Page 81 of Alien Prince's Claim

Yaltah ground his teeth and growled. “I am not a Sny’at. My word is my bond. Your word is trash!”

Cayah scowled hard at Yaltah and for a moment, I thought they were going to come to blows again.

The machine whirred at the wall, creating a third hole.

This time, the wall buckled inwards as the little beasts hammered at it with their meaty fists.

We didn’t have time for this.

We needed to leave.

Now!

I stepped between the huge alien males and their scowls lowered to me. “You’ll go first,” I told Cayah. “Then Yaltah will go down, dragging Nisa behind him. I’ll go last.”

Now it was Yaltah’s turn to snarl, his nostrils flaring with disgust. “Never. I will not allow you to put yourself in harm’s way.”

“It’s the only way for him to trust you and for you to trust him. If he drags his mate, you don’t trust him to leave us behind. And if you drag her, you can’t cut her loose without trapping me in the tunnels too.”

Cayah’s expression had softened, whereas Yaltah’s had hardened.

“Very well,” Cayah said before Yaltah could refuse a second time. “But you must make sure to shut the hatch door behind us. The creatures chasing us are many but they are not strong. The hatch door will prevent them from following us and will buy us time.”

He wasn’t speaking to me — there was no way I could pull that heavy hatch door shut — but to Yaltah, who simply grunted in affirmation.

Cayah hastily strapped his mate to the bed, locking her into place.

Then he kissed her on the forehead, gently running his fingers through her hair once more and extending the harness to Yaltah.

Yaltah took it, strapped it on himself, and locked it into place, wrapping it around him like a sled dog.

“Check you can pull it,” Cayah said.

Yaltah just glared at him.

But Cayah would not back down. “Try it.”

Yaltah gripped the leather straps and yanked on them with a single swell of his bicep.

The entire bed — Nisa and all — slid effortlessly along the floor.

“Fine,” Cayah said. “Then let’s begin.”

He climbed through the hatch, his horns jutting out to either side, occasionally striking the hard concrete walls.

He seemed to take no notice.

Yaltah approached me, the bed sliding as if he didn’t notice the weight at all.

He took my hands and wrapped some fabric he’d found across the palm.

He did the same with my knees.

Then he kissed me deeply.

He gently stroked my cheek the way he was prone to. “No matter what, just keep following this bed. If anything happens — anything at all — I’ll cut the bed free and crawl back to you. We’ll find another way out of here.”

But there was no other way out.

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