The Lobos' Heartsong

by Laura Jo Phillips

  By the time she had reached Jasan, she had worked herself into quite a little depression. She had gathered her luggage and called Caitlyn out of the blue to tell her that she was there to visit, then sat down to wait for her sister to come and get her.

  That Caitlyn had no warning of her arrival, that she had a business to run, and that it was a three hour drive to the spaceport from the small town of Granite Falls where she lived, were facts that did not concern Darleen in the least. It never even occurred to her that she was putting her sister out, and if it had, she would not have cared.

  While she sat waiting in the spaceport for her sister to arrive, she noticed that there seemed to be a great number of unusually stunning men among the crowds coming and going. Men unlike anything she had ever seen before. Tall, lean, muscular men with handsome faces and piercing eyes. And they all seemed to come in sets of three. After awhile she got up and went in search of a gift shop where she found several different tourist booklets on Jasan. She bought them all, returned to her seat and read them cover to cover. She didn’t learn a lot, but what she did learn was, to her mind, the most important information.

  There were two types of Jasani. Citizen Jasani, who were essentially transplanted humans and humanoids and their offspring, and Clan Jasani. It was the Clan Jasani, the people native to the planet, that interested her. She learned that their weren’t very many of them, and that they were all male. There were no female Clan Jasani. As a result, they were constantly clamoring for more human women willing to marry and have children with them, and they married one woman to three brothers.

  While the idea of having children was in no way appealing to Darleen, the fact that Jasan seemed a wealthy, if rural, planet did appeal to her. A lot. She’d marry three brothers if they had enough cash. Hell, she’d marry ten if they were really rich.

  By the time Caitlyn arrived to pick her up at the spaceport, Darleen’s depression was gone. If there was one thing she was confident of, it was her ability to hook any man she wanted, whenever she wanted. She might be getting older, but she could still pass for 25 if she was careful enough with the cosmetics. Besides, these Jasani men were desperate. That would help. All she had to do was settle in and take her pick.

  Darleen laughed bitterly at the memory as she sat staring up at the stylized dracon carved into the arch over the main gate. When she’d arrived on Jasan a year earlier, she had not seen any reason to think that Jasani men would be different from human men. Males were males. Or so she had thought. She had learned a lot since then.

  The first shock had been learning that Jasani men were shifters, and that they all turned into some sort of animal. She’d also learned that, as a human woman, if she were to marry and have children with a Jasani male-set all of her children would be male, and they would also be shifters.

  The information about children didn’t matter to Darleen. She had no intention of having children. Even the knowledge that the men turned into animals didn’t bother her too much any more now that she’d had time to get used to the idea.

  The one fact that had brought her up short was that Jasani men had no sexual desire until they drank some sort of potion during a mating ritual. Even then, their desire was only for their mate and they could not, literally could not have sex with another woman. Ever.

  She’d almost given up and headed back to Earth once she’d learned that. After all, it effectively nullified her greatest strengths. It was then she’d learned the most important thing there was to know about mating Jasani males. Their women were given the gift of regeneration. They would live for hundreds of years and never show any sign of aging. Darleen wanted that. She wanted that more than she wanted anything else. Even money. And she meant to have it, one way or another.

  Of course, that didn’t mean money wasn’t important too. She knew that she could have her pick of dozens of male-sets but she was Darleen Flowers, and Darleen Flowers never settled for less than the best. And why should she? She was the sexiest, the prettiest, and the most desirable female on the planet and anyone who didn’t agree with that was either blind, or stupid. She was the best; therefore, she deserved the best. She had done her homework and set her sights on the Dracon brothers. The Royal Princes of Jasan.

  She sighed and shook her head. No use thinking about it. It was done. If Jasani males had been like human males, she would have easily seduced them away from the little, red-haired, freckle faced, urchin they had mated with. But Jasani males were not like human males.

  So, after throwing one of her infamous temper tantrums, during which she had caused rather a lot of damage in her sister’s shop and been permanently banned from it, she’d had to go back to square one. And square one had been filled quite nicely with the Lobo brothers. They were not royalty, but they were the Prime Guardians, and as such very close to the Dracon Princes. Even more important, they were rich.

  Darleen had been unable to learn exactly how rich they were because such things were kept private on Jasan and never discussed. Darleen didn’t really understand that, but she recognized a social taboo when she saw one and left the subject of money alone. It had been far easier to learn that the Lobos had a ranch adjacent to the Dracon’s that was nearly as big. They had other people run it for them most of the time because of their responsibilities to the Princes, but Darleen imagined that with a ranch that size, they had to be wealthy.

  Unfortunately for her, the only way she could think of to get close to the Lobos was to become friends with Lariah Dracon. Ugh. The woman was a waste to the position she held. If it had been her…but no, she thought, stop thinking about that. Instead, think about the last time you saw Ban Lobo and he asked, oh so casually, whether or not she would be interested in mating with a Jasani male-set, given everything she knew about them.

  Darleen had played it as cool as she could given how excited she had been to finally hear one of them mention mating to her. She had not made the mistake of trying to hide her excitement. Instead, she played it up, passing it off as extreme nervousness and uncertainty. She had told Ban that she saw no reason why any sensible woman would refuse such an offer, if one were made. Then she had left immediately, afraid she would do or say something to give herself away.

