Page 62 of Alien Prince's Claim

I shrugged. “It is how it has always been. They will pursue you for twenty hours and once that period has elapsed, they will give up their pursuit.”

“How long has it been already?”

“About six hours.”

“Then you have to keep me safe for the next fourteen hours and then all of this will be over?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

She looked up at me quizzically. “How do you know they are after me? How do you know they aren’t after someone else? That there are some other alien species who mated and are now fated mates? What if they only happened to come across me while they were looking for other fated mates?”

I sighed. “Because you have the Joisa. And they wouldn’t have been interested in mating with you if we weren’t fated mates.”

“At all?”

I shook my head. “No. They see only fated females. They are blind to all others.”

“Lucky me,” Emily said flatly. “Then can what happened earlier happen again?”

“I’m afraid so,” I admitted. “But I will do everything in my power to prevent it from happening like that again.”

Emily cocked her head to one side and made a pop sound with her lips. “And how do I know this isn’t some elaborate way for you to make sure I stay with you for your Steyatt?”

I blinked in surprise. “An elaborate story?”

“Men have been known to do it before. Even more, in fact.”

I drew myself up to my full height. “I am not a man.”

“But you are a male. And if something is true for one male, it’s true for all of you.”

I bit down on my anger that she would equate me with a lowly male human.

Couldn’t she see we were destined to be together?

Couldn’t she feel the bond between us?

Couldn’t she see—

Then I saw the grin on her face.

She was joking.

She wasn’t serious.

She was deliberately needling me to provoke a reaction and I couldn’t help but growl at the back of my throat.

She met my eyes and didn’t back down and I pressed myself on top of her, lying with my weight atop her.

I avoided crushing by leaning the majority of my weight on my forearms.

I hesitated.

She had been through a lot and I didn’t want to force her to do something she didn’t feel comfortable with right now.

It was too soon after her ordeal where I had failed her and I wasn’t sure she was really ready for it.

“I’m okay,” she said softly.

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