Page 50 of Salt and Knot

Chapter 26

Dylan

I’ve half shifted before we break the surface of the basement pool and reach for Isla with my arms as she takes a breath of air rather than water and coughs up some of the seawater she swallowed.

I grin and pat her on the back. “You’ll get used to it, don’t worry. You don’t need to expel the water from your lungs now. They’re gills, too.”

“That is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” she croaks, and wipes her hair from her eyes, where it has plastered itself over her face. I know she’d fuss and say it looked terrible if she thought of it, but she’s never looked more beautiful to me.

I shrug happily as I reach out and pull her to me, using my tentacles to keep us both effortlessly afloat.

“That’s what I meant when I said the water you swallowed wouldn’t have mattered. He was taking you down to that spot he made centuries ago for the purpose of bonding you so you could breathe.”

“The circles of stones in the sand?” She splutters a bit more, and I rub her back soothingly and nod.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t share many thoughts with me, and even fewer words that would make sense in English. It’s a sort of religious site for him. It feels…” I struggle to find the right way to say that I recognise the power of it.

“Yeah, it does,” she agrees, linking her arms over my shoulders and leaning in for a kiss. “It felt special. I understand why we went there to be bonded.”

I take her kiss, greedy and incandescent with love. I’m so in love with my understanding, forgiving mate. I’m incredibly blessed to have found this woman.

“Thank you,” I murmur against her lips. “That means a lot to me that you accept all of me.” I purr my approval and my gratitude.

She chirps and snuggles closer.

Before it ends up with my tentacles inside her again—I’d like that, admittedly—I swim to the side of the pool.

“Hey, I thought that was leading somewhere,” she protests playfully.

“It will,” I assure her. “But my mate needs to eat. Soon. We missed dinner with the others.” Isla deserves all the good things the world has to offer. Including delicious food.

I pull myself out of the water and bring her with me. It’s one more sign of trust when she instinctively holds on.

“Besides, I’m not immortal anymore,” I tease. “You need to take care of me. I might waste away from lack of nutrition if all I’m eating is your pussy and being milked for my seed every day.”

She laughs delightedly, snuggling her face into my neck as I carry her to the changing area. “I will definitely ensure we eat then, because I don’t want to curtail either of those activities.”

“Exactly. Can’t be hungry when I knot you, or we’ll be very awkward trying to make a sandwich joined together.” I pull a towel from the shelf and wrap her in it tenderly.

“Ooo, sandwich first, then knotting?” She looks up at me, eyes bright. I can’t help but use the towel to pull her to me and drop a kiss onto her mouth.

“Then back to the water for eight tentacles,” I promise against her lips. “However you want them. They’re yours.”

Epilogue

Dylan

30 years later

“Our children are fish.” Isla rolls her eyes as she flops down onto the towel laid out next to me.

“If they are any sea creature, they are definitely cephalopods,” I correct her with a grin.

She points at the water, where all four of our children are swimming around, ducking and diving, and generally being at home in the ocean.

They haven’t shifted yet. That usually happens at puberty, and the eldest, Cordelia, is fourteen and furious that she hasn’t turned.

We didn’t have children right away, much to the frustration of my kraken side. He wanted to get started immediately, but I preferred Isla to have more life experiences. More simple fun, more time to adjust to the water, and just us two together, before she settled into being a mother. And we did. I have several yachts, and Isla and I sailed and swam around the world for years before her instincts and mine got too strong to ignore, and her heat met my rut, I couldn’t hold back… And it was inevitable.

We’ve both been even happier since.

I keep assuring Cordelia that her shift will happen. It’s not far off. I catch the scent of the sea on our daughter at odd times, as though her kraken is bubbling to the surface.

My kraken side is almost as impatient. Isla is his beloved companion, swimming with him every day. But she’s not terribly adept at hunting, and the kraken is eager to teach his young. I can feel his excitement to pass on his wealth of knowledge—things I see but don’t understand about this part of myself.

I fully shift sometimes so the kids get to know him, and he’s so good with them. As gentle and caring a monster father as Isla could hope for. He plays with the kids in the deeper water, spraying them with water, tentacles trailing into the shallows with our youngest to dig holes in the water-covered sand or drag them giggling through the tiny surf. Putting on shows of colour, and letting the kids ride on his back. But he’s too big to really play with the kids when they’re so small.

“To be fair, they look more like dolphins right now,” Isla muses, relaxing back. Her body has barely aged in the years since I first saw her naked on this beach. I don’t know how long we have left together, but I’ll be grateful for it all.

“True,” I reply, but I’m distracted by my wife’s beauty.

“Dad!” Rafferty, our eldest son, calls to me. “Dad, can we play pirate ship versus kraken?”

I laugh, and look over at Isla, who leans in to kiss me. “Go,” she says. “My monster.”