Icarus Unbound
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"You're not going searching for a black egg." Jaran's voice was flat but with an underlying current of determination.
Clearly he meant this as an order to be obeyed without question. "Symbion breeding grounds are dangerous."
"I know. My mother survived in one for several days, though, and she told me all about her experience. I know what to watch out for."
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"You could canvas half the world searching for a black egg, Lara," Odan said. "You may not find one in ten years, let alone ten days."
Lara put her hands on her hips and spread her wings in defiance. "Well, if I don't then maybe I'm not worthy to be co-leader."
She didn't wait for Jaran's response. Ignoring protocol, she stormed out of the audience chamber without his leave and set off for Kiala's aerie.
"I can't believe you would do this, Odan." Jaran transferred his angry gaze to his brother as soon as Lara left.
"Do what? I'm trying to help because I know you couldn't bear to have Lara taken away from you."
"She will not be taken away."
"Will you give up leadership for her before the committee votes to dissolve your union?"
"No." Jaran turned from the window. "That won't be necessary."
Odan challenged him. "Why? Do you think revealing your father's identity to them after all these years will make a difference?"
"It certainly will."
"It can only hurt you, Jaran. It's a secret best kept."
"It will remove any doubt about our offspring."
Odan shook his head. "Don't do it, Jaran. Give Lara a chance to prove herself."
"She shouldn't have to."
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Odan pursed his lips and his wings rustled with irritation.
"Don't you think that perhaps it's because of you that she feels she must?"
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Chapter Eleven
The flight back from the aerie Kiala and Breon now shared left Lara bone weary. Her friend had chosen one of the most distant islands in the royal chain, and it had taken the better part of the day and early evening to make the trip, convince Kiala to give her detailed maps of all the symbion breeding grounds and fly back as the sky darkened with the beginnings of a mild storm.
Wet from the first lashing of raindrops and shivering with fatigue, Lara flew instinctively to the royal aerie and landed on the upper tier balcony that led directly to Jaran's private chamber.
She found him there, sitting at his table, a half-eaten meal before him. His dour expression softened a bit when he saw her. "You look exhausted."
"Thank you. I feel just as bad." Lara lowered herself to the bed, but resisted the urge to fall back into the sweet-smelling alor fibers. She knew the moment she got comfortable she'd fall asleep and she was too hungry to last the night without eating something.
She eyed the food waiting on the table and wished for the strength to get up again and help herself.
"I wish you would stop disappearing. I can't fly off and search for you, you know. I have duties here."
"I didn't disappear so you would have to search for me. I went to talk to Kiala, and she gave me what I needed. Once the rain passes, I'm going to begin searching for a black egg.
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It seems silly, but if it will impress the committee, then I should do it."
Jaran sighed. He filled a bowl with bread, fruit and what appeared to be strips of succulent crab meat and brought the meal over to her just as she'd been silently hoping he would.
She dug into the food gratefully while he watched her.
"Thank you," she mumbled between bites. "I'm starving."
"Tomorrow I'll speak to the committee, and you won't have to go on this ridiculous hunt."
She plucked fruit slices from the bowl and savored the mix of juices. "Jaran, I won't allow you to abdicate for me. That makes no sense. You lead in Jidar's name, and that's how the tribe should be ruled."
"I won't abdicate. I will tell them something that will make all this worry about tradition seem absurd."
She licked her lips and set the nearly empty bowl aside.
"What could you possibly tell them that will make them forget their commitment to tradition?"
"The traditions are only an excuse. I told you, they care about lineage. They want full Icarian offspring."
"And with a hybrid mate you could have a better chance of producing a child with all Icarian traits. I understand why they want that, Jaran."
"But it will never happen. Even if I choose a hybrid mate, I will never have a full Icarian offspring."
Lara swallowed her last bite of dinner and stared at Jaran.
Genetics were not her area of expertise except where it concerned plant breeding, but even so what he said seemed impossible. "A full Icarian and a hybrid Icarian will produce 104
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three-quarter hybrid Icarian children. You have the best possible chance to breed out human traits."
Jaran held up a hand. "True, and a full human and a hybrid will produce three-quarters human offspring."
Lara shrugged. "That's one of the reasons I thought you might not pair me with anyone. The committee wants to minimize the chance of human traits in the next generation."
"And the odds are you and I will produce a three-quarters human child."
Lara stared at him. He wasn't making sense. "I don't..."
Jaran's gaze delved into hers. Clearly he was trying to say something to her without using the actual words. After a moment of blissful ignorance she began to understand. "Your father wasn't Icarian."
"My father was Dr. Danson."
Lara hadn't meant to gasp so loudly. She drew in a breath so fast she began to cough. "Are you serious?"
