He stared at her for a long moment before turning away, dismissing her as though she didn’t matter. God, this was hard. The lust rising in her body wasn’t making it any easier.
“Tell me,” he said then, turning back to her as the bacon sizzled on the stove. “What will you do when you’re swelling with my child, knowing you had no choice in its conception, that you’ve whelped a child that is as much an animal as it is human? Will you hold it to your breast and cuddle it with love? Or will you give it to strangers to raise? Will you give that child your name? Or will you attempt to kill it before it has a chance to draw its first breath?”
He worked quickly to open canned biscuits and lay them in a baking pan as Amanda stared back at him miserably.
“I wouldn’t choose abortion,” she whispered.
He looked up at her again as he slid the pan in the oven.
“Will you give me my child?”
There. Emotion. She saw for just a second, bleak, pain-ridden. A glimmer of fury in his eyes before he shut it away.
“No,” she said then, knowing that any child she carried would have her heart. He braced his hands on the counter and nodded slowly, his gaze turned to the floor for long seconds. When he looked back up at her, the possessive glitter that filled his eyes caused her to take a careful step back.
“If you heard much at all, then you know the full truth,” he said tightly. “You’re my mate, bound to me whether either of us likes it or not. I won’t let you go.”
She shook her head slowly.
“You will,” she whispered softly. “Because you won’t want a woman that was forced upon you, Kiowa. One that doesn’t share your dreams, your needs, or the future you want to pursue. I don’t want your future,” she said painfully. “I have my own dreams.”
“And your child that you refuse to give up?” he snapped. “What part will it play?”
“My child will be just that. Mine. I would love it, give it my name. I would treasure it.”
“But not his father?” Those eyes were alive now, and fury fed them.
“What do you want me to say?” she cried desperately. “You’re trying to hurt me, to wrap me in guilt and make me feel responsible for this. I’m not.”
“That’s a child’s response,” he bit out. “An adult adapts, Amanda. You’re right; when this is over you’re most likely better off leaving. A child could never handle me, let alone my life or the difficulties involved in raising my kid. My kid, lady. I’ll be damned if my kid will be treated like an animal by anyone. Nor will it be raised without its father.”
She fought to control her breathing, the racing of her blood. She could feel the arousal building with it and she couldn’t afford the weakness. Not now.
“You’re being unreasonable,” she argued. “I don’t even know you. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I like you much. What basis is that for raising children?”
“A hell of a lot better than I had.” He flipped the bacon with a furious motion of the spatula. What could she say to that?
“Wolf Breeds will be accepted after the Breed Law enacts…”
A hard, mocking laugh left his throat then as he speared her with those black eyes of his.
“Wolf breeds?” he asked her softly. “What does that have to do with me, Amanda?”
She licked her lips nervously.
“That’s what you are…” He was shaking his head before she finished.
“No, baby,” he said silkily. “It wasn’t a Wolf breed that knotted in that tight pu**y of yours. It was one of those nasty old Coyote Breeds. How acceptable is that?”
Chapter Fourteen
“Coyote Breeds are considered the vermin of the Breeds,” her father told Alexander thoughtfully as they went over the Breed Law Act that the Feline Breeds had submitted. “They are said to be soulless. Without redemption. They were created to be the jailors, lapdogs to the scientists and military personnel that oversaw the other Breeds.”
“Is there anyway to adapt the law to exclude them?” her brother asked, his pale gray eyes resting thoughtfully on the papers spread out on the table in her father’s private living room.
“We can’t exclude them without raising more questions,” her father shook his head slowly. “The Feline Pride leader has suggested allowing them to handle the situation on an individual basis. They’ll police the different Breeds as needed.”
“It’s going to be hard to do…” Alexander murmured.