Chapter Five
Chapter Five
Baltzeheir
“ G ods damn it, Baltz. You couldn’t be nice for just a fucking second?” Keika glared at me, but I just met her stare with one of my own, folding my arms over my chest. “You got our mate to run away!”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes as I flexed the muscles of my neck and shoulders, making the spines that ran down my back stand up. It was too damned dry in this part of the estate—and too fucking hot too. The solitude of my underground lake sounded a lot better than messing around with some godsforsaken human that I wasn’t even going to be eating.
“She’s not my mate. Don’t speak for me.”
Kenta and Rune both leveled me with their own glares, but I’d had enough of their bullshit. Turning on my heel, I attempted to go back where I belonged, but the pull of unease coming from Rune made me hesitate, just like it always did.
“Would you stop fucking griping at me?” I glanced over my shoulder at them. “I can sense your pissy attitude even more than usual.”
“You asshole.” They got right up in my face, using their infuriating shape-changing to elongate themselves and stand level with me. “You felt it. You told me you felt it, and now, what? You just don’t want to admit it anymore? What are you, a spoiled child?”
That was enough of a slight to get me facing off with Rune and gripping that tangible shadow between my fingers. Tension hung over us like pounds of water-logged seaweed. It was always like this between us. Who was stronger? Who was the true Dom of our little pack?
It wasn’t like there’d be an answer any time soon. We were always going to get into cock fights about it. It’s what we did, Rune and me, and frankly, we both liked it that way. Challenging the other, one of us coming out on top and claiming the other one, it was our foreplay.
But I wasn’t in the fucking mood, no matter what Rune said about what I’d supposedly felt.
“I didn’t say shit.” I shoved Rune backward, my scales shimmering in the torchlight nearby.
Those fucking flames were a godsdamned nuisance. Fucking furballs needed them to stay warm or some shit. I was perfectly fine being cold-blooded, however. The dark, briny deep, that’s where I belonged. It had been a mistake to think that could ever change.
Rune sighed, reaching up to grip my hand. But it wasn’t a challenge. It was something far worse—an act of sympathy.
“Don’t, Rune.” I jabbed a finger in their direction. “Don’t fucking start this shit with me.”
“Baltz,” they insisted, “she isn’t them. I know what you went through before I found you. Aki isn’t—”
“You know nothing of what happened. Not really. And a human is a human.” I threw off his hand, resuming my attempt to just get the fuck out of here and back to my nest.
“She’s our human,” Kenta offered, and if it was anyone else, I’d have punched them in the damn jaw and left. “I can sense nothing to punish her for. If anything…”
He paused, and damn that bastard to all the hells and back, but I couldn’t leave. Kenta had been the one to tend to me when Rune had come back with my half-dead ass, my black blood slowly draining out of me from all the stab wounds.
So when the fucking cat had something to say, I couldn’t ignore him.
“What, Kenta? Just spill.” Never said I’d be nice about it, though .
“If anything,” he started again, walking up to me with his forked tail swishing about his legs and his green-slitted eyes glowing, “she might understand some of your pain. Her own family…I can sense an evil about them. We’ve read about the basics of her past from the therapy transcripts. Aki was… abused . I do not doubt that it stretches farther than those records indicate.”
It was my turn to sigh, and I let my head fall back on my shoulders. The gentle hum I’d felt in my horn since she arrived was still there. Aki was still on the property, and she was…in pain. It was related to all of us, but it was significantly tied to me.
“Baltz, she’s not them.” Rune offered the words in a whisper, their hand going to my shoulder as they stood behind me.
I couldn’t keep my tail from flicking, still affected by physical contact after all this time—even when it was one of my mates.
My mates.
The truth was I didn’t know if I could handle another person to care about. It all just seemed like an invitation to get hurt. And a human? Come on, I was supposed to trust one of the very things whose brethren tried to kill me? What kind of sick joke was the universe playing?
