by Flora Dare
He finally said, "She's alive."
"So you really will do anything the good doctor tells you, to see her again." My voice was dull and flat. All I could picture was turning into my mother. An empty vessel that only came alive when he was near.
His hands clenched at his sides and his voice grew hoarse. "You don't understand...I have to see her, to save her."
"I do understand. I have a brother after all." I settled against the wall, sliding down into a cross-legged position. "Please, keep reading. Find out everything you can about your sister. I'm going to meditate."
I was going to try and slip into torpor before anyone realized what I was doing. I assumed that Dr. Blattodea was capable of rousing me, but she would have to know it's what I was doing and she'd have to move quickly. Deep grief bludgeoned my heart, as much as he'd hurt me, I didn't want to leave Sam. And I wanted to see my brother again.
But I had helped Sam get his heart's desire. And I was ready to let go. It was the only thing I could think of to get freedom from Dr. Blattodea's cruel experiments. I took a deep breath in, and as I exhaled, I sank a little deeper into myself.
With each breath, the external world fell away. I could only hear my own heartbeat, feel the air moving in and out of my lungs as my breathing slowed. Eventually, even the light of the room pressing on my eyes started to fade. I was on the edge, the only thing I could still feel was the link with Sam. I touched it with my mind and just sent a soft goodbye to him in my heart and fell into the darkness of my mind.
There was suddenly light everywhere, and someone kept slapping me. I finally realized I was back in the room and it was Sam, holding me up by the fabric of my suit. What had he done? Why was he so angry?
Chapter Fourteen
It took me a heartbeat to realize I'd been pulled out of the torpor I'd sunk myself into. It was just Sam and I in the room. How did he know what to do?
"Why, why did you do that?" He was shaking me so hard I couldn't speak. "I felt you go away." He pulled me into his arms and just held me tight.
I whispered, "I had to. She's going to torture us, use your sister to force you to do whatever she wants. Eventually, it would break you, and even if I hadn't broken by then, that would destroy me, utterly. Please, let me go, let me slip away from here."
His grip on me tightened until I gasped in pain. "I can't."
All I could do is weep. "Please, Sam."
"I can save you both."
"How? How can you possibly do that?"
"I can't tell you. But I promise you, even before I took you, I had a plan. It's all connected."
A voice interrupted us. "Well, that's lovely. I would have been most put out if you'd let her slip away so effortlessly."
Sam glared at her, his grip still so tight on my arms that it was hard not to wince. "When do I see my sister?"
"You doubt me?"
"Why shouldn't I? You're literally an evil scientist."
"Droll. But that is a fair point. I summoned her the second you made your request. We should rendezvous in the next few days."
"I should just believe you?"
"Of course not. However, as a show of good faith, I will have no specific requests to make of you, other than asking you to rejuvenate yourselves. You'll both need your strength in the coming days."
"Dare I ask your plans?"
"There’s no harm in you knowing. I am planning on studying how your bond grows. Then, I will see if that bond is stronger than your love for your sister. Can it be broken by sheer will? I have no idea! I'm rather looking forward to this."
After Dr. Blattodea left, Sam just held me in his arms, stroking my hair. He concentrated, and I felt something warm flooding me. It was our bond! He was using it. Even whispering wasn't safe, we both knew that from the bargains we'd struck.
It was still a tenuous thing. It was wrapped into every part of me, but the full connection was still so fresh. But he'd heard me say goodbye. And now I could hear the faintest impressions of words.
"Sister here. Then action." I nodded. I understood. When his sister was on the ship, then we could move forward, do something, anything. I couldn't imagine how he could possibly have a plan, so I decided simply to trust him. I didn't have any other choice.
Chapter Fifteen
Days slipped into each other. Even knowing we were observed, it was easier to ignore that we were prisoners and just make love to each other between meals. We would lie in the afterglow in silence. Emotions hummed between us. I could feel the bond tightening around us, binding us, binding me.
Finally, our idyll was broken by Dr. Blattodea. One of the little robots fetched us from our cell and brought us to her laboratory. She left us standing for hours, watching her cluck over piles of notes. She finally looked up and frowned at us.
"You were both a waste. My instruments should have detected something when you had intercourse and completed the bond." She shook the flimsy pages in rage. "But this is a bunch of nothing."
Sam said, "Does that mean you are withdrawing from your side of the agreement? It's not our fault your instruments failed."
She snorted at us. "Your precious sister is on the ship." She threw the pages down and leaned back in her chair, a glittering, malicious smile crossing her face. "That portion of the experiment will be even more entertaining, considering how irritated you have both made me."
All I could feel from Sam was wild exultation. And I was happy for him. I'd sacrificed our chance of breaking the bond for this. I understood better why Tlavi was ready to give up everything for Meli, even when he didn't understand what was driving him.
