Page 7 of Taken By the Alien Triton King

One of the advisors moved forward, his tail fanning behind him in gentle motions, his expression smooth—almost unbothered. “The human is a threat to your rule. We are simply removing the problem.” That sounded like a party line, and Kaerius didn’t buy it.

He moved so fast I barely saw it—one second, he was holding me one-armed against his chest, his tail whipping down to keep both guards pinned beneath it. The next moment, he rushed forward and grabbed the male by the throat, lifting him off the ground with effortless strength. The pompous advisor choked, clawing at his grip, but Kaerius didn’t let go. Beneath that grip, I could see the man’s gills flare as he struggled to breathe, his blue scales growing paler along his cheeks until they looked as white as his pale blond hair.

“You do not decide who is a threat,” the king snarled. “You do not touch what is mine.” Mine—there was that word again. I barely had time to process that before he threw the man away with a flick of his wrist. The current caught the male, sweeping him out above the abyss—only this guy was strong enough to save himself, rapidly swimming back to the shelf and to safety, darting behind his companion’s back.

Kaerius swept his gaze over the others. None of them dared to move. “Get out of my sight,” he commanded. “All of you.” I bit my lip, but I knew he didn’t mean me. His arm was still snug around my waist, keeping me anchored to his side.Mine, he said, and I knew it meant he wasn’t going to let me go at all. I was relieved about that. I’d nearly died—Iwouldhave died down there—of the cold, of starvation, or eaten by a predator. I was staying right where I was, in his arms.

The guards hesitated for only a moment before scrambling up from the sand and darting into the rising red kelp behind us. The pair of advisors exchanged glances but then bowed their heads and followed suit. Then, it was just me and Kaerius.

My breath was still coming in short gasps, my heart hammering against my ribs. I turned to face him, searching his expression, but it was unreadable—except for the storm raging in his eyes. “I—” My voice caught, shaking. “They were going to—” I couldn’t find the words to express what had just happened; it was too much for a bookworm like me. I wasn’t cut out for that much excitement—I didn’t just shrug off an attempt on my life.

“I know,” he said quietly. His hand lifted, hesitating for a moment before his fingers brushed my cheek—gentle despite the strength behind them. “I should have been here sooner.” His tone was full of self-recrimination, as if he were the one to blame for my plunge into that dark abyss. “I should never have left you alone.”

A tremor ran through me. “Why?” I needed to hear him say it again, even though I knew exactly what his words were going to be. It was starting to feel like that fact was the only certainty I could count on down here, under the water’s treacherous surface.

His expression darkened as if my question offended him. “Because you are mine, Samantha.” I should have argued. Should have pushed back. But as I clung to his arms, trembling from the near-death, the weight of his words settled deep inside me. He had come for me. He had stopped them.

He dipped his head, I raised mine, and we met halfway. His mouth, scorching hot against my cold lips, his tongue claiming me, conquering me until I had no choice but to accept what he’d been telling me from the start: I was his. I believed it, and now it was time to find out if that meant he wasmine.

Chapter 9

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 spillingout 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 rightedhimself, 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.

---