Page 45 of Alien Prince's Claim

Were the attackers already gone?

Then I heard a shout from a male’s throat and the high-pitched scream of a distressed female immediately after, and my dream burst.

The hoarse bark of a creature responded, along with the cold snap of a blaster pistol’s plasma cartridge slapping into place.

It didn’t take any great leap of imagination to picture what was taking place around the next corner at that very moment.

I prepared to lean around it and peer attentively, knowing I would have but a split second to see what was on the other side.

If I was very lucky, the pirates wouldn't notice me as they would be distracted with whatever resistance the male was putting up.

I let out a breath, leaned over, and peered around the corner.

I shifted my eyes from one side to the other, taking in every detail, before immediately pulling myself back around the corner.

I let my mind process what it had just seen.

The male knelt on the floor with a hand clasped around the corner of his bleeding mouth, surrounded on all sides by creatures that barely reached his waist.

Their weapons were pointed squarely at him and his female, who lay in a lump to one side, sprawled as if having been tossed harshly to the ground.

She was shaking, barely able to move, with a nasty gash on her forehead.

The creatures might not have any intention of taking her but that didn’t mean they wouldn't harm her if they wished — especially when it meant more easily controlling the larger alien male.

It appeared to be working, as the male, despite the anger pent up inside him, managed to control himself.

But there was something else that arrested my attention…

Not the scene that I would soon interrupt by handing myself over, but something else.

It was the attackers.

They were small, their tall pointed ears clothed with tufts of hair, the hard scowl of disapproval in their eyes carrying over to their curled lips, twisted in anger and disgust.

I had seen these creatures before.

More than once.

I had seen them in the holiest books of our religion, which every member of the Krev civilization was taught to memorize from a young age…

It was tied to the fated mate story, about what happened when a pair of fated mates of the Krev were brought together…

And what would happen next.

I gasped and immediately clasped a hand over my mouth.

I was too late to catch it as the Goblars heard it and snapped their attention in my direction.

They would cross toward the corner I was hiding behind.

I immediately turned and crept back the way I had come, quick to take other twists and turns to avoid the devils from seeing me.

How could I have not seen this before?

How could I have forgotten the holy stories we had been told each and every night before bed?

A lesson.

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