Authors: Bernadette Gardner
Icarus Rising (18 page)
talk about it. Just love me now, while you can."
Caleb obeyed. He began a slow, sensual rhythm that had
her writhing beneath him, begging for more. Her body tensed
and she wrapped her legs around him to draw his cock deeper
inside her. She cried out when her orgasm began, rising up
from deep in her core and taking over her body, cell by cell.
Symbion hormones flooded her, heightening every
sensation and making every need more acute. She'd never
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felt this way before, never needed anything so badly as she
needed him.
If she could have merged with Caleb as she had with her
symbion, she would have and held him forever so no one
could ever take him away from her.
Above her he stiffened, his muscles clenching with the
effort to hold back his own release and give her a few more
seconds of pleasure.
Finally, his climax hit. He growled his triumph and allowed
the release, pumping hot arrows of his seed inside her. She
clung to him while his body shuddered, every one of her
feminine muscles squeezing tight to milk him of his desire.
His wings shivered, attesting to the pleasure of his symbion.
Claiming a mate was the pinnacle of the creature's existence,
a moment of ecstasy made so much more intense by the fact
that it had turned all its other senses over to its host.
While Caleb held her, his cock still pulsing and hot waves
of her own orgasm still ebbing and flowing through her body,
Zara gave herself over to her own symbion and experienced
its joy along with hers. Her heart raced with it, each beat
tightening her pussy around Caleb's still hard erection. She
was more than one now, more than just Zara Abbott. She
was human and alien and she was part of him, part of the
man she would always love. She cried out as her body peaked
again, unexpectedly, and when she looked up into Caleb's
eyes she saw his symbion had taken him over as well. This
time the change didn't frighten her at all. She welcomed it
because it was the most natural thing in the world.
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Not long after, they lay panting, holding each other with
their wings wrapped around them both like blankets.
"We are one,"
Zara's symbion told her.
"We are all one
now."
"I'll never let you go," she told Caleb finally. "We'll find a
way to stay together."
"We'll do whatever we have to." Caleb pushed himself up
with his arms and stared into her eyes. "I'd fly into the sun
for you."
She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. "I'd
never ask you to. All I ask is that you love me in any way you
can."
He grinned. "I can think of a lot of different ways to love
you."
Zara laughed and opened to him again, eager to enjoy
every moment they had before they surrendered themselves
to the needs of their adopted people. Whatever happened,
she had her man in this moment and that was what she
would cling to forever if she had to.
One week later
Caleb and Zara waited in the great room of the royal aerie.
They had both assumed the submissive position before Jidar,
wings folded against their backs, tips pointed to the ground,
their arms extended along their sides.
The leader of the Icarians stood before them, and to his
left also on her knees, Namara waited almost as eagerly for
his decree.
After a week spent mostly in bed with Caleb, Zara was
exhausted. Her legs were weak and her entire body
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pleasantly sore. She reveled in the feeling, and she'd hold on
to the memories as long as she lived.
Today, once again, she faced losing Caleb, but this time
she was ready. She could share his body with another female
if she had to, because she knew she would never have to
share his love.
Jidar spread his wings and addressed them, his voice
echoing off the stone walls of the expansive aerie. "Dr. Caleb
Faulkner and Dr. Zara Abbott, you have pledged your loyalty
to me and agreed to accept my decrees as law. Is that
correct?"
They both nodded. Zara spared a quick glance at Caleb.
He'd never looked so handsome, so perfect. Her heart ached
for wanting him, but she was prepared to accept whatever
Jidar ordered them to do for the good of the Icarian people.
"You have each agreed to accept a mating bond as I see fit
to assign to you."
Again they nodded in unison. Zara's heart began to race.
Today she might be given to an Icarian male and expected to
bear him a child. A frisson of anticipation began in her wings
and she tamped it down. Her symbion wished to rebel against
Jidar's decision, but she would not allow it. They had made a
vow to help a dying race, and they would uphold that vow, all
four of them.
"The decision I've reached has not been an easy one."
Jidar paced before them as he spoke. Beads of sweat formed
on Zara's upper lip and dripped into her slightly open mouth.
She tasted Caleb, who had so recently kissed her before they
entered the aerie.
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"I have taken into consideration Dr. Danson's
recommendation that the original breeding program proceed
as planned. He has assured me that Dr. Abbott's experience
with the symbion bond is what will be the norm and that Dr.
Faulkner's more painful joining was an anomaly in part
caused by the illness he carried."
Please, please, please
. Zara recited a small prayer in her
head, partially drowning out Jidar's words with her desperate
thoughts.
