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She whispered against his neck, “Where are we going?”
“To get you out of my system. It doesn’t seem like there is anything else to do.” His words were far from the whispers of a lover.
Cynthia’s mind clung to the hope that he would come around tonight. She knew that her acquiescence to his touch was all the encouragement that he needed to consummate their attraction. He hoped to get her out of his system, but she hoped that she started a craving that only she could satisfy.
The house looming out of the darkness was built against a cliff as was customary. He dropped them onto a wide balcony and walked through an arched doorway that led into a bedroom. Doors opened and closed silently as he held her with one arm, moving toward the bed.
He placed her on her feet and lifted the Introduction gown off her, over her head. Her body was naked under it and glowed in the dimness of the moons’ light spilling through the glass doors.
She was shaking with nerves and the heartbeat that seemed to have settled low in her belly. Staring into his face was too much, so she looked at his chest while she raised her hands to stroke the heat of his skin.
He growled as her fingers trailed over the hard contours of his chest, over his shoulders and back again, moving against the edge of his sash before skating lower.
Keeping her gaze focussed forward, she traced the outline of his erection and felt it kick against her palm, swelling as she stroked him slowly. Her hand couldn’t cover him all, so she settled for a slow stroke through the fabric. He snarled and grazed his teeth against her shoulder.
Cynthia shivered at the pleasure-pain and continued her slow stroking of his cock through his trousers until he pushed her hand aside and stripped his clothing away.
She waited nervously for his return to her, her skin cooling rapidly without his heat. Any noise on her part was going to break resolve, either his or hers, she wasn’t sure.
He lifted her and the hard peaks of her nipples pressed against his hot skin. His mouth came down on hers, his pointed mating teeth sharp enough to draw blood.
Their tongues duelled, sliding in a wet and aching representation of what her body really wanted to be doing. He was careful with his teeth and she reciprocated by digging into his chest with only the flats of her fingers instead of her nails.
Cynthia rocked her hips against him, grinding his erection between them, smiling faintly at the copious precum that was emerging and slicking their bellies. She bit at his lip and with knowledge that her research had provided, she reached behind him and stroked the smooth base of his wings. Her touch was a catalyst for him.
He spun from the kiss to a peculiar frenzy, pushing her to her back and covering her. His lips trailed in heated paths down her breasts, his teeth grazing her in places she had never imagined would be sensitive to his caress. He never bit her. The enzyme in a Draikyn male’s teeth could cause a Drai female to ovulate and he was obviously not taking that chance.
Garo pressed the flats of two fingers between her thighs and parted the lips of her sex with one stroke. Cynthia closed her eyes as the surge of heated moisture slicked his fingers.
He growled again until she met his gaze and she watched as he licked her honey from his fingers.
She swallowed nervously as he covered her with his body entirely and fitted his cock to her opening. He surged forward and she winced. The position was not conducive to an easy entry.
He snarled, backed away, wrapped an arm around her waist and flipped her to her belly before drawing her up on her hands and knees. He widened her stance and cupped her hips, his claws digging in lightly.
He pressed into her and the shift in position coupled with the additional honey she was producing at the change in his focus as well as the prickle of his claws stroking her hips and spine made this entry angle far easier than the other.
The tip of his cock slowly widened her as he eased in with a flurry of short but powerful thrusts. She rocked forward with each pulse but pressed back toward him of her own accord. There was a discomfort that came with his entry, but it was accompanied with a surge of pleasure that made her push against him until he was fully within her.
Gasps, moans and sharp cries came from her throat as he began to thrust all the way inside and then retreated, leaving an aching emptiness within. He moved faster and the added sensation of heat and friction caused her voice to climb higher.
Her breasts swung and her clit pulsed in an insistent beat. She was just about to stroke herself when his hand stroked down her belly to rub against the small bundle of nerves. Her breath left her on an exhaled whoosh and she bucked with every light touch of his fingertips.
The heated rod of his cock moving inside her, the pleasure-pain of their first coupling stretching her until she ached and he rocked against her with a deliberate pounding that turned her gasps into a high-pitched keen. She bucked hard against him as his hands and hips worked against her, driving her into a frenzy of sensation that culminated in a sparking behind her eyes that sent electrical waves through her entire form.
She screamed, froze and clenched around him as her orgasm took her and shook her in its grip. His roar and the clenching of his hands around her hips held her still as she felt the deep jetting within her.
As her senses finished overwhelming her, she was able to feel the slow stroking of his hands down her spine, over her ribs and caressing her hips.
A few tears pricked her eyes at the tenderness he was showing her and as he slowly withdrew and cuddled her against him, she knew it wouldn’t last.
They had had this one moment for him to get her out of his system. The tears came faster as he curled around her and held her while she drifted off. Only one time and he was forever imbedded in her system. She would just have to get used to it.
Chapter Eight
The hand on her shoulder was feminine and persistent. “Come on, Cynthia. You need to get up.”