Jaran frowned, and his wings ruffled in irritation. "Why would I make that up?" My mother told me the truth shortly before she died. She hadn't ever intended to, but I recall pestering her to know which of the guards who visited us was my father."
"But when did—"
"Before her exile, when she realized she wouldn't have the chance to mate with your father, she accepted a substitute.
Dr. Danson was a healthy human male and he was more than willing to participate. She lied to him as well. On the one occasion he asked Jidar to allow him to visit her in exile I hadn't yet been born. Apparently he suspected once he heard 105
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the rumor of her pregnancy, but she managed to convince him that she'd conceived after being brought to her prison.
She believed having a full Icarian child when almost no one else could would restore some of her battered reputation."
Lara could only gape. She couldn't imagine the burden Arilani had placed on the shoulders of her young son by asking him to keep this secret.
"Jidar always told me my lineage didn't play a role in his choosing me as his successor over Odan, but I always wondered. That's why I never told, and why I resented you so much. You didn't have to lie. You were different than everyone else in our generation, but you never had to hide it."
"So you made me want to." Lara fought a quick stab of anger mixed with sympathy. All those years Jaran had punished her for being a full-blooded human had been spurred by his own insecurity about really being a hybrid himself.
"I'm sorry. Truly."
"Every other member of our generation is a hybrid, Jaran.
There's no shame in it."
"Every other member of our generation was born of a sanctioned union assigned by Jidar and Namara. My mother disobeyed Icarian law."
"She did, but you can't be held accountable for her crimes."
"Yes, I can."
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Lara rose and put a hand on Jaran's arm. "Do you really think the committee will use this information against you if you tell them?"
"As much as it embarrasses me, no. Like you said, every member of our generation is a hybrid. The committee can't remove me from my position because my father was human.
I wasn't chosen for my DNA. Once they know the truth, they can't dissolve our union because even if I mated with another hybrid I would still produce a hybrid child." Jaran bowed his head and touched his forehead to Lara's.
She probably should have been angry, but instead her heart ached for him. She put her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. "I'm sorry that your mother put you through this. Regardless of her crimes, she loved you and wanted for you to be accepted."
Jaran's arms tightened around Lara, and he kissed the top of her head. "That's all your parents wanted for you as well, and I did all I could to make it impossible for you. I'm sorry."
Lara looked up into Jaran's eyes. "If you can accept me as a human now, I can accept you as a hybrid."
"Agreed. Then you'll forget this quest for the black egg and we can concentrate on the mating cycle?"
Lara squeezed Jaran's shoulder. "No. I still have to prove myself. Even if the committee agrees not to dissolve the union, there would still be doubt in their minds about me. It doesn't matter how you see me, Jaran. To them, I'm not really Icarian. I'm just a human with wings."
Jaran stiffened. He loved having Lara in his arms, soft and pliant. The relief of finally telling her his secret had calmed his 107
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spirit. He'd never been as content in his life as he had been in the moment he confided in her, but that bliss ended too quickly.
He stepped back and eyed his mate, frustration making him clench his hands into fists. "Didn't your mother explain to you how dangerous symbion mating grounds can be?"
"She did. She told me how she almost died, how jagged the rocks were, how there was nothing to protect her from the wind and the waves. But the symbions watched over her.
They saved her life." She held up a hand to still his protest. "I know, I have my own symbion to care for me. The wild symbions might see me as a threat, but I really believe the only danger I'll face is in not finding a black egg before the committee votes."
"You're not hearing me, Lara."
She placed two fingers over Jaran's lips. "Yes, I am. But it doesn't matter. This is something I have to do."
Jaran raised his wings in dismay. The woman would not listen to reason! "You may be co-leader now, but I'm your liege and I forbid you to go on this hunt."
Lara's beautiful eyes flashed. The pliant, accepting woman he'd held a moment ago was gone. "Don't take this away from me, Jaran. I need to prove myself."
"No, you don't. You need to be here with me accepting your duties as my mate, duties you're already neglecting by spending the day preparing for a useless ancient ritual when you should have been here in my bed."
Lara tossed her chin, defiance lighting her eyes. "I know I'll never be Icarian. In my heart I know that, but all I've ever 108
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wanted was to belong to this world and this will help me do that."
"Not if you die trying to accomplish it."
"You have no faith in me." Her own wings ruffled, and she began to gesture as she paced beside the bed. "If I didn't think I could do this, I wouldn't try. I'm not a fool. I know the risks like every Icarian child does. I've seen the breeding grounds and I know there's no place more dangerous, but I believe in my own abilities and I believe in the symbions."
"No, you believe in the fairy tale your mother told you."
Lara reared back as if he'd slapped her. "Fairy tale? Are you saying my mother lied to me about how she survived and how she became joined?"
"No ... I—what I meant was, her story was mythic. It was a once in a lifetime occurrence."
