Icarus Rising

by Bernadette Gardner

need to start reproducing during this mating cycle."

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  "They'll find someone else. They'll have to." Unbidden,

  Caleb's thoughts shifted to a dark future. He imagined having

  his symbion removed and losing his battle with Rennard's

  while Zara looked on helplessly.

  He'd tried so hard to keep those maudlin thoughts and

  images out of his mind, but now that the symbion had seen

  his fears and experienced them, its period of calm came to an

  abrupt end. His wings lashed out, guttering the flames and

  sending sparks skittering across the stone floor of the aerie.

  Zara screamed and backed away from the embers.

  "It's all right. It's all right," Caleb yelled, but he wasn't

  talking to Zara. "I didn't mean it. Everything will be all right.

  You have to trust me."

  Fear overtook him, pumping from the symbion's brain in

  wave after heart-pounding wave of adrenaline. "I won't let

  them hurt you. I promise I won't."

  "Caleb, you have to get control!" Zara rushed at him,

  hands outstretched. His human brain knew she wanted to

  comfort him and keep him from taking flight, but his animal

  brain saw only a threat.

  The symbion flung a wing at her, knocking her backward.

  He tried to turn away, but uninjured and determined, she

  rushed forward again into his arms.

  "Caleb, you're stronger than the symbion. You can control

  it. You can convince it that you won't allow it to be harmed."

  Her urgent words soothed him, and the feel of her supple

  body in his arms distracted both him and the symbion. Her

  cool hands on his face calmed his anger but not his blood. His

  desire flared, and so did the primal needs of the alien.

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  "Zara, no!" He tried to push her away, but she held on,

  one hand at the back of his neck, her face only millimeters

  from his.

  "You are stronger. Make it understand that whatever it saw

  in your mind was not real."

  "You're real." His arms went around her.

  "I'm real," she echoed. "Listen to me. We will not let

  anyone take the symbion away from you."

  "Zara, I want..." Caleb began to sweat with the effort to

  control the symbion. In a moment he would lose control again

  and give in to its aching need to procreate before it died.

  Desperation and selfish desire mounted in him, blocking out

  any other thought.

  "Stop, Caleb. Fold your wings. Concentrate on what you

  want to do right now."

  He was. Oh, he was. He cupped her ass and squeezed, slid

  a hand into the waistband of her shorts and explored her

  naked flesh.

  Zara gasped and her breath came in a ragged pant against

  his ear. "Fight it, Caleb. You're in charge. You lead."

  He pushed her backward toward the alor pallet, one

  thought only on his mind. I lead. I command.

  The symbion agreed. It surrendered control to him,

  knowing it was about to get exactly what it wanted.

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  Chapter Ten

  With Caleb's hands on her, Zara couldn't think. She

  couldn't fight her own desires any longer. She let him push

  her onto the sleeping pallet. She didn't protest when he shed

  his shorts or reached with steady hands to tear hers from her

  body.

  She arched into his rough caress as he climbed over her

  and helped him shove her thin shirt up over her breasts and

  slide it off.

  Fear of breaking the rules no longer concerned her. She'd

  held out long enough while they'd spent the day talking,

  speculating, pretending they didn't want each other like this.

  Once they returned to the station, she'd never have another

  chance to feel his perfect body poised above her or to show

  him how much she'd longed for his intimate touch.

  "Caleb..."

  "I can't stop, Zara. I won't stop this time." Regret tinged

  his voice, but didn't slow his feral exploration. His hands

  roamed over her breasts, pinching her nipples until they

  stood erect and dark pink, caressing her burning flesh until

  she thrashed beneath him. Everywhere he touched, her skin

  tingled. Her nerve endings blazed with an insatiable need for

  more.

  He spread her legs with his, and she didn't resist. She

  moaned when the head of his cock slipped between her pussy

  lips, mixing his warm pre-cum with her own. She'd never

  been this wet except for the times she'd dreamed of him

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  doing just this, taking her in the dark, in the heat, fucking her

  without reservation until she screamed her release.

  "I don't want to hurt you." He whispered the words into

  her neck as he burrowed his hands beneath her ass and tilted

  her hips up. His long fingers searched the crease between her

  cheeks, spread the flesh and teased her anus. He massaged

  her, pressing the puckered flesh to show her he could

  penetrate if he wanted to, but this was only a tease. He didn't

  take her there, just used the contact to heighten her arousal.

  "You won't ... you can't—ah!"

  His first deep thrust cut off her reassurance and left her

  momentarily breathless.

  He filled her, just as she'd imagined he would, a perfect fit.

  She moaned her fulfillment and above her, he shuddered.

