by Sydney Croft
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s my choice. My one and only choice, Ani. If it’s not something you want, then I’m going to let the opportunity slip by.”
“But if it’s not me, then you could be with anybody at all.”
“I’ve said it before, I don’t want just anybody. I’m not willing to give up everything for just anybody.” He ran his hands through his hair, a wave of despair washing over him. Torn between his present and his past, he was breaking in two, literally.
He pushed up from the bed, ignoring Annika’s hands trying to pull him back down. He yanked his pants on and grabbed his T-shirt. He almost couldn’t look at her, but he forced himself to.
“I’m asking too much, I know.”
“Creed—”
“It’s all right. I get it. I finally get it,” he said. “Some people were just meant to be alone. We’re two of those people. It was stupid for me to think otherwise.”
He left the room and her house without another word. Kat met him on the outside steps and put her arm around him as he walked home in the rain.
CHAPTER
Twenty-four
“What the hell are you talking about? I followed her here. She was talking to Annika and that other trainer. She was fine.” Ender slammed his fists on the desk in front of Dev.
“There was a problem,” Dev said. “She attacked Annika.”
“Bullshit. Annika’s the one with no restraint.”
“Annika said something about you that hit your animal whisperer the wrong way,” Dev said, because Ender’s temper didn’t scare him the way it did almost every other person on the compound.
“This happened hours ago—why the hell didn’t you call me sooner?” Ender asked.
“We wanted to make sure Kira was all right before we called.”
“Dev, you’d better start telling me exactly what’s going on.” Ender’s agitation rose to untenable levels, and Dev hoped the man was ready for what he was about to hear.
“Kira’s in the infirmary—she’s going to be fine. But her body’s changed in a way we never anticipated.”
Ender got it. Immediately. He sank onto the couch, muttering to himself, “I saw the changes but didn’t put it all together.”
Then he spoke to Dev. “She said she was on the pill.”
“Apparently, Derek switched them out to placebos when he arrived at the refuge. The I-Agent Annika captured in Idaho gave up the intel. We’ve got Remy on it now to see what else we can extract from the agent.”
“They wanted her pregnant.”
“Yes, by Derek specifically. With her abilities and Derek’s strength…”
“Her child might have a double gift—and with her animal physiology, the strength could be magnified,” Ender whispered. “What about our child?”
“Let’s just say, that kid isn’t someone I’d want to mess with either.”
“Does she know?”
“I figured you should be the one to tell her,” Dev said, and the familiar tightening in his head began again. Since he and Oz had gotten the psychics to help block his mind from Alek yesterday, he’d been experiencing violent headaches that came out of the blue. A necessary evil while Alek battled the mind-shield for control of Dev’s brain.
In a few days, once ACRO’s affairs were in order, Dev would take his leave until he could fully protect his mind against Itor. Oz was prepared to take charge, and most of the staff had been notified.
“Dev, you all right?” Ender was asking. Dev looked straight into the man’s eyes, and for a second Ender cocked his head and stared at Dev, as if he knew Dev could see again.
“I’m fine. It’s just stress. Go now,” Dev said.
“Fuck you. Something’s up with you. It’s that goddamned Oz, isn’t it?” Ender continued to stare. “I don’t get it, Dev. Letting Oz take over while you go on a vacation doesn’t strike me as something you’d do willingly.”
“You don’t know anything,” Dev said.
“I know a hell of a lot more than you give me credit for,” Ender countered, but Dev didn’t have the time or patience for this. He stood, kicking his chair back behind him.
“Go now, Tom. Get the hell out of my sight. Go to your animal whisperer and figure out whether or not you’re ready to play daddy,” he said, felt Ender’s jerk of surprise.
“Like I said before, fuck you, Dev,” Ender whispered, his voice raw. He stormed out with a slam of the main office door, and Dev waited a beat before he slid out the back.
KIRA’S PREGNANT.