"I have also considered Namara's insistent opinions on the
matter of mating and upholding the long-held traditions of our
people. The formation of Icarian families has been the
cornerstone of our civilization for centuries. Mating bonds are
unbreakable. No one raises a child alone on Icarus, families
do not separate and reform with new members who have
been broken away from other unions. What is decreed by the
leader, remains unchanged."
Zara bit the inside of her cheek to keep from prostrating
herself on the ground and begging for Jidar's mercy. She
knew he was trying to say he would not consider artificial
insemination or any form of egg and sperm donation for his
people. He only wanted individuals who would agree to the
joining and raise their offspring in proper Icarian fashion.
She and Caleb were doomed to watch each other given in
mating bonds to others.
Before the first of her tears could fall, Jidar continued.
"It is precisely because of those old traditions that I have
made the decision I have. Beginning with Namara, I have
agreed to allow artificial insemination, though only with
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already mated pairs. My mate will bear the offspring of a
human male, and I will raise the child as my own."
Zara's head shot up and she met Caleb's startled gaze.
Behind Jidar, Namara broke into a grin, joy radiating from her
at the prospect of finally having a child of her own.
"Unmated individuals will not be eligible for this part of the
breeding program. Those who have not been mated from the
last cycle will be assigned to human mates from among the
list of volunteers assembled by Dr. Danson. He says there are
already five more eligible candidates from the research team
and dozens are on the way from the research colony on
Daedalus."
Now Zara's tears began to spill. In less than a year the
Icarian aeries would ring with the cries of newborn babies. In
ten years, scores of Icarian/human hybrid children would take
to the air on the wings of their own symbions and hundreds of
abandoned aeries would fill with families again.
And somewhere, perhaps, her child and Caleb's would
meet and become friends.
"The two of you are unmated adults and therefore eligible
for the original phase of the breeding program, only Namara
convinced me that neither of you will be truly happy with
Icarian mates."
Zara swiped at her tears and glanced at Caleb. Would Jidar
leave them unmated then?
"Therefore I see only one solution, and that is to assign
you to mate with each other."
After a moment of pregnant silence while the news sank
in, Namara clapped her hands. Clearly this was a battle she'd
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fought hard. Tears glistened on the Icarian female's cheeks as
well, and breaking protocol, she jumped up from her
submissive position and embraced her husband.
After twirling his mate around and setting her back down
on her feet, Jidar turned his solemn gaze to Zara and Caleb.
"Perhaps you did not hear me?"
Zara shrieked and jumped up also. "We heard, of course
we heard!" She flew into Jidar's arms and hugged him
fiercely, for the first time unselfconscious about his nakedness
or her own.
The Icarian leader embraced her for a moment, then set
her down in front of Caleb. "Here is the man you should be
hugging, Dr. Abbott."
Zara did as her liege instructed and threw her arms around
Caleb's neck. The Icarians did not have a marriage ceremony,
only the decree of the leader, so in effect, as of this moment,
Caleb was her husband. She hugged him, tears streaming
down her face while she laughed and sobbed at the same
time.
"Yes, my liege, I'll be happy to embrace him forever."
"I will expect in ten years to see your child on the edge of
the royal island prepared to accept a symbion of his or her
own," Jidar said, one pale brow raised.
Namara squeezed Zara's shoulder and brushed her wing
tips over Caleb's arms to show her joy and support of the
union. They owed her a debt of gratitude. Clearly her opinion
had influenced all of her mate's decisions today.
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"Of course, my liege," Caleb said as he grabbed Zara's
hand and squeezed it. "We will get to work on that right
away."
With a wave of his wing, Jidar dismissed them. They ran
laughing to the edge of the island and bounded off into the
blue-green sky, sailing toward the brilliant sun and off into a
glorious future together.
The End
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About the Author:
An avid reader all her life and an aspiring writer since the
age of ten, Bernadette Gardner realized her dream of
becoming a published author in 2005. Inspired by the
romance she devoured as a teen and the science fiction
classics, she hoped to combine those elements into her
stories. Since beginning her career, she has branched out
from science fiction romance into paranormal, contemporary
and even historical genres and hopes to continue bringing
sexy adventurous tales to her readers for decades to come.
Bernadette currently lives in the NY-NJ Metropolitan area
with her husband of eighteen years, two creative children, a
slightly neurotic Dalmatian and two spirited black cats. When
not hard at work on a novel or short story, she spends her
time reading, quilting and haunting the local craft stores.
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