It took four consecutive days for every living person on the planet to be scanned for infection.

No more black-veined prisoners were found in their sector, but in four of the six outposts, a prisoner was found in the final stages of infection.

Five bodies they knew about, and a high likelihood there were two bodies that had already succumbed to the parasitic larvae and gotten to water.

Tarek ordered them to keep Eurn alive until he was no longer useful to them, which encouraged the medic to be very helpful.

Eurn maintained he was innocent of having released infected prisoners, and Kalix hadn’t been gentle in questioning him.

Eurn claimed there were other warriors who had come, fully armored, their faces and scents hidden from him when they came to bring supplies.

Perhaps they were the ones who had taken a vial or two of the larvae samples and infected the prisoners, he said.

Eurn also said Reykar had gotten his test subjects from off world at some kind of slave market.

Zyre and Erufir, the two horned males, confirmed they had been captured and put up for auction as slaves, bought by what they claimed was a Sarazen male with yellow markings on his skull.

They described him in great detail, and though they didn’t know his name, Eurn confirmed N’Kara also had yellow markings.

They prepared as best they could, the prisoners were all secure, warriors were on alert, Quoll was still working on Reykar’s mountain of data, and there was nothing now to do but wait.

Kalix had gone out this morning to get updates in person, ordering her to remain behind as his second in command.

Alec wanted to roll her eyes, fully aware he was trying to keep her safe behind the walls of their oasis, shouldering what had been her burden with an eagerness that both endeared and frustrated her.

Frustrated her, until Kalix reminded her in the kind, gentle tones of a mate, that she was no longer in command.

“As your mate I am asking you to stay here. As commander and governor of this territory, I am telling you, my second, do hold the fortress until I return.

“I need you here, my One. Your people, the cubs, they need you here as well. I gave you my word this fight was no longer yours alone. I will not fail you.”

Disarmed by his sincerity, Alec patrolled the fortress from top to bottom with a small team, command center to kitchens without further protest.

The cooks looked quite surprised to see her squad, tripping over themselves to offer her something to eat, but she waved them off and continued on through to look at everything.

She passed by a table where an enormous yellow fish was being cleaned. The young female preparing it shot Alec a quick look, nervously continuing while Alec stood there and watched her remove the innards, her knife carefully separating the roe from the flesh, the glassy looking pink orbs spilling out neatly onto the counter.

Alec was sucked into the past before she knew what was happening.

*****

“Now, the trick is not to think about fishing.” Sully smiled down at her, the twin suns making his bright red hair seem like it was on fire.

Alec didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to sit and talk, especially not with Sully. She wanted to be back in town, high up in the trees, safe. Away from everyone.

“And no talking, the fish will hear you and swim for deeper waters.”

“They’re probably poisonous.” Alec grumbled, wrinkling her nose as she followed Sully’s directions on how to bait her hook with chunks of something that utterly reeked.

Sully cast his line out into the water, still smiling. “You’re probably right. But when my woman says she wants fish for dinner, I go fishing.”

Alec gave her fishing line a weak hearted toss into the water, huffing as they fell silent and just sat there. Doing nothing. Saying nothing.

Alec was pretty sure she hadn’t ever felt so awkward in her life. Then out of nowhere, her line jerked. So hard that if Sully hadn’t thrown his pole down and grabbed her, she’d have gone into the lake face first.

“Holy shit, I got one!”

Sully’s laugh boomed out around them while he helped her reel in the humongous, dark blue fish. “You sure did, kid. Good job. Sage is gonna be thrilled with this monster.”

*****

“Asha’na? Is everything alright?”

Alec looked up at the concerned face of warrior now at her side. “What? Yes. We need to return to the command center.”

She ran from the kitchen, up the spiraling pathway that ran up and down the inside of the fortress, bursting into the communications room out of breath, pointing to the nearest warrior.

“I need to speak to Clary on a secure channel, now.”

Despite the wide-eyed look he gave her, his fingers flew across his console. “It will be just a moment, Asha’na.”

She paced while she waited, cursing herself for having been so unbelievably stupid. This whole time, this whole fucking time...

“Alec?”

