Chapter 11 Kara
THE SAND WAS STILL cool beneath my toes, and a soft breeze rolled in from the water, brushing against my skin in a way that made me suddenly aware of how little I was wearing. Vulnerable didn’t even begin to cover it. And yet, that wasn’t what had my body so tense.
Octavius stood above me like he was trying to give me space.
When I looked up at him, he was almost as bare as I was, dressed only in his pants.
His muscled body caught the moonlight while his tentacles swayed behind him, their colors shifting from a blushing pink to a deeper red, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad one.
He seemed just as tense as I was, concern etched into his features as he waited for me to say what I couldn’t quite find the words to explain.
A part of me just wanted to go back to kissing him, to let him continue touching me like nothing else mattered in this moment.
But he deserved the truth, and if he didn’t want me after it...
well, it would hurt like hell, but I’d survive.
I always did. Even if it meant running again.
Even if it meant doing it with a broken heart.
I swallowed, my fingers curling slightly into the sand at my sides. “Octavius,” I said finally, forcing myself to look up and meet his gaze. “I haven’t been honest with you.” My throat tightened around the words. “About why I’m here.”
There was no shock in his expression, almost like he had already suspected something was off about me. Of course he had. He could sense things, couldn’t he? Maybe this was something he already knew and had just been waiting for me to admit on my own.
“I figured there was something more,” he said, his voice surprisingly steady.
“You did?” I asked, the thought creeping back in that he might have known the truth all along. Was that why he had been here? Why he kept coming back?
“Is that why you’ve been spending time with me?” I asked. “Because you knew I was hiding something and you were trying to figure it out?”
“No,” he answered immediately, before pausing like he was working something out in his head. “Well,” he said, almost sheepishly, “at first, maybe a little. But that’s not why I stayed.”
I stilled at his admission, my chest tightening, because somehow that made this even harder to say.
“I don’t care about your past,” he continued, his gaze holding mine in a way that made it impossible to look away. “I just care about you.”
“Thank you, but... that may change once you know the truth,” I said quietly, my voice barely rising above the sound of the waves behind us.
I swallowed, forcing the words out even as they scraped against my throat.
“I want to be honest with you, because you’re the first person I’ve actually wanted to be honest with in a very long time. ”
I thought maybe he would step back then, put space between us, brace himself for whatever was coming. But instead, he lowered himself into the sand beside me, his hand finding mine as his fingers threaded through my own.
I glanced down at where our hands were joined, his thumb brushing slow, soothing circles along the side of my hand, and my heart stuttered before picking up faster.
It would be so easy to stay right here, to let this moment stretch just a little longer before everything changed. But I couldn’t lie to him anymore.
My gaze lifted back to his, and I drew in a slow breath, trying to steady myself before the words left my mouth—because once they did, there would be no taking them back. “I’m not here because I have a relative who’s a sea sprite.”
He tilted his head slightly, a smirk forming on his distracting lips. “What, not your fifth cousin? Or was it your sixth? I think at one point you said tenth.”
A small, startled laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it. Of course he had noticed how often my story changed. I mean, after all, I could barely keep my own lie straight half the time, especially around him.
Some poker face I had, if he could see right through it.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I actually don’t have any cousin who’s a sea sprite... because I’m not related to one.” I hesitated for just a fraction of a second before forcing the truth out, like ripping off a bandaid. “I’m human.”
His hand stilled, and the gentle movement of his thumb stopped while his fingers went slack in mine, as if I wasn’t still holding on, his hand might have slipped free completely.
Panic flared in my chest, and I tightened my grip on him, squeezing his hand like I could remind him of what he’d said—of what he’d promised, that whatever I said wouldn’t matter. But now? Now I wasn’t so sure.
I looked down, my fingers tightening around his once more, like I could remind him I was still me.
But he just sat there, silent, as if the words hadn’t fully settled yet, as if he was still trying to make sense of them.
The hesitation stretched too long, and something inside me started to fold in on itself, and I knew I should have just kept my damn mouth shut.
