by Smith, S. E.
Aymee leaned closer and examined the puncture marks. “Let’s take him to the infirmary. I can run a scan to see how serious the damage is and get him patched up. Just give me a sec to tell Arkon.”
Randall settled Ikaros into the water as Aymee slipped back into her room. Before he removed his hand, Ikaros caught it with his forepaws and clamped his teeth around one of Randall’s fingers with surprising gentleness. The prixxir pulled his head back, ran his rough tongue over Randall’s skin a few times, and finally released him.
“Let’s go get this little guy checked out,” Aymee said when she reemerged.
They walked to the infirmary together. It was the most familiar room in the building for Randall, who’d spent his first two weeks in the Facility laid up in one of these beds, receiving daily shots filled with chemicals he couldn’t name to speed along his recovery. Being bedridden for all that time had taken a toll on his body, but the hardest part had been watching Arkon recover from more severe wounds in a matter of days.
Aymee walked to the closest bed and placed a folded blanket atop the sheet. “Go ahead and lay him down,” she said as she swung the overhead scanner into place.
Randall removed Ikaros from the water. The prixxir clamped onto Randall’s hand, trembling in the open air, and didn’t let go once he was down.
“Will my hand be in the way?” he asked.
“Just shift it to the side.” She activated the scanner. “Okay, little guy, let’s see what’s going on.”
The scanner projected numerous thin beams of light onto Randall’s hand and the prixxir within his gentle grasp, revealing intricate webs of blood vessels beneath skin and scale.
As Aymee adjusted the scanner, it displayed more of the underlying anatomy. The damage to the muscles of the prixxir’s hindquarters was apparent, but the nearby bones looked undamaged.
Ikaros made a whining sound and dug his claws into Randall’s skin.
Randall shifted his finger to pet the underside of Ikaros’s jaw. The prixxir angled his head to close his mouth over Randall’s fingertip again, gnawing softly. Was he doing that to comfort himself?
Aymee switched off the scanner and pushed it away. Leaning down, she ran a hand along his scaled back. “Nothing serious. I can clean and seal the wounds, and he’ll be good as new in no time.”
“Will it hurt him?”
“I can apply an anesthetic around the wounds to numb the surrounding area. That should help. I don’t want to risk injecting him in case he has an adverse reaction.”
“All right. Let’s do it.”
Randall held the prixxir in place as Aymee worked. Ikaros clenched his jaw, his little claws and teeth biting into Randall’s skin. Randall got the sense that, despite being wounded and frightened, the prixxir was trying to keep from doing him harm.
After she’d sealed the wounds, Aymee wrapped a bandage around the newly healed skin and looked at Randall. “Try to keep him from scratching or biting the area for a day or two to make sure he doesn’t open those back up.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Randall lifted Ikaros off the bed and gently pried his hand out of the prixxir’s hold. Tiny beads of blood welled where his skin had been broken.
“We should probably get those cleaned up, too.”
“It’s nothing to fuss over, Aymee.”
“I’m not fussing. However small, those were made by a wild animal. Do you really want to chance an infection?” Aymee’s expression communicated her stance clearly — argue with me at your own risk.
Ikaros settled himself along Randall’s forearm, leaning his chin into Randall’s gently rubbing fingers.
Randall placed his free hand atop Aymee’s rolling cart.
“How are you doing, Randall?” she asked as she disinfected the little punctures.
“I’m alive,” he replied, and then hesitated. She didn’t need to be burdened by his troubles, but everything felt so complicated, so confusing. His life spent on the hunt hadn’t been easy, but at least it had been straightforward. This was all new territory for him. “I guess I feel…lost, though. Trapped. And part of me feels like I should’ve died a couple times over by now.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” she said, setting the disinfectant aside. “I know this isn’t what you planned for, or what you wanted, but think of it as a new start. You’ve earned the trust of some of the kraken, and that goes a long way. You have a place here, Randall, you just need to figure out what you want it to be.”
“Easier said than done, I guess. How did you deal with giving everything up? How’d you just leave your old life and accept this one?”