She spun on her heel to face Clary’s image, waving away the concern in her voice.

“I’m fine. I remembered something that might be important, but I need your mom’s research notes. The video diary, there’s an entry about a fish your dad and I caught.”

Clary tilted her head, frowning curiously. “A fish?”

“Your mom told me nature always creates balance, for every toxin there’s an anti-toxin.”

“I’m with you there, but what does the fish have to do with it?”

Alec waved her hands around in frustration, so on edge it was difficult to form words.

“It was a gigantic fish, fifty pounds easy, and I remember what a struggle it was for your dad and I to get it back to town.

“I bitched the whole way that something so big was probably poisonous, loaded with chemicals, and what a waste of time fishing was, but when we slapped it on your mom’s lab table, she was so excited.”

*****

“Eeew! It smells disgusting!” Meg exclaimed, holding her nose and fanning the air in front of her face as Sage gleefully cleaned and gutted Alec’s fish.

The process was dirty, dark red blood and shiny guts pooled on the table, but Alec knew this was a skill she needed to learn.

Stomach churning, Alec forced herself to pay attention, handing Sage all the tools and slides she asked for, swallowing the urge to gag when Sage cut into the bulging pink stomach and a bunch of little black balls spilled out onto the table.

“Wow! That is disgusting!” Sage sounded so excited that it was hard not to smile.

Sully made a horrified sound, staring at the sludge covering the table. “Babe, please tell me this gorgeous, glorious fish Alec fought for hours to bring ashore, isn’t contaminated?”

Alec looked at him askance, wondering why he’d just lied about how long it had taken to get the fish out of the water. And her hook might have got it, but Sully had been the one to reel it in.

When Sage wasn’t looking, Sully shot Alec a conspiratorial wink and went on to tell this elaborate story about how hard Alec had worked for their dinner.

“I don’t know, honey. We’ll run some tests. Look at this! The internal organs are just like fish from earth, how wonderful! Even if it isn’t edible, sweetheart, this is a fantastic ecological find. I’m so proud of you!”

*****

“Alec?”

Clary’s voice brought her out of those precious memories and into the present. Alec gave herself a shake and apologized.

“Sorry. People fished all the time, but we hadn’t ever caught anything like that before. She cut it open, did tests on its flesh to ensure it wasn’t toxic for us to eat, and when she examined the stomach there were little black things inside.

“The girl in the kitchen just now was cleaning out the roe of the fish she was cleaning, and I remembered how your dad made a joke about alien caviar, and then he had to explain what caviar was to me and Meg.

“The meat turned out to be chock full of vitamins and nutrients, safe for human consumption, and aside from the fact that it was delicious, one fish had enough meat on it to feed three families.

“People went out to catch that specific kind of fish, but only caught it during the first months of summer. Three summers in a row we caught those fish, then the fourth summer there weren’t any to be found, and the fifth summer is when the Scylla started showing up.

“We never could figure out why the Scylla would net up all the larvae when they ruptured out of a body. They were aquatic creatures, why take the eggs somewhere else? Why would the Scylla need to venture on land to infect us, when they were surrounded by water?”

“The fish!” Clary gasped. “Oh my god, that makes total sense!”

“Right? There are test results somewhere in your mom’s research.”

“I’ll get it. Hang on.” Clary ran out of view, calling out to someone they couldn’t see, she was fine.

Alec was surprised when the Asho filled the screen and looked at her with an arched brow.

“While my mate clearly understands the significance of a fish, I do not. Explain.”

Alec pushed her hands back into her hair, shaking as she tried to keep her hope at bay.

“Humans weren’t the only beings the Scylla infected. I found six-legged deer and other forest creatures, mammals, suffering signs of infection.

“It never occurred to me to look for amphibious creatures, but I think those big fish we caught were... a sort of population control. They ate the Scylla when in larval stages, and kept the Scylla’s numbers down to a bare minimum.

“When we fished for that specific species of fish and removed them from the environment, more of the Scylla hatched and grew to maturity.

“If I’m right, the fish have some kind of natural resistance to infection, and Sage recorded all the information we need to create a cure or a vaccine to keep anyone else from becoming infected.”

