Bonded for Eternity by Elizabeth Lapthorne.pdf

BONDED FOR ETERNITY

An Ellora’s Cave Publication, August 2005

Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

1056 Home Avenue

Akron, OH 44310-3502

ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-784-0

Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or

locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Edited by Martha Punches.

Cover art by Syneca .

Warning:

The following material contains graphic sexual content meant for mature readers.Bonded For Eternity

has been rated E–rotic by a minimum of three independent reviewers.

Ellora’s Cave Publishing offers three levels of Romantica™ reading entertainment: S (S-ensuous), E

(E-rotic), and X (X-treme).

S- ensuous love scenes are explicit and leave nothing to the imagination.

E- rotic love scenes are explicit, leave nothing to the imagination, and are high in volume per the overall

word count. In addition, some E-rated titles might contain fantasy material that some readers find

objectionable, such as bondage, submission, same sex encounters, forced seductions, and so forth.

E-ratedtitles are the most graphic titles we carry; it is common, for instance, for an author to use words

such as “fucking”, “cock”, “pussy”, and such within their work of literature.

X- treme titles differ from E-rated titles only in plot premise and storylineexecution. Unlike E-rated titles,

stories designated with the letter X tend to contain controversial subject matter not for the faint of heart.

Bonded For Eternity

Elizabeth Lapthorne

Prologue

Planet Xylone

Leif Bardobos impatiently swiped yet another large frond away from his face as he made his way

through the thick jungle. He grimaced and silently admitted to himself maybe it hadn’t been the brightest

idea to come Explore this planet with his folks. He had been so certain it would be the manly, daring

adventure he had dreamed about for years. Life in New Australia, a colony created from descendants

from the old world country of Australia, had become very boring.

Instead he seemed to be finding the steamy weather muggy and uncomfortable, the bugs that seemed to

rule the jungle were irritating and worst of all, each tree and plant looked so boringly similar he could

hardly distinguish between them all.

He had been begging both his parents, well-renowned Explorers in their own rights, for the last two

years to come with them on their Expedition trips. Finally, now that he had passed into his eighteenth year

and was legally considered an adult in every sense across the entire Galaxy, his parents had allowed him

to travel this once with them as his coming-of-age gift.

Leif had been certain destiny had lent a hand into his affairs. Not only did he feel as eager as anything to

get some decent, real Adventuring experience before he joined the local Guild’s unit for official training,

but he had desperately wanted to avoid his mates and their endless needling after his disastrous, and

extremely public, breakup with Arcadia.

Both he and his ex-infatuation, he could not declare her to be his greatest-ever love now , proclaimed to

be the one to dump the other. He insisted she had gone to dinner with Robjer, thus cheating on him and

forcing him to call a halt to their relationship. She insisted he had been out one night, dancing with Helena,

which he knew, of course, was utter nonsense.

He had gone out one night with a few mates to shoot a few games of virtual pool and to relax with a

couple of drinks at the local bar. Arcadia had insisted she was feeling sick and not up to a night out with

him. So it had been an utter surprise to see her sitting with Robjer in a darkened corner of one of the

booths on his way out to take a slash in the men’s room.

Stupidly, he had initiated a fight there and then. He could now freely admit to himself he had utterly

overreacted, yet his masculine pride had been totally wiped out from her perceived “cheating”. Arcadia

had shrieked at him, said it was all his fault as he had been dirty-dancing with Helena the weekend before

at her Majority Eighteenth celebration.

Unfortunately for him, his mates had decided with the fair Arcadia up now as fair game , they had to

support her story and tease the hell out of him. It didn’t help that neither he nor Arcadia could refute the

other’s story too vehemently, as they had actually broken up the following evening by a mere comm call,

both of them feeling somewhat guilty.

Leif, now much more coolheaded, knew he had overreacted to a fairly simple dinner out, and secretly to

himself, he had to admit he’d had one drink too many at Helena’s party and might have gone overboard

with his dancing.

The much-anticipated “blazing row” all their friends had been laying bets on had actually turned out to be

a fairly civil conversation where both he and Arcadia had decided to break up with no hard feelings on

either side.

So now while he was certainly no social pariah, a bit of out-time for all the dust to settle had been

needed. When his parents had informed him of their planned Exploration he had wheedled and

bargained, and finally pulled the Majority Eighteenth coming-of-age gift plea, and had been allowed to

come along. He had considered it an absolute goddess-send.

Leif shrugged and pushed the whole situation out of his mind.

Instead, he tried to focus on how a simple walk could have made him lose his direction. He was not lost,

he insisted to himself. He merely didn’t know precisely where he stood at this particular point in time. He

continued in what he felt certain was the right direction, pushing more and more fronds away from his

face as the foliage grew denser.

As the jungle he strode through became even more densely populated with flora, and not thinner as he

had hoped, he swore to himself. Trying to stem the rising irritation and worry inside him, Leif silently

promised to the goddess he would next time remember to carry his starmap and magnocompass with him

every second until he landed back home.

Trying to bargain with her in his mind, he insisted he would place them on his person the instant he

returned to the campsite and then never move without them again. Leif stopped to catch his breath, took

a good look around and tried to scout where exactly he seemed to be in this stupid rain forest.

Leif tried hard not to growl with frustration. Coming off-planet with his folks had seemed the perfect

solution to all of his problems. He would go away and do something really cool to brag about to his

mates when he got back.

