Page 26 of Desired By her Alien Prince

The living room in my parents' bunker was larger and better furnished than most houses I had seen. The size of the entire bunker, meant only for the three of us, shamed me once again. A hundred people could have lived comfortably here for years. A hundred people who would have been safe from the aliens. Instead, it housed my mom and dad. It was obscene.

"Thank you for bringing my daughter back." My father finally found his voice and looked at Azazel with disgust while also speaking in Sumerian.

"It was my pleasure. Your daughter is very special to me. I would do anything for her," Azazel explained.

"Alex informed us that the Daemons took you," Dad said. "Has this… creature defiled you?"

Blood rushed into my face. I wouldn't exactly call the things Azazel and I had done defiling, but if this was the wording he chose, I would have to respond. Thankfully, Azazel saved me from a sharp retort. "Your daughter has been treated honorably."

My father snorted, and my mom put a beseeching hand on his arm. "I just bet she was."

"We would like you to leave now." My mom stared at Azazel with cold eyes.

I bit my tongue to keep a sharp reply at bay. The way my parents were treating Azazel was inexcusable. Despite my rising temper, I managed to stay polite and extend Azazel's invitation. "Azazel has offered to take you aboard theAsphodelto keep you safe," I explained.

"Safe?" My father's eyebrow rose all the way to his receding hairline. "We're safe here."

"Hear her out, darling." My mom tried to placate my father's rising temper.

"Has this Daemon brainwashed you, Fay?" my dad accused.

"No Dad," I halted. This wasn't going well.

"Well, we're staying put, Fay. And so will you. As for this Daemon, he better be on his merry way," my father thundered.

Azazel stayed quiet as he looked at me, and I realized he was giving me a choice.

A choice I didn't even have to think about. As strange and ridiculous as it was, I would always choose Azazel. No matter that I barely knew him and despite him being part of an alien race that was responsible for so many atrocities on my planet that it made me sick just thinking about it.

Azazel and I had formed a strange bond. Even though it had happened in a matter of hours, it was one that sang in my blood and echoed in each beat of my heart. He felt like… home. His presence was as reassuring as if I had known him all my life.

That didn't mean it wouldn't be hard on me to leave my parents. I loved and I didn't want to lose them. Not like this, not ever. Even with all the things that I had discovered in the last twenty-four hours about them, I loved them.

But deep down I knew my choice would always be the same. Azazel and I belonged to each other.

"Where he goes, I go," I said in a determined voice.

"Ah!" My father rose agitatedly, ripping his hand from my mother's grip. "He has brainwashed her."

Suddenly, he pulled a gun from a hidden drawer and, without warning, unloaded several rounds into Azazel's chest.

My mother screamed, I screamed, the sounds of the shots were deafening, and my heart constricted as I turned to Azazel, ready to throw my body protectively in front of him. Instead, it was him who turned me so the next few rounds went into his back.

When the gun clicked empty, Azazel turned back around, unfazed, and steadily walked to my father, taking the gun from his trembling hand. He put it into his pocket before he admonished, "You could have hurt her."

I blinked my eyes in confusion and barely noticed my mom sobbing from between the couch and the coffee table with her hands pressed over her ears before I looked at my father's astounded face.

"I would not… have hurt her," Dad said.

Azazel's expression said otherwise.

I began to shake at the realization that my father would have sacrificed me if it had meant killing Azazel. I swallowed my tears down, and for some reason, even in my confused state or maybe because of it, to deflect from what had just happened, I remembered Alex's words and a question that had been burning inside my stomach spilled from my lips, "Who is Ben and where is he?" Even though the question had been spontaneous, I was proud that I had worded it in a way that didn't give away that I already knew he was my brother. I wanted to see what my parents would say.

My mother crawled out from her hiding spot. Her perfectly styled hair was in disarray, her makeup was smeared, and part of me scoffed at the idea that she had put on makeup this morning while she sat in the safety of her little bunker, supposedly worrying to death about me, while millions suffered.

But then again, I didn't remember ever seeing her without makeup.

"How do you know about Ben?" my father asked sharply, sidestepping Azazel and helping Mom to her feet.

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