Alien Love by Lily Marie Read Free Book Online Page B

pristine lab.”
    “I imagine not. I will do as you request.”
    And he did, lowering himself to the floor, feeling vulnerable and exposed with his forehead pressed to the cool blue tile. He heard Rell approach, and braced himself.
    “How the high and mighty have fallen. On your knees, like a peasant. How does it feel, Commander ?” He made Kiele’s title sound like a slur, and kicked his boot out.
    But Kiele was waiting for it and twisted out of the way. Rell let out a surprised yelp and flew backward. The rest of the guards burst out laughing, taunting him as he climbed to his feet.
    “You overblown son of a—”
    “Touch him, Rell, and it will be the last act you perform.” The cold female voice echoed through the room, and every guard froze, silent. Rell backed off, sensible enough not to cross the woman who strode over to Kiele. “Please stand, nephew. I suppose Gara put you in that ridiculous position.” She raised her hand when Gara stumbled out of the drying room, sputtering an explanation. “I was simply stating fact.” When Kiele straightened, she moved to him, the jewel green eyes so like his own filled with fury. “I know what you have done with Lian. We will get to that violation, right after you tell me exactly why you have decided to target my life’s work.”
    “You want me to tell you, in front of all these witnesses?” Kiele pointed behind her. While she was busy glaring at him, those who lived in the city had begun to gather at the entrances that lined the outer wall of the room. “I imagine not everyone here knows what you are doing above their heads.”
    “You—” Her hand froze inches from Kiele’s arm, and she withdrew, lifting her chin. “Please meet my nephew, Commander Kiele Suun. He has surprised me with a visit while his ship is in repair.” Kiele raised his eyebrows, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. Sonia had always known everything going on around her. “Please, help me make him welcome, once we have had time to get reacquainted.”
    This time she did take his arm, digging her fingers into his bicep with bruising force as she led him out one of the closest exits and across a square crowded with more locals. She was gracious and smiling, pausing to greet those she knew by name as they made their way to what looked like a mansion on the opposite side. The moment they stepped inside she dropped all pretense of courtesy.
    “You will do two things for me, Kiele, if you do not want your precious humans destroyed. I know they are plotting a rebellion. Since I lost my most viable test subject, and learned she was free above, I knew they would return. She does know every inch of the lab, after spending most of a year in it.”
    “What do you want from me, Sonia?”
    “No sense of family honor, Kiele? Not even for your brother?”
    “He tried to destroy a ship filled with innocents.” Kiele forced his temper down. The sound of water pouring in the enormous fountain behind her helped him calm, his voice more even when he spoke again. “I am assuming he is one of the two things you demand. What is the other?”
    “Leave my lab alone and get the hell off my home.”
    Kiele had been nonviolent up to this point, and that caught Sonia off guard—exactly as he intended. He grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against the nearest wall, using his extra two inches of height to loom over her.
    “I will not leave your lab alone. It is an abomination, and the experiments will end. Today. As for my brother—Lian will have nothing more to do with you, or Gara, or your faction, ever. You have corrupted him in a way that will take me time to undo, if I even can.” He wanted to tighten his fingers, to scare her, but he was afraid he would not be able to stop himself. “You have disgraced us long enough, Sonia. It stops now. If I have to kill you to make that happen, I will.”
    “Kiele—”
    “We evolved into what we are to survive. We will evolve again, because that is what