But—
Those were its familiar muscular arms, white-speckled brown on the top and deep orange around the suckers on their undersides. Long and flexible, curious and so bloody annoying the way they got into everything and pulled things to pieces…
He blinked. Human eyes. Like Carol’s were now—a thought that seemedwrong.And he was human-sized again, Carol whole and wondrous in the water before him, instead of a tiny candleflame he might flick out with one wrong movement.
Greatest of all miracles, his octopus was still there, still a part of him and stretching its twisty arms out to dance in the water.
You’re here,he thought to it, lightheaded with relief.You bastard. I thought I lost you.
His octopus told him that it had done a good enough job of losing itself; it didn’t need his help. When the kraken had taken over, filling his soul with its deepwater darkness, his octopus had done what it did best. It had dug itself into a crack before the tidal wave of the kraken’s appearance could knock it away.
And it had taken this long to find its way to the surface again.
*Moss…*Carol was staring at him wide-eyed, and her love and happiness for him was like sunlight pouring through the mate bond.
His octopus was back. Back—and different. He’d never been able to partially shift like this before, his body still mostly human but with his octopus’s arms spilling out all around him and its eyes watchful behind his. Maybe the kraken made that possible with its shadow tentacles bursting out regardless of what shape he was.
His octopus wrapped one long, speckled arm around his shoulders in a hug and reached out to Carol with the others.
Alone, it wouldn’t be enough. But it wasn’t alone. His octopus’s cunning and the kraken’s strength; together, they wound tight around the collar circling his mate’s neck and snapped it cleanly away.
*There,*he said, his psychic voice rough. *You can shift now.*
*I… don’t think I need to.*Her eyebrows lifted, surprise and delight dancing on her strangely human face. *Your octopus is back! And my shark—*
She broke off, seeming to search inside herself. Eyes closed, she smiled, small and secret.
When she opened her eyes again, they flooded black as the ocean depths. She took a breath of pure seawater, filtering it out through gills that suddenly appeared on her neck.
*I thought I was broken.*She sounded awed. *I thought something went wrong, the first time I shifted. That my shark knew I was wrong and that’s why it never talked to me. But it was as anxious as I was. And my face…”She raised one hand to touch her mouth. *I wanted it so badly. And this was the only way I could hold on to it. Even if it caused me more problems than it solved.*
*How many problems did it solve?*he asked, gently teasing to test the waters.
Her lips quirked. *None. I didn’t say I took the psychologically healthy option. I didn’t even know I was taking ANY option. I just… couldn’t lose it. And this is what that looked like.*Wryness peppered her words. *It didn’t know I wanted it, and I was so hurt it was gone, I couldn’t tell it.*
*And now?*
Her smile widened, sharp points showing behind her lips. The gills on her neck flared and relaxed. *We understand each other a bit better.*
The same way he and the kraken did. And his octopus. The three of them together, though—that would take longer for him to come to terms with.
And there were other things that had his attention right now.
He and Carol stared at one another, she from fathomless black eyes, he from eyes that shifted smoothly from octopus to human as his inner creatures—both of them—gave him a shove and said,Hurry up then.
He let the current float him closer to Carol. Or maybe that was the kraken’s doing, pushing them closer together. Maybe the ocean was singing them a new duet.
She reached for him first, taking his hand and pulling him in until there was the barest ghost of water between them. *You came,*she said, hesitantly.
*Did you think I wouldn’t?*
Her face twisted. *I thought you would be too afraid of becoming the monster.*
*I was.*
*You came anyway. Risked becoming everything you feared. Both of you. Because the kraken didn’t really want it either, did it?*
He didn’t even need to check with the vast mind inside his own. *No. All those centuries waiting gave it time to think there must be more to life.*
