Page 1 of Forbidden Desires

Chapter One

Zylar crouched behind several rocks under an overhang. He was being hunted. What was his sin? He helped a few humans who didn’t have access or the funds; they called it insurance, to see a doctor. They were dying, so he healed them. How was it that humans were so far behind they charged each other to extend lifelines and barely knew what they were doing to heal a cut? He’d asked himself that question many times in the passing dirals, days, he reminded himself.

His Manan’s sisso, sister according to the human, had a male child. They called Rakha his cousin.A bullet hit the overhang, making him move back. They didn’t know where he was and none of them understood bullets could no longer kill him. That didn’t stop them from hunting him like he was a wild beast.

One of them had suggested cutting off his head and mounting it onto the wall of their pitiful domicile. As if he was going to allow that to happen. It was time to retreat to the ship, but not before he helped the dying female who was trying to birth another female.

He stepped backward, intending to take the long way to the female’s house, when a loose rock tumbled, giving away his position. He stopped and waited. This planet, Earth as it was called, was a strange place beyond no one helping the other. They informed him, several of the females he helped, that doctors on this planet were pacifists.

A person who believes that war and violence are not justifiable. He agreed with the definition, not with the inactivity that it called for. He would save the female’s life and that of her female child. Never again would he watch a female die an unjust death. He was not God, the females he knew told him. They were right, not that he understood a God or goddess who saw a great injustice and didn’t interfere to stop it.

“There you are.” A pale-skinned male stepped out into the clearing carrying a shotgun. Zylar knew the name because the male had announced several times he was going to shoot him with it. He quietly looked around for the male’s friends. There had been two of them.

“Here I am.” He spread his legs and crossed his arms over his chest. The females he spent time with called it a power move. He wasn’t sure if it would work for him.

“You’ve been messing with our females,” the male accused.

Zylar thought of the females he met here. Most of them looked run down and hungry. They told him this was a poorer section of the state they lived in. Jobs were scarce and food was even scarcer.

“I don’t know this wordmessing.”

“Don't act like you don’t have eyes for them.”

“Eyes for them?”Did this male have trouble with his mind, or maybe he didn’t know the language?

The male spit out a blob of black spit, making Zylar move back. Could the male be sick and need healing? “Do you need medicalhelp?” He stumbled over the word but remembered that’s what the females called it.

“The man cocked his shotgun. “Admit it. You’re here to take our women away. The government done took our jobs, homes, and food. Now they want to take the last thing we have left, our women.” He looked into the male’s eyes and saw the same hopelessness that had been in his eyes and every other Diza male when their females died.

“No, I don’t want your females. None of them are my mate. I want to help the one that is going to bear a female child.”

“You lie!” He mounted his gun and shot, quickly reloading the gun. The bullet skimmed Zylar’s side before he was across the space, knocking the man down. He took the firearm, ready to destroy it, but stopped.

“They came to my planet and killed every female. Then walked away like it was nothing. Have you ever seen an entire planet mourn for its missing females? I’m here to save that female and her child, no more no less.” He tossed the gun at the male. “They tell me that your healers don’t participate in violence. I’m not that altruistic.” He ran with long, loping steps. The female and her child would not wait forever.

The ship would miss him. They’d be reporting him as missing to SaKura who was the prince elect and his first cousin. He couldn’t turn away from someone in need.

His legs ate up the uneven land. It was torn-up roads that weren’t being taken care of with grass and brambles poking their way out. Up ahead was a cluster of houses that had seen better days. Inside of them lived some of the nicest females he met on Earth. Their spirits were low most of the time, even so they found joy in the face of hopelessness.

“Anna-Mae?” He knocked on the door as he called out.

“In here,” Sarah called out. “You’re late.”

“I stopped to chat with a male who had a gun.”

“Gun-toting redneck,” Sara griped.

“That’s not nice, Sara,” Anna-Mae grunted.

“Where’s John when you need him?” Sarah groused.

“You know he went to the next town over looking for work again. If he can’t get to work, he’s going to try to rent a tractor. Hopefully, those seeds the medic gave us will take and we’ll have food.”

Zylar made sure not to smile. His teeth scared the females. They would have more food than they were expecting, and he would be gone, keeping the government from tracking him down. Not that he was worried. They should take care of their citizens.

Anna-Mae screamed, reaching for Sarah’s hand. “You know I have to use these hands, woman.”

“Why? All you do is craft quilts.” Anna-Mae’s voice held a little bite to it.

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