“Only if your ‘spin’ on the story is better than that of my enemies,” he bit out. “And trust me, Merinus, you are good, as are your brothers. But they will bribe your scientists, your doctors, they will jerk every weapon you have out of your hands until I am branded as no more than a monster. And then, there will be no place where I can hide.”
“That won’t happen,” Merinus assured him.
Merinus knew her father, uncle and brothers had been very careful. They wouldn’t take a chance with his life.
Mockery washed over his face.
“Will it not?” he asked her. “Jacob thought he could aid us and refuse their offers. He returned home to the brutal deaths of his wife and children. A lesson. How many of your scientists would risk that?”
Shock sped through Merinus’ body. She knew the Council killed indiscriminately, she had the proof of it. But hearing Callan voice it, so coldly furious, made it somehow more real.
“I promise you, my family has made a way for you,” she whispered. “Look at us, Callan. Look at me. I can’t be away from you for more than an hour without my body going into some kind of crazy withdrawal. I can’t live this way.”
“It will only be temporary,” he promised her. “Doc will fix it.”
“How do you know?” she bit out. “What if it can’t be fixed, Callan? What if we can never be free of each other? What if we don’t want to be?”
“I didn’t want to be born an animal, or an experiment. Wants don’t count.” His voice held a ring of finality.
“And if Doc doesn’t fix it?” His attitude only spurred her anger further. “What about me, Callan? Will you just run away and leave me to deal with it as best I can?”
He grimaced, turning away from her. She watched his muscular back heave with a harsh breath, his head lower.
“If I must,” he told her softly, refusing to look at her now. “I will if I have to make the choice of revealing my secrets, or being with you, Merinus. My family must come first.”
“I know about your family,” she told him, unreasonably furious at the stand he was taking. “What’s to keep me from telling?”
He turned to look at her and the blood chilled in her veins. His eyes were cold, stone hard and as emotionless as his expression. Gasping, she backed away from him, fighting an instinctive fear that rose inside her.
“Callan.” Sherra’s voice stopped him from answering.
The tall blonde stood in the kitchen doorway, a syringe in one hand as she faced them.
“What do you need, Sherra?” he asked her sharply. “I have no time for more of your tests.”
Merinus watched Sherra’s eyes narrow.
“Good, because I would more likely try to kill you rather than test you,” she said sweetly. “I’ve brought
Merinus’ contraception injection. Perhaps you need to go outside and get your control back while she takes it.”
Callan gave her a hard look.
“You don’t intimidate me, brother,” she informed him, moving into the room in determination. “And you shouldn’t try to intimidate Merinus. This is hard enough on her.”
“I do not try to intimidate, Sherra,” he reminded her darkly.
“No, you usually succeed,” she admitted. “But now is the wrong time to practice that tough attitude. Go stalk something non-human for a change, while I explain to Merinus why you were forced to kill to save the young girl those soldiers found a few hours after we rescued her, rather than letting her think you did it in cold blood.”
Callan’s eyes narrowed, while Merinus’ widened.
“What?” she whispered in disbelief.
“Yes.” Sherra nodded, stopping beside her and indicating Merinus should lift her arm for the injection.
“When he went back to track them, disable them, then send them home in shame, they were in the process of attempting to brutalize a young girl they had kidnapped earlier. When he interrupted them, they elected to fight rather than surrender, and when Callan would have still shown mercy, one of them attempted to kill the girl anyway.”
Merinus took a deep, hard breath as she looked at Callan.