Tentacle on 34th Street (Tinsel and Tentacles 2.0)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

A lex quickly changed and pulled on the winter coat, hat, and gloves Cryss had bought him—memories of their squabble in town feeling miles and millennia away from that moment. He stepped out into the frigid mountain air, dragging it into his lungs where it almost hurt to breathe, and carefully made his way down the barren, mountain road. Even by foot with the occasional icy spot, it only took him under an hour to make it into the heart of Aspen. He studied the old buildings and architecture, trying to clear his mind of the same fears and doubts he’d been plagued with for the past days, but it was pointless. His mind kept drifting back to Cryss.

The man had been nothing but kind and loving, but fear of the unknown still held him back. He took a break here and there, wandering into a shop to browse. He paused for a coffee to rest his legs and warm up. Two and a half hours into his walk, he sat on a park bench, exhausted. He couldn’t roam all day, yet he was fighting going back. Or maybe he was fighting the decision he’d have to make when he did.

Did he stay or did he go?

Alex lifted his gaze to the sky, the swirling clouds obscuring the blue sky. He didn’t know if he believed in a higher power, but clearly there was a much bigger universe out there than he’d known a few days earlier. Cryss’s mention of star-crossed lovers and the universe tearing them apart entered his mind. Star-crossed took on a whole new meaning after what he’d learned, but surely, if the universe could tear people apart, it could also urge them together.

“Okay, universe… if I’m supposed to be with Cryss, make it snow right now.”

He sat silently waiting for a single flake to fall—but the air remained still and clear. Closing his eyes, he shook his head, feeling torn in two. Maybe they weren’t meant to be. Tears burned his eyes, and he fought them back, failing.

Why let the universe decide? I wanted to see a flake fall. I wanted a reason to say yes.

I can choose my own fate—and I choose Cryss.

Something wet and cold landed on his nose. He opened his eyes, wiping his nose. A single, feathery snowflake wafted down a second later and landed on his thigh. Seconds later, dozens of flakes swirled delicately around him. Alex laughed, tears welling in his eyes as he looked up at the beauty around him.

The universe had apparently agreed with his decision.

He sat for a couple of minutes longer, building the courage to go back and face Cryss. The snow began to fall faster and heavier. “Okay, universe, now you’re just showing off.”

Alex rose and started back for the house. Walking into Aspen was easier than walking back. Most of it was at an incline, and with the heavily falling snow, his feet kept slipping. The worst was the last section, headed up the mountain road where the house was perched high. He wasn’t sure if his legs could manage, and exhaustion took hold. He rode his bike day in and day out to work and around San Francisco every day. His legs weren’t weak—but the long walk out had worn him down.

Near the third sharp curve on the road, he slipped. His ankle twisted, and he came down hard on his shoulder. The air was knocked from his lungs, the pain almost dizzying. He lay there on the side of the road for a minute, giving himself a moment to catch his breath and let the initial pain subside. Once he was ready, he rose, but his ankle wobbled under him. In the wet snow, it took him back down to his knees on the hard-packed earth along the road.

Alex lifted his face to the sun, knowing he needed to get back before it got dark, or he might be in a lot more trouble. He rose again, but his ankle couldn’t support his weight. He tried limping, but it hurt too fucking bad.

No cars came by. None had since he’d started up the road. There was no one to flag for help. He searched his pockets and realized he’d left without his phone in his rush to get out of the house. What the hell was he supposed to do?

An idea flashed in his mind, but he wasn’t sure it would work.

You supposedly can hear my thoughts when I’m emotional. I feel pretty fucking emotional right now. Please help me. I’ve hurt my ankle, and I can’t make it up.

He focused on the road ahead, desperate for Cryss to appear around that corner… but minutes passed with nothing. So much for him hearing my thoughts. Maybe I’m too far away.

From the corner of his eye, Alex noticed something moving at great speed. He turned, trying to catch the blur. Something came hurtling down the side of the mountain… a boulder? He scrambled on his hands and knees, trying to get out of the way. It slammed to the ground feet from him.

It wasn’t a boulder.

It was Cryss.

Who’d landed like a fucking Marvel action hero a couple of feet away from him—in nothing but gym shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt.

“What was that?”

“Leaping down the side of the mountain got me to you faster,” Cryss said before kneeling at Alex’s foot. He inspected it a moment before rising and scooping Alex into his arms.

