Page 25 of The Kraken Games

Luna Storm.

And like a storm, she’d ravaged him. Then moved on.

But still, he couldn’t quite accept that she’d left without a word. Wildly, he scanned the dressing table for a note, her phone number, something. He even searched the floor, looked under the bed, hoping she’d left her panties or something behind, something he could tuck away and hold on to, remembering her.

He jumped off the bed and checked the en suite. The spa bath was empty. He ran to the door and looked up and downthe corridor. He wanted to howl, the taste of disappointment metallic in his mouth. It made no sense. He’d slept with enough species last year and walked away with a hug and a thanks, and not a single regret.

Yet in one night this human… She’d touched him—more than physically. He’d felt a yearning to get close to her from that first moment he’d seen her in the water, hadn’t he? It had gone deeper than logic. He’d even thought as they made love, and cried out each other’s names, that it had meant something to her too.

Except.Not.

Kai’s mouth twisted bitterly. This was just a casual fling for her, probably one of many, easily forgotten.

He winced, remembering her describing Marrick as her fuck buddy, and he realized this…thiswas what she probably did every time. Tempting guys like a siren, making them feel like they were special, then creeping out while they slept.

Shit! Had she taken his money? Was she a thief as well?

He dashed back into the room, checked his jeans. His wallet, his money, were all intact.

So yeah, she’d just wanted to get screwed by him. Play with his tentacles.

Fuck! He wasn’t supposed to do that either. When young kraken indulged in sex on land it was supposed to be strictly in human form—andhewasn’t supposed to be indulging at all.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Shrug it off, man. Give her a ten out of ten and move on.

But gods damn it, he couldn’t seem to. He wouldn’t even take a shower because then… then he’d lose the sweet scent of her on his skin. That had easily been the best sex of his life.

And when they’d finally collapsed against each other in the aftermath, they’d fallen into a deep sleep, entwined. Like… like fucking mates.

You have no idea what true mates would do. You’ve never been close to experiencing it, you idiot.

Mating with a human. It didn’t happen. Face facts, it was just a crazy physical attraction, and he was an inexperienced idiot in the love stakes.

With a curse, Kai snapped his tentacles into his torso so fast it hurt.

She’s gone. Stop pining.

The message was loud and clear, screaming at him from every corner of this seedy little room. She got off on his cock, his suckers, his tentacles, and then she left. And he’d taken a fucking stupid risk.

Still, there had been no press, no cameras. No one knew what he’d done in the darkness of this sordid hotel.

He dressed, cursing some more as he got tangled in his clothes, his body all sixes and sevens. It was like he didn’t even know who he was anymore.

He stumbled out of the room, shrinking back into his hoodie as a satyr and a basilisk joined him in the lift, giggling after their night together, still kissing and cooing like lovebirds.

Did they fucking have to?

She’d played him like a fool. Like all those times as a kid, when folks had ridiculed him, tripped him up, pointed at his dragging tentacles. On cue, his scarred tentacles ached inside his torso, and self-doubt threatened to unravel him. He was an imposter. Who did he think he was, posing as The Chosen? It was just a huge mistake on everyone’s part. A mistake for the elders to believe in him.

He’d tell Shen that they needed to find someone else. Confess what he’d done, that he’d used his tentacles intimately with a stranger, a human at that.

Except he knew it had gone too far for that. The games were around the corner. The arena had been erected in the shallowsof Motham Bay, and he’d been lauded everywhere as this year’s contestant.

His grandfather, Shen, his parents, the whole of fucking Thedaka, they all believed in him.

Kai pulled himself up short.

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