Slade

  He chuckled. “I won’t. I’ll just stay where I am right now. Between the frequent sex and the swelling afterward, I’ll be locked into you all the time. I could hold you this way forever.”

  “I have to eat sometime.”

  He laughed. “I won’t starve you.”

  “Good to know.”

  “You’re going to need your strength.”

  Slade held his Trisha until her body started to sag and he realized she was about to drift off to sleep. The swelling at the base of his shaft had receded. He adjusted his hold on her and carefully lifted her off his lap and onto her side. Her blue eyes met his and she smiled softly at him.

  Emotions nearly choked him, making him unable to speak. She was so beautiful to him and so fragile. She carried his child within her womb. That fact still stunned and humbled him. She’d given him the ultimate gift. She’d given him her body and a future with her. His lips curved into a smile and he cleared his throat.

  “I’ll turn off the light. You need plenty of rest, Doc.”

  “Trisha.” Her lips pouted slightly with irritation.

  “Sorry, Trisha.” He grinned. “Old habits die hard and in my defense, I’m no longer inside you.”

  “You’ll use my name while you’re in my bed unless you want to sleep on the floor.”

  “Fair enough.” Amusement and happiness mingled inside Slade. She’d taken him back, forgiven him, and he wasn’t sure he deserved it. He’d made a mess of things. Good intentions aside, he regretted his choices. “I’ll turn off the light and we’ll sleep.”

  She would have said something to him but instead, when her lips parted, a yawn came out. He turned off the light and reached for his woman. He pulled her lush body against his own, his arm wrapped around her waist and he spooned her from behind. He couldn’t get close enough to her, didn’t want even an inch of space between their bodies, and she willingly allowed him to settle them onto their sides.

  “I really missed you,” he confessed softly against her shoulder where he tucked his chin, breathing in her scent. “I thought about you constantly.”

  “I missed you too and couldn’t get you out of my head. I hated it after you abandoned me.”

  He inwardly winced at the painful tone of her voice. “I’m sorry, sweet thing. It won’t happen again. I swear that to you on my life. I made a stupid decision but it won’t happen again. I’ve smartened up.”

  She lay still in his arms for long moments. “Are you okay about the baby?”

  The uncertainty laced in her voice stung. He’d done this to her, made her question the bond between them. “I’m thrilled.”

  “I am too but I’m scared.”

  “I’ll protect you.” A flash of anger shot through him at the thought of her being in danger. “No one will hurt you. They will die if they try.”

  Her small hand gripped his arm that was around her waist, her fingers tracing his skin. “That’s not what I’m afraid of. What if something goes wrong with the baby? Ever since I saw it on the ultrasound I knew I wanted it, Slade. There’s so much that could happen. I’m a doctor. I know that—”

  “It will be fine.” He cut her off. “It’s our baby, a miracle, and life has been too cruel to me as it is. I refuse to lose you or our child. Fate has to give us a break.”

  Her silence worried him but then she sighed. “Happy thoughts?”

  He nuzzled her neck. “Yes. Happy thoughts, Trisha. We’re together and that’s what matters.”

  He knew when she drifted to sleep. Her breathing changed and her fingers stilled on his skin. He pulled her a little tighter against his body, careful not to crush her, but wanted to wrap around her more. The woman inside his arms meant life to him…and death. He’d do anything to be with her and he’d kill anyone who attempted to come between them.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “No,” Slade growled. His eyes flashed his anger. “I’ll stay and protect her. You go do my job at the construction site.”

  Brass growled back. “I will not deal with all those humans.”

  Trisha shook her head at the two men who were about to come to blows again. She sighed. “Boys? Could we please not have a fight inside the living room? We already lost a coffee table and I’m partial to the couch because it’s comfortable.”

  “Give it up.” Harley chuckled. “They are so going to fight.”

  Moon had his arms crossed over his chest, looking bored. He nodded at Trisha.

  “Want popcorn?” Harley headed for the kitchen. “I love to eat it when I watch a good fight.”