Corleen’s normally cheerful face had a pensive tension that set Cynthia’s nerves on alert. The woman was holding the Introduction gown tightly to her chest.
“What is it?”
“You are going to take Mercuros away from us. Garo has foreseen it. Why are you doing it?”
Holding the sheets tightly to her breasts, she sat up and blinked through the tumble of hair in her eyes. She tried to catch onto the conversation. “Let me splash some water on my face and I will be able to keep up with this thread.”
Corleen followed her into the bathroom and watched her sheet-covered movements.
Cynthia looked into the mirror and winced at the marks of Garo’s teeth on her shoulders and working their way down her breasts. Her skin was delicate and it marked easily. The lightest scrape of his teeth had brought redness to her flesh. More alert and wearing the sheet as her only means of clothing herself, she nodded at Corleen. “I think we need to talk.”
Corleen walked out through the bedroom and to the wide balcony.
Cynthia followed.
Corleen rounded on her. “Who are you and where are you from? I need the truth. Garo’s intuition has been haunting him since you arrived and I will not lose any of my sons to fate.”
Cynthia ran her hands through the tangle of her hair. “My name is Cynthia Norman, born on the Alliance Protectorate of Terra, one thousand years from this date.”
Corleen’s shock was obvious, but she didn’t interrupt.
“When I applied as a Volunteer on my world, I was informed that my destiny was set. My descendants were depending on me to go back in time and begin my line and so, until the day came that I was to fall through space and time, I would be allowed to travel and educate myself on every world that would have me.
“I have spent years learning languages, customs and methods of cooking. Communications, dance, anything and everything that I could be taught, I learned.”
She stared out into the valley below and thought about what Corleen needed to know. She decided to hold nothing back.
“The Drai are a dy
ing race. Six hundred years from now, they will remove the interdict, but it will be too late. The winged dragons will no longer appear in the population. One thousand years from now, those winged shifters will return.
“In the next two years, over a dozen Draikyn will agree to run from Drai and sleep on worlds throughout the stars. They will all have to find their own ways with what they can bring with them, but I have met several of them and they are all settling down to begin families.”
Corleen couldn’t keep it in. “Why did they have to wait?”
Cynthia smile. “They had to wait for Terrans. With only minor adjustments, we can be remade into physically compatible brides for the Drai. We link with them, dream of them and when we find them, we know that we are home at last.
“I am here not only to begin my line, but to start the sleepers on their way to the stars.”
Her companion asked, “Are you certain that this is your destiny?”
She chuckled. “Yes. I have even met our granddaughter, a talent of immense power who has a sleeper as a spouse. I have seen him but not been introduced yet.”
“How do you know the chain of events?”
“I wrote in my journal and went through the first year of my landing here. Oddly enough, I skimmed over a lot of the details and I have no idea why I would do that. I am usually a fairly detailed person.”
“How did you get here?”
“After years of travelling and hoping for the moment that would send me here, to Garo, I waited on a space station until Livin and her husband arrived. She brought the journal and I read it in one night. The next day, I was in a shuttle designed to be destroyed on entry into the Drai atmosphere and falling into Garo’s arms.
“It was thought that the Drai would not be happy to see an alien with higher tech than currently available and I was not to let any of the councils know what I was.” Cynthia smiled as Corleen absorbed the information.
“Why was it you?” Corleen’s whisper was almost a simple breath of wind.
Cynthia gestured to her sheet-covered body. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but every psychic talent in the Alliance is locked dormant within my genes. My first child will be a girl and she will carry the power of the elements within her.”
“If you can get Garo to cooperate.”
A blush ran under her skin. “His continued cooperation no longer matters. I have what I need to start my line. Next summer, your granddaughter will appear on Drai.”
Corleen looked delighted and appalled. “He said he hadn’t bit you.”
She ran her fingers along the red marks on her shoulders. “I have very thin skin. It is one of the reasons that I was chosen for this, I suppose. Enough of the triggering agent entered my bloodstream for my body to release an egg. If I am not pregnant now, I will be within the next twenty-four hours or so.”
A bright flare of hope ran through Corleen’s features. “In that case, welcome, daughter.”
“Thank you, Mother. Now, why is Garo so set against me?”
“When he sees you, he sees the loss of Mercuros. He doesn’t know what you are or where his brother goes. He simply knows that he is gone.”
“He is living with his wife and they are working on a family, one thousand years from now. He slept until she arrived and he still didn’t believe that she was actually there.” She chuckled. The Terran Times report had given her the details that she needed to give to the mother of one of the great Sleepers.
“The Drai government was begging them to return, but as they woke, several joined the Sector Guard, others kept themselves busy with businesses and planetary defence. They enjoy the ability to use their skills and bodies to defend and protect those that they love.”
“What is the Sector Guard?”
“It is a new branch of defence for worlds who cannot get help from their own people or local governments. Several of my species and at least three Drai sleepers at last count.”
“Who are the sleepers?”
“You will know them when you see them. If Garo ever calms down, I will invite them over for an information session.”
“Why Mercuros?”
