Page 35 of Rescued By The Alien Prince Pirate

I noticed that his lower arms had been replaced with mechanical arms that now wielded shock cannons attached to them.

I knew exactly what this was used for but hoped that Carmela either wouldn't recognize them as the very weapons Jun used to capture her into a paralyzing lightning— or at the very least maybe she wouldn't remember.

The fact that Jun was wearing these arm attachments was extremely disturbing to me and made me trust him even less. I hoped he didn't think he was going to try to recapture her with those awful fucking things.

I believed that we were in a parlay about as much as I believed that flying, wild boar ghosts were going to come shooting out into the hallways to maul and eat us alive— but I still had to be prepared for whatever dangerous and deadly shenanigans Jun had in store for us.

For moment, Jun and I stared at each other with unease and suspicion. He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. His jaw tightened. Normally, his eyes were hidden behind a visor, but on this occasion, I was surprised to see that he chose to reveal them.

His head was shaved, and he had patches of leaf-green skin that weren't robotic.

Jun was the first to break the deafening silence.

"Call them off," Jun advised with a steely gaze and a mechanical voice that caused Carmela to shudder beside me.

"Who?" I pretended like I didn't know what he was talking about.

Jun's eyes narrowed and a smirk curled at the edges of his mouth. "Your crew."

"My crew?" I pointed to Carmela and Nix, still feigning innocence about the rest of my crew on board the ship.

"I know there are more of you trying to distract and fight off my robots. Tell them to cease fire," Jun advised with a stony, emotionless expression.

There was no room for debate. That's when I began to realize just how dire the situation really was.

A moment after that, three enormous kill bots emerged from the shadows. They were terrifyingly massive and boxy. They had five arms, each with a different, intimidating weapon attached to the ends of them.

Carmela let out a petrified squeak beside me. It was low, barely audible, but I felt her huge amount of fear.

I swallowed hard, trying to figure this out. Jun had decided to bring out the big guns as a scare tactic, and it was working.

I hated this ruthless bastard with every fiber of my being.

The colossal bots towered over us. Their faces were hidden behind visors. They weren't made of as much organic material as Jun was, but it didn't matter. The fright factor was there.

I had to keep playing along. I reminded myself to keep going for my fellow Alesian family, and for Carmela as well.

I was falling in love with her— whether I wanted to or not —and it was happening so fast that there was nothing I could do about it. I was willing to die for her, but I knew that dying wasn'treallyan option. As the crown prince, I had no choice but to show up for my own kind.

"Okay," I said compliantly. "We will do as you wish."

It almost killed me to say it, but whatelsewas I going to do with these huge things giving me a death stare?

Jun stared through me with a cold leer. "Call them, then."

He wanted to bear witness to me calling off my troops. I was going to have no choice. I felt like his bait after all, but I would find a way out of this mess no matter what happened.

It dawned on me in that moment that I had ultimately two choices to make, and I had to be quick about it. I could either do as Jun wanted, radio to my crew and tell them to cease fire, or I could begin another combat with these vicious looking robots and just hope to the gods above that we would persevere.

I didn't have much time to think about it, either. It was do or die, fight or flight. I knew that Jun was going to try to kill us either way, so the sacrifice was an easy decision to make.

As I glanced at Nix, he gave me the answer— with a single glance. He didn't have to say the words.

I knew then in that moment—exactlywhat I needed to do.

I charged forward. I didn't even think about it. It was as if everything was happening in slow motion. My muscles moved slowly, but then I was moving at an extremely rapid pace at the same time.

Everything blurred around me. I trusted Nix and Carmela, but I still kept a watchful eye on them to make sure they weren't getting into too much trouble by themselves.

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