She shook her head desperately, watching the gun nervously.
“Are you breeding yet? Gut wounds hurt real bad whore, and they would kill the abomination you’re likely carrying by now.”
Merinus covered her stomach with her hands, an instinctive reaction she wasn’t able to halt as his eyes followed the action knowingly.
“Please—” she whispered. “Don’t do this, Dayan. Callan will kill you for it.”
Dayan sneered. “My dear, Callan is going to die as well. I won’t let him destroy everything I’ve worked for since we escaped those labs.”
Merinus swallowed tightly. She could feel fear drumming through her veins in time to the harsh beat of her heart. Her chest tightened as she fought to breathe past her panic, to find a way to think clearly and help Callan. God, this would kill him. Dayan was his family.
“Callan risked his life to save you, to keep you and the others hidden,” she gasped. “How could you betray him like this?”
Merinus couldn’t understand the depth of evil that it took for Dayan to do this.
“Because he betrayed us.” Dayan’s voice rose in fury, and he wasn’t even aware of it. Merinus prayed Callan heard it. “He’s going public, and the others will follow him like the mindless children they still are.
Like he’s King. Like he is the last word. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. I told that stupid bitch Maria and she wouldn’t listen. So she had to die for it. She almost convinced him last year. I won’t let him do it. I won’t let him destroy everything like this.”
“What do you suggest he do then, Dayan? The Council won’t stop.” She edged around the room, moving carefully beside the dubious protection of a chair. If only she could protect her stomach, protect the child that may or not be forming even now.
“He should have gone back for us,” Dayan raged. “I could have led the Pride. It was my right. I suffered the most for them. I should have led and he should have let them capture him.”
The furious words made Merinus sick. She remembered the reports she had read of the labs. The barbaric tests, the training to condition Callan to kill, to be no more than a disposable weapon. The women that were brought to him to breed, then killed when he refused. The horrendous pain he suffered in their punishments when he refused their orders. Only a twisted, evil mind could even consider that he should have gone back. Only a monster could have killed the woman who helped raise him for trying to secure their safety, such as Dayan had done to Maria.
“You weren’t strong enough to lead, evidently,” Merinus bit out. “Only an animal would have suggested he do such a thing. How did they create you, Dayan? How did they manage to finally succeed in the creature they were after? Perhaps Callan should have sent you back.”
Pain and fury vibrated through her body. Callan had nearly given his life countless times for this bastard, only to have him turn on him, betray and deceive him.
“Oh, they succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations,” Dayan laughed. “Only, they have no idea how well they did succeed. I’m their dream child, Merinus, and once the Pride is under my control, Sherra and Dawn breeding my cubs, then I’ll let them know. They will agree to my every demand in exchange for the services I can provide for them.”
Merinus stared at him in disbelief.
“Dayan, what makes you think you can do this? The breeding isn’t voluntary; you know that from Callan and me. It’s hormonal. If Dawn or Sherra were your mates, you would know it by now.”
“No.” He shook his head, a maniacal smile crossing his face. “See, I know something you don’t. The women don’t go into heat like you did, Merinus. They don’t mate like Callan mated you. When they ovulate any bastard can breed them, your brother and Sherra proved that.”
Merinus blinked. “What the hell does my brother have to do with this? Which brother? Dammit, I have seven of them and every one of them will skin your ass alive and tack your hide on their wall for a trophy if you don’t stop this shit. That is if Callan leaves anything left of you.”
He smirked at her, the gun never wavering.
“Brother Kane was a soldier at the labs, Merinus. He was chosen to rape her when she went into heat the first time, and he did an admirable job. Even planted a cub inside her. I, of course, had to rid her of it. I can’t tolerate another man’s offspring within my Pride.”
Merinus wavered in shock. She felt her knees go weak.
“You’re lying,” she gasped. “Kane wouldn’t do that. He would never hurt an innocent woman.”
Dayan shook his head in pity.
“But he did Merinus. Didn’t you ever wonder how Kane knew about a supposedly Top Secret experiment before your father received Maria’s box of evidence? How he knew when everyone associated with that lab was dead? He survived my attack somehow. Survived my rage. But he’ll pay for it soon enough, for good.”
“I don’t believe you.” She believed Kane might have been there, but not for the reasons Dayan said, and sure as hell wouldn’t believe he had raped anyone. She knew her brother too well for that. He frowned at her darkly. “I have no reason to lie.”
“You have every reason to lie,” she told him angrily. “You’re a traitor to your own people, Dayan, there’s no honor in you. You couldn’t be trusted to give the weather accurately.”
“You have a smart mouth, bitch,” he snarled. “If I weren’t already determined to kill you, I’d kill you for that alone.”
“And you’re a f**king prick with some real faulty illusions of grandeur.” She glimpsed Callan’s shadow moving slowly along the steps from the corner of her eye. “The others will take you apart themselves. You won’t be able to hide the scent of Callan’s blood on your hands. Their senses will pick it up, Dayan. They’ll know.”