Submitting to the Shadow (Kindred Tales #27) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,78

girls, well…” He shook his head. “The astronomical odds against a Kindred male fathering twin females convinced me that I couldn’t be to blame for your condition. But I was wrong.”

Damn right, you were wrong, Sammi thought indignantly. She wasn’t angry with him for trying to Claim her by injecting her with his own seed. She probably should have been, but that wasn’t what was bothering her. It was the way he had reacted when she showed him the two precious pink flowers proving her pregnancy.

Her righteous indignation must have showed on her face because Roark winced and nodded, as though agreeing with her.

“You’re right, of course. I have no excuse for the way I treated you,” he said in a low voice. “Though I have thought of a way to make things better. To make amends, in the only way I know how.”

Sammi’s heart started to pound.

Now he’ll ask me to marry him, she thought, looking up at Roark. He’ll say he wants to marry me and help raise the twins and spend the rest of his life making this awful misunderstanding up to me!

She was so certain of what she was about to hear that Roark’s next words flattened her like a steamroller.

“I have a way you can be free of me,” he said, looking down at his hands. “A way you’ll never have to see me again. It’s a ceremony called a Blood-Letting or a Severing. It…it’s the closest thing the Kindred have to divorce.”

What? Sammi looked at him, horrified. Divorce? What was he talking about? Why would he even think of such a thing?

“It cannot sever the partial bond we have between us,” Roark continued, still looking at his hands. “But it will absolve you from any need ever to see me again. I will, of course, be involved in our children’s lives if you want me to. If not, I will simply pay for their care.” He took a deep breath and looked Sammi in the eyes. “You don’t have to worry about being kicked off the Mother Ship—now that you’re carrying Kindred babies, you’re automatically granted permanent citizenship here. So you don’t have to go looking for another job or feel like you’re stuck in a situation where you have to do whatever your employer demands, no matter how unethical or unreasonable…”

Sammi shook her head, wanting to tell him it was all a mistake—that she hadn’t submitted to him because she felt stuck, but because she’d fallen in love with him.

But Roark clearly didn’t understand.

“I’ve already scheduled the Severing,” he told her in a low voice. “Doctor Liv has told me you should be able to leave the Med Center in a week. On the day you’re released, we’ll go to the Sacred Grove and one of the priestesses there will perform it.” He took a deep breath. “Once she does, the bond between us will be formally severed.”

No! No, no, no! But Sammi was so horrified she couldn’t even mouth the words. She just stared at him, feeling like her heart was breaking all over again. Her eyes began to sting with hot tears.

He doesn’t want you, whispered a little voice in her head. This whole Severing thing is just another excuse to never see you again.

Roark rose to go while she was still reeling.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, looking at Sammi with eyes full of anguish. “So sorry for how shamefully I have wronged you, Samantha. I’m doing the only thing I can think of to make things right between us. I hope that some day you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

Then he turned swiftly and left the room, leaving Sammi to sob silently into her hands.

Sixty-One

“Sammi, honey? Are you okay?” Meg came to sit beside the bed and squeezed Sammi’s hand.

Sammi tried to smile but she could feel the effort fall flat. She hadn’t been able to feel anything but a dull sadness ever since Roark had come a week ago to tell her they would be severing their relationship both formally and permanently.

“Are you still thinking about that jerk, Commander Roark?” Meg demanded, frowning. “I can’t believe he had me fooled into thinking he was a nice guy when he’s actually such a jerk! I can’t believe—”

She was interrupted—to Sammi’s great relief—by a knock on the door. She still couldn’t talk so it was almost impossible to stop her friend from going on and on about the one subject that was so painful Sammi could barely