An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
www.ellorascave.com
Zoë’s Gift
ISBN 9781419922824
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Zoë’s Gift Copyright © 2009 Jory Strong
Edited by Sue-Ellen Gower
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book Publication May 2009
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Jory Strong
Acknowledgments
It’s only fitting that with this, my 30th story for Ellora’s Cave, I acknowledge my editor, Sue-Ellen Gower, who picked Fallon Mates: Binding Krista from the “slush” pile so many years ago and set my career as a published author in motion. My stories continue to be richer and fuller for passing through her hands, and her praise and encouragement still challenge me to make each story better than the previous one. Thanks, Sue-Ellen! This one’s for you!
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Big Mac: McDonald’s Corporation
Kentucky Fried Chicken: KFC Corporation
National Enquirer: American Media Operations, Inc.
Qwirkle: MindWare
Star Trek: CBS Inc.
Styrofoam: Dow Chemical Company, The
Fallon Mates - Zoe's GiftJory Strong
Fallon Mates - Zoe's Gift By Jory StrongA book in the Fallon Mates series.One look at the human female who is his match and the mating fever of the Vesti ignites in Miciah, making it impossible for him to deny what he wants. To go to Earth and claim her, he must choose an Amato co-mate. For him there is only one choice, the bisexual Iden. It'll mean breaking the cultural taboos of the Vesti, but for Zoë, he and Iden will become lovers.Miciah intends to keep his sexual relationship with Iden a secret as they take Zoë together. Iden has other ideas. What neither of them can know is they've starred in Zoë's dreams for a week, so when they show up in her reality, she welcomes the chance to explore their fantasies—and her own.Miciah and Iden may have come to Earth to claim a mate, but taking her home with them will change Belizair forever.Read an excerpt Genre : Menage a trois or More / Gay / Futuristic Book Length: .Plus Novel.
Prologue
Kaylee Ripa, formerly of the planet Earth and not yet ten years old, knew one thing with complete and utter certainty. Bossy boys were a million times worse than a shot in the butt. A trillion times worse than the strictest nurse she’d ever had to deal with and a zillion times worse than the meanest doctor. And that was a saying a lot considering she’d been in and out of hospitals for most of her life and would have died if Zeraac and Komet hadn’t come to Earth and brought her to Belizair.
She peeked around the bush she was currently hiding behind and gauged the distance to the archway separating this courtyard from the next one. Then she checked the sky to make sure everyone was playing by the rules she’d insisted on before the game started—no flying when you were it.
That was part of the problem with the two bossy boys who were a million times worse than a shot in the butt. Just because she didn’t have wings, they thought she needed to be watched over constantly.
Well, she didn’t. And she shouldn’t have to sneak away from the game like this either. But there was something she had to do and she had to do it alone because it was a secret task the golden lady had asked her to do.
If it hadn’t been a secret, then Kaylee would have asked her mother or her new fathers, Komet and Zeraac, to take her to the Council building. But since it was a secret mission, she had to wait until she was out playing with the friends she’d made in Winseka.
Winseka was where all the humans had to live when they were first brought to Belizair. Not that there were many humans. And except for her, there were no human children. All her friends were either Amato or Vesti. The Amato friends looked like angels, though the feathers on their wings weren’t always solid white like in the picture books on Earth. Her Vesti friends were darker skinned than most of the Amato and they had suede-soft wings that looked like bat wings.
This was the longest she’d ever managed to be alone. So far every time she’d tried to go off by herself, The Bossy Boys had stopped her. They said it was their job to protect her and keep her out of trouble because one day she was going to grow up and be their wife.
That was not going to happen! Some boys were good to have as friends. But she wasn’t even old enough to have a boyfriend yet. And even if she had been, it would not be one of The Bossy Boys.
Kaylee checked the sky one last time and raced for the archway leading into the next courtyard. She wasn’t sure if Miciah d’Vesti was in the Council building or how she’d get to see him, or even if he’d want to see her, but she had to try.
Miciah was a powerful Council member. He was one of twelve people who made the laws on Belizair. But more importantly, he was a genetic match for her mother, and if he’d wanted to, he could have had Komet and Zeraac sent away. He hadn’t done it though. He’d let her mother keep Komet and Zeraac as husbands which meant Kaylee got to keep them as her daddies. And as far as she was concerned, they were the best daddies in the entire universe!
She thought that’s why the golden lady wanted to help Miciah find a human female to bring back to Belizair. Because of the Hotaling virus, it took one Amato, one Vesti, and one human to form a family and make babies. Unless Miciah found a genetic match or got asked to be a co-mate, he’d never have children.
Today was the last day she had in order to do what the golden lady wanted and go see Miciah herself. When she’d given Jeqon d’Amato the strands of hair she’d found in her mother’s keepsake box, she hadn’t told him who they belonged to. But in exchange for Jeqon testing them, she’d had to agree to tell him where they came from if one of them had the Fallon gene sequence in it.
When the hair she was hoping for was the one that came back positive, she’d begged him to keep it secret from the other scientists and to not tell her mother or fathers for just a few more days. Now her time was up.
A shout sounded several courtyards away. Followed by another. And then a whole chorus of voices was yelling her name.
Kaylee grabbed her backpack straps and sprinted even harder, covering the remaining distance to the Council building like she had wings on her feet instead of her back. She darted inside, running past two Amato women and an Amato man.