It burned, just the thought of it burned . My tail snapped again, the tentacles that wrapped around my hips squeezing up like my fists. I’d never been a particularly relaxed creature, but it was downright impossible for me to be so now.
The world had not changed. Humans were still terrified of what might be lurking in the shadows, bumping in the middle of the night and ready to eat them up. Sure, some of us did, but it was a prey versus predator-situation. I was just feeding. And their dumb asses came into my waters.
I never went out searching for them. We never did, any of us…monsters. We kept to the black, to the myths and rumors. We weren’t real to them. My little cadre of assholes here wanted to keep it that way. I had to assume that most of us did. We were spread out all over the globe, and it had been centuries of successfully remaining nothing but stories to the humans.
It was safer that way.
“Get your ass up to the roof and bring her inside,” Keika demanded.
Glaring at her, I furrowed my brow, ready to wrap the little cat up in my tentacles and squeeze until she whined for me.
“Watch it, kitten.” She sauntered over, throwing her arms around my neck despite how she knew I wasn’t in the mood to be touched. “Ugh, Keika. Are you trying to get punished?”
A soft purr rumbled out of her chest, and she smiled up at me, her flaming tails dimmed since she was at least smart enough to remember that I hated fire.
“Maybe,” she flirted, “but I still think you should go get her regardless. Kenta’s right. You’ll understand her best.”
Grumbling, I quickly realized that I’d lost ground in this argument. I wasn’t getting out of it, and they all knew that I would do what they asked me. I cared for them, as much as that pissed me off.
“Fucking dammit,” I dragged out with a sigh. “Fine! But she’s not my mate. So get that out of your mouths.”
Rune chuckled under their breath, and I wanted to reach down and snag that ever-out dick of his and pull. Not that clothing was much of a thing for any of us, but at least mine could be tucked away out of sight.
Damn modern proprieties infecting my brain like a poison.
With a firm slap on my ass, Rune nodded at the stairs. “Go on then.”
I narrowed my eyes at them, shaking my head. “Oh, ho, ho. I’m going to fucking destroy you, shadow.”
They smirked. “Promises, promises.”
When I got to the roof, it was raining outside, so at least there was that. I stepped out into the open air, letting the storm drench me. It felt amazing to have the cold water slip between my scales. I released a deep breath, which created a barely noticeable fluffy cloud in front of my face.
“Who—Who’s there?” Aki’s voice broke the somewhat silence of the rooftop, and I looked over to my left, where she was curled up against a pillar near the singular overhang that could protect her from the rain.
It wasn’t doing an outstanding job, though. Akirako was drenched, the fabric of her pale gray tank clinging to her slight body. She was shivering, the short locks of her dark hair hanging in wet clumps around her face. It reminded me of kelp, and I had to shake away the desire to walk right up to her and touch it.
It was stupid because I just should. I should just haul Aki’s ass down the stairs, throwing her over my shoulder if necessary. But for some stupid fucking reason, I was being…patient.
“It’s Baltzehier. The others want you to come back downstairs.”
She stood up, her black leggings shiny for the amount of water they’d absorbed. “The others. The other monsters, you mean?”
I shrugged.
Aki scoffed, shaking her head and folding her arms as she shivered. I noticed then that the tips of her hair, cut into an asymmetrical bob, were grey. She also had an undercut, the buzzed section near her ear, keeping the hair on that side from getting in her face.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to do? Shrug at me?” She shook her head again, a habit of hers, and then suddenly jabbed a finger in my direction. “You said you were going to eat me. Why the fuck would I want to volunteer for that?”
“Depends on the type of eating, I suppose.” The words were out of my mouth before I could think better of them, and I groaned to myself, roughly clearing my throat as I mirrored her arm-cross. “It’s warmer inside. Humans like warm, don’t they?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Humans? You say it like we’re some weird species or something. You’re the walking-talking octopus unicorn man.”
