“You have your heart.”
Qylar’s gaze whipped to his, eyes widening.
“Maybe you’ll find someone to give that to one day.”
A hint of a curl at the corners of Qylar’s mouth set his heart racing.
“Maybe I will,” Qylar whispered, the husky tenor of it making Kenji’s bits and bobs take more notice.
Considering they’d been walking around naked since they’d gotten inside the ship, he couldn’t hide it, either. His hard-on thickened the more he grew embarrassed about Qylar seeing it.
“What do your people think… about your kind… and humans…” His face warmed as he placed his hands in his lap and did his best to cover himself. “You know… mixing?”Can you be any more obvious, Kenji?“If I’m Nefyrian, will I be accepted by them?”
“Technically, it’s against the law for us to mate a human.”
The air was knocked from Kenji’s lungs. “I’millegal?”
“Not exactly,” Qylar said. “As I said, your planet is our protectorate, and we have strict laws governing that. We’re only allowed to observe. Think of Star Trek and their Prime Directive. We protect Earth from outside invasion but aren’t allowed to hinder the progression of your society, even if that means sitting back while one nation destroys another or a worldwide pandemic spreads. It’sincrediblychallenging, especially nowliving here as citizens ourselves, but we cannot interfere when we aren’t human.”
“What if a man had a heart attack right in front of you? You’d allow him to suffer and die?”
“But what if that man is this world’s next Hitler and saving him causes millions to perish?”
“Oh,come on,”Kenji said.
“I won’t say that we haven’t crossed the line a bit. Here and there. Cryss and I have done what we can without raising alarms with the Interstellar Embassy. For instance—when the wildfires raged, we used our experience with rescue missions to assist. We evacuated people, worked in food tents, and sent in small shipments of necessary supplies wherever we could. Amid the chaos, we could hide among the aid workers for a bit. If we did more than that, we could be noticed and find ourselves facing an Embassy tribunal.”
“That sucks that your hands are tied, but I’m glad you’ve found ways to help.”
Qylar nodded. “Part of thatno interferencedictate also means we’re not allowed to have intimate relationships with humans. We can live here. Observe. Collect data. We can even go so far as having friendships, though it’s supposed to be under the lens of scientific study.”
“The night we shared isn’t considered an intimate relationship?”
Qylar fought a smile. “As I said… we cross the line here and there.”
Kenji fought one of his own.
“And we clearly aren’t the first and likely not the last. There had been whispers of liaisons with those on Earth, but never anything concrete or proven. Not publicly, anyway—which considering how long we’ve been here, seems almost impossible. There were analyses done eons ago, early on after we found this planet, proving that human womencouldbear our children, but soon after that is when the no interference guidelines were established. We were told no half-breeds existed nor would they.”
“But rules are made to be broken,” Kenji whispered.
“Indeed.Alex was the first hybrid to ever be acknowledged on Nefyria. He has siblings, too. Ones he didn’t even know about who’d been raised on Nefyria. Their birth parent had been covered up. They, unlike Alex, can fully shift and blended in completely with our people so no one knew they were half human. Until about five years ago.”
“Are they as large as you when they shift?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I would assume they’re close enough. Otherwise, questions would’ve surfaced, and gossip spread, I would think,” Qylar replied. “Although, King Krythar seems well versed in covering up secrets.”
“Alex’s father is a king, too?”
Qylar nodded.
Kenji scoffed. “How many kingsarethere on your planet?”
“Many,” Qylar said. “We’re a society of small kingdoms on a planet roughly the size of Jupiter. Ten times the size of Earth.”
“Wow,”Kenji said.
“A great deal of our planet is covered in water. We have vast oceans. Our continents are pitted with large bodies of water, as well.”
