by Isabel Wroth
His beast went wild with jealous rage inside him and it was all he could do to keep from letting it show.
“Really? Because it seems as though you object to the human female attending the upcoming breeding festival.”
Kalix made a strangled sound, able to see Dax from the corner of his eye, smirking like the smug bastard he was.
He knew it had been a foolish decision to leave his mate, cowardly even, but he didn’t need reminding of it from Dax.
Kalix was aware with every breath that he had made an egregious error.
“Why would he object to Alec...oh. OH!” Clary’s confusion turned to immediate outrage.
Her cheeks turned bright pink as she jumped to her feet and peeled her lips back to show him her fangs, drilling her finger at him through the hologram, just like Alec might have done, and hissed.
“You get your ass back here, now. And if you open your mouth to argue with me, so help me, I will personally escort Alec to the Breeding Festival and pray to god some other warrior with a modicum of intelligence scoops her up and makes a horde of babies with her.”
With a growl, Clary whirled and stomped off screen. Kalix could hear the door bang shut from their end of the hologram, and as soon as it did, the cub Tarek held started screaming.
Not even a second later, Clary stomped back into view and took the cub from her mate, cuddling both to her chest.
The screaming one immediately settled with a little growl, a tiny hand peeking from the blankets to reach toward its sibling.
The meaning behind the Asho’na’s glare was not lost on Kalix. Clary hadn’t even gotten across the room with one cub before its twin felt the absence.
The distance between life and death was too far to be crossed for Alec to be soothed. She was alone.
Once the door slammed behind the Asho’na, Tarek cleared his throat, leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest.
“I must tell you, she is quite serious. Unless you have good reason for not claiming your mate, Kalix, I will be hard pressed to stop mine from making good on her threat.”
Kalix paced back and forth, not realizing that he’d lifted his hand to rub over the deep purple markings on his skull. His clan lineage there for all to see.
“I failed her by arriving too late. If I had not insisted we search that first planet, we would have reached the humans sooner.”
Tarek must have looked at Dax for further explanation, because his second grunted.
“When we found the human ship, there was a recording with coordinates identifying Moika’s location. I attempted to input those coordinates, match their star maps to ours but—”
“The human star maps are grossly inadequate,” Tarek finished, waving his hand dismissively.
Dax made sound of agreement. “They are. We were forced to rely on the physical description made by the human commander, narrowing down the potential solar systems to five. We approached them in order.”
Kalix grunted, slicing his hand through the air to stop Dax’s inadequate recounting of events.
“What Dax fails to say is he suggested we skip the first planet, due to the low statistics the humans would have settled there as it was within Adiveeze territory. I insisted we sweep the planet anyway.”
Tarek’s frown deepened, eyes jumping back and forth between he and Dax. “As I would have ordered you to do. Why does this denote failure?”
Kalix sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping forward when he reached back to grip his neck, stretching the knotted muscles as much as he was able,
“A few days earlier, and my mate would not now be grieving for the loss of her twin.”
Tarek was silent long enough for Kalix to retrieve his chair and throw himself back down into it.
Pinching at the bridge of his nose, rubbing his eyes as though that would stop the intermittent streams of heat from flashing across his vision.
He was losing control. His beast was so ill at ease, constantly fighting him for control Kalix was half afraid to sleep anymore. He even locked himself into his quarters at night, just in case he shifted and did something foolish.
“Brennaugh has spoken often of you.” Tarek’s words drew Kalix out of his thoughts.
“He recounted to me the day he came across you sparring with a handful of eight warriors, bent on seeing you lose control, thereby proving someone of your clan was unfit to be counted among the elite warriors.”
Kalix’s lip curled at the reminder of that day, wondering where Tarek was going with this walk down the path of his past.
“He told me of your skill as a primary warrior, further proving those fools incorrect by the way you rose so quickly within the ranks, despite what any other might have thought.
“In truth, my first choice was to name Dax as Commander of the Fifth, but Brennaugh argued that while his loyalty and skill were beyond question, he would make the logical choice, and not necessarily the right choice.
“I say this in front of you both, not to say one is better than the other, but because Brennaugh has proven wiser than I give him credit for.
“Dax was correct, the chances were low the humans had taken refuge on that first planet. I gather you mentioned the likelihood of our spies within the galaxy slave markets would have reported a species unique as the humans?”
Dax inclined his head, answering when Tarek asked what his response had been.
“Commander Kalix reminded me you had given orders, that not even so low a chance was reason to overlook the planet. Every opportunity was to be pursued.”
Tarek made noise of conformation. “That was my order. So Kalix, as your Asho, as former Commander of the Armada, I say to you my decision would have been the same. Proving Brennaugh to have been correct.
“Dax would be logical, but you would leave no stone unturned. Brennaugh never made mention you were a martyr. Unless your One, to your face, lay blame at your feet for her sister-kin’s death.”
Kalix shook his head and hoarsely repeated to Tarek exactly what Alec had said to him. Getting back up to pace because his beast would not let him be still.
