Kaerius
My mate was not out of danger yet—not by a long shot—but I could not stop myself from giving her what she needed.
What I needed.
Her mouth against mine, her small body safely wrapped in my arms and the coil of my tail.
My fins spread wide to shield her from any prying eyes.
If I was not careful, I would let passion sweep us both away on a tide of pleasure.
It was the rasp of a throat from the direction of the Asgata kelp that made me jerk my head up, my arms growing tight around Samantha.
Bruinen had arrived with a contingent of guards, among them Aenon, who’d called out his warning about my mate—too late to help.
My expression grew tight with the force of the anger I felt—anger and fear.
If I had arrived a few seconds later, my mate would have plummeted straight into a nest of Shadefin.
Samantha was brave; she had more bite to her than the two males from Tapin’s personal guard had expected.
But that near brush with the deadly Shadefin and the darkness of the deep had shaken her—it had shaken me.
She was trembling in my arms, her fingers digging into the scales along my shoulders.
I would never forget the sight of all that blackness surging up to grab her as I raced to catch her before they did.
The hundreds of eyes I’d seen made it clear that the situation was getting desperate.
“Arrest Tapin and Melar,” I snarled.
My hand slid along Samatha’s spine when she trembled, curling into her floating hair to cup the back of her head and press her against my chest.
She was not leaving my side, ever.
Not until I’d outed every single traditionalist and defeated the Shadefin threat.
“There is a massive Shadefin nest below the precipice. We need to eradicate it before it can spread.”
That was a danger that each of these males knew well—one we had been forced to deal with more often lately, with ever greater frequency.
Bruinen uttered orders immediately, and the males advanced to the edge of the seashelf—the edge of our territory.
The currents here were strong, forcing each of us to work our tails to prevent being swept off the edge and down into the black depths.
Further into that darkness, the Sanos Abyss was home to King Krak’zol and his people, but here on the edge, the Shadefin now reigned.
I shifted Samantha against my side, holding her close so the two of us could watch closely.
I did not want to see the nest again, but I forced myself to grab my trident and stand tall beside the warriors.
We needed all the firepower we could get.
If even the tiniest of spores escaped the burn, they would settle in anew and breed another wave of deadly, ever-hungry Shadefin.
The Shadefin nest loomed below us, a grotesque sprawl of undulating shadows and glistening tendrils, nestled within the depths of the abyss, clinging to the cliff wall and spilling out of the nooks and crannies where it had begun.
Where it had previously been hidden from our patrols, the water now shimmered with the bioluminescent spores they excreted—a sickly blue-green that tainted the depths like a spreading disease.
My jaw tightened, my gills flaring in distaste.
Enough.
This infestation ended today.
It was only one of many, but at least we could end this one.
“Fire at will,” I ordered, my voice reverberating through the water, unyielding as the currents that shaped our world.
The warriors obeyed without hesitation, releasing streams of incendiary plasma that ignited upon contact with the infestation.
I fired my own trident at the same time, taking grim satisfaction in the way the force of it pushed against my shoulder and made me work to center my aim.
The luminous glow of the Shadefin spores was swiftly overtaken by a violent eruption of light and heat as the plasma burned through the nest’s core.
The water churned as the creatures inside writhed and screamed, their high-pitched keening—a death knell that vibrated through my bones.
Samantha tensed beside me, her gaze locked on the destruction.
She did not flinch, though the horror of what we had uncovered was evident in her wide, alert eyes.
Strong, this human.
Braver than most of my own kind.
I knew she was realizing just how close to death she’d come when she’d been swept by the current down into their greedy jaws—exactly as Tapin and Melar had wanted.
A brutal, pain-filled execution I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Anyone except those two bastards who had dared to attempt to snuff out the life of my mate.
I turned to my guards, and to Bruinen and Aenon, who watched with grim satisfaction as the nest went up in plasma destruction.
They had fought these creatures before.
They knew what it was to face death in the deep.
But this victory was only the beginning, and we had finite resources.
The Shadefin nested where we harvested the fuel for our plasma fire, for our tridents, and for the ship-palace and the homes of the civilians.
We could not defeat them without it, and we could not get it because it was becoming too deadly.
Shoving those worries aside, I focused again on my mate.
She held the answers.
That ship she’d come from, the one that still hovered in space with thousands of other sleeping humans, could hold the Atara we needed to strike another deadly blow at the Shadefin, ending their rapid reproduction cycle and restoring balance.
My mate had become my sole hope for a swift end to the war with the deadly creatures, and I wanted her to be a beacon of hope to the rest of my people.
To that end, there was only one path forward—there only ever had been one path.
“She is mine,” I declared, my voice a thunderous current through the water.
“Samantha is my mate.”
Bruinen nodded, solemn and respectful.
But Aenon hesitated—a subtle shift in his expression, the twitch of his gills, the tension in his posture—disapproval.
My eyes narrowed.
I had expected this: the splitting of loyalty, the dividing of my people as they either objected or celebrated their king mating an outsider.
I had to act swiftly to quash any further sentiments of treachery and rebellion.
The displeasure had barely formed on his face before I struck, my tail lashing out with brutal efficiency.
The impact sent him reeling, his body spinning through the water before he righted himself, stunned.
I advanced, the spines along my arms flaring outward in silent warning.
“You will not question me,” I growled, my voice low and edged with threat.
“She is the key to our survival, to our victory over the Shadefin. She deserves your respect.”
Aenon bowed his head, chastened, though resentment still coiled beneath his skin.
It did not matter.
He would obey.
They all would.
There was no other outcome I tolerated, and once I had dealt with the two traitors who had almost killed Samantha, everyone would fall in line.
Satisfied that these men would obey and that the nest had been eliminated, it was time to focus on my female.
She had pulled herself together, and though I still held her tight beneath my arm, pressed against my chest, she was no longer shaking.
She had curled her fingers into my forearm, and I would not be surprised if she was preparing to slip from my grasp.
That would be a mistake; the current would take her anew.
My grip was firm, possessive.
Protective.
“Come,” I said, leading her away from the wreckage of the Shadefin nest, back toward the palace.
“You stay by my side.”
She glanced at me, lips parting as if to protest, but something in my expression stilled her words.
She nodded, and I felt an unfamiliar warmth settle in my chest.
That was trust in her expression, her pale face beautiful, surrounded by her dark, silky hair, which swayed and curled on the currents.
As we moved through the corridors of my domain, I kept her close, ensuring no one dared approach.
Those we passed wisely averted their gazes, sensing the depth of my claim.
The human was mine, and woe to anyone who thought to challenge it.
Aenon and Bruinen accompanied us, but the other males were dispatched to rally patrols to check our borders again.
When I rose with Samantha through the pool in my chamber, we were finally alone.
I did not expect the tidal wave of fierce emotions that crashed through me then; it swept me away, pushing me down a current as inevitable as the rising of the moon.