Page 40 of Alien Prince's Claim

There was just too much chance of a riot with so many fertile females around.

After the attack, a distress signal would be sent and a response would be mounted.

That was protocol.

The response team would take an hour, perhaps more, to reach us…

And that was if the attackers hadn’t thought to prevent the alert from going off in the first place.

They had thought to cut off any potential escape from the docks, so the chance of not being prepared in other scenarios was a remote one.

I had been trained to assume the worst, to make plans for such a thing to happen, so what choice did that leave me with?

I looked at Emily, still sound asleep.

There was only one option, I knew.

If the attackers didn’t leave soon, it meant the alert had been foiled or else delayed, and that meant we could be stuck here for hours or even days…

And the longer the attackers remained, the more obvious it would become that they had not found what they had come for.

The third reason.

Me.

15

EMILY

I was awoken by the slamming of a door.

Yaltah immediately began to barricade it shut.

He was frantic, rushed, in a state of panic that I hadn’t witnessed in him before.

I eased up onto my elbows and peered over at him.

For the past hour or so, I had drifted between being awake and deep sleep, my body still struggling to recover from its recent ordeal.

Seeing Yaltah this way snapped me awake instantly.

“What is it?” I asked.

He finished stacking items in front of the door. “They’re not leaving. They’re still here.”

I wasn’t about to quit or give up. “There are other hallways,” I said. “I’m sure we can find another way out of here—”

Yaltah just shook his head. “There’s not. They’ve covered all the exits. They planned their attack well.”

My heart thundered a staccato rhythm as I searched his face. “But there must be some way out of here! There’s always some way!”

Maybe I had watched too many movies or possessed a stronger sense of hope than I realized, but I didn't think there was ever a dead end.

There was always another way out, another option, something.

Yaltah nodded. “There is one way.”

I perked up. “What? What is it?”

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