by EL Anders
My stomach felt like an entire flock of butterflies had just taken off inside it. “No way,” I said flatly. “Not the bedroom.”
“Not yet, anyway.” He gave me a mocking smile. “Very well, the living room then.”
“All right.” I reached for my discarded shirt but he shook his head.
“Leave it off. I might have to suck you again if there’s any residual nectar left.”
I felt my cheeks starting to get hot. “You expect me to just walk around the penthouse shirtless and bare breasted?”
Lukas shrugged, his broad shoulder rolling under his impeccably tailored jacket. “Why not? You just let me suck your nipples, Lexie. Why should you care if I look at your breasts?”
He had a point but I did care. Since I couldn’t face putting my torture-device of a bra back on, I settled for slipping my white silk shirt on instead. I wasn’t sure it wasn’t more obscene looking than if I’d just gone topless, though. My nipples were still dark and erect and they pressed against the thin, almost transparent fabric in a way that seemed designed to attract attention.
“Better now?” Lukas raised an eyebrow sarcastically.
“Yes,” I said with as much dignity as I could. Turning, I walked past him into the living room and very pointedly sat in the tall wooden chair that had been my mother’s. Its narrow antique seat was hard and narrow—only big enough for one. In some ways it reminded me of her. She had never been a very warm or demonstrative person—the chair was like an outward manifestation of her personality.
Lukas didn’t miss the significance of my gesture. Sighing, he sprawled in the loveseat across from me with one arm thrown over the back and his long legs kicked out in front of him. For my part I sat bolt upright with my legs crossed at the ankles and my hands folded neatly in my lap.
“All right,” I said. “Talk. What’s going on with me and how do you know about it and how can I stop it?
“Whoa, Sis—one question at a time.” He held up a hand and gave me a lazy grin. “Let me see…what’s the best way to tell you?”
Despite my prim posture, I felt like I was going to burst with impatience. “Just say it, damn it!”
“Temper, temper, little sister.” He shook his head. “But all right, I’ll just say it. How much do you know about the Breed?”
It was the last thing I’d expected and I had no idea where he was going with it. “The Breed?” I frowned. “What’s there to know? They live on the other end of the galaxy and they’re savages. Primitive, animalistic and sexually perverse if you believe the tabloids.”
The Breed had been discovered by the intergalactic explorer, Alexander Breedlow and so the planet they inhabited—which was only about half the size of our moon—was named after him. Only most people simply called it Breeder and the inhabitants were known only as the Breed or Breeders. In our exploration of the Milky Way, they were the only other humanoid life humans had ever found and as such, they were a great disappointment.
Lukas’ face was dark. “Trust me, you can’t believe what the tabloids say. Or the government either. The Breed isn’t nearly as primitive and unsophisticated as they’d like us to believe. They just want us to think that so we believe it’s all right to keep exploiting them.”
“Okay, it’s nice to see you’ve grown a social conscience,” I said dryly. “But what does this have to do with me?”
“Everything, Lexie.” He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Did you know that some wealthy human couples even steal Breeder babies and raise them as their own?”
“What?” I frowned. “But that’s impossible. They look completely different from us.”
“Not really.” Lukas sat back and began ticking off traits on his fingers. “They have oval eyes like a cat’s—usually a metallic color like gold or silver or copper. They have retractable claws instead of fingernails. Oh—and all of them have a Breed mark located right…here.” Standing, he unbuckled his belt and began to push down his tailored slacks.
“Lukas, what are you doing? Stop!” I implored, really alarmed now.
He gave a short, humorless laugh. “Don’t worry, Lexie, I’m not going to show you my cock. Not yet, anyway. Just look here.” He lowered his pants slightly and raised his crisp white shirt, giving me a glimpse of his corded abdomen. There, just above the neatly clipped edge of his pubic hair, I saw a small white scar.