Dr. Blattodea stood up and said, "If you want to see your sister, strangle Thearaugqua. Now."
Sam advanced on me and I flinched. Could I trust him? Should I fight him? Could I? His hands wrapped around my throat, warm and sensuous, until they begun to tighten. My hands found their way to his wrists, and a single tear slipped down my face. I realized I couldn't stop him if I wanted to, and that I was recreating my own mother's death. She couldn't stop my father.
And just like her, I didn't even want too.
As blackness edged around my vision, all I could do was share how much I loved Sam and that it would be okay.
All hell broke loose when his hands abruptly released me. The door exploded into melted slag, and Foundation shock troops streamed into the room. Sam covered me with his body as Dr. Blattodea was hit with electrowhips and dropped to the floor.
"I'm sorry, so so sorry. I'm so sorry. Forgive me."
Sam was covering my face in soft kisses, weeping onto me. Our tears mingled.
I smiled up at him. "Nothing to be sorry for. I believed in you."
The troops pulled him up and helped me to my feet. A man walked through the door. Yastlama! The man who was more like a father to me than my own. Who raised Tlavi and I when my father wandered. Before I could run to him, Sam greeted him. I staggered. What was he doing here? How did Sam know him?
Yastlama walked over to me, holding his arms out, sorrow on his face. "Thea, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize what would happen."
I stepped away from both of them. Doubt and fear clashed in me. What was he talking about?
I drew myself up into as icy cold and untouchable a demeanor as I could. "Gentlemen, I do not understand what is happening, and I have been held prisoner for some time. What the hell are you doing here, Yastlama?"
He looked helplessly over at Sam. He started to say, "I can explain everything..." but I cut him off.
"Start, now. I'm done waiting."
Sam held his hand up to Yastlama. "Let me. Thea, I've been working with him. He was the one who rescued me. We've been working to infiltrate the Reivers."
"You what? What does that have to do with me?"
They both shifted uncomfortably.
Yastlama finally broke the growing silence. "We knew there was a connection to your father and to you. But we also knew that you were very well protected and rarely ventured to the outer edges
of the Foundation. But your brother took you with him to Earth." His voice trailed off and Sam picked up where he left off.
"And Yastlama alerted me that you were venturing out of the safe zone. So I grabbed you."
My voice was frozen. All I could do was stare at them. They could have just as easily killed all of us.
Finally I said, "I want to rest now."
Yastlama gestured to the hallway. "I have suites prepared for both of you."
Sam said, "Do you have my sister?"
I flinched. I'd been willing to give up everything for him and his thoughts still dwelt completely on his sister. I would have to go through life, much like my mother, knowing her life bond was to someone who could never put her first in his thoughts. Suddenly I was more tired than I'd even been. I could feel the bruises starting to form on my neck and I just wanted to soak in a pool until I forgot everything.
As my brother was fond of saying, a life bond wasn't love. It was something we couldn't control. Perhaps Dr. Blattodea's ghastly research really had uncovered more ways to control it, to sever it. She seemed to think so. Perhaps I could be free of the wretched thing.
I swept out of the room and walked away from Sam. I needed to not be near him for a while. Even if our hearts beat in sync, I felt anger coming from him. How dare he? How dare he be angry at me? I was the one ill-used. I'd done nothing wrong, except be born of a psychopath.
I made it all the way to the suite of rooms before I collapsed into a weeping mess. How could Yastlama betray me? He was the one Sam was working with. He was the one who was there after my mother died, who helped me recover.
And he'd thrown me to the wolves. To pirates. For the greater good, he said.
Leaving me to be beaten, kidnapped and betrayed again by my lifemate. I laughed at myself for believing the lies and betrayal were over, that anyone could be trusted.
Chapter Sixteen
I didn't move when I heard the door slide open. It was likely just Yastlama, trying to explain himself. But it wasn't. It was Sam, and he pulled me off of my feet. He was furious, I could feel the rage echoing down our link, I'd desperately been trying to block him from my mind, but all I could feel was his towering anger.
"I told you I would tell you everything." He pressed his mouth against mine. I struggled against him. I couldn't think when he touched me. He grabbed my ass and pulled me against his body. I wiggled an arm free and got off a swing, connecting with the side of his face.
He staggered, but didn't let go of me. He pushed me backwards until we tumbled over the divan. His weight knocked the breath out of me and I lay there stunned as he pulled himself up, momentarily. But my respite was brief as he grabbed hold of my shipsuit and literally ripped it in two.
My pussy flooded with desire for him as I lay exposed. But I had to fight him. I wasn't my mother, giving into her bond and letting it kill her. I'd given in once, and it had gotten me nothing but sorrow. I slapped him hard, across the face.