  "I'm sorry."

  "No, no! It's good, God, Caleb, it's good."

  He thrust again, and she dared to look up into his eyes as

  he began a sensual sexual rhythm. Fully dilated, his eyes

  were black, fathomless, but far from cold. Hunger blazed in

  them, a need so basic he couldn't control it, like the need to

  breathe. She knew he couldn't have stopped now if she

  begged him, but she'd never do that.

  "More." Zara wrapped her legs around his back, and the

  rough underside of his wings brushed her skin. The contact

  was alien but perfectly erotic. All the fear she'd harbored

  about what he might become faded away as she locked her

  ankles over his backside and snaked her arms up under his.

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  His wings fluttered and spread to the side. One stroke sent

  loose tendrils of alor down flurrying around the room. Another

  actually lifted their twined bodies slightly from the pallet.

  "Caleb!" Zara stiffened. Would he attempt to fly with her in

  his arms?

  They hit the pallet a second later. Though they'd only lifted

  off a few centimeters, the impact jarred the breath from

  Zara's lungs and pushed Caleb's erection deeper inside her.

  She gasped, and her back arched as the beginnings of an

  orgasm flared in her core.

  "I didn't mean to..."

  "It's okay, it's okay ... oh, God, Caleb!" Zara shuddered.

  Every sensation seemed to rush to her pussy. She was wet

  and full a
nd poised on the verge of climax, but she held on,

  reluctant to go over the edge with him and be done with this

  moment she'd longed for.

  Caleb seemed to have slipped away now into some primal

  odyssey. He pumped relentlessly, groaning his pleasure with

  each thrust. His wings ruffled, and he lowered his mouth to

  Zara's nipple and began to suck and bite the painfully erect

  tip. She gasped when a long pull from his lips and tongue

  arrowed through her body like a bolt of electricity, shocking

  her system into overdrive. Instinct took her over as well, and

  coherent thought fled. She knew only one thing, that she

  belonged to him, body and soul and she would let him do

  anything he wanted, anything he needed to do to satisfy the

  alien urges that controlled him.

  She cried out and something exploded in her. Her clit

  pulsed, sending waves of erotic sensation through her entire

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  body. She closed her eyes and keened, while her inner

  tremors forced her hips up off the soft alor pallet.

  "Zara..."

  "Come now, Caleb. Come in me."

  He buried his face in her neck and clutched her so tightly

  to his body she thought she might break. As she commanded,

  he came. His hot seed shot into her, heating her already

  burning pussy. She shuddered again, the pulse of her orgasm

  renewed by his.

  For an eternity, they held each other, bodies still stiff with

  cascading pleasure. Alor down fluttered around them in the

  still air, falling slowly onto their sweat-slick bodies. The spicy

  scent of the crushed leaves beneath them filled the room,

  mingling with the combined aroma of their arousal.

  Zara breathed the sexually charged air in deep, grateful

  gulps. She'd never come like that, never felt so perfect as she

  did now with Caleb still inside her, his weight above her,

  holding her safe and immobile on the primitive bed.

  She could have stayed that way forever, but Caleb began

  to move.

  He rose up on his hands and looked into her eyes. His

  expression was dark, hot.

  "Caleb we—"

  "I'm not finished." His voice had taken on a dangerous

  quality that frightened and excited her. He'd climaxed

  spectacularly, judging by the sticky evidence of his orgasm

  coating her thighs. What more could he want from her? It

  didn't matter. She'd give it. Anything he asked was his.

  "What do you mean?"

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  "The symbion wants you now."

  At first Arilani thought her tired eyes were playing tricks on

  her, but as she circled closer to the hundredth—or was it the

  thousandth?—island she'd flown over in her relentless search,

  she realized she was indeed seeing the flicker of firelight.

  Before she could bank on the dying wind, though, the

  flame went out, leaving her wondering if she'd seen it at all.

  Only a closer look would assuage her curiosity, so she

  swooped in for a landing and cautiously advanced through the

  alor screen to enter the half-hidden dwelling nestled at the

  crown of the island.

  Even in the dark, she recognized Caleb's wings spread

  wide, their tips pointed upward in sexual triumph.

  Arilani froze. Hidden in the shadows at the entrance to the

  aerie, she remained, stunned by what she saw. Caleb knelt on

  the sleeping pallet, naked, with his back to her. Before him,

  on her knees also, legs spread, her backside in the air, Dr.

  Abbott lowered herself to the submissive mating position.

  The couple's ragged breathing filled the air along with the

  distinctive scent of sex. Their whispered words had Ari

  straining to hear every breathless syllable.

