As difficult as it had been to leave Sarina behind, Macy knew her daughter would be safe and well cared for. Aymee and Rhea would be there, along with Arkon and Randall. Even Dracchus had vowed to keep close. The big kraken had terrified Macy when she’d first encountered him, but he’d shown a much softer side in the time since — and Sarina had fallen in love with the big, gruff kraken.
Macy was sure the feeling was mutual. Dracchus doted on Sarina, displaying a gentleness with her of which no one had thought him capable.
Today was for Macy and Jax to be husband and wife, to be mates. To cast aside all their worries and just…enjoy their love.
Her excitement had steadily grown as they’d left the Facility behind. Somehow, she’d managed to keep her imagination from going wild with speculation about the surprise Jax had promised, but even now it was taking all her willpower to keep her heart from fluttering and her teeth from nibbling her lower lip. She held Jax a little tighter and smiled as one of his tentacles caressed her calf.
Macy tightened her legs around his waist. She wished it were her skin touching his. She wanted to feel his solidness, his heat, and his strength directly. It didn’t matter how many times they’d made love, she craved him with every fiber of her being. She would always crave him.
Jax slowed, and his tentacles drew in close. Something changed in the surrounding water — the sounds were suddenly not so distant, but they were also somehow smaller. She had the sense that Jax had carried her into an enclosed space.
His movements were more restrained now, more cautious, and he held Macy as though there were no more precious cargo in all Halora. Her heart quickened. They must have been nearing their destination, and even though she was brimming with excitement, she knew it didn’t ultimately matter what awaited — this time with him had been worth it.
But that did not mean she wouldn’t have preferred being with him skin-to-skin.
She stroked his jaw, feeling her way to his lips, which curved into a smile beneath her fingertips. Macy grinned; her impatience was making it impossible to keep from fidgeting. She ran her fingers back and forth, hating the mask that prevented her from pressing her mouth to his, hating the suit that separated their bodies, hating that she could not feel his heat.
Jax tipped his forehead against her mask and slid one of his hands down to gasp her backside — as though his thoughts were in line with hers. She chuckled and rubbed her sex against his bulging slit, unable to hold back a moan at the sweet pleasure caused by that friction. He clutched her closer, and his chest vibrated; she knew just by the feel that he was growling at her teasing.
Macy felt Jax’s tentacles spread wide. He surged upward, the sudden speed making her stomach lurch and tingle delightfully. That quickly, their heads broke the water’s surface, and sound rushed in — the drone of falling water echoing in an enclosed space, the music of water lapping at stone, and, farther off, the dull crash of waves against shoreside cliffs.
Jax moved forward, first gliding with the natural grace of his swimming and then dragging himself along the bottom in that always strange, uneven gait all kraken seemed to assume on land. The water receded around Macy; as it fell away, her body weight gradually reasserted itself, prompting her to loop her arms around Jax’s neck and squeeze his waist with her thighs, locking herself in place.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had one arm banded around her middle and his hand firmly planted on her backside to offer additional support, holding her sex snugly against his hard bulge.
He kept that hand there as he shifted the other to her leg, guiding it down. Her foot settled on solid ground. Jax repeated the process with her other leg, his motions deliberately slow, his fingers flexing as though he were struggling not to squeeze her as his palm slid along her thigh. Macy shivered, and heat flared at her core.
Jax’s chest rumbled again, and this time Macy heard his growl; it was hungry, strained, bristling with desire and promise.
“Though I would like little more than to tear this suit off your body, Macy, for now I will be content with removing your mask.”
“Sam,” she said breathlessly, “release the mask.”
Macy lifted her hand as the mask unsealed with a hiss, its glass clearing to reveal Jax. He was looking down at her, his emerald eyes hot and fierce, brimming with lust, and his gray skin having turned maroon. She pulled the mask away. Before she could do or say anything more, Jax cupped the back of her head with one of his big hands, tilted her face up toward his, and claimed her mouth in a bruising, passionate kiss.
She closed her eyes, moaned, and pressed closer, wrapping her arms around his neck again as she succumbed to the kiss. He devoured her, his mouth and tongue coaxing hers into dance that made her hot all over. He tasted of sea salt and everything Jax, and she was eager for more. His tentacles twined around her legs, climbing up and up, until the tip of one teasingly stroked between her thighs.