*****

Kalix turned slowly, allowing the flames to cleanse the last of the ejecta from his armor.

It was only due to his hyper-vigilance he and his squad of warriors had left Reykar’s lab in full armor.

The ambush had come out of nowhere, their helmets actually having hampered their reaction time as the atmosphere was filtered through the armor, which filtered out the scent of the Scylla as well.

The Scylla had boiled out of the secondary mine shaft and attacked with a suddenness as to have caught them completely by surprise.

Their armor had saved them, and the fact that the Scylla seemed to not only be semi-blind in the darkness of the mine, but also unarmed and easily felled by plasma fire.

Even hampered, the Scylla were relentless, spewing their parasitic feculence with no care for where it landed.

To hit the hardness of their protective bony plates was like striking a solid wall of rock, and getting a clean shot through an eye socket was more difficult than it seemed.

When someone’s aim had gone wild in the close quarters and brought down a section of the ceiling, Kalix acknowledged the intelligence of carrying blades like the ones Alec was never without.

In the end, his squad of eight had destroyed the entire horde of creatures. Thirty of them, and as he fought through toward their water source, respect for his mate and her people soared.

Without armor and armed with the most primitive of weapons, Alec had kept her people alive for years.

The flames receded and Kalix stepped off the platform with a demand for a status report.

Quoll’s voice filled the comlink. “Asha, containment teams have collected all of the remains and are incinerating them and all traces of their saliva as we speak. There was another attack at the wellsprings of station three and four.

“They share an underground water source and were the ones to report having no contaminated prisoners or guard.”

Kalix turned toward the fortress, just able to make out the shine of the spires from here.

“Where does the water flow from in the mine?”

“The source is deep below the mine, but flows all the way to the fortress.” Quoll answered gravely. “I’ve sent word to the main tower, and to the guards at the prison.”

Kalix made to respond, but Alec’s voice interrupted him.

“Report, Commander. What’s your status?”

His mate was frantic with worry, he could feel her trying to conceal it from him with a harsh, steady demand. Protected from view by his helmet, Kalix didn’t bother to try and hide his smile.

“Uninjured, uncontaminated, no casualties to our side.”

“Acknowledged. I’m in the command center, what do you need me to do?”

So practical. Such a warrior. He shook his head and chided himself for ever having been foolish enough to think otherwise. 

“Mobilize squads ten through twenty to patrol the ground water sources within the fortress, and double the prison guards. Contact Commander V’ar and ask that he have Commander Dar bring his warship within orbit.

“Warship Seven has the most sophisticated systems to take thermal scans of the planet. I want maps of our underground rivers.”

He moved through the ranks of warriors gathering to secure the mine, despising the fact that every warrior he passed, Kalix wondered if he had had a hand in Reykar’s madness.  

“Done. What else?” Alec called out.

“Wait for me in the command center, we will contact Tarek to give him an update together.”

“He’s been updated already. I was speaking to Clary when Quoll put us on alert.”

Concern made him come up short, looking toward the fortress as though he could see his mate.

“To Clary? Why?”

Alec’s voice lost some of its hard edge, and he heard hope, fearful hope replace it.

“I remembered something and needed to check her mother’s research log. I’ll tell you about it when you come home.”

“I am on my way now.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Kalix pushed his cycle to its maximum speed, the hot wind whipping his hair around his face.

It was foolish of him to have removed his helmet, but he was moving too fast for anything but a plasma missile to catch.

He wanted the fresh air; he wanted to feel the sand stinging his skin. A’tarey, Vale, and Ka’denn rode in formation beside him all the way up to the steps of the fortress where four armored females waited with plasma rifles modified to suit their smaller frames in hand.

His mate, and three of her little warriors. Kalix couldn’t help but smile as he came to a stop, glancing up at the darkening sky to the stars he couldn’t see, wondering at the will of the many gods.

Without Alec, without a warrior his equal to stand at his side, he would never have been given this post.

He would still be aboard Warship Five, searching among the cold stars for metal ships full of what he had erroneously assumed were weak, vulnerable humans.

Moika had made his mate strong, and in spite of the hardships she had suffered, the painful burden of command, the loss of her twin, she had made her people strong.