  That had been during her last visit with Lariah a week earlier. She had barely been able to force herself to wait her usual week before returning again, but finally the day had arrived. At long last, the endless months of scheming were about to pay off. Darleen smiled to herself as she drove through the gate onto Dracon land and headed towards the main house.

  Chapter 16

  Saige and Lariah sat on the patio sipping something yellow that tasted a lot like cherry juice with a healthy dose of chocolate thrown in, but which Lariah promised was actually fruit juice. Though the sun was shining, it was chilly outside so they were dressed warmly and Lariah had a blanket across her lap. Or, more accurately, she had a blanket over the gigantic bulge of her tummy which, much to Saige’s delight, occasionally jumped and twitched as the three babies kicked or rolled or danced or whatever it was they did inside there. For a moment Saige tried to imagine what it would feel like to have babies moving inside of her, then pushed the thought away. Such a thing would never happen for her and that was a fact. Period. No use in dreaming otherwise.

  It had been a busy morning for them both, though Saige had finally been forced to threaten Lariah with calling Garen if she didn’t sit down and stay put. Saige had seen enough of the interactions between Garen, Trey, Val and Lariah to know that the Dracons all but worshipped Lariah and would never harm a hair on her head. Nor was Lariah afraid of her men. She just didn’t want them hauling her off to bed and coddling her, which they would do if Saige hinted to them that she was overdoing things. So she sat and stayed while Saige went through the three suitcases retrieved from the car fire.

  The first thing Saige discovered was that her toiletries bag was a total loss. Everything inside of it had melted into one large blob. That had been very upsetting, but s
he had pretended it didn’t really matter. Lariah was watching her and she did not want her friend to become upset.

  She moved onto her clothes and, at first, she thought that most of them would be fine once washed. That was before she realized how many melted buttons and zippers there were. Many of the items that were made of stretchy fabric were so brittle they crumbled when she picked them up. Items that were packed near the top or the bottom of the suitcases were scorched beyond repair. Saige kept reminding herself that she and the Lobos were all alive. That helped her to accept the loss of so many of her belongings. Clothes, makeup and shampoo could be replaced.

  When she was finished she was relieved that she’d been able to salvage about half of her clothing, a couple of pairs of shoes, a small velvet pouch containing her mother’s jewelry and a few good pieces of her own, and a few other items. She was particularly happy to discover that the small photo album that contained the only images she had of her parents was undamaged, as was the antique silver hairbrush, comb and mirror set that had been passed down to the females of her family for generations.

  Suly had graciously insisted on washing her clothes for her while she and Lariah took a break on the patio. Saige had not been able to keep herself from hugging the older woman, something she rarely did even with those few people she knew well, aside from Lariah.

  Soon after they had settled themselves on the patio, Saige’s mind had automatically reached for the Lobos without her permission. She couldn’t seem to help it, even though she kept admonishing herself not to do it again. She didn't want to get too used to something she was going to have to leave behind when she went back home to Earth. Nevertheless, she now knew that Faron felt bad for snapping at Lariah earlier, and that he was worried about her being angry with them. She also knew that he was very relieved to learn that Riata was preparing to complete Ban’s healing in a short while. Saige was relieved as well, but she didn’t want to know any more so she asked Lariah to tell her why she had left Earth so suddenly.

  It was a long story and fully captured Saige’s attention, as she had hoped. Now, as Saige sipped her juice, she thought about all that Lariah had just finished telling her. It was no wonder Lariah had left Earth without saying good-bye. But she felt that Lariah had skimmed over a few things concerning her relationship with the Dracons. She’d told her about nearly being killed by Tiny’s former owner, and that the Dracons had saved her, but not how.

  “Saige, I know I left a few things out of my story,” Lariah said as though she could read Saige’s thoughts on her face. “I just have a feeling that there are things that it is not my place to tell you.”

  “Whose place is it then?” Saige asked. Lariah raised one eyebrow, and Saige felt her face burn. “Ah, the Lobos,” she said. “What if I choose not to stay here and be this Arima thing you all keep talking about? What if, after my visit with you, I decide to return to Earth?” she asked.

  “That is your choice Saige,” Lariah said. “But can I ask you something?”

  “Sure Lari, you can ask me anything you like,” Saige replied.

  “Don’t you feel like you belong with them?” Lariah asked. “I know that for me, no matter how much I argued with myself about it, I just knew somehow that I was supposed to be with the Dracons. If you don’t feel that way, then maybe some sort of mistake has been made.”

  Saige considered lying, but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t lie to the only friend she had. “I feel as though there is a strong connection between us,” she hedged, unwilling to go so far as to say she thought she was supposed to be with the Lobos. “I also feel like I know what kind of men they are. And I admit that I have a strong physical attraction to them which, just between us, scares the heck out of me since I’ve never felt anything like it before and I don’t understand it. And here is the strangest part,” Saige hesitated but Lariah waited patiently. “I spent most of my life dreaming about them.” Saige said the last as though in a hurry to spit it out. Then she waited for Lariah to laugh at her. Instead, Lariah’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “Interesting,” she said. “I dreamed most of my life about three dracons with leopard spotted fur.”

