Bared to Him by Jan Springer

who she was and how she had turned out. She liked
herself. A lot.
    * * * *
*
    “ So, you have yourself a female now,” Calder chuckled as he
slapped Gray on his bare back while they walked along the sandy
California beach. Calder had suggested the two of them get off the
yacht and get in some walking because, as he confessed to Gray, he
was a nervous wreck about marrying Cat.
    So, Gray
had returned his gun to the safety of a locked cabinet, ditched his
shirt and both of them had jumped overboard into the pristine warm
waters and swam to the sandy shore.
    It wasn’t
until now that he realized Calder’s reason to leave the yacht was
just an excuse to get the scoop on Gray’s relationship with
Miranda.
    “ If you want to know if we’ve mated, the answer is yes,” Gray
frankly stated.
    To his
surprise, Calder’s facial expression remained neutral.
    “ And what are your intentions toward her? I don’t want her
hurt, Gray. She’s inexperienced and she never really wanted to
become an Octo…”
    Irritation shot through Gray and he abruptly stopped walking.
He clenched his fists and resisted the urge to punch Calder in the
nose. Sure, he understood Calder’s concern. For all the guy knew
from past experiences, Miranda and Gray hated each other. Hell,
everyone knew they fought like cats and dogs.
    “ Things are different now. She’s mine,” he growled the last
word to make sure Calder understood. In the way Calder’s eyes
widened, he did.
    “ Then I don’t know how this will come across, but now that she
has Turned, she’d going to need protection. I smelled her scent
forty miles down the coastline. That’s how I could easily located
you two. She’s got a very strong trail, Gray.”
    “ I’ll protect her.”
    “ How? By keeping her hidden in that Alaskan inlet like her
father has been doing?”
    “ It’s worked so far.”
    “ Only because she wasn’t scenting. Now that she is, every Octo
male can smell her and follow her back. And if you’re not around to
protect her…it’s happened to your consortium. You should know more
than anyone how much females need to be protected.”
    Gray
shivered as he remembered smelling the blood drifting along the
currents. The fear that had twisted his gut. Panicking and swimming
right into an ambush.
    “ Why are you telling me this, Calder? Do you want us to join a
consortium? They didn’t protect my family then and they can’t
protect us now. Having so many females all in one place just makes
their scents stronger. My sisters have decided to live alone and
they’ve managed fine with their decision. Miranda and I can do the
same.”
    “ As I said I could smell her. There are any number of Octo
males out there who won’t respect that she’s taken.”
    “ We’ll take precautions from here on out.” Although he had no
idea what those precautions would entail. There really was no one
hundred percent protection for a female Octoposeidon, unless they
lived in the middle of nowhere like Jack had been doing with
Miranda.
    Calder
nodded tightly. “Well, Catalina and I formed a
consortium.”
    This was
news to him.
    “ We just formed it when we discovered there were several
Octoposeidon in the area of my marina. You both are welcome to come
and live nearby. The males take turns patrolling at night in the
oceans so we can keep the females as safe as possible. Everyone
gets a tattoo, a brand if you will, signifying they belong to a
certain consortium.”
    Calder
pointed to his left shoulder and bicep. To the large black tattoo
with intricate design there.
    “ It’s the brand of our consortium. When we Turn into Octo form
at night, the tattoo glows. It’s how we can tell quickly if an Octo
belongs to our group or not.”
    “ I heard that the Octo society was adopting a tattoo
procedure.” Gray said as he inspected the design. It looked
impressive.
    “ Yes, the idea came from Cat and myself. She uses special inks
that glow gently beneath the depths. Not bright enough