She shifted, brushing her hardening nipples against his chest while carefully disentangling one of his tentacles from around her hips. Vasil stirred, inhaling deeply, and his tentacle curled on itself before sliding to the side. Unmoving, Theo watched him settle back into a restful sleep.
Theo ran a hand down his abdomen with the lightest of touches, drifting over ridges of muscle until she reached his pelvis. Her smiled widened; his slit was partially open. Dipping her fingertips inside to gather his natural lubrication, she danced her fingers along the edges of his slit and over the tip of his cock, caressing him and coaxing his slit to open wider.
Vasil groaned, his body tensing as his cock extruded into her waiting hand. She curled her fingers around it. He sucked in a sharp breath and moved to sit up.
“Theo?” His husky voice rumbled straight to her core.
“Shh.” She slid her body down along his without releasing his shaft, pressing a hand to his chest to guide him back onto the mattress. “Let me love you.”
Theo settled herself on the bed between his tentacles. They writhed to either side of her, a few coiling loosely around her calves and ankles. She held Vasil’s gaze as she lowered her head and took his cock into her mouth. His hips jerked, sending him deeper, and she closed her lips around his shaft, sucking. He was too large to take in entirely, but she used her hand at his base, pumping along with the up-and-down glide of her mouth.
Vasil released a low moan and tipped his head back. One of his hands moved to her head, claws grazing her scalp as he slipped his fingers into her hair. The tendrils at the base of his shaft brushed her hand on each of its downward motions, growing a little stronger, a little more eager, with each passing moment. She settled her free hand on his pelvis, using her fingers and thumb to tease and caress the tendrils. His salty-sweet taste delighted her tongue, but she craved more.
One of his tentacles slipped between her legs, brushing over her inner thighs. A moment later, its tip brushed along her folds and dipped in. The tentacle moved back and forth, stroking her clit, and she hummed her pleasure around his cock.
Vasil’s fingers flexed, but he didn’t tighten his hold on her hair, nor did he scratch her scalp. He groaned again.
“My mate,” he growled low. His hips gyrated in time with the movement of her mouth, and his tentacles writhed around her, giving little suction cup kisses to every centimeter of her skin.
Theo quickened her motions, sucking him harder, deeper. Her hips undulated against his tentacle, her exhalations coming out as soft moans.
His shaft swelled an instant before he came. She pulled back just enough to keep her mouth locked around his tip and swallowed his release while continuing pumping her fist, milking him for everything he had.
He removed his fingers from her hair, grasping a fistful of the bedding with each hand. The sound of fabric tearing only urged her on. His hips rose off the bed as his entire body tensed, and he released a harsh, guttural growl, raw with pleasure.
“Theo!”
She withdrew only when his tension ebbed, and his hips fell to the bed. She had time to offer him a smug smile before his hands fell to her waist and a pair of his tentacles wrapped around her thighs. Theo yelped as he lifted her, spreading her thighs to either side of his head and pressing his lips to her open sex.
His mouth and tongue took over where his tentacle had begun.
Theo gasped as an overwhelming blast of pleasure struck her, slamming palms against the wall for stability. “Oh, fuck!”
Ripples of excitement swept through her, each hitting a bit stronger than the last, lifter her closer and closer to that euphoric peak to which only Vasil could bring her. She bit her lip and tilted her head back, grinding against his talented tongue.
Vasil moaned beneath her. He squeezed her ass, his powerful hands pinning her in place against his mouth. His tongue stroked over her flesh, stroked inside her, spearing her repeatedly — just as she longed for his cock to do. She was teetering on the edge, desperately holding on, when he closed his lips over her clit and sucked.
Theo came hard and released a series of cries which steadily grew in volume. Liquid heat flooded her, and Vasil lapped it up, licking her core as though no other taste could satisfy his hunger.
Body quivering, she dropped a hand from the wall to caress his head. “Vasil.”
Before she realized what was happening, Vasil flipped her, throwing her face down on the bedding. He grasped her hips and lifted her ass in the air, tentacles spreading her thighs to expose her sex, which still trembled with the aftermath of her last climax. Vasil thrust his cock into her, their combined secretions easing his entry.
Theo gasped, clenching the bedding in her hands as the air fled her lungs. His pelvis pressed against her backside, and his shaft filled her, stretched her near to bursting, touching every wonderful nerve ending inside her to send jolts of delight through her body. The tendrils at the base of his shaft only strengthened the sensation with their insistent stroking. Over her sex and ass.
“You are mine, Theo,” he snarled as he drew his hips back and slammed into her again, beginning a powerful, frantic rhythm. His hands and tentacles guided her movements, pulling her backward to meet his every thrust, keeping her thighs parted, leaving her to focus on only the all-consuming bliss of their coupling. “You are my fallen star.”
“Yes,” Theo breathed, shifting her knees and propping herself on her hands to push back against him and deepen his entry; she needed more. “Yours. All yours.”
He didn’t stop, didn’t slow; his pace only increased, quickening their ragged breaths and the racing of Theo’s heart. Vasil seemed to permeate her entire body. She felt him everywhere; over her, around her, within her.
