Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“I…I seem to remember saying that.” Danni frowned and shook her head. “Well, if they do, I certainly don’t know anything about it.” She sighed in frustration. “I swear I’d give just about anything to remember what happened on that mission! I feel like I’ve forgotten something really, really important but every time I reach for it…” She shook her head. “It’s gone.”
“Well maybe something will jog your memory,” Liv said.
At that moment, the pregnancy tester chimed softly.
“Oh—it’s done!” For some reason, Danni’s heart had begun to race but she tried to laugh as though it was no big deal. “Go on, Liv—show me the white flowers,” she said, trying to make a joke of it. A white flower was a sign the woman being tested wasn’t pregnant, while a pink flower indicated a baby girl and a blue flower indicated a boy.
But though Liv had scooped something out of the machine’s small tray, she wasn’t laughing. When she looked up at Danni, her face was pale.
“What? What is it?” Danni jumped off the stool, unable to wait any longer. “What kind of flower did the machine spit out? It’s white—right? I mean, it has to be.”
Wordlessly, Liv shook her head. Holding out her hand, she showed Danni what she was holding.
Two perfect tiny blue flowers—one with golden stripes on its dark blue petals and one with blood-red stripes—were cupped in her palm.
“But…but that’s impossible!” Danni breathed. She sat back down on the stool heavily. “It can’t be.”
“Not unless you’re somehow pregnant by two different warriors,” Liv said, finding her voice at last. “See these stripes?” She pointed to the golden stripes on the first flower’s dark blue petals. “That means the baby is going to be a Beast Kindred. And these…” She pointed to the blood-red stripes on the other flower. “They mean the baby is a Blood Kindred.”
“Are you saying that while I was gone to Soluu Four for two weeks I somehow regrew my womb and then had sex with two different men?” Danni demanded. “Come on, Liv—I wouldn’t do that!”
“No, I don’t think you would,” Liv said slowly. “But I think it’s possible you had sex with at least one man—one warrior who could father both kinds of babies.” She frowned at Danni. “Bravik is a Hybrid, isn’t he? Half Beast and half Blood Kindred?”
“I don’t know!” Danni exclaimed. “But I do know I would not have sex with that man!”
At that moment, there was a knock on the door and Commander Bravik entered the room.
“Excuse me, Olivia,” he said courteously to Liv, who was staring at him with an open mouth and wide eyes. “But I was told that Dr. Adams might be back here and I really need to speak to her. Alone.”
Forty-Eight
“No!” Danni pointed a shaking finger at him. “There’s no way I want to be alone with you. You…you did something to me on Soluu Four! You…you took advantage of me!”
Bravik’s face grew dark.
“I wouldn’t say that I was the one taking advantage, little girl, since you were the one on top when we bonded,” he growled.
“Bonded?” Liv and Danni gasped at the same time.
“Yes, bonded,” Bravik snapped. “And it wasn’t my idea, either,” he said to Danni. “You did it to save my life after I got a Riiver bite coming to save you from their cave.”
“A what from the where?” Danni’s head was spinning. “What are you saying? I don’t remember any of this—especially not being bonded to you!”
“That’s because you put up some kind of a mental wall between us, little girl,” Bravik growled unhappily. “And I can’t get through it, no matter how hard I try.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s driving me fucking crazy.”
“You’re absolutely crazy,” Danni agreed with him. “Because there is no way I’m bonded to you and definitely no way I’m carrying your babies.”
“What?” It was Bravik’s turn to look shocked. “What did you say?”
Danni bit her lip—why had she said that? In the heat of the moment, she’d forgotten that the big Kindred had come through the door after Liv had showed her the flowers.
“Never mind,” she said quickly. “It’s all a big mistake anyway—a false positive. There’s no way I can be pregnant—I had a hysterectomy when I was in my twenties.”
“You told me that,” Bravik said slowly. “And you told me that I couldn’t get you pregnant even if we bonded. But I spent the entire two weeks before that, er, healing you with the help of the Mother Stone. And the Ancient One did tell us that the Mother Stone’s energy could regenerate limbs—so why couldn’t it regenerate other lost body parts? Like a womb?”
“What?” Danni shook her head. “I feel like I’m going nuts! I don’t remember anything you’re telling me but it sounds like you think you somehow regrew my womb so you could get me pregnant!”