Chapter 2
Xexon
I retreated into the shadows of a hidden side of the cavern.
It dipped down for a breath before opening up into a wider area with a vaulted rock ceiling.
I strained my ears but couldn’t hear Dante across the way or know if he had escaped through the entrance back into the sea, or if he had stayed.
I did my best not to dwell on which I preferred and went about preparing the ritual call.
With a large abalone shell, I poured sparkling white liquid from a vial near the wall. It plinked within the coarse material before swirling around and remaining in a constant state of churning. With one of the nearby bone knives, I pricked my finger and gave the liquid three drops of my blood.
As the crimson blended with the white, swirling into a pale pink before being submerged back into the vibrant white, I uttered the chant under my breath.
I repeated the familiar words three times, eyes closed so that I could better feel the current of magic that hummed all around me.
I channeled my energy into the infused sea water until it lapped at the edges of the abalone shell and splashed up into the air, gurgling over and over until it soon formed a shadow-like creature right above the shell in my hands.
I suppressed the ripple of anticipation that had my tentacles vibrating, nerves that would be of no use to me right now.
The ruby-red gaze of the shadow pierced through my mind as though it were reading my thoughts.
It became more defined within seconds, a hood etched out of the water, hands with webbed fingers, a neck carved with gills.
When he spoke, his voice shook the small room, and I hoped Dante couldn’t feel the pressure beyond.
“Why did you not exterminate every human aboard that accursed vessel?” the newly formed male demanded, its words laced with venom and their sharp teeth snapping together.
“Why’d you allow half of them to escape and tell the mainland of our defenses? ”
What was I supposed to say? How could I explain that once I felt Dante’s energy, I couldn’t do anything but go to him? To bring him down to my home. To safety. My mind was filled with only him, not of my duties.
“My apologies, Lord Aephrim. There was a complication.” I did my best not to react.
That was such a weak explanation, and I knew I was going to have to tell him the truth.
It was the only way he would understand.
Though the beings that lived in Brasil didn’t quite understand the mating of shifters, they at least knew the intensity and need for it.
His fury rippled through the shell. “And what, pray tell, would that be?”
“I have found my mate.” I bit the words out like I was chewing up the sharp shards of the abalone shell and spitting out the gritty leftovers.
“It was my priority to get him to safety, away from those on the ship. They would have killed him themselves if they had seen him protect me in the midst of the storm.”
“Your mate? Your mate is a human male?” Lord Aephrim huffed with half a laugh mixed in.
Of course it sounded absurd, but it wasn’t the first time a shifter mate was male, as was the shifter.
Fate would always make a way. “Your duties are to protect Brasil and kill anyone that gets too close.” He sneered.
“That means every single human on that ship, especially your mate.”
I inhaled my anger and refused to let the pain leak out in my words. “I cannot kill my mate, and you know that, Lord Aephrim. It is almost impossible to do.”
“I suggest you figure out a way, Xexon, or else we will do it for you.”
Rage blinded my vibrant vision and my tentacles crept up my arms, all but reaching out to strangle the water form of Lord Aephrim. “You would be breaking our contract. A war would be on the horizon for Brasil.”
“As I see it, you broke the contract the moment you allowed that human snail to live.” He snarled in return.
“Dante is to remain under my care and protection. I can continue the duties of my title, and that is final. If you wish to harm him, then it will start a war that I do not think you are ready for.”
It was odd that my body was so ready to protect a mate I had just met. My tentacles had curled around my arms, and some up and over my shoulders. I would strangle and pulverize anyone who laid a finger on Dante. No matter who they were. Be they a high-ranking lord in Brasil, or not.
“You have only served four hundred years of your thousand-year contract, Xexon. You know if you break the curse, your soul will be ours to filet alive for the next six hundred years.” Lord Aephrim cackled.
“The High King will see this as an act of aggression, regardless of your reasoning. You best prepare yourself and be present when he makes his judgment. Or it will only become worse for you.”
Heart tightly knotted, my anger held at bay by my clenched jaw, I steeled my resolve and canceled the call by chucking the shell at the cavern wall. It shattered, the milky substance dripping down the side.