One of his tentacles moved up the front of her thighs to settle over her mound. A suction cup caught her clit, sucking and massaging the swollen bud. That was all it took to rocket her to a new peak. Her sex clenched around him as the sensation blasted her through the stratosphere, leaving her to drift through stars of a million impossible colors. She came with a choked cry, arms giving out beneath her as pleasure took away any control she might once have claimed over her own body.
Vasil tightened his grip on her, and his thrusts became erratic. He slammed her against him one more time, burying himself as deep as he could go, and his seed filled her like liquid fire. His hips bucked against her ass as he roared through a release even more intense than his first.
He leaned over her, wrapping an arm around her middle. He settled a hand over her breast — the glide of his palm against her nipple sending another ripple of pleasure through her — and held her close. He continued to rock his hips as though unwilling to let the sensations fade.
They both came down gradually from the heights of their pleasure, their ragged, heavy breaths filling the room. His tentacles lazily caressed her legs and hips as the tendrils around his cock brushed over her sex, sending delightful little pulses through her.
Vasil hummed and pressed his lips to her shoulder, trailing kisses toward the crook of her neck.
“I would not object to being woken this way every morning,” he murmured.
Theo laughed, which only enhanced the feel of him inside her; they simultaneously released low, throaty sounds.
“Me neither,” she said.
The pad of his finger traced a circle around her nipple. “I will remember for next time.”
Tentacles guiding her legs along with his movements, Vasil leaned upright, withdrew from her, and lay down on his back. As he did, he turned her around to face him and eased her down atop him, entering her once more — this time slowly. Once his shaft was buried deep, he wrapped Theo in his arms and drew her close, winding his tentacles around her legs.
Theo laid her cheek against his chest, listening to the beating of his hearts. He ran one hand gently up and down her back while the other smoothed over her hair.
For a moment, Theo was speechless. This was…cuddling. The narrow seats in the
pod would have made this difficult, but this bed was perfect; too perfect. So perfect that her eyes misted with tears.
How much had she longed for this, for this closeness, for this sense of security? To have someone care about her? She’d gone without as a child, when she needed to feel those things the most, and had told herself as an adult that she didn’t need them at all. And now…
She didn’t know what she’d do if she lost him.
Theo sniffled, unable to keep the tears from falling.
Vasil’s hands stilled.
“You are crying,” he said softly.
“No, I’m not.” Her traitorous voice was thick with emotion.
“You are. What is wrong?”
“I’m not crying.”
“Then you are… What is the word? Drooling? All over me.”
She gently smacked his side. “I am not!”
He moved a hand to her chin and made her look at him. Fresh tears flowed down onto his hand.
“Tell me what is wrong, Theo.”
“I love you,” she blurted.
His eyes gleamed their impossible, beautiful silver, and his lips slowly turned up into a smile; the way his face brightened reminded her of the radiance of a sunrise, but his expression was more captivating than anything she’d ever seen in the sky.
Vasil shifted his palm to her cheek and brushed away her tears with his thumb. “Then why do you cry?”
“Because I’m scared. I’ve only felt something vaguely like this once, but it wasn’t…wasn’t nearly as strong as what I feel for you, and I lost him.”
He stared into her eyes, his smile softening a little. “I love you, too, Theo.”
Her heart leapt, and her tears came in earnest. Vasil pulled her against him and stroked her back soothingly, but she could only cling to him and cry harder.
“I fear losing you constantly,” he said. “I have always been aware of how dangerous Halora is, but it is all the more terrifying now that you are here. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe…and to be with you always.”
Somehow, her love for him grew in that moment. She didn’t know how this kraken, who’d declared her his from the moment he saw her, had forced his way into her heart so quickly, but she knew he was there to stay.
She sniffled again, rubbing her wet cheek against his velvety chest.
“No more crying, Theo.”
She hiccupped. “I said I wasn’t crying.”
Vasil chuckled; the light shaking of his body reminded her that his cock, still quite erect, was inside her. The motion sent fresh ripples of pleasure through her.
“You do not need to feel shame with me, Theodora. You are mine, and I am yours. We are as one.” His shaft pulsed inside her, and the tendrils around its base stroked her flesh. “Shall I provide you a distraction from your thoughts for a while longer?”
Vasil gyrated his hips slowly, creating just enough friction against her inner walls and her clit to rekindle the fire in her belly.
Theo pressed her lips together. “Mmm.”
“Is everything all right, Theo?” Kane asked from the unseen speakers in the room. “I know you were…engaged, earlier, but you seem to be in distress.”
She gasped, eyes rounding as she lifted her head. “Fine, Kane.”
Vasil increased the pace of his thrusts, fingertips and tentacles caressing her from head to toe, lighting up her entire body.
“Are you sure?” Kane asked. “Because it seemed like you were—”
“Tentacular penetration!” Her words ended in a cry as Vasil’s movements catapulted her toward another climax.
“Oh. I see. I suppose—”
“Kane!” Vasil growled.
“Right. Goodbye.”
