Forbidden Rule (An Alien Love #2)

Chapter One

****Author's Note*****

I like to listen to music while writing, and some songs I suggest to give the sci-fi, outer space feeling is "Monster" and "Everglow" by Starset, and "Moondust" by Jaymes Young. Also "Coming Home" by Falling in Reverse and a couple of their other songs. Enjoy!

Skyler's POV

A coiled ball of tension in my chest was ready to snap like a stretched rubber band as the ruckus of our impending landing ensued. The aliens around me flitted about in fits of packing or in a hurry to help man the mechanisms of the ship. My hands, so pale and sculpted now, were shaking as I sat on my bunk with my feet hanging over the edge. My ivory shift swayed as the ship geared up for "setdown" as they called it. I was actually thankful for the lack of windows for once- if I had to watch the ship closing in on our little tiny vessel, I may have been throwing up right now.

Mom- Winnow- was off retrieving a store of clothing for the both of us. Lirah, the chosen scapegoat for our trip to Morfilinik, was on the other side of the little metallic, echoing chamber. Her long white blond hair was twisted into a knot at the base of her neck with an intricate braid acting as a hairband across the crown. Her eyes, the same shade of sunlit jade as Jace's, were closed right now. A twinge of guilt was still eating at my insides for letting her take the rap for the attack on the Sharve ship- the Council had been forced to send Jace's troops to help him rescue me. They had stolen me from my hospital bed after an attack on Rowan and I back on Earth. Lirah had been, yes, a captive of sorts on the Sharve ship also; she'd been suspended in a liquid, same as the other handful of humans and Morfilians I'd come upon while looking for an escape.

As if sensing my gaze, she peeked an eye open at me. It glowed the shifting, ever iridescent green of a nonhuman. It was what you would imagine an alien cat would possess.  It was still quite strange to see them on a female.

"Do not feel guilty, Skyler," she murmured, closing the eye again. "Your aura is screaming. It is and will be okay."

I lowered my eyes back to my balled fists. "It just doesn't feel right. Especially with you being set back a couple thousand years, you know? You're literally in a different time." I wanted to finish that statement with the fact that all of the family and people she knew back in the ancient Mycenaean society were long dead. But I think she understood.

"It is what it is, philia. You will see that our families extend far and wide, and grow to be very large. If you and Jaceannel are..." she looked at the glinting ceiling as the ship shuddered once more. "...a pair, then I shall see you as family as well. And make new friends as I go along."

Her use of the greek word for "friend" or "love" touched me. I'd known her for all of maybe two days. I wasn't usually one to make many female friends, but I could see her as a future friend and family. I swallowed the small lump in my throat and watched as my feet swung softly back and forth. I was at a loss for words-I wasn't used to these types of conversations. But I was saved from the silence as we heard a soft knock on the metal frame of where the door should be.

"You guys nearly ready for this?" It was Rayne. She leaned on the wall just inside the entrance with crossed arms. Her chestnut hair fell in the perfect waves of the ocean, matching the water-like the blue hue to her eyes. Her heart shaped face was unusually grim.

"Nope. But I don't think I'd ever be ready," I commented as I huffed a strand of hair out of my face. She nodded and glanced at Lirah. Lirah shrugged but didn't comment.

"Well, I just came to remind you of what performance you're going to need to put on," she whispered. Her eyes flitted to the hall outside and pressed the door button by the threshold. Its' dark, swirling energy field shot down to close the space. My eyes lingered on it, because no matter how many times I've seen it, I would probably never cease to be amazed. Rayne came over to perch on the edge of my bunk with crossed legs.