I sucked in my breath before I could stop myself. “My God, I—” I stopped myself abruptly but Lukas already knew what I was going to say.
“You’ve got one too, don’t you? Right there.” He nodded at my lower abdomen.
I placed a hand over my belly protectively. “What does it mean?”
“The Breed mark—the mark each Breeder child is born with that identifies him or her as a member of a specific tribe—the same mark which tells who their mate is destined to be—is gone. Surgically removed from both of us.” Lukas pulled up his pants and re-tucked his shirt before sitting back down.
I stared at him blankly. “So you’re saying…?”
“That we’re adopted. Both of us. And both of us, my dear little sister, are of the Breed.”
Chapter Four
I couldn’t believe it. I just sat there and stared at him for a good two minutes. Lukas stared mutely back and as I looked into his coal black eyes I realized something.
“You’re wrong,” I said triumphantly, feeling a deep sense of relief. “We can’t be, Breeders. You just got finished saying that all Breeders have metallic colored eyes.”
“Surgically and permanently dyed,” he answered promptly. “And since the only color that will cover such a bright metallic is black, that’s what we both got. By the way, you may remember, sister dear, that Mom and Dad both had blue eyes.”
“But…but…” My mind scrambled for reasons it couldn’t be true. “The claws—you said they had retractable claws.”
“Gene therapy. It’s horribly expensive but then, money never was an object when Mom wanted something, was it? And just about the time she got us, she wanted some children—badly.”
“But why?” I said desperately. “Why wouldn’t dad just…just buy her a human baby on the black market?”
He smirked. “Not very up on your history, are you? Did you forget that around the time you were ‘born’ the whole planet was going through a fertility crisis? Remember the B virus?”
I realized he was right. The B virus—or Barren virus as it came to be called—had been created in a lab somewhere in China to control their burgeoning population explosion. It was supposed to be tailored to only affect people of Asian ancestry. But then the virus had gotten out of control. It swept the planet, mutating so fast it was impossible to check, infecting every culture and race. In a matter of years the Earth was down to a birth rate of almost zero and it was looking like humans might go the way of the dinosaurs.
Luckily a cure was found at the eleventh hour but Lukas was right—at the time genuine, viable human babies had been incredibly hard to come by. Even if you were the owner of a multi-billion dollar company as Dad had been.
I looked up at Lukas, feeling dazed. “So we’re saying we’re adopted? That we’re not really related at all?”
“Adopted? Hell, we were stolen,” Lukas growled softly. “Snatched away from our true parents and raised here on Earth. ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ changed everything they could but they still couldn’t quite make us fit in.”
I thought of how I’d never felt quite right around other girls. About how Sylvia, who was as cold and logical as I was, was my only real friend. Could it really be? Could what Lukas was telling me be right?
“How?” I said slowly. “How…how did you know? How did you find out?”
“When I was in that damn military school, I started putting two and two together,” he said simply. “It started my second year there. We had this archery class and I never missed the target. The other guys were giving me a hard time about being perfect so I started showing off. I had them sh
oot arrows at me and I dodged out of the way just in time. Then I started picking their arrows right out of the air.” He gave a humorless laugh. “That’s when it stopped being fun. It scared the shit out of them—and me too, a little. Especially when I started realizing all the other things I could do that I took for granted—things none of my class mates was capable of.”
“Such as?” I whispered, my eyes glued to him.
“I could see in the dark—I bet you can too, right? You turn the lights off and on from force of habit but you don’t really need them.”
Slowly, I nodded. I had always had excellent night vision and it had surprised me to learn than most people couldn’t see as well as I could in low lighting.
“Fast reflexes—abnormally fast, as I said,” he continued. “I could hold my breath under water for up to ten minutes at a time. That one really freaked them out. It would have been a real asset on the swim team of course. I wanted to join but Dad blocked me—had the headmaster refuse my application. He knew, you see,” Lukas continued, a slight tone of bitterness creeping into his voice. “Knew where Mom got us—what she did to make us look human.”