He didn’t see four vulnerable women in need of sheltering, he saw four warrior mates prepared to defend their home and those they loved, no matter the cost. 

Alec reached up to dismiss her helmet, glaring at him with such ferocity he swore he caught the scent of something burning. It was not his second in command who spoke to him now, but a worried, irate mate.

“You said you were going to gather status updates in person, Commander,” she accused with a feminine little growl.

He chuckled as he jogged up the stairs, ignoring her ire to tenderly rub his nose alongside hers.

“I did indeed gather updates, my One. The Scylla were an unexpected surprise. I am unharmed.”

She left out a soft, shuddering sigh, touched a far too brief kiss to his cheek, and took a step back into the role of his second.

“Good. The perimeter is secure as we can make it, the prison guards have been doubled, and Commander Dar should be here within a few hours. Tarek is waiting for your report upstairs.”

“Then we best not keep him.”

Alec came up short the moment they crossed the threshold of the command center, laughter and a woman’s voice filling the room having stopped her in her tracks.

Kalix looked back at her, the scent of grief taking wing just long enough to be noticed before she shut it down and visibly forced herself to move forward.

He took her hand, glad when she let him, holding on tight while he took in the scene before him. He could see the Asho’na on the viewscreen, watching the shared display with a tearful smile on her face.

An identical pair of pale-haired cubs were running circles around a hand hewn table, the first squealing and shrieking in disgust, the second gleefully tearing after her sibling with her hands outstretched.

“Alec, stop it! You smell like dead fish and poop! Nononononono! Not my hair!”

His heart turned over as Kalix realized he was watching his mate, chasing her sister with dirty hands and grinning. Beside him, Alec’s breath hitched.

He felt her tremble even as she tossed her hair back and raised her chin, watching her younger self and Meg with such a look of sadness it nearly broke his heart. 

“Come on girls, settle down. Woman with a knife over here! Babe, can you take the recorder? It keeps slipping off and I don’t want to get fish guts on it.”

Clary gave a wet laugh, riveted by the sound of her mother’s voice. The recording panned up to catch sight of who he assumed was Clary’s sire, smiling as he took the recorder.

The images jostled for a moment as he settled it to show the petite female with her dark red hair piled in a haphazard knot on her head, wearing a baggy, faded blue tunic and garish yellow gloves that covered her from fingertips to biceps.

“Mom,” he heard Clary murmur with sad, reverent fondness.

“Now we see the dashing doctor, preparing to perform an autopsy—”

“Autopsies are on human bodies, necropsies are for animals.” Clary’s mother corrected with a laugh. Her sire went on as though he hadn’t been interrupted.

“—on the largest fish ever caught by a human on an alien planet, this pint-sized terror with smelly hands.”

Clary seemed to find her sire’s strange accent humorous, and so did Alec if her weak smirk was anything to go by.

She leaned against him while her past played out for them all to see. Her younger self was serious now, standing beside Sage as the elder woman began to slice into the belly of the fish.

Kalix ignored the running commentary made by Clary’s sire, focused on Alec. Her sister squealed and complained about the smell, and while he could tell Alec herself was on the verge of vomiting, she lifted her chin in a familiar show of stubbornness and stoically paid rapt attention.

“Alright, let’s take a sample of the tissue... good job, kiddo.” Sage praised when Alec held out a dish for the scientist to place her samples in.

“Are those worms or something?” Young Alec asked, pointing to a pool of tiny black spheres.

“I don’t know, hon. We’ll test them and find out. In the meantime, you girls are gonna learn how to clean a fish and make up your anatomy test! Cool, right?”

The twins both made half-hearted sounds of excitement, but Alec was the first one to pick up a knife to get started.

She clearly hated every minute of it, but she was committed to learning what to do, while her sister continued her litany of disgusted sounds and mock retching.

And Alec wondered why she had been chosen to lead her people.

Sage glanced up from instructing young Alec to carefully cut away the flesh, pride in her smile when she looked into the recording device.

Clary paused the video there, dashing the tears from her cheeks when the Asho appeared and gave her a dark look of concern.

“I’m fine. Any luck?”

