“You’ve said nothing about your femspring and
her offspring.”
“That is because I’m afraid I’ll lose your
respect.” Sam’s eyes filled up.
Tarin’s hand came up and cupped his new
bonded’s face for the second time.
“With me, you never have to be afraid you
will lose my love or regard. Nothing in your past is unacceptable
to me.”
Sam began slowly. “I met Mary when I was
sixteen and turned seventeen the following June, entering West
Point that year. I always knew I was bi-sexual, but at the time
heterosexual was the norm on Earth. I graduated at twenty-one and
we got married. She became pregnant with Sara almost immediately.
When Sara was four, Mary contracted a virulent form of breast
cancer and after torturous treatments was dead within a year. I had
Sara tested for the BRAC 1 and BRAC 2 breast cancer-causing genes.
I was pathetically grateful that she didn’t carry them in her
genome.”
::That must have been terrible for you,
being left with a femspring that could only remind you of her Zinna
and having to leave her to go to war.::
Tarin’s hand moved from
Sam’s face and came down to the table and grabbed Sam’s upturned
palm.
::I had a housekeeper, Dee Dee, who died
six years ago just after Sara married. She took care of my Sara
while I was away; there was no other family. When I wasn’t
deployed, I spent time with Sara, but not enough. She married
young, thinking to please me by choosing a local politician who was
being groomed to run for Congress.::
Tears began to flow down
Sam’s cheeks.
::He beat her and Michael. I didn’t know because I
didn’t pay enough attention. I was too busy fighting foreign wars
and then as politician trying to save the world instead of noticing
what was going on in my corner of it.::
Sam brought out the
holos he kept in his pocket since the day Juraens and Mark first
showed them to him.
Tarin’s face blanched.
::This Warrior is
now dead?::
::He is no Warrior. He is a sniveling
coward. My former government doesn’t execute Warriors for this
crime. They don’t execute members of the population for very much
except
for treason, terrorism,
and certain
types of murder. He knew he could get away with it because I was
busy on Earth’s version of council and I…::
Sam started to
sob.
::Take my hand, my fox, we are going to my
home at Soarer’s Nest.::
Sam found himself transported into the room
of a manor built in the same fashion as Zaron and Bron’s gatehouse.
Tarin started a fire in the grate and pointed to a leather-like
sofa. “I could turn on the heat to take away the chill, but a fire
warms the heart as well as the body. Have a seat and I will be
right back with some Asta.”
Tarin came back with two plain glasses
containing the smooth Sarran brandy.
::Scoot over here, next to
me, and let me hold you. You have kept this bottled up since you
found out. You don’t have to be…what is the Earthen word? Ah—macho.
You don’t have to be macho with me. There are times when I’ll need
you to be strong. This rising you need me to be. There is no shame
between the bonded. When you trust me enough, you will open your
mind to me and I will open mine to you and we will know all, the
good, the bad, and the indifferent.::
Sam stared into the fire. “It was my fault. I
thought she loved Bradley. I didn’t look deep enough.”
::I know now why the Goddess saw fit to
bond us together. I too, feel guilt. Nezier fought beside me and
took a killing blow meant for me. Perhaps, if we had your
femspring’s bonded, Mark, Nezier would not have died, but we had no
battle-hardened trauma surgeons back then. We had been at peace too
long. Nezier lingered for a week then succumbed to his wounds. He
never awoke so I could say goodbye. I have always felt it was my
fault and that I should have died with him. Most Sarran don’t
survive the death of their bonded. It’s like the bonded share one
soul.::
Tarin’s breath hitched.
“As to your survival, it looks like the
Goddess had something in mind for you, so you survived. How could
Nezier’s death be your fault? He died from wounds he received
honorably in battle.” Sam faced his new bonded.
“But he died defending me.” Tarin’s eyes
filled up.
“Would you feel this way if he died defending
a fellow Warrior?”
Tarin cocked his head and appeared
thoughtful. “No, I don’t think I would.”
“Then it wasn’t your fault. He would have
done the same for anyone. Else you wouldn’t have loved him or been
bonded to him.”