“But…but we are human,” I protested. “I mean, the way we were raised, the culture we live in—”
“Doesn’t change a goddamn thing,” he said harshly. “You’re human, huh? Then what about that?” He nodded at my chest and I looked down to see I was leaking again—already there were two large, sticky spots on my white blouse. The nectar flowing from my breasts turned the white silk transparent and made it cling to my tight, aching nipples obscenely.
“Oh God.” I crossed my arms over my breasts as a hot blush crept over my cheeks.
Lukas shook his head. “Don’t, Lexie,” he said softly. “Don’t cover yourself. It’s beautiful—you’re beautiful. The nectar is just a sign of your fertility.”
“A what?” I demanded. “What are you talking about, Lukas? I’ve been having my period since I was twelve and this has never happened to me before.”
“I know,” he said softly. “Because you’ve never come into heat before.”
It was so much like what Sylvia had been saying earlier than I nearly lost it. “Come into heat? Are you serious?” I glared at him. “Lukas, you have got to be kidding me.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Look, it’s perfectly normal in the Breed. In fact, if we’d been raised on Breedlow with no interference you would have had your first heat at around fifteen.”
“I’m twenty-five now,” I said. “What am I—a late bloomer?”
“Your cycle was being suppressed.” Lukas looked grim. “Remember that tea you and Mom were always drinking?”
“Mom’s special blend?” I couldn’t believe it. “You’re kidding.”
“Afraid not. It was laced with sexual suppressants. Drugs that were specially designed to curtail the normal female Breeder cycle.”
“But…I can’t…” I shook my head. “I can’t believe this.”
I could still remember the first time my mother had given me her special tea. It was just after I had started my period and she had taken me aside and told me I was a woman now. And as such, I would be allowed to join her every morning for tea. My mother had been a cold woman, not very loving or demonstrative. So the idea that she would willingly spend time with me—even just a few minutes every morning—seemed almost too wonderful to believe. It had become our ritual—tea before breakfast—and I had observed it religiously even while I was away at college. It was only since Mom had died that I had stopped drinking it because it reminded me too much of her. Made me too sad.
“Believe it,” Lukas said grimly. “It’s the truth—Mom was drugging you for years to suppress your cycle. Unfortunately, it also suppresses emotional responses and any kind of sex drive. Tell me, Lexie, up until a month ago have you ever had any kind of desire at all?”
“No,” I whispered through numb lips. Oh, I had gone through the motions. I’d lost my virginity at college to a socially acceptable boy. It hadn’t been great but I had comforted myself that the first time isn’t supposed to be. But the next time wasn’t very good either. Or the next or the next. By the time I’d gotten out of college and started helping my father run the company, I’d become resigned to the fact that I just wasn’t a sexual being. Oh, I could have sex well enough—it didn’t hurt or anything. But I felt very little during the act. No emotional connection and certainly no pleasure. It was more an annoyance than anything else—just another waste of time when I could have been doing something productive.
“I didn’t think so,” Lukas murmured, shaking his head. “I hate to tell you this but I’m afraid you’re in for a hell of a shock.”
“What do you mean?” I couldn’t keep the fear out of my voice.
“I mean you’re about to have ten years of suppressed hormones coming down on you at once.” He shook his head. “No wonder your breasts are so sore and your nipples are leaking so freely. Your body is trying to make up for lost time.”
“I won’t let it.” I jumped up, feeling suddenly wild. “I’ve still got plenty of Mom’s tea. I’m going to drink a cup right now! Hell, I’ll drink a whole pot.”
Lukas was on me faster than I could see him move. “The hell you will,” he said harshly, grabbing my arm. “Don’t you know that interrupting your cycle could kill you? Especially after such an extended suppression.”
“What about you?” I glared at him. “Why didn’t she give you the tea too? Why only me?”
