Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales)

“I don’t know his name,” Roark said, glaring right back. “But I believe it was her human lover back on Earth. I found one of his love notes on her counter when I went down to help her move the rest of her things.”

“Love notes? You found a note on her counter?” Her eyes widened.

“Yes, I did,” Roark said stiffly. “And it was obviously from a male because in it he called her “Beautiful” and asked what time he could come by to take her out on a date.”

“You idiot!” Samantha’s best friend looked like she wanted to punch him. “That note wasn’t from a lover—it was from Sammi’s stalker! The one who chased her across the country all the way from California to Florida!”

“What?” Roark was confused. “She never told me anything about a stalker.”

“That’s because she just wanted to forget about him. She moved up here to the Mother Ship to get away from him because she didn’t feel safe,” Meg snapped. “It’s the whole reason she was desperate enough to take a job with you. The guy was sending her pictures he’d taken when she was in the house alone—in the shower! She was in real danger down on Earth!”

Roark took a step back.

“I didn’t know that—didn’t know any of it.”

Could it be that the only reason Samantha had agreed to keep working with him was to keep her place aboard the Mother Ship? Was that the only reason she had put up with the increasingly extreme experiments he had subjected her to?

“Of course you didn’t—you’re a self-absorbed asshole,” Meg told him.

“That still doesn’t make me responsible for the fetuses she’s carrying,” Roark tried to defend himself.

Or did it? If Samantha hadn’t been cheating on him with some human down on Earth, then how had she turned up pregnant? Roark still didn’t believe that the twins she was apparently carrying could be his. The odds were just so completely against it. But long odds didn’t necessarily make an event impossible, just extremely improbable. What if—

“I think you’d better ask Liv—the doctor who performed Sammi’s pregnancy test before you go saying you’re not the one responsible,” Samantha’s friend snapped, cutting into his reverie. “I asked her to run a DNA scan before we left and I’m pretty sure it ought to be ready by now.”

“A DNA scan?” Roark raised his eyebrows.

“Exactly,” she spat. “Because I didn’t buy that shit about you giving Sammi ‘fake seed’ or whatever it was you stuck in my friend.” She leaned forward and poked a finger in his chest, hard enough to hurt. “You’d better go find out right now and then take responsibility for your actions, you asshole!”

Then she turned and stalked away, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

“Where are you going?” Roark demanded, wondering if she was going to the Med Center herself to get the results of the DNA test.

Meg turned to face him.

“To find Sammi! So I can tell her never to have anything to do with you again!”

Then she turned on her heel again and stalked down the long silver corridor, leaving Roark feeling shaken and uncertain.

He’d been so sure the twin babies Samantha was carrying couldn’t possibly be his…

But what if he was wrong?

Forty-One

“They’re definitely yours, all right,” Liv said matter-of-factly. “Here, look.” She passed Roark the medical tablet she’d been studying to show him the results of the DNA test. “No other male on the entire ship or anywhere else matches the DNA signature of the twins Samantha is carrying,” she told him. “But when I pull up your files—look…” She touched the screen. “Perfect match.”

“I…” Roark shook his head. “But I don’t understand how this could have happened. We’re not even bonded.”

“Are you sure?” Liv raised an eyebrow at him. “I know bonding can be difficult sometimes with Shadow Twins or Hybrids but she is pregnant and those babies most definitely are yours.”

“But twin girls,” Roark protested. “The odds are—”

“Astronomical. I know,” Liv said, frowning. “But just because something is improbable doesn’t make it impossible.”

Her words so clearly echoed his own earlier thoughts that it gave Roark a sudden chill. Slowly, the implications of what the human doctor was telling him began to sink in. Somehow, against all odds, his sperm had worked. It had worked and now Samantha was pregnant—with his children!

But if she was pregnant, why weren’t they bonded?

Maybe because you were too much of a coward to try and bond her the right way, a little voice whispered in his head. You let the inseminator do the work for you—the work you were too afraid to do yourself!

Something else became clear to him too—he had treated Samantha—the mother of his children—horribly. He had accused her of sleeping with another male behind his back and lying to him. Then he had fired her and sent her away, pregnant and alone. Gods, what must she think of him?