The Vulpirans' Honor: The Soul-Linked Saga

by Laura Jo Phillips

  “Another chance to do what?” Honey asked.

  “Now that you and Michael are divorced,” Vikter began, but Honey shook her head. “What?” he asked, his heart skipping a beat in fear.

  “We are not divorced,” she said. “Prince Garen has decreed that we were never married at all since we were forced into it.”

  “Even better,” Vikter said, his heart returning to something like a normal rhythm. “Do you really want to return to Earth?”

  “It’s not that I want to,” Honey replied. “It’s the only solution I can think of.”

  “If you had a home, and all of the things you and Nica need here, would you want to stay?” Vikter asked.

  “Yes, I would,” Honey replied.

  “The Dracons are providing you with a house here, on the ranch, as part of your salary and benefits,” Lance said. “An architect is coming tomorrow to work with you on what you want. In the meantime, he has offered a large guesthouse for you and Nica, near their home. Further, Michael has promised he will set up a new account for you with half of the funds in your joint account. He will do it first thing tomorrow. Prince Dracon intends to deposit funds as well. Consider it a bonus for saving the lives of the sons of their closest and dearest friends.”

  “Is all of this because I whined at Saige?” Honey asked.

  “All of this was already intended and planned before today,” Vikter said. “Unfortunately, with the explosion and the problems it caused, these matters got set aside when they should not have. Nothing has been decided on because you whined as you put it. It just made us all realize we’d forgotten to let you in on the fact that you are not penniless, homeless, or unwanted.”

  “I don’t understand why the Dracons would offer so much to me,” Honey said. “I’m grateful, of course. I just don’t see why they’d give me a house, money, ground-car, all of that.”

  “Part of it is your psychic gift,” Vikter said. “Children are more important to Clan Jasani than you realize, and you alone are capable of touching them, healing them, helping them before they are born.”

  “In addition to that, you are a doctor,” Lance added. “An obstetrician able to help all of our unborn children, those of human mothers and Jasani both. These things make you precious to all of our people.”

  “Those are the reasons you are important to the Dracons,” Hunt said. Why they value you so much. They are not the reasons we value you.”

  “You value me?” Honey asked in surprise. That her gift was valued she understood. That her skills as a physician were valued made sense, too. But she did not recall anyone ever valuing her for herself alone. Except her mother. And Nica. Why would these men, highly ranked Jasani, brilliant scientists in their own right, value her? She thought a moment. “You value me because I’m your Arima.”

  “Yes, and no,” Vikter replied. “That you are our Arima is of the utmost importance to us, that we cannot deny. We are meant to be together. But, just because our bodies and even our souls are drawn to each other, that does not mean that we automatically have to like you, or you us.”

  “Oh,” Honey said softly. She dropped her eyes to the table, unwilling to let them see her hurt and disappointment. The lump in her throat that she’d struggled with earlier was back and twice as big. She was surprised she could even breathe around it.

  “You two are knuckleheads,” Hunt said, exasperated with his brothers. Words, both spoken and unspoken, had gotten them into so much trouble. He was a man of action, not words, and right now the pain rolling off of their Arima demanded something stronger.

  He pushed back his chair, walked around the patio table to where Honey sat and knelt down beside her. Even kneeling he was taller than she was sitting. He reached over and placed a gentle finger on her chin, then urged her to turn her face toward him. She did so, reluctantly, her eyes still downcast.

  “We do not have to like you, Honey,” he said in a low voice. “But we do. Very much, in fact.” He leaned forward and, finally, did what he had wanted to do since the first moment he’d seen her step off the transport. He lowered his mouth to hers, not giving her time to move away, and kissed her.

  She was so warm, and so sweet, that he could not resist running his tongue along the seam of her lips, coaxing her to let him in. When she parted her lips, his entire body shuddered. He slid his tongue into her mouth, losing himself in the taste and feel of her as he stroked her tongue with his. His hand slid to the back of her head and he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. When she began to respond, returning his strokes with her tongue, he moaned, a long, deep rumble that felt torn from the depths of his soul.

