Page 5 of Taken By the Alien Triton King

I exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through my damp hair. “Yes, but not that kind of scientist. I’m a botanist. I study plants and ecosystems, not advanced propulsion systems.” My explanationwas said by rote, as I’d met more than one jerk who didn’t know one kind of science from the next. The fact that I was a doctor—officially, but not a medical doctor—boggled many a mind.

He studied me for a long moment, then inclined his head. “If I give you access, can you find out?” His intense expression made me want to say yes in a heartbeat, but I hesitated. The USSLegacy’sdatabase had a vast amount of information on the resources we carried, even beyond our primary mission parameters. If I could get access to a terminal, cross-reference the materials stored in our cargo holds… maybe.

I lifted my chin. “Why would I do that? I still don’t know why I am here or what you want of me. My people need safe harbor; we need a bit of land to live on. You offer me a deal, and I’ll try.” Whoa. Okay. Guess I had a little bit of negotiator in me after all. That was good. That was firm. And my strange but oh-so-handsome alien king wasn’t biting my head off.

Kaerius nodded once, decisive. “We can discuss this. I do not see why we can’t work together. You can use this console.” His hand waved toward the one with the floating blue crystalline particle that he was after. Then, without another word, he turned and strode out of the room, leaving me standing in the center of what I was beginning to suspect was far more than just an alien palace.

I glanced back at the console, at the softly glowing projection hovering in the air, my mind racing with possibilities. What had I just agreed to? And what would happen to me and a future treaty if I didn’t find what he was after?

Chapter 7

Kaerius

As soon as I stepped from the council chambers, the four advisors who had previously belonged to my brother’s ruling council clamored for my attention. Firia was the loudest but also the quickest to give up this time. The murmuring voices of the remaining three males faded into insignificance as I strode from the chamber. They called my name, but I did not slow. My thoughts were a maelstrom, dragging me into deeper, darker waters than I cared to wade into.

Samantha was my mate. There was no denying it now, not with the way my blood had surged the moment I touched her, how her scent lingered in my lungs, how her presence burned through me like a cleansing tide. She was human. She was not Ondrithar. She was an outsider. But my instincts did not care for tradition, for politics, for the delicate balance of my rule. They only knew one truth—she belonged to me.

A snarl coiled in my throat. If I claimed her, everything would change. The advisors already knew it; I had no doubt they’d seen the signs. The Ondrithar people would know it the moment Iclaimed her. An outsider queen had never been considered, let alone accepted. And yet the very thought of walking away, of severing the bond before it fully took root, made my gills flare in rejection.

Diving into the water-filled tunnels, I drove my body forward with powerful motions from my tail. Racing away from her—the way she’d made my heart race earlier with her shrewd bargaining and her easy concession—I did not slow until I reached the war chamber and rose from the pool entrance into the air-filled room, my bare feet slapping against the metal floor as I shifted, my frustration echoing in each step.

The domed ceiling arched high above, panels of tempered glass allowing a view of the ocean beyond. Pale shafts of filtered sunlight cut through the water, illuminating the chamber in shifting shades of blue and green. The holographic war table at the center of the room pulsed with light, projecting the seafloor’s topography and the strategic points of our defenses. The faint hum of energy from the ancient systems vibrated beneath my feet—a reminder that this palace was once a ship, a vessel built for war and survival.

My head guard, Bruinen, was already waiting, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression grim. His deep blue scales shimmered in the dim light, his trident strapped to his back. “They struck again,” he said without preamble. A hint of censure in his eyes warned me that this was what he’d wanted to warn me about in his report earlier—the one I had brushed off so I could see my human curiosity. For that’s all he thought she was.

I exhaled sharply, shaking off my personal turmoil to focus. “Where?” I demanded, leaning on my fists at the edge of thetable to peer at the display of the Ondrithar territory. This table was a larger version of the one in the council chambers, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Samantha was currently staring at the same view I was.

