“What do you mean?” She shook her head, even more confused than before.
“The hormone releasing from my body to yours counteracts the contraception injection the doctor’s
been giving you,” he told her softly. “We were created to be unable to breed, our semen incompatible
with normal humans. But that hormone is changing that, slowly. Reversing the DNA coded into us. We’re
mated. Nature will allow us no other choice.”
Merinus felt her world tilt. Her hands pressed to her stomach, she had to fight for air.
“Am I—?” She swallowed tightly.
“Not yet,” he assured her. “But eventually you will be. There’s nothing we can do but see how this
anomaly intends to work itself out.”
“No.” Desperate, pleading, she came to her feet, her hands gripping his arms. “No, Callan, you have to
do something to stop this. Wear a condom. That would protect me.”
Mockery slashed across his face. “What, Merinus, unwilling to breed with an animal after all?”
Shock held her immobile for only a moment.
“Damn you,” she lashed out at him. “I’m unwilling to be an experiment for you. You don’t love me,
Callan. I’m nothing to you but a bodily function. I refuse to have a child under those circumstances.”
“A condom will not work anyway,” he told her bitterly. “That part of me that gives you such pleasure,
that swells and throbs within your flesh would not allow it.”
“What are you saying?” She shook his arm, her nails biting into his flesh. “A condom would work,
Callan.”
“A condom would split when the barb swells from my cock, Merinus. At full erection, it fills the back of
your tight little cunt, locking it into your flesh. It doesn’t hurt you, because it’s blunt-tipped, but it’s too
large for a condom to sustain.”
Merinus felt the blood drain from her face. Her knees weakened, her heart beating sluggishly within her
breast.
“Barb?” Her voice was strangled now as she fought the rising nausea erupting in her stomach.
“I told you I was an animal, Merinus,” he bit out. “Do you not remember me warning you, that day at the
station?” His gaze was hard, cold as he watched her now. Merinus felt the chill of it running over her
body. “You should have believed me.”
Merinus let go of his arm, fighting to breathe past the panic filling her.
“Then we just fight it,” she said, her lungs fighting to draw air past the constriction in her throat. “We
don’t—don’t—” She waved her hand at the erection showing beneath his jeans.
“Fuck?” he questioned her sarcastically, arching a golden brow in inquiry.
Merinus shook her head, her temples throbbing, her pulse rocketing through her body.
“Withdrawal is just that.” She fought to breathe evenly. “We’ll get over it. We just abstain.”
“Fine,” he growled. “You can abstain all you want. I’m not so willing—”
“No.” She shook her head, moving away from him. “You have to, Callan. You have to. We can’t bring
a baby into this. Please. Babies are innocent. They don’t deserve this.”
She was crying again. Her stomach was rioting with nerves, her chest tight with pain. She could feel
panic overwhelming her, hysteria rising inside her. She couldn’t have a baby. She wasn’t ready for a
baby.
“Come on, we need to get home.” His arm went around her waist.
Merinus jumped back from him. Terror was freezing the blood in her veins. She shook her head, holding
her hands up, backing away from him.
“You can’t touch me,” she whispered. “We can’t let this happen, Callan. We can’t. I won’t let you do
this to me.”
“Merinus, let’s go home. We’ll settle it there,” he told her, his voice pitched to a soothing level.
“Damn right we’ll settle it,” she gasped, determination hardening her voice. “We’ll settle it in different
rooms, Callan. On different sides of the house. This is over. I refuse to have a child, now or in the near
future. Especially with a man determined to risk everything he is for pride. I’ll be damned if I’ll trust you
to protect our child, when you don’t even take measures to protect yourself.”
She watched the anger settle in his face, in his eyes.
“I will allow no child of mine to be tested or taken from me, Merinus,” he informed her coldly. “You can
count on that.”
“And just how the hell do you think you can ensure that?” Incredulity sped through her.