Chapter Ten

JAYNE

Had he just said that he loved me? What was I supposed to say after all this? Did I love him? I couldn’t move.

A thought popped into my head that brought everything into perfect clarity. What would I do if he went back into his spaceship and disappeared from my life forever?

The idea twisted my stomach into knots. I would be a mess, and I didn’t know if I would ever get over it. I wanted Arnon. Maybe it was more than that. I needed him. I didn’t know why or how it had happened. I only knew that I couldn’t live without him, no matter where it ended up taking me.

He was still standing there after the thoughts passed rapidly through my mind, but he was starting to look nervous.

“Yes,” I said, tears coming to my eyes. “I will, Arnon. I’ll be your bond mate.”

A huge grin spread across his face, lighting up his entire body. He stepped forward and took my left arm, gently sliding the band up to my bicep.

“Is that too tight?”

I shook my head as a single tear ran down my cheek. He pressed gently and the band molded itself to my skin. He gazed at it for a moment before he looked up and met my eyes. Before I knew it, I found myself in his arms, and his lips were on mine.

The kiss was passionate this time and filled with emotion. We knew that we had made a momentous decision without any idea how it would end. But we didn’t care. There was no way to see the future, after all. I had wanted to choose my love but, against my will, love had chosen me.

My mother had been right. At that moment, I didn’t give a damn. There was only the two of us and a fire that burned between us hotter than anything I had ever known. We sat down on the rock again without breaking the kiss. Arnon pushed me down on my back as he covered me with his body.

I wanted him so badly.

His hand slid up under my shirt and roamed around. When he realized that the shirt had a built-in bra that gave him immediate access to my breasts, he made a surprised noise and then a grunt of appreciation. My eyes rolled back into my head as his hand made contact with my nipple. He pinched it gently, and I moaned, wrapping my legs around his thigh.

Things started to get hotter, and I don’t know what would have happened if a wolf hadn’t howled, startling us out of our passion. “I don’t think we’re supposed to be doing this.” I pushed him off me. We were both partly naked at this point. Neither one of us was thinking clearly. Arnon looked appalled that things had gotten so far.

“I’m sorry about that.” He helped me pull down my shirt and put my pants on again.

“I’m just sorry we had to stop,” I muttered. “You have no idea how badly I want you.”

“I think I know what you mean.” He gave me a smoldering glance.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you want to eat me alive.”

“We won’t have to wait much longer. We’ll be married soon.” He wrapped his arms around me, and I felt my heart begin to flutter. “After we bond, we can make a baby.”

“Heaven help me.”

My mother didn’t take the news well. “Why would you do that?” she shouted.

She made me feel like I was thirteen again, and was reluctant to let me do whatever I wanted. But I wasn’t a teenager anymore, and I didn’t need her permission or approval to marry Arnon. I was willing to proceed without her blessing if I had to.

But I wanted it.

“Because I love him.”

“How could you know that so soon?” I glared at her. “I suppose your father and I married quickly too. Jayne, you’re still my baby, and this decision can affect the rest of your life. I feel like you’re not thinking things through.”

“You didn’t just get married quickly. You married Dad after only knowing him for a few weeks.” I knew my tone was caustic, but she was upsetting me. “You gave up everything to save him. All I’m doing is marrying Arnon.”

“Baby, you know it will mean a lot more than that. What do you want from me? Okay. I’m happy for you.”

“You’re making it sound like a question.”

“We haven’t even met him yet. Your father’s not going to like this.”

“I’ll tell him. Don’t worry, Mom. That’s not your job.”

“I hope you aren’t making a terrible mistake. You’ll be so far away from us. I always hoped you and Maria would settle down close by.”

My eyes filled with tears. I had only been apart from my parents when I went away to school. Even then, I visited frequently, transporting down almost every weekend. I was going to be on my own for the first time.

“You can visit, Mom. They’ll pay for it. Their planet is rich, and the family has plenty of money.”

“You’re not doing it for the money, are you?” she asked, looking up suddenly.

“Of course I’m not.”

“I’m sorry. You’ll understand when you have children of your own. I’m sure you’ll be happy.”

“Thanks, Mom.” I gave her a hug. But if she believed what she was saying, why did she think I was making a mistake?

ARNON

“You’ve done what?” My father glared at me.

“I proposed to Jayne Lynch, and she accepted. I thought we came to this planet to find mates. Are you having second thoughts now?”

“Well, I didn’t know you were courting her. Why didn’t you tell me you intended to ask her to be your bond mate?”

“You’re too busy to trouble yourself with all the minor details of my life, Father.” I had to fight to keep the bitterness out of my voice. Usually, he didn’t care what I was doing. Why did he want to play the role of an involved parent now? I’m sure it would have been easier to get over my mother’s death if my father had been kind to his children. I respected him, but I didn’t love him. He had hurt my brothers and me too many times for there to be any love between us.

