Chapter Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Eight
Cyrus
Today was the day. After Reece kissed me and announced our relationship in front of everyone, I owed this to him.
I owed him the truth.
Today I was going to tell Reece that we were mates. Fallon was going out after work, so we’d have the apartment to ourselves.
I waited for Reece to arrive, anxiously pacing the hallway, my nerves too on edge to sit still.
How was he going to take this?
What if he pinned our entire relationship on the fact that we were fated mates?
What if he didn’t want this—want me—forever?
I was certain I’d die.
There was a knock at the door, and I shuffled down the hall, uncaring if it seemed like I was waiting for him.
I opened the door and Reece greeted me with a smile. He was dressed in a hoodie and gray sweatpants, his hair still wet from showering. “Hey.”
“H-hi,” I stammered. “Come in.”
Reece walked inside the apartment and up to me, his hand skating along my waist and over my backside as he brought me in for a kiss.
He pulled away and stared at me, a deep furrow etched between those perfect light red brows. “Everything okay, Cy?”
Shit.
I swallowed hard. “I think we should talk.”
“If this is about what happened after the tri, I told you I was sorry,” he blurted, hurt flashing across his face. “I know I should have checked to make sure you were okay with me—”
I cut him off before he could continue. “Gods no, darling. I told you that you had my consent to announce this however and whenever you wanted to. This is about something else. Something I’ve been meaning to discuss with you for a while now, but I wasn’t sure how.”
Reece grabbed my hand, twining our fingers together as much as my webbing would allow. “Please tell me.”
My hearts raced and my tentacles clenched tight to my arms. As uncomfortable as the conversation was going to be, I had to do it.
But maybe I could show him exactly what it meant to be my mate.
Show Reece precisely what he meant to me.
“Come on, I want to show you something.”
I held his hand tight as we walked down the hallway to the studio.
The rays of the fall sun seeped in through the windows, tinting the room a light orange.
It was fitting. It reminded me of Reece’s hair.
We stood side by side in front of the windows, our hands still locked, quietly looking over Briar Glenn.
“Do you remember when we first met at the party?” I asked, my voice a hollow whisper.
“Of course I do. I’ll never forget.”
“Do you remember when my tentacle reached out and touched you?”
He huffed and shook his head. “Cy, I’ve told you time and time again I’m sorry for how—”
“No.” I turned to face him. My tentacle coiled around his forearm, wrapping us together.
“I know you’re familiar with the concept of fated mates, but krakens have fated mates, too.
When my mating tentacle touched you at the engagement party, it activated my mate response.
I—I almost came, right there on the spot.
In front of you, in front of everyone. It was completely unexpected.
” My voice wavered. “Reece Rollins, you are my mate.”
He was silent, his mouth hanging open slightly as tears formed in the corners of my eyes.
I let go of his hand and moved toward the row of canvases lined up against the opposite wall. Paint-splattered drop cloths covered the finished pieces.
“After your reaction to my touch, I felt defeated. Hopeless over the fact that my mate found me repulsive. I was sure that a man as beautiful as you would never love someone like me. So I coped the best way I knew how. I came home after the party, and for the first time in months, I painted.”
I pulled the drop cloth off the largest canvas, unveiling the painting of Reece and the merman. The very first painting I did of him.
Reece walked over until he stood directly in front of the painting. “That’s me.” He ran his fingers over the human’s light red hair with gentle strokes.
“It’s you. They’re all you.” Tears streamed down my face and my voice was a strained whisper as I shuffled along the row of canvases, uncovering all the paintings for Reece to see.
He stared at them, obviously shocked.
They were a tribute to him. A series of paintings of Reece wet after the pool, Reece petting a dog, the coffee shop we frequented, Reece emerging from the lake after a swim. In one way or another, they all focused on my mate.
My everything.
“Cyrus, they’re beautiful.” He was crying, too, his lips crinkled into a smile.
“You like them?” I asked, wiping my eyes.
“I love them. Come here.”
I scuttled over as fast as I could and Reece wrapped me in a tight hug, his muscular arms pulling me as close to him as he could.
