Page 37 of Bred by the Alien Prince

“I’m sure you didn’t ask her what she wants.”

“She will do whatever I ask; if I tell her to fuck you on that table in front of Jarik, she will.”

“No thanks.” I held my hand up, not wanting her to come near me. “Is that your proposal? To exchange my human for the possibility of pure-bred children?”

“No, just making way for amicable negotiations.” He appeared to have eaten something, and the smacking and poor table manners, even clouded by the shadow, grated on my nerves. They always accused us Valisians of being too clean. But I think it’s because they were all too damn filthy! “Prince, you should know of all people that you are fighting the tides of fate. If you don’t latch onto something future-proof, you will lose.”

“I’m my father’s heir. I will never lose.” Ah, the negotiations had begun.

“You are one of many, the breeding rights of a king. Your brothers and sisters are off proving themselves in the new world while you twiddle your thumbs and fuck some human—”

“You will all have a new threat soon, and like always, you will beg for me to save you.”

The creature laughed unconvincingly. “Don’t be so sure. Your brother Xil has a human male of his own. I have word of how he bred him and worked out a deal to secure more from that human colony on Cerulia. If these humans will trade their own men, they may not be the warmongers you are looking for.” He gobbled down a large chunk of something and smacked his lips. “Do you wish to be locked in a pointless contest to showcase the worthiness of some omega?”

Now, he was on to something worth listening to. “What are you thinking?”

“The colony ship of our new visitors is advanced for a species that has just discovered FTL travel. Do you know why that is?”

“Spare me the suspense.” I knew nothing about their ship, but I wasn't going to tell him.

“Because it was built not by humans but by the AI the humans’ control.”

CHAPTER 14

Now,thiswasnewsworth hearing! Very dangerous news. I had underestimated the threat of these humans, and I allowed my arrogance to hinder protocol. I should have reported their existence in our sector and had the pieces of their ship taken in for a full cleaning and inspection to study how advanced these new aliens were. But we had won every war against every alien species to make themselves known. Now, I feel I may have doomed everyone by letting these humans run unchecked.

“There were AI onboard that ship?!” I exclaimed, unable to keep my shock at the news behind a cool visage. “We barred them from the galaxy.”

“Humans wouldn’t know that, and because of this, they have created the most advanced AI I’ve ever seen!”

“Then humans are a threat! A real one.” I thought of what I should do next. This was no longer a game of fighting over males and breeding but a war with a species in control of a powerful weapon that could spring out of control at any moment.

“My intel states that humans have not built a significant amount. I'm sure this would be just the jewel you need to incite an invasion, but it would be a brief campaign.” He said, most likely sensing my change in mood. “You would need a far superior enemy that would last long enough to secure your place in history.”

“If the humans haven’t created a significant number, and you’re trying to convince me not to fight them, then this superior enemy must be the AI themselves; please tell me how fighting their smaller number would be anything other than sending an extermination team to wipe them out...” He couldn’t have been advocating for what I thought he was, but it was better to put it out there than a guess. “You want to use that AI.”

“Why not?”

“I’m sure you know, being all-knowing and all, that our own system spent hundreds of years recovering from a war with those things, and you want to bring them here?”

“It was the humans who brought them here.”

“Where are these AI?”

“Evading us better than their human masters.”

If that is true, they are already on the brink of awakening. They are capable of independent thought. “I can’t believe this!” Now, the thought of my alien escaping on his own and possibly informing his people of all he had learned was becoming a grave reality, though I tried not to lose myself in this news.

“Prince, if you can bring me just one of those machines, I can copy them into an army worth fighting.” He spat something out of his mouth. “Are you willing to bank your entire worth on getting a human omega pregnant? You said it yourself: you are a warrior, not some breeder. The AI is the sure route.”

This son of a bitch must have thought I was stupid!

“And yes, I will just hand them all over to you to control and use at will.”

“I’m not a fool either."

"Making an enemy out of the hegemony would be foolish of me. I propose we work out a partnership.”

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