Authors: Bernadette Gardner
Icarus Unbound (4 page)
Daralei's expression darkened a bit. Clearly she agreed with Odan's assessment that Jaran might be facing a difficult flight with his own new wife.
"I'm doing what I can to make his path easier for him."
"You should know by now, Dara, my brother prefers to struggle. If something is easy, he doesn't consider it worth doing."
Dara's wings twitched and her dark eyes twinkled. "I know.
Perhaps you can talk to him. I've gotten nowhere." With a wave of her wings, the elder female turned and strolled away, leaving the brothers alone in the audience chamber.
"Fine, leave and let Odan harp on me if you must," Jaran called after the administrator. His voice held amusement, but Odan saw the hint of uncertainty in his brother's eyes.
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Eager to say his piece and return to Jehri, he pounced.
"Have you lost control of your faculties? Are you thinking only with your symbion brain, brother?"
"I thought I was joking about listening to you harp on me."
Jaran spread his wings and began to pace around the room.
"I've been listening to Dara all day tell me why this match will never work."
"Laramee Faulkner doesn't like you. And she has good reason not to."
Jaran growled a bit. "Granted I was unkind to her when we were children, but I've barely laid eyes on her in the past ten years. She spends all her time at the research station talking to her plants. She avoids me, and on the rare occasions we have seen or spoken to one another, I've done my best to be polite."
"Have you apologized for taunting her as a boy?"
"I ... she's never given me the chance."
"Do you think she'll listen to you while you're mating?"
"At least I'll finally have her undivided attention, won't I?"
Odan sighed. "What if she petitions the elder council for a dissolution?"
"She won't. She has too much pride."
"And so do you. That pride will crowd everything else between you. And as if that's not enough, there have already been some complaints."
"What kind of complaints?"
Odan paused. Clearly Jaran was anxious about his unconventional choice. Perhaps he didn't need to know the 31
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things Odan had heard, but as leader of the Icarians, Jaran should be aware of the opinions of his people.
"Well, it may be nothing more than petty jealousies, but some of the unmated females are very unhappy. They feel a full-blooded human should not be mating with one of the last full-blooded Icarians. If you mate with a hybrid at least your children will be three quarters Icarian."
"And why would a hybrid care? Thirty years ago almost every eligible Icarian mated with a full-blooded human in order to save our race from extinction. As a people we accepted the dissolution of our DNA as the only way to save our society. Why should it matter now if
one
less child is born with three-quarters Icarian blood?"
"As I said, it's probably just jealousy. You broke many hearts today, and there would have been disappointment no matter who you chose for yourself, but my concern is the unrest will grow and Laramee will suffer because of it."
Anger ruffled Jaran's wings. "All I've heard today is how I've made Laramee suffer. She will be co-leader of our own people and live here with me in the royal aerie. During the next mating cycle she will choose mated pairs and she will set the example for others. How is that suffering?"
"If there are enough complaints, the administrative council could be asked to dissolve the union, and then she could never mate again. Would you put her through that?"
Jaran scowled. "I have made my decision, Odan. I want Laramee as my mate and I am taking her. That is my prerogative. I cannot change my mind now anyway. I'll appear weak willed."
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Odan nodded. That was true. A leader had to stand by his decisions and make them with conviction. That was something Jaran possessed in supernatural quantities, and that in turn had lead to Jidar choosing Jaran as his successor over Odan. Odan respected his father's decision and had never questioned it because he'd always believed Jaran was better suited to lead. At least until now when it seemed that Jaran's emotions had gotten the better of his common sense.
"Jaran, I know you've wanted Laramee for a long time, and I wish you the best of luck in this union. I just hope you've made the right decision because I would hate to see either of you hurt if this mating doesn't work out."
"It will work out, Odan. I will see to it."
"Good. I look forward to bringing Jehri to visit her new sister, and I look forward to the day our children will play together in the gardens."
"That day will come, Odan. I promise."
Odan wanted to believe his brother. He left the royal aerie, eager to return to Jehri and still doubting that Jaran could not only tame Laramee's restless spirit and overcome the rocky start of their relationship, but also keep the fears of his people from interfering with their union.
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Sunset turned the western horizon blood red, and the waning light cast everything on the island in shades of copper and bronze.
Lara wished she could relax and appreciate the sublime beauty of her wedding night, but her anxiety made it impossible. All day, while she worked in her lab at the research station, she'd tried to push thoughts of Jaran out of her mind, but with so many other newly mated couples also working at the station, it had been impossible for her to avoid discussing the events of the day.
To her shock, Kiala was not the only one who seemed surprised by Jaran's choice. Only the fully human members of the research colony staff seemed genuinely pleased that Lara had become the mate of the Icarian leader. Everyone else seemed just as nonplussed as Lara was herself.
Now that night had fallen, she couldn't avoid her new husband. Shivering with nerves, she concentrated on nothing more than putting one foot in front of the other as she approached the royal aerie.
All along the main walkway, other Icarians stopped when they saw her. One by one, as she approached, they dropped to one knee and bowed their heads, males and females alike, young and old.
"You may rise," she muttered to each one of her subjects as she passed. The words came out as a breathless whisper, strained by her embarrassment at having people who only 34
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this morning had been her equals or her superiors suddenly assuming the submissive posture whenever she laid eyes on them.
She wondered how Namara had ever gotten used to it.
"There you are, my lady. I was beginning to worry that we'd need to send an escort to your lab to fetch you." Daralei appeared then like a wraith at Lara's side. She knelt quickly but rose before Lara bade her, a privilege of the very old as well as the administrators who served the Icarian leader.