The thought hit Ender on a level so deep that he nearly shook as he raced through ACRO at top speed to get to the infirmary. A primal tug to protect her and his baby nearly overwhelmed him, and he didn’t give a shit what was happening with Dev. He only wanted to get to Kira. Immediately.
He stormed past both security and the nurses who tried to stop him—and he was pretty sure the nurses were a hell of a lot tougher to get through, but it didn’t matter. He pushed past anyone in his way, gently but firmly moving the last nurse—who actually stood in front of Kira’s door—by picking her up.
He put her right back in place, and even though his speed was slightly diminished because no food held his interest, he was still a hell of a lot faster than anyone around here.
Kira was sitting up in bed, looking at the door, no doubt having heard the commotion. When the nurse came in after him, Kira called out, “It’s all right, Meg. I want to see him. He’s mine.”
Mine.
“He’s yours?” Meg pointed to him. “Good luck with that, honey.” The nurse exited, closing the door behind her.
“Hi, Tommy,” Kira said.
“Hey,” he said. She didn’t look any worse for wear—in fact, she looked even more beautiful than usual. Softer, which he’d already mentioned to her days earlier, and glowing. Now he understood why. He walked over to the bed and grabbed her hand. “You look good.”
“I’m glad you came,” she said. “I’m fine. And please, don’t do anything to Annika. None of this was her fault.”
He growled again, this time at the mention of Annika’s name. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Tommy, don’t you dare. I attacked her first. It was my fault. All I seem to do is cause trouble. I thought maybe it would be different here…” She trailed off absently, pulled the covers around her more tightly.
“I have to ask you something, Kira.”
“They don’t want me here anymore, right?” she asked, the misery in her tone breaking his heart.
“No, they want you here. You’re still safe and this is still the best place for you.”
“I don’t know what happened, why I reacted that way—”
“Did you have sex with anyone else during this cycle?” he asked quickly, interrupting her before she could go over the entire incident again and again.
She yanked her hand from his. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Ah, yes, hormones. Kira’s would probably be much more off the wall than most pregnant women’s. Which meant he was screwed. Granted, he could’ve couched the question a little better, but hell, he’d never promised that he was going to change. Much.
“It’s a simple question,” he said. “You told me yourself that you’ve always needed a lot of different men to satisfy you. That you’ve moved from man to man during your heat before.”
“Yes, before,” she practically spat. “You know there was only you.”
“I won’t be mad or anything. I understand. It’s just that I need to know.” Fuck, he was practically stuttering. “Did you sleep with Derek before I got there?”
“No,” she said, with a hard shake of her head. She was staring at him, her brow furrowed in anger.
“You’re sure?”
“I think I’d know,” she said, and he thought about the time he’d drugged her. Derek could’ve easily taken her then, and she wouldn’t have known.
Derek was out cold. There was no way…
<
br /> “How are you feeling now?” he asked finally.
“A little more tired than usual, but I think that’s probably tied into the heat cycle ending early.”
“When did it end exactly?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Before you rearranged my furniture?” he asked gently, got a small smile from her.
“Yes.”
“And the heat ending early, that’s never happened before?”
She shook her head. “Never. Something’s wrong, isn’t it? You know something.”
“Yeah, I do.” He stared up at the ceiling and then back down at her. “I know why it ended.”
“Am I all right? Am I sick?”
“No, you’re not sick. You’re pregnant.”
He stood next to her bed and waited for the fallout.
PREGNANT.
Oh, shit.
Shock stole her breath, something she didn’t realize until her lungs burned and she had to gasp for air.
“Kira? Are you okay?”
Tom’s voice, low and deep, soothed her almost as much as his hand rubbing her back.
“I can’t be pregnant. I’m on the pill,” she said finally, and then felt herself pale when she remembered the questions he’d had about her sleeping with someone else. “You don’t think I did this on purpose, right? To trap you, or something?”
