Authors: Rebecca Lorino Pond

Forced Handfasting (21 page)

“Are you ready to go down, and see our new home?” he asked Bankee
,
who was standing on the other side of him holding his hand.

After he and Sam had returned to the command center after their captivity, Bankee was reluctant to leave their side. Their new little daughter admitted she was afraid of losing her new parents, and wanted to be by them at all times, which caused problems when it came to bedtime.

“Ooo…yes, yes! Let’s go!” she shrieked.

He and Sam laughed then headed to the elevator. An hour, and ten minutes later their shuttle was landing on the surface of Grizor. On the way down to the planet he had turned off all the viewing screens, and blackened out all the windows, which neither female had been happy about.

“Okay, we’re here. Ready to take your first breath of Grizor air?”

“Please, daddy! Hurry up!” Bankee bounced up, and down on the balls of her small feet in excitement.

“Geez, I do believe someone is about to explode!” he laughed then went to the shuttle’s door. “Here goes!”

Sam and Bankee stood side by side in front of the door and waited impatiently for the shuttle ramp to lower. He waited impatiently to hear their first gasp as their new world was revealed in front of them.

“Holy…crap!” Sam said.

“Oh wow! By the…,” Bankee said stunned into silence for once.

“Well, are you going to go down or just stand there looking like gasping fish?” he laughed as he steered both females down the ramp, and onto the blue grass that was swaying in the breeze.

“You have got to be kidding me! This is our new home?” Sam asked.

“Sure is, my love,” he said proudly as he looked over the area where construction of their house was to start tomorrow. A temporary building had been set up to the far left of where the house would stand, and where the shuttle currently sat.

The area Tully had picked out for them was shaded by enormous trees that stretched a hundred feet into the air. Their branches, which were heavy with the purple, green, and yellow leaves, sagged down to make the perfect cover from the sun that was high in the sky. Only one sun dominated the Hayzor Star System, the same as Earth’s star system. The planet, Grizor, was more than one hundred, and twenty million miles away from its sun which made the temperatures even milder than on Uxslore. Winters would be cold, but nothing they wouldn’t be able to handle.

The current season on Grizor was spring, and everything was in full bloom. Large white, and pale pink flowers grew abundantly alongside the stream that flowed right through the middle of the area where the house was to go. Farther down the stream was a small waterfall that landed into a shallow pool of water. It would be the perfect place to go swimming when the weather grew hotter. It was still a bit too chilly to go for a dip in the water, but he could picture going swimming in the moonlight with Sam.

The azure grass they stood on covered everything on the ground where the flowers, and shrubs did not. Small insects with colorful wings flew about hovering above the flowers feeding on their sweet nectar. The rays of a single sun reached through the canopy above to light up a small section of the land that would be perfect to plant a vegetable garden.

During their long cruise through space, Jahan had several meetings and discussions with his people. Upon agreement, Jahan ordered that each family was to plant and raise its personal garden with any extras to be sold if the family wanted to. This way the people would be able to feed themselves, and not rely on having to buy everything. Those not able to grow or maintain a garden would be provided for by the rest of the community. In total, his people number seven thousand eight hundred, and fifty-four souls, with only a fraction of that number being the elderly.

Other rules and laws set forth would remain the same as on Uxslore with a few new ones. He wanted each, and every individual to live a prosperous life, and help those who were less fortunate, which had never been a problem on Uxslore. Because of the war though, many of the elderly hadn’t survived the initial attacks. Theirs was a new, and young society that would have to work to survive. His great-grandfather had done the same thing and had proven that it could succeed. It was his turn now to lead his people, and see them survive.

“I wish we could build our house here,” Bankee said as she ran around trying to catch one of the colorful insects.

“Me too! This place is amazing,” Sam shouted.

“Well, my little females. I wouldn’t want to disappoint you, but this is where our house will be.” He waited for their response, and was caught off guard when they rushed him, and tackled him to the ground.

They rolled around on the azure grass laughing. “Are you serious, Jahan? Because if you’re not I’m going to slug you!”

“Yea! I’m going to slug you too, whatever that means!” Bankee repeated while she laughed.

He quickly engulfed his females in his large, muscled arms, and brought them to his chest. He felt so complete when he had them in his arms. The goddess had gifted him with so much lately that he was afraid sometimes he was going to wake up, and find out he had been dreaming the entire thing.

