Page 32 of Get Kraken

Whatever. He’d deal with it later. The man would forgive him when he came back with their mate.

He hoped.

Take care of himself.He was bleeding out his neck and down his back, but no arteries had been nicked. He knew it because he would have bled to death long before he had the chance to wake up.

The cars carrying the local team kicked up sand and rock as they screeched to a halt. Chase spat out a briefing quick as he could before he turned to go. There was no way in hell he could stay here and wait patiently while Olivia and Mike were out there without him.

His right arm was numbing, but he was strong enough to pull himself into the sky as he shifted. Long feathers came loose, he kicked off his boots in the sky, and then he circled overhead.

The clouds had parted. The moon shone down on the dark water, but he could just barely make out an oversized shadow kicking around just beneath the surface.

And he waited for his chance.

Olivia barely managedto keep her tentacles from becoming sushi as she swam around, staying out of reach.

Thankfully, when her lower half was fully shifted, legs gone, replaced with boneless appendages, she was better able to dart around.

She’d dropped her bag on land when she was attacked. It had her little dagger and other items she could use as weapons. It also had the cameras and sonar. She had nothing to help her gain an advantage, but she’d look at the bright side… the bag wasn’t adding any drag. At least she was faster without it.

Faster… but unarmed.

She’d spent five hours in the water, trying to tempt the killer, and the whole time the bastard had been in the van.

It was hiding...

No. She wouldn’t think about that.

Mike and Chase had been right. It wasn't a creature like her.

It was something worse.

But whoever it was, was as stupid as could be. He lunged at her with brute force, no strategy at all. Most importantly, it was fixated on her. If she could keep dodging his grip, then she could hopefully keep him enthralled until someone from the Scotland team came to help her.

She wanted them to capture this thing. She wanted to show the world that the killer was put away. And she also wanted to clear up the reputation for kraken shifters everywhere.

She was going to make sure this thing was caught if it was the last thing she did.

Olivia thought she was fast in the water, but with the speed of the creature behind her, she was forced to take more twists and turns than she was used to. She felt those teeth behind her, the intensity of that large body getting closer, the tips of her tentacles buzzing as though they knew how close they were to it.

She glanced back. Olivia opened her mouth in a silent scream as she realized she was damn near in the thing’s mouth.

Then something attacked from below. The teeth of the bunyip snapped closed, narrowly missing her tentacles as she clenched them closer to her body to avoid it, but then it was pushed upward.

Something had it. A shark. A shark with a long snout had been down below, and it surfaced and grabbed the bunyip around the middle, clenching its teeth down hard, the water clouding with blood.

It looked black as they rose to the surface, as though a smoke bomb had gone off.

Mike. Olivia shuddered with relief.

Mike was alive.

She followed him up.

The bunyip was larger than he was. He was going to need her help.

Already it wiggled and desperately tore away from those teeth, but even with those many rows, Olivia was certain it would push away eventually.

She sent out her tentacles to reach for the creature, avoiding its teeth, and letting her suckers latch onto its face and hold on tight.

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