  When he felt Honey’s arms wrap around his neck he deepened the kiss even more, losing himself in what was certainly the most erotic moment of his life. Then she moaned, a soft, husky sound that made his painfully hard cock jerk and his skin pebble tightly. He tore his mouth from hers and they leaned their foreheads together, both of them gasping and panting for air.

  Vikter and Lance watched Hunt kiss Honey, the erotic intensity and raw beauty of it taking their breath away. The sound of Hunt’s deep, passionate moan forced them to their feet. In a moment they were both standing next to the couple, the scent and sight of their passion nearly overwhelming them both.

  Honey had read about love, passion, and sex. As a physician, she even understood it on a hormonal, neuro-chemical, and physiological level. But she had never experienced it. Had never even tasted it.

  Her teenage and young adult years had been spent focusing on school. The pressure to always get the best grades, to always be the best in every class, had been extreme, the competition for scholarships fierce. Without scholarships, she knew she’d never achieve her dream of being a doctor. There had been no time for the usual teenage activities like parties, sleep-overs, or boyfriends. While she often wished she could do the things other girls her age did, the truth was that she’d never met a boy that interested her.

  When Hunt pressed his mouth to hers she was too startled to resist at first. After a moment, any thought of resistance vanished. She spent a few moments wondering how something so simple as a kiss, albeit a very hot, passionate, heartfelt kiss, had the power to engage her entire body. How did her lips and tongue, organs she used daily to talk, eat, breathe with, suddenly become such a powerful erogenous zone? She knew for an absolute fact that the nerves in her mouth were not in any way connected with her heart, or her breasts, or her spine, or her clitoris, or her vagina.

  But that knowledge didn’t stop her heart from racing, her breasts from tightening in a strange, unfamiliar way, or her nipples from hardening to two aching points. It didn’t stop her spine from arching so that she was pressing her breasts toward Hunt as she returned his kiss with helpless fervor, or the shivers and tingles that raced up and down her body. And it definitely didn’t stop the hot, wet, pulsing of her pussy.

  She slid her fingers into his long, dark, bushy hair, finally learning that its texture was soft, fine, and silky. She moaned softly as she imagined how it would feel against her skin.

  When Hunt broke the kiss she was desperate for air, and at the same time, desperate to be kissed again and again. She wondered at herself, at the deep need she felt to be kissed not just by Hunt, but Vikter, and Lance too. When she felt Vikter’s hands at her waist, lifting her from her chair, she suddenly understood that she would not be satisfied until all three men had kissed her. She smiled to herself as she wrapped her arms around his neck and eagerly tilted her head and parted her lips for him. She hummed softly as Vikter plunged his tongue into her mouth, relieved that he felt and tasted different than Hunt had. She felt hands at her neck, gently pushing her hair aside, and knew it was Lance, his hands caressing her shoulders, his lips pressing warm, gentle kisses on her neck. She barely knew these men, but she knew their touch, the feel and scent of them, could easily separate each one’s emotions from the others even when they crashed over her all at once like a wave.

  When Vikter broke their kiss a
nd Lance turned her around and lifted her into his arms, her body felt soft, languorous, boneless. She wrapped her legs around his waist, something she’d never even imagined doing before, but she did it now without thought, pressing her body against him. His kiss was slow, and sensuous rather than hot and deep, stoking the fires within her ever higher so that, by the time he pulled back, her body was both warm and shivery at the same time. She rested her head on his shoulder as she fought to catch her breath, her fingers tangled in his white hair that felt every bit as silky as Hunt’s and Vikter’s. Vikter and Hunt crowded close, murmuring softly as they petted her in long, soothing strokes that were meant to calm and relax rather than excite and inflame.

  For the rest of her life she would remember, and treasure, these moments between them. She would never forget their first kisses, the way each of them tasted and felt, the way they’d made her feel, the little peek they’d given her for what was to come. But this time afterward as they clung together, calming and soothing each other, struck her as their first truly intimate experience.

