me, grabbing my chin and dragging a long-tipped finger down the curve of my cheek. I suppress a shudder as Her touch sends sparks skittering across my skin.

The beautiful, powerful Keto brushes Her lips against my ear, and whispers the devastating news.

“Lillian is my surrogate. Your precious friend agreed to have my babies if I would set you free. Now they are growing inside her, and we…

“Well. We shall have to find a way to occupy ourselves, won’t we?”

At the mercy of monsters, can our foursome of heroes escape their destiny intact?

The story continues in Bride of the Kraken !