Icarus Unbound

by Bernadette Gardner

  Icarus Unbound

  by Bernadette Gardner

  Her thin shirt did little to hide the suddenly stiff peaks of her nipples, and her eyes dilated a bit despite the bright sunlight. "Now?"

  "Immediately."

  "But—"

  Jaran took Lara's hand and spread his wings. He leapt into the air, and following the lead of his symbion, hers obeyed the wordless command and drew her up after him into the ocean breeze.

  The flight across the narrow, mostly flat research station island took only a few minutes, and together they sailed to a perfect tandem landing on the small patch of macadam next to her private bungalow. The tiny hut sat among dozens of others that had cropped up over the years as the staff of the research station grew. Fortunately, despite the population explosion, the residential part of the island remained mostly deserted during the day.

  Lara arched a brow at Jaran. "You always said the bungalows were too small for Icarians. Won't you be uncomfortable in such a confined space?"

  Jaran smirked. He recalled every derisive thing he'd ever said about human-style dwellings. The first time he'd seen one of the small huts that lined the southern beach he'd thought they were habitats for animals, not sentient beings.

  He remembered a particularly cruel remark he'd made to Lara shortly after they'd been joined with their symbions. He'd compared her parents to small laboratory mammals when he found out they spent part of each year living at the research 64

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  station even though they had claimed an island aerie as their permanent home.

  He cringed at the memory, but forced his regrets aside.

  Later he could apologize for his boorish childhood comments.

  Right now he wanted to touch his mate and demonstrate that his need for her transcended all the bad blood that had passed between them over the years.

  "I'll manage somehow." He grabbed her hand and headed into the tiny building with her in tow.

  Within the prefabricated walls he did feel somewhat confined, but he also felt surrounded by Lara. The decor reflected more about who she was than he could have ever gleaned on his own.

  She'd taken the mass-produced dwelling and turned it into a miniature aerie by painting the walls in shades reminiscent of island sandstone. Her belongings were stored in traditional Icarian fashion, hung in nets of alor vines, and though her bed was less than half the size of his, it bore a handmade fiber covering and smelled of the abundant plant which had provided his ancestors with so many of life's amenities.

  Jaran slowed his pace, stunned by the familiarity of his surroundings. "You made this a proper home," he said, running his fingers along a bowl made of the shell of a symbion egg. His gaze wandered to the only human-inspired elements of the decor, photographs of Lara's parents which hung in the entryway.

  "I figured I'd be spending most of my life here, so I modeled it after my parents' aerie." For the space of her response, all malice left her voice. Jaran liked the change.

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  "I'm sure they're pleased with the result."

  "They've never seen it. I moved here after they left for Daedalus."

  Jaran eyed the photographs. He recalled Caleb and Zara being loving, understanding parents who treated their only child with great affection. After losing his own mother, he'd been resentful of many of the happy families of his friends, even after Jidar and Namara took him in and raised him with as much love and care as they did Odan.

  "Don't we have business to attend to?" The caustic tone returned to Lara's voice, breaking the momentary spell that had held Jaran captive.

  Irritation flared in him. He'd come here to demonstrate his arousal to Lara, to claim her and prove to her that last night it had been his choice to forgo his own satisfaction, not any failure of his abilities as a male.

  Now, he felt foolish. His plan to ravage Lara, to let his symbion control their coupling, seemed petty and almost cruel.

  He straightened his wings and cast a wary glance at her.

  "I'm afraid our business will have to wait."

  Shock slackened her features. "What?"

  "I need to return to the aerie. I'm sorry to have interrupted your work day."

  "Huh?" Her wings ruffled, and she hurried across the room when Jaran turned to let himself back out the door. "You changed your mind?"

  "No. I merely need to put off our ... interlude." Jaran crooked a finger beneath her chin and raised her stunned 66

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  gaze to meet his. "I will claim you later. I'll expect you at the aerie by sundown ... and you may leave your clothing here."

  He ran a finger into the collar of her loose shirt, skimming her soft skin.

  She gaped at him and for the first time in her life seemed at a loss for words. A wicked thought crossed Jaran's mind, and without preamble he brushed his lips over hers. The brief taste ignited his once again pent-up passions and after a second, he thrust his tongue past her lips. Rough and demanding, he took her mouth, swallowing her gasp of indignation.

  Shocked by his aggression, she tried to pull away, but he wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and dragged her body against him. Her hands came up to his chest to brace herself, and though she made a show of trying to push him away, he was well aware all of her strength wasn't behind the rejection.

  Her flavor filled his mouth and sent a call of desire to his dormant symbion. His wings rustled and his cock stirred again as he explored her hot mouth. He'd dreamed of kissing Lara for years, and none of those fantasies came close to reality.

  She was soft and pliant in his arms, and even with a layer of clothing between them, he felt every sweet curve of her luscious body. He wanted her moaning beneath him. He wanted her open to him begging for completion. He needed her to belong to him completely, and that would never happen if she still harbored so much resentment.