I laughed, unable to stop myself, and it appeared to surprise the hell out of both of us. “Octopus unicorn man? The fuck does that mean?”
Aki rolled her eyes, and I tracked the motion as she leaned back into her rear foot. She was…interesting, and I could hardly deny that she was attractive.
Her parents were Japanese, first-generation, and she’d been brought up in the city her entire life. Her mother was an alcoholic, and it took a significant turn for the worst when her father died of cancer, and there was no one there to help rein her mother in. Aki was also a chronically ill child with ED issues, and the woman liked the attention she got whenever she brought her daughter to the doctor.
Yeah, I knew about her. I’d read the shit that Rune brought up, and we’d all been “around” in the background while she was growing up. Monsters have the benefit of living much longer, it seemed, and I could still remember her spotting me in my less human form when she was camping in the woods near the lake. She’d been about six.
Called me a pretty boy. Ha.
As far as humans went, Akirako was different, it seemed. She took the hand she’d been dealt and did her best to live with it. She worked hard, did her best to manage her condition, and didn’t let any of it keep her from doing things that she wanted, whether that was getting a tattoo or piercings, playing her favorite games, or becoming one of the top researchers in her office.
Interesting, indeed.
“Umm, how is that not clear? You have a horn, you have,” Aki cocked her head, studying my appendages as they moved, “tentacles and apparently a tail, and you’re covered in scales and fins. Oh, and you’re blue. Unicorn octopus, with some fish thrown in.”
Fighting back a grin, I just stared at her. The silence stretched between us, and I couldn’t keep myself from running my gaze down her body. She was a tiny thing, probably five-two max, and very sleek. She was cold, given that her nipples were about to cut through her shirt, and her full lips trembled.
“Will you come downstairs?” I raised my brows.
“Why? Why would I do that? I’m not looking to hurry up on my way toward death.”
She stood straight as an arrow despite how the cold was forcing her to shake slightly. Raindrops dripped off the ends of her hair and nose, and Aki flicked her head, throwing them to the ground.
“I will not kill you, Aki. No one here will.” I was straightforward; there was little reason to do anything else. “We’ve been keeping an eye on you for your entire life. Stepping in where necessary. This last time…well, we were forced to reveal ourselves.”
Glaring at me, Aki’s anger and frustration boiled over, mixing with the fear in her blood to create an astringent scent that burned my nostrils.
“How can you expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth. I may be a ‘monster,’ but I don’t have any reason to lie. As you said, I could just eat you. But I haven’t.”
Studying me, she didn’t say anything, but I noticed her eyes tracing down the lines of the raised spines and fins on the back of my forearms. When she met my eyes again, Aki took a step forward, cautiously approaching me.
“I…I think I’ve seen you.” The slightest movement shook her head. “How is that possible? Why do I feel like you were there when I almost…The color of your eyes…”
Lowering my head, I stared down at her, genuinely towering over the tiny woman and somehow feeling small. Aki reached up, tentatively guiding her hand toward my cheek. I flinched back just a hair, but I didn’t retreat. I wouldn’t ever do that. The warmth of her fingertips found my skin, and it seeped into the frigid depths of my soul.
“I was there, Aki.” I’d never spoken about this to anyone, not even my mates. “You ran. Fell into the lake. You were scared. I…I should have eaten you right then and there.”
Aki held my cheek, holding my stare. “But you didn’t.”
“No.” I swallowed hard, her touch doing something to me. “I couldn’t.”
“You saved me from drowning. I think I almost forgot. Did you…”
I cocked a brow. “The mind whip? No, that’s Rune’s thing. You were just…young—and human.”
“I…I want to know more. I’ll…I’ll come down.”
I couldn’t move for a moment, and then I cleared my throat, pulling away and gesturing toward the door that led inside.
“Go. Warm up.”
She just nodded and then slipped past me. So, I followed her inside. My…mate .