He was nestled between my legs and I could feel his cock grow even harder the more I struggled. I wrapped my legs around him and tumbled us off the divan and onto the floor. I was on top of him and could feel his girth pressing into me. I couldn't help myself, and grabbed the front of his shirt. I ground against him, bringing myself close to the edge as he held on to my hips, pressing me hard into him.
I wasn't sure if I was struggling or trying to get off, but I couldn't stop myself from exploding just from feeling him rubbing against my clit. I howled my orgasm and leaned backwards, unable to hold myself up.
In my weakness, Sam spun me over on my belly and pulled me up to his face. He stripped off the last shreds of my clothing and buried his face in my dripping pussy. He had a death grip on my thighs as his tongue lashed my nether lips. He absolutely devoured every inch of my cleft.
I realized my face was resting on his crotch, and as he suckled my clit, I had to have him, to taste him. If this was our last moment, I was going to take everything.
His pants fell apart in my hands and I finally was able to just look at his cock. The thick head glistened with pre-cum and my tongue couldn't help but slip out and tease the small slit at the end. I was rewarded by his muffled moan.
I cupped his balls in one hand, enjoying their warm weight while I gripped the base of his shaft with the other. I slowly circled the head with my tongue, flicking against the flared edge. I could feel him pulse in my hand and I took the tip fully into my mouth. I sunk as low as I could, then pulled back until the edge popped past my tightened lips. Then I slipped it back in, sinking it lower and lower.
It wasn't until I realized he had stopped moving and his hands were just gripping me harder and harder, what power I had over him. I relaxed my throat and took him all the way into me. I just let myself feel full of him in this very different way.
He swore as I started moving back and forth, gently. I wondered if I could get him off like this, if he would let me. For several long moments, he let me take him fully, but then he buried his face in my cleft again. His hands explored me ruthlessly, plundering my core.
His mouth took my clit again, while he plunged several fingers into me. I was growing closer to my peak again, when his other hand, wet with my juices, shifted and begun to circle my rosebud. The new sensations surprised me, and when he probed the tight bud and slid a finger deep within me, I exploded and came harder than he'd ever driven me.
I shuddered in his arms, so completely caught up in the moment he'd driven me to that his cock popped free of my mouth and I screamed again. He rolled us over, shifted, and was suddenly covering me.
"I told you to trust me." He grabbed my hips and rubbed his still rock hard cock against me. "But you ran." He rubbed the swollen head of his cock against my still sensitive tissues and I arched my back. "You're mine. You gave yourself to me." As he slammed into my waiting opening he said, "And I gave myself to you."
I was lost in his embrace, in feeling him fill me with his thickness. All I could see was the swirling bond between us. Filled with unspoken emotions. Passion, and lust, and something else.
"You are my woman." He began jackhammering me, our bond hopelessly enmeshed. "I love you and will never let you go." I shattered in his arms at his words and feeling the truth in them in our lifebond. He shouted and I felt him tense inside of me as he exploded with me.
He collapsed on me, pressing a kiss onto my forehead. Before he could get too heavy, he rolled us onto our sides. Neither of us could move, but he wrapped his arms around me. He gently stroked my hair as he whispered in my ear.
"I can't live without you. I needed to save my sister. But my life ends if you leave, if you break this thing between us. I've been living only for revenge of the past, never thinking about the future."
Tears swelled in my eyes. This was the part no one had told me about the life bond. I'd only witnessed the darkest things it could become, never the joy and love that could be between two people. The transcendent glory of two hearts beating together.
"I could no more leave you than cut off my own arm."
He leaned back, his thumb brushing a tear off my cheek. I looked up at him, shocked to see his eyes glistening with tears.
He said, "I have no idea what the future can be for us, but I will make myself into whatever you need."
I laughed to myself and pulled him tight against me again. "Sam, I don't know what the future can be, but we'll figure it out together."
He picked me up and carried me to a sofa. I wasn't used to anyone being able to just lift me and carry me around. It made me feel delicate and cared for, how he carried me cradled in his chest like I was the most important thing he'd ever carried. He swaddled me in a furry blanket and I settled into his chest, his arm wrapped around me.
"I told you I'd tell you everything. I didn't mean to get quite so carried away. All of a sudden you were gone, and all I could feel from you was the same frost as when you went into torpor. I had to come to you."
"I wasn't going into my
self, if that's what you meant. But I was so sad and so miserable."
He squeezed me tight. "I know I did that to you, and I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you."
"I look forward to that."
"Yastlama is the one who rescued me, I owed him everything."
I laughed. I was still furious at him, but he'd been the one to rescue Tlavi and me as well. Protecting us from our father as much as he'd been able to. And when my father had finally killed our mother, forcing Tlavi to kill him to save me, Yastlama been our safe harbor.