Page 44 of Alien Prince's Claim

That had been another hope I had been harboring — that the emergency response unit would be here by now, but clearly they had been delayed or otherwise prevented from arriving.

That reduced my options even further.

It was either hand myself over or risk Emily’s life in some foolhardy attempt to escape the facility.

The latter wasn’t likely to have a happy ending.

No, I thought. I was making the smart choice.

At least they would allow her to be free to live her life.

I hated the idea that she might end up in the arms of another alien male… but it was a price I was willing to pay if it meant she would be free from this place.

I dreaded to think how my father, the Emperor, was going to react when he found out I’d been kidnaped.

It wasn’t in his nature to give in to terrorists’ demands, and for a moment I wondered if he would really give them the ransom they demanded.

Probably not…

Then I would really be in a sticky situation…

So I would need to keep my eyes peeled for any opportunity that might come my way.

Just because I was a captive did not mean I had to be passive.

I would give them hell.

I was certain of that.

I reached the final door leading back to the Mating Suites and hesitated before I pressed the handle.

Pass through this door and I would be in the midst of our captors.

Once I handed myself over, returning to the service tunnels would be impossible.

Or at the very least, impossible without alerting the captors to Emily hidden in one of the smaller rooms.

All they had to do then was search the place one room at a time until they found her.

Then there would be no help for her.

They would mistreat her, punish her for anything I did wrong.

I shook my head at the nightmarish images flowing through my mind and knew that it was simply not something I was willing to contemplate or allow to pass — not while I still had some control of the situation.

I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

I stepped into the corridor, hurriedly shutting the door behind me, and even when I shut it slowly, quietly, the door boomed, its loud call echoing down the endless hallways like the cry of a distant monster.

So much for sneaking up on them, I thought.

I was relieved to find I was rewarded not with the rushing of booted feet as they descended on my position but the calm silence that followed in the thudding door’s wake.

I turned and walked down the hallway, my footsteps dying immediately on the thick plush red carpet and quilt curtains and the other garish design elements of the Seeding Facility.

There would not be a peep behind those Suite doors.

As I continued down the hall, I suddenly realized that perhaps — if we were very lucky — we might have managed to hide out long enough to avoid the worst of the attack.

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