Haulcon's Revenge (14 page)

“
What? No. I don’t know.” She admitted stepping away from him and dragging her nails along her scalp. “Look, I had plans, have plans. Assignments waiting for me.” Frustration laced her words as she put more distance between them by turning her back and staring out the window into the darkness.

“
You cannot go away carrying what is mine,” he declared.

“
What is yours?” She swung around facing him with an accusing finger directed at him. “Listen up, valf pal. I’m a grown woman and it has been years since I let anyone dictate to me what I can do with my body or where I can go.”

Before she finished a blink he was in front of her, a growl rumbling along his throat. “I am Alpha and my heir will go where I go. I see your human custom…families spread apart. It is not done with valfs. It will
not
be done with what is mine.”

“
Back off.” She slammed her hands hard into his chest.

He only stepped back because he wanted to. Her human strength could not injure him.

“
You don’t have the right to dictate anything to me. My human-kind may not always make the perfect choices when it comes to fam-ily.” Her voice faltered. “But yours isn’t so grand either, shall I remind you of how we met.”

Shit
. Something told him, he was going about this all wrong. Moving away he took several breaths and shoving his hair back from his face he calmed himself and attempted to start over. Facing her, he began, “Adair, discovering your pregnancy caught me way off guard.”

“
Welcome to the program already in progress, valf-man.”

He couldn’t help but smile at her sarcasm. Even her show of fight had warmed his heart, even though she was standing up to him, she was a strong mother for his little one.

“
Maybe I should have started with the question rolling around in my head. How is this possible?”

“
I don’t know.” Her shoulders lifted and dropped hard. “I have been on birth control for many years. Never even had a pregnancy scare let alone an actual happening.”

“
That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“
Well, birth control is something that keeps a woman fro—”

He growled.

She slapped her hand against her thigh. “Don’t growl at me, Haulcon.”

Inhaling and letting it out slowly, he said, “I know what it is. However, your human meds and concoctions don’t have an impact on us.”

“
We’re not talking about you, but my body.” She tapped a finger against her chest.

Stepping toward her, he informed her, “My seed.”

Shaking her head, she threw her hands up. “Leave it to me to find myself with a being that carries super sperm.”

“
We will have to figure this out once we get back to the compound.” He started to take her hand and head for the door.

Pulling it back before he could take hold of it, she stared at him. “Hey! I didn’t say I was going anywhere with you. Like I told you before, I have work and people counting on me to produce said work.”

“
None of that matters to me.”

“
But it matters to me. This life and any other I bring into this world,” her hand once again was on her belly, “is my responsibility.”

He realized they were at an impasse. Short of tossing her over his shoulder, he was not getting her out of her residence. Yet.

“
How do you suggest we handle this?” Crossing his arms he waited to see what she had to say. He’d always considered himself a reasonable man. If someone could present to him a better argument or idea than he had come up with himself, he could be swayed. He might as well allow Adair to try.

Standing there silent for a moment, she looked from him then back to him again. Shaking her head, she simply said, “I don’t know.” Moving to the couch she sat down.

To Haulcon she appeared defeated and that was one look he wasn’t used to seeing on her face and one he didn’t like. Adair was courageous and strong even in the most unusual situations. Not many people would have handled coming upon a man balanced on the edge of death and remained calm and decisive. She had.

He sat next to her on the couch, not touching her, even though his body yearned to pull her into his chest. If he touched her, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to restrain himself from wanting more. This close to her, her special scent was already wrapping around him as heavy as his favorite coat.

“
The only thing I can process right now is how unwise it would be to get in my car and go get another burger. Trying to decide how to raise a new life is way beyond my scope of mental process right now. I’m supposed to be in the Grand Canyon in two days. I have no backup plan for something of this nature.”

Haulcon ignored her comment about leaving the area, instead he zoned in on her words about her diet. He could smell a combination of beef and chocolate on her breath, letting him know it hadn’t been long since she’d consumed them. “When was the last time you ate?”

“
The better question is when I haven’t eaten,” she let out a short laugh. “I can see this baby is going to wreak havoc on my waistline.”

His brow became tight pondering a single possibility, even one he didn’t want to see as the reality. “What have you desired?”

She leaned back onto the couch. “Everything. Normally, I am a poultry and fish kinda girl, but I’ve craved red meat. A lot of it. Steak, burgers, barbeque ribs.” She licked her lips and sighed when she said the last part.

Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees. This can’t be possible.

However, he would argue with himself that everything that happened between him and Adair was beyond the realm of possibility for both their species. At least since the thaw of the Ice Age when the great continents were no longer connected. His kind had gone into Siberia and Tibet for centuries. A few had remained in Canada and Northern America living among the Eskimo but those had long been wiped out or the bloodline dissipated. It wasn’t until the last hundred years that valfs had migrated from Europe to North and South America. Keeping to small cities surrounding mountains and jungles.

“
What is on your mind?” she asked, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder.

He must have been musing for longer than he realized. Even her lightest touch sent warmth radiating throughout his body. He recalled what it had been like, that brief moment they had truly been joined. When they conceived their offspring—his heir.

“
You need blood.”

She quickly pulled her hand away. “I need what?”

She wasn’t the only one who needed it. Being around her made him realize that he had not truly fed and found nourishment since the last time he drank from her. Keeping his fangs retracted was making his gums burn.

“
Blood. More specifically, my valf serum.”

Scooting back into a corner she held her hands up to ward him away. As if she believed he was going to slit his own wrist and spray her with it. That wasn’t how it happened at all.

“
Haulcon. I know that I might be carrying a valf…half valf baby inside of me. But, there is no way I’m going to become some blood sucker.” Her face was twisted in disgust. “No offense.”

“
Offense taken.” How could he not, she was grimacing as if everything about his species repulsed her. “You don’t have to drink it, Adair. Even though once our offspring is born he will. Feeding from you and I until he is strong enough to take it from an animal himself.”

“
Well, maybe the child will get my style of eating.” She folded her arms under her breasts. Full voluptuous breasts he never got a chance to reveal the last time they were together.

“
He will do both, as valfs can. But for now he needs nourishment.”

“
Ok. Then if I don’t bite you, how do we get the baby the vitamins he needs? Can it be blended in a smoothie?”

“
No. It can be transferred through a kiss or bite. It is a part of our blood and released through our fangs combined in our saliva if we so choose.”

He noticed the movement of her throat as she swallowed.

“
So…it is as simple as you kