entrance. It didn't have a great view of anything, and it didn't look like anyone had used the room since they'd cleaned it out originally. "Well, there's no quota that needs to be met first, Storri. Sometimes, it's one and done."
She didn't seem at all bothered that this was happening so quickly.
"When there are magical elements in play, that changes things a bit. Yes, if you were a human capable of reproducing with another human, this would be fast. But you are a nephilim, in love with a shifter, and if I remember correctly from the briefings, Sorrows claimed that was the key. Love." She turned from where I was reclined on the bed. Jazz waited with Faust inside the room; the others paced the hallway outside.
"And before you playfully torture your alpha, Jazz, no that doesn't mean you two loved each other less. It just means you were physical earlier."
"I wasn't going to—" Jazz slumped, losing his righteous indignation in one exhale. "Okay, okay, got it."
Somebody snorted in the hallway. I thought it was Knox, but the sound could've just as easily come from Hallie, Diesel, or one of the twins.
I jumped, startled by the snap of Dr. Tiff's latex glove.
"I'm sorry, Storri. I didn't mean to scare you." She approached slowly. "This room is awesome. Did you help?"
No. I hadn't even known they were making this room. I shook my head slowly. Moving too quickly would only attract danger.
"They must care a lot about you." Dr. Tiff stretched her arm forward, aiming for my hand, resting on the exam bed.
Her tone was meant to be soothing, but it was the same voice one would use to calm a frightened child. I was the best person to know, since it was how everyone had spoken to me the first week after my arrival. I squinted against the bright light. Could no one else see how unbearably glaring it was? Like someone had taken a lampshade off the sun. I jerked my hand back and shoved it under my hip. "I'm not a kid," I grumbled quietly. "Where's Dog?"
Faust schooled his shocked expression away, but not before I noticed it. "Outside patrolling. Why, do you want him here?"
The bed poked into my spine, and I wiggled, trying to get a comfortable position. Were the ceilings always so high? "No. It's fine."
Faust and Dr. Tiff shared a look. I could only see Faust's face clearly, but it seemed meaningful and also about me. "You can say what you're thinking," I snarled. "If it has to do with me, I want to know."
The others stopped pacing and crowded the doorway, each staring at me like I'd grown a second head.
I was being rude. Distantly, I knew that and was mortified by that fact. But, ever since leaving my room that morning, I'd felt on edge. Every room was too open, impossible to secure. It was too bright too, especially in this room, where they'd replaced the regular lights for bright fluorescent ones. I felt exposed and vulnerable but, mostly, afraid.
I hadn't been this scared last night, only curious. And I hadn't been afraid this morning, not until we'd left the room for breakfast.
"Everyone, please get out for a second." Faust didn't turn his face from me to check that the others were listening.
They were, and when Jazz shut the door softly behind him and Angus, I had no one to stare at but my mate.
My disappointed mate.
He hadn't said as much, yet, but I could tell from the way his jaw tensed.
"I just don't want everyone staring at me, poking at me, and treating me like a kid all the time! I'm going to be a father! I can't have my baby thinking I'm just one of the children."
"You're worried our child won't see you as a father?"
No. That wasn't my worry, but I understood how Faust thought that now. I couldn't explain myself clearly, especially not now that the ventilation system had kicked on, pumping new air into the closed space. I knew the purpose was to keep the air in this room from getting too stale or humid, but the air came from somewhere else and was only further proof of how unprotected I was in here.
The urge to throw a blanket over my head and hide increased with each second, but that only made me angrier. I didn't want to be treated like a child, but I still wanted to act like one? I needed to be a man.