by Isabel Wroth
Overwhelmed by their support, she still wasn’t sure what to think. A knock on her door drew her out of her thoughts.
“Yes?” The very last person Alec expected, opened the door and walked in. “Emma?”
In a pretty pink gown, Emma looked like a blonde fairy tale princess. Petite, rosy cheeked, and if her sour expression was anything to go by, pissed off.
“Ra’ten and I won’t be joining you in the morning.”
Confused why Emma felt she had to deliver the news herself, like it was a surprise when she hadn’t been quiet about her dislike of living on a prison planet, Alec frowned slightly.
“Alright. I’m sure you’ll be happy here.”
“Will we? I’m not so sure, since it seems you and your mate seem intent on making life miserable for us.” Emma’s pretty face twisted with her ugly accusation.
Alec blinked, letting her brows slide up slowly. “I beg your pardon?”
“Ra’ten is a higher ranked warrior, but was passed over when Kalix chose who would take command of the fortress here.
“When Ra’ten asked Kalix why Danika’s mate got the promotion, he said it’s because you don’t trust Ra’ten. You’re sabotaging my mate, humiliating him because of your own issues, and it’s bullshit! You owe me, Alec!”
“I... owe you.” Alec repeated slowly, putting her satchel down to face the irate woman. “What exactly is it that I owe you, Emma?”
Emma stomped her foot like a child. She was beautiful, even when she started to cry angry tears. Alec hadn’t ever seen this side of Emma before, but somehow she wasn’t surprised.
“You murdered my father!”
Ah. So her suspicions had been correct. “Did I?”
“I was there! You cut off his head and made everyone watch when you set his body on fire!”
“I remember things a little differently.” Alec advanced on Emma, hands behind her back to keep them from slashing at the petulant brat’s face. “I remember your father having gotten infected, only you didn’t tell anyone.
“You kept him hidden in one of the old supply containers for eight days before your brother found him and let him out.
“Your infected, crazed father was so desperate for water, he broke your brother’s neck and had almost reached our last clean water source before I stopped him.
“I didn’t let him suffer for days instead of giving him a quick, painless death. I didn’t hunt your father down and murder him.
“I took his head as quickly as possible and burned his body while our people watched on in respect, in support of your loss, to make sure the monsters ready to burst out of his veins didn’t hatch and grow up to kill more of us.
“You could have given your dad peace, any one of you could have given your infected family members peace. Instead, you let me do it.
“You asked me, and even while you hated me for it, not a single one of you stepped up to take my place.
“Eight hundred and twenty four of our people, Emma, that’s how many were infected by the Scylla. I remember every single face, every name.
“I did the only thing I could to save the rest of us, and not once did anyone else offer to shoulder that weight.”
The words came faster and faster, and so did the release of a terrible burden. The guilt that had bogged her down for so many years slowly but surely began to evaporate.
“You might hate me, you might blame me, but I owe you dick, Emma. I don’t owe any of you. I did my duty and we survived.
“As for Ra’ten, I didn’t have shit to do with his demotion. I had no idea Kalix had spoken to him, but I respect his decision and wouldn’t go behind his back to change it because I had a personal issue with a subordinate.
“Clearly, you’ll be much happier here away from me and my murderous ways, so quit your bitching and go live your life. You owe me that.”
Tears spilling down her cheeks, Emma spun on her heel and marched out the door without another word.
Alec walked slowly out onto the balcony, hugging herself as she stared up at the star studded sky.
They shimmered down on her, and Alec couldn’t help but think of the story Kalix had told her about his ancestors and he stars.
She knew it was just a pretty story, but tonight it comforted her. She counted out eight hundred and twenty four stars, imagining their shine was actually the souls of her people, offering her light to show her the way home.
She breathed in and let herself believe the words that had poured out of her in the wake of Emma’s ridiculous accusation.
It was the biggest load of shit I ever heard. You saved us. All of us.
It didn’t hurt so much this time to hear Meg’s voice. It actually almost made her smile.
“This is the second night I have come to find you here, mate. I begin to wonder perhaps if you truly would prefer to stay.” Kalix’s voice wrapped around her, every bit as warm as his arms.
“No, I’m ready to go.”
Kalix touched a kiss to her throat. “Not without this.”
He opened his hand, and a shining white rope lay coiled on his palm with two tiny familiar blue jewels dangling at the end.
Alec felt her throat constrict, the heat burning all the way up to sear her eyes and blur her vision with tears.
“My bracelet.”
“I realized you had lost it the day of your first shift.”
Alec cupped her hands around his large, scarred palm, the length of her sister’s hair nestled between them.
“Is that where you’ve been all afternoon? Looking for this?”
“Yes. I don’t believe it is damaged in any way, and I washed it with enzyme to remove any debris. I couldn’t in good conscience let you leave without it.”
It had been a thought in the back of her mind, every day since her first traumatically emotional shift.