  "Oh, God, Caleb, do it."

  "The symbion is—"

  "I don't care, please, fuck me again..."

  The sudden stiffening of Caleb's muscles as he thrust

  forward told Ari he'd obeyed his lover's command. His own

  backside tightened, the sinews of his thighs straining as he

  threw his head back and began to pound his lower body

  against his female's exposed sex.

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  Arilani covered her mouth with trembling fingers. This was

  exactly what she'd feared would happen. The symbion had full

  control of Caleb's actions and was claiming the nearest female

  as its mate. It would continue to do so, until she conceived.

  Ari's first instinct was to rush in and stop the illicit act.

  Jidar hadn't sanctioned Caleb to mate, and he wouldn't until

  the success of the joining had been determined. If the Icarian

  leader learned of this, he would never give Caleb to Arilani.

  By the time another man was chosen for her, she might be

  well past the most fertile mating cycle of her life and she

  could miss the opportunity to produce the offspring who

  would one day rule.

  She took one faltering step forward, but the cries of the

  lovers stopped her. They'd reached climax, together. Ari

  watched, horrified, as Caleb pushed Zara down into the alor

  and stretched his sweat-soaked body over hers. She lay

  beneath him, completely at his mercy, panting from her own

  satisfaction. He soothed her by stroking her damp hair and

  ran an appreciative hand along her trembling thigh.

  "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"

  "No. No. That was intense. I was scared at first, but I

  know you would never hurt me."

  Dr. Abbott rolled over to face Caleb and took his face in

  her hands. Arilani retreated into the shadows just far enough

  to remain out of sight of the human woman's less acute night

  vision.

  "Everything is different now. We shouldn't have done this,

  but I'm not sorry, and I don't want you to be either," Caleb

  said, his voice low and achingly intimate.

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  A painful twinge between her breasts made Ari catch her

  breath. She didn't love Caleb Faulkner, but she'd wanted him.

  He was handsome and intelligent, a perfect specimen of

  human male who would have become a strong, capable mate

  for her and a perfect father to her child. Together they could

  have changed Icarus, but the tone he used when speaking to

  the woman he'd just bedded, told her the day Ari longed for

  when they could step into the roles now held by Jidar and

  Namara would never come. She could not abide this. All her

  work on the breeding project amounted to nothing simply

  because Dr. Abbott had been the first to find Caleb after his

  joining. Had it been Arilani, it would be her now, lying

  beneath him, sated and fertile, filled with his seed.

  Her soft exhalation never reached the ears of the lovers.

  They were too wrapped up in themselves to be aware of her

  pain.

  This could not continue. She could not lose her chance to

  have a child of her own, a mate of her own, and save her

/>   people in the process.

  Her mind whirled with possibilities, and finally an idea

  formed. She waited silently for what seemed like an

  interminable period until Caleb and Zara's intimate

  conversation ceased and their breathing became steady and

  regular. Then she crept forward, prepared to put her plan into

  action.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

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  Icarus Rising

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  Chapter Eleven

  Caleb glided to a soft landing at the edge of the island

  platform and strolled into the aerie, his arms full of fruit he'd

  found growing in an abandoned garden on another island. He

  whistled as he entered the dwelling and placed the fruit in an

  alor net he'd found.

  This morning he felt lighter than air. For the first time

  since his diagnosis and since he'd begun his deception, the

  weight of the secret he'd carried seemed manageable.

  Zara had taken his burden from him. Despite all the lies

  he'd told her, she'd forgiven him and accepted that whatever

  time he had left, they would spend together.

  He'd never been happier, and neither had his symbion

  who'd been so busy preening with satisfaction, it had nearly

  flown them into a rock.

  "Caleb? You're finally back. I thought you'd forgotten

  about me." She appeared next to him, her hair falling in

  gentle ringlets around her shoulders, her skin aglow in the

  morning light. His angel.

  "I could never forget about you." He smiled and handed

  her a small, green fruit. "Breakfast."

  "Oh, good. I'm starving." She snatched the fruit from him

  and bit into the soft flesh. Pale juice ran down her chin, and

  Caleb swooped in and licked the sweet liquid off her skin,

  then clamped his lips over hers in a claiming kiss.

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  She laughed into his mouth and tried to mumble

  something while their tongues battled around the honey-

  sweet pulp of the fruit. "Geg yoo oon."

  "What?" He managed a single word before diving in for

  another deep kiss that tasted of fresh air and simmering

  desire.

  She pushed him away gently but with mischief in her eyes.

  "I said, that was my bite. Get your own."

  "My own bite? Okay." He grabbed her and sank his teeth