  Saige frowned, not understanding the word. “What is a dray-con?” she asked, pronouncing the word carefully.

  Lariah smiled. “A dracon is very much like a legendary dragon of Earth, except that they have leopard spotted fur. It’s the alter-form Garen, Trey and Val shift into,” she explained.

  “Wow,” Saige gasped in surprise. “So you dreamed of your men before you met them, only in their dracon form instead of their human form?”

  “Yes,” Lariah replied. “Maybe that’s one of the signs of a potential Arima. As there are only the two of us, we should probably be writing this stuff down somewhere.”

  “You’re the librarian, so I’ll leave that to you,” Saige said with a grimace. She did not like to write. Not even lists. “So, I feel them, my mind reaches for them all of the time, I dreamed about them, and they cause physical reactions that are almost too embarrassing to talk about, even for me. Does that all add up to me having to stay here?”

  “No. The only one who decides what you do is you, Saige.” Lariah paused a moment. “I believe that I was meant to be with the Dracons, and they with me. I believe that we were made to be together, that our souls were created to be together.

  “I also believe that, as Arima to the Lobos, you are meant to be with them. But what I believe doesn’t really matter. It is your life, and your decision to make. Nobody will force you to do anything, and that is a promise.”

  Saige sighed. She knew that the Lobos would not force her to stay with them. She wasn’t sure how she knew it, but she did. The real reason for her hesitance about all of this, which she was only just beginning to admit to herself, had nothing to do with the Lobos.

  “Lariah, tell me, how important is it to the Jasani to have babies?”

  “Very,” Lariah responded at once. “As a people, they have struggled against extinction for thousands of years. Now that one Arima has been found, or, if you decided to stay, make that two Arimas, and three female Jasani are about to be born, they are just beginning to have hope.”

  Lariah studied Saige’s face carefully but this time she could not decipher what she saw there. She wondered why Saige had asked that particular question. Perhaps Saige didn’t want to have children. Her own childhood had not been great. Maybe she was afraid to bring children into the world because of her own experiences.

  “I will tell you this much,” Lariah said carefully, taking a stab at what she thought might be Saige’s concern, “Garen, Trey and Val refused to perform the mating ritual with me because nobody knew what it would do to me. Even though they were prophesied to find their Arima, even though they wanted family and children very much, they were adamant that they would not risk me in an effort to gain the things they wanted.”

  “They were willing to give up having children for you?” Saige asked. She didn't know what Lariah meant by a mating ritual but she was far more interested in the answer to her questions about children at the moment.

  “Yes,” Lariah said. “In fact, it was the first and only real disagreement we’ve ever had.”

  Saige opened her mouth to ask another question, but paused when Suly stuck her head out the patio door.

  “Lariah dear, Miss Flowers is here to see you,” she said, her usually cheerful expression replaced with one of disapproval.

  “Would you please show her out here, Suly?” Lariah asked politely. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to heave this mass of baby up just now.”

  Suly smiled at her. “Of course, dear,” she said.

  Saige eyed her friend shrewdly. “Who is Miss Flowers and why don’t you like her?” she asked softly.

  “You’ll see.”

  A moment later a woman stepped out onto the patio who instantly made Saige feel plain, dowdy and inferior in every way. Darleen Flowers was so stunningly beautiful it almost hurt to look
at her. She had long golden hair that hung in perfect shining curls down her back, shifting gently like heavy silk as she moved. Not remotely like Saige's short, straight, sensible haircut.

  The woman's face was a delicate oval with perfectly shaped lips, big blue eyes and a straight, little nose that Saige was certain had never dared to get red or stuffy in all of its existence. She wore a simple blue dress that hugged her perfect figure without a crease or wrinkle, short enough to reveal a shade too much of a pair of legs that Saige simply did not want to think about.

  “Hello Lariah,” she sang gaily, her smile revealing faultlessly even, white teeth.

  “Hi, Darleen,” Lariah replied, smiling in return. Saige wasn’t the least bit fooled.

  “How’ve you been feeling?” Darleen asked as she set a large bag on the table, turned around and looked at Saige as though she had just that moment realized there was another person on the patio. She smiled with just the right amount of hesitance and raised her brows.

  “Darleen, this is my friend from Earth, Saige Taylor. Saige, this is Darleen Flowers. Her sister Caitlyn owns a clothing store in town called Lady’s Secrets.”

  Darleen stepped forward and pretended to shake Saige’s hand, barely touching her for one brief moment before stepping back. “Nice to meet you Saige,” she said, sincerity practically radiating from her. “May I ask, whatever happened to your face?”

  “Ground-car accident,” Saige replied flatly, indicating it was not a subject she wished to discuss.

  Darleen’s smile faltered just a tiny bit, but Saige was watching for it and felt no shame whatsoever in the satisfaction she felt when she saw it.

  “Well I won’t interrupt your reunion for long,” Darleen said as she turned back to the bag and began taking items of clothing out of it. “I just wanted to bring by a few new things from the shop that I thought you might like.”