It had seemed in those bright moments he had first conceived the idea as if his plan was utterly faultless,

as he could simultaneously gain some experience with the Adventuring he wanted to spend his lifetime

doing. The Guilds always favored those who had some experience, especially from Explorer parents.

Only now he couldn’t tell exactly where he was. All these damn trees, fronds, shrubs and hills all looked

the same to him.

Obviously Dany and Marth Bardobos had sheltered him, their only child, from the very few less pleasant

aspects of their work. They only ever regaled him with the excitement of having their research prove true

and accurate, of the thrill Exploring could be. Here in the middle of a very same-looking forest Leif could

hardly understand why he had wanted to Adventure at all.

Even with his parents’ cautions of the rougher side of Exploring and the more detailed study and

verifications needed, he had decided as a bare youth to become an Adventurer. To his eager young

masculine brain, while Explorers were still cool, ninety percent of their work only required decent

research skills and being able to find obscure references in the library.

Many Explorers studied their vids of the ancient papers, made their conclusions, and handed the whole

lot over to the Adventurers. His parents were different in that often their initial confirmations they carried

out off-planet themselves. This one case proved to be a perfect example. A rare, self-mutilating forest

mouse had captured their attention here on Xylone.

Leif frowned. From his studies at school he could tell from the position in which the three suns were

circled around each other very soon dusk would settle, and he really needed to be back at their camp

soon.

Enlarging his steps, Leif finally swiped away a few more fronds and reached the top of the hill he had

been climbing to get his bearings.

He doubted at this point his folks would be too concerned over his absence so far, but if he didn’t return

by dark they would begin to worry and that opened a whole new can of worms he wanted nothing to do

with.

No one liked the results gleaned from worried parents. They tended to include stupid groundings, severe

lectures and lots of ranting, no matter how old he was.

Leif also had a sneaky suspicion even though he was legally an adult now and fully able to take care of

himself, whether lost or not, his mother would still vent her frustrations at him and attempt to ground him

until he set off under the Guild’s training. As much of this expedition was, to him at least, a face-saving

mechanism, coming home grounded in no way fit into his plans.

Standing on a nearby rock formation, Leif breathed a huge sigh of relief he hadn’t even realized had

been caught in his chest. Just as his mind had firmed its resolve, as he knew he had to get his ass into gear

and find his way, much of the jungle almost opened up and spread before his gaze.

Finally able to get a clear view of the surrounding area, Leif found the small curl of smoke from his

parents’ fire, and smiled for the first time in what seriously had begun to feel like forever.

This wasn’t so bad after all!

Pulling his cap down low over his eyes in case some nasty foliage decided to whack him in the face

again, Leif turned in the direction of his parents’ camp and set off at a run.

He felt as if his whole galaxy had righted itself again. Instead of trudging his way up a hill, annoyed and

grumpy, he knew exactly in which direction he needed to head. This spurred him on and made his feet

and whole body seem so much lighter than before. He enjoyed the workout the run gave him, making him

feel far more in control than he had so far today.

He laughed in delight at the utterly new sensation of freedom. For the first time in months, he began to

truly understand how large and wonderful the adult galaxy out there was. How vast and brilliant it could

be.

Almost making a game out of ducking the fronds, weaving between the trees, shrubs and surrounding

vegetation, Leif jogged down the hill and then followed the nonexistent path back to his parents’ camp.

The wind felt refreshing and reviving, rushing past him as he agilely moved his body to a tune only he

could hear. The heavy thud, thud of his shoes echoed in his mind as they hit the soft soil, almost bouncing

in his newly refound joie de vivre .

Leif enjoyed the feeling of being wild and free and he knew deep in his heart this was where he longed to

be, out in the wild, Exploring and Adventuring. There were millions of places in the galaxy needing

documentation, and he loved the sense of freedom travel gave him.

Even more importantly, he now understood some of the inhibition his father had tried to warn and instill

in him. He had been warned numerous times of how easy a situation could get out of control and now

Leif had firsthand knowledge of that. Yet still he could revel and enjoy those times where everything

simply clicked into place.

He couldn’t wait to tell his father!

Now that he had a firm bearing on where he was headed, Leif unleashed his joy and excitement. He let

his own, personal self-discovery wash over him and overwhelm him.

He crashed through the trees and plants, recognizing the tiny path now in front of him leading to where

his parents had set their camp.

“Hey Muumm ,” he called out as he ran up the path, “I’m not too late for dinner, am I? Dad! You won’t

believe—” Leif dimly sensed his feet stumble to a halt as the carnage before his eyes began to register.

At least half a dozen fully grown women, all of them around six-foot tall, stood with spears and beamers

pointed toward one man whom Leif had never set eyes on before.

He and his parents had come alone into this wilderness, so for what seemed like an eternity Leif’s mind

seemed to blank out at his non-register of this strange male. Leif’s own frame had only recently grown to

one inch past six foot, and so the shock of seeing the unkempt and unknown male at his parents’

campsite had thrust his brain into numbed incomprehension. His mind seemingly unable to understand

what it could see, it took him a moment to truly realize how unusually tall these women were.

His brain slowly trying to assimilate everything he saw, Leif stared back at the amazing women. They all

wore skins, barely covering themselves decently. Yet even with the uncovered womanly flesh surrounding

him he found it hard to focus on all the extreme femaleness when he suddenly saw something that made

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