Cryss gazed down at Alex. “I should’ve grabbed a vehicle. I wasn’t thinking. I’ll have to carry you, if that’s okay with you?”

Alex nodded, slowly wrapping an arm over Cryss’s shoulders. “We’re not going back up the way you came down, are we?”

“Can’t do that without my tentacles—I can’t risk someone seeing, I’m afraid we’re walking up.”

“You’re going to freeze,” Alex said. “Let me down a minute. I’ll share some of my clothes.”

“I can take the cold much easier than humans can,” Cryss said matter-of-factly as he powered up the mountain with Alex in his arms. He walked as if it was no strain at all.

“How did you know I was out here?”

“I felt your pain the minute you fell. It woke me up. I searched the house, hoping you were there, but couldn’t find you. Then you asked me to come get you a few minutes later.” Cryss glanced down for a second. “I’d slept naked, so I had to run back to our bedroom and throw on the first thing I could grab. Then it took me a few seconds to see where you were.”

Our bedroom?

“That’s the part of this story that you latched on to?” Cryss asked. “Most of the thoughts I hear from you are connected to sex, so I figured it would be my nudity. I might be offended now.”

“What do you mean most of my thoughts are connected to sex?”

“The ones I hear most often are. Maybe it’s because you’re less in control? I don’t know.”

Alex’s face flamed.

“How do you think I knew you lied about not using that tentacle toy? You told me you’d lied. You just didn’t know you’d told me.”

Alex’s mind went back to that night, with Cryss using that toy on him. No wonder he’d gotten so turned on watching Alex ride it. He’d been imagining Alex riding his tentacles instead. “I don’t know if I like this. You being privy to my innermost thoughts.”

“You can ask Qylar when we get home. I told him it felt like an invasion of your privacy, and I didn’t like it.” Cryss’s gaze drifted down to meet his. “I wish I could turn it off. I really do. Since I can’t, stop thinking about the toy I never should’ve mentioned.”

Alex closed his eyes, even more embarrassed. “Wait… is Qylar like you? Why am I asking, of course he is. You two are almost identical, except for the outsides.”

“We have the same build and nearly the same hair color,” Cryss murmured. “Not much different.”

He’s not as handsome. Alex cringed as soon as the thought popped into his head. He’d need to find a way to protect those loud thoughts.

Cryss chuckled. “Half the Nefyrian Court would say he’s the better looking one. The other half thinks it but wouldn’t admit to it after his father’s exile.”

“His father was exiled, too? Oh, wait… was your grandfather, his father? Is Qylar your uncle?”

“No. His father was less exiled, more violently dethroned.”

“De throned . Qylar’s a prince?”

“Was a prince. He lost his title and privileges along with his father and siblings.”

“Next thing you’re going to tell me is you’re a Duke.”

“No, but my father is.”

Alex looked up at Cryss. “You’re pulling my leg, right?”

“Nope. My father’s the Duke of House Kreegl as well as a prince. My exiled grandfather was a king. He was allowed to retain his title in name only after the war with King Krythar of House Qlar. The lands the Kreegl monarchy reigned over were absorbed into the Qlaran holdings. My father would be a king now had Krythar lost, which he’s still quite furious about.”

“How many kings are there on your world?”

“Our planet is ten times the size of yours. Roughly the size of Jupiter. While a significant percentage of that is ocean, the twenty percent that’s land is in the billions of square miles. Plus there are undersea caverns that are occupied and ruled by tens of millions who prefer their tentacled form.” Cryss sighed. “Imagine Europe four hundred years ago, filled with monarchies, tsarisms, vassal states, and empires but covering the entirety of Earth. Now take that and multiply the size by ten. That’s my home world.”

“No wonder you were running from it. It sounds like chaos.”

“Chaos and intrigue like you couldn’t even imagine. Add in the fact my father is covetous of Krythar’s lands stolen from our house and his attempts to marry me off to four princes and a princess in some vain attempt to gain a new foothold, and well, Earth is far simpler for me.”

“How’d you manage to get out of five marriages?”

“I was the jilted groom in every case. I thought myself unlucky—not that I wanted to wed any of them. I was simply doing what I thought was my duty—but I found out a few years ago that Qylar had had his hands in every failed engagement.” Cryss smiled. “Except the one that died. Supposedly.”

“One died?”

“Her ship was gunned down by rebels on the way to our ceremony.” Cryss chuckled. “The very last prince was Krythar’s own son. I think my father hoped I, or my progeny, might be able to reclaim our lost lands.”