::You left your Sara in a Warrior’s hands who
swore to take care of her. You are not the type of Warrior who
breaks an oath. You couldn’t know he’d break his.::
::From then on, I resolved to look a bit
deeper into everything that means something to me. I will allow
nothing to fester because of my lack of attention. I suppose both
of us carry unresolved guilt. If I could have killed Bradley, I
would have and damned the consequences, but Sara was about to go to
another world and I swore I’d be available to her in case anything
went wrong with her and Michael. If I killed the fucker, I would
have gone to prison or worse, faced execution.::
::Goddess forbid, my fox. The Goddess surely
stayed your hand so we could be together will our fem, offspring,
and grandspring. On Sarran we take bonds very seriously. The Rite
of Dissolution is a terrible thing that usually results in the
death of the guilty party. One of the Triad has to have abused a
fem, offspring, or femspring, committed treason, murder, or rape
for a Triad to dissolve. Since in bonding and Triad we know each
other’s thoughts, it’s a criminal act not to report a Warrior or
fem planning a crime unless it can be proven by the guilty party
that he was able to shield his thoughts from his Triad or bonded.
It is very rare for a one of a Triad or WarriorPair not to know
what the others are thinking or doing. After the offending party
dies in dissolution, the remaining Warrior and or Fem are mind
wiped so they can start anew.::
::You must be able to read my thoughts.::
::If I probe, I can. You too are HiPsy. By
probing, you can read mine. If you open yourself to me, I will know
all of it. But I won’t look without your permission and you, Samuel
Johnson, are an honorable man and wouldn’t look without mine. But
when we are truly one, we will know all except that which we
deliberately keep shielded. We all learn from our mistakes, my fox.
Your grief brought you to me and mine brought me to you. We have
each other now. Because your Sara is bonded, you know what it
means. My feelings for you are very strong. It was a struggle to go
home last moontine without you.::
::I spent the darktines pacing with need. I
feel the pull of the bond. But I don’t know the rules.::
::They are very simple. No penetrative sex
until we bond with our fem and from now on, we look for our fem
together. It’s all outlined in the Codex. The mixing the Elders
proposed is ideal for our purposes. I already love you, my fox.
Prepare to look for our fem with a happy heart.
“Not very discreet with our discovery of the
bond, were we? I wanted to grab you last moontine take you to
Soarer’s Nest with me and make love until moontine the next
rising.” Tarin put his arms around Sam’s neck and kissed him
fiercely.
“And I wanted to take you off to the nearest
bedroom and ravish you. I have never felt an attraction that
strong. It had me pacing the floor until dawntine and I’m known for
iron control,” Sam said in a heated, raspy voice.
“I thought I’d never want anyone after
Nezier. I thought that part of my life was over.”
“I believed I would never love again. Oh,
there were some fems and Warriors that I bedded after Mary, but we
meant nothing to each other except as fond acquaintances. I never
brought a fem or Warrior home to Sara.”
“For me it was five cycles and two risings
ago that Nezier passed. I’ve had no interest in anything until last
cycle when I went back to work. I didn’t even give away his things
until the last phase. I feel guilty because the tie between us
feels stronger than the one I had with Nezier and I know that was a
true bond.”
* * * *
Have enough courage to trust love one more time.
—Anonymous
Soarer’s Nest: 13:00 tines
::We will need to get our promise rings
and Asta glasses, but we can decide where to live and get our rings
and glasses later. Right now I want you under me.::
Tarin
pushed Sam’s shoulders down into the softness of the couch pillows.
Sam turned on his side so they faced each other.
::I foolishly didn’t bother to ask, although
I should have consulted Mark, but now that I’ve taken the vial,
does my equipment work the same way?::
::Yes and no. Externally you will see the
slick that pours from under your foreskin. This enables one of us
to penetrate the other and our fem without pain when we bond.
Internally, there will be a type of a tube, a Secondary Sperm Valve
that connects your channel to the seminal vesicle in your partner.
