The Kraken's Catch
(2026)(The first book in the Monsters of the Hollow series)
A Story by Daphne Leigh
A laid-off dockworker. A six-hundred-year-old kraken. And a paranormal speakeasy that doesn't let go of the men who walk in.
Ronan's got three weeks left on his lease, two beers in his fridge, and a brother who stopped calling six months ago. He's twenty-seven and he's running on fumes.
When the foreman slips him a card for off-the-books cash work, Ronan takes it. He's not expecting the freight elevator to drop him four floors below the city. He's not expecting the bar full of things wearing human faces. And he's definitely not expecting the thirty-foot saltwater tank built into the back wall — or the gorgeous, ancient, eight-armed monster watching him from inside it.
Lir has been alone in his grotto for sixty years. He's watched a hundred men cross his floor and never wanted any of them.
Then Ronan walks in.
Now Lir wants. And what a kraken wants, a kraken takes.
✦ Tropes: monster romance, tentacles, size difference, gentle dom monster / touch-starved human, age gap (massive), found family, working-class hero, slow burn to high heat, HEA guaranteed
✦ Heat: five chili peppers
'' Book 1 of Monsters of the Hollow—each book is standalone, centered on one human and one monster, set in the same underground paranormal speakeasy in a no-name American city. New monster, new POV, new HEA every book.
Ronan's got three weeks left on his lease, two beers in his fridge, and a brother who stopped calling six months ago. He's twenty-seven and he's running on fumes.
When the foreman slips him a card for off-the-books cash work, Ronan takes it. He's not expecting the freight elevator to drop him four floors below the city. He's not expecting the bar full of things wearing human faces. And he's definitely not expecting the thirty-foot saltwater tank built into the back wall — or the gorgeous, ancient, eight-armed monster watching him from inside it.
Lir has been alone in his grotto for sixty years. He's watched a hundred men cross his floor and never wanted any of them.
Then Ronan walks in.
Now Lir wants. And what a kraken wants, a kraken takes.
✦ Tropes: monster romance, tentacles, size difference, gentle dom monster / touch-starved human, age gap (massive), found family, working-class hero, slow burn to high heat, HEA guaranteed
✦ Heat: five chili peppers
'' Book 1 of Monsters of the Hollow—each book is standalone, centered on one human and one monster, set in the same underground paranormal speakeasy in a no-name American city. New monster, new POV, new HEA every book.
Used availability for Daphne Leigh's The Kraken's Catch