Deep Inside
Orun-Kai waited in the trench’s mouth.
He looked like a nightmare sculpted by lust—taller than any man, his muscles slick and gleaming, skin dark as abyssal stone. His tentacles shimmered with faint bioluminescence, and his golden eyes burned with hunger the moment he saw her.
“You’ve begun the change,” he said, voice a rumble that vibrated through the water.
Maeve nodded, drifting closer. “I feel it. Everything… it’s sharper. Hotter. I can’t sleep. I ache.”