“No.” He pulled up a chair and sat beside her. “We know Derek tampered with your pills.”
“Why? Why would he do that?”
“To get you pregnant for Itor.” He clenched his fist at his side. “I should have caused him a lot more pain.”
“But I thought they wanted me dead. To keep me from ACRO.”
He exhaled and looked away. “Yeah. I guess we were wrong about that.”
Ice-cold terror wracked her body at the idea that she could right now be the property of a supernatural terrorist organization. And that she would be giving them a child to do God-knew-what with.
A child. Joy, shock and fear streamed into a big river of tears that spilled down her face. “This…this doesn’t change things between us, does it? I mean, I hoped to have your children someday, but—”
“You did? You wanted kids? With me?”
“Of course.” Ignoring the tug of the IV line, she laid her hand over his. “I mean, I never thought I’d have them, because no man would want me for a mate. But you know what I am, and you don’t care. Why wouldn’t I want to have your children?”
“Because of what I am,” he said quietly.
“An excedo…whatever? Meg explained that. Said you and a gob of other people here are perfectly normal, but different. That you have an excess of certain traits, sort of like how greyhounds are built for something completely different from mastiffs, but they’re still dogs. She said excedos are like that. Some are super-fast, like you. Others can hear better than cats. She said you’ve even got one guy who has sonar like a bat. So if you’re fine with what I do, I’m fine with what you do.”
“I wasn’t talking about that.”
“Then what? Your job? Bringing in people like me? Defending yourself and them when you have to?” When he winced, she experienced a sharp zing of panic. “Oh, God, you don’t want this, do you?”
His gaze dropped to where their hands met. “Kira, I’m not going to lie and say I’m thrilled, because right now I’m scared as hell. But we’ll handle it.” Lifting his head, he stared at her so intently, she had to measure out a long, slow exhale. “And never, ever think I don’t want it.”
Love, big and mushy and nearly overwhelming, filled her until she couldn’t keep it inside or she’d burst. “I love you, Tommy,” she whispered. He swallowed like he wasn’t sure what to say, but she wouldn’t take it back even if she could. “I’ve loved you since that day in the car, when you threw the hamburger away. No one has ever cared about me enough to respect my feelings like that.”
There was a tap at the door, and then Dr. Lavery, ACRO’s veterinarian, strode in. The mildly animal-empathic brunette might be a medical professional, but she was still a woman, and she cast an appreciative look at Tom. A low rumble vibrated Kira’s chest, but it wasn’t until Tom squeezed her hand that she realized everyone else could hear it.
Dr. Lavery smiled. “Is everything okay in here?”
“If by okay you mean that I just found out I’m pregnant and I have these weird reactions to everything, then yep. Everything’s okay.”
“This is the father, I presume?”
“Yes.” Tom’s tone left no doubt that he was certain of it, and Kira felt a strange, happy warmth surge through her. “How did you know?”
Dr. Lavery unwrapped her stethoscope from around her neck and prepared to listen to Kira’s heart. “Because she’s touching you.” She went silent for a moment as she moved the bell around Kira’s chest, and then she glanced over at Tom. “I’m Dr. Lavery. I’m a veterinarian, but I’ve taken the lead on this case. Dr. Brown will consult.”
“Kira said she’d seen a vet before, for a canine virus, but why does she need a vet now?” Tom asked.
Kira blushed as Dr. Lavery straightened to check her IV and said, “Because Dr. Brown is male, and she bit him.”
Tom coughed a little. “Bit him?”
Dr. Lavery nodded and made a note on Kira’s chart. “Once the sutures are removed, he should regain full use of his hand.” The vet cleared her throat, but the amused twinkle in her eye gave her away. “Apparently, you’re the only male she’s let near her since she arrived at ACRO this morning.”
How humiliating. Especially because half the time she didn’t realize she was acting out until it was too late. “Doctor, is the pregnancy causing this? Will it stop?”
