Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47749 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“We do?” Breenah’s heart started hammering in her chest. “Why, is something wrong with me?”
“Not wrong, exactly, but we still need to talk.” Dr. Liv came over and sat by the side of her bed and Breenah waited anxiously to hear what she had to say. What had come out of the machine and what did it mean?
She was almost afraid to find out.
TWENTY-ONE
RAX
“So you’re asking for an assignment to Frex Terrum?” Commander Sylvan frowned and leaned across his desk, steepling his fingers. “That’s the roughest place in the galaxy, Rax! It’s overrun by thieves and space pirates.”
“It’s also exclusively male—no females allowed, so there’s no vulnerable females there that I can hurt,” Rax argued. “And there are no natural satellites—no moons—so no moonlight to stimulate and activate my Beast.”
“Well…I don’t know.” Sylvan shook his head doubtfully. “As a matter of fact, we already have an agent there, but we’ve lost contact with him. I’ve been debating about sending his partner to find him—the problem is, she’s a woman.”
“Even if you send her in disguise, that’s going to be too fucking dangerous, Commander Sylvan,” Rax protested. “Let me go after him instead. You know I’ll do a good job.”
Sylvan sighed.
“I know you would, I just can’t help thinking that asking for this assignment is your way of punishing yourself for what happened on Griesha Prime.”
Rax hunched his shoulders.
“So what if it is? I deserve to be punished for what my Beast did to Breenah.”
“Breenah claims that she submitted willingly,” Sylvan pointed out.
“Only because she felt like she had to,” Rax said miserably. “I need to leave—need to get away from her so my Beast can never, ever hurt her again.”
“Before you run away, I think you’d better take a look at something, Commander Rax.”
The new voice from the doorway of Commander Sylvan’s office made Rax jerk his head around. He saw Dr. Olivia standing there. The human female had a mysterious look on her face and she seemed to be holding something delicate clutched carefully in her hand.
“What? What do you mean? Is Breenah all right?” he asked, all in one breath.
“She will be—if you do the right thing.” Olivia stepped into the office and nodded at Sylvan, who looked just as bewildered as Rax felt. “I’ve been standing out here listening for a little while and I don’t think that Frex Terrum is where you belong,” she told Rax.
“What is this about, Olivia?” Sylvan asked her.
“It’s about a certain test I ran on Breenah just now,” Olivia told them. “And here are the results.”
She opened her hand and held it out to Rax. Lying on her palm was a small blue flower no bigger than the last joint of his smallest finger.
“Gods!” Rax’s eyes flew wide with surprise and disbelief. He stared from the tiny pale blue flower to Olivia and back down to the flower again. “Are…are you sure?” he asked hoarsely.
“Yup.” Olivia nodded decisively. “Somehow, Breenah is pregnant.”
“But…but I’m one of the Untameable! I can’t bond with her, so how could I possibly get her pregnant?” Rax protested.
“I don’t know, but somehow you managed it.” Olivia shrugged. “And if there’s any doubt about the parentage, I ran your DNA through the matcher myself—you’re a one hundred percent match. Which means you are definitely the father.”
Rax ran a hand through his hair distractedly.
“I…I don’t know what to say. I feel horrible—my Beast forced her and now she’s pregnant? This just gets worse and worse!”
“Are you certain the two of you didn’t bond during the time your Beast bred her?” Commander Sylvan asked, his forehead wrinkling into a frown.
Rax shook his head again.
“I had hopes—honestly I did—but when I tried to speak to her mentally, I got nothing back. And I don’t feel a mental connection with her—there’s no bond.”
“Well, maybe I feel a connection to you, giant.”
The soft voice from the doorway made Rax jerk again. When he turned his head this time, he saw Breenah standing there. She was wearing a blue gown from the Med Center that was several sizes too big for her—it made her look even smaller than she was, Rax thought, his heart squeezing in his chest. Her creamy brown skin looked pale and her eyes were huge as she looked at him.
“Breenah, honey—what are you doing up out of bed and how did you get here?” Dr. Olivia exclaimed, coming over to the girl.
“I followed you,” Breenah said softly, but her eyes remained fixed on Rax. “I need to talk to you,” she told him. “Dr. Liv says…says I’m going to have a baby—your baby.” She put a hand to her abdomen and her eyes filled with anxiety.
Rax didn’t know what to say. She looked so frail, standing there in the oversized gown that swallowed her so completely it didn’t even show her curves.