She thought maybe they said, “Halt”, but she ignored them and rushed into the Council chamber. Just inside the doorway she stopped and held her breath so she could listen if anyone was chasing her. They weren’t.
Kaylee exhaled quietly and looked around. The room resembled a courtroom on a TV program, except there were no benches for spectators and no seats for jurors. When the twelve Council members were listening to a complaint or making a judgment they sat behind a long, slightly raised judge’s bench made of crystals.
In the middle of the judges’ table was a set of scales. Her mom called it The Scales of Justice.
All along its base and arms were carvings of winged creatures. Zeraac had told her they were just some of the different forms the Fallon—the ancient winged ancestors of the Amato and Vesti—could take.
The scales seemed to tower above everything else in the room and Kaylee couldn’t keep herself from walking over to them. She touched her finger to one flat tray and watched the scale tilt, remembering the day the Council members had voted on whether or not to hear the challenge that could have broken up her family.
Each council member had placed a token on either one side of the scale or the other. And in the end, it was Miciah’s vote that decided.
Kaylee walked toward the door the Council members used. Thanks to her mom, she knew how to find Miciah’s office if she went through that door.
She looked down at the wristbands she wore. They sparkled with the Ylan stones called the Tears of the Goddess. The sight of them made her square her shoulders. She had an important task to do and she wouldn’t let the golden lady down.
Chapter One
Miciah d’Vesti turned away from the window. He was restless, on edge. He felt worn down by the endless discussion and behind-the-scenes maneuvering, by the crushing responsibility that came with trying to guide Belizair through this time of devastation and change.
Hidden hostilities lying dormant between the Amato and Vesti for centuries now threatened to boil to the surface, and yet now more than ever, there was no place for anger or grudges. Not when the Hotaling virus would ultimately lead to their extinction if they didn’t work together. Live together. Join together and form mate bonds with those humans carrying the Fallon genetic markers.
The Council scientists had found a solution for the unmated males. They’d also found a small measure of hope for the unbound females—though only a few knew of it and the Council hadn’t decided on a course of action.
There was no hope for those Amato and Vesti who had bonded before the Hotalings struck. It was their fate that grieved Miciah more than any of the others.
He returned to his desk, stretching his wings as he contemplated what he should do next. He longed to be back in his home set high in the trees.
From his balcony he had only to launch himself into the sky to soar above a region of Belizair populated almost entirely by Vesti. From anywhere in the house he could enjoy the view, the dense forest for as far as the eye could see in one direction, the red mountains separating jungle from desert in the other direction.
A knock on the door made him sigh. Miciah said “Enter” without bothering to reach out mentally or read the display that would tell him who his unexpected guest was.
He was unprepared for the sight of the Earth child, Kaylee. A stab of regret pierced him, a sense of loss.
She could have been his daughter. And with her mother as his mate, there would have been additional children.
He hid his emotions behind a mask, retreated into politeness. “This is a surprise. Are you lost?”
Kaylee scowled at him and just as quickly as he’d felt the sting of pain, his emotions swung to the edge of smiling. “Then you were seeking me?”
His amusement deepening when Kaylee’s lips pursed as though having found him, she wasn’t exactly sure why she’d sought out his company.
“I need to talk to you,” she finally said, coming to stand on the opposite side of his desk.
He waved toward the chair, wondering as he did so if the Earth females grew tired of sitting on furniture built with little or no backs and at a height to accommodate the winged Vesti and Amato. “Take a seat. Would you like something to eat or drink?”
Kaylee shook her head and let out a breath. He was different than she’d expected. Less stern. Maybe he only seemed fierce and scary when he was sitting in the Council chamber.
Before she’d actually gotten here, she’d known exactly what she was going to say to him. She’d rehearsed it a hundred times in her head. But now that she was standing this close to Miciah, she was afraid she was wrong.
What if the golden lady who visited her in her dreams wasn’t the goddess of the Amato after all? What if the message she thought she was supposed to give Miciah was just wishful thinking?
Kaylee chewed on her bottom lip. She’d overheard Komet and Zeraac talking about how Miciah was the only child of an important Vesti clan-house. Now that she was looking at him, she didn’t want to be wrong about what she had to tell him.
Miciah didn’t know what to make of the child. Her expressions changed so rapidly he was left with only an impression she was worried about something, and yet no clear idea of what it was and why she would come to him, unless…
He stiffened and closed his mind to that avenue of speculation, though he went as far as to ask, “Is your mother still happy with Zeraac and Komet? Do they treat the two of you well?”
Kaylee face went from uncertain to indignant. “That’s not why I’m here! Mommy and I love Zeraac and Komet!”
She pulled a knapsack from her shoulders and placed it on Miciah’s desk. “I’m here because of you. I think I know how you can get a mate.”
Miciah coughed to hide his startled amusement, thinking in that instant how well Kaylee and his mother would have gotten along. From the time he’d reached manhood, his mother had been parading Vesti females in front of him. Then the Hotaling virus struck.
When he’d first seen Ariel, he’d been tempted to claim her for the good of his clan-house, whether she was willing or not, whether she loved another or not. He’d been tempted even as they spoke privately in this very chamber. But in the end he’d made the only choice he knew he could live with. He’d let her go.
Miciah watched as the small human emptied her knapsack. It contained a thin bound book, a locket, and what looked like a folder full of papers.
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