Tarek gave a tight shake of his head, glancing at the paused recording. “Not yet. Commander, your status?”

Kalix quickly gave the particulars of his encounter, the measures he had put in place to ensure the safety of the population, but everyone in the room knew unless they were able to eradicate the Scylla completely, there was no way to meet their mining quota without risking the prisoners to infection.

“So Ga’rae and Gwen haven’t had any luck with your mom’s test results?” Alec asked, disappointment making her shoulders sag a little.

Clary waved her hand at her mother’s smiling face. “They’re just getting started. We’ve had a little trouble of our own, unrelated, but Gwen did say it would be easiest to confirm a natural resistance and begin synthesizing a cure with a fresh specimen.”

Alec flooded their bond with her gut wrenching fear moments before she slammed the mental door between them.

“We can get one as soon as we get a solid number of how many were infected here. If anyone got off world with—”

“Alec,” Clary interrupted gently, “we’ve already contacted Commander Dax, and they’re heading back to collect what we need.

“Your time on Moika is over. I wouldn’t ask you, any of you, to go back there. We’ve got plenty of boys ready to go on a fishing trip. You’re needed where you are.”

“Yes, she is,” Kalix agreed, feeling an equal mix of outrage and absolute astonishment toward his mate’s bravery.

As terrified as she was, that she would offer to return to the world where she and her people had suffered and toiled for years...he was in absolute awe of her.

Clearing his throat, Kalix turned his attention back to the viewscree.

“My warriors have continued to question Reykar’s assistant medic, I haven’t collected their report yet, but when I do I will send it through.”

“I will be waiting for it,” Tarek ordered with a sharp nod, the screen going blank with his dismissal.

*****

Kalix retracted his armor and sat on the end of their bed, watching his mate pace back and forth across the pelts of the two traitors who had tried to kill her. She was still keeping him out, withholding her feelings from him, the only thing he could feel via their bond was her presence.

He called her name softly, holding his hand out to her when she shot him a quick, tumultuous look through her lashes.

He thought she would refuse him, but a moment later she crossed the distance and climbed into his lap to wrap her arms around his shoulders, burying her lips against his throat as she held on for dear life.

“Sage was right, this whole time, we had the cure right there... it was that stupid fucking fish.” The anger in her voice was weak, vibrating with deeper emotions.

Kalix stared sightlessly at the wall, uncertain what he could do or say to soothe her.

“Perhaps, my heart. But even if it is the cure, did you or any of the others have the means to create an antidote using the tools you had left?”

“Don’t you dare try to help me out using logic.”

A laugh burst out of him at her caustic tone, and despite the tears he could feel sliding down his neck, he knew now she would be alright. He need only be here and wait to provide her with whatever she asked of him.

“Then how would you like me to help you?”

“Just hold me,” she answered hoarsely.

Kalix lay back and turned to curl around her, kneading his hand into her hair, rumbling for her softly while she trembled.

“Always.”

“I miss her. So much.” Alec’s voice cracked.

Kalix closed his eyes, so honored they had finally come to this point in their mating that she would vocalize her hurts, her sorrows, and trust him to keep them safe.

“I know. I know you do. Tell me about her.”

“She had such a big heart. She always did the dumbest stuff to try and make me laugh. To distract me from how hard it was to go on every day, knowing I’d probably have to kill another one of our people.

“I thought things would change after she claimed responsibility for Zee, you know? I thought she’d get serious about shit, but the two of them were every bit as goofy. Worse.”

Alec laughed suddenly, going on to tell him about the time Meg had found a bush with long hair-like fronds.

“She stuck it down the back of her trousers and pranced around camp, shaking her ass like she had a tail. Zee did it too. The two of them danced around for hours, and everywhere they went, people laughed.”

Her amusement faded to a throaty murmur, sniffling softly. “I stayed away whenever Meg put on her little dances for the crew.”

“Why?”

“Because they always stopped laughing when they saw me. I don’t understand why they followed me here when they had a chance for a new life.”

“A chance to be happy, you mean?” he ventured gently.

“Yeah.” Alec threw her leg over his.

He pushed up on his elbow to look down at her, melting inside when she didn’t try to hide her insecurities or her tears from him.

