That was what made me pause, trapped in that bedroom with these two humans who I cared about and wanted to accept me. My animal was hunkered down inside me, afraid and wary, but I managed to throw my shoulders back and stand tall. I’d never wished to be taller but both Sonny and Declan had half a foot on me, and it made me feel even more surrounded when Declan finally made his way over to us at the foot of the bed, by the door.
“What was that?” he asked.
I swallowed, trying to work out what I could say. Could I explain it to them?
“Were those—?”
He couldn’t even say it.
I lost the courage to tell him and slipped seamlessly into denial, the way I always had done when a human had glimpsed something they shouldn’t have.
“I don’t know what—”
Sonny cut me off. “Show me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t be a dick. Stop gaslighting me. I know what I saw. I knew I’d felt them before. Show me.”
He was standing close, his face set with determination. He wouldn’t let this go.
My survival instinct was screaming at me to deny it, to tell them that they’d imagined it. But I’d spent days telling Declan that he needed to be honest with Sonny, and I’d heard Sonny finally open up to Declan about how he felt and I wanted them to do the same with me. I wanted to be included. To be part of this thing they were building.
And I couldn’t do that if I lied to them.
With a burst of courage, I released my tentacles from my side, fanning them out around me so they could see everything,the way the dark purple tentacles joined with my sides, the mottled skin becoming lighter as it rose up my sides and chest until it was just my pale human skin again.
My tentacles undulated in front of them for a moment and I had just enough time for a sharp stab of panic to pierce my gut that this had been a terrible, terrible idea, and then Sonny reached for them.
His hands closed around the nearest tentacle, encompassing its girth. His hands were warm, and his fingers stroked across the top of my indigo skin so lightly I could hardly feel it, as gently as if he were handling crystal.
His eyes were fixed on them, on the way the tentacle he held undulated and moved in his grasp. The wonder on his face made my breath catch. He was staring at me as though my tentacles were encrusted with the finest jewels.
Declan raised one hand tentatively and asked, “Can I touch?”
Sonny dropped my tentacle and snatched his hands back. “Oops. Sorry. I forgot to ask.”
“You—” My voice squeaked embarrassingly and I cleared my throat. “You can touch.”
They both reached for me, and their hands ran over my body. Sonny circled a finger around one of my suckers and it made me shiver with pleasure.
Declan asked, “You felt them before, Sonny?”
I wasn’t sure whether it was a good sign that he was still standing there, not screaming at me that I was a monster, or whether it was a bad sign that he was only talking to Sonny.
“Yeah, in the water. They wrapped around me.”
Declan clenched his jaw and I wanted to do something but he was still holding me, one hand resting on a tentacle while the other was holding him upright on his crutch.
I knew he was thinking, so I waited. And shivered again as Sonny played with that sucker again.
“I saw you. Under the water. You were—”
“It was the only way I could reach Sonny in time.”
“You saved me,” said Sonny. “I knew I’d felt them save me. And then I dreamed of them. Was that a dream?”
I hesitated and then admitted, “Not always. When I was alone with you, I sometimes… let them out.”
