Page 6 of Kraken the Seal

“I saw Nina, and she asked me to make sure you were okay,” I said.

Janice looked relieved. “I texted her that I'm leaving with Carrie. I guess she didn't see it.”

Carrie started wailing again. “How could he do that? He said I was fat in front of everyone!”

“He did?” I asked, shocked. I knew Zak wasn't a great guy, but I didn't know he was that bad.

Janice nodded her head. “It was brutal. I don't think any real woman would be good enough for that guy. After he called her fat, he said he'd be willing to go out again once she lost twenty pounds.”

“I'm so ugly!” Carrie cried

“You're not,” I said. “You’re very pretty!”

Carrie couldn't hear me, she was too busy crying about how no man would ever love her. Janice shot me an apologetic look.

“I need to get her home and pour gallons of water down her throat,” Janice said. “And maybe some Xanax."

I nodded and moved out of the way. I stayed there and watched until they made it up to the parking lot. She helped Carrie into a car and pulled away.

Now that I could report back to Nina that Janice had safely left the party, I almost headed back to my boat. A blast of masculine laughter made me hesitate and look at Zak's yacht.

I couldn't let it go. Zak might not have tried to drug Nina, but he was friends with men who did. Not to mention that Zak had been unnecessarily cruel to Carrie.

Even though my mate was waiting for me, I had to exact a little revenge. Diving into the water, I shifted into my kraken form, my board shorts shredding and floating away from my body.

It only took a second to get to the stern of Zak's yacht. I grabbed hold of the propeller with several tentacles and braced the rest against the hull. I strained until the propeller pulled free with a groan. I got bonus points because the driveshaft came with it.

Satisfied with my destruction, I let go and watched the equipment drop to the shallow bay floor. I could hear screaming from inside as the yacht suddenly shifted and water invaded the engine compartment.

It was going to sink, but it would take a while. That would give everyone on board plenty of time to evacuate.

Swimming to my boat, I shifted in the water and climbed aboard, belatedly realizing that I'd miscalculated.

“Why are you wet and naked?” Nina asked, emerging from the cabin.

“That's a good question,” I said, floundering and looking up, as if an appropriate answer would fall out of the dark sky.

None came.

Chapter 3

Nina

Today had started out oddly and only got stranger.

Despite starting a project I'd been looking forward to, I'd been restless all day. Going out for a bicycle ride hadn't helped. Cleaning and organizing my home office didn't settle me. Sending out a dozen emails to various people didn't do anything.

When Janice begged me to go with her to this party, something made me agree despite not liking anything about the situation.

I couldn't swim so I never went near bodies of water for fun, or got on boats. It didn't matter that this one was tied to a dock, water was water.

Not only was the party on the water, but it was also being held by Zak, who I couldn't stand. I’d met him a few times when I'd been visiting Janice. Carrie was her roommate, and Zak was constantly sleeping over. For someone who was supposedly a successful entrepreneur, he seemed to be between apartments a lot.

Every time I interacted with him, I was struck by how smarmy he seemed. I could only hope Carrie came to her senses and dumped him.

Now I was on another boat with a man who made me feel more relaxed than I'd ever felt with anyone except Janice.

However, the strangeness wasn't over because Delmar left dry and dressed in board shorts and returned soaking wet and completely naked.