“Do you know what I saw on the video upstairs?” Alec shook her head, a frown pulling between her brows. “You didn’t want to touch that fish any more than Meg did.

“I watched you choke down the urge to vomit and learn how to dress your kill, so one day you would be able to provide for Meg, because you knew she was too squeamish to do it.

“I saw Sage acknowledge that drive in you, your indomitable will to protect your sister. Sage left you in charge, because she knew you would fight to keep Meg safe.”

Her lips trembled and more tears spilled down her cheeks. “But I didn’t protect her. I failed.”

“No, Meg made a choice and put someone else’s life before her own. You didn’t fail. Each time you lose someone, you replay the hows and whys over and over in your mind.

“You ask yourself what you could have done, why they didn’t obey your orders, why it was them and not you, but the answers don’t help you accept the loss, so you grow cold and hard so next time the loss doesn’t hurt as much.

“So hard and strong you appear unbreakable to all others. So hard and strong, that even when the terrors of their darkest nightmares come back to life, your people look to you and ask, ‘what do you need us to do?’”

“I didn’t feel strong. I still don’t,” she confessed in a whisper.

He brushed her tears away and smiled at her gently. “I know. That’s why you have me. I can be strong enough for both of us. But you don’t give yourself enough credit.”

“I don’t?”

Kalix shifted to get himself between his mate’s thighs, balancing his weight on his elbows.

“I fought the Scylla today, and I say this to you as a warrior. I had my armor, superior weaponry, eight battle tested warriors at my side, and it was a struggle.

“You had swords, knives, cubs, and nothing else. It’s a miracle you survived as long as you did. Yes, you suffered beyond measure, and every day was a fight for survival, but you didn’t quit. That’s why your people still follow you.

“Even with mates of their own and knowledge that no matter what, their welfare is put before all others, you make them feel safe. They rely on you to lead the way, and it’s a burden, my One. A terrible burden.”

“How did you do it, all this time and not go crazy?”

Kalix hummed in amusement, bending to press a kiss to her temple, lingering there for a moment.

“I had something to fight for. First it was the fight to prove my loyalty, then the fight to prove I belonged, then again to prove to Brennaugh his choice in promoting me to one of his personal guard was not in error. When he gave me command of his warship, I fought to maintain that esteem.

“Then I did go a bit mad, trying to fight against my beast when he demanded we give that all up. Almost too late I realized the only person in the entire universe worth fighting for, was you. My wild, stubborn, fierce, beautiful mate. My One.”

Alec turned her head, her face so close a sharp breath would have brought their lips together. She searched his face and sniffled away the last of her tears.

“I love you, too.”

Just like that, her sorrow turned to need. Their lips met and Kalix swallowed her moan with a purr of his own, curling his arms around her.

Even though they could be called to action at a moment’s notice, it wasn’t a hurried rush. It wasn’t a fight. Their clothes were pushed aside in languid sweeps, his fingers kneaded and stroked, and her body undulated closer.

He lifted her astride him, guiding her hips to cup the head of his shaft, pushing up slowly, groaning at the wicked heat of her.

She whimpered his name, her mouth falling open, her hands pushing against his chest to seat him deep as she could take him.

This was one of his favorite ways to mate, able to watch the beauty of her muscles working while she rode him, her soft moans and gasps boiling his blood.

She rocked, a slow easy rhythm, tucking her hips forward, her body slurping at his hungrily, pulling him so deep it nearly hurt. She started to writhe as she came closer to her end, her thighs shaking, and he couldn’t lie still anymore.

Bracing his knees Kalix drove up to meet her downward strokes, her sheath rippling around him like soft, fiery hot fists. He bucked into her harder, until her breasts were bouncing with every thrust, their cries of pleasure escalating.

Her hair tickled his thighs as her head fell back in surrender, convulsing, crying out his name in a passionately ruined scream.

She wilted down over him, panting while he lunged those last few desperate strokes, going blind with the rapture.

As they lay tangled together in the quiet aftermath, he heard the rain begin to fall outside, sending a cool breeze through the room to soothe them. 

~I will fight for you, my heart. Always.