“I am unworthy of her.” The admission, the truth, fell from his lips before Kalix had thought to stop himself.
Tarek’s brows slammed down, glancing at Dax as though he had the answer, but the other male shrugged.
“Because you were not yet ready to give up the command you just gained? Or because even after all this time, you still believe others judge you for your bloodline?”
Kalix’s expression must have been answer enough, because Tarek growled shortly, snorted and shook his head at him with disbelief.
“You are near the same age as I am. No more than a cub even at the height of that rebellion, unable to take sides.
“I have never had cause to doubt your loyalty. I could ask Brennaugh, and he would say the same.”
The Asho, with that succinct declaration, absolved Kalix of the weight he had carried with him most of his life.
Kalix considered slapping Dax upside the back of his head when he snickered under his breath.
As though Dax found the burden of Kalix having been born to a clan of what society deemed traitors, funny.
“I will explain to my mate, tell her to stand down from her little crusade. But she very rarely obeys my commands.” Tarek grinned like that was a good thing,
“Thus I suggest, Commander, you give serious thought to claiming your mate through official channels, and returning before the festival begins.
“It is unlikely my One will keep it a secret for long that you are Alec’s mate, and as I have seen this female instructing her young ones to fight, I pity you if she decides you have wronged her.”
Kalix frowned to hear that Alec was still training the cubs to fight. She had no reason to do so any longer, no threats or harm would come to the cubs so long as there were warriors near.
When he stated the obviousness of this, Tarek shocked him and Dax both by bursting out into roaring gales of laughter.
The sound echoed in the holo-room long after Tarek had terminated the connection.
“So, do I set course for home?”
Kalix curled his lip at his second, clicking his tongue in reprimand for the obvious amusement in Dax’s tone.
“Yes.”
*****
The repetitive pain of Alec’s gloved hands meeting the face of her punching bag, the heat of her exertion rolling down her body in sweaty drops, felt good. Almost as good as soaking in a hot bath without fear.
Gripping the bag to hoist herself up so she could repeatedly drive her knee into the dummy’s groin that felt even better.
The large, Sarazen-shaped torso was the best thing Alec had ever had the opportunity to beat on. None of the warriors would actually spar with her out of concern for her hands breaking on impact.
Pretty much everyone had a mate now and had jumped on the whole mutant hybrid conversion so they could turn into a giant cat.
The girls were half the size of the guys in beast mode, but still, it was impressive.
Alec was getting sick of being the physically weakest member of the crew, lumped in with the kids.
Clary had called the other day in a weird mood and forcefully insisted Alec should go to the next breeding festival.
Alec hung up on her.
Now Alec was starting to consider the pros and cons. The con side of that list involved having a man in her life.
The big pro was the amazing ability to shift into an animal so large, and so powerful, there would be no question of whether or not Alec was strong enough to protect the children. Or herself.
Zee and his little horde of hooligans were almost done with their own build, the treehouses growing more and more elaborate by the day. Rope bridges spanned almost the entire ring of trees around the fortress proper.
Every morning, Zee took his crew on a run through the woods to climb their trees, run the rope bridges, climb back down and run back up to the castle. He was getting to be quite the drill instructor.
Alec couldn’t complain too much. It kept the boys out of trouble and kept the handful of girls from flirting with the Sarazen boys their own age.
Meg would have laughed her ass off to see Zee getting after the girls for flirting when they ought to have been running.
Alec wondered why the girls didn’t tell him to shove his orders up his scrawny ass. But Zee was doing well.
He’d made friends with some of the local boys, and ran around with them like they’d been buddies forever.
So at least Alec wasn’t failing in that department.
Zee came and ate every meal with her, watching her expectantly, like he was doing his part to make sure she kept her strength up, and wasn’t wasting away with the grief that didn’t seem to dissipate.
Alec thought about asking Liliya how she had gotten past the grief after losing her mother. But because Alec had been the one to kill Friga, Alec wasn’t too keen on asking and reminding Liliya of that fact.
Jonas kept trying to tell Alec she had an extreme version of survivor’s guilt, rolled into the mix of post-traumatic stress disorder she had going on.
He told her all kinds of shit, but when Alec had asked him what his qualifications were for his diagnosis, asked him how he could be certain when he’d never personally had to take a life, or fight for his survival for days, years on end?
His ears had gone hot and he’d tried to brush Alec off, telling her they were talking about her issues, not his.
D’nora now hated her guts and hissed at her every time they passed one another in the hallways, which was SO nice.
Everyone had a place here that they fit, even if it was popping out babies and keeping their mates happy. They had integrated and found a place to belong.
Executioners didn’t exactly belong in the kind of polite society they seemed to be creating. It left Alec to spend more and more time alone.
Running, climbing, training for a fight that might not come. For a fight the chauvinists around here probably wouldn’t let her fight anyway.
And since Alec didn’t have a beast to back up her mouth, they just sort of looked at her like she was adorable.
Alec felt like a whiny bitch, feeling sorry for herself, but there was literally nowhere in this Sarazen society she fit.
