Page 35 of Alien Triton's Prize

“Are you talking to that fish again?”

“Sure am. I think it’s starting to understand me,” I said jokingly.

Cetius was carrying a clump of Veriana. Yup, Veriana. They’d named the unknown blue, purple, and silver plant with the spear-like leaves that had fascinated me so much that first day after me.

I’d been wearing a few long leaves of it in my hair that day at the selach race, and when the videos of Cetius being pulled through the netting and me flutter kicking desperately to his side went viral, Ebb Tide Trading had been flooded with hundreds of requests for the plant. The citizens of Coral’s Deep were clear: they wanted it in their gardens and on their bodies.

After locating the floating island where Cetius had found it years earlier, we realized when we found only a few specimens hanging on by a thread at the edge of a coral ledge that it was almost extinct. We’d almost found it too late: we’d returned to our carriage for the night and went back the next day to find the clump had halved in size, the poor plants having been torn away by a strong current overnight. If we’d come just one day later, it would have been too late.

We’d salvaged what we could and brought it back to Coral’s Deep’s botanical garden, where I’d helped to propagate it to the point that the plant was no longer on the brink of extinction. Now we were back on the island, and our goal, aside from bringing home new specimens, was to reintroduce the Veriana to its native habitat, albeit a bit farther in on the shelf so it was less exposed.

We’d also found a sister island, drifting around the planet alongside this one, with nearly identical flora and fauna. There were plenty of other signs that the two islands had once been connected. We were going there next to see if we could find a couple of good locations to reintroduce the plant in a way that would be beneficial to the ecosystem there.

Go figure. In one year, I had gone from working for Agricore Inc., a multi-colony corporation that had helped destroy Earth, to doing conservation work on Aquaria with my triton husband!Sure, Veriana wasn’t saving lives or anything, but it was still fulfilling work, and I’d never been happier in my life.

“This is the last clump. Want to help me choose the best spot for it?” Cetius asked.

“How about right here?” We’d landed the carriage here because there was a gap in the coral. “It’s the right type of rock. And there’s plenty of room for it.”

“Do the honors, little love.” He handed me the last clump of Veriana.

Moments later, the Veriana was wedged carefully into a crevice, looking a little lonely on the barren rock. I wasn’t worried. The clump would root into the rock and sand and send out more shoots in no time.

The little fish went to check out the new plant, swimming through the long leaves. Then, he disappeared right before my eyes.

What the—

I peered at the foliage a little longer and finally spotted him again. He’d changed colors! Those spots were now purply blue, matching the ones on the plant’s leaves. Cool!

“Well, I guess we’re all done here.” I started toward the door of our transport.

“Not so fast, little love.”

I suddenly found myself wrapped up in his tail, just like that first day on the island.

“You’re forgetting one more thing,” Cetius nuzzled my neck, leaving a trail of kisses down my jaw.

I closed my eyes and sighed contentedly. “We did it already on this island all last night.”

We made a point to have sex on every island we visited. If the island had any special landmarks, we did it there too. Cetius said it made our travels a lot more memorable, and I had to agree.

“That didn’t count.” His hands roamed all over my body, claiming every inch of my skin and lighting a fire of need inside me. “That was on land.”

“Oh, is that a new rule?” I asked, barely holding back a moan as his mouth traveled down my body to nibble at a pebbled nipple. “If it is, I’m not complaining. But if that’s the case, the last island didn’t count either.”

He laid me out on the roof of our carriage and eyed me like a feast. “Then I guess we’ll just have to stop by on the way back and do it again.”

“I guess we will.” I wrapped my legs around him and rolled my hips against the magnificent trident shaft that had emerged from his vent.

And there, surrounded by the wonders of the island reef, my triton husband and I started a tsunami.

THE END

Look for more from Lynnea? Check out this excerpt from Claimed by the Hunter.

A sound at the door alerted me of the presence of an intruder. I peeked over the counter and froze. At the door stood a Xarc’n hunter. The alien warrior was huge, with giant shoulders and a broad, muscular chest. He had to duck to get through the door. Even when he stood up fully in the convenience store, he lookedalmost hunched over from the masses of muscles on his neck and back. And he was staring straight at me as if he’d come in looking for me.

Yellow-green eyes met mine. They glowed slightly in the darkened store, standing out against the purplish mauve of his leathery skin. I noticed his horns next. The black horns curved from his temples, reminding me of a ram. They looked heavy, and I was sure they were used often as a weapon from the wear marks on them. No wonder he had such a thick neck; only a tree trunk could hold up those horns.

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