When a Sarran Warrior receives sperm from his bonded, it opens the
valve. The sperm goes through the valve to connect to the seminal
vesicle where they mix with the sperm of your bonded. It is only
when they mix that we can impregnate our fem. Our offspring are
born with half of our fem’s DNA and one-quarter of each of ours.
After we form the bond with our fem, we may make penetrative love
with her or without her, as the Triad chooses.::
::I feel foolish asking for such basic
information. I had the whole voyage to research this aspect of
Sarran physiology. I was concentrating on helping Michael adjust to
Sara’s Warriors.::
::You did the right thing, my fox. From the
holos you showed me, Michael had reason to be wary.::
::Now I feel like a pre-pubescent
offspring in health class, not knowing how my body is supposed to
function.::
Sam blushed.
::How do I please you?::
::All the ways you’d please yourself
without penetration. Let me show you.::
Tarin sat up, got off
the couch, and knelt in front of Sam, removing the boots Mark and
Juraens had fabricated for him on board the Brightstar. Tarin
kissed the inside of Sam’s knee. Sam moaned. He never knew he had a
hot spot there.
Tarin removed his own boots and then attacked
Sam’s flightsuit. The one-piece garment came off quickly, giving
Tarin access to Sam’s body.
Sam looked at his lover in appreciation. “You
have a beautiful, hard form. I love your wavy blonde hair and blue
eyes. You are everything I ever looked for in a man. If I had met
you before Mary, I doubt I would have joined the army. I’d have
become a college professor and lived in a house very much like this
with you always at my side.”
Sam ran his palm down Tarin’s side from his
shoulder to the curve of his ass. “Beautiful…I can’t believe how
lucky I am and it seems even our dreams are in alignment.”
Tarin blushed.
::I keep in shape because
any Sarran Warrior can be called to battle at any time. You were in
governance, how did you train? You have a hard and well-made body,
my fox.::
::In the Senate Gym. I exercised and had a
trainer. If I were going to be the President, I had to be in the
best shape I’d ever been in my life. The job is debilitating.
Although the United States is only one country on Earth, the
President of the United States carries the weight of the world on
his shoulders because we act as the planet’s police and are the
only major power left on Earth. Russia and China have the land mass
and China has population, but the United States still has the upper
hand in weaponry. We, like the Sarrans, also have fierce
Warriors.::
::Being on council is much the same as you
describe the presidency. The Elders aged quickly during the war and
later when the Zyptz took our fems, the Elders bore the brunt of
finding a solution. Our population is dangerously low, a mere
twenty-thousand WarriorPairs. If you add the unbonded Warriors and
offspring, it is another ten thousand. We need all of these bebes
our fems are carrying and we must keep them safe.::
::You have too much open land to police
properly. What you need is a type of radar that lets the government
know immediately if the atmosphere has been breached, or better
still, something that shields the planet from all but our own
vessels.::
“I’ve been working on that project with Bron.
It’s almost ready.”
Sam was about to speak and Tarin put a finger
on his lips.
::My fox, I want to know everything about you. We
could talk until dawntine but right now, I want to love you. We’re
naked and wanting. Can we make love?::
Sam smiled and kissed his bonded’s eyes. “I
was counting on it.”
* * * *
The Earthen brought Tarin to him and kissed
his face. He traced his Warrior’s cheekbones with his tongue, then
bit his earlobe and moved his tongue behind Tarin’s ear. Tarin
shivered. Sam trailed his mouth along Tarin’s jawline and stopped
at his chin. He gently nibbled at Tarin’s lips, which opened to
him. Their tongues dueled in a fever of need; each trying to taste
the depths of the other’s mouth.
Sam drew his lips over his lover’s chest. He
stopped at Tarin’s brown nubs, nibbling, sucking, and laving the
tips until they pebbled beneath his tongue. He ran his hands
through the hair on Tarin’s chest, playing with the whorls over his
pecs.
“I must apologize. Since Nezier died I have
not used the depilatory cream. I’ll go and…”
“Don’t apologize, I love your chest hair. I
like knowing you’re a man and not our fem. It’s shaped like a
perfect T, leading down to the prize. If it’s not against custom,
please don’t use the cream. Let me show you how much I love it, and
you, exactly as you are.”