Vasil cupped the back of Theo’s head and pulled her face close to his. “Your cries are for my ears only, Theodora.” He captured her mouth in a deep, soul-searing kiss.
Chapter 15
Theo scowled as she skimmed through the hundreds — thousands — of files Kane had uncovered. There were holographic videos, audio logs, and more documents than she could read in her lifetime, all detailing the operations of this facility, which had once been called Pontus Alpha. All she was really interested in were the files revealing what the IDC had done to the kraken — and what the kraken had ultimately done to the soldiers and scientists who’d mistreated them.
She understood the kraken’s hatred of the IDC. Hell, she was pissed off, and she’d barely scratched the surface of the available information. Theo had been subject to cruelty and degradation in her youth, but her experiences were nothing compared to what the kraken had endured.
“I should be lucky it was Vasil who found me,” Theo muttered as she watched the holo being displayed at the central control console — a kraken being punished for refusing to work. Hatred and murderous rage blazed in the kraken’s eyes as the IDC crewmen approached with long prods and electrocuted him. She couldn’t help but think of Vasil in that place as the kraken’s muscles convulsed and his tentacles curled on themselves.
“All right, Kane. I’ve seen more than enough.” She flicked her wrist, dismissing the holographic recording.
She recalled her pride when she’d been accepted into the IDC; the first time she put on that uniform, she’d been so proud of herself, so amazed at how well it fit. Having a place to belong and put her skills to good use had delighted her.
But she couldn’t help her shame now, even though she’d had no part in what happened here all those centuries before. Theo hadn’t been so naïve as to believe the IDC had never committed any wrong-doings, but this? Who knew what else they had done — what they were doing — elsewhere in the universe?
“At the very least, it corroborates the story he told you,” Kane said through the console.
“I didn’t need proof. I already trusted his word.”
“I know that, but he skimped on the severity of what his ancestors endured. The violations documented here would’ve destroyed the IDC as it existed back then, had this gone public. Tureon Industries, too. They had a large part in all this.”
Theo rubbed the bridge of her nose, briefly squeezing her eyes shut. “And even if I wanted to reveal the IDC for what they’ve done, I couldn’t without revealing them.”
“Correct. And we’ve no way of knowing what the response would be. Even now, there’s a small chance the IDC would simply exterminate the species.”
A chill, icier than any she’d ever felt, ran down her spine. “All the more reason not to say a word. Not like I could, anyway.”
“It wouldn’t accomplish anything,” Kane said. “Everyone involved is long dead. Who would they hold accountable for three-hundred-and-sixty-year-old crimes?”
“And they’d likely just make me disappear to keep the whole thing quiet.”
“They’d most certainly remove me either way. And I don’t want to be put in another body, not when I’ve just grown comfortable in yours. For the record, I know how dirty that sounds, but I stand by the statement.”
Theo chuckled. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She was browsing the Facility’s plans and blueprints when the control room door slid open. Vasil entered with Dracchus close behind; the larger kraken had to turn to the side and duck to fit through the doorway.
“Oh good,” Theo said, facing the console to select one of the diagrams Kane had shown her earlier, “you’re here.”
“One would think you’ve never been in this place before, as long as it took you,” said Kane.
“Can you make it stop talking?” asked Dracchus.
“Kane has a mind of his own,” Theo replied.
“I thought if you say tentacular penetration he turns off?” Vasil asked.
Theo grinned, looking at Vasil from the corner of her eye. “No, Vasil, that’s only when we’re having sex.”
Maroon pulsed over Vasil’s skin, there and gone in a flash.
Dracchus seemed to notice the color change; he eyed Vasil for a
few moments before grunting, shaking his head, and turning his attention to Theo. “Why did you ask us to come?”
“Because I ran a series of diagnostic tests on this facility’s systems,” Kane said. The console’s projected screen expanded to a three-dimensional hologram — a model of the facility. Its walls were displayed as transparent with faint outlines, revealing a myriad of internal components within. “Considering this place has received no maintenance for hundreds of years, much of it is in surprisingly good shape. That likely has a lot to do with the reactor.”
The image zoomed in to display the reactor deep in the bowels of the main building; though might’ve guessed its purpose based on its appearance, many of its parts were unlike anything she’d seen — both during and before her time with the IDC.
“This place is powered by halorium,” Kane continued, “and there is insufficient data to predict how long it can be run on the halorium stores currently within the reactor. Hundreds more years, it would seem.”
Theo turned to face the two kraken. “It’s no wonder the IDC wanted the stuff. Unlimited power source.”
Vasil leaned closer, studying the display. “We knew about the halorium core already.”
“Sorry, I was excited and digressed from the point,” said Kane. The hologram’s focus moved down nearby maintenance corridors to another room filled with machinery — just the sort of places where Theo had spent most of her life. A huge machine lit up orange. “This is the air reclamation and filtration unit. It is what keeps breathable air circulating in this facility. And it has a component on the brink of failure, relatively speaking.”
“What does that mean?” Dracchus asked.
“It means,” Theo swept her fingers outward from the center of the hologram, zooming in on the small piece Kane had highlighted in red, “once this part fails, the air in this place is going to become poisonous.”
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