  “I’ll take some,” Moon grunted.

  “Stop it,” Trisha sighed. “There will be no fistfights in the living room. At least take it outside to the yard if you two are determined to beat each other up. Slade? Do you hear me? Brass? Come on, guys. No fighting inside the cabin.”

  Slade’s gaze shifted to Trisha. “I am not leaving you. Tell him to go deal with Justice’s projects. He can handle ordering a bunch of humans to build things on time as good as I can. They respond well when we snarl and show teeth. It motivates them to work faster to get away from us.”

  Brass cursed. “I have no idea what projects need to be done. All I said was that you can leave to do your job during the day and I told you that you can stay with her at night.”

  “She’s mine,” Slade growled. “You’re telling me when I can spend time with her? Don’t even try it. You have no say when it comes to my woman.”

  “I’m telling you that I can take care of her while you are at work. You have a job, remember? She doesn’t need four of us sitting here watching her. She’s safe in the wild zone. Valiant promised to talk to the others and that she would be protected by all of them. He assured me no humans would come near her.”

  Slade didn’t appear convinced. “Do you need me to show you who can protect her better? Do you want me to wipe the ground with you again?”

  “Enough!” Trisha yelled, finally losing her temper. She realized they weren’t exactly normal men but their dominating nature started to irritate her. She glared at Slade. “You, stop beating your chest and threatening my friends.” Her attention fixed on Brass next. “And you, stop baiting him.” She sighed, lowering her voice as she stared at Slade. “You do have a job to do and I’m fine here. I don’t see why you can’t go to work and come home to me at the end of the day.”

  “Fine,” Slade snarled. “Choose your friend over me.” He stomped to the door.

  “Slade? Stop thinking that way,” Trisha groaned. “That’s not it. Please just―”

  Slade spun when he reached the door. “I will see you tonight.”

  He stormed out and slammed the door. Trisha walked to the couch and threw herself down, cursing softly. She sensed three pairs of eyes on her and she looked back at each of them.

  “Why did him saying that sound as if it were a threat?”

  Moon grinned at Trisha. “Because it was.”

  “Yeah,” Harley agreed. “You’re going to get it tonight.” He removed the popcorn from the microwave. “But I doubt he’d let us watch whatever it is he will be plotting to do to you to get even. I do enjoying watching porn movies though. I’m betting that it would be a good show. Too bad.”

  “Porn?” Trisha sputtered, shooting Harley a glare. “That’s not funny.”

  “He won’t hurt you but…” Moon winked at her. “I bet he’s going to think up something good to do to you. He’ll want to convince you to pick him next time if there’s an issue of you choosing.”

  She frowned. “What does that mean?”

  Brass laughed. “We are aggressive and competitive. It’s our nature. He’s going to probably do something that soothes his pride.”

  “His pride? I wasn’t picking you over him. What do you think he’s planning? Come on, guys. I’m a doctor for goodness sake. Stop talking in riddles. What do you think he’s going to do to me?”

  “My guess?” Moon grinned. “He’s going to turn you on until he makes you beg him
to fuck you. He’ll want to show you who your body belongs to and why he’s your male. Then his pride will be fixed where you dented it.”

  “He’s canine.” Harley chuckled. “I know what I’d do to a woman if I wanted to show her I was in charge. I’d mount her and―”

  “Harley!” Brass snarled, giving him a dirty look. “Shut up.”

  “What? I was just going to say I’d ride her until she couldn’t move.” He winked at Trisha. “Us dogs are hornier than hell and we can go for hours.”

  Brass groaned and wore a disgusted expression as he glanced at Trisha. “Never ask a dog his opinion about sex. Big mistake.”

  Trisha laughed. “I’m hungry. Is anyone else ready for breakfast?” She lifted an eyebrow at Harley and his popcorn. “That’s disgusting to eat this early.”

  “Breakfast, hell. I had the night shift. I’m going to go to bed after I eat this. This is my midnight snack.”

