Page 30 of Tricked By the Alien Prince

I have to see this quest through. No matter what. But maybe, just maybe, Volan’s my happy ever after.

ChapterEighteen

VOLAN

“You can trust me,” I tell the little human standing before me. Maya’s dark eyes stare up at me wide, blinking with disbelief and utter hope.

I have the urge to wrap her up in my arms, to hold her close and dispel the shadows that flitter across her face. My body, my very instincts, drive me to step closer to her and protect her from any dangers that might threaten her.

But does that include me? I haven’t exactly been truthful with her. She thinks I’m leading her somewhere specific, and little does she know that I have no intention of actually taking her there.

“I do,” she whispers, voice barely audible. She looks up at me with shining eyes, full of vulnerability.

“I trust you.”

Fuck. I bite back a flood of emotions. Giddiness that someone so pure, so perfect as her, would put her trust in me. Dismay… because everything she knows about me, our entire relationship, is a lie.

She still doesn’t know who I really am, that soon I’ll be returning to my duties of Prince… hopefully King of the Sulthari on planet Atraxis.

Honestly, I’ve been enjoying our interactions, perhaps far too much. She just sees me as ‘me’, a male whose immediate actions and words create an impression. There’s no judgement, no assumptions, no deceit… well, apart from me.

She doesn’t look at me with thinly veiled greed, plans running through her mind about rising in the ranks for personal or family gain. I don’t need to worry about her whispering about me behind my back, telling the court - or darkness forbid - my father about any of my plans for our kingdom’s future. My hopes and dreams are personal, not something that I want brought to the light and constantly critiqued - especially when I haven’t had a chance to solidify them. Wanting to integrate other species into our kingdom is a grand ideal - but without putting safeguards in place, and having the time and resources to do so, could be disastrous for my people. It’s been a long-held dream of mine to work with others, to share resources and actually thrive, rather than constantly fear an attack, warriors spending more time patrolling our borders, stepping further and further into dark and dangerous tunnels than spending time at home with their mates.

Or the dream of having a mate, one that actually cares about me as an individual…

“We are nearly at a place we can eat. Why not tell me over food?” I tell her.

“Oh, okay,” Maya responds, looking both relieved and disappointed. And that expression, as if I’ve failed her somehow, eats me to the core.

I turn and briskly walk away. My feet stomp upon the rock floor, rather than my usual silent steps. The blood pumping furiously in my veins urges me to fight. To move. To do something, anything. The frustration I feel boils beneath the surface, my luminae glowing as I fight the urge to run. I tell myself it’s because Maya needs the light to see by, not because of this tingling sourness that’s pressing at my lungs and making it hard to breathe. It’s got nothing at all to do with how I’ve lied to Maya… how I’ve treated her like so many people treat me—someone to be used and discarded, with little consideration of my feelings.

It’s okay to be excited about my future, I tell myself. I’ve worked so long for it. How many times have I walked alongside the warriors, guarding our people and home while we patrolled darkened corridors in search of threats? How many times have I joined campaigns, silently stalking beasts that prey on those both above and below the surface—including the tribes that have forgotten what honor means.

My people are warriors. We are knights, meant to lead others through the darkness and into the light…

Not leading defenseless, trusting humans into traps. Not tricking the very female that I want to take as a mate.

And I do, I really do. The more time I spend in Maya’s presence, the more I find myself admiring her. The more I am seeing her as an individual, not just someone like all the others. Despite her very real and overwhelming fears, she charges into battle and difficult decisions alike fearlessly. She does so because she cares, deeply and honestly. And once she sets her mind to something, and sticks to it with a stubbornness that I can’t help but find cute, especially when her lips turn down at the corners, begging to be kissed back into a smile.

She’s a human. She’s someone other than Sulthari… and yet, I’m becoming more than certain that she would make a fine Queen.

Every moment I am in her presence, my skin prickles. It’s not just the electric currents running beneath the surface, lighting up my luminae. It’s her. I’m hyper-aware of each breath she takes, the rustle of her clothing as she moves, her very scent driving me insane!

Whenever I’ve felt this frustrated, a sparring match has always helped take the edge off… I walk backward, watching the female so carefully following behind me. She’s so close, I could reach out and gather her in my arms. There are other ways to soothe the body, to expend the excess energy…

I turn to her, ready to grab Maya into my arms, just as her stomach growls. Her eyes humorously widen as her cheeks darken, just as they did when I pleased her over and over again last night.

As much as I long to take Maya to the floor, to drink my fill of her until my very soul has found solace, my protective instincts demand more. Feed. Care. Protect.

Claim.

I can’t claim her until she knows about who I really am, but I also don’t want her to know about that identity as I desperately want her to see the real me, to fall in love with me. And the longer I put it off… the harder it is to bring up something like that.

“We are nearly there,” I tell her. I turn down passages, my eyes seeking the small details around us that indicate our location. A red vine with dark plump nodules rather than leaves, its roots twisting into nooks and crannies of the rock face as it spreads across the surface like a soft curtain of fabric. Several long, deep gouges furrowed into the soft rock, evidence of a beast that passed through the area long ago.

Thankfully, no disturbed dust upon the floor; meaning no Scampers have trampled through the area in their blind search for food. I will not be making that mistake again.

As we get closer to my kingdom, I start seeing the small pools of water scattered about. Maya does too, if her quiet gasp is anything to go by.

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