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

ever been burdened with. How could we have let this happen? she thought, and then: there’s your answer. We let this happen.
    Jenna’s stomach soured with anxiety. “So…we’re the bad guys?”
    Leo swallowed, hard, as if he were fighting an urge to be sick. “I’m afraid so.”
    Why shouldn’t he be? said a small voice in her head. It sounds like Manifest Destiny 2.0. You are the real monster.
    “Your people are fixing it,” Leo said. “I’ll give them that. But they’re doing nothing to fix our image, and I’m afraid they won’t.”
    “They will,” Jenna said through gritted teeth. “They will if I have to make them.”
    Leo pressed a hand to her shoulder and squeezed it. “I was hoping you would say that.”
    Jenna looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”
    “There’s a small faction of humans and a large percentage of Yazulians who want to push to bring back the original treaty,” Leo said, and his eyes glinted with excitement. “We want to be equal in every way. We don’t object to humans expanding—just doing it this way. There’s plenty of space for both of us, and we can share it all.”
    “That didn’t work the first time,” Jenna said anxiously. “Why would it work this time?”
    “This time we have more voices and more visibility,” Leo answered. “We already share space with you on Luna. If humans and Yazulians push for this on peaceful ground, we can start building the right path. I know it.”
    Jenna was silent. She studied Leo’s face, moved by the passion in his words and the fierce determination in his eyes. Only days ago she’d hated him—and wouldn’t have objected to killing him, in fact—and now she was sitting with her leg pressed against his, even holding his hand again without even noticing. Leo was smiling without a trace of fear or apprehension—how could he be so confident? It reminded her of Victor, who was always trying to protect everyone around him by never showing his fear. But Leo didn’t think she needed protection; he didn’t seem to find her weak at all.
    Jenna nodded. “Okay. I’ll help.”

****
     
    Three months later, Luna looked like a different place. The war wasn’t over, but Yazulians were officially acknowledged as Earth’s partners in the insurgency against the remaining rebel forces. More than half of the forces were back at their home planets, and it was all thanks to Leo’s faction of determined Yazulians, and Jenna’s leadership of the humans. Now that so many barracks weren’t needed, the space was being transitioned into a joint city—the very first of its kind.
    Jenna herself had spoken at the meeting in favor of it being built, and she was astounded at how fast everything was moving. Gray Men were everywhere during the transition, but fights were uncommon after the first week, and the atmosphere relaxed. Jenna noticed some of the Gray Men seemed to glow softly through their clothing; when she asked Leo about it, he explained that Yazulian’s weren’t allowed to be Gray Men before, due to their status as war criminals.
    “What?” Jenna was dumbfounded, but she kept reminded herself that there was still much she didn’t know. Every day she learned something new; more Yazulian words, cuisine customs on their home planet, even variations of the diverse music they had throughout their cultures. She sampled desserts and stews, meat pies and rubbery plants that were bitter or sweet depending on how you cooked them.  Her favorite thing to learn had been Leo’s Second Name: Lilliya, a name than indicated his homeland stretched next to shimmering waters, a green land pressing against the sky to hold back the sun.
    Jenna had laughed, and when she told him the definition of Horizon, he laughed, too.
    The biggest thing she learned was how quickly she could fall in love, and how different it should be from what she’d felt before. It was painless and wild, but still deep and passionate and everything she’d ever wanted from