“Progeny? How could you have children with another man?”

Cryss’s jaw tightened a moment. “I believe I explained that our kind spawn. We don’t give birth.”

“Yes.”

Cryss glanced at him a moment before turning back to the road. “On our world, one partner has the eggs and the seed within them. The other partner has an egg pouch—which is similar to a human womb. Males or females can have either. Typically, the partner who has the eggs and seed are larger, more muscled. The protector. The childbearing partner is smaller. Their body nourishes the young until time to give birth in the spawning grounds. A water birth in a protected, gentle area of the sea, where the young remain until they’re around the age of five Earth years.”

“Babies are just left in the ocean for five years unsupervised?”

“Not unsupervised. There are guardians who sacrifice their ability to live on land and remain in the spawning grounds their entire lives, protecting and nurturing the young. Humans come out of the womb fully formed. Our infants do not. They’re tiny at birth. Five newborns could easily rest in the palm of your hand. Touching them could kill them. They can’t shift into their human form for some time, nor can they leave the sea. They grow and get stronger in the spawning grounds. They make bonds. To ensure the waters there remain pristine for our young, only the babes, the guardians, and childbearers in labor are allowed into the waters. I know it’s far different than the way you do things here on Earth, but there—it’s our way of life. It’s sacred.”

Alex digested all of that a moment. “If you can get men pregnant, does that mean you could get me pregnant?”

“No. Human males don’t have an egg pouch or womb. Correction, a trans man potentially could. Anyone on Earth with a working uterus could gestate an egg. You cannot. You have nothing to fear.”

Alex relaxed some. The idea of Cryss getting him pregnant had instantly terrified him.

“When you came in me… there were seeds and eggs in me?”

“No,” Cryss replied. “We can control when we release our eggs. If I’d released one in you, you would’ve known. I can only do that in tentacle form, and they’re large enough that you’d have felt it slip out.”

“If you filled me with eggs, they’d just slip out? How big are they?”

“It depends. Some are larger than others, but average maybe two to three times larger than a chicken’s egg, I’d guess.”

“That wouldn’t exactly just slip out. They’d need to be pushed.”

Alex’s mind immediately flashed to an ovipositor tentacle he’d seen while shopping for the dildo he’d gotten. It laid fake pink eggs that a man would later push out of himself. He’d not understood the allure of being filled with fake eggs, but suddenly the concept sounded rather intriguing.

Cryss came to a halt up the incline and whipped his gaze to Alex’s, his mouth and eyes wide. Alex dragged his gaze away, face burning. Cryss stood there near panting, the snow falling hard around them as the sun hung low in the sky. Finally, he adjusted his grip under Alex, and continued walking.

“If that’s something you want to experience, I could make it happen,” Cryss murmured, his voice low and rough.

A tremor went down Alex’s spine. “How about we table this discussion for a much later date, because my head’s already spinning. I’ve barely digested that you’re an alien and now I’ve got a Game of Thrones-level hierarchy I need to learn on top of that.”

“What reason do you have to learn it?” Cryss asked drolly.

“I think I should know something of your family tree, twisted as it may be… shouldn’t I?”

Cryss’s gaze flicked to his, and he seemed to fight a smile. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

“If you think it means I’m not planning to leave anytime soon, then I suppose it does.”

Cryss stopped in his tracks again and turned to gaze at Alex. “You’re not leaving me?”

“I’ve decided to see where things go. Cautiously.”

Cryss smiled before he slowly leaned forward and captured Alex’s mouth in a kiss. Alex slid a gloved hand to the back of Cryss’s head, holding on tight. When he pulled away, Cryss searched his face a moment before focusing on the road. “I wish you hadn’t told me that when I have a literal mountain to climb. We don’t have the time for me to show you exactly how much I appreciate you right now.”

“We can table that discussion, too.”

“Not for a much later date, though,” Cryss said as he continued the hike up. “I need to get you inside and see what you’ve done to yourself.”

Alex stared at Cryss’s proud, squared jaw a moment. He brushed the snow piling on top of Cryss’s head and shoulders, noting the hitch to the corners of the man’s lips. “If your father’s a duke, what does that make you?”

“A whole lot of nothing. My eldest brother will inherit the title, not me. My siblings and I are simply spares. Something my parents traded to other kingdoms to secure their meager power and influence, or better yet, increase it.” Cryss glanced at him. “Were you hoping for a royal wedding and a crown on your head? I hope not. I can’t give that to you.”