“Because I have hope.” Aymee stared at Ikaros silently for a moment. “It might be wishful thinking, but I hope, someday, kraken and humans will come together peacefully. I’d like to go back home. I enjoy my time here, but I miss the sun, I miss land, and most of all, I miss my family. I think I put a lot of stress on my father, too. He’s the only doctor in The Watch, and it’s all on his shoulders now that I’m gone.” She met Randall’s gaze. “But if I have to choose, I’ll always pick Arkon. Does that make me selfish?”
The question was harder to answer than Randall might’ve thought. Most everyone he’d talked to in The Watch had said Aymee was a kind woman, always willing to help in whatever way she could. What did it mean that she’d chosen Arkon over everyone and everything she’d known? What was it like to have someone so devoted that they’d give up everything for you?
“If it does, it’s the best reason for selfishness I can think of,” he finally replied.
“That’s good to hear,” Aymee said with a smile. “I better get back to Arkon.” She petted Ikaros before placing her hand over Randall’s. “It might not feel like it, but you’re not alone here, Randall.”
“That’s good to hear, too.”
Once she’d left, he shifted his attention to Ikaros. The prixxir glanced up at him with half-lidded eyes.
“Let’s get you some food,” Randall said.
Oddly, his mind drifted to Rhea as he walked to the mess hall; she’d barely left his side during his recovery, and he’d even woken on several occasions to find her leaning on the bed, asleep.
Perhaps Aymee was correct. He wasn’t alone.
But was that what he wanted?
3
“It’s been two days. Do you think Ikaros remembers me?” Melaina asked, bouncing with excitement as she and her mother moved along the corridor.
Rhea smiled at the youngling. “Perhaps.”
Melaina had begged ceaselessly to visit the creature over those two days. Rhea had been tempted to give in — though it wasn’t the prixxir she wanted to see — but she knew the creature needed time to heal and adjust to its new environment.
They passed door after door on their way through the cabins. They’d come often to visit Macy and her youngling, Sarina, but this was their first time going to Randall’s room. Rhea’s hearts thumped as they reached his door. A strange anxiousness tightened her chest at the prospect of seeing him again, this time in his den.
Before humans came to the Facility, kraken rarely went to one another’s dens unless they were mating.
Melaina moved in front of her mother and raised her fist. She knocked rapidly on the door, tentacles shifting restlessly beneath her.
After several moments — each of which felt impossibly long — the door slid open. Randall stood in the doorway, his eyes wide and lips parted as he looked from Rhea to Melaina and back again.
Rhea skimmed her gaze over Randall’s half-naked body. Since leaving the infirmary, he’d kept himself fully covered, usually in form-fitting jumpsuits. Now, he wore only pants, leaving his torso bare. His shoulders rose and fell with his heavy breaths and a sheen of sweat coated his skin. Rhea’s nostrils flared as she inhaled his masculine scent.
“Can I see Ikaros?” Melaina asked.
Broken from her distraction by her daughter’s voice, Rhea lifted her eyes to Randall’s.
“Yeah,” he
said, seeming to shake off his own stupor. “He’s roaming around some—” Randall glanced down as the prixxir, limping slightly, walked between his legs and brushed its long, flat tail over his ankle. “He’s right here, apparently. There’s some food over on the desk if you want to feed him.”
“I do! Thank you!” Melaina bent down and wrapped her arms around the creature, cuddling it to her chest as she straightened. She closed her eyes and brushed her cheek against Ikaros’s head. Offering Randall a smile, she slipped past him and into his room.
“The creature appears gentle,” Rhea said.
Randall twisted to glance over his shoulder. “Ikaros is young. I’m no expert on prixxir, but I don’t think he’s more than a couple months old. He’d still be with his parents right now, under normal circumstances, so I guess I’m taking their place.”
“And he is well?”
“He’s not at a hundred percent yet, but he can move around well enough, and I swear he eats twice his body weight in fish every day.”