The veterinarian peered at Kira over the top of her black-rimmed glasses. “Females of some species turn on the males once they conceive, but it’s usually temporary, so there’s no reason to think this won’t be temporary as well.”
“Good. Because going out in public could be a little awkward if I’m biting and growling at every man who looks at me.”
“I don’t mind if you growl at them.” Tom flashed her a masculine, possessive smile laced with heat. “But save the bites for me.”
Oh, boy. She wanted to bite him right now. In the soft spot between his shoulder and neck, while he took her hard. “I can do that.”
Dr. Lavery cleared her throat again, and Kira felt her cheeks grow hot. She’d forgotten she and Tom weren’t alone. He did that to her, made her focus her attention so strongly on him that nothing else existed.
“No biting, or anything…else, for a week,” Dr. Lavery said, and Tom groaned.
“Easy for you to say,” he muttered. “Kira is ruthless when she wants something.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Dr. Lavery laughed. “Well, you’re just going to have to be firm and tell her no.”
“When can she go home?”
Home. She’d been a nomad for so many years that she’d forgotten the meaning of the word. It sounded so good coming from Tom.
“Kira suffered light blood loss from what we call a threatened miscarriage. Her ultrasound appeared normal, though, and her hormone levels are high, so barring a traumatic event, she stands a good chance of carrying this child to term. We’d like to keep her overnight, and then she can go home in the morning, but she’ll need to take it very easy for a few days.” The vet gave Kira a stern look. “Can you do that?”
“It’ll be difficult, but I’ll manage. I want this baby.” She bit her lip and glanced at Tom. “I want a family.”
CHAPTER
Twenty-five
Ender knew he was in the midst of the nightmare, but no matter how hard he struggled to wake up, the scene played out in front of him relentlessly.
“Hey, Ender, want a cigar?” Aces threw him a Cuban, and both men lit up under the darkness of the Afghan sky.
His Delta team had made it to the LZ two hours early, hung back and waited in the foothills of the mountains al
ong the Khyber Pass for their ride. Their successful mission, taking down a small cell of terrorists as per a CIA order, had taken them two weeks to complete. And now Ender and company looked forward to R&R.
Damien grabbed the cigar from Ender’s hand and lit it. “You’re getting slow in your old age, man,” he said.
Ender’s twenty-fifth birthday had come and gone during the past week, and he was about to tell Damien to fuck off when he heard the pop of gunfire.
“Ender…” Damien wheezed through a mouthful of blood, and everything after that happened in slow motion. More enemy shots rang out from the cover of some scrub on the ridge, and Damien screamed, clutching his chest. Ender pushed Damien down and moved into position to cover him. Damien was still screaming—he’d been hit badly, and then suddenly, he was on fire.
“What the fuck kind of weapon do they have?” Aces shouted as he raced to put out the blaze that had engulfed their teammate. As Aces approached, flames seemed to erupt from Damien’s fingertips, and Ender swore the other man actually threw a blast of fire at Aces, who dropped to the ground, shrieking and writhing.
“Damien, no!” Ender shouted, scrambling away even as fiery bolts continued to shoot from the man the team called Devil because of his dark good looks. And God, the enemy insurgents, his own team—they were all burning except for Ender, whose speed allowed him to outrun the flames. Choking on greasy smoke, he crouched behind a rock, M24 sniper rifle in hand, useless against the blazing carnage and suffering.
Ender’s mind screamed that this couldn’t be happening, but the sounds, the smells, the blistering heat on his skin told him otherwise. Impossible situation or not, men were dead or dying, and Damien was still lighting up anything that moved. Tightening his grip on the rifle so his hands wouldn’t shake, Ender killed Damien and then put a bullet into each of his team members as they twitched in the throes of death.
Then they were all dead and he was standing alone. He’d been screaming internally, his own pulse pounding in his ears so loudly it almost drowned out the sounds of the C-130 crashing into the ground below him.