His Human Surrogate (Monsters Love Curvy Girls #2) - Michele Mills Page 0,51

I masturbated only once, in my room, alone, without a visual of her,” I note, because somehow this makes it better? “I forced myself to make our touch only about her pleasure and relief.”

“You did not already have a bound and therefore are single and can pleasure mate, but Chloe is carrying your offspring. You cannot legally make a human your bound. And you and I both know that she’d never simply want to be your pleasure mate. You dishonor the female you want to mate by touching her when you know you cannot legally declare for her. You kicked my ass for the very same thing with Riley. What kind of hypocrite are you?”

“The worst kind,” I admit.

And then he slams a fist into my jaw, and we’re on.

He blasts a flash flame at me that singes my left arm. I shake off the fire and plow forward. He beats his fist again and again into my face. I am weakened after my initial fight in the domicile against the mercenaries. This is not going to go well.

“I love her,” I try to say.

“I know, but this does not mean you can treat her with disrespect. She is my family too.”

He slams his fight into my stomach and then kicks me in the head. I grab him and we fall into the lake.

“Stop it,” Riley screams. “Stop it you two. I swear to gods, I cannot believe you’re doing this again.”

We both pause, in waist-high water. I lower my fists, as does Aegir.

My brother’s bound jabs a finger at me. “You’d better fix this Bergelmir, or I’ll never forgive you.”

Aegir grunts in agreement.

I glance over to the edge of the lake and see my mother and Methone, standing there, glaring at me with clenched jaws and crossed arms.

Oh hell.

“I will fix this,” I tell them all. “I promise.”

15

Chloe

I live in Methone’s vacation home in Perth and the days run into each other.

There are thousands of miles of terrifying wilderness in every direction. The only way to get to Perth is by boat or hover craft. The roads are impassable due to the vicious predators. And transporters are apparently outlawed here in order to keep with the authentic “roughing it” feel? I don’t even have a food dispenser or cleaning bots. This whole city is predicated on the idea of living like their ancestors.

I don’t bother with my tablet because I learned early on that there’s no reception out here. I use candles and lanterns at night and I keep the windows open during the day to catch the cool ocean breeze.

But I’m reasonably content. As content as I can be, having found out that the man I love was lying to me for six straight months, allowing me to think the baby I was carrying wasn’t my own. Allowing me to live like that, trying to keep my heart and mind separate from the baby that was growing inside of me. Because of him, I was denied all that time bonding with my own baby. I was trying to do everything I could to make sure I ate healthy and exercised and talked to the baby. I even played the sound of its father’s voice so he could hear it. But I was trying to keep myself out of the picture, not letting myself get attached. I had to always remember that right after the birth I’d be giving the baby over to Berg and maybe a nanny he’d hire and I’d move out of his house and the community. Because I’d need space in order for my heart and mind to heal.

And that whole time this baby was mine.

I look down at my swollen belly and place a hand on it and smile.

Berg keeps sending me message after message, but I ignore them all. They are all hand delivered and handwritten on ancient ink and paper. I don’t even open them.

He broke my heart.

And the fact that he was in my bed each night touching me and giving me all those mind-blowing orgasms? That wasn’t anything special either. He was just sexually obsessed with me because I was the female carrying his seed and he was addicted to my pregnancy pheromones. I could be anyone. Any other female off the street could be carrying his baby and he’d want to fuck her.

I take long walks on the beach. Long walks in the garden. The weather here is a paradise. The food is all traditional Hyrrokin food, which means