My Alien Prince: Claimed by the Atrexu (SciFi BBW Alien Romance) (10 page)

The insane alien held the thin knife up to let Emily look at it. It glinted in the white light, showing an edge that looked very sharp. The alien surveyed her body from feet to head.

“Now, where to begin? Where is this monster the most different from a human? Where is its strangeness the most obvious? Ah, but of course.”

The depraved duke took a step to midway down the dissection table, along Emily's midriff. “Yes, here. The very center of the alien. Ah, see how it struggles!”

Emily used all her might to strain against the straps that bound her, but they were made from some exotic material that simply didn't budge at all. Her breath came rapidly and her face was wet with tears of fear. Her heartbeat was booming in her ears, very rapidly.

The insane duke adjusted his grip on the knife and placed the other hand on Emily's abdomen, using two cold fingers to stretch the skin slightly in preparation for the first incision. The edge of the knife hovered an inch above the skin, trembling slightly with the duke's hand.

“Let us now find out just how deep your monstrosity goes,” he creaked.

T
he prince flew the hovercar into a haphazard landing right outside the main entrance of Duke Hyp's secondary palace. There were no guards, and the whole place seemed deserted and dark.

The transport with the platoon of Imperial Guards landed beside the armored hovercar, and their lieutenant ran over to Prince Ar'Ric.

“Do you have any heavy weapons that can break down the doors and get us inside?” the prince inquired.

“We have explosives, sir. But using them will certainly alert the enemy to our presence.”

“That's the idea. We want to stop whatever is going on in there. Hyp must know that he has lost and that we're here to take him down. Blow up the door, and don't be stingy with the explosives.”

“Sir.” The lieutenant saluted and quickly organized his men to break into the huge palace. Three soldiers ran up to the metal door and fastened the explosives, then ran back and took cover.

The prince and Ev'Ax took cover inside their armored car. There was a giant blast as the door was blown in as if it were made of paper, and the Imperial Guards stormed in. The prince and Ev'Ax followed, both carrying a gun.

The rescue force was met with a hailstorm of laser fire as they entered the Grand Hall in the middle of the palace, but the trained Imperial Guards had little trouble dealing with the duke's private forces. The prince ran beside them, searching every room for Emily, whom he had now started to think of as his own woman.

But apart from the private guards, there was no one to be seen anywhere.

“I wonder if Ber'Ain may have made fools of us after all,” the prince said to Ev'Ax after they had searched through most of the palace. It was ancient and had a very complicated layout after centuries of additions and adjustments. But there was no sign of the duke or Emily.

“It's possible. But I find it interesting that there were guards here and that they opened fire on a whole battalion of Imperial Guards. Not what I would expect from a deserted palace. Does it have secret rooms, perhaps?”

“I suppose. These old palaces are practically labyrinths.”

“Yes... Don't most old palaces have cellars? For storage and dungeons and so on? Can't say I've seen one here.”

“Good point. Certainly this family would have had a dungeon, with their reputation from the old days. Let's find the cellar.”

T
here was a loud boom and the whole room shook. The demented duke was interrupted right before he was to perform the first incision.

“What was that, do you think, alien monster?” he said, very softly. “I wonder if your beloved Crown Prince thinks he can save you. But this cellar is very well hidden. He can pull the roof down over the rest of the palace, and we will still be able to continue this, our holy task. Never fear, alien. You shall help me become Emperor.”

The duke bent over her again, preparing to cut. Emily braced herself for being sliced. Then the alien straightened.

“In my haste, I haven't really considered if the recording will show all that goes on. It must be in focus, and it must be very clear for his Imperial Majesty to see every detail from any direction. Let me see...”

He put the scalpel down on a metallic tray and walked slowly around the room, looking at the lighting and scrutinizing Emily from several angles. Then he approached the table again.

“Well, I suppose it has to do. It shouldn't look too perfect, or it might look artificial. Where were we?”

He picked up the scalpel again and held it up to his eyes. “Do you think it's sharp enough? Perhaps your alien skin is tougher than human skin? We will have to test it, I suppose.”

