“Why?” Haka was confused as to why her dad was crying about this. It was common knowledge. “Why are you crying, Dad?

“Yeah!” The older sister was now offended on behalf of her mother. “You and Mom are rarely in the same building together let alone the same room.” She scoffed. “I know my Dad keeps trying to convince her to come back to him but she won’t because she’s still in love with you. But you, you can barely even look at her despite the fact that you supposedly live here together.”

“Oh. God.” Brent began sobbing even harder. “Is this what she thinks? Does she think I don’t love her? I love her so much. I just.” Sob. Hiccup. He stumbled over to the stove and grabbed one of the kitchen towels hanging off the handle. Blowing his nose on it he then used the dirtied towel to wipe his tears.

“Eww. Dad.” The younger sister grabbed a roll of paper towels off the holder on the island and tossed it to her father. “Here. Catch.” He caught it easily then fumbled it slightly. That alone told his daughter how distraught he was. Brent Kane was known the world over for the physical aptitude.

“So, you love Mom? But you haven’t slept in the same room as her in what? Ten? Twelve years?” The dark-haired daughter narrowed her eyes at her sister’s father in disbelief.

His obvious distress did not convince her. She knew her father could conjure tear on command. Brent had always seemed made of more honest stuff. Which she assumed was why her mother liked him more than her ex-husband.

“Girls. Did you not just hear what I said about how the Allura parasite kills its adult hosts through reproduction…” he paused significantly. Waiting for them to make the connection and when he saw it wasn’t coming, he continued. “…so it can take over a younger host with a weaker mind and self-identity.

The girls just looked at him dumbly.

“That’s. Not. What it’s – ” Angel tried to insist but his words had her questioning what she knew. “But Mom did die when she had us.”

“And she had a sister once.” Haka volunteered, determined to prove that she knew just as much as Angel. Also, this argument was important to her being allowed to have a boyfriend. So.

“Her sister was a clone.” Brent slid down a cabinet to sit on the floor and tossed a snotty tissue at Haka moodily. “And your mother had to have her crystal heart removed, twice,” Two fingers shot up over the edge of the kitchen island for emphasis. “It grew back both times you know. To prevent the Allura symbiote,” The word came out in such a way that both girls flinched back from it as if it were a slur. “From jumping ship to your girls and burning her alive into a radioactive pile of ash in the process.”

“Oooohhhhh!” Angel breathed softly. She finally got it and Brent cocked one of his eyebrows at her with a nod of exasperation.

“Yessss.” The melancholy man on the floor hissed at the injustice of the tragedy.

“Wait.” Haka was glancing between her unhappy father and brightly blushing sister. “I don’t get it. Can someone explain?” After one glance at his daughter Brent knew he couldn’t explain. He turned to Angel.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Your Mom said she had The Talk with you girls about…” He made an indistinct waving gesture with his hands and mouthed ‘S. E. X.’ while blocking his daughter’s view of his lips with one hand.

A scoff, an annoyed shoulder sag, and an eye roll of epic irritation and vexation greeted his actions. It was truly an eye roll for the ages. Something that could have won the Sarcastic Eye Roll Olympics if it were a thing.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me with that tone of voice young Missy. I’m still your…Step, no that’s not right. Your…Mom’s…Current…Partner .” He finished lamely. Because even though Brent had spent more time raising Angel than either of her parents, he still technically had no legal claim on the girl. Brent had never married Angel and Haka’s mother.

“How am I supposed to know if Mom had the sex talk with Haka. I’m several years older than her. She had it with me a…while ago.”

“OH!” Haka’s eyes went round and huge for a moment as she realized where the discussion was going. “Wait. That’s why you aren’t with-with Mom? You’re afraid she’ll get pregnant?” Then she frowned. “Eww! Gross, Dad! And isn’t she tool old for that? She’s like forty.”

Her older sister rolled her eyes at Haka and Brent joined in this time with a sigh of resignation. They were having this discussion. Right now. And he was hating his life because of it.

“You’re Mom is an Alluran, Haka. What’s the average life span of an Alluran. One that doesn’t have a ‘symbiote’?” He made air quotes as he said that word he hated and even though he said it without sarcasm or disgust in his voice, that simple action with his hands conveyed both emotions succinctly.

“I know some that are hundreds of years old.” She started then added hesitantly. “But some of the histories speak of them living for thousands of years.”

“Tens of thousands of years.” Brent corrected his daughter and she frowned thoughtfully. “Would a species that lives for tens of thousands of years without physically aging lose its reproductive viability after the first couple of decades? Or would a female of that be capable of conceiving children even if she were thousands of years old?”

“Oh.” It was quiet. Soft.

“Yes. Oh.” Brent nodded at her not unkindly but not with patience. “You were an accident.” He continued. “And we did, everything, and I mean everything right. You shouldn’t have happened. But the symbiote takes measures to force conception and start the reincarnation cycle when it wants a new host.” Haka’s face began to crumple.

“I was an accident?” But her father would not let her feel unwanted.

“Yes. But we love you with all of our being. I love you and would never trade you for anything. And I don’t regret having you. But your mother barely survived. Do you understand? We had to cut out her crystal heart. The matrix that the symbiote uses to transfer into the infant host body. It had to be done while she was pregnant, close to giving birth, but before contractions started. We had to cut it out and then cut you out prematurely.”

His words were coming out faster now. Jumbling together in a rush because he’d never told anyone how it had felt. He’d never had to articulate the words of his soul-shattering terror that he would lose his beloved and his daughter to the parasitic creature that ruled their lives but gave them their powers.

“And that was the second time it was done. Every time she has a child, if the matrix has regrown, it will have to be cut out to prevent her dying when the child is born. So, I decided to make sure that would never be a problem. And then…”

“You drifted apart.” Angel finished for him. “The two of you spent so much time fighting the symbiote that it was easier to just not be in each other’s company.”

“Yes.” There was a weary finality to the word and his shoulders collapsed in on themselves. “The symbiote hasn’t forced her to seek a new partner…yet…but we can’t be alone together or it starts trying to manipulate us. Your mother just through the influence it has over her thoughts, and me through pheromones and the strange magic your kind have.”

“That’s so tragic.” Haka sniffed and Brent laughed shakily at his daughter. She had that same tone of voice she reserved for the romance stories she read when she was shipping her favorite couples.

“Yeah.”

There was silence for a bit before Haka quipped up.

“But none of this explains why I shouldn’t have a boyfriend, Dad. I don’t have a symbiote.”