Page 13 of Nanny for the Alien Prince (Alien Recruitment Agency #4)

“Elijax is safe. I repeat, Elijax is safe. And Amelia told me to inform you… he’s healthy and well.”

I let go of the breath I’d been holding and sighed with relief.

Not a moment too soon.

The Ordres negotiators had drawn up our agreement, made amendments, and had the document in front of me now.

I’d been ‘reading’ the last page for the past thirty minutes.

I’d found so many loopholes and turns of phrase that could turn the deal against me that I had lost count.

It was the way the Ordres always did business — with bad faith built in.

They watched me, faces impassive.

They knew they were under attack, that a squad of my soldiers had infiltrated their facility and taken away their best chance of manipulating me… but they didn’t mention it.

Why would they ?

The whole point of kidnapping Elijax was to get me in here.

In me, they had a much better piece to manipulate the Ulsen empire with.

My soldiers could have Elijax… so long as I remained right where I was.

I looked up from the document and the Chief Ulsen negotiator spread his limbs. “Well?” he said. “Are you going to sign?”

I smiled at him. “No. I don’t think I will.”

I didn’t know if my father or the advisers had come to a decision yet about whether or not they would send the military to defend me, but my time had run out.

The creatures’ black eyes were incapable of blinking as they had no eyelids, but I still thought I caught a flicker of surprise in their otherwise blank features.

“May I ask why not?” the Chief Negotiator asked.

“Because I’m not interested in making a deal with you. I never have been. You know my intentions. I came here to distract you enough for my team to rescue the boy.”

The negotiator’s mandibles twitched. “A stupid and reckless move. The boy means nothing.”

“Nothing to you, maybe. But he means the world to me.”

I wasn’t surprised that the words were true. I’d grown close to Elijax and would not allow any harm to come to him… even if it cost my own life to prevent it.

“Then you are an even greater fool than we believe,” the Chief Negotiator said, turning and nodding toward an assistant, who stepped out and brought a team of armed Ordres into the room. “You have surrendered your most valuable piece in exchange for nothing. Your Emperor will sign any deal we put in front of him to get you back. And it will not be so beneficial as the one in front of you now. ”

The soldiers hoisted me up from my chair.

“You have not honored any deal we’ve signed with you,” I said. “This one is no different.”

“Take him to the cells,” the Chief Negotiator said. “And make his stay… uncomfortable.”

The soldiers jabbed me in the back with their plasma rifles toward the door.

“Uh, Chief Negotiator?” an assistant said. “You’ll want to see this.”

A holo-projector was placed in the middle of the negotiation table and showed an Ulsen frigate sliding into view, so massive it blocked out the sun.

“It’s the Ulsen,” the assistant said. “They’ve come for him.”

They all turned to me, and for the first time in my life, I thought I saw something in their dull hard-brown armor-plated faces that I wasn’t sure really existed:

Fear.

Fear that the empire had finally stood up for itself, that the Ordres had stepped too far and taken too many liberties.

And if they weren’t careful, we would be at war.

“The slumbering giant is awake…” I said with a smile on my lips. Then I met the Chief Negotiator’s many eyes. “Your move.”

The Chief Negotiator’s mandibles twitched.

No doubt he wanted me beaten and taken to the cells for me to rot, to return me to my father one piece at a time… but those days had passed.

There was a new order now.

And it was not one the Ordres would much like.

I later learned the Emperor had sent war frigates to every Ordres colony on the outer rim.

A threat, a warning.

If any harm should come to me, we would take their colonies from them. Even the Ordres could understand that.

I flew my own shuttle back to P’tora and got an armed escort the moment I re-entered Ulsen space.

“Nice to have you back, Your Majesty,” the intercom buzzed.

“Nice to be back,” I replied.

I had forced the Emperor’s hand.

The people were awake to the threat on our doorstep and they had made their ill feelings known.

Have the heir returned or face their wrath.

And if anything was bad for business, it was an angry populace that refused to buy your products or follow law and order.

The uprising might still happen but it wouldn’t happen right now.

Not today.

I took the shuttle down low over the forest canopy, my stomach sizzling with excitement at laying eyes on Amelia and Elijax again.

I couldn’t travel fast enough, but I was weary and didn’t want to have an accident now of all moments.

Not when I had so much to look forward to, a future that made my lips smile and my nose tingle with emotion.

I loved them both and could never face seeing either of them in danger or threatened ever again.

“You have been cleared for landing,” the intercom buzzed again.

As if you could stop me.

I sat the shuttle down as close to the palace as I could, crushing some of the garden’s perfectly-manicured lawn, and powered down.

I was bone tired as I waited for the hatch to lower.

It seemed to take forever.

And when it did, it was like drawing the curtain back on an exciting new production, as first the feet, then the legs, then the bodies, and finally the smiling faces of Amelia and Elijax swept into view.

Before the hatch door even locked into place, Elijax and Amelia could bear it no longer and barreled into the tiny shuttle and threw themselves at me.

I caught them in my arms.

I couldn’t prevent the tears from rolling down my cheeks, and I didn’t want to.

I didn’t care who saw them.

I felt stronger now than I had ever felt my entire life.

And it was because of these two strange creatures.

Amelia kissed me, her lips so soft they felt like feathers, and tasted like tears.

“You’re late!” she said.

I just beamed at her, and Elijax, clutching them close to me.

I kissed Elijax on the top of the head, who didn’t seem surprised when I did it.

“Let’s go home,” Amelia said.

“Lead the way.”

With Elijax cupped in one arm and Amelia firmly in the other, my hand sneaking down to grab a handful of that fine, firm human ass, I breathed in a lungful of my new life.

It had never tasted sweeter.

I hope you enjoyed NANNY FOR THE ALIEN PRINCE. If you did, you’ll love the next book in the series: MAID FOR THE ALIEN PRINCE.

After I beg Prince Rayaw to let me pay my father’s debts, he makes me an offer I never imagined: satisfy his Steyatt during his species’ fabled mating week and all my debts are wiped clean.

But when our mating becomes more than either of us bargained for, a new debt is owed… and this is one even he can’t repay…