Assistant for the Alien Prince by Tammy Walsh

Zai

The PR departmentwas a hive of activity after what happened in the Evading Ev’vat club.

No one expected what’d happened.

Least of all me.

I recognized the stranger immediately, the way you recognized someone’s face even though you couldn’t put a name to it.

It was only after her outburst of me being the father of her child that it struck me who she was.

The females I’d been with when I’d been the bad boy prince from days passed had melted into a single figure, little more than a shadow from a time in my life that felt like a dream.

Everything changed after I took off and left Cev behind.

I never thought about those females again and assumed they’d never thought about me again either.

Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

How could anyone forget the father of their child, even if it was the result of a single drunken night of lovemaking?

Still, it did strike me as odd, because even when I was at my most drunk and indecent, I’d never taken any unnecessary risks.

I’d always been careful.

I must have slipped up at some point, must have made a poor decision for this to have happened.

Now I sat in the palace’s main drawing room, the PR department rushing to somehow wind back the hands of time, to somehow put a positive spin on the event.

But there was no way to undo what’d taken place.

There was no way to change the past.

Someone sat in the chair beside me and took my hands in her own.

“It’ll be all right,” she said softly.

It took a moment for the calm tone to register, a calmness that I’d never heard in Jessica’s voice before.

She smiled reassuringly and gently rubbed the back of my hand.

I gently pulled my hand from hers and continued staring at the floor.

I wasn’t in the mood to be comforted.

I didn’t deserve it.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Jessica said confidently.

“There is no getting to the bottom of this. It’s over. If I’m the father of her child, I’ll have no choice but to marry her. She will become the queen and her child will become the next heir to the throne. Her child. My child.”

My voice sounded so thin I could barely believe it was me that’d spoken.

“What about the Pairing Ceremony?” Jessica said.

“We’ll cancel it. No need to string the tribe leaders or their daughters along any longer than necessary. Turns out they were right. I’m not responsible enough to be the king. I never was. I was a boy playing an adult’s game. I never should have come back here. I should have stayed away.”

Jessica leaned forward and spoke softly:

“Don’t give up hope. Not yet.”

The powerful aura of her perfume wafted over me and filled my nostrils.

It was strong, powerful, and reminded me of the day we danced in the Temple of Onsheggas.

The heady days when the magic seemed unending.

Jessica had looked gorgeous with the shimmering light on her, casting floating bubbles through the temple’s glasslike surface, like fireflies dancing about her face.

The touch of her skin had made me burn to hug her close, feeling as intense as naked coals on an open fire.

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Sublime.

But now she would return to her planet and I would never see her again.

It made me feel sad to think our time together had come to such an abrupt end when I sensed there was something else growing between us.

What made it even worse was the knowledge I had been the one to force her to leave through my own idiocy.

How could I have been such a fool?

“You’ll be paid in full for your service,” I said, my tone dead. “You shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes.”

I expected her to look relieved that she would still get the money, but instead, she seemed unsure.

“This isn’t over yet,” she said. “You can still be king.”

“The people won’t accept an irresponsible leader. Nor should they. When we make mistakes, we must pay for them.”

“But you know…” Jessica said, and she checked over her shoulders to ensure no one could overhear her. “There’s a chance the child isn’t even really yours.”

I blinked at that.

Not really mine?

How could that be?

“Why would she lie about such a thing?” I said.

Jessica didn’t meet my eyes, looked to one side, and rubbed at the back of her arms as if she were suddenly very cold.

“I hate to admit it but my sister… She’s… Well, let’s just say she’s been in love with celebrities for as long as I can remember.”

Huh?

“So?” I said. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“My sister would do anything to be with a celebrity. Almost anything, anyway. Even she has standards. But there are others that don’t. They’re unscrupulous and would do things she wouldn’t even dream of if it meant money, fame, and power. And there are few more powerful than the king.”

It was a revelation to me, although it really shouldn’t have been.

I was well aware of the effect the crown could have on some people.

It seemed to rob them of their good common sense.

I was embarrassed to admit it, but I had taken advantage of that weakness in the past.

The women I courted desired me, but it was the hint of the crown that reeled them in.

They might not have been quite so willing to open up to me if it wasn’t for who I was.

But could someone be so heartless as to claim their child belonged to an Ev’vat who wasn’t really his?

I leaned back in my chair and thought the question over.

I had always been careful when I partied among the common people, had always taken precautions…

Maybe this stranger had slept with someone else other than me at about the same time we’d been together.

Maybe the child wasn’t mine after all.

I felt a kernel of hope ignite in my chest.

I didn’t want to have to confront this problem right away but there was no other recourse.

Whether I turned out to be the child’s father or not, I would want to know the truth.

“What do you suggest we do?” I said.

“Offer the mother a DNA test,” Jessica said. “If she refuses, she must be hiding something. If she accepts… well, then at least you’ll know the truth.”

I nodded and although it made me feel sick to my stomach, I had to admit it made sense.

“Do it,” I said.

Within ten minutes, the offer was made to the female and a statement was put out to press.

By now, the female would have her own PR team around her and it would benefit them if they replied quickly.

But they didn’t respond quickly.

One hour bled into two, which swept into three.

“What’s taking them so damn long?” I growled. “My reputation is on the line here!”

“It might not seem like good news,” Jessica said, “but the longer they take to respond, the harder the decision must be for the girl to make. If she’s telling the truth, she would have accepted your offer right away. If she’s lying… well, she’ll need to come up with a good excuse.”

I ceased pacing the front room, my hands tucked behind my back, and turned one way and then the other.

I felt like a lok-gin trapped in a cage.

I was suffocating.

I needed to get out of there.

“I’m going outside,” I said.

“You can’t,” Jessica said.

“You just watch me.”

Jessica zipped up onto her feet and blocked the exit.

Her swiftness surprised me.

“Out of my way!” I snapped.

“The press are out there!”

I moved to rush around her but Jessica was there once again, refusing to let me pass.

“If they’re anything like our paparazzi back on Earth, they won’t let a little thing like your personal private space get in the way of a good story.”

I ground my teeth and wanted to bolt past her but she was too quick for me to do it.

I wasn’t thinking clearly.

I wasn’t in my right state of mine.

“Fine,” I growled. “Have it your way.”

She let out a deep breath and raised her hands like she was attempting to calm a raging bull.

“I think we need to take a breather here…”

She motioned back toward the sofas, giving me the opportunity I needed.

I rushed past her and out the door.

“Where are you going?” she called after me.

“Somewhere!” I yelled back.

“Where?”

“Somewhere not here!”