Forbidden Alien Warlord (SciFi Alien Romance) Read Free

the bruise and then back to his gaze, shakily piecing together what he was telling her. “Haven’t we only been here a few hours?”
    Leo laughed. “Horizon! We’ve been here for almost two days.”
    Icy fear flooded her veins, and her lungs seized up just as they were getting used to drawing in normal amounts of air. They locked us up for two days…over a fight? The last time she’d been in an altercation on Luna, she was thrown in a cell for about two hours and fined 200 coins for slapping a subordinate. It was a single day’s pay for her, and had been entirely worth it.
    “Why have we been in here so long? Are you saying it’s connected to your bruise?”
    “No, that’s why I’m curious about you. I expect they’re more curious about how you managed to fight off five rounds of electric charges from those Gray Men’s prods when a human would normally die after three charges from one prod—and you had two on you at the same time . ” Leo 17 smiled, and it was so full of excitement that it was as though someone had announced an early start to the war.
    Jenna’s mind was reeling, and she didn’t want to believe his words. There had to be another reason they were in there—but why had they thrown them in a top security cell? Her body was awfully achy, and the soreness matched up with being violently shocked into being comatose for two days. But why lock them up at all? Why not put her in a hospital?
    Her eyes locked on Leo 17’s, and he smiled.
    Anger returned to her body, fast and hot. “What did you tell them? Why am I not being given medical attention?”
    His smile faded a little. “You were given medical attention, Horizon. I made sure of that.”
    “Quit calling me that!”
    Leo 17’s face took on a look of pure confusion. “But…it’s your name.”
    “Well…yes, but it’s not my first name,” Jenna said, feeling flustered.
    Her words didn’t help the Yazulian. “It matters? I hear humans call each other by their second names all the time.” He frowned. “What would you call me?”
    “Leo 17,” Jenna said, and he burst into laughter. “What?”
    “Leo is my name,” he explained. “But 17 is not. I don’t speak to humans often, so I never get a chance to correct them on this. The number is something the humans ascribed to our naming system because they couldn’t translate our words into English. The second names we have are all references to our origins. Like country names. They’re simply indicators of our birthplaces, and descriptors of those places themselves. Humans did not understand this, and postulated that since all Yazulians in a given area had the same last name, they functioned the same as group markers. We got numbers instead of our names and the confusion has not been corrected in one hundred years of fighting, nor the hundred years of peace before that.”
    Jenna stared blankly at him, feeling anger and shame simultaneously in the face of her ignorance. “I’m sorry,” she said. “So I should just call you by your first name?” Leo nodded. “I didn’t know that.”
    He smiled. “There’s quite a lot you don’t know. I’m beginning to realize it’s not your fault.”
    Jenna bristled, feeling defensive even though he was being perfectly polite. A sharp buzz sounded through the room, and they both jumped as a flap in the door slid open, and two soft packages of food were pushed through, followed by two long bottles of water. Leo stood and hurried to retrieve the items, and Jenna realized then how very hungry she was.
    The Yazulian was already moving toward her bed, the package slit open and outstretched in his hand. “I’m going to set this next to you, is that okay?”
    Jenna started to scoff until she saw that there was a glimmer of real fear in his eyes. Whatever she’d done while she blacked out had been monstrous, and it filled her with shame; I’m even more broken than I thought.
    “Hey,” Leo said, his voiced panicked. “Uh…hey!” He knelt