“I swear on my life as your husband,” he kissed Sam on the nose, “and as your father,” he kissed Bankee on the nose, “that this is where our new house will be. Matter of fact, the building is going to start tomorrow, and…,” he paused for added effect, “we will be staying in the building right over there until it is ready.” He pointed to the metal building sitting off to the side near the shuttle.

“Oh Jahan!” Sam wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. After a few minutes, she released her death grip and sat back on her haunches.

“Do you like it, my love?” he asked Sam.

“Like it? I freaking love it!”

Later that night while they lay in bed after making love, Sam lifted her head up and said, “I love you, Jahan. I think I have ever since my second week with you.”

“I thought you couldn’t stand the sight of me.”

“When you forced me into that Handfasting at first, of course, but you grew on me, very quickly I might add.” She put her chin on his chest to look into his eyes.

“My forcing you to marry me was the best thing I have ever done!” He rolled her beneath him again then slipped his cock into her slick folds.

“Again so soon?” she squealed in delight.

“I’ll never get enough of you, my love. You are mine forever, just remember that!” he lowered his mouth to capture hers in a heart-stopping kiss that took them both over the edge, and plunged them into the abyss of pleasure and happiness.

Epilogue

Marco sat near the fire outside his temporary home. His toddler son crawled around on the ground near him playing with the toys he had brought down with them from the ship ten months ago. He kept a close eye on Daneel ever watchful that the boy didn’t go near the fire.

He studied his son as he played innocently with the toys. It amazed, and trouble him at the same time how the boy could go on living without his mother. Keena had been the very center of his world, and now she was gone. His heart was heavy and full of sadness, and anger every day he woke up alive. There had been many times since the death of his Keena that he wanted to end his life, and join her in the afterlife. Only the presence of his tiny son kept him from doing such a horrible thing. He couldn’t leave his son without a father too.

So far his time on Grizor had been for the most productive. He had added on to a small portable building he had been given when they first arrived, and was in the process of adding on another room. For the time being him, and his son shared a room, and a bed but he didn’t want to continue with that for much longer. Daneel was growing up, and needed to be in a room, and bed of his own.

During the day, he was often so busy he didn’t have time to think about Keena. It was in the evenings or late at night when he was going to sleep, that his thoughts turned to her.

All too often he blamed himself for her death. If he had only listened to her request to go look for her parents, she might not be dead. She might be lying next to him in the bed he shared with Daneel rather than lying in a grave back on Uxslore. The anger and guilt were building inside of him every day until even he knew he was going to explode one day. But, he didn’t know how to alleviate it all. The guilt ate away at him day after day.

Earlier that day, his brothers had noticed his change in behavior, and he had exploded on them telling them to leave him alone that he could handle the problem alone. But, that was just the problem, he couldn’t handle it alone. He didn’t want to interact with anyone, and mostly stayed to himself. Every so often he hired one of the older girls to come a watch Daneel while he focused his attention on something that needed to be done. He even moved the temporary building he was given when they first landed to a more secluded area within the first week of being on Grizor. It was now everyone’s understanding that he wanted to be left alone. It was while he was sitting in front of the fire that his life would take a drastic change once again, but this time for the good.

His home site resided next to a small lake, and on clear evenings he could see clear across the blue water. He was staring into the flames of the fire when he heard something strange. It started off as a low humming noise but turned to a loud buzzing the longer it went on. He stood up, looked to see where Daneel was, and found he had fallen asleep on a thick patch of the azure grass. He listened for the noise then followed its path until he came to edge of the lake. His eyes scanned the lake for the unusual sound but found nothing…at first. He was about to turn back when out of the evening sky a hole opened up over the lake. Small flashes of light shot out of the hole and reflected off the water’s surface to bounce back up. He stood there watching the phenomena until he saw something fall out of the hole. It was a good distance to the surface of water, and whatever fell out the hole let out an ear piercing scream.

His hearts lurched in his chest when he heard the scream then saw the figure hit the water with a splash. He could barely make out two arms
thrashing
in the water as whatever tried to stay above the waterline. What got him moving wasn’t the sight of the struggling figure, it was the words that reached his ears that had him diving into cold water.

A female voice had screamed in terror right before she sank below the water, “HELP ME!”

The End

Author Page

Rebecca Lorino Pond lives in Ponchatoula, La with her husband of 23 years, 2 children, 6 cats, and 5 dogs. She is a recent graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University with a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies, and two minors in English and History. Writing books has always been a dream of Rebecca’s, so in January 2013 she started to write, and release her books. It is a job that she enjoys and loves to do.