“The reef along the west edge of the cliff, near the Sanos Abyss,” he said. His posture was ramrod straight, but I could sense his anger and agitation in every line of his body. Bruinen had excellent self-restraint, but this attack cut deep—each one cutting worse than the last. “The Shadefin grow bolder. Our resource gatherers were attacked. Two dead, three injured.”

The familiar rage surged, but I swallowed it down. I could not afford anger—I needed strategy. The Shadefin had always been a threat, lurking in the darkness of the Abyss, but they had never been so brazen. Not until recently. Not for a long time. Their last attacks as bold as this had preceded the poisoning of their nesting caves with the Atara that had once powered the star drive engines. That had been well over four hundred years ago.

I moved to the console, my webbed fingers flicking over the controls to bring up the surveillance feed. The images flickered—grainy, but clear enough to show the carnage. The reef was disturbed, once-vibrant corals shattered, the water stained with blood. The bodies had already been retrieved, but the destruction remained. “Escalation,” I muttered. We had never suffered this many dead before from a single attack. I could only imagine how many Shadefin had swarmed the poor harvesters, catching them by surprise.

Bruinen inclined his head, his tanned skin shifting with gold and green as his other form pressed up from beneath the surface. My own body was responding in the same way, blue lining my fleshas my scales itched to cover me—a protection, but also a desire to fight. My faithful head guard snarled the words when he said, “They are testing our limits.”

My jaw tightened. “Then we remind them why we are kings of these waters.” The water around the war chamber pulsed slightly, as if the very ocean itself sensed my rising fury. We had fought the Shadefin before, driving them back into their nests along the edge of the cliff at great cost. If they thought we had weakened, they would learn otherwise.

I issued swift orders—patrols were to be doubled, reinforcements sent to the gathering sites. We would not cower. But even as I planned retaliation, my thoughts drifted back to Samantha. Bruinen noticed—as always, sharp as a razor and with more than enough guts to call me out on it. “You are distracted.”

I snapped my gaze to him, my expression thunderous. “I am focused.” He might have the guts to say the words, but he was not allowed to overstep his bounds on this matter. What I planned to do with Samantha was up to me and no one else. Distracted? Maybe, but not in any way that mattered. I would always do what needed to be done to protect my people. In this case, I hoped that Samantha might be our very salvation.

At my furious glare, his brow lifted slightly, but he did not challenge me. Wise. There was a reason he and I got along as well as we did, and it wasn’t because we’d grown up in the same creche and learned to use our tridents from the same weapon master.

Then, another voice chimed through the comms, urgent and tense. “My king,” Aenon’s voice crackled. “It’s the human.” My heart slammed against my ribs. A different kind of adrenaline surged through me, colder and sharper than the battle fury from before. This was primal because this was about my mate. I tolerated a threat to her even less than I did to my people.

“What of her?” I demanded, my voice already edged with impatience. I was moving before I even thought about it, already heading for the water-flooded exit tunnel so I could race back to the council chamber where I’d left her.

“She is causing trouble,” Aenon said, his tone indicating that he squarely placed the blame for this ill-timed intrusion on the human. Ice flooded my veins. My mind raced with possibilities—had she tried to escape? Had someone threatened her? Had another of my people dared to touch what was mine?

I didn’t ask for details—I didn’t need them. Diving into the tunnel, my body cut sharply through the surface, causing only the slightest ripple along its previously tranquil expanse. My gills flared, my senses sharpening as I navigated the corridors, my body thrumming with urgency.

The ancient halls of the palace blurred past me, the bioluminescent lights casting shifting shadows along the walls. Any guard or other palace dweller I encountered hurriedly dove out of my way, coiling aside to let me pass without comment. They responded to my thunderous expression, to the danger that made the fins and spines along my body sharp and deadly.

I had only one purpose: to find Samantha and protect her at any cost.

Chapter 8

Samantha

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