Page 3 of Forbidden Desires

“Ask,” he commanded.

“When I have my child…” She didn’t go on, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

“May I?” She nodded.

He placed his hand over her womb. “It will be like a hot knife going through butter.”

“I swear we’ll make a southerner out of you yet.”

“Surround the house, boys. We got him. The gov’ment is willing to pay big bucks for him.”

Zylar slipped out of the house unseen until he bumped into someone who screeched and raised the alarm.

Chapter Two

“Watch where you’re going you clumsy…” Amelia fell on her rear, eyes opening wide as she looked at the impossibly huge purple monster in front of her. “Oh my God, did they send you after me?” She felt her heartbreak. It only made sense; she couldn’t insult the crown prince of another planet, almost get his mate killed, and think they were going to let her walk away. Some part of her thought her cousins would forgive her, that they would know she didn’t willingly try to kill them. So much for that thought, familial bonds her ass.

Amelia scurried back like a crab trying to get away from the purple menace when she heard voices talking about trapping or killing him. “The bounty is good, dead or alive,” one of those voices called out.

“No!” Sarah cried out. “He saved the baby.”

“Kill the baby, it’s an abomination,” a male said.

“John, it’s your daughter,” Sarah said, pleading.

“It’s a thing. You let a monster touch it and you’re no longer my woman. You brazen hussy, that monster defiled you. How did you like taking alien dick? Both of you need to die.”

“Oh, hell no.” Amelia jumped to her feet, no longer concerned about the death she deserved. That woman who just had a child didn’t deserve to die. The world was going crazy, and the monsters weren’t even the tip of the iceberg. The bottom of what was happening was buried so deep that she didn’t think most people would ever see the roots.

The healer’s solid arms came around Amelia’s waist, picking her up. Her feet were running mid-air, but she wasn’t getting anywhere.

“Put me down, foul monster,” Amelia whispered in fury to the healer; she didn’t want the men raging around the back of the house to hear her.

“If you run into the house, they will kill you. We have to act smart, not reckless.” His words made sense, but his kind had turned her family against her. She refused to acknowledge the part she played. She growled and beat at his back, needing a scapegoat for the anger that was flaring up.

“The longer you act like a child, the greater the chance that the two females and the baby will die. Sure, keep acting like the only female on this planet worth saving is you.”

That took all the steam from her. She was acting like a bona fide brat.

“Put me down.” She was lying over his shoulder and the monster wasn’t breathing hard as he lifted her significant weight into the air and then put her down. It took a few seconds for her legs to steady before she could walk backward, keeping him in her sight.

“What do you suggest we do?” There was a loud argument in the back of the house about who they should kill. Should they killmother and child or just the child and was John sure he didn’t want the traitor?

“I got me someone else, and she looks twice as good and can have a child without a monster touching her,” John boasted. “I was going to leave her, anyway. Thought the child would kill her and my job would be done.”

Amelia stumbled backward. The monster’s eyes had gone from black with a thin strip of lavender to the lavender taking over the black. She’d never seen such rage and was concerned for John and the men out back as much as she was concerned for the women in the room.

He (the monster whose name she didn’t know) quickly and quietly explained who the two women were in the room. He referred to them as females and sketched a plan to save them. She nodded, not sure she approved of the plan, but couldn’t think of anything else. This plan had better work, she grumbled to herself.

“Anna-Mae, you slut, I’m coming in and you better not try to stop me!” She banged on the front door and slipped in quietly.

Amelia stomped into the room with her finger over her mouth, telling them to be quiet. “I want to see that baby; it better not look like my husband.” There was a loud crash. The arguing outside stopped.

“Sit down, Sarah, I’ll cut you, too.”

“There’s no need for this. You know Anna-Mae was always faithful to John.”

“Is that so? Are you denying I caught her wagging her ass at my man and then trying to get out of the bedroom window when I came home? Did you think I didn’t see you?” There was another crash and a wail as Anna-Mae begged for forgiveness.

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