Cynthia sighed. “You know why. Despite the fact that the Drai claim to despise all talents, until this point in time, they are quite common. Mercuros can use his dragon form to blast all manner of energy forms out to do his bidding. Others can control shadows, ice and I have no ideas what else is lying in wait for the Terran women who have a destiny with them.”
“That brings me to the moment I was dreading. Garo is a seer and he knows that your presence here means that Mercuros will leave. He thought that if he could keep away from you, it wouldn’t happen, but he couldn’t stay away.” Corleen wrapped an arm around Cynthia’s shoulders.
The older woman smiled, “As mother of my granddaughter, you will always have a place in my house. Now, put on the Introduction gown so that we can return to my home. If Garo won’t come to his senses, I will make sure that you are well taken care of.”
Garo glided down from above them, making both women jump. “I can take care of my own child, Mother.”
Corleen stepped back and let her son approach Cynthia.
Cynthia looked up at him and met his gaze calmly. “How much did you hear?”
“All of it. If Mercuros goes, he will do it under his own will. I can see that now. His life, his future, he has to choose it.” Tears were in Garo’s eyes, but he stepped close to Cynthia and took her in his arms.
“I am not here to force, I am here to suggest. There is a future for the Drai, but volunteers will have to will it into reality.” She pressed her hands to his chest and he wrapped her tightly in his embrace.
“If you can cross an ocean of time to be with me, to face the possibility that I would leave you and our child to live out your lives in my parents’ home, to deal with my attempts to push you away, then I can accept that you will give my brother information that will send him to hibernate on an alien world.”
She smiled. “I won’t ask you to accept it, but I will ask that you give him a chance to make up his own mind. I am your mate and we know it. He needs to find his and she is very, very far away.”
He leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers. “Then we had better set him on his path.”
Her smile was lost as he pressed his lips to hers and memories of the night before tumbled through her thoughts.
She heard Corleen leave and pressed herself tightly to Garo. “Are you sure?”
He sighed. “I can finally say yes.”
She backed away and held his hands as she shuffled the sheet away from her feet, leading him into the bedroom once again. As they stood next to the bed, she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. It was time for a fresh start. “I dreamed of you.”
“And I dreamed of you, but the reality is ever so much better.” With a laugh, he lifted her and tossed her onto the bed before following her down.
A joyous laugh was surprised out of her and she wrapped her limbs around him. “Let’s try this again.”
Chapter Nine
Garo’s fear that she had come to Drai to take his brother from him had been a genuine one. Cynthia could understand how he would think that keeping himself from her would avert it.
She smiled as his caresses moved over her from head to toe. A pressure on her mind that had been absent the first time was now insidious.
Cynthia twisted under his hands. His claws occasionally scraped her skin, but the pleasure and threat of pain ratcheted her arousal higher.
“Your skin is so delicate.”
She smiled and draped her arms around his neck. “It will thicken with the birth of our first. The pregnancy will complete my transformation.”
Her words sent a jolt through him. “You are really pregnant?”
She chuckled. “I have met our descendant. If we were to have only one time together, it had to have happened last night. Time is a set thing once it has written its way in flesh and genetics.”
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He laughed and kissed his way down the side of her neck, between her breasts and he paused over her belly.
She felt something peculiar, like a mild shock.
He looked up at her in surprise and smiled, “Did you feel that?”
She laughed. “Did you?”
“I believe that our child just got underway.”
“Do Drai children always start with a jolt?”
He laughed and pressed soft kisses against her abdomen. “I am getting the feeling that nothing that applies to normal folk will apply to you, Cyn.”
She was going to reply, but he kept his downward travels and spread her thighs with careful hands. Cynthia bit her lip as he nuzzled at her, covering his lips and chin with her honey before he settled in and used his tongue.
The first laps were explorative. He parted her sex and delved into it with one hot, wet stroke. She closed her eyes and clutched at the bedding next to her hips, parting thighs until they ached and tilting her hips to invite him deeper.
He licked, sucked and slurped at her before diving into her with his tongue. As it writhed within her, she twisted and whimpered. Each inch of her inner walls was stroked, caressed and laved with attention and energy. When she screamed, shivered and shuddered, he withdrew and filled her with the stroke of his erection before her orgasm had time to subside.
This time was no surge to release, he met her gaze and slowly thrust and withdrew, keeping their gazes locked. She released the bedding and gripped his shoulders, yelping when he wrapped his arms around her and sat back on his heels, taking her with him.
He shifted his grip to lift and drop her in a slow beat.
Cynthia lifted her face to his and they kissed as their bodies slowly climbed to release. She felt his mind skate along hers and in the moment that her orgasm swamped her, she leaned forward and bit his shoulder just as a searing pain transmuted into pleasure on her own shoulder. His mind opened to hers and he saw her past in all its peculiarity.
She saw his fear of the emotions she stirred in him, the image of Mercuros gone from Drai and his grief at not knowing how or why. His gift showed him images, but it took a while to get the context and sometimes it was too late.