Shoulders heavy, I returned to the main cavern, only to be greeted with the most surprising sight. There, amidst the tranquil waters of my bathing pool, sat Dante, his bare feet making circles under the water. He was perched on the edge, his slacks rolled up to stay dry.
I stood there for a moment, just watching his back as it moved with each breath. He was a miracle, one I never thought I’d receive in this lifetime.
Making sure he heard me approach, I joined Dante at the pool; the water rippling softly as I slid several of my tentacles into its depths.
Even as he didn’t know what we were to one another, Dante had decided to remain behind, and not escape through the sea.
It shouldn’t mean anything more than he was unsure of how to survive on his own, but I couldn’t help the giddiness that filled my chest.
As the gentle current of the pool swirled around us, I looked at him from the corner of my eye. “Why did you stay? You could have escaped while I was gone.”
Dante looked up from the water, meeting my gaze with his own, steady and resolved. “There is this pull I feel, Xexon. Something I can’t explain. I know you feel the same thing, and even though I don’t know what it is, I know it means I am safe with you. You would not harm me.”
Swelling pride puffed out my chest before I could stop it and a ridiculous grin cracked my lips apart. “Of course. I will always protect you. It does not matter from who, or if you stay or leave once more for the mainland. I will always watch over you.”
There was a soft crease in his brow now as my words settled over him. Was I coming on too strong? Humans didn’t have the connection with their lovers like we did with mates. It might be too strange for him.
“Can I ask what you really are?” Dante shifted his body, looking away, but his hand landed on the rock edge near one of my tentacles.
The urge to move it just a little, to feel his warmth, it was almost too great to fight.
I swallowed these heated thoughts and cleared my throat.
“What am I? It’s hard to explain. I am a shifter, of sorts.
I know that for sure. Yet I have not known of another water-dwelling creature being born of shifters.
They are usually land or air animals. I suppose it may be a mutation in my ancestry.
I am also the official protector of Brasil, as you already know. ”
Dante nodded and kicked his feet around in the water, his ankle brushing one of the tips of my tentacles.
I shuddered, the brief contact so euphoric I almost caved right then.
Did he know just a mere brush of his body against mine would have me going feral?
My alpha designation awoke long ago, when I was first attacked by a fisherman’s boat as a child.
Yet here, now, with my mate, the need to seal the bond and bind us as one blurred the edges of my vision and rippled across my skin.
I couldn’t let him go, ever. No matter what Lord Aephrim or the others wanted from me.
The five kingdoms would not welcome Dante, and I did not need empty promises.
If I were to bring him within a league of the main gates, they’d have him drowned.
But I had duties I must uphold. If I did not go to Brasil now, when a ship has passed into their territory, I would forfeit my title and my life.
Yet Dante’s innocent features and the way his brow pressed together with worry as he peered up at me had my chest tightening. An odd sensation, one that I never knew was possible for me to feel. That’s how I knew he was my mate. Only a true mate could make me this emotional or indecisive.
If I brought Dante with me, he’d die. If I went alone, he’d still probably die with no way of leaving the cavern.
Especially with the certainty that the leaders wouldn’t let me leave so quickly.
I’d defied orders and broken my contract by letting him live.
They’d probably kill me, or at least cut off a few of my arms to make sure I understood my place.
But I didn’t want to leave Dante. He was mine, even if he didn’t know it yet.
There was no way I was going to leave him here all alone. Without a guardian or a way home.
“Xexon?” Dante leaned forward, his legs still swirling within the small pool as he tried to catch my eye.
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong?” Satisfied he’d gotten my attention, Dante returned to his normal position, but tilted his head as he waited for an answer.
“It’s nothing to worry yourself about.” I tried to give him a smile of reassurance, but when his brow then dipped down in a furrow, I knew that wouldn’t happen.
This human from above was a gift I did not deserve.
He cared for a creature that killed his crewmates and pulled him down to the depths of the sea with no way home.
How was it he had not tried to escape or kill me yet? It would only be right that he did that. As a human, he could not feel the mate bond as I did. Although I was a creature far different than a shifter, I still had the same characteristics when it came to mating.