Page 18 of Alien Prince's Claim

But they might have been encased in ice for all the movement they performed.

What’s wrong with you? I berated myself.

This was my chance to be Seeded, the chance that I had waited months for — and would have to wait another eighteen months more if I didn’t go through with it this time — and that was if they would even allow me to return if I failed this time.

And I’m hesitating?

I had dreamt about this moment for hours, days even.

It was never meant to go like this.

My alien male would choose me from a lineup of females in the Claiming Room.

I would be his first and only choice.

He would take me to his room and… well, you know the rest!

What most certainly was not a part of the process was me dawdling in the doorway, as frightened as a newborn lamb, unsure whether or not to cross the threshold.

I could see the large bed behind him and it set my heart to a fluttering panic.

Can I really do this?

Can I really go through with this?

I gulped again but this time I choked as I had no more saliva to lubricate my throat with.

Just that word — lubricate — made me tighter than a snare drum.

What was holding me back? I wondered.

I wasn’t afraid of him.

I was attracted to him.

Then was I scared he would treat me badly?

No. He had a kind face and I had seen how he treated the fearful female in the Claiming Room.

Then what was it?

It was the concern — no, not a concern but a knowing — that something had changed.

Something was different.

This wasn’t a normal alien male.

He was a part of my future somehow.

We had been drawn together in this place and time for a reason.

And it was that that held me back.

I ordered my legs to move, to step forward, to enter the bedroom and, finally, they did, shuffling with tiny motions.

If I took a long time, neither the Assistant nor Yaltah mentioned it.

The moment my foot crossed that threshold, what in my mind felt like the starting line to a long marathon and something I could easily turn around and escape from, my body relaxed.

---