Page 10 of Hunter of the Tide

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, notnow.”

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 afling? “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 femalesbuilt upto 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 notwhoyou 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.”

Rhea pulled her hands from his grip and nodded once. “So be it.”

His brows rose. “You’re not rejectingmenow, are you?”

She tilted her head. “No, human. We will attempt your ways, but make no mistake—” she leaned closer, leveling her eyes with his, and touched the underside of his chin with the tip of a tentacle “—you aremine.”

Rhea would shredanykraken, male or female, who dared to touch what she considered hers. And this human belonged to her alone.

Randall’s eyes widened, and he chuckled. “Damn. Guess you don’t mince words, do you?”

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