Rhea smirked. “As do all younglings.”
“I guess now I understand why my father used to say he could barely keep enough food in the house while I was growing up.” He looked down at his bare chest. “If you give me a minute, I’ll go get cleaned up. I didn’t expect anyone to stop by.”
Her gaze dipped to his body again, and her smirk faded. She took in the contours of his musculature, followed the patch of dark hair on his chest as it flowed toward his waistband, narrowing in its descent. Her fingers twitched with the memory of how his hair had felt beneath her palm.
“I do not mind,” she said.
He chuckled, running a hand over his head. “That makes sense.”
Rhea raised a brow. “In what way?”
“I haven’t seen a kraken with clothes on yet, and I’ve been here for weeks. I get the sense that nudity doesn’t really bother you.”
“Why would we wear such constrictive things? They would hinder our swimming and obscure our camouflage.”
“When you put it that way, it makes sense. But here I am, talking about your—” his eyes dipped to her chest and rose quickly. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Rhea. I didn’t mean to keep you standing in the hallway. Would you like to come in?” He stepped aside and gestured to the room behind him.
Rhea moved through the doorway. Randall’s unique scent permeated the air; she inhaled deeply and studied his living space. The prixxir stood atop the desk, gobbling up the flakes of cooked, white meat Melaina was feeding it. The bed, positioned against the wall to the right, was neatly made, something she’d rarely seen in Macy’s room. There were a few pieces of clothing visible, but the ones on the table were folded and the shirt on the bed was spread flat.
Had Randall always been so tidy, or was this him taking some control over his life after everything had been turned upside-down?
“He is eating so well,” Melaina said, twisting to grin at Rhea and Randall. Her attention immediately swung back to the prixxir. She offered another bite of fish, and the creature devoured the morsel, long tail waving eagerly.
“That’s good. It’ll help him heal faster,” Randall said.
Rhea watched her daughter pet the creature. Melaina’s face was aglow with delight, and her eyes sparkled with adoration. Rhea’s chest tightened; the youngling’s wanderlust had caused trouble over the last year, but seeing Melaina so happy filled Rhea’s hearts near to bursting.
And it was because of Randall. He’d made it possible by agreeing to care for the prixxir.
Ikaros chirruped, cocking its head and tilting it back when Melaina dangled a bit of fish higher up. The prixxir followed the moving food with large eyes, and the instant the meat came within its reach, it darted up to snatch the food out of Melaina’s fingers. She giggled.
“Once he’s fully grown, you won’t be able to hold food out of his reach anymore,” Randall said. “Not until you grow up, yourself.”
“When I’m as tall as you?” Melaina asked.
Randall glanced at Rhea, sweeping his gaze over her from tentacles to head, before looking back at Melaina. “You’ll probably be taller than me when you’re done.”
“Are you done growing? You don’t seem so tall for a male.”
Rhea smirked.
“Yeah, I’m all done growing. Maybe I’m not as big as Dracchus—”
“No one is as big as Dracchus,” Melaina interrupted.
Randall smiled. “But I make up for it by being the hairiest one in this whole place.”
Melaina laughed, pointing at Randall’s chest. “You are!”
“Everyone has to have something they’re good at.”
“Being the hairiest cannot be all you are good at,” Rhea said.
“I might have a few other talents,” he replied, eyes roving over Rhea’s body again. Her brows rose, and her lips curved into a smile. “But I usually let other people judge that for themselves.”
Rhea turned her face toward her daughter. “Melaina, go visit with Macy and Sarina.”
Melaina straightened excitedly. “Can I bring Ikaros to show Macy?”
“Maybe another time, kid. He’s still adjusting to living in here, and we don’t want to overwhelm him,” Randall said.
She visibly deflated, but said, “I understand.” Melaina turned back to the prixxir and smiled, running her palm along its back. “I will see you again soon, Ikaros.”
Randall walked to the desk and knelt. Melaina gently lifted Ikaros and passed him to Randall, giving the creature one more scratch under the chin.
