Read Online Aedian: Alien Warrior: A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Paranormal Romance by Ashley West - Free Book Online Page A

out of there. Why would I have talked to him about it? Why are you taking his side?”
    “I’m not!” her mother insisted. “I’m only saying that there’s something to be said for...making the best of a bad situation. And maybe you shouldn’t have hit him?” Both Roxy and her father stared at her, and she huffed, folding her arms. “What?”
    “What should she have done then?” her father asked. “Hitting him was definitely the best course of action in that situation, I think. If he doesn’t respect her enough to keep his hands to himself, then she’s going to have to show him there’s consequences.”
    “Alan,” her mother said. “Don’t encourage her.”
    “What do you mean, don’t encourage her? You don’t want her to stick up for herself?”
    “Of course I do, but it’s not like this is some man off the street. It’s not like he’s human. He could actually hurt her, and there’s nothing we can do about it. There’s nothing anyone can do about them and we have to work with them and make the best of it.”
    “So I just let him have his way with me whenever he wants?” Roxanne said. “That’s the solution here? Sacrifice my future and my self-respect so they don’t get pissed off and try to kill us all. Awesome. I’m so thrilled for my future.”
    And with that she stalked off, going into the room that had been hers when she lived there and slamming the door.
     
    The best of a bad situation. What was she even supposed to say to that? Of course it was a bad situation. She didn’t want any of it, but there was no way out. This was bigger than either of them, and they were both pawns in the bigger game. But that didn’t mean that she had to be the one who gave up everything. Her dignity and self-respect still mattered, and she wasn’t just going to put up with Aedian treating her like she was some kind of toy just because he was bigger than her and his people could kill them all.
    ...Okay, so when she thought about it like that, she could kind of see where her mother was coming from, but still.
    Honestly, the thing that made her the maddest about this whole situation was the fact that she’d thought they were making progress. Building their relationship, such as it was, off of sex wasn’t the best idea, but it was better than the constant bickering.
    Roxy knew that he saw her as an equal in the bedroom, and having him try to use that against her, or just use her for that, really, made her feel like there was no way to win.
    And she hated that feeling.
    Her parents didn’t bring it up again, and Roxy spent six days at her parent’s house, wondering if she could just stay there forever. She assumed that at some point they were going to come and make her go back to the compound to be with her ‘fiancé’, but until then, she had no intentions of leaving.
    The more she thought about having to go back there and possibly apologize to Aedian for lashing out at his bad behavior, the angrier she got, and so she put the whole thing out of her mind and focused on other things.
    She had lunches with Sam, she continued her hunt for the perfect job, and she made dinners with her father, laughing at his stories and just enjoying being with her family. She didn’t feel like an outcast, and she didn’t feel like a weakling, and gradually some of her anger faded.
    One of those distance making things seem like less of a big deal kind of things, probably.
    Whatever the reason, she was more relaxed, and therefore completely unprepared when there was a knock at the front door one morning.
    Her parents were both at work, and she assumed it was the mailman or someone delivering something, so she didn’t think twice about going to the door to answer it. Of course, when she saw Aedian standing there, her heart kicked into overdrive and she thought that maybe she should have been more worried about them coming to get her.
    “What are you doing here?” she demanded, anger flaring up all over again.
    “I