She stared up at the doctor, fighting the rage rising sharply within her. She would not allow this. She couldn’t.
“I don’t care what you have to do, or how you do it, but stop it.”
* * * * *
Taber stood still, refusing to speak despite the pain lodging in his chest. He could hear the terror shaking in her voice, the pain rocking through her and would have given his own life then and there if it would save her from this.
He couldn’t bear the stark agony resonating through her voice. God help him, he would give anything to go back, to take back the mark, to make this easier on her somehow.
“I’m sorry, Roni.” Martin’s voice echoed his own regret. “If I could do this for you, I would. IUD won’t
work. The body will reject it. The hormone is affecting every organ, working to ensure conception. The same for the Depo shot and the birth control pills. We’ve found no way to prevent this. Not yet.”
It was then she turned to Taber. His soul shattered with pain as he glimpsed her eyes. They were deep, shadowed wells of misery that had every animal instinct inside him demanding that he protect her. She was terrified and he had no idea how to help her.
He stepped to her before she could speak, his hand weaving through the tangled strands of her hair as the other caught her close. And in that second he damned his own soul. His lips took hers, his tongue plunging into her mouth, forcing her to accept him despite her instinctive cry of rejection. She would never make it through this while everything inside her clamored for him, the hormone attacking not just her mind, but her body as well. Her hands caught his shoulders as a whimpering cry whispered from her throat. But her tongue stroked his, her lips drawing on him as her breath hitched on a sob.
He held her tightly, easing her, stilling the instinctive rejection of the tests the doctor needed to perform. When he pulled back, her eyes were nearly black with emotion, tear-filled and hazy with arousal.
“With my life, Roni,” he pledged to her. “With everything I am, I swear to you, I will protect you and any child that comes of this. Whatever you want I will give you, baby, as God is my witness. Anything to make up for what I have done to you.”
He could barely hold back his own tears. He who had never cried, who had fought emotion since he had first learned of its effect on him. He would give her anything she desired, if only it could ease the pain he knew was flaying her soul.
Her arms tightened around him, her face pressing against his chest, her shoulders quivering as she fought her own sobs. He tightened his hold on her, bending protectively over her, rocking her, hating himself with every cell in his body.
Finally, she drew in a deep, hard breath. Her nails clenched at his back and he felt the dampness of her tears on his shirt.
“No more tests,” she whispered.
“Taber, I need those tests. All we’ve had to go on were Merinus’ samples…”
Taber snarled in fury. His head turned, his gaze locking on the doctor’s as he fought to protect her from any further pain.
“A swab only,” Martin demanded. “For God’s sake. This isn’t just her, Taber. It’s the future.”
He tensed, intending to pull her from the table and stalk from the room.
“No. He’s right.” Her arms tightened around him as shudders quaked through her. “He’s right. I can do this. I can.” But she didn’t release her hold of him.
“I’ll hold you, baby.” He lowered her slowly to the gurney, remembering Sherra relating how Callan had been forced to do the same for Merinus. “Just hold onto me, Roni. I won’t let you go.”
* * * * *
It was hell. Roni forced back her screams as everything inside her protested the doctor’s touch, his tests, his soothing voice. She knew she was leaving deep marks in Taber’s back from the grip her fingers had on him, but couldn’t seem to care. It was that or scream. That, or fight to be free. She breathed in hard and deep. She could do this. She wasn’t a quitter. She could fight. She had forgotten that in the past year since Taber’s desertion. She knew how to hold herself together when the fear was like a beast clawing at her stomach.
One second at a time. One minute at a time. One hour at a time. It had saved her before. She could think later, when the pain had eased, when the terror had lessened and her mind had absorbed the rushing change that had fallen into her life. Then she could find safe ground. Then she would think.
“You leave me again and I’ll kill you!” She jerked violently as the doctor used his demon’s tools to examine her. “I swear to God, Taber. I may not be woman enough for you, but if you leave me after this, I’ll make you pay. I’ll cut your black heart from your chest myself and then I’ll carve your c**k into so many tiny pieces you’ll never find them all.”
And she would, she promised herself as she throttled the scream wanting to break free from her throat. She could feel the tension in Taber as well, the furious growls coming from his chest, his protective, fierce hold on her body. He was hers for now. She would deal with the future when she had to.
Chapter Seventeen
“I will assume you’re pregnant.” Roni fought to keep her voice calm as she came to a stop at the small glass table Merinus sat next to on the back deck of the house. “What’s next? What do I have to look forward to?”
She had slipped from the bedroom after Taber left, after another insane, lust-filled hour in his bed. She had showered, changed into her borrowed jeans and another of Taber’s shirts and come in search of the only other known Feline mate.
The other woman was watching the construction of a high fence an acre from the sheltered porch, her expression pensive. The men worked on the twelve-foot high barricade being stretched from post to post with an almost fanatical vigor, as though nothing were more important than getting the steel-linked barrier in place.