  “I know I should let you down now,” Lance said, his voice vibrating against her chest, his lips brushing her cheek as he spoke. “I just can’t seem to make myself do it.”

  “Why is that?” she asked, her voice sounding sleepy and sultry even to her own ears.

  “Because it took so long to get you here,” he replied. “I’m afraid if I let go, I’ll never get you back again.”

  Honey would have smiled but she felt the almost desperate worry behind his words and knew that he was not joking. She raised her head and looked into his eyes for a long moment. Then she smiled. “I really don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” she said. She felt their sudden relief, and knew she’d said the right thing. “Not unless you turn out to be far different than I imagine you to be at this moment, anyway.”

  “We’re safe then,” Vikter said with a low chuckle.

  “Are you?” Honey asked archly.

  “As much as we’d like to be deep and mysterious, the reality is that what you see is pretty much what you get,” Hunt said.

  Honey laughed, her heart suddenly feeling lighter than it had for as long as she could remember. “I’m glad of that,” she said as Lance carefully lowered her to her feet. “I’m really not interested in deep, dark, mysteries. I like bright, open straightforward honesty much better.”

  “Because you are bright, open and honest yourself,” Vikter said, turning her gently to face him. “Yes, I am,” Honey said. “So tell me, please, what do the three of you have in mind for us next?”

  “I think we should all sit back down at the table,” Lance said. “Otherwise, we’re going to go further than we should out here on the Bearens’ back patio.”

  “Agreed,” Honey said firmly, though certain areas of her body were leaping up and yelling Yes! Yes! Yes! at the thought. She cleared her throat and took her seat, smiling to herself when Lance, Hunt and Vikter all moved their chairs closer to her before sitting down themselves.

  “What we’d like, ultimately, is to be a family: you, Nica and us,” Vikter said.

  Honey’s heart skipped a beat, but she was determined to be sensible. “I want that too, I think,” she said. “But there could be problems.”

  “Such as?” Vikter asked.

  “You three don’t live here, on the ranch, do you?” she asked. “I recall Michael saying that you lived on the other side of Jasan and were just visiting here.”

  “That’s correct,” Vikter said. “In addition to being the Consuls of Clan Vulpiran, which means we are heads of our clan, we are also the leading scientists on the xeno panel, in charge of all things Xanti. The Council Complex, where our main labs are located, is in Berria, as is our home.”

  “But I’ve agreed to work here, at the infirmary, for the Dracons,” Honey said, her heart sinking. “I can’t go back on my word, nor do I want to. Doc said that the new infirmary is going to have an obstetrics wing, designed and equipped with everything I want.”

  “Wait,” Vikter said, holding up a hand before she said any more. “We have no intention or desire to ask you to do such a thing. We know how important your work is, Honey. We would never interfere or hinder that in any way.”

  “Well, what do you have in mind then?” Honey asked uncertainly.

  “We haven’t actually made plans,” Vikter said. “But it seems best that we make our permanent home here. The council has given Michael the position of running the Research Center here, on the ranch. We will offer him a position in Berria instead, which we know he wants. He’ll be the first non Clan Jasani to work in the Council Complex, but he has proven himself worthy of it. We will run the center here, instead. There will be times we’ll have to go to Berria, but I think a clinic or infirmary should be built there, too. That way, you can see patients in Berria on a regular basis so they don’t always have to come here.”

  “So we’d be traveling a lot,” Honey said. “I like the idea of seeing patients there instead of making them travel so far. But that might be hard on Nica. She needs to settle in one place, go to school, make friends her own age.”

  “True,” Lance said. “Stability is important for any child. But don’t forget, Honey, there are many families here who already care a great deal for you and Nica. She can stay with the Falcorans, the Bearens, the Lobos, or the Dracons sometimes. Other times, she can come with us. She’ll need to see Michael occasionally as well, and he’ll be over there.”

