Page 95 of Seeded By Two

“That you should risk your life to protect your decoy,” he said. “But your loyalty is misplaced. It should reside with your people, not a single servant.”

My stomach churned and my jaw tightened at referring to Feon as a slave.

He was anything but a slave to me, but I remained calm, knowing the Ukmat was only trying to rile me up, and by giving in to my anger reveal who I truly was.

“And so, I will make you an offer,” the creature said. “Tell me which of you is the true prince and I will let Feon go. Of course, he will remain with us until our business is complete but once it is over, he shall be released back to you.”

He waited, but neither of us spoke.

The word of a Ukmat was worth precisely dick.

“No?” the creature said, before returning to its dizzying march around us. “Then perhaps you require a little more… convincing?”

He nodded to the guard sitting at a computer terminal set up at the front of the room.

He tapped at the holo-keyboard and an image flashed up on a large screen.

It took a moment for me to recognize what I was looking at.

And suddenly, my heart was in my throat.

Feon’s chair lurched against mine as he reacted the same way I was.

On the hollow-image projection, we saw the escape pod that, until a short while ago, Feon and I had inhabited.

Before we gave ourselves up.

To protect Beth.

Now, these creatures were chasing it down.

I pulled against my restraints and Feon did likewise.

I didn’t know if he was doing it as a way to mimic my actions, thus making it more difficult for them to spot the true Prince between us, or if he truly felt the same blistering anger I did.

“Leave her out of this!” Feon growled, beating me to it.

The creature marched toward him, leaned forward, and appraised his face. “Are you the real prince, I wonder?”

“Let her go!” I snapped. “She’s nothing but a human female.”

The Ukmat straightened up, crossed to me, and placed his ugly and sinister face in mine. “That is what you wish us to believe, no doubt. But we all know better, don’t we?”

He turned his head slightly to one side, addressing one of the other guards. “Tell me, how rare is it for a Krev to find their fated mate?”

The guard he was referring to was the one with the remote restraint device in his pocket. “Extremely rare, so far as I am aware.”

“In all the galaxy,” the creature said, “I believe there are but a handful of fated mates. So, I can only imagine how rare it must be for the Krev to discover a female with two Krev mates.”

I attempted to stand but the guard was on me and smashed me in the face with the butt of his rifle.

The creature hissed—a disgusting slithering sound, almost electronic and buzzing through his mandibles—that sent a shiver up my spine.

“We must not harm the Prince!” he admonished. “Nor his decoy, whichever this may be.”

Then he turned back to us. “Which of you is the true Prince is not important. If you both wish to receive the same treatment at our hands, then so be it. But do not think for a moment your fated mate will escape the same fate. We have some very… special plans lined up especially for her. And once she’s in our control, we have no doubts you will reveal to us decisively which of you is the true Prince.”

I spat on the floor, struggling against the restraints.

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