A hurt she thought she had harbored in secret, her heart twisting each time she saw its twin around Zhenya’s wrist, imagining the bright strands of hers frayed and deteriorating in the wet grass somewhere in that misty valley.
Perhaps being picked up by birds to make their nests, the blue crystals buried in the mud as time and rain pushed the dirt around.
Now here it was, coiled in Kalix’s palm because he had gone and hunted it down for her, knowing how much it mattered to her.
He carefully wrapped it around her wrist, ensuring the braid lay just so, looping the catch together.
For a long time, Alec didn’t know what to say. Bombarded with a multitude of emotions, it took her breathless moments to realize what it was that so overwhelmed her.
Happiness. Alec was happy.
There was only the smallest tinge of sadness, but not enough to make even a dent. She turned around and looked up at her mate, at the gentle smile in his eyes.
She had a momentary thought it was his happiness she was experiencing, but she was alone in her own head.
His scent was rich with satisfaction, the smell of the misty moors he had been born to clung to his skin when she went up on her toes to rub her cheek against his.
He ducked his head and purred for her, a sound she realized he never made for anyone else, or around anyone else. Only for her.
Alec sighed, her muscles giving up the last bit of stubborn tension as she herself gave in. He must have felt it, or maybe could smell her surrender, because even as she relaxed, the tension in his body ratcheted up higher.
~What is it, love?
His voice swept through her mind, a seeking ripple of awareness. Alec savored the way it felt, allowing her head to fall back so she could look up at him.
His rough hands cradled her cheeks, his thumbs moving tenderly back and forth just beneath her eyes.
His brow wrinkled with his frown, the only Sarazen she had seen who looked anything other than ageless, and Alec couldn’t help but think the imperfections made Kalix seem that much sexier.
She thought about his question, considering perhaps what she was feeling wasn’t as simple as h
appiness. It felt like more, a deeper burn, hotter than her anger.
Was it love?
The prospect was a little terrifying, but it was silly to be afraid of something that had no teeth, no claws or desire to maim her.
Screwed up as she was, Alec knew love was supposed to be a good thing, not something to fight. There were other, far more dangerous things to fight.
~Yes. I think so.
She could tell her response confused him, but she didn’t give him the chance to think about it for long. Alec wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hopped up to hitch her thighs around his hips, grinning at the surprise, the pleasure that darkened his eyes.
Alec clung to him, secure in the knowledge he wouldn’t ever drop her, and kissed her mate under the stars.
~Everything is packed except for our bedding. We don’t have to be anywhere else until tomorrow morning.
Alec barely finished the thought before Kalix turned and carried her back to their bed. She knew she would be exhausted, but knew it would be more than worth it.
She could sleep on the shuttle.
FOURTEEN
It seemed the decision to get to S6 and settle in as soon as possible had been a smart move.
Kalix said it had lessened the challenges they would face, only every day for the first two weeks he had fought what he called a ‘minor physical battle.’
Battles he won, every single time, but more than once she had stood beside him in the infirmary and watched the horrendous tears in his flesh be mended with serums and copious amounts of regeneration gel.
Kalix took it all in stride, enjoying how she fussed over him and then turned right around to lecture him on the many ways she was displeased by his injuries.
Alec had even tried to argue the total lack of efficiency regarding the challenges, using every logical means she had to point out what a waste of time they were.
Every individual challenge he fought, took time away from getting their territory in order. It gave the enemy time to dig proverbial trenches and prepare for a larger scale invasion.
Really, all Alec had wanted to do was make him see how easy it would be for her to simply force all the challengers to change via the power and rage of her beast.
Kalix said it would be helpful, but it would also make him seem weak. As a soldier, Alec understood. As a mate, it just pissed her the hell off.
Always seeking to please her, Kalix had come up with a solution.
He would simply fight all the challengers at the same time.
Without her interference.
Apparently, that was reserved for her own challenges, or if she felt someone under their protection was in imminent danger.
Thus far, the only person in danger among their retinue of warriors, mates, and children had been Kalix himself.
The kids were doing fine, enjoying their lessons, finding ways to irritate their very strict guards by playing hide and seek with the warriors.
They were pretty good at it too, but their scents and sounds of enjoyment gave away their positions every time.
Kalix was a true beast when it came to security, having given more than one stern, very fatherly lecture to the kids about the reality of their safety, his responsibility for each of them, and his disappointment when they stepped out of line.
Truthfully that wasn’t very often, and despite her initial reservations to Kalix having stepped up to be that father figure and commander, the kids all absolutely worshiped him.
Unsurprising. Alec was pretty close to worship herself.
In private of course.
The fortress was essentially an oasis situated in the center of what had once been the impact crater of an asteroid.
It had left a wall around the crater in the shape of a wave just as it crested, the entrance, a jagged jut of rock carved to resemble a Sarazen cat roaring, its jaws spread wide in a soundless bellow to allow the comings and goings of the inhabitants.
The diameter of the crater was twenty-five miles or so, and unlike the forest fortress or the cavernous citadel, their new home was a trio of shining towers that shot out of the earth like silver spears.