Slowly, I began to pull my hand away, already bracing for the distance I had been dreading from the start. But before I could slip free, his grip tightened. It wasn’t harsh, but there was urgency in it, something almost instinctive, like he knew he couldn’t just let me go.
“You’re human,” he said, like he was still trying to understand if he’d heard me right.
“Yes.”
“How... how are you here?”
I swallowed, my free hand lifting slowly to the necklace resting against my chest. My fingers brushed over the pearl, catching the faint glow of the water.
“Because of this,” I said quietly. “That’s why I didn’t want you to take it off. It’s the only thing allowing me to be in Crescent Cove.”
“Not a family heirloom, then?” he asked, still trying to piece it together.
“No,” I said, my voice quieter now. “I stole it.”
His gaze dropped briefly to the necklace, then lifted back to me. “So,” he said, a hint of something dry slipping into his tone, “you’re a human, a liar, and a thief.”
Panic and hurt filled me at his words, and it felt like I couldn’t breathe as I braced for his judgment, his rejection, for everything I had been trying to outrun since the moment I arrived.
I knew I should have just kept this a secret, knew he wouldn’t want me after learning the truth, and this wasn’t even all of it.
There was still so much more, but I wasn’t sure he would even give me the chance to say the rest without walking away.
Or worse, I wasn’t sure I could tell him the whole story without crumbling right here into the sand, because everything I felt right now was too overwhelming, and I just needed to get the hell out of here.
I tried to pull my hand away, the instinct to run rising faster with each second, but before I could break free, one of his tentacles slid around my back, holding me in place.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, his voice softer now. “That was meant to be a joke.”
The tentacle at my back shifted, moving gently along my skin, and I knew he could feel it—the spike of fear and hurt, and the way it had taken hold of me so quickly.
And just as suddenly as it had flared, it began to fade, easing out of me in a way that made my breath catch for an entirely different reason.
His face tightened, and I knew he could feel everything that had just rushed through me as he slowly absorbed it all. Then his expression dropped, something like regret settling in.
“Fuck, I didn’t mean for my words to make you feel like that,” he said with a frown, shaking his head slightly.
“I guess comedy was never my strong suit. I’ll stick to being the broody asshole.
” His grip on my hand tightened. “I told you, I’m not here to judge you, and I never want to be the cause of your fear, Kara.
I’m sorry.” He exhaled quietly. “I’m just...
a little thrown off. I didn’t think you announcing you were human was what I expected your secret to be. ”
His tentacle slipped away from me, and I felt the absence of it immediately—the loss of that quiet calm settling back into my chest. But his hand never left mine, and he didn’t pull away.
“I’m sorry,” I said, the words tumbling out frantically.
“I should’ve told you sooner. I know I’m not even supposed to be here, and I know this place is—” I gestured around us, toward the cove, toward everything beyond it.
“It’s not for people like me. But I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and it was the only place I could think of that was safe enough. ”
His hand squeezed mine, and I felt the shift in him before I even looked up. My stomach dropped as I lifted my gaze and saw the tension carved into his expression, the way his jaw had tightened, his teeth nearly grinding like he was holding something back.
“What do you mean ‘safe enough’?”
“What?” I echoed, the question catching me off guard.
“You said you came here because it was the only place you thought was safe enough,” he repeated, his tone almost threatening. “Why would you need a safe place?”
I couldn’t read or sense emotions the way he could, but right now, I didn’t need to. I could see it. Hell, I could even feel it in the air between us, the anger that lingered there. Not at me, but for me.
“Are you in some kind of trouble? Is someone threatening you? Hurting you? Looking for you?”
This was it. The last piece of truth he deserved to hear.
My fingers tightened around his before I forced myself to nod.
“Yes.” I bit my lip, trying to ground myself enough to keep going.
“I’m here because I heard about this place from a card shark.
Which—” I let out a nervous laugh that didn’t quite land.
“Funny enough, he was a shark shifter. I mean, that’s kind of ironic, right? ”
I plastered a false smile on my face, trying to lighten the situation. But when I glanced at him, hoping the humor might soften things, even just a little, it didn’t. If anything, his expression hardened further.