The Alien Prince’s Omega by Lorelei M. Hart
Kagin
I removedHanson from Umon’s grip and pulled the unwelcome visitor inside, while putting an arm around my rupling. “Do not worry. This is a problem for me to solve.”
Instead of Hanson’s cheeks being the glorious pink they became when he pictured us lying together, they were white. No color at all. His eyes held fear, and his hands trembled. We walked in and I closed the door before standing between my rupling and Umon. Though the Thulnaran being here was not part of my plan, I was First Father’s son, and a prince, heir to the kingdom. Umon would listen to reason.
But he had traveled across the universe to find me. He was determined like the dog with a bone I had witnessed in the garden next door to Hanson’s.
“Sit, Hanson.” Umon opened his mouth to speak, and I shook my head. “You will talk when I give you permission.” I snapped at him and turned to my rupling. “What you are about to see may surprise you, but I assure you there is nothing to worry about.”
“Well, if I wasn’t scared before, I am now. Thanks, Kagin.” Once again, his words did not match his lips, which were set in a tight line, and his hunched shoulders.
“That!” Umon scoffed. “That is your chosen rupling. That weak, puny creature with the garbled language.”
“What’s he saying?” Hanson demanded.
“I must hold the Earthling’s hand to understand his words,” Umon spat out.
This was not going as I expected. Umon was not showing me respect, and Hanson was being the feisty human I knew him to be. “Remove your glamour, Umon,” I said over my shoulder.
“In front of the human?”
“Do it. As your prince, I command you.” He glanced at Hanson, who glared at him. My rupling was not weak, but the opposite. Umon and I reached for the pulse points behind our ears and turned off the glamour. Hanson let out a deep shuddering breath as his eyes were glued on me.
Not wanting to hide from Hanson, I removed my shirt. No longer with just a hint of color, my body was a deep blue. But I was facing my rupling and from the front, I was humanoid. He needed to see the real me. I had hoped this would happen on Thulnara when I presented him to my parents.
“Wait until he sees the back,” Umon snarled.
“Do not move,” I commanded him as I swiveled around and allowed Hanson to gaze on my body. The back of me was covered in scales, interspersed with tiny spikes. And the color on each Thulnaran was a unique pattern of green and blue streaks.
Umon sneered at me. “He cannot talk. He is so repulsed by your ugliness.”
A Thulnaran would never speak to me in that manner at home. But my thoughts were all of Hanson. Afraid to face him, I studied a small tear in the couch and a container of dead plants. Flowers.
A hand, a human hand, with no power to boil or freeze, glided over my scales. “You’re beautiful, Kagin,” he choked out, and I swung around and held both his hands.
“As are you.”
“Probably should have removed the pants.” It was only then I discovered my jeans were torn, my Thulnaran form being larger than my human one.
“We are wasting time,” Umon said.
Time to be the leader I was born to be. “Enough,” I yelled, and the container with the flowers jiggled. He bowed his head and brought both hands to his right shoulder as I examined the shredded human clothing clinging to his body. “You are not from First Father’s court, but I have seen you before.”
“I am a trader, Your Highness. I travel the galaxies buying and selling goods.” His tone had softened, for which I was pleased.
But I hadn’t counted on my rulping interrupting.
“Come here,” Hanson beckoned Umon.
“Go,” I told the trader as he looked at me, confusion in his eyes.
Hanson gripped his fingers, and for the first time, Umon looked uncomfortable. “Go ahead,” my rupling said as he waved his other hand. “It’s all good.”
Except it wasn’t.
“Your First Father made a gracious offer.” I touched my clasped hands to my right shoulder. “But the king did not accept. That should have ended the matter and helped you save face. But now you have stained your family’s reputation.”
“And yet I was right to follow you. This foolhardy venture to Earth has been nothing but a voyage to lie with as many humans as possible before you are mated.”
“Kneel,” I yelled at Umon, the anger which I had kept in check now bubbling out of me. Hanson’s face betrayed little emotion, though his free hand fiddled with his hair.
“Permission to speak, Your Highness,” Umon whispered, his knees planted on the floor.
“You may.”
“You are the heir of your First Father, King of Thulnara, but if this… this human is your destiny, why have you not marked him? If he is your rupling as you say, you would have claimed him the moment you met him.”
I wanted to.
Umon took a breath. “You have used your privilege to escape your true destiny—me—and come to Earth.” Hanson reached out and gripped my hand, and I squeezed it. “Therefore, I have no choice but to report you to the king.”
“So be it.”