Jax hooked his claws under her hood and drew it back, freeing her hair, which spilled over her shoulders and down her back. He caught the strands in his fist and drew her head back, breaking the kiss.
Panting softly, lips tender, Macy opened her eyes and met his gaze.
He raised his other hand, brushing the pad of his thumb across her lower lip, fingers trembling lightly in his restraint. His tentacles retreated slowly, and he released a shaky breath through his nostrils. “Not yet. Soon, but not yet.”
Macy touched her tongue to his thumb and grinned, smoothing her palms down his shoulders and over his chest. “Why not yet?”
Jax growled and caught her chin in his strong fingers. Color rippled across his skin, the maroon deepening for an instant before it reverted to its normal gray. She knew he’d forced the change.
“Female, you are making this difficult. I will gift you with pleasure through the night and well into the morning, but first I must present a different gift.”
“A different gift?” That was enough to stoke her curiosity again and divert her thoughts from the need raging through her body.
He dropped his hands, looping an arm around her middle, and shifted away, guiding her to turn so she stood beside him. Some part of her had known where she was just by the sounds when she’d emerged from the water, but this was confirmation — Jax had brought her to the cave where she’d awoken after the storm a year ago. The place where she’d first laid eyes upon him.
Though she’d survived it, that storm had been the end of the life she’d known — and the beginning of a new one. Were it not for that disaster, she would have been back in The Watch now, joined with Camrin because it had been expected of her. Unhappy, unfulfilled, and consumed with guilt for not loving him the way he deserved.
She would never have met Jax.
She’d spent so much time on this island at the cavern’s center, where her makeshift shelter, crafted from a canvas sail, still stood. All the eclectic items Jax had kept here remained in their crates and containers, and there was an arrangement of seemingly fresh wood right where they’d cooked many of their meals. She remembered those nights, lying next to Jax, staring up at the stars, remembered their first kiss, remembered the first time they came together as lovers. Everything between them had been so new, at once terrifying and exciting.
Macy hadn’t returned here since they’d left all those months ago. Being back now struck her with an unexpected wave of emotion too powerful to decipher.
But it was not the same as she remembered — there were flowers of half a dozen colors spread all around, standing in the containers, draped over her shelter, scattered around the edges of the island. Vibrant petals danced on the surface of the pool, complementing the faint rainbow cast by the afternoon sunlight that was striking the waterfall’s mist through the opening above.
More unexpected splashes of color called her gaze to the cave walls. Those walls were adorned with paintings, each of them as new and brightly colored as the flowers.
Her brows creased, and she glanced at Jax befo
re stepping away from him. She stopped at the edge of the water, staring at one of the paintings.
It was large and crude, little more than simple lines and shapes, but she knew what it depicted. A ship at sea, a stormy sky. A woman with golden hair falling into the water. Her eyes shifted to the next painting — the same woman on a little island, a waterfall behind her, and a tentacled figure watching her from afar.
“Jax,” she whispered as tears welled in her eyes. She brushed the moisture away and followed the images, followed the story they told, more warmth suffusing her heart with each one. There was the tentacled figure bringing the woman food, there was a ghostly man teaching the woman to dress as the tentacled figure looked away — the man complete with a tiny line dangling between his legs.
Macy laughed. It only seemed to force out more tears, prompting her to quickly cover her mouth.
There was a scene of the tentacled figure and the woman cooking together, a scene of them dancing together, a scene of them swimming in the ocean together. Another image was them fleeing a huge razorback, another still of the woman slaying the beast.
The last of the images depicted the tentacled figure and the woman holding each other — and cradling a tiny figure in their arms, one with brown hair and tentacles of her own. Sarina.
This was their lives together. All those moments that had added up to become their story, all those moments that had brought them closer and closer together.
A section of the cave wall beside the image of Jax, Macy, and Sarina was painted maroon, the same shade Jax took on when he could not contain his desire. Macy sniffled, wiped her eyes again, and turned her head to look at Jax. He was a couple meters away, lips pressed together and eyes worried and expectant.