  Finally he broke their kiss, leaving her wobbling. He smiled and waited until her eyes fluttered open, then he leaned close 67

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  and whispered in her ear. "The next time I decide I want you, you won't get a reprieve, so be prepared. Tonight, nothing will stop me."

  He left before she could choke out a response and took to the temperate air on trembling wings.

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  Chapter Seven

  Odan took his place among the administrators assembled in the western garden of the royal aerie. This unscheduled meeting set his nerves on edge, not to mention took time away from his new mate. Jehri was busy making updates to the aerie they had claimed, but sooner or later she would expect him to be on hand, and so far he'd spent more time away from her than before they were officially paired.

  One of the two dozen administrators called the meeting to order and served as tonight's leader among this assembly of equals. A relatively new construct in Icarian government, the administrative committee had been appointed by Jidar and Namara to help them deal with the increasing demands of leadership when the success of the breeding program caused a three percent increase in the Icarian population in a single year.

  The committee of twelve appointed elders and twenty-four liaisons served to aid the ruler in any way he saw fit and to uphold Icarian traditions during a time when a tenth of the planet's population was human.

  Odan served as a liaison, and the fact that all of his colleagues had been called here when Jaran was not in attendance made him nervous.

  "A concern has been circulating throughout the population, and you've all been called here to render your opinion on the matter." The nominal leader spoke from a podium raised slightly above the ground.

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  Next to Odan, Daralei rung her hands. "The outcome of this meeting will not sit well with Jaran," she muttered.

  "I agree. I don't like what I've been hearing."

  The speaker raised his wing tips, commanding silence from the crowd. "Our liege, Jaran, has chosen a full human mate.

  This has given rise to concerns that too many others may choose to do the same in the future. Today we are here to question whether the integrity of our genetic lineage will suffer because of Jaran's choice."

  Odan mumbled a curse and spread his wings, commandeering the attention of the committee. "Our liege's chosen mate may be fully human, but so are half of our parents. More than half of us standing here today exist only because my father, Jidar, had the courage to invite humans into our society. Without their genetic contributions, our race would have died out completely within the next two mating cycles. How can we still hold prejudice against the human bloodline when it is the reason we survive today?"

  Another liaison countered Odan. "The original purpose of the human infusion was to provide enough varied DNA to allow for successful mating. Now we've accomplished our goal, and we should be concentrating on producing a generation of nearly full-blooded Icarians if we can."

  Daralei took up the argument. "But until our population grows sufficiently, we're still in danger of attrition. We may need more human DNA to prevent another catastrophic wave of infertility." As a full Icarian, her opinion held more weight than those of the hybrid liaisons, though it was not very popular among her equals on the committee.

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  "Jaran is the only full-blooded Icarian of our generation,"

  another liaison said. "He has a duty to uphold, and his choice of mate should reflect his dedication to Icarian traditions."

  "Then who better for him to choose than the daughter of the first human to accept an Icarian symbion and embrace our society as his own? If not for Caleb Faulkner's bravery, we would never have known that symbions can successfully join with humans," Odan said. If the committee voted against Jaran, he could lose Lara and be forced, at the very least, to choose another mate.

  "Dr. Faulkner's daughter is human. She may have been raised in an aerie, but upon reaching adulthood she moved to the research station island and has lived there among humans for several years. She wears clothing..." The dissention came from a liaison from the northern islands.

  "So do you, on occasion, Markus," Odan countered. "And you were named for your human father, were you not?

  Laramee Faulkner is no less Icarian than you are."

  A rumble of disagreement spread through the crowd at Odan's remark. It worried him that more people seemed to be against this union than for it.

  "Hail, hail." Dara spread her wings, and the assembly gave her its collective attention. The elder Icarian raised her voice to speak. "If you would vote to dissolve this union, you must take the Icarian traditions into consideration at every level. A leader's mate, according to the old laws, the ones you are all so anxious to uphold, can only be dismissed for the following reasons."

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  Daralei held up one hand high enough for all to see and counted on her fingers. "One, if she has proven unable to produce offspring. Two, if she has proven unwilling to produce offspring. Three, if she expresses a desire to abandon her mate or her offspring or four, if she has not proven herself to be a valuable member of society."

  Odan smiled. "Laramee meets none of those criteria. You have no grounds to request her dismissal."

  Markus, the upstart, spoke again. "She is a human scientist, a valuable member of her society, not ours."

  "We should remember her human parents embraced Icarus. They vowed to preserve our culture," someone else offered.

  "But she's a botanist. Jaran could have chosen a healer like Arilani, or a teacher like Namara, or an explorer like Daralei's daughter. A human scientist has the best interests of the research station at heart. She is not truly Icarian."

  Markus's argument left Odan feeling weary. He sighed. "So what would Laramee have to do to prove herself a worthy Icarian female if her desire to mate and produce offspring and her dedication to providing healthy food crops for Icarus is not enough?"

