Page 35 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

He shook his head, his expression turned solemn. "No, I mean it. It never beat before I met you."

Confused, I looked at him. "You never had a heartbeat?"

He shook his head. "Never. I also never bled with red blood, mine was black… until my heart woke the moment I saw you walking into the temple."

"Oh, Seth." My palms stilled, resting on the hard plates of his pecs. "What does this all mean?"

"It means you are my chosen. My soulmate. The only person in the entire universe my heart belongs to."

At his words, my heart's rhythm picked up a notch and my breath stilled for a few moments. "I feel as if…" I wasn't sure how to put my thoughts into words without them sounding ridiculous.

A chime from the door saved me from making a fool of myself. Seth's face darkened. "Enter."

One of guards, thankfully without a gargoyle, entered. "I beg your forgiveness, my prince, but the King of Darkness has requested for his sons and their maidens to join him and the queen for breakfast."

"Requested?" Seth raised an eyebrow.

The guard visibly shrunk. "I'm afraid it's an order, my prince."

"Well, if that is the case, let's not let the old tyrant wait. Tell him we'll be there shortly."

"Yes, my prince." The guard bowed and retreated, closing the door behind him.

Seth's face was still dark. "I'm afraid we'll have to postpone our littletête-à-tête, my little karamia."

His usage of the phrasetête-à-têtethrew me off, but not enough to not pick up on, "Karamia?"

His dimples flashed. "Heart of my soul."

He leaned forward to give me a quick kiss, and when his arm retreated from my back, I collapsed to the bed, staring at him wide eyed. He laughed, "Don't look at me like that, or I'll have to make my father wait." His face darkened again. "And nobody makes the King of Darkness wait."

Just as quickly as his dark mood enveloped him, it left, and he looked at me with utmost sincerity. "One day, I swear to you, karamia, we will be free of him."

All I could do was sit there and stare at him, there was so much meaning in his sentence and expression that a cold shiver ran down my spine. Was he truly going to challenge the King of Darkness? And what if he lost?

He smiled and came back to me, pulling me into his arms. "Don't look so worried, Lilith. All will be good. I swear it to you."

I took a deep breath in. The King of Darkness had summoned us, and I focused on that only, because along with all the millions of questions living in my brain, Seth's promise only added more confusion.

"We better get ready," I said in a wavering voice.

"Don't be afraid of him," Seth warned. "He smells fear."

I would have loved to put on a brave face and sayI'm not, but the truth was the King of Darkness terrified me to no end; would have done so even if he had not cut me with his knife, giving me the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced.

My eyes fell to my ruined dress. "What am I to wear?"

Seth let go of me and pressed the palm of his hand against the carved out image of a frightening gargoyle. To my surprise, the wall parted, opening into a large walk-in closet.

Curiously, I got up from the bed draped in the sheet and walked past Seth into the closet.

"Yours," Seth said.

I was used to expensive dresses, baubles, shoes, and jewelry, but what I saw in that closet took even my breath away.

To my left hung an assortment of black dresses with intricately stitched gold patterns on the sleeves and hems.

The other wall was divided. Part of it was filled with black and gold sandals, the other with what had to be millions of dollars' worth of gold and gemstones.

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