Page 20 of Jewel of the Alien Bandit
She called out to him, and when he replied Luan stood there stunned. They were too far away for me to hear, but she turned and clutched at her chest. Then I felt like an asshole for even attempting to help her when she was obviously choosing the krelin as her mate. Leaning my back against the rock I sighed staring at my hand that had recently touched her. Her scent was still on my fingers. I groaned, feeling my cock harden at the thought of what would have happened if I didn’t pull away. Would she have stayed?
Distracted, I lifted my gaze up just in time to roll away from the krelin descending from the sky. My body hummed with the call of battle, a guttural growl coming from my throat as I crouched.
His horns protruded from his wrists ready to poison me. Then I saw the mark on him, his veins turned black up his arms, he was not a mere warrior.
“You’re Prince Trenton,” I accused, knowing full well a regular warrior didn’t have the black poison in them. His planet hired the Necias to attack Sholonus, and he may not have been alive then, but he led the armies that paroled the star system and was the reason why he couldn’t search for any shol survivors.
“You’re a shol,” he replied amused, and his eyes lit up excited at that information. “My mother still hunts for your kind obsessed that too many were bound to seek revenge.”
We paced around each other, circling slowly.
“Is Estreldez your next target?” I seethed, all of my loss and history surfacing to haunt me. All the years I’ve suffered under necia’s claws sank into my flesh, forcing me to steal for them since I was a child.
“Not for the same reason as Sholonus,” he denied, and retracted his stingers. “Estreldez needs protection. The Necias have set their sights on this planet to control the quarries here than supply much of the fuel across the star system. If they gain that kind of power the whole system is at risk.”
“So the krelins plan on taking the power instead.”
That wasn’t any better than having the necia in charge.
“I have no intention of misusing the estrelds, they may continue to have their autonomy.”
It made sense now why he was here. The prince creating offspring here would bond the two planets.
“You’re mating with Luan to force the Almder to accept a new agreement with Krelis, proving the compatibility–”
“Between krelins and estrelds,” he finished but added something I wasn’t expecting, “but I’m not forcing anything. Almder is fully aware of my intentions, and is agreeable should Luan choose me.”
“You would take her back to Krelis…” I stopped moving to stare at him. This couldn’t be possible. Leaving her because she was better off not following my dangerous life was one thing, but leaving her to be trapped in a hive harem was something else entirely. “She will not choose you.”
“That’s not your decision to make. We are compatible, and her scent is intoxicating.”
He gave me a knowing grin, referring to the way she had clung to him earlier. I knew all too well how viral she was. So much so I was willing to expose myself to a krelin that would sooner kill me than talk to me, but here he was with his stingers retracted and… talking.
I didn’t know whether he was trying to get me to punch him, or if he wasn’t as mindless as the rest of his hive warriors.
“What can you offer her?” he asked, seeing right through me, baiting, and then hitting me with a waft of his damned warding spray. It was filling the air making my nose crinkle in disgust.
“How do females not smell that?” I gagged on the atrocious musk.
“It has nothing to do with gender,” he mocked me like I was dumb for even suggesting his scent was deplorable. “It’s about biological chemistry. It repels and attracts, and most don’t smell it at all. It’s shols who are particularly sensitive to the musk.” His tone was filled with disdain that wasn’t there earlier. “Your species are nothing but barbarians.”
“Right, that’s why the krelins have taken it upon themselves to eradicate all shols.” How very unbarbaric of them, I thought with derision. I lifted a hand when he was about to explain. “If you’re here for diplomacy, you won’t kill me here. And if you’re worth being chosen by Luan, then you’ll wait to inform your ship about the shol you found on Estreldez until after the ceremony.”
He lifted a brow considering my bargain. I could win a fight here, but there was no telling if the warship he came in would let me leave this planet without pursuit. And now that I have gained his attention, there was no option where I could take Luan with me and not have both the necia and the krelins after us. I need that dick, Loric, to bond with her, and for Trent to keep his word about waiting until after the ceremony to alert his ship of a new target. I trusted Loric to seal the deal in their one-on-one time in the grotto.
My chest tightened, and I growled my distaste at what I was going to allow to happen. She was mine, but she couldn’t be.
“If I see you at the dance, then I’ll assume you’ve changed your mind about our deal. I’m not a monster, shol. Your species has been through enough, and I only seek to make sure my own doesn’t find itself in a similar fate, nor the estrelds.” He stepped aside for me to pass him.
I glared at him for thinking this small act of decency would make me change my mind about the krelins. It may not have been him, but his mother was the reason I had no family, and was a slave to the necia.
His mother had many children, but he was the only one to inherit her black blood, making him a potential successor to the hive.
Leaving without the jewel of Estreldez would make the necia angry, and I’d still be in their debt, but there was no choice if I wanted to do my part to keep this planet safe, and Luan. The shuttle bay was empty when I arrived, save for the few attendants processing whatever authorizations and logs he had to go through before heading out.
One of the estreld techs scrolled through the list of males sent off like I couldn’t be in front of him right now. “How did you miss your shuttle?”
“The female who offered me her tarnpul chose another,” I clarified.