Kalix said it was the most technologically advanced of all their cities with a shield system powerful enough to withstand any and all weapons fire should an enemy ship appear in orbit above the planet.
There were gardens, orchards, small copses of trees, little rivers and deep pools situated throughout the entire city, even near the prison quarters, which lent an air of beauty to the otherwise arid and barren terrain.
It rained every day, not for long, but long enough to allow the numerous waterfalls around the walled city to flow continuously.
The sound was soothing and made you forget what lay beyond the curled boundaries of their sanctuary. She and Kalix had spent their first three nights out on the balcony of their quarters, looking up at the stars.
Kalix said there were six smaller outposts much like their oasis, but other than that, the planet was a wasteland.
Active volcanoes pushed the melted ore up from deep within the planet, cracked, dry earth as far as the eye could see, and two mines where the precious liquid ore was collected.
The closest mine was forty miles from the fortress, which was where they were now, at the arena where the Sarazen warriors trained.
Alec drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair, though calling the wide stone seat a chair would be like calling a broadsword a knife.
She was sitting on a damned throne, up in the shaded open air pavilion that looked down on a positively archaic arena.
It was an oval-shaped stadium, fifteen tiers high with the ability to comfortably seat over a hundred thousand.
Kalix stood shirtless in the center of the sandy arena, preparing himself for the twenty-nine males who thought they had what it took to take him down and place themselves on the seat of command.
She was surrounded by prisoners and warriors alike, all viciously anticipating the fight to come.
V’ar, the commander of the warship currently in orbit above them, had already tried and failed to challenge Kalix for control of the planet, but as Tarek had predicted, V’ar was gracious about his loss.
He was not far from Alec now in hologram form, eager for the fight to begin. He said he was rooting for Kalix, but Alec wasn’t entirely sure about that.
In spite of his graceful loss, Alec could tell it would please him if someone took Kalix down a peg, simply because her mate was so strong and it had taken Kalix less than sixty seconds to defeat V’ar.
Whether or not it was enough to make V’ar an enemy, Alec couldn’t say yet. Despite Kalix’s assurances the other male was beyond reproach and had protected S6 flawlessly for hundreds of years, she certainly had no love for the commander.
Alec was coming to realize she was almost irrationally protective of her mate, finding fault or reasons for suspicion in the smallest ways.
If Kalix noticed, he never said anything. He simply smirked a pride filled little smirk and went about his business.
The kids sat at the edge of the pavilion making bets on how long this warrior or that one would last, much to the amusement of the adults around them.
Alec watched her mate standing perfectly still, his gaze on the gates where his opponents would enter the arena, utter confidence in himself visibly oozing from him.
A low horn sounded, and the gates swung wide to allow the challengers to enter the arena.
The possibility of death for one or more challengers was almost a guarantee at this point, as Kalix had made this a no-holds-barred event.
On one hand, it was so unbelievably terrifying, it was all she could do to keep her fears to herself. Twenty-nine to one were shit odds, no matter how strong Kalix was.
On the other, she was so turned on by the sheer balls Kalix had, it was even more difficult to not flood their bond with her desire. Alec knew what a distraction it would be, and had promised him she would not interfere or doubt him.
~On
e last reminder before this starts, mate. You’re not allowed to die. I forbid it.
Kalix didn’t look her way, but she felt him, felt his presence fill every possible space inside her with heat and hunger.
He and his beast were both eager for this fight, they welcomed it, and Alec felt her own beast wiggle with bloodthirsty excitement.
~Are you suggesting I might lose this fight, love?
~No. I’m looking at the reality of my one mate, facing twenty-nine warriors.
~It could be twenty-nine thousand, Alec, and I would not lose.
~It’s good to be so confident, but don’t get cocky.
~It is not confidence, mate, it is fact. I will not lose.
~I believe you, but my order stands. No dying.
~As my female commands.
Alec retreated, locking herself up tightly to ensure none of her concerns or doubts would distract Kalix.
An official cited the rules of engagement once more, what was at stake, and what had to be done to win.
Kalix had to be defeated first, and whoever was left standing then had to fight amongst themselves until there was only one warrior left.
“You need not fear, Asha’na,” A’tarey said from where he stood at her elbow. “None of these warriors are prepared for what is about to happen.
“If they knew truly what Commander Kalix is capable of, they would never have agreed to this. Watch and see. He will not fall.”
A’tarey spoke proudly, his lips curved in a grin of pure confidence, with just a hint of savageness.
“Of course he won’t. I forbade it,” Alec shot back, lips twitching when A’tarey choked on his laughter.
The horn sounded again, and Kalix threw his head back to roar his readiness. The sound reverberated off the arena walls, amplified so loudly it literally shook the stadium. Alec felt the ferocity of it in her blood, her bones.
He dragged his claws across his chest as though he was tearing away all vestiges of civility, his body rippling with power, crouched in an aggressive pose, ready to meet the warriors who challenged him.
