Sin Undone

“Fuck you.” Kar scrambled to her feet, taking the blanket to wrap around herself. “It’s not like I did this on purpose.” No, she probably hadn’t. And he knew he was being an ass, but she’d blindsided him with this news, and really, he’d never been anything but an ass. He stood, and she shrank away from him, as though she was afraid he was going to strike her, and he realized how insanely furious he must appear. He carefully schooled his expression and concentrated on keeping his voice level.

“The baby is why you’re really here, isn’t it? It has nothing to do with the epidemic.” “No, I’m here because of SF. I’m afraid for my child, and you do work at Underworld General.” She took a ragged breath, and he realized she looked paler than she should. “And after The Aegis found out about me, I needed help, and you were my best hope.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Is that why you didn’t attack me when you shifted?” He’d thought her behavior was odd, but now it was making sense.

“I think so. Pregnant females don’t usually try to rip apart their cubs’ father.”

Father. Turning away, he jammed his hands through his hair, over and over. “Fuck,” he breathed. “Just… fuck.” “That’s what got me into this mess in the first place.” She tightened the blanket around her even more, as if the flimsy thing could protect her. “Look, I didn’t mean to cause you trouble. If you’ll let me stay for the next two nights of the new moon, I’ll leave after that. I just can’t be out roaming around or I’ll kill wargs.”

Leave? Man, he might not have wanted this to be happening, but it was, and no way was she taking off with his kid.

Yeah, because he was great father material. He grabbed his jeans off the floor where he’d left them when he’d stripped down. He’d known she’d wake up with postshift lust, and truth be told, her desire had affected him, too. In the basement’s cramped space, he’d been overpowered by the scent of a female in need. And wasn’t he quite the gentleman for offering his services.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said, stepping into his pants.

“Excuse me?”

“Just what I said.” He threw on his flannel shirt. “Were you planning on telling me? If The Aegis hadn’t discovered your secret, would you have hunted me down to tell me I knocked you up?” The stubborn light in her eyes was answer enough.

“You weren’t going to tell me,” he growled.

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “Don’t play the injured party here. You blackmailed me into fucking you, and afterward, you walked away without looking back. You didn’t even ask me my name.” That was because he’d heard another Guardian say her name, so he knew it… but yeah, he had been a little on the silent side. “What, did you want my phone number? You wanted to go out on a date? Because you didn’t ask me for anything, either.”

“You didn’t give me a chance! You were dressed and gone before I even found my underwear. You certainly didn’t bother to turn around and say something like, ‘Hey, if you end up pregnant, I’d like to know.’ ”

“Well, now I know.”

“And? You going to marry me?” Venomous sarcasm laced every word. “Move me into your cabin and build a nursery?” Marriage? A nursery? What he was going to do was break out in hives. He hadn’t let himself want anything like that until Ula, and when she was killed, so was his desire for a family. He’d turned vicious that day, had never clawed his way up from the downward spiral of anger.

“Yeah,” she said bitterly. “That’s what I thought. I told you because I need help. But I don’t expect anything else from you.”

“It’s my kid,” he gritted out. “You’re not taking it anywhere.” “See,” she spat. “This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. A child is not property. Just because it’s yours doesn’t make you a parent. My father treated me like a possession, nothing but a successor for him in The Aegis, and I will never allow my child to be raised like that. It’s better to have no father than a bad one.”

She’d spoken of her father earlier, but not with the same resentfulness, and suspicion bloomed. “He’s the reason The Aegis found out about you.”

“Yes.” She blinked, and Luc thought maybe she was trying to keep tears at bay. “I really do think he was trying to get help for me. He’d heard that the R-XR was experimenting with cures.” “But The Aegis turned on you.”

She nodded. “My cell felt betrayed. Like I’d been some sort of spy.”

Yeah, Luc could imagine that when an organization that had been hunting supernatural baddies for thousands of years learned a werewolf had been knowingly working for them, they wouldn’t take it well. “I’ll keep you safe, but that means staying with me. No running off on your own.”

A flush washed over her, and she swayed, but when he reached for her, she stepped out of his reach. “It’s just morning sickness,” she said, and then cleared her throat. “If I’m going to stay, we’ll need to talk about this.”

Luc started for the stairs. “We will.” When he could wrap his mind around it.

“Sooner is better than later. Besides the nine-month timer, there’s a plague and Aegis Guardians are after me.” “I know.”

“But?”