She wasn’t someone’s mate, she was a human woman and therefore couldn’t train as a warrior. Alec didn’t have any particular skills that were of use to take up a trade.
Unless you counted rabid sarcasm as a life skill.
Alec sighed, dropping her fists to stare at the punching bag. She needed to get out of the fortress.
She went for a run and somehow wound up at the lake. She sat on the big flat rock she’d claimed as her own, breathing deep of the solitude and the quiet of the forest.
Listening to the hissing of the lake water moving back and forth on the tiny pebble beach, she pondered what the hell she was going to do now.
“Guess I could sharpen my sword. Can’t ever have a blade that’s too sharp. Right?” Shockingly, no one answered her.
“And now... I’m talking to myself. That’s great.”
Was that the wind or someone growling? Ugh, if Irina and her mate had come up to fuck around in the water, Alec was going to puke.
SEVEN
“KALIX!”
His head whipped toward the sound of his name, joyfully called.
For one disconcerting moment he had hoped it was Alec, but it was Zhenya pelting across the courtyard of the impressively revived remains of the old fortress.
Kalix was rather surprised to see that the boy had grown at least two heads taller than before, still lean as a whip, but tall enough now to almost reach the middle of his chest.
Zhenya looked good, happy, making an odd salute when he stopped and vibrated with his eagerness.
“What are you doing here?” Zhenya’s question was rife with delighted surprise.
Kalix cleared his throat, glancing around at the crowd now pouring out of the fortress. He had seen sentries in the forest, but there were no walls, no defenses mounted to protect the cubs, or the precious mates inside.
What was Tarek thinking, giving the humans such a vulnerable place as their new home?
“I have completed my mission to the satisfaction of the Asho and was recalled home. I came to speak with Alec, where is she?”
A’tarey approached in time to hear his question, smiling when he reached forward to grip Kalix’s arm in welcome.
He reeked of sex, of his mate, his body relaxed from no doubt a pleasurable time spent with her this morning.
“She is at the lake, swimming.”
Kalix’s brows shot up into his hairline, certain A’tarey was mistaken or perhaps he had misheard.
His fellow warrior chuckled, jerking his chin up in the general direction of where the deep, clear lake was located.
“It took her time, she and the others, to be at ease with so much water nearby. Alec claimed that she would swim, that her fear would not keep her from enjoying such beauty.”
“She is alone. In the forest. Right now?” Kalix’s pulse was hammering in his throat suddenly, and A’tarey frowned in confusion.
Kalix tore his tunic over his head, shoved his torc at Zhenya and reached down to take his boot in hand.
“Have you so quickly forgotten how eager the Asho’s still unidentified enemies are to kill any potential mates? Tell me at least the sentries are nearby.”
A familiar face, one of Alec’s women approached and curled her hand around A’tarey’s arm.
“What sentries? The kids? Did you send the kids back out, Zee?”
Her words had Kalix’s beast exploding out of him in a panic, tearing off into the trees before Zhenya even finished shaking his head. A’tarey shouted something behind him, but Kalix was already gone.
The dirt churned under his paws, his beast running free for the first time in far too long. If not for the fear slashing at his insides, Kalix would have reveled i
n the feeling.
He could smell his mate. Alec ran this way often enough to leave a steady scent trail to follow, and if he could follow it, if he could smell the lack of a mate’s essence tied to hers, so could those beasts he’d wrongly assumed were friendly.
Kalix’s hind legs slid out from under him with the speed he took the last corner, able to hear a female shriek of fury followed by a pained, furious snarling, the mix of blood and death heavy on the air.
If his beast could have formed words, it would have been Alec’s name that shook the leaves from the trees and not a soundless roar of rage.
His muscles screamed from how hard he pushed himself to run up the embankment to reach the plateau of the lake.
One final surge and he was over the top, taking in the unbelievable, unimaginable sight of what was going on in front of him.
Alec, human, female, and oh so easily broken, was facing down two fully shifted beasts. One lay dead on the ground already, one of her knives buried in its eye.
One of the two left was limping, and over her head Alec held the sword Kalix had thought was such a primitive weapon.
The blade dripped with the blood she had already spilled, but she was wounded and Kalix could smell it.
Alec had maneuvered herself in such a way as to put her back to the rocky side of the crater, preventing either of the beasts from getting behind her.
Alone like she was, wounded, all the two traitors would need to do is wait for her to lose too much blood to stand.
Kalix took it all in and had a split second to choose which of the beasts to take first. The wounded one was healing rapidly, but he had already underestimated Alec’s ability and Kalix trusted if she was able to wound the traitor once, she could do it again.
Kalix hit the larger of the two males with all the speed and momentum he’d gathered in his mad dash, slashing and biting, sinking his teeth into whatever he could get his mouth around before the filth could even orient himself.
The second, slightly smaller beast jumped on his back and raked his claws through Kalix’s fur, trying to get a grip on his body.
Kalix roared in pain, heard a whistling hiss and the beast on his back yelped, falling backwards off of him.