He raised an eyebrow. "When did you find out?"
"A couple of days ago." My words were little more than a pant of air, my body twisting, thrusting, desperate for the relief his fingers were offering
His lust swam around me, as thick and as heavy as the erection pressing against the restraint of his pants. God help me, I wanted to feel him inside, wanted it so bad I was whimpering
"That drug has an extremely high success rate. You will conceive when I finally fuck you, little wolf, and you will remain in my care until you give birth."
"Like hell." But my words held little force. The pressure was building, ripping through my nerve endings with the force of lightning. A few more sweeps of his hand, that was all it would take...
With a soft chuckle, he stepped away. I lurched forward, trying to grab him, trying to make him finish what he'd started. But the chains brought me up short again. I cursed him, long and hard
"And that," he said, his voice rich with amusement, "is why I shall be raising our child, not you."
Though his features were half-lost to the growing haze of red, the icy determination in his expression was still very evident. Odd. I'd half expected to see a madness equal to what burned through my veins. He had to be mad if he thought he could get away with something like this. Even if he did make me pregnant, there was no way I was ever going to sit back and let him have our child
"Ten of the fifty on that first trial failed to conceive. I might be one of those."
"Our tests over the past few months show that your body has been reacting favorably to the drug."
But maybe it was reacting in ways he wasn't expecting - or testing for. "What about the other ten? The ones that transmuted?"
He raised his eyebrows. "What about them?"
"They were half-breeds, just like me."
His amusement fled, and his face became stony. "What do you mean?"
My laugh was bitter. "Have you never wondered why I am so fast, so strong? I'm not just a werewolf, I'm a vampire."
He crossed his arms, eyes and voice flat as he said, "Impossible. Vampires aren't fertile."
"Except in the few instances when the change takes place within twenty-four hours of death. My mother was raped by such a vampire."
"No."
"Why do you think I was exiled from our pack? They allowed me to be raised out of loyalty to my mother, but once I hit puberty I was ousted."
"No."
He said it more forcefully this time, and I snorted. "What's wrong? Don't you like the fact you've been fucking a half-breed all this time?"
He didn't answer. I stared at him, saw the sudden loathing in his eyes, and realized the words said in jest were true. Talon was a man who believed in the superiority of the werewolf race, but I'd never realized that opinion also meant he'd have little tolerance for half-breeds
"Our scans never indicated you were anything other than wolf." His voice was flat, yet held a note of anger that caressed my skin as hotly as his lust had moments before
"They wouldn't, because for all intents and purposes I am wolf. It's not until you do a complete DNA check that you see the differences."
For several more seconds, he just stared. Yet the force of his anger rose and rose, until it was a wave that burned through every fiber of my being. His fists clenched, warning enough that a blow was coming. I dropped my shields and reached desperately for his mind - only to hit a psychic shield. For the first time in two years I noticed the thin wire entwined through the white gold chain at his neck. He was shielded against mind intrusion, had been for as long as I'd known him
A laugh bubbled through me. So much for all my cautious restraint over the years
His fist hit my stomach, and the laughter gave way to a desperate battle to breathe
He continued to hit me, again, and again. I shuddered, twisting and fighting to be free, the need to tear him limb from limb as fierce as the need to survive
"Coward," I spat between blows. "Step closer and try that."
I was trembling, aching, bloody. Everything had gone red, only it wasn't blood. Rage and the wolf had control and the consuming pain meant nothing