The duke scanned along Emily's body, then seemed to focus on her chest.

“The alien is partially clothed,” he murmured. “In its otherworldly mind, it must wonder why that is. Will it understand that the Emperor's decency must be preserved and that being shown too much of its monstrous physiology might offend him? But its chest, ample though it appears, can probably be displayed to him.”

The duke placed the cold scalpel at Emily's shoulder on the inside of the bra strap, then sliced through the fabric easily. He then did the same to the other side and took a step back.

“Hmm, yes. It appears sharp enough. Let us remove the garment entirely.” He slowly cut the two side straps. Now the bra cups were not held in place, just laying loose on her breasts.

“Much better,” the demented alien said. “Shall we reveal the monster's feminine features? We shall.”

With a bony, shaking hand he lifted the cups off Emily's chest and dropped them to the floor, then stared at her bared breasts in fascination.

“Oh, my. Even aliens monsters can have an alluring quality, it seems. We shall have a great interest in revealing the inner structure of those features.”

He placed one icy hand on one breast and squeezed. Emily felt her skin crawl once more.

“Soft, yet firm,” the Duke mused. “Such an unusual size. Strangely attractive, in many ways. But we must not let ourselves get distracted. Certainly this is one of the alien's subtle weapons which it uses to divert our attention from our holy task.”

He let go and again picked up the scalpel. He looked up at the ceiling as if listening. “Very quiet now. Do you think your prince has given up? He was never the most persistent of men, was he? Quite unsuited for the Imperial throne. Whereas I...” His voice trailed off as he again bent down and again stretched Emily's skin with two fingers, preparing for the incision.

“H
ere it is, sir,” one of the Imperial Guards called down from the one level up. “The entrance to the basement.”

The cellar entrance was not actually hidden; it was just a result of the strange design of the palace. One had to climb the stairs
up
one level in order to find a trapdoor with a staircase that went down, much further down than just down to the ground floor.

The prince ran up to the entrance and started the descent, heading the soldiers. “Kill the duke if necessary,” he ordered. “But the woman must come to no harm!”

The spiraling staircase was very long and went deep underground. The prince could see no light until he reached the bottom, where there was a dim sheen at the end of a long corridor. He ran as fast as he could, aware that there might be booby traps along the corridor, but not caring much. The only thing in his mind was to save his beloved. Already the idea of living without her, now that he had finally found her was too painful for him to even contemplate.

The light came from a door at the end of the corridor, an ancient door that didn't fit the frame properly. The prince crashed through it, his gun held out in front of him, ready to fire.

T
he crash of the door breaking into splinters made the duke turn around abruptly. The prince was in the room, immediately pointing his gun at his demented cousin.

“Step away from her,” the prince ordered in a voice that dripped with danger. “Or I will kill you where you stand.”

“The former Heir Apparent wants to kill me,” the Duke murmured. “We can't have that. Not at this critical time. Why, it would be regicide. Practically.” He held his arm up over Emily's chest, clutching the scalpel with the blade down.

“This knife is very sharp, cousin. If I die here, my hand will fall, and the blade will penetrate the alien's heart, killing it. It's physiology is not
that
different from ours.”

The prince didn't reply, just took aim with the laser gun and fired. The invisible beam went right through the duke's wrist, severing the hand from the arm. The duke screamed, a piercing wail of pain.

But it was not the arm that held the scalpel that had been sliced off. The Prince knew that the involuntary reflexes of the body would force the Duke to clutch his injured arm with the other hand, letting the knife fall harmlessly to the floor.

The blood sprayed out from the wrist where the hand had been, and the duke screamed in pain and anger. In five quick steps, the prince had reached his maniac cousin and knocked him out with a hard jab to the chin.

Then he focused his attention on Emily, scanning her body before he gently took the gag out of her mouth. She breathed in deeply through a throat that felt raw.

“Are you unharmed, my love?” Ar'Ric said, cutting the straps that held her down.

“I think so,” Emily said in a hoarse voice as the prince took her hand and helped her get off the table. “You got here just in time. He wanted to... to cut me up.” She stood unsteadily on her feet and let Ar'Ric support her.

