Page 17 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

"You didn't even give us the courtesy of informing us about ourdestiny. All we ever were, were the expendable children of some rich people who never gave us the time of the day," I heard myself add, and the bitterness in my voice surprised even me.

"I'm with her," Azubah pointed her thumb in my direction.

Homer stared back, nonplussed, as if he had expected nothing less from us. "I don't expect anything from you. You were purposely raised to bring out your Nayphyllym traits, which includes a certain amount of… indifference, maybe even iciness. Each one of you has probably realized by now that they are colder, more distant from others," he made air quotation marks, "loners." He met our gazes and most of us nodded. Except Sara, who crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head challengingly.

But for me, he hit a chord. I had experienced all those things, had thought myself of as exactly what Sergio called Sara earlier: frigid, cold, an outsider.

"Why would you do that to us?" Phoebe asked in a shaking voice and tears in her eyes.

"Because it's in your nature and because you will need it for this mission," Homer said calmly.

"Well, speak for yourself. I love my family," Sara argued defiantly.

"You love the idea of your family, Sara," Homer said in an empathetic voice. "But you don't really love them."

"That is not true," Sara insisted. "I love my sister. I would do anything for her."

"Even die?" Homer asked, and I realized he was manipulating her into the role he wanted her to play. Anger wanted to rise inside me, but it was more an expected reaction than an actual emotion, and I realized that Ishouldbe angry and outraged, but I wasn't. Not really. Part of me almost admired Homer for the way he was herding Sara into our fold, guilting her into the role of heroic sister, because that's how she wanted to see herself.

I wasn't sure if I was sold on the idea of becoming a sacrifice, or even an assassin as Homer now implied. So, skeptically, I asked, "You want us to take the Daemons out?"

"In essence, yes." Homer nodded solemnly. "In all honesty, I, we, don't know what you should expect. All we know is that the Daemons visit Earth every seven hundred odd years. After their arrival they search for their seven maidens, and create brutal mayhem. We don't know what they want from you." Again, he made sure to make eye contact which each one of us. "What your duty or task is, if they don't drain your blood or…" he trailed off, wiped his head. "The possibilities are endless. Over the course of history some were returned, but none of them ever spoke of what transpired on the ship, or if they did, it was lost over the centuries. Everything we know is hundreds, if not thousands, of years old."

"Then how the hell are we supposed to bring them down?" Dina demanded, exasperated.

"All I'm asking is you try," Homer responded.

Muttering, the seven of us stood there, talking to one another, when Ben pulled me aside once again. "We can make a run for it."

Incredulously I stared at him. "Make a run for it?"

He nodded. "I realize you don't know me—"

"And where would we go?" I asked more scathingly than I had intended, but I was scared and at my wit's end. What Homer suggested we should do… the responsibility he placed upon our shoulders… it was just too much.

"I have a place, a safe place," Ben said quietly. "I've worked my entire life for this. We can hide there, lie low until this is… over."

"Until they find another girl," I laid out.

"Until they find another girl. It doesn't have to beyou. The Daemons would never be the wiser."

I would love to say I wasn't tempted, because I was. And I liked Ben, he was an attractive man, sincere, and capable. My cold mind analyzed my situation just like that, coldly. I wouldn't have minded being holed up with him somewhere.

But I couldn't stop thinking about the other girls. And what if the Daemons didn't find seven? Would they ever leave? Would they destroy Earth?

I didn't have a particular attachment to humans, never had even when I thought myself one of them, but I also wasn't a monster. I doubted I could have my Cinder-fucking-ella happily ever after knowing it was built on the blood of thousands, possibly millions, of people. People who were already dying out there. I witnessed some of it. If this was happening all over the world… no, there was no way in hell I could simply pretend not to have any kind of responsibility in this, even if I, too, was an unknowing victim in all of this. Because the truth of it was that I wasn't just a bystander. According to Homer, I was, like it or not, very actively involved in this whole thing. And I had been trained.

"And you could live with that?" I asked Ben.

"Look, I'm not a monster," he voiced my earlier thoughts. "I really am not. But from the moment they told me that you were my match, I put some time and energy into observing you." Even though it sounded creepy, under the circumstances, I decided to give him a chance. "I've… kind of followed—"

"Stalked?"

He sighed. "Followed you. Yes, it's semantics, but if you want to call it that, fine, I stalked you. And I really like you." He closed his eyes, rolled his shoulders. "Fuck, I love you, Lil. I fell in love with you the first month of getting to know you."

No, not creepy at all.

Red eyes flashed in front of my vision. A dark voice rang in my ears,hurry.

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