  * * * * *

  Slade stared at the desk and was certain Trisha had to be trying to drive him crazy. He hated being inside, surrounded by walls, and the temporary office was nothing more than a large rectangular box on wheels. The entire place smelled of humans and although he was adjusting to the scent, he didn’t want to be around any, not trusting them completely. He turned his head to watch four of them working at other desks. Two were on the phone, one sipped coffee, and the last one scratched his head while staring at blueprints opened up in front of him.

  “Is there a problem, Richard?”

  The human dropped his fingers from his hair. “Nope. I’m just trying to figure out how we’re going to finish this clubhouse to meet the deadline. I kept telling Mr. North that nobody can build something this size in just a few months. We have all the framing up but we still have a lot to do.”

  “What will it take?” Slade sighed. He knew the answer already—more money to hire more men to work around the clock.

  “I think we’ll make it but just pray for good weather. One bad storm front and we’re screwed. It will set us back.”

  “Then what is the problem?”

  The human hesitated. “We’ve been having a few issues of really bad luck.”

  “Such as?” Slade cocked his eyebrow.

  Richard bit his lip. “Someone has been screwing with the site.”

  Slade tensed with alarm. “What kind of problems? What is going on? Why am I only hearing about this now?”

  “I believed at first the stuff going wrong was just accidental. The crews are working seven days a week in twelve-hour shifts. I thought maybe one or two of them made mistakes because they were tired but it keeps happening. I’m beginning to think it’s not so innocent. This morning one of the guys got hurt because one of the ladders was messed with. He’s fine but we were lucky it broke immediately. It could have killed him if he’d climbed higher or worked on the third level. I inspected the ladder and determined someone purposely damaged it.”

  “You should have informed me before now.” Slade lifted his phone. “I’ll send a few officers down there to keep an eye out. That should dissuade anyone from doing more harm.”

  “Thanks.”

  Slade nodded. He had been afraid something bad would happen. There were groups out there who would enjoy nothing more than to cause trouble. Having hundreds of humans at Reservation invited a way for some of them to sneak onto the property to give them the opportunity to do harm.

  “I’ll order more security on all the working sites. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or be killed.” His finger had barely touched the numbers when the office door jerked open loudly. Tiger rushed inside.

  “Slade? We have a problem.”

  Slade studied Tiger. They had become good friends after they’d been freed from captivity. They had lived and roomed together with other males in a remote motel for the months that had followed until the New Species Homeland had been opened.

  “What is it?”

  “We’re missing human males.”

  “How many?” Slade grabbed his radio, dropped the phone, and rose to his feet quickly.

  “There are exactly fourteen males unaccounted for and we’re missing two work trucks. Just as you ordered, we count heads every hour and from last one, that’s how many disappeared. I talked to both gates and they didn’t leave. They are still here somewhere.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Slade growled. “Attention,” he demanded into the radio, rushing for the door. “We have fourteen human males in two trucks unaccounted for. Find them quickly.”

  Slade sprinted for one of the Jeeps with Tiger following. “Where do you think they would have gone?”

  “I don’t know.” Tiger jumped in the passenger seat. “But we’ll find them.”

  “Slade?” The voice on their radios spoke.

  “He’s with me.” Tiger used his own radio to answer. “What is it?”

  “Two trucks passed one of the security guards about twenty minutes ago, heading for the wild zone. It wasn’t questioned because a crew had been scheduled to go work on the electrical system along the security walls out that way. We double-checked and they weren’t sent out there yet. Whoever was spotted there shouldn’t have been in the area without an escort by our officers but the human guards didn’t know that.”

  “Shit,” Slade growled. “Trisha is out there.”

  Tiger groaned. “Why would she be? It’s not safe. Have you lost your mind? I thought we’d decided to set her up on the top floor of the hotel and have the access limited.”

  “Plans were changed.”

  “Is there a reason for that? A human has no business out there. The males have marked their territory and wouldn’t welcome her there despite her being female.”