“He's insane. But that doesn't excuse his actions. Where are your clothes?”

She pointed to a corner of the room. “That's my overalls, but it's ruined now. He cut it off me.”

Ar'Ric took his light uniform jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders. It reached almost to her knees.

“At least I have this for you,” the Prince said and reverently handed over her plastic spray bottle of blue cleaning liquid. “A warrior always dislikes being without a weapon.”

“Ah... Okay. Umm... thanks.” She took the spray bottle from his hand.

Emily just wanted to leave this horrendous place. “Shall we just get going?”

“Of course. I'll just see if your tactical utility belt might still be intact.” The prince walked over to the corner and searched through the bundle of drab fabric that had been Emily's work attire.

Then Emily saw movement from the corner of her eye. She yelped as the now mostly recovered duke pounced on her from a curled-up position on the floor and tried to lock his one intact hand around her neck.

“Die, alien monster,” he hissed, and his white, claw-like hand clenched around her throat with surprising strength. There was only one thing to do. Emily pointed the spray bottle right at his face and squeezed the trigger as hard as she could, spraying the lemon-scented all-purpose cleaning liquid into his eyes. The alien duke screamed again and let go of her neck, stumbling backward and trying to rub the stinging liquid out of his eyes with his one functioning hand. Emily gave him a hard kick and he fell to the floor in a whimpering heap. Immediately the prince was upon him and dragged him towards the door, where Ev'Ax and more soldiers were coming through. The whole thing had only taken a few seconds.

Prince Ar'Ric left the duke to Ev'Ax and the Imperial Guards and walked Emily out of the palace and inside his armored hover car.

“Now I will take you to my own residence,” he said.

“Is that a palace, too?” Emily asked. “Because I heard that you're a Crown Prince, next in line to become king and emperor. Or was that something the insane guy back there dreamed up?”

The prince started the engine. “I was not going to reveal that to you just yet. But now that you ask, I have no choice. It is true that I am a royal prince and the Heir Apparent. The Emperor is my father.”

“I see. You've called me 'my love' twice now, I notice. Not something an heir apparent does lightly, I'm guessing.”

Ar'Ric pulled on the controls, and the hover car was airborne. “What I mean by that is that I need a wife, a princess, a mother to my heirs. That's why I came to Earth in the first place. By some strange coincidence, you appeared aboard my ship. And I find you immensely attractive.”

“Right,” Emily said, looking out into the alien night. She enjoyed being alone with the prince, but she was still trembling with adrenaline from her encounter with the duke. “Well, the feeling is mutual.”

“Is it? You surprise me. But it's a pleasant surprise. Would you then consider marrying me if I were to propose to you?”

Emily hesitated. She wanted nothing more. But she was not who he thought. “Ar'Ric, I think you have the wrong idea about me. I'm not really a warrior. Like, not at all. I'm a cleaner. I clean toilets.”

The prince glanced over at her and lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “I have to confess that I feel some relief. I had my doubts about marrying a warrior. But a cleaner, nobly fighting uncleanliness and entropy wherever it may be found –
that
is a profession worthy of a princess!”

Emily frowned. “You don't mind that I'm not a warrior?”

“Oh, you plainly are. It might not be easy for you to see yourself, but you did fight valiantly and attack me with your spray, and you did fend off Duke Hyp's final attack on you. You may have the profession of a cleaner, but you also have the heart of a warrior.”

“Uh-huh.” She was not sure about that.“So was that Duke completely insane? Or did he have a point about what would happen if he showed the Emperor that I'm alien?”

“He did
not
have a point,” the Prince scoffed. “It was a crazy fantasy of his. No, my father the Emperor is mainly concerned about the future of the Empire. He has nothing against aliens as such, and he has sometimes said that he wants aliens to be closer associated with the government. And I think that my father will welcome you with open arms. That's his way. And it might be a way to tie our two civilizations together. No need for one to
discover
the other, just a mutual friendship that will be beneficial to both. Whatever I think about the space station I was at, I was certainly impressed by its cleanliness. I'm not worried about what anyone else will think. If I want to marry you, I will marry you.”