Page 65 of The Monster's Mate

We all laugh since she’s not here.

“By the way,” Stratek says, “I know you can’t tell yet, but my Tessa is giving me a second kish.” He cups her flat belly with his larger hand.

“Congratulations!” I say, at the same time Sam does.

Tessa blushes. “We’re trying to catch up with Lilaina and Juris apparently. I don’t know what we’d do without Shana helping out.” She reaches out and clasps Stratek’s sister’s hand with hers.

Shana shrugs. “What better way to be around cute little bundles of love and not have to go through labor, right?”

Maleek has their own little girl sitting on his shoulders, her tentacles winding around his shoulders and arms.

“Okay,” Tessa calls out a roll call, pointing to the kids. “Mikki?” A little boy darts through Stratek’s tentacles. “Shana’s got the twins. Maleek’s got Bessi. Skiden has ours. I think we have everyone! Driki, Bantu, you’ll hold down the fort until Lilaina gets home?”

“Aye, aye, Princess,” Bantu smiles broadly, then elbows Driki. “Princess put me in charge.” Little Driki scowls further.

Then Tessa takes pity on Driki and smooths the little tufts of poky, hair-like protrusions on top of his head. “I’m proud of you.”

His scowl disappears and he smiles up at her.

“Aww,” I murmur and Skiden brings my fingers up to his lips to kiss.

And Bantu nudges Driki with his tail. “I’m proud of you too,” he whispers shyly. Driki’s tail entwines with his and this time we all sigh.

In a special “garage” is where the new shuttle is kept. Tessa opens the door so we all pile in.

“It’ll be a tight fit,” Stratek says, as more of us squish inside. “But we’re all friends here, right? Hope everyone bathed today,” he mutters.

When Skiden’s tentacles wrap around me, I see that all humans have to get used to being bound by their mates. Because Stratek’s wound around Tessa, poor Sam has both guys wrapped around her, and Shana and Maleek are the same.

When Roxian notices, she picks up a tentacle—though it doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s Mejak’s or Kalrian’s—and winds it around her own shoulders like a shawl.

“When the Britonians lived among us, they lived underwater because our biggest enemy was the Tshiki,” Skiden murmurs in my ear. “They could leap great distances and cage objects like this shuttle. But now they’re gone so the Britonians are helping us build things like this.”

When the shuttle stops, all the tentacled people get out, even those with children. Apparently, the half-human kids are able to breathe water, so it’s easy enough for them to swim through the underground tunnels.

It leaves the humans and Tiiblets in the shuttle. Roxian holds still, hiding behind Samantha like maybe we can’t see her. When Sam has enough, she turns and picks her up, holding her in her arms, but Roxian gives a pained yelp. “Please don’t make me go swim! I’m human too. Just smaller.”

“Here, it’s okay,” I murmur, giving her my hand to hold.

“It’ll be fine, Roxian,” Tessa murmurs. “The Brits have tested this shuttle many times. Besides, sweetie. You float, remember?”

“But I’m scared for my humans,” she says.

“Aww,” Sam says, hugging her.

“You can stay. The shuttle’s light enough. Hold on,” Tessa says as we cut through the water. “The oceans on this planet are shallow in certain spots, which make it safe for swimming. When it’s deep, there are a lot of giant predators out. Normally we don’t swim with lights on because it will attract them. Which is why the Britonians chose this spot to place the tunnels.”

From the front window, we see where the tunnel begins. It has a more narrow opening that bends and then widens.

But it’s not completely filled with water.

“Pretty cool, huh? Originally, the tunnels were created as a safe haven for Tiiblets. When they swim in, they can maneuver low enough to get to the entrance and once inside? They float up to the top where the air is. Nothing can reach them in here. Back when we were traveling by foot, it was easy enough to push them through to the tunnel, they can stay as long as they want before floating up to the other side which is your territory. The water is more shallow on that side, connected to your cliffs, so there’s no Tshiki. Well, there’s none left anyway, but back when they existed, I mean,” Tessa says, but I think she’s mostly talking to soothe Roxian.

“None of the guys are in the tunnels,” I notice. I kind of expected the ones with children to be inside.

“Ha. The whole group of them are so fast. Swim like fish. You’ll see. Even the Tiiblets move quickly with those tails.”

We get to the other side of the tunnel and I can see the land we’re moving toward, where all of the purple people wait. Tessa powers down the shuttle as we get near the shore and some of the bigger males step into the water to push us to shore. Once the shuttle is settled on dry land, she opens the door.

---