“She didn’t have to,” he said simply. “If the female of a breeding pair doesn’t come into heat, the male won’t go into rut either. My hormones—my body’s responses—are dependant on yours.”
“What? What are you saying?” My head was spinning and I stumbled and would have fallen if Lukas hadn’t caught me. I wanted to sit back down in Mom’s chair but he led me to the loveseat instead and pulled me into his lap. “Stop,” I protested weakly. “I can sit on my own.”
“But I don’t want you to,” he said softly. “And I don’t want you so far away from me.”
“Lukas,” I said, trying to sit up and get away from him. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say but you’re my brother.”
“I’m your mate,” he countered, pulling me back down. “Or I should have been. Remember I told you the Breeder mark indicates not only the tribe but also the individual’s intended mate? Well I believe our marks matched, Lexie—matched exactly. You were meant for me and I was meant for you.”
This was all too much for me. Lukas was my brother—I was sure of it. Every fiber of my being said he was. And here he was telling me that it wasn’t true—that instead of being my big brother, he was my predestined lover. The only man I was supposed to be with for the rest of my life.
“I can’t accept this,” I said, putting a hand to my head. “It can’t be true.”
“It’s true, all right,” he said softly. “I’ve been waiting for you, Lexie—waiting for years. Ever since I uncovered the truth.”
“Which was about the time Dad disinherited you, I guess,” I said, frowning at him. “What did you do—go to him and accuse him of stealing Breeder babies?”
“Pretty much,” he said calmly. “He blustered and tried to deny it but by then I had already tracked down the surgeon who dyed our irises and did the gene therapy. He still had the records—he was also supplying Mom with her special ‘tea,’ by the way.”
“But…” I shook my head. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“You wouldn’t have listened,” Lukas said softly. “We were close as kids but they did a damn good job of separating us.” His black eyes were suddenly sad. “I barely even know you anymore, Lexie. And I’m sure you probably feel the same about me.”
It was true. I remembered what I’d thought earlier—that my big brother was nothing more than a handsome stranger. Since he’d been sent away to school more than twelve years before, we’d barely even spent an entire hour in each other’s company. In fact, t
his was the most we’d talked since we were kids and I used to go to him for comfort when I was sad or hurt.
But I still wasn’t ready to start thinking of my brother as my lover.
“About the tea,” I said. “Are you sure…?”
He frowned. “You’re in heat, Lexie. It could kill you in your present state.”
“But…but I can start taking it again after…after this is over?”
Lukas looked sad. “You really want to do that? Want to go back to not feeling anything? To being numb and emotionless?”
“Numb and emotionless can be comfortable,” I snapped. “Especially when you’re used to it.”
“You were robbed, Lexie. Your emotions, your sex drive—they were stolen from you. Are you honestly telling me you don’t want them back? That you don’t miss them?”
“How can I miss what I’ve never had?” I said softly. “I’ve been drinking Mom’s tea since I was twelve. I’ve never known anything else. And maybe…maybe I like it that way.”
He shook his head. “That’s like a blind person saying they don’t want to have sight because they’ve been blind all their life. There’s a whole world out there, Lexie—full of vibrant color and incredible beauty. Don’t shut your eyes to it because you’re afraid.”
“What’s so beautiful about being in pain all the time?” I demanded. “What’s so beautiful about this?” I nodded down at my breasts where the wet, sticky patches had grown considerably larger.
“That’s my fault,” Lukas said in a low voice. “I should have come to you sooner. But I wanted to be sure the drugs had plenty of time to get out of your system. I was hoping you’d either stop drinking the tea or run out—and I knew you couldn’t get any more. Mom was the only one with the connection.”
“I stopped drinking it because it made me sad to drink it without her.” I looked down at my hands. “But there’s no way I could run out—there’s tons of the stuff. A whole pantry full, in fact.”
Lukas looked grim. “She really never wanted you to have a normal life. To have desire, love, passion.”
