"Then what the hell did you intend?"
"What I intended," he drawled, "was to seed you with my child."
Chapter 12
For a moment I simply stared at him, wondering if he'd gone absolutely bonkers in the brief time we'd been apart. He'd been in this world long enough to know it was law that all werewolves—even those of us who were half-breeds—had to be chipped at puberty to prevent conception. The government still seemed to think—despite centuries of evidence to the contrary—that just because we fucked like rabbits, we'd breed like them, too.
"Well, you wouldn't have had much luck with that," I bit back. "Even without Amaya's well-placed intervention, I'm chipped. If you took it out, it would still take several cycles for me to conceive."
He smiled. It held a very nasty edge. "Yes, but you are no longer what you were. You have been remade by the Raziq."
My stomach flip-flopped, but I didn't let the sudden surge of fear show. "Meaning what?"
"That you are fully fertile, for one thing." His gaze slid down my body, and despite the distaste that rolled through me, I nevertheless reacted as strongly as I ever had. My hormones, I thought in frustration, needed to be bitch slapped. "It is such a shame your sword intervened, but in truth, I am not so annoyed. I do prefer my partners awake and willing."
A statement that had trepidation crawling through me all over again. But what was more interesting was the fact that he'd intended to breed. Aedh felt that imperative only when their life was coming to an end. Of course, thanks to an Aedh's long life span, that end could be many years away. Hell, my father was still going strong, more's the pity.
"I'd love to say I'm sorry to have disappointed you, but I'm not. Now, why don't you just put that fucking gun down and release me. You're not going to get what you want from me—no baby, no fucking keys, no revenge—"
"Oh," he cut in, his expression altogether too confident for my liking. "That's where you are very, very wrong."
Again that sick, fearful feeling began to rise up my throat. My fingers tightened against Amaya's hilt, but I didn't draw her free from my flesh and throw her at the bastard's heart. But I wanted to. Oh, how I wanted to.
"What do you mean?" The edge in my voice was fear and anger combined.
"Simply that I have combined my need for offspring with my desire for revenge on all those who have made me less than I am."
That feeling of dread ramped up several notches. My throat was so restricted, I could barely even say, "How?"