“You can come visit him any time your mom says you can,” Randall said, “but you have to promise me you’ll check with her first.”
“I will,” Melaina said, her smile widening. She placed a hand on Randall’s cheek. “Thank you, Randall.”
He smiled back at her, and though his expression was a bit off-balance — perhaps he hadn’t anticipated such contact — it was warm and genuine. “Any time. Better go and check on Macy and Sarina now, and make sure they’re doing okay.”
Melaina hurried to the door, opened it, and left. Rhea placed her hands on the doorframe and leaned into the hallway for a moment, ensuring the youngling went in the correct direction, before glancing at Randall over his shoulder.
He brushed his hand over Ikaros’s back much like Melaina had before setting the creature on the floor. “Thanks for stopping by, Rhea. It means a lot to me.”
Rhea pressed the button on the wall, closing the door, and turned to face him. There was no reason to hold back; she shifted her skin to a deep maroon and stalked closer to him. She raked her gaze over his body, admiring his strength — so different from that of male kraken, but no less appealing.
Confusion spread over his features, furrowing his brow and tugging his lips into a frown. “Rhea… What’s going on?”
She smiled as she approached him and stretched a tentacle to coil around his waist. Her suction cups kissed his bare flesh, sampling the saltiness of his sweat and the sweetness of his skin. She ran the tip of another tentacle over the leg of his pants, wishing they were gone.
Rhea waved her hand toward her pelvis and opened her slit, allowing it to flower for him. “I wish to mate with you, human.”
His color changed in the subtle way Macy’s and Aymee’s sometimes did, face taking on a pinkish hue, and his eyes gleamed as he stared at her slit. “Rhea, I…” Shaking his head, he stepped back, moving his hands to the tentacle around his waist. “It’s a bit fast, don’t you think?”
She tugged him closer, brushing the backs of her fingers across his temple, teasing herself with a fleeting feel of his soft hair. “We can mate slowly, if you wish.”
He released a shuddering breath, fingers tensing on her tentacle, and the heat of his body increased. Clenching his jaw, he took hold of her wrist and guided her arm down while gently pushing her tentacle away with his other hand. “That’s not what I mean, Rhea. This whole thing is too fast.”
Rhea drew back,
skin reverting to its normal gray. She glanced at her wrist, encased within his fingers, and lowered her brow. “You are rejecting me?”
“No, I’m not rejecting you.”
“Then you wish to mate?”
“No.” He caught his lower lip between his teeth, and that ravenous light flashed in his eyes again. “I mean, not now.”
Rhea frowned, uncoiling her tentacle from his waist and pulling it away.
Randall released her wrist and ran his hand through his hair, down the back of his head, and around to rub the stubble on his cheek. “This is just…a little more complicated where I’m from. People have sex outside relationships, yeah, but for the most part, it’s…a process. Something you build up to.”
“I do not understand. If we both wish to mate, why,” she waved her hand as she searched for the words, “build up?”
“Because mating right now wouldn’t be anything more than…lust. A fling.”
What was a fling? “This has always been the way of the kraken.”
He extended his arms to either side, muscles shifting beneath his skin. “I’m not a kraken, Rhea.”
She turned her head toward the door. Macy and Aymee were likely in their rooms nearby, two humans who’d brought change to the kraken. Was this part of that change? Had the human females built up to something more meaningful with Jax and Arkon?
Rhea was one of the most sought-after females in the Facility. She needed only to look at a male, and he would come, offering his protection, his kills, and his body for her needs. Yet Randall had denied her. Her.
She felt out of her element.
“What would you have me do?” Rhea asked.
“Take your time. Show me who you are, and learn who I am.”
Rhea frowned and held her hands out to either side, as he had before. “This is me.”
“That’s what you are, but not who you are. I have an idea, but I want to know more.” He took her hands in his and held them between their bodies, bridging the space that separated them. His hands were so different — larger than hers, with blunt nails, rough skin, and no webbing between their fingers. “I want to know you better. And, maybe, I’ll figure out my place here in the process.”