  Slade hesitated. “You could say that.”

  “What is she doing out there? No humans are allowed inside the wild zone. How did you talk them into allowing her into their territory? They’ve become really territorial and they’d have smelled her pretty quickly.”

  “Trisha is carrying my child. She’s living in cabin six.”

  “Child?” Tiger gasped.

  Slade nodded, punched the gas, and turned the wheel hard. “She’s pregnant by me. Justice sent her here to conceal her from the humans during her pregnancy. Very few of us know of her condition.”

  “Son of a bitch.” Tiger seemed stunned. “So you’re going to be a daddy. Shit. You got her pregnant. What did she do to make that happen?”

  “It was natural.”

  “Shit,” Tiger growled again. “We can get them pregnant? Somebody should have told us that. I guess I better cancel my date with the woman from the city who inspects construction. I sure don’t want to be a daddy too. My life is hard enough to deal with on my own but a mate and child?” He shook his head. “Not interested.”

  Slade shot him a surprised look. “I didn’t know you were attracted to humans. I thought you believed they were too fragile.”

  “Yeah, well, some of them think I’m pretty cute.” He shrugged. “What’s a cute guy to do? I thought I’d try it. They are too fragile but it might have been fun to allow one to have her way with me a time or two.”

  “The missing humans better not be anywhere near Trisha. I do want her and our child. Where are these bastards and what are they doing?”

  “I don’t know.” Tiger unsnapped his gun holster to gain easier access to his weapon. “But we’ll find them.” He stood, gripping the frame of the windshield. “You drive and I’ll scent. We’ll find them together, faster.”

  “I’m going to check on Trisha first. We have enough men to search for those assholes. I just want to make sure she’s safe.”

  “Totally understandable. I’ll still keep my nose at work. I can at least radio the teams if I catch their scent.”

  * * * * *

  “Trisha!” Brass yelled.

  Trisha jumped, nearly slipping on the wet tub floor. She grabbed the water handles and turned them off. The bathroom door slammed into the wall when someone threw it open. A st
unned and naked Trisha gasped when Brass suddenly yanked back the shower curtain. He pulled her out of the shower by her arm.

  “There are a lot of humans coming this way.” He released her and shoved her clothes into her arms. “Get dressed now. Be quick about it.”

  Brass ignored her to step up onto the rim of the tub to peer out the small window. Trisha tried to ignore the fact that she stood dripping wet and naked in the tiny room with him. She fumbled to figure out her T-shirt and yanked it over her head. The material clung to her damp skin. Fear motivated her not to complain about the invasion of privacy. He didn’t seem to even notice she was naked…besides ordering her to dress.

  “What is going on?” She yanked up her cotton shorts. “Why would humans be inside the wild zone? Are you sure someone is coming? Aren’t they banned?”

  “I see two trucks coming with many humans inside.” He jumped down and grabbed Trisha’s arm.

  Trisha shoved her shirt down over her lower stomach as Brass hauled her into the living room. Moon and Harley had started to barricade the front door with the couch and they appeared really angry. Brass looked around the room and dragged Trisha toward the fireplace. He reached down, fisted the metal grate that covered it, and shoved it out of way.

  “Get inside there.”

  She gaped at the dirty fireplace. “Why? It’s really dirty.”

  “The fireplace appears to be made solid with rock and mortar. Get your ass inside there now. Bullets shouldn’t go through it and it’s the best place I can think to put you. We’d flee with you but I’m afraid it’s too late. They’d see us and use the trucks to chase us down. Protecting you and your baby is our priority. Get inside there now and curl into a ball.”

  Trisha cringed but she lowered to her hands and knees. It wasn’t a comfortable fit but she sat on her butt in ashes with her knees drawn up tight against her chest. Her forehead rested on her knees and she wrapped her arms around her bent legs. She couldn’t lift her head all the way up without banging it into the flue. The interior of the fireplace wasn’t tall enough. She watched with growing fear as the three men prepared for the worst.