Cassandra started for Kat only to find Wulf pulling her back so that she couldn't reach her. "Don't, Cassandra."
"Oh, please," Cassandra begged him. "I just want to choke her for a few minutes." She raked an angry glare over the woman she had mistakenly thought of as a friend. "I trusted you and you used me and lied to me. No wonder you kept trying to set me up with guys."
"I know and I'm sorry." Her eyes said Kat meant that, but Cassandra had a hard time believing it at the moment. "But don't you see how it all works out for the best? Wulf is afraid of losing his last blood link to the world. Through you he has another line that will remember him while you have someone immortal who can tell your child and grandchildren about you and your family. He can watch over them and keep them all safe. No more running, Cass. Think about it."
Cassandra didn't move as Kat's words sank in. She would be remembered and her children would be safe. It was all she had wanted. It was why she'd never considered having children before now. But dare she believe in this?
Apollites gestated their babies in a little over twenty weeks. Half the time of humans. Since they had such an abbreviated life span, there were several weird physiological differences. Apollites reached adulthood at age eleven and often married between the ages of twelve to fifteen.
Her mother had only been fourteen when she married her father, but her mother had looked like any human woman in her mid-twenties. Cassandra looked at Wulf, whose face was unreadable. "What do you think about all this?"
"Honestly, I don't know what to think. Yesterday my number one concern was getting Chris laid. Now it's the fact that if Kat isn't on drugs or delusional, you are carrying a part of me that holds in his or her hand the fate of the entire world."
"If you doubt any of this, call Acheron," Kat said. Wulf narrowed his gaze on her. "He knows?"
Kat hedged a bit and appeared nervous for the first time. "I seriously doubt Artemis told him any of this particular plan to put you two together and make a baby. He tends to get rather upset at her whenever she interferes with free will, but he can easily verify everything I've told you about the prophecy."
Cassandra let out a bitterly amused half-laugh upon hearing that her "friend" actually knew one of the men they had read about on the Web site. Not to mention the fact that Kat also knew Stryker and his men. "Just out of curiosity, is there anyone you don't know?"
"No, not really," Kat said a bit uneasily. "I've been with Artemis a l-o-n-g time."
"And just how long is that?" Cassandra asked.
Kat didn't answer. Instead, she stepped back and clapped her hands together. "You know what? I think I should give you two a few minutes to talk to each other alone. I think I'll go scope out Cass's room."
Without another word, Kat bolted for the hallway that led to Cassandra's wing. Though how she knew that was the right way to go, Cassandra couldn't imagine. Then again, Kat wasn't exactly human either. Wulf didn't move until Kat had vanished. He was still trying to come to terms with everything Kat had told them.
"I didn't know about any of this, Wulf. I swear it."
"I know."
He stared at her, the mother of his child. It was incredible, and despite the confusion he felt, the one truth he knew was that a part of him wanted to shout out in delight. "Do you feel all right? Do I need to get you anything?"
She shook her head, then looked up at him. Her green eyes scorched him with need. "Actually, I don't know about you, but I could use a hug right now."
Mentally, he didn't think that it would be wise to get attached to her. To open himself up to a woman who came with a short expiration date, but he found himself pulling her into his arms anyway, and he had to tense to keep himself from falling victim to the sensation of her body against his. Her breath tickled the skin on his neck as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
She felt so good here. So right. In all these centuries, he'd never known anything like this feeling of warmth. What was it about her that made him tremble? Made him hot and aching? Closing his eyes, he held her close and let her scent of powder and roses lull him into forgetting they should be enemies.
Cassandra closed her eyes, too, and let Wulf's warmth seep into her. It felt so wonderful to be touched like this. This wasn't sexual, it was the kind of touch that soothed. One that bound them a lot closer than the intimacies they had already shared.
How can I feel comforted by someone who has already told me he has no use for my people? Yet there was no denying that she did. Then again, feelings seldom made sense.
As she stood there, one horrible thought disturbed the peace she felt. "Will you hate my baby, Wulf, because it will be part Apollite?"