Page 78 of Alien Prince's Claim

I’d never heard of chocolate before and didn’t know what it was but I would build her a palace of it if she so desired.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It was not the scritch-scratch noise on the walls nor the thud of fists beating against them, but a whole new sound.

A high-pitched whirring grind of a protesting machine.

The shudders shook the wall and made dust drift down from the ceiling.

Emily and I broke apart but I kept her hand in mine.

The lights blinked off before coming back on a moment later.

Cayah stood up, the ice cloth clutched in his thick hand.

We each scanned the walls, the ceiling, each certain the Goblars were drawing nearer, but uncertain as to how long the walls were going to last.

Not much longer, I thought. Any minute now, they were going to burst through.

The dumb beasts had managed to get their hands on an electronic tool and were now using it to drill into the room.

My hope that we could simply wait in the room until the countdown expired had just been dashed.

I locked eyes with Cayah. “Where is this exit? We need to leave. Now.”

Just as Cayah rushed forward and tossed the damp cloth to the floor, a poster of the Facility’s schematics suddenly exploded forward.

It was made of hard-wearing plastic and did not break.

Something poked at it from behind, extending into the room by a foot or more.

Then the whirring continued and tore through the plastic, revealing some kind of plasma-powered pneumatic drill bit.

It retracted back and caught the poster in its spinning blade, tearing it from the wall.

The tool disappeared back through the hole it had made.

Something appeared at the hole, glaring through it.

It was bright, yellow and shiny.

Disgusting.

There could be no doubt.

It was a Goblar’s eye.

They had reached the room and we were already out of time.

26

EMILY

I couldn’t stop thinking about Yaltah’s warnings.

About how Cayah was a merciless and unflinching betrayer, that his entire species was the same, having some kind of corrupted bad blood that made them always seek advantages they could exploit.

I watched Cayah take care of his mate, how gentle and caring he was, how he never left her side and kept mumbling soft sweet nothings to her, stroking her hair and maneuvering her legs and arms, massaging them, to keep the blood flowing.

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