Page 82 of Maid for the Alien Prince

“Maybe,” I said through panting breaths. “But at least there is a line they do not cross.”

“What line?”

“Even royals don’t kidnap the Muri of another.”

Taken aback, Ges peered between me and Camila. “Muri?”

I nodded. It was the greatest sin in the Ulsen world to threaten the fated mate of another.

Ges shut his eyes and shook his head. “I had no idea… I didn’t know…”

“You never know. You gave me back my heritage, my history, but it means nothing when you come between me and my fated mate.”

I paused on the way out of the tiny room.

“The guards will come for you,” I said. “If you have any honor remaining, you will not fight or harm them.”

“I won’t,” he said, and he cocked his lips into a smile that reminded me of the first time we met all those months ago. “But we did have a good time… at the beginning. Didn’t we?”

“Yes,” I said. “We were good friends then.”

“I apologize for failing you. But I am glad I got to see you find your fated mate. At least poverty didn’t make both of us rotten to the core.”

I shrugged. “I had my father. And now, I have my fated mate.”

Ges nodded. “It’s good to have someone. Go. Before the ceiling collapses.”

I hesitated only a moment before stepping back into the welcoming arms of the deep darkness. For all his faults, Ges had been my friend once, and I wouldn’t have been where I was without him. But he was no longer my friend… if he ever truly had been.

As I stepped deeper and deeper into the darkness, I heard a thumping noise behind me. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said it was the sound of someone banging at the walls with his fist.

When the ceiling finally gave way and crushed Ges beneath it, he didn’t bellow or shout. He had dignity in death, if not in life. I wished the good part of him well, but I would not mourn him.

I clutched Camila close and took her into the light. It was where we belonged.

“I love you, my Muri,” I said.

“I love you too, my Muri,” she replied.

“I swear to never leave your side ever again.”

She reached up and placed her hand on my cheek. “And I promise to always let you.”

We kissed, and I savored her unlike ever before. I carried her into the light, and the roaring and applause of the palace staff braced us on the other side. It was the sound of love that reverberated in my ears and shook me to my soul.

Camila was my Muri. And forever would be.

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