By the time Aylth returns for evening tide, I'm vibrating with discovery.
“Female glows,” he says, surfacing in our chamber. But his expression is troubled despite the observation.
“I can understand them. The glowing things. They talk to me, sort of.” I swim to him, noting how his body temperature spikes when I touch him. “What did you find?”
“Disturbances. Something large moved through the deep territories. Very large.” His tentacles wrap around me, pulling me against his burning skin. “But that's for tomorrow's concern. Evening tide rises.”
The evening session is different from morning. Where morning is gentle, evening is intense. The double moon's influence makes the water surge higher, faster, and my body responds accordingly. By the time Aylth lifts me onto our mating ledge, I'm desperate.
“Please,” I gasp, already spreading my legs.
“Patience.” But his control is fraying. I can see it in the way his tentacles move too quickly, the way his breathing quickens. “This one needs... needs to...”
He doesn't finish the sentence. His primary breeding tentacle extends fully, and I see it's changed. Thicker than before, the ridges more pronounced. The secretion it produces is different too, not just preparation fluid but something that glows faintly.
When he enters me, we both cry out. He's so hot inside me it almost burns, and that vibration transmits directly through his tentacle into my core. The sensation is indescribable, like being filled with living electricity.
“Something's happening,” he gasps, his control completely gone. “This one's body... can't stop it...”
The lock engages larger than ever before, stretching me to my absolute limit. But there's no pain, only overwhelming fullness. He pulses inside me, and each release of seed is accompanied by that strange vibration, making my inner walls flutter uncontrollably.
I cum immediately, then again, then continuously. The orgasms don't stop, just roll through me in waves that match his pulsing. My vision goes white, then black, then returns to find me screaming his name.
“Full,” he's saying against my neck. “Too full. This one needs...”
But he doesn't finish, just breeds me for two hours straight. His desperation increases even as he deposits impossible amounts of seed. My belly swells with it, but he doesn't stop, can't stop.
When he finally withdraws, we're both shaking. His whole body trembles, scales actually rattling against each other.
“What's happening to you?” I ask when I can speak again.
“Soon,” is all he manages. “Has to be soon.”
Day fifteen follows the same pattern but more intense. My morning arousal wakes me before dawn, body already preparing for the tide that won't arrive for hours. When it does come, Aylth is almost rough, his control fraying.
I spend the midday exploring my new ability, learning to communicate with the reef itself. The entire structure is alive, interconnected, and it knows me now. Accepts me. When I swim through the territory, glowing creatures light my path without being asked.
It's during this exploration that I realize something profound.
I don't want to leave.
The thought stops me mid-swim. The portal will open in two weeks. I could return to Earth, to the drowned cities and climate refugees and the slow collapse of everything. Sam is safe, the credits transferred. My obligation is complete.
But here, in this impossible underwater palace, I've found something I didn't know I was looking for. Not just Aylth, though he's the center of it. But belonging. Purpose. A world that's changing me into something wonderful rather than just surviving.
“Female thinks loud,” Aylth says, appearing beside me. I hadn't heard him approach, but I felt him through the water itself. Another new ability.
“I was thinking about the portal.”
His body tenses, tentacles curling defensively. “And?”
“And I don't think I want to use it.”
The transformation in him is instant. His eyes lighten from storm to clear sky. His tentacles spread wide in a display I now recognize as joy. Even the painful vibration in his body seems to ease slightly.
“Female means this?”
“I mean it. This is home now. You're home.”
