TICEES (71 page)

Chelan pressed him deep into her and surrounded his hard waist with her long legs. She never wanted him to leave her body, and then she relaxed, allowing him his time.

Shan looked down at her, her eyes closed, her face peaceful, her soft moans of pleasure spurring him on. He continued immersing himself in her tight depths as he thought of his love for her and her endless desire to please him, and then he made his decision. He collapsed down onto her as much as he dared and then pushed her legs up high and back, parting her wide. He drew his knees under him, spreading his legs far apart, as he hunched his body and buried his face in her neck. His breathing became sporadic and his thrusts short and frequent.

Chelan opened her eyes, her hands feeling the extreme tightness of the muscles along his sides and down his back. Something about him was different, and she held her breath. Finally, his pelvic movements became nearly nonexistent, and she felt a pressure building from within her. It did not hurt, but she was confused.

Shan began to move again, his hips rotating against her, all his erogenous zones at the base of his penis rubbing along her soft folds. She could feel his heavy testicles against her, undulating and pulsing. His body began to sweat profusely, and his breathing was ragged. Then he rose up off her, and Chelan looked into his glazed eyes. She could tell he was like a man possessed, present, yet not.

Watching him closely, she coiled up and touched his chest, raking her nails down his sensitive skin, but he did not respond to her. Then she touched his sides, realizing that his muscles were clenched so tight, it was as if he had turned to metal. Chelan suddenly sucked in several deep breaths as she became riddled with fear. She pushed on him forcefully, and she felt a burning sensation within her. She gasped, realizing he was locked within her body.

Chelan panicked. “What are you doing?” she asked in a hoarse whisper. She saw him look down at her, but he did not answer. His powerful hands held her hips tightly to him, possessing her completely, keeping himself embedded as deeply as possible.

Oh god, no
, her mind screamed, as Korba’s words of warning slammed into her mind. “You did not deceive me, Chelan … you simply omitted information under the false assumption that it did not matter.”

Chelan swallowed hard in an attempt to moisten her suddenly parched throat. She pushed against him again as she tried to struggle away from him, but Shan grabbed her roughly, a warning growl erupting from his chest. He seized her hands and pinned her to stillness. She instantly submitted. She bit her lip, somehow knowing that he was beyond control, and she was beyond help.

Finally he pressed into her so hard she winced, her femininity bruising. Then came the ache, a dull ache deep inside accompanied by cramping. She held her breath. She watched as his small pelvic motions continued, her cramping increasing. Then he began to grind against her, his shaft so deep in her that his pelvis swirled over her clit, and she gasped, his motions forcing her to clamp down on him. She gritted her teeth. He was huge, and so hard within her it now hurt. She had to do everything she could to relax in order to accommodate him comfortably. Then he hung his head, his hands releasing hers and gripping her hips in a vise-like hold. He began to make small and urgent thrusts, and she watched his muscles coil as if about to strike.

Suddenly, he threw his head back and cried out, and Chelan watched his whole body contract violently, his flesh stretched so tight over his bulging muscles that she could see individual fibers. Then he hunched over her, his face contorted. He was panting for air, his whole body dripping with moisture. His shaft throbbed, and she could feel his testicles pulsing against her bottom. Then she felt an internal heat wash throughout her core, and the extreme pressure within her began to ease.

Shan continued to spasm for a long time, and Chelan held very still. She was both fascinated by what had just occurred and scared to death at the same time. Then he slumped to her momentarily before rolling off of her, his body spent, all his muscles flaccid.

Chelan took several deep breaths and then ran her fingers down over her abdomen and into her femininity, feeling an all-pervasive tenderness. She glanced at him as she sat up, but his eyes were closed, one arm thrown across his face. She felt a warm moisture coat her thighs and detected the new scent about her body. She reached down again and ran her fingers through her folds. She looked at them, her fingers glistening with a moisture not her own. “Shit,” she mumbled quietly to herself.

Chelan tried to stand, her knees weak and her legs trembling, but she managed. She looked at Shan, but not a muscle moved. He was totally exhausted. Chelan staggered to the pool and slid into its warmth as she began to struggle with her tumultuous emotions.

She closed her eyes. She had lost track of time again, and she prayed that she was safe. She laid her head on the side of the pool as she hugged herself tightly. At first she began berating herself for her mistake in not telling Shan of her cycles, but then she sobered. How could she have told him? If she had, he would have known that she was an alien, and that would have been a disaster.

Time passed as she attempted to soothe herself. She tried to sort through the tides of conflicting emotions and suddenly, she jumped, startled by Shan’s touch on her shoulder.

Shan became instantly concerned. She looked up at him shyly and then quickly averted her gaze. He slid into the pool beside her. He turned her to him. “Are you okay?” he asked tensely. “Did I hurt you?” But she did not answer, and he could tell by her ashen features that she was not okay. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I just assumed that someone had come in you before.”

Chelan swallowed hard, and she shook her head.

“Are we different from the men of the South? Has no one ever explained to you how we change?”

Chelan shook her head again, still unable to speak, and then she tried to smile, but it was a hopeless attempt.

Shan assumed that her fear was from the unknown and unexpected sensations that she had felt. But then his heart seized. She was small, and he was far from it. “Did I hurt you?” he asked again, his deep concern evident in his voice. She shook her head weakly, and Shan pulled her to him. “I’m sorry, Kayla. I won’t allow it to happen again, especially if you’re not comfortable with it. I should have asked.”