"Are you hungry? I've had some food prepared for you and Jaran."
"Thank you, but I don't think I could eat anything."
Lara fell into step behind Daralei, which caused them to have to perform an awkward shuffle in the corridor. Protocol required the leader and his mate always walk first, but that didn't work when someone else needed to guide the way.
"Allow me to lead, my lady. You'll learn your way through the aerie soon enough."
Grateful for Dara's guidance, Lara nodded. She wrapped an arm around her stomach, hoping to still the flutter of invisible wings beneath her skin. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to this," Lara said as she hurried to keep up with the administrator's purposeful strides. Each step brought her closer to the inevitable, her union with Jaran, and her legs grew weaker as the moments passed.
By the time Daralei led her all the way to Jaran's personal quarters on the sprawling second level of the aerie, Lara felt like her entire body had turned to jelly. Her heart pumped erratically, and each labored beat sent spears of adrenaline 35
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through her. She'd given little thought to how she would make it through the evening, since each time she considered her new role, all she'd been able to picture in her head was Jaran rising above her, prepared to claim her. The image had always left her palms sweating and her nipples painfully hard, just as they were now.
"He's waiting for you."
Lara's response to this announcement was an incoherent grunt. Had it been up to her, she'd have let him continue to wait forever.
Daralei put her hand on Lara's arm then, startling her with the warmth of her touch. "My lady, forgive me. I've known you both since you were children and I feel I can speak from a position of knowledge about this union."
Lara stared at the older woman, both anxious and afraid to hear what she had to say. "Go on."
"Jaran had a difficult childhood. Most of his first five years were spent in exile with his mother. When she died, he lost everything that was familiar to him. Jidar and Namara did a wonderful job raising him. They turned him into a leader so well-suited for his position that their own child did not dispute his succession. If you are to judge him, my lady, please do so on the man he is now, not the frightened, jealous child he was."
Lara's cheeks heated at Daralei's words. She would have liked nothing more than to discover a Jaran who was the polar opposite of the boy who had tormented her so relentlessly, but their brief encounter this morning had shown her he still possessed the same prejudices and selfishness his 36
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real mother had taught him. Twenty-one years in the care of sweet, gentle Namara had made him a gracious, wise ruler, but it hadn't changed the part of him that despised Laramee.
Numbed by her own confusion, Lara simply nodded. "I'll try, but—"
The gust of cool air that rushed by as soon as Daralei threw open the door to Jaran's chamber cut off Lara's mumbled reply. The moment she'd been dreading had finally arrived and all she could do was shuffle stiffly over the threshold into the room in which she would surrender her body to Jaran.
She could barely think, but fortunately for the rest of this night, she wouldn't have to. Her only task from this point forward would be to follow her liege's every command.
Jaran's cock stirred the moment Laramee entered the room. Years of practice learning to control not only his own physiological responses but those of his symbion were all that kept him from displaying a raging erection as she strolled across the room.
Behind her, with a polite nod, Daralei closed the door, sealing them inside the nuptial chamber. The sound of the door closing seemed to affect Lara. She faltered in her confident stride, and her delicate hands clenched at her sides.
Jaran smiled. At least she'd returned. After his talk with Odan this afternoon, he'd feared his chosen woman might forsake him. To her credit, she'd put Icarian tradition before her own preferences. After what he had planned for tonight, he hoped those preferences would change and Laramee would 37
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begin to accept and enjoy her new life as the female leader of her adopted people.
Her people
, he corrected himself. He had to stop thinking of her as human if he wanted her to truly believe his feelings for her were genuine.
"Welcome home, Laramee. I trust the winds were in your favor."
"I live on Alpha Island." Her words spilled out, sharp edged and heavy. "The royal aerie is not my home."
Jaran stifled a sigh. It was going to be a long, difficult night. "For now, I won't force you to stay here every night, but once the mating cycle officially begins, you will need to bring your belongings here. You can even establish a working lab adjacent to the gardens if you wish, so you may continue to work even after you have conceived."
Lara made no comment, but the fire in her eyes spoke volumes. Surely she was aware that Icarian females did not fly during the later months of pregnancy. Before the end of the year, she would be confined to the royal island. And until she conceived, Jaran planned to keep her confined to his bed.
"Now that the research station has an emergency shuttle, I won't need to remain here all the time. Besides, there's nothing wrong with giving birth at the lab hospital. In fact, I think I would prefer that."
Jaran smirked. He could certainly have debated the merits of having his first child born in the human enclave, but Daralei's warnings echoed in his head. There would be time for this argument later. "I foresee many intense exchanges taking place in this room." He flicked his gaze suggestively to 38
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the bed. "But let's not begin them this evening. For tonight we should concentrate on finding what makes one another happy and avoid topics on which we're bound to disagree."
"Then that leaves little for us to talk about, doesn't it?"
She tilted her chin up defiantly, and Jaran swallowed hard.
The long line of her throat commanded his attention and drew his hungry gaze down to her perfect breasts. Her dark pink nipples stood tight and erect, begging for an appreciative caress from his hands or his tongue. A patch of color ran between them, attesting to her ire, and she held the muscles of her flat abdomen taut as springs. Clearly she was ready for a battle.
"If you don't wish to talk, that's fine. We do have other ways to communicate."
She tensed further, and Jaran lowered his brow, casting a feral gaze at her that would leave no doubt as to his intentions.
"Either way, Laramee, you are my mate and I intend to claim you as mine. It can be easy or it can be difficult. The choice is yours."
"No, my liege. The choice was yours entirely. Do with me as you wish, but don't expect me to enjoy it."