“And I’m in love with you, Cy,” he said softly against my skin.
“Really?” I sniffed, glancing up at his handsome face. “You aren’t freaked out about the mate bond?”
He shook his head. “Not one bit. What Atlas and Tegan have, what we have, I’d be crazy not to want this. It just means you won’t be able to get rid of me.”
I laughed and pressed my lips to his. “I love you, too. Very much.” I gestured toward the paintings with a tentacle. “If you couldn’t already tell.”
Reece’s hand darted out, his fingertips tracing over the merman in the painting. “Is—is this how you wish you looked?”
He knew me too well.
“Yes. I—I thought that if I was a handsome merman, I’d have a better chance with you. That it would be less of a shock you were mated to someone like me.”
He took my face in his hands, slid them just underneath my fins, and pressed his nose to the flat plane of mine.
“I happen to think you’re handsome just how you are.
I’m lucky to have a mate with a toe-curling British accent, who’s a talented painter, a bossy swim coach, and is kind to everyone he meets.
” He lowered his voice. “Not to mention the tentacles.”
It felt like an eternity had passed since I’d met Reece and done that first painting. Hearing how he felt about me and the way I looked through his eyes, it made me feel confident.
Reece rubbed his nose against mine. “Was that all you wanted to tell me?”
I nodded, then tilted my head to claim his mouth with a kiss.
After making out for a few moments, Reece pulled away with a chuckle. “As turned on as you make me, can we maybe just relax in bed today? I did race in a triathlon this morning.”
“Yes, yes. Sorry. Where are my manners? Come on.”
I grabbed his hand and pulled him across the hall to my bedroom.
Reece peeled back the covers before slipping into bed with a yawn.
“Do you want me to do the thing?” I asked as I climbed into bed next to him, tucking my tentacles beside me on the mattress.
“Not right now but, um, could you hold me for a bit? Just until I fall asleep?”
I loved this shy, sensitive side of him that he reserved just for me.
“Come on, then.”
Reece shimmied closer and I wrapped my arm around him as he snuggled against my chest. My webbed fingers settled over his hip, rubbing soothing circles until his breathing began to slow.
This was everything I’d wanted.
Everything I’d spent the entirety of my long life hoping for.
“Cy,” Reece mumbled.
“Yes, darling?”
“Are you going to have to bite me, like Atlas did with Tegan? Because with your teeth, I don’t think that’s a very good—”
Laughter rumbled out of me. I was glad that out of everything I’d just told him, that was his main concern. “No, kraken mate bonds are different. It’s more of a mental thing.”
“Huh, that would explain all the dreams I’ve had about you, then.”
I’d never really thought about it until that moment, about how the mate bond between a kraken and a human would manifest itself, but it made sense.
“It very well could be. I wish I had more answers for you.”
“S’okay. But, um, Cy, are you putting those paintings in a show?” he asked.
Shit.
With everything that happened today, that little detail had slipped my mind.
“Well, I had planned on it, but I completely understand if you don’t want me to.” My hand stilled, awaiting his response.
“No, I want you to. I want everyone to know. I’m proud of them. I’m proud to be your mate.”
I leaned over and kissed the top of his head.
“I’m proud to be your mate, too.”
—
When light snores slipped out of Reece, I carefully got out of bed, doing my best not to wake him, and shuffled over to the studio.
He’d caught on to the painting of the merman and the human so easily, knowing how I felt about myself without me even saying a single word.
In truth, though, I didn’t see myself that way anymore.
I mixed a palette, gazing at my stripes and patterns as I blended the perfect combination of colors.
There was no way that painting was going on exhibit looking like that.
For hours, while Reece slept, I painted.
I’d glance at myself in the mirror, then use my paintbrush to re-create my image on canvas.
When I was finished, I stepped back to take in the final piece.
While I’d left Reece unchanged, the merman had been replaced with a perfect rendition of myself.
A beautiful blue-green kraken with a billowing parachute of tentacles below his waist, embracing his human mate underwater.
They stared at each other lovingly, knowing that they’d make the journey back to the surface—together.
It was perfect.
I knew my mate would think so, too.