Page 43 of Alien Prince's Claim

He didn’t want to leave me any more than I wanted to be apart from him.

He had to force himself to do this.

It was the only way to keep me safe, and so he turned and yanked the door open despite having barricaded it.

He looked back over his shoulder at me once, a forlorn expression on his face, as he marched through the door.

And I broke down in tears.

16

YALTAH

The walk back felt ten times longer than it had on the way there.

And it wasn’t because of where I was heading or what would happen once I got there — and I tried not to think about all those things that would happen, the horrors that might befall me the moment I handed myself over to these marauders — but because of who I was heading away from.

Emily.

She had affected me more deeply than I could believe.

Every footstep away from her felt like a physical blow, striking not my body and flesh, but something on a much deeper level than I could fully understand.

Deeper than I wanted to believe.

It was like the Creator had torn the heart from my chest and shaped it, forming Emily.

She was a part of me.

I took a deep sigh and consoled myself with the knowledge that she would soon be safe.

Emily had made a complete recovery from her earlier exhaustion.

I hated that I had been the one to deal her a vicious blow, but it couldn’t be helped.

She needed to know who I was — what I was.

I would have avoided it if I could.

But how else could I convince her to let me leave her, for me to hand myself over to them, if it wasn’t for that piece of information?

I had wound my way halfway back through the service corridors when I began to hear the explosions of distant grenades and sporadic shooting.

But it wasn’t as active as it had been earlier, not so adamant and rushed.

I sensed the pirates had taken control of the majority of the Facility and there was now little resistance being put up by the alien males.

I could think of only one reason why that was possible.

The attackers had not come here for the females and had allowed the males to remain with their mates and promised they would let them go once they had what they had come for.

Me.

How the alien males behaved was up to them.

All I could do was what was best for Emily.

The ground shuddered as another explosion rocked the Facility.

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