Stalked by the Kraken Bonus Epilogue by Lillian Lark

Author:Lillian Lark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lillian Lark
Published: 2021-06-19T00:00:00+00:00

Gideon

My gaze travels over the wood grain in the kitchen table as the dawn light streaming through the windows brightens. I left a cozy Rose cuddled in our bed to take some time to think.

At first, I’d avoided introspection, telling myself that the reason I wasn’t sleeping beside my mate was that I needed to do some food prep for when her parents come to visit in a couple of days. Rose had been delighted to learn I have some skill and take enjoyment in cooking. I cook for us most days and sometimes Lowell and Jared too.

After that, my method of avoidance was to answer all the emails for my treasure hunting business. A pastime that I’ve scaled back on since my creature and I loathe leaving Rose for long periods of time. Most of the projects I take on now deal mostly with research and then I send out an assistant I found through the bathhouse to do the adventurous part. He calls himself my apprentice and I’d say that description is accurate.

Answering emails and doing research had been an excellent way to avoid what I needed to address until I realized what I was doing. Now I’m looking at wood grain.

Reflecting.

I hadn’t realized the biological drive my creature had placed on me. It happened gradually. The overwhelming urge to breed Rose, to give her everything and watch her swell with my child, slowly transitioned to needing to stake a primal claim on her.

Needing to keep her from leaving me.

I massage the bridge of my nose.

I should have realized the sensation, the itching need to hide Rose away, to fill her at every opportunity. The constant chest tightening anxiety when every attempt to give her a conception failed.

Funny how that part of me could escalate that insecurity past the point of logic. My creature isn’t the reason I want children. It has a primal urge when it comes to its mate, but those kinds of urges come and go.

What my creature truly cares about is keeping our mate happy. Keeping her with us.

The question of progeny had ramped up every instinct in my creature because it saw the possibility of losing Rose. No matter that neither she nor I would ever leave each other over this.

Now that Rose has vocalized that she won’t leave, her emotions as open as a window to me, the beast has settled. It feels at peace under my skin, if not a little irritated that my small insecurity had spun it into action.

For the first time in months, the primal side of me isn’t calling the shots. This is the time to reflect on Rose’s words. My logical brain knows that Rose is right but my heart worries that she will be disappointed.

Am I disappointed?

Yes, I am. I let the pain of that fact wash over me. I accept it.

According to Rose, we have more options, magical methods we can investigate. I don’t have to come to terms with being sterile quite yet, but it does feel inevitable.

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