“The idea of being a royal on this planet would be terrifying enough. Having to learn the rules, the etiquette, and the customs? Ugh. But at least here, I’d start with the somewhat familiar. To be one on yours sounds like a hell I’d never wish on my worst enemy. There’d be too many moving parts to have to learn and politics to keep up with.” Alex eyed him a moment. “Do you plan to return some day?”

“I hadn’t ruled it out completely,” Cryss murmured, glancing his way. “But if I have a good enough reason to stay here, I might never return.”

“Not even for a visit?”

“If I go back, I might never be able to return to Earth. While I forcefully told my parents there would be no sixth engagement, my reappearance might trigger another plot to have me wed off.”

“I guess that means I’ll only see a little glimpse outside that window in the dreams we shared. Probably for the best, though. It sounds like the political intrigue would be exhausting.”

“My planet’s beautiful, especially our oceans. I would love to take you there one day, and I will if I can find a way. I didn’t tell you about our so-called political intrigue to scare you away from it. I wanted to distract you from your pain as we climbed this mountain.” He glanced down at Alex, smiling, before lifting his gaze. “And we’re here.”

Alex looked to the side and sighed with relief. The house and its warmth were only fifty feet away. Cryss quickly swept him inside and set him in front of the fireplace—which he quickly added a log to before helping Alex off with his outerwear and boots.

Cryss hissed as he removed the socks from the bad ankle. It was already bruising and quite swollen. “You might have a sprain. Why don’t we get you to the ER?”

“I don’t think it’s that bad. I’ll keep it elevated and iced tonight, and if it’s uglier tomorrow, maybe we go then.”

“Maybe?” Cryss growled low in his throat.

“Even if it is a sprain, there’s not much more they’d do. They’d splint it, tell me to ice and elevate it.”

“If you say so.” Cryss rose to his feet before shaking his head. “No. We’re taking you to the hospital, just to be sure. I’m going to go dry off and change. Stay right there.”

“Where the hell am I going? I guess I can hop, but I wouldn’t get far.”

Cryss smiled over his shoulder as he walked toward their bedroom. Alex eyed his ankle, pissed he’d spend part of their vacation recuperating from his own idiocy. A few minutes later, Cryss reappeared, dressed and ready to go. He had a pile of clothes under one arm and a folded blanket and towel under the other. After setting the stacks on the couch, Cryss pulled off Alex’s hat and dried his hair and face with the towel first.

“Let’s get you out of those wet things before we go,” Cryss murmured before tugging Alex’s sweater over his head.

Embarrassment notwithstanding, he was appreciative of Cryss’s help undressing. There was also a glimmer of heat that sparked between them as Cryss carefully stripped him down to his skivvies.

Cryss eyed them, smiling. “At least I finally get to see you in the black lace.”

Alex’s face flamed. “I suppose you do.”

Cryss held his gaze a moment, jaw tensing. There were a million things he seemed to want to say circling in his eyes, but he remained silent. Their world together had just flipped on its axis and changed dramatically. The dynamic had changed as well. Alex would almost need to relearn this man before him, taking all of that data and shifting to fit someone not of his world. Cryss redressed Alex in warm, dry clothes, but not before quietly pointing out a few dozen other scrapes and bruises along the way, inspecting each.

“When you do something, you do it very well, don’t you?”

Alex chuckled. “Ever an overachiever.”

Cryss rose. “All set. I’m going to bring the Land Rover around front and come back in to get you.”

Alex eyed his feet—one still bare. “Did you bring out another sock?”

“I’m not tugging a sock over that sprain and injuring you more. That’s why I brought the blanket. I’ll tuck it around you. Be right back.”

Alex sat waiting, staring at the fire, letting out a slow breath. He wasn’t sure he was making the right decision, but seeing how Cryss was taking care of him after his slip made him more confident it was. The front door opened, and Cryss shook off the snow. “Ready?”

Before Cryss loaded Alex into the SUV, he grabbed his topcoat. “The edges of your coat are caked with snow. We’ll use this one.”

Cryss pulled it round Alex—but it didn’t dwarf him.

“You bought the other coat? The one you showed me in the shop, isn’t it? Cryss…” In addition to the multiple sweaters, pants, jackets, and shirts that had wandered into his closet over the last week and a half.

“You can fuss at me later. We don’t have time for it now.”

Alex shook his head. There was no point arguing. What was done was done. He was too sore and too tired for that battle.