fuck her. I was so hard and ready.
But so was my monster.
Oh no, you’re not.
It didn’t want me sinking inside her. The beast wrenched inside of me, sending me falling from the bed to land on my knees with a gasp. Pain tore into me as Sasha cried out.
“Ian! What’s wrong?”
“Go,” I shouted to her. Not wanting her to see. “Leave. Now.”
I stumbled to the balcony door and made it to the railing. My fingers had already fused together, and I could feel the change in the texture of my skin, the length of my limbs, the protuberances of the extra arms. I tried not to cry out, knowing Sasha listened. Yet I couldn’t help myself as the violence of the beast within fought me.
And won. As the monster exploded forth, I threw myself overboard.
12
Sasha: Holy shit, he is a monster.
The Future: In bed.
It was one thing knowing the kraken and Ian shared a body. Another to realize just how painful the process was for him.
The agony on his face wasn’t feigned. The violent expansion and reshaping of his body not some euphoric experience as vaunted by the furry shifters.
The kraken used Ian with callous disregard, ripping out of his body in a violent birth that only lacked blood. It certainly dished out the pain, though.
Fear filled me as the monster took the man from me, and not for the reason I’d expected.
Yes, the beast struck a note of terror in me. A tightening of my bladder, a primal fear that I couldn’t help. I mean, look at the tentacles. They could crush me without even trying. The mouth was huge enough to swallow me with a gulp, but he’d not harmed me before, and I realized the monster didn’t scare me.
What frightened me was seeing the kraken in control. Ian had no choice, and that was a shame because he seemed a rather nice man. He deserved better than this. I needed to help him.
Apparently, giving me an orgasm hadn’t been enough magic—even if his tongue had wrung some powerful reactions from me. Perhaps if we’d gone all the way? Which seemed kind of stupid. It wasn’t as if I were a virgin. That kind of sex had some oomph to it. But just regular bump and grind? Nothing magical there.
Love him.
Me or the seeing, didn’t matter who said it. It changed nothing. The deal was I liked Ian. Liked him well enough to let him between my legs. And a fun time had been had by me.
But that didn’t mean I loved him.
Don’t get me wrong, my heart raced around him to the point where I wondered if I should get it checked out. My libido leaped inside my body with excitement whenever he was near. He engaged so many of my senses. But I’d been infatuated before. It never lasted.
What about the fact that none of the others had elicited feelings this intense?
But was it love?
If it were, then he wouldn’t have left.
The seeing whispered within, teasing me with other ways to break the curse. Flashes of images usually reserved for my clients. The very fact that the seeing showed me my own possible futures seemed strange. Why now when before all it had shown me was nothingness or water?
That doubt led to me questioning the veracity of certain peeks ahead. Like the supposed timeline where I placed black candles in a pentagram drawn with blood which ended in me calling some nasty demon that tried to eat me.
How about the crossroad where I went on a strange quest and became a kraken, too? No, thanks.
The timeline where I did nothing.
The one where I said “fuck him,” and screwed another man, which led to Ian sinking the ship with everyone aboard.
Each vision was crueler than the next until I grabbed my head and screamed, “Enough.” The seeing toyed with me. Why? I didn’t know, so I ignored everything it showed me and followed my instincts.
They said to go after him. Ian had spilled out of this room in pain, hinting at embarrassment—as if he had anything to be embarrassed about.
I needed to talk to him, tell him that he didn’t scare me. That I’d do my best to help him fight this curse. Do my damnedest to turn this infatuation into love while at the same time planning to hit Atlantis and find the spell of all spells. After all, I knew a witch.
I threw on my dress but didn’t bother with the panties. I felt more