"Mythic? Are you saying you don't believe the symbions saved my mother's life? Maybe you're also trying to say you don't believe your mother tried to kill her."
Heat suffused Jaran's face, and in response to his growing anger and frustration at his own inability to deal with Lara, his symbion began to stir. A wave of lust washed over him, a message from his symbion that he could not allow his mate to disappear again.
"Is this what we've come back to so soon? Are you going to punish me for my mother's crimes again after you said I couldn't be held accountable?"
"I don't blame you for what she did. I only questioned whether or not you believe she did it. Since you're questioning my mother's history, maybe you—"
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Jaran grabbed Lara roughly. Her wings flapped in surprise, but she didn't break out of his grasp. "What happened thirty years ago is not important. What happens tonight is."
"And what happens tonight?" Her voice held a hint of the old malice and a thread of fear.
"Tonight you will learn to obey me."
Jaran scooped Lara up in his arms and deposited her on the bed. The empty food bowl crashed to the floor and shattered, but Jaran didn't care. He climbed on the bed and covered Lara's body with his own. "You're my mate and your concern should be for our union, not proving yourself to the antiquated minds of the committee members."
"Antiqua—"
Jaran cut off her protest with a kiss, not a tender meeting of their lips, but a claiming. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, searching and battling until she surrendered.
Meanwhile he pulled her clothing off, tearing the thin, clingy material away from her breasts and pushing it down past her hips.
She struggled, but Jaran didn't stop to determine if she was helping him get her clothes off or trying to resist. He didn't care. He intended to have his female now, and so far she hadn't spoken a word in protest.
When she was naked, he spread her legs with his hands and found her clit. He pinched the distended flesh, and she cried out, clearly alarmed by his aggression. Her hips bucked, but still she didn't tell him to stop. He kissed her again, stealing her breath while he played her body.
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Massaging her sex, spreading the plump folds of flesh, he found her juices flowing. Her symbion had obviously taken over, as eager to replace fighting with mating as his own was.
Lara might have preferred to finish their argument, but her body was no longer under her mind's control. Neither was his.
With a ragged moan, he thrust a finger inside her sheath.
She stiffened and let out a gasp that made his cock instantly hard. Her slick essence eased his way, allowing him to delve deep inside and find the hidden spot that would give her ultimate pleasure.
He pressed there, hard, and she writhed under him, her breath coming in short, labored rasps.
"Come for me," he demanded. "I want your body pulsing for me, ready to take my seed."
"Mmm ... mmm." She nodded but her jaw clenched and her eyes blazed.
"Don't fight your symbion, Lara. This is what we're meant to do. We shouldn't be at odds with each other."
"Ah!" Lara's teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, and Jaran slid his finger rapidly in and out of her tightening sex, creating friction and heat. "Do it. I want you to come in my hand, now."
"No!" Even as she forced the word out, she lost her inner battle. Her body convulsed and her pussy clenched. She began to shiver with her internal contractions, curling her body up to take him in deeper.
She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned while Jaran continued to thrust, each time pushing against her G-spot to prolong her uncontrolled surrender.
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r
"I love to feel you come," he said, pulling his finger out finally. He trailed her thick essence along her thigh and brushed the cooling moisture over her skin. She shuddered, and her muscles rippled. "You'll be fertile soon," he told her.
"But until then..."
He settled himself between her legs and guided his cock to her entrance. Her cum glistened on the lips of her sex and scented the air with her unique aroma. Jaran breathed deeply of her arousal before he entered her.
"Jaran ... Jaran." She panted his name and whimpered as he impaled her. Instinct brought her long legs around his back, and her defiant nature had her arching under him even before he began to thrust. She clearly wanted him to come quickly and be done with her, but Jaran wanted Lara to understand how much he needed her with him, not on a damn fool quest to prove something to the committee.
He wanted her with him in every way, so he worked at controlling his own responses. Her body held his, milked him.
Her hips cradled him. Ecstasy was close, but he wouldn't allow himself to reach completion until she did for the second time.
He lowered his mouth to the tight bud of her nipple and began to suck, long pulls that wrung deep moans from her, until finally her body tightened around him and she grew silent.
"You're coming again," he said. "I can feel it."
She muttered something incoherent and wrapped her arms around his back. She curled up around him just as she exploded into a second, shattering orgasm.
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Her body shivered, and she bit his shoulder, a small sound of defeat echoing in the back of her throat. A perfect surrender.
Jaran allowed himself to come then. Every muscle in his body went hard, and he released his seed in hot arcs. Once the mating cycle began in earnest, an orgasm like this one would guarantee conception, but right now, all it did was satisfy his lust, calm his symbion and assert his ownership over his mate.
She was his, and as long as he lived, that would never change.
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