“Anyone would want to know who the prince plans to marry.”

“I didn’t realize this was a political meeting. I was surprised that you found me so fascinating tonight.”

“I’m interested, Arnon. There’s no need to be sullen.”

I fought to control my temper. “I have been courting Jayne, and that is no one’s business but our own. I asked her to marry me, and she accepted. Now you know everything.”

“Yes, I suppose I do.”

For a moment, he didn’t look like a heartless father or even a monarch. He seemed like a tired old man. I wondered what it was like walking in his shoes.

“That doesn’t mean I have to approve it. There were a dozen women in the mix more suitable than Jayne Lynch. I made sure of it. You should have chosen one of them. You haven’t given her a band, have you? Perhaps you can still get out of it.”

“Father.” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice any longer. “I love her and I have given her a band. I have no intention of reneging.” I shook my head. He might have had the comfort of five sons in his old age. Instead, he only had our anger and resentment. My father was a fool.

“I will leave now before I say something I regret.”

“Mark my words, Arnon,” he said to my back. “Nothing good will come from this.”

I stopped and turned around slowly, keeping a tight rein on my temper. “Jayne is not nothing. She will be my bond mate.”

He didn’t answer as I left the room.

Jayne and I met the next day to go down to TerraMates and tell them about our decision to be bond mates. I thought we were fast, but we weren’t even the first couple to declare. Wedding preparations began almost immediately.

We would have a mixture of Auxem and Earth customs. All the weddings would start the day after round three was over. Even if we weren’t the first to finish the process, we were going to be the first wedding. We had a group of priests with us who would conduct the ceremonies. Based on projections, we would have enough couples and the events would take about four days.

Once the ceremonies were complete, we would start the journey back to Auxem. Our planet was on the other side of the galaxy. If everything went according to plan, some of the women would get pregnant immediately. We would give fertility treatments to those who couldn’t conceive and implant fertilized eggs into their wombs. By the time we arrived at our planet, the first group of women would all be carrying children.

About nine months later, Auxem would see its first female babies in a generation. And it would just be the beginning. Women would come from Earth to repopulate our planet.

We hoped every man who could produce a child would find a mate. The marriages would happen on their own after the women moved to Auxem. If anyone needed help selecting a mate, they could go to their local TerraMates office for assistance.

Everything seemed perfect, and that made me nervous. The last time things in my life were perfect was when I was ten years old. The next thing I knew, all the women on my planet started dying. Was our journey complete? The thought that we might finally have found women who were willing to come back and help us rebuild society was liberating.

Some of the descendants of the Great Race clung to the antiquated notion that men were more important than women. Not me. I didn’t think men were less important, either. But when you lost the glue of every family on a planet and couldn’t reproduce anymore, when you didn’t have anyone soft to hold onto and no one to help little boys when they skinned their knees...you started to understand how important women were, and not just in the physical sense.

My father hadn’t always been cold and unkind. When I was little, he was a great dad. He played with us, read to us, and explained things to us. He was different after he lost his wife. At first, the changes were imperceptible, but they grew more noticeable the longer she was gone. Mom had brought out a soft side in him that vanished. Whatever magic her love had worked on him faded away. A shell of our father was all that remained.

Everyone on the planet was affected by the tragedy, losing a wife, mother, or sister. We endured an unspeakable pain in a short period. The memory made me shudder.

The human women wouldn’t take their places, exactly, but they brought with them the promise of rebirth and something new. The possibility made my heart glow. We never spoke about how hard our lives were without the women, but the problems lurked at the back of our minds all the time. There were supposed to be two, male and female, for balance and to work together. We made two halves of a whole.

When Jayne and I had children, I would do everything in my power to protect her. I wanted them to grow up with both parents, unlike myself. She and I would be a team, completing each other and living our lives together.

I had a sudden vision of the family Jayne and I might have — a gaggle of little girls, with a couple of boys thrown in for good measure. I couldn’t believe my luck and tried not to think about it too much. I hated to admit it, but I was worried Jayne might disappear on me the way my mother had. Abandonment was my deepest fear.

I wondered how Jayne would feel when she found out the truth about our adaptation and the sacrifice necessary to fly to the heavens. Would she go away when she learned everything? By then, our first child would be an adolescent. Surely she wouldn’t leave me when we had a family and a life built together?

My father had forbidden everyone from disclosing both the existence of our wings and the pain associated with having them. Jayne might not be happy when she found out I had been hiding things from her, but I hoped she wouldn’t blame me. I wasn’t choosing to keep secrets.

She might still hold me responsible despite my logical argument. I decided to push all thoughts of deception out of my mind and focus on our upcoming wedding. Somehow I wasn’t as excited as I had been before. Was there a way I could tell her without breaking my father’s decree?

No. I would have to follow orders, no matter what the cost was.