Saving the Beast(71)

Kenzie raised wide eyes to Diane. “What do you mean?”

“That hunting party came too close to finding us. If Angel…if Gabriel hadn’t been here, we could be in a world of trouble right now. God, if those hunters had attacked while Abby was in labor.”

“Abby went into labor?” Kenzie asked.

“Yes, before you got here apparently. I delivered the baby,” Diane said and Kenzie flushed. “They have a baby girl. Regan Marie. She’s absolutely adorable. Abby would love for you to go see them.”

“Does Abby know about me?” Kenzie asked.

Diane nodded. “I told both her and Amia when I went to check on Abby and Regan. You need your friends right now, Kenzie, and we’re all here for you.”

Kenzie walked over, picked up a tissue and blew her nose. “God, I hate crying. It distorts my sense of smell.”

Diane dropped her hand to her belly, cradling the life already forming inside her. Kenzie wouldn’t be able to pick up on the change in Diane through scent. But was now the right time to share the news? Diane wasn’t certain, and the last thing she wanted to do was make her friend sadder.

Kenzie glanced at her, taking her in from head to toe before her gaze settled on Diane’s stomach. “You’re pregnant?”

Diane nodded, feeling guilty to have such joy filling her when her friend was obviously in pain. “Zane told me earlier. Hard to keep these things a secret in a house like this.”

Kenzie laughed. “Unless you were to hide yourself in your room and not see anyone.”

“I can’t do that,” Diane said then felt her eyes widen as her gaze swept Kenzie. “Wait. Are you saying what I think you are?”

“Gabriel mated me,” Kenzie said softly. “In every sense of the word. When I woke up, I felt the heat on me. The Professor gave me the shot first, remember? I thought it was funny, me getting a tetanus shot.”

“It worked on you, too.” Diane moaned, guilt eating at her now. “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry. This is my fault.”

“Stop, neither one of us knew what he was really giving us. Hell, I’m sure this wasn’t even on the Professor’s radar as a possibility. Besides, I don’t know for sure, yet. But it’s likely I may be pregnant with Gabriel’s child.”

“He didn’t…” Diane broke off as Kenzie glared at her.

“Mates don’t rape. You know that.” Kenzie shook her head. “I’m the one that forced this. I pushed until his control broke, and he took me. And I’m not sorry.” She sighed. “Even had I known he would leave me, I still would have pushed. And I feel guilty, but I really hope there is a baby in here, so at least I’ll have that much of him with me.”

“Oh, Kenzie,” Diane said.

“Yeah,” Kenzie said. “That’s exactly how I feel.”





Chapter Sixteen





Diane leaned over the monitor, rubbing her eyes as she looked again at the computer data on the strain of virus in Zane’s blood sample then flipped to what was in Gideon’s. It was similar enough to make her confident that Gideon had some version of the feral fever virus. But there was something different about what was in Gideon’s blood. It was that difference that scared Diane. Once again, they had no idea what they were dealing with.

“Hey.” Zane’s voice called to her as he entered the lab and headed toward her. “You ready to call it a night?”

She nodded. “It looks like Gideon has a variant of the fever, as well,” she told Zane. “I have no idea how he’s going to react.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Zane vowed as he rubbed her shoulders. “Right now, I want my mate to come to bed with me.”

“Mhmm,” she said and rolled her neck on her shoulders. “That feels good.”

“Just think of where I could get to if we were in bed,” he murmured. “Naked.”

She laughed. “Give me a second to wrap this up?”

“Of course,” Zane assured her.

She took a few more minutes to look at the similarities again then shook her head over the differences. She hadn’t bothered pulling Logan’s up as he was human and both Zane and Gideon were shifters. The anomalies in Logan’s blood were even more unique. She would give almost anything to get her hands on some hunter files showing exactly what they were dealing with. It would save a lot of time and countless headaches.

“Diane,” Zane said.

“Just one more sec,” she said, not taking her eyes off the computer as she went about closing her files and shutting everything down. “Almost…there. Done.”