  Silence greeted him at first. No one offered a suggestion until Tyri spoke up from the edge of the crowd.

  "She should forsake the human sciences and dedicate herself to the Icarian traditions. Otherwise we have the grounds to dismiss her. She cannot ride on the accomplishments of her parents."

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  Anger ruffled Odan's wings. He considered all of this complaining and posturing to be ridiculous, but he realized the opinion of the majority of Icarians mattered. Everything he'd heard here tonight had been echoed by other members of the tribe who were not present. He couldn't pretend he wasn't aware of the rumors circulating among the aeries.

  "Very well. We should give Lara until the official start of the mating cycle to prove her contribution to our society." He hated imposing a time limit, and he knew once Lara conceived, the committee would be less likely to dismiss her, but it still could happen.

  He wanted to spare her and his adopted brother as much pain and humiliation as possible. This at least would give them a chance to thwart the prejudices against her.

  Reluctant agreement made its way through the crowd, and Odan clenched his fists as he prepared to leave the garden. "I will inform our liege of this decision."

  He would tell Lara first though, and give her as much time as possible to save herself from dismissal as Jaran's mate.

  He'd left her in her bungalow, shaking with rage and something else she didn't dare admit to herself. After Jaran's unceremonious departure, Lara had been unable to think, unable to even consider returning to work at her lab.

  How dare he practically drag her off the beach insisting he was going to ... claim her and then not follow through?

  Once she'd regained her motor skills, she'd run to the tiny bathroom and splashed ice cold water on her face. Even the temperature shock couldn't calm the heat of her shame at her body's reaction to his touch, to his unfulfilled promise. From 73

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  the moment he'd arrived on the beach, she'd begun trembling inside, anticipating what he might do to her. She wanted to believe it was anger at his cavalier assumption that she would drop everything to accommodate his sexual whims, but the truth was, she'd wanted it. She'd wanted him.

  She'd been aching for him since last night, wishing in the deepest corner of her soul that he would simply fuck her and go. She refused to think about how her nipples had hardened and her thighs had gone damp. She'd been halfway to her bed, prepared to surrender without question when the bastard changed his mind.

  She let out a frustrated scream and slapped her palms against the bathroom countertop. This couldn't go on. She had to end this before Jaran destroyed her completely.

  Still seething, she marched through the bungalow and flung the door open. Two steps outside, she nearly collided with Odan, Namara's biological son. He was one of the few Icarians born to her generation who had been conceived through artificial insemination. Jidar had preferred to avoid the process, believing it would undermine the strong familial core of Icarian traditions. Only a few other families, couples already mated, who could not conceive, had accepted such a radical option. Jidar had agreed to allow his own mate to undergo the human method of scientific procreation only because he had no desire to choose a human mate for himself and dismiss the woman he loved from his bed. Namara had given birth during the same mating cycle in which Lara and Jaran had been born.

  "Odan, what are ... I mean, uh..."

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  "I'm sorry to intrude, Lara,
but I'm glad I caught you before Jaran arrived."

  "Actually, he just left."

  Odan shrugged his wings. "Good, it's better if I speak to you alone first."

  Lara backed up a step. Odan's expression worried her. He looked anxious. Unlike his foster brother, Odan had never been cruel to her. Growing up, she couldn't have said they were friends, but he'd never ridiculed her name, her lineage or anything else about her, so she found it much easier to speak to him than she did Jaran.

  "What's bothering you? You haven't come to lecture me on how I should act toward Jaran, have you? And why didn't you kneel?" Lara clamped a hand over her mouth at her impertinent question. Odan, so far, had been the only Icarian to treat her normally since word of Jaran's choice had gotten around.

  Rather than look embarrassed at his faux pas, Odan smirked. "Must we stand on protocol when no one else is watching?"

  Relief made her limbs weak. "No, thank goodness. Odan, you're the only sane person I've run into today."

  "You might not think that when I tell you what's going on."

  She stared at him. "This is about the mate pairing, isn't it?"

  Odan nodded and proceeded to tell her the consensus that had been reached by the administrative committee. "It all strikes me as nonsense, but as a liaison, I have only one vote. This whole thing is based on fear that ultimately we will 75

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  lose our culture to human influence. That was a fear thirty years ago when the first hybrids were born and it's still a fear now. I'm not sure how to combat it."

  Lara felt worse now than she had before Odan arrived.

  While asking for a dissolution of her union with Jaran would solve the problem, it would also serve to permanently separate her from Icarian society. Walking away from her mate would mean accepting at least one condition of failure, and she loathed that prospect.

  "How am I supposed to prove myself?" She threw her hands in the air and ruffled her wings in frustration. "I've created three hybrid fruit trees and helped extend the southern growing season. I'm this close to finding a cure for kelp blight. What more can I do for Icarus, Odan? This is my home and these are my people. All I've ever wanted was to help this world."