>**A few notes**: This story takes place in the same setting as a previous story of mine, but is not necessary to read to understand this one. To avoid confusion, please also note that text in italics is meant to be memories/flashbacks. All characters are above the age of 18.
Dione awoke to the familiar hum of the sea-beast in her submerged ears, low and calming. Her dark hair floated around her head in a halo, and she blinked upwards into the morning light filtering through the barn’s rafters. Her legs stretched, the water rippling around her floating body.
As it had the past few months, the creature beneath her seemed to stir to consciousness as she did. Dione had her suspicions that it didn’t sleep, merely fell dormant, curled in the bottom of the tank. Even when still, a few of its multitude of limbs supported her body in the water – a rubbery, slick tentacle wrapped around her ankles, another curled around her hips possessively. She had long since stopped fighting the touch of the creature – regardless of how she struggled, it wouldn’t let her go.
She belonged to the creature. She was its mate.