  “I didn’t think about that,” she said. “I’m not used to having a community to fall back on.”

  “That reminds me,” Hunt said. “Will you please tell us what the words Mana and Dodi mean?”

  Honey smiled. “Mana means sister, and Dodi means brother. They’re old Sarien words taught to me by a nanny I had as a child who was born on that world. It’s a lost language now. Everyone speaks Standard.”

  “Does that mean Nica knows you are her sister?” Lance asked.

  “Yes, she knows,” Honey replied. “We didn’t intend for her to know. We thought it best, safest actually, for her to believe that we were her parents. Since we did adopt her, according to the laws of Terien we are her parents.”

  “Why did you change your minds?” Hunt asked.

  “We didn’t,” she replied. “Nica knows...things. She has a talent for it. She’s always known the truth. Even when she was a baby she would never call us Mama or Dada like other babies. So I gave her those names for us, and told her what they meant. She was maybe a year old, but somehow she understood.

  “When she got older we had to teach her not to contradict people when they assumed we were her parents. We also tried to avoid saying that she was our daughter. It was a fine line, but it was better than lying in front of her. I doubt that the distinction matters, but it made us feel better.”

  “What is her gift, exactly?” Vikter asked. “If you don’t mind telling us.”

  “She has two, like I do,” Honey said. “She sees what is. She can tell if someone really means one thing when they say another. She knows what people are really like, inside. She knew Michael and I weren’t her parents, for example. But she also sees things that will come, which can be frightening sometimes. The best thing about it is that it isn’t perfect, and it isn’t constant.”

  “Do you mean she sees things, and then they don’t happen?” Lance asked.

  “No, if she sees it, it happens,” Honey replied. “I mean that she doesn’t see everything. Just bits and pieces here and there.”

  “When we brought her home from your Aunt’s that day, she told us that we were going to marry you, and wanted to know if she would get to shift into our alter-form,” Hunt said with a smile. “We didn’t doubt her, but neither did we fully understand her.”

  “Did you ask her about it?”

  “No, we could not cross-examine a child,” Vikter said.

  “Actually, we did ask her one question,” Lance said. “We asked her what would happen to her father if we ma
rried you. She misunderstood the question and replied that Michael would not be marrying us, that he was going to marry someone else, but that she couldn’t see who. We asked her no more questions after that.”

  “I appreciate that,” Honey said. “They do not tolerate psychic gifts on Terien, to put it mildly, but it’s very difficult to teach a child Nica’s age not to talk about something that is, for her, normal. The result was she was never allowed to go off on her own without one of us. It wasn’t so bad when she was a baby, but the older she got, the more difficult the situation became. We didn’t want to isolate her, but at the same time, we knew that other people’s reactions could be dangerous. Michael’s mother cutting off her braid was a warning to us. That’s one reason why Michael worked so hard to get the assignment on Earth, representing Terien on the Intersystem Scientific Counsel. Earth is much more open minded about such things.”

  “Her life, from this moment forward, will be different, Honey,” Vikter said. “She will be loved, guarded, and treasured for precisely who she is. She will never have to hide anything, never have to worry. We will see to it, this we promise.”

  “Thank you,” Honey whispered, overwhelmed by the sensation of freedom and peace she was beginning to feel. Could life really be this good? This simple? Was it really possible to be who and what they were, and be accepted for it? It was hard to grasp, even for her. She hoped it came easier for Nica.

  “I just remembered something,” she said, frowning. “This morning, before I went to the clinic, Nica was worried about someone named Shari, and wanted to know if I knew anyone by that name, which I don’t.” Honey told them all that Nica had said that morning, comforted by the serious expressions on their faces as they listened. “Usually she doesn’t see things about herself, so this bothers me even more than usual.”

  “Why are you surprised?” Vikter asked when she was finished.

  “Surprised?”

  “We can feel your emotions as you feel ours,” Lance said. “Right now, you were surprised while you spoke of Nica.”