“What is the last one?” she asked. “The one that’s just a color?”
He moved closer, keeping his gaze locked with hers. His hand settled over her cheek, and his touch was gentle as he tucked some of her hair behind her ear and brushed the pads of his fingers across her skin.
Jax lifted his gaze, running it along the walls. “We will forever have our shared past, all these memories we have made together.” His eyes met hers again. “But we cannot know what the future will bring. Only one thing remains certain, Macy — that my desire for you, my love for you, will never fade. Whatever challenges we may face, you will always be mine. That is the meaning of that color.”
A loud sob escaped Macy as she threw herself against him. He caught her, wrapped her in his arms, and held her close. She clung to him, burying her face against his shoulder. Her chest and throat were tight with the emotions welling within her.
“Macy? Did I do this wrong?” Jax ran his hand soothingly up and down her spine. “I meant only to bring you joy.”
“You did make me happy—you do make me happy. It’s not…it’s not this.” She sniffled and raised her head, looking up at her mate. His oblong pupils were expanded, nearly engulfing the green of his eyes. “All this time, all those days you’ve been gone, you’ve been working on this. For me. And I…” Her throat constricted, and more tears spilled down her cheeks. “I thought you were leaving me, Jax. That you’d grown tired of being chained to one place…chained to me.”
Jax’s eyes widened, and he recoiled slightly even as he tightened his hold on her. “Never, Macy.” He cradled her face between his hands and leaned closer, tipping his forehead against hers. “Never.”
Macy swallowed thickly and nodded. “I’m so sorry I doubted you. I never should have.”
“I should have spoken with you. I should not have given you reason to doubt.” His claws grazed her cheek. “I wandered because I was missing something, because I did not know where I belonged. I tried to fill that space by delving into the unknown, by collecting things, objects that I once treasured. But you, my Macy, you outshine them all.”
She blinked away the tears and smiled up at him. “I love you so much.”
Jax’s lips stretched into a wide smile, baring his sharp teeth. “And I love you. No matter how far I wander, no matter where the future takes us, I will always find my way back to you, my most precious treasure.”
Thank you so much for reading Treasure of the Abyss, Jewel of the Sea, Hunter of the Tide, and we hope you also enjoyed the exclusive short story, The Anniversary as we revisited Macy, Jax, and so many of our other beloved characters in the Kraken Series!
Are you excited to read more of our Kraken? Dying to know who our gruff Dracchus falls for? Then check out HEART OF THE DEEP!
Also by Tiffany Roberts
THE INFINITE CITY
Entwined Fates
Silent Lucidity
Shielded Heart
Untamed Hunger
Savage Desire
Tethered Souls (Coming Soon!)
THE KRAKEN
Treasure of the Abyss
Jewel of the Sea
Hunter of the Tide
Heart of the Deep
Rising from the Depths
Fallen from the Stars
Lover from the Waves
STANDALONE TITLES
Claimed by an Alien Warrior
Dustwalker
Escaping Wonderland
His Darkest Craving
The Warlock’s Kiss
Ice Bound: Short Story
ISLE OF THE FORGOTTEN
Make Me Burn
Make Me Hunger
Make Me Whole
Make Me Yours
VALOS OF SONHADRA COLLABORATION
Tiffany Roberts - Undying
Tiffany Roberts - Unleashed
VENYS NEEDS MEN COLLABORATION
Tiffany Roberts - To Tame a Dragon
Tiffany Roberts – To Love a Dragon
About the Author
Tiffany Roberts is the pseudonym for Tiffany and Robert Freund, a husband and wife writing duo. Tiffany was born and bred in Idaho, and Robert was a native of New York City before moving across the country to be with her. The two have always shared a passion for reading and writing, and it was their dream to combine their mighty powers to create the sorts of books they want to read. They write character driven sci-fi and fantasy romance, creating happily-ever-afters for the alien and unknown.
Website:
https://authortiffanyroberts.wordpress.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTiffanyRoberts
BookBub:
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tiffany-roberts
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The Kraken Series Boxset: A Sci-fi Alien Romance Series Books 1-3 with Bonus Exclusive Short Story Page 66