And kraken-kind might die for it.

I understand now why I’m considered a monster, because only a monster would be willing to allow the hundreds who remain to die.

I want my mate more than I want my people to survive. I can only imagine the look of disgust on my family’s face over my selfishness. I have failed at every kingly duty I’ve been given. What’s one more? The gravest one.

If I’m unveiling the full truth to myself, I’m not even certain marrying Cindi would end the Curse. The territory might be too far gone for anything to be done, and Cindi may not be the destined bride—even if she is my soulmate.

Destiny is too subjective, especially when it is placed in the hands of an all-powerful being. It’s too vague and nonspecific. But if I had to wager, a soulmate is the closest answer.

I tie the log off then grab another to continue building the roof. A commotion draws my attention back to the sea.

Vasz comes sprinting out of the water, barking, “Krakens! Krakens coming! Many, many krakens! “

The blood drains from my face. I launch toward the beach to grab my mate. “Cindi!” I roar. “Get out of the water.”

Brown eyes swing to mine with panic. She drops onto the board and quickly paddles back to shore, casting frightened glances behind her.

Vasz rushes besides me, panting, “Must protect.”

It isn’t until the first wave hits me that I sense them. There are at least twenty different scents contaminating the water. They’re close—too close. They’ll arrive in a matter of seconds.

They know Cindi is here. There’s no way they wouldn’t. Her own scent is strong from all the time she spends surfing.

None have ever dared venture this close to my island before, for fear of what I might do to them. Something must have changed. Someone could have seen Cindi, or her scent might have traveled further than it would have from the storm the other day.

I swim faster than I ever have before, lashing my tentacle out to suction onto her board before tearing her toward the beach. Vasz swoops beneath the water to help push her forward.

“Ordus, what’s happening?” Her voice shakes.

“Go to the den. Now.” Red tints my vision. They dare approach? They dare put my mate in danger?

She stumbles onto her feet, narrowing her eyes out at the water. “What is that—? Holy fuck.”

Panic, raw and all-consuming, grips me by the neck. Our den is the only place they won’t be able to get to her. The enchantment only allows for me, Vasz, and my mate to enter. But how long would she survive down there if I died?

“Cindi, leave,” I snarl, putting every ounce of my desperation into the word.

But it’s too late. The first kraken appears above the waves. A hunter. Our strongest one. She carries out the most trips to the mainland to bring back game. Marussa is smaller than the last time I saw her, less flesh and more bone, with sunken eyes and pale skin.

One by one, krakens breach the surface, each looking as tired and starved as the last, all sporting the same faint, greenish hue. Females, males, they all appear, crowding my shore.

In the center of it all is Lazell, surrounded by the twelve other members of the Council and our few remaining sentries.

Vasz growls beside me, barking in warning. Cindi makes no move to run like I demanded. I force her behind me, my fury flaring. My chest and limbs expand, making myself bigger, primed for battle.

All eyes are directed on the human behind me.

I want to kill them. I want their deaths to be long and torturous, their organs littering my shores.

Lazell gnashes his teeth at me. “What is the meaning of this?” he hisses, nodding at my mate, speaking the kraken tongue.

“I should be asking you this.” My rage lashes at the kraken who’s been pining for my death since the moment I was born. “You are trespassing on my island. Leave before I kill you all.”

“Some king you are, threatening your people,” he spits. A chorus of agreement echoes through the crowd. “You brought a human into our territory. You let her see our kind. You broke your family’s own rules.”

“Lazell was right,” Mailien, another Council member, starts. “You’re consorting with humans. Have you learned nothing from the Witch?”

“They should have killed you,” another jeers.

“Vermin!”

“The humans will come for us!”

“Seize him!”

Each cry is another knife in my chest. It’s like I’m thirteen years old, swimming back home with my latest catch. I can feel their phantom hands clawing at me, the pierce of the hook into my ribs that narrowly missed my lungs. Their words echo in my head, clanging against my skull before striking again, over and over.

Hands grabbing me. Hitting me. Snarls. Jeers. Taunts. Sharp pain in my side as a chain is wrapped around me.

Make it stop.

I heave for air. They’re screaming, louder and louder. I’m going to die. And my mate—I need to protect my mate.

Make it stop.

“Silence,” I roar, breathing hard. Think. Think. I bare my teeth and slash my tentacles across the water. Krakens jump out of the way. I want to hit skin—need to see blood.

“You told me to pick a bride, so I pick this one.” I motion to my mate, whose burnt scent permeates the air. My fury multiples tenfold.

When Mailien barks “It’s hideous,” I lose it.

No rational thought takes hold. The ugly beast inside me rears its head. The hatred and pain curdles, boiling until it breaks out of my skin. Years of hate, a lifetime of cowering, the grating silence—it all comes out.

The cage is broken. Only blood will settle the beast.

I’m bigger. Faster. Stronger. Mailien’s head is ripped clean from his shoulders before he can blink.

A sentry lunges for me, staff raised, and I dodge it easily, cracking his body beneath my tentacles.

The world is tinged red. Blue bleeds from the krakens onto the shore. I can’t hear their screams, can’t see the disdain written across their faces.

More.

They all need to die for what they’ve done.

I prowl forward, claws poised to tear into skin. Only the softest voice coming from behind me stops me in my tracks.

“Ordus.”

Cindi.

The beast halts long enough for a single thought to break through: if I kill my people, more will come.

They’ll circle the island so we’re trapped until we’ve finished our food reserves. Once I’m weak from starvation, they’ll attack. I won’t risk Cindi’s safety by attempting to swim for the mainland. I can’t kill them.

“You want me to be a monster? Then I am your monster,” I snarl, chest rising and falling, looking every kraken in the eyes. Some bow their heads in fear while others raise them in challenge. “Does anyone else dare insult my mate?”

Lazell glares at me in mortification, blue splatter on his striped skin. “Your mate? Have you gone mad? The Waste has gotten to you.”

The rest of the Council are stiff in their spots, glancing between me and Lazell. They’ll flee the first chance they get. The krakens before me are no true warriors. Some may have fought alongside my brother and sister, but they’ve weakened since then. I may not be afflicted by Waste, but I have had no issue with hunger or sickness.

Still, they’ll be hard to take as a group. Too many for me to ensure Cindi remains protected, even with Vasz’s assistance.

I wrap a tentacle around her, needing to know she’s safe. “I marry her, or I marry no one.”

“Even if mates exist, the Goddess would not curse a land creature to be your mate.” Lazell scoffs, and my limbs flex. One day, his hearts will stop beating beneath my hands.

“I recognize my own mate,” I defend. Her scent may not call to me as the tomes described a mate would, but I feel her in my chest. A pull. A thread connects me to her, even though our scriptures only describe matings between krakens, never a human.