Chelan hugged him tight as she once again began doing calculations in her head, Iceanean days counted and converted to Earth time. Then her eyes watered, all the potential ramifications of what had just happened tumbling through her mind. Now he had to leave her. She would not tell him of her possible impregnation, for she loved him too much to take the chance of trapping him. He was free. He had always been, and she knew that she could never take that from him without a part of herself dying. She quivered. Now only time would tell, and for the moment, she could only wait.

The next few weeks passed by quickly, and Shan continued to train vigorously. Chelan had begun making a fur garment for him to wear over his torn uniform, for it would no longer protect him adequately from Iceanea’s glacial temperatures. They never again spoke of him returning for her, and Shan had simply assumed that since she had accepted his offer to be his mate, then she had accepted the fact that he would one day retrieve her if he made it back to the Empire alive. Chelan, on the other hand, was simply existing from day to day, dreading the moment when she would have to tell him that she could never go with him.

Shan sensed her increasing depression, but he felt that it was over her concern for him and the trip he had to make through the Dead Zone. He did not wish to deepen her anxiety by discussing the matter, and before he knew it, almost another two Iceanean months had passed, and he was ready. He would leave within the week, and he had to think of a way to tell Kayla.

While she curled up for a nap he decided to make yet another trip to the surface. He had traversed the tunnel several times in the past, but he had never attempted to break through the ice lens. Today he would begin the task of opening the plug in preparation for his departure. Shan had thought about using the lazgun to melt the ice, but his position below the ice seal put him in jeopardy of injury, and he could not afford even the slightest setback. But because of the strange optical properties of the entire tunnel, he really had no idea how thick the ice lens was. The impact of his fighter and the surrounding bombardment had opened the seal for Kayla’s escape that fateful day so long ago, but she had been so consumed by the need to help him that she had not even considered looking to see how much material had been cleared to allow her bid for the surface. Today he would find out.

Shan worked for a few hours, chipping near one of the edges to see if he could produce any kind of distortion in the lens that would give him any visual clues as to the ice’s depth, but it was to no avail. He sat back and reassessed the situation. Maybe if he shot the laser from low in the tunnel where he could shield himself with the rock wall, he could make some headway. He slid down the icy corridor to the rock interface and then pressed himself against the stone just where the tunnel began to widen. He reduced the setting on the gun, aimed, and fired a quick burst.

Instantly there was a resounding boom followed by crackling, hissing, and then the deep sound of ice fracturing. Water and debris flowed down and past Shan, but there were no large chunks of ice. He stared up the tunnel and then began his ascent warily. As he got closer he could see the concavity left by the laser with large fractures radiating in all directions. Shan thought of retreating quickly in case the lens ruptured, but then he squinted with awe, watching as the fractures appeared to fill with water and almost instantly heal. He scrambled up closer, trying to ascertain the depth of the fissures before they disappeared. The largest one remaining appeared to penetrate the lens for at least three meters, and Shan finalized his plans.

He slid back down to the ice-rock interface and sat on the floor of the tunnel, wiping his brow. With meters of ice to get through, his lazgun was his only hope. If he kept the blasts short, hopefully the whole plug wouldn’t shatter and come down on him. With repeated shots, eventually he would vaporize the majority of the ice and finally make his way through. Obviously, when he had crashed, either the impact of the fighter or possibly some enemy ordinance had completely ruptured the lens, permitting Kayla access to the surface. How she had not been killed by the ensuing avalanche was nothing short of a miracle.

Shan’s thoughts then switched to more personal matters. He knew that he would have to ask Kayla for a firm commitment, for he did not wish to return for her only to find out that she had panicked in his absence, forcing herself to abandon the security of the cave in her bid for escape. Everything had to be worked out in detail, and she had to be comfortable with every aspect of their plans. No scenario could be overlooked, for above all else he wanted what was best for her. Living out her life in morbid isolation definitely was not, but reaching a palatable compromise that would suit them both was going to be an issue.

Shan sat awhile longer and sorted through the problems that their life together would present. But no matter how insurmountable the dilemma seemed, he always came to the same inescapable conclusion: she was so caring, so warm, and so loving, that he would simply waste away without her. He still did not know her complete story, but to him it no longer mattered. Though he did not know how she came to be in the Dead Zone, what truly did concern him was her reluctance to leave. He was baffled by the whole situation in general. He recognized that many of her timorous personality traits would be hard on her in an aggressive society such as his, but that could be overcome. Living in solitude in a cavern, deep in the Dead Zone, could not.

Shan took a deep breath and looked around. His gaze landed on a loose rock not too far from him. While he was pondering all the dilemmas plaguing him, he could at least do some arm curls. He stood and pulled the boulder from the cavern wall, his fingers brushing something soft. Shan squatted down and squinted against the blackness of the crevasse. He reached in cautiously, drawing out the all-too-familiar black material.

He held it in his hands while he wallowed in utter confusion. “What the hell?” he muttered to himself. Shan sat down hard as he began unraveling the shroud. His eyes widened as the Imperial uniform and weapons tumbled out onto the rock floor.

Shan was stunned. Had someone been here before them? He moved to his knees and straightened out the uniform, holding it up before him.

Suddenly, he recoiled at the uniform’s small size, and he fell backward as the revelation slammed into him. His heart crashed against his chest. Everything immediately added up to one devastating conclusion.

Shan pushed back to the far wall and leaned against it, his fists clenched and his breath catching in his throat. “Oh, no,” he moaned. “Chelan.”

He sat very still for a long time, his head slumped forward as he stared at the ground. “Chelan,” he whispered despondently. Their relationship was futile. She was Korba’s Letted mate, and she was far from dead.