Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales)

“You can’t be,” Roark said flatly. “There’s no possible way.”

“What do you mean? After all the times you’ve strapped me into that machine and inseminated me?” Samantha demanded.

“The seed I used—” Roark began.

“I know, I know—it was fake seed,” she interrupted him. “But what about the Beast Kindred compound you used to help me open up? If you extracted it from real precum, don’t you think a live sperm might have gotten through? And I was ovulating and twins run in my family so—”

“The compounds are not extracted from real Beast Kindred seed,” Roark snapped, frowning. “They are made in my lab—they’re only based on Beast Kindred emissions. So there is no possible way you could get pregnant from them.”

He was also certain there was no possible way she could get pregnant from his own seed, though he had injected copious amounts into her. He had injected copious amounts into Amanda too—back when he was still trying to bond with her. They had tried everything and nothing had worked—his seed was completely nonviable.

“You must be mistaken,” he told Samantha. “There’s no possible way you cold be pregnant.”

“Oh, no? Then explain these!” She thrust out her hand, shoving two little pink pregnancy flowers at him.

Roark stared at them blankly.

“Pink? As in females? Twin females?” Now he knew the babies couldn’t be his. Even if his sperm had been viable it would have been impossible.

“That’s what the test said.” Samantha’s voice was both shaky and belligerent. “And Liv, the doctor who did it, said the pregnancy tests here aboard the Mother Ship are one hundred percent accurate.”

“Samantha…” Roark strove to keep his voice low and controlled, though he wasn’t feeling very in control at all. “Do you have any idea what the odds of you getting pregnant with twin girls with a Kindred father are?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged uncomfortably. “Liv said about a million to one? I know it’s rare.”

“It’s so rare as to be nearly nonexistent,” Roark told her icily. “The odds are approximately one in four point seven billion—roughly the same odds a human female has to conceive quintuplets naturally with a human male. It simply doesn’t happen.”

“But…” Samantha shook her head. “But how do you explain this, then?” she nodded at the pink flowers in her palm again.

“I’ll tell you how I explain it,” Roark growled. “I think you were already pregnant when you took the job as my assistant. Probably by the lover who left that note in your old domicile. You pretended not to be because you wanted the job and hoped I wouldn’t notice until it was too late for me to fire you because you already knew too much of my research.”

“What?” Samantha’s eyes grew wide.

“Either that, or you’ve been sneaking off to Earth to meet with him and you got pregnant after you and I started doing experiments together,” Roark went on grimly. This was a much worse scenario but after Amanda had left him for another male—one who could get her pregnant and give her children—he wouldn’t put anything past a human female.

“How can you say that?” Samantha’s eyes were wide and hurt. They almost made Roark feel bad…but then he remembered that she’d been cheating on him. Cheating and trying to pass the babies off as his or as a result of their experiments together.

The thought hardened his heart.

“Well I’m happy to inform you that it’s not too late for us to end our association,” Roark told her, barely keeping his temper in check. “Because as of this moment, you are fired, Ms. Grey. Kindly clean out your desk and leave my lab.”

“What?” Samantha’s eyes were filled with a mixture of fury and tears. “How can you say this to me, Roark? How can you treat me like some…some experiment that went wrong you just want to throw in the trash? You got me pregnant!”

“I did not!” he roared, his fury overcoming his icy demeanor.

Samantha drew back from him, her eyes wide with fear this time.

Roark took a deep breath, forcing himself to be calm.

“There is no possible way I made you pregnant,” he said coldly. “Because I never Claimed you—we are not bonded.”

“But then how is this possible?” She shook her head. “And no, don’t accuse me of cheating on you again. I would never do that. Never.” She swiped at her eyes, which were red with crying. “I did everything you asked me to—I submitted to you completely because I hoped it would make you love me like…like I love you.” She took a deep shaky breath. “What a fool I was.”

Roark glared at her, trying not to let her words pierce his heart.

“Samantha—”

“No.” She put up a hand. “Don’t say anything else. I’m leaving. And don’t worry about me coming around and bothering you for child support—I never want to see you again.”