Forbidden Alien Warlord (SciFi Alien Romance) Read Free Page A

by her bedside and set the food and water beside her, peering up into her face with a look of alarm. She started to ask what the hell he was doing before she felt the tears rolling down her cheeks.
    Jenna raised her hands to brush them away and cried out as pain tore through her again. “Dammit!” she yelled, slumping back against the wall as the sensation slowly receded. Maybe she could just lay there until she died; that seemed like a plausible solution.
    Leo cleared his throat, and she looked down to find him holding his golden brown hands up above hers.
    “I think I can help you,” he said. “Please. Let me help.”
    “No!” Jenna said, and he dropped his hands immediately but didn’t back away.
    “Why not?” he asked patiently.
    Because you’re a freak, she wanted to say, but she knew it was her pain and anger talking; mostly, anyway. Jenna was starting to think she had some toxic, deeply ingrained beliefs that helped her transform over five years from a bright, eager soldier to a jaded, lonely member of the warrior elite. She thought Leo was a freak—but why? Because their species had been fighting for as long as she’d been alive, and their ancestors had been fighting for even longer? If there was anything Jenna was good at, it was recognizing rock bottom, and she knew that this time, rock bottom was holding on to a red-hot hatred that was clearly burning her up from the inside.
    Leo seemed to sense the shift in her attitude. He raised his hands again. “Can I please help you to feel better?”
    Jenna started to nod, but it hurt too much. She spoke instead: “Please.”
    Leo lowered his hands over hers and closed his eyes. Astoundingly, the soft glow in his skin brightened as heat started to roll from his skin in gentle waves, sliding over and around her body as though it were knitting a healing cocoon just for her. After a moment, she realized it might not be a bad analogy; the heat curled tighter around her and intensified, and her pain got lighter and less intense, until it finally bled away entirely. When he opened his eyes, Leo smiled, and Jenna saw that the bruise around his mouth was gone.
    “How do you feel?” he asked softly, and there was a touch of anxiety in his voice.
    “Better,” Jenna said, and she meant it. She shrugged her shoulders and moved her head from side to side. There was a light ache, but nothing she couldn’t manage. “Thank you…so much.” Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and she cursed her aversion to this kind of moment.
    Leo smiled. “No problem. It gave me a little kick, too.”
    “Your bruise is gone,” Jenna pointed out.
    “Cool.” Leo paused. “So, not that I’m not enjoying this, but could you let go? I kind of wanted to drink some water.”
    Jenna looked down and saw that she’s turned her hands over and laced her fingers through his while he’d healed her. She snatched her hands back, mortified, but Leo laughed heartily and patted her leg.
    “It’s ok. I’m flattered, really.”
    “It’s not a side effect of the healing?” Jenna asked, avoiding his eyes. “I thought I heard about an aphrodisiac affect to your healing powers.”                
    “Another misconception,” Leo said, sounding tired. “And a kind of offensive one, at that, started by some women who couldn’t believe they were attracted to Yazulian trash.”
    Jenna flinched, and the smile on Leo’s face grew sad.
    “I know that’s what you call us.”
    “I’m sorry,” Jenna said, feeling ashamed. “I don’t know why I’m such an asshole.”
    Leo seemed to find that funny. “I don’t think you’re an asshole. Not anymore, anyway.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well…” Leo hesitated. “I used to believe stories from when I was a child about humans. They experimented on us for fun, for example, and caught bad Yazulian children and took them to science labs.”
    “No!” Jenna gasped. “They told you that?”
    “Yes,” Leo said simply. “I