Chapter One
Ekon
Releasing a breath, Ekon visibly relaxed his shoulders blades before stepping out of the Thalassa private jet into bright sunshine.
His full lips tugged into a grin at the man waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, leaning against a large SUV, holding a child in his arms that looked a double of his daddy.
Marvin—once up on a time was known as big foot because of excessive hair growth from experiments to him that went wrong—was one of his best friends.
Ekon was one of Marvin’s ‘lost boys’. Ekon had little memory of anything good during the time he was caged as a child and used as a Petrie dish for the mad scientists to experiment on.
Not anymore. He reminded himself at least once a day because sometimes it didn’t feel like he was free with each life he’d taken crowding his thoughts. He shook off the melancholy and walked down the steps, slipping the sunglasses holding his hair back off his face over his eyes.
Since everything had come to light three years earlier about the work they did for the council and how they were treated, Ekon was given choices.
For the first time in his life, he was allowed to quit working as an assassin and stop doing the council's dirty work.
With all his friends mated, he leapt at the chance to try something different.
He’d been wise over the years and saved most of the money they’d paid him.
He’d invested in shares and property while living in the house he had built in the woods with other assassins, Ajani—Marvin’s mate it turned out—Wyatt, Conrad and Duron.
The house was his alone now, and though he loved what they’d created, it was too big and lonely to stay there alone for long periods.
Often, he wished to have a place of his own, right up until he had it.
It was hard to admit to his jealousy at how his team—friends—had all found their fated mates and were happy.
He acknowledged the ache that came from being alone and then tucked it away like usual. He’d done his best to find what worked for him and figure out what he wanted to do with his life. It remained a work in progress.
“Wow, look at your hair,” Marvin said bouncing toward him as he reached the bottom step with his son wiggling in his arms. Behind him, Ajani got out of the SUV and nodded at Ekon.
Bigger than Ekon remembered the black T-shirt he wore similar to Ekon’s stretched at the seams. Ajani was a gorilla shifter with several other animals added by the scientists to make him a killing machine.
Dark and brooding was the best way to describe him, unless he looked at his mate and child.
The grin was… weird on Ajani when never a smiler to start with like Conrad or Wyatt.
When Marvin continued to stare, Ekon self-consciously ran a hand through the blond and mahogany strands he’d allowed to grow.
His bangs were styled to flick to the left so he could tuck them behind his ear if he wanted.
Shoulder length, it was layered around his face to frame it.
The stylist he used said the style showed off his best assets: full, pink lips, pale blue eyes, and a chin dimple.
Ekon wasn’t sure about that, but he’d smiled and left her to it.
“Let it grow,” he muttered, blushing when Marvin came in for the hug squishing Mandla between them.
The boy giggled like his dad, reaching out to clutch at Ekon’s hair. “Pretty.”
Ajani choked while trying to hide he was laughing.
Behind Marvin’s back, he stuck up his middle finger getting more laughter.
Marvin was very sensitive, and Ekon was mindful of that always.
They all were since Marvin had come into Ekon’s life when he mated with Ajani.
He, unlike the others he’d lived with, had officially become one of Marvin’s lost boys because of his connection to Ajani.
Marvin tugged Ekon toward the car while Ajani picked up the large suitcase the steward had placed on the tarmac. He nodded his thanks before being encouraged—dragged—into the car.
Marvin strapped Mandla into a booster seat next to Ekon, triple checking before getting in the front of the car and after buckling up, he twisted to grin at Ekon.
“How long are you staying for? We missed you. The girls are going to be so excited to see you. It’s been how long?
A year since you were last here. The girls have gotten so big. ”
Ekon nodded in the right places as Marvin answered his own questions.
Ajani threw his mate a bemused, besotted look as he settled in the driver's seat. “Babe, you need to slow down so Ekon can answer.” Ajani laid a hand on Marvin’s thigh, speaking with affection.
“Sorry, I’m just so excited to see you.”
“It’s cool. I’m not sure how long I’m staying.” Ekon had come back for a specific reason—he needed answers about what he was.
Something inside him was changing and he couldn’t explain it.
A sense of expanding, like whatever it was, his body wasn’t big enough to hold it.
Of late his body did this tingly thing as if he’d stuck his finger in a wall socket and he’d received a shock.
It happened after the dreams that plagued him.
He swallowed hard, working to keep his breaths nice and even.
Hating how on edge he felt, like before a mission was about to turn into a shitstorm, his senses alerting him to the danger he couldn’t see.
Six months and that feeling had grown until he dreaded falling asleep.
It started with him having strange dreams about the bunker he’d visited over three years ago.
Kelvin, his mate Magnus, along with Marvin and Ajani had gone to a bunker in the middle of a forest, some distance from a small town—no one had ever heard of in the States—where the council had a storage place.
One it transpired held records on the shifter population.
They’d discovered there were tens of hundreds of thousands of them, hidden by magic, going back an exceptionally long fucking time.
Kelvin Thalassa could determine a scent signature of one person coming and going over centuries. In principle, Ekon had understood there were beings who lived a damn long time. When he met the ancient krakens, it really hit home because they were centuries old.
Whoever came and went in that building had to be much older than Alexi, the oldest krakens for sure.
Ekon considered and discarded that the shadowy figure in his dreams was the record keeper.
It was a random thought he’d had. It was all mixed in his mind, reality and dream.
Why was he dreaming about Kelvin’s kraken using its tentacles to carry thousands of those files to take them back to the Thalassa compound for Todd?
That moment replayed in the dream, over and over.
And there in the background was a shadowy figure beckoning him.
The first few times he’d laughed it off.
He could no longer do that, with the dream now happening nightly and the shadowy figure there in his thoughts during the day, urging him.
To do what Ekon had no fucking clue, he just sensed it was connected to what was happening inside him.
He was sure of that now, and if anyone could help him figure out what was going on it would be Marvin.
He had visited all the facilities the ‘lost boys’ were held.
He hoped like hell Marvin held the key to what was causing this oddity inside him.
And if not him, then maybe one of the Thalassa brothers.
Todd, with how he mined information, when he potentially had Ekon’s file and the answers.
“There’s something wrong,” Marvin said quietly, his beautiful eyes searching, and despite the sunglasses covering his eyes Marvin saw more than anyone else.
Ekon gave a resigned sigh, reminding himself this was why he was here. “Let’s talk about this when we get back to the house.” He kept his tone light, looking at Mandla who was showing a keen interest in Ekon.
Marvin got easily upset when his friends did, and although Ajani treated Ekon like a brother, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kick Ekon’s ass for upsetting his mate and Mandla.
Marvin nodded slowly, a frown tugging at his brow. “Okay, but as soon as I put Mandla down for his afternoon nap, you’ll tell me what’s wrong.”
At his agreement, Marvin chatted about all the babies.
How he kept them all straight in his head, Ekon was clueless.
Alexi, the oldest brother, had twin boys, Marin and Zale, who were four years old.
Then things got a little woolly for Ekon because Todd and Markov both had four children, seven girls and one boy between them!
So he listened and nodded at the right points until they pulled through the big electronic gates and drove up the long drive to the massive house and workspace the brothers expanded to accommodate the growth of the Thalassa family.
There was a huge ass pool area for the krakens which was where most of the babies were birthed. Ekon didn’t want to think about babies when he felt a pang of deep regret inside him knowing children weren’t in his future.
As the SUV parked next to the row of cars in front of the house, the front door opened and Alexi, the oldest brother appeared. He was tall, dark, and handsome; he wore a suit like he’d been born in it. Ekon had no recollection of his wearing anything else. The man lived in them it seemed.
Ekon couldn’t stand how restrictive they felt the few times a situation had called for one.
“Ekon, so good to see you.” Assessing eyes ran over his black T-shirt and figure-hugging jeans paired with battered Timberland boots, missing nothing. “If you had on a pair of board shorts, you’d look more like a surfer.”
Pushing up his sunglasses, it worked as a headband to hold back his hair. “I hate the water, ain’t ever gonna be a surfer dude.” Ekon chuckled, amused by the wince Alexi didn’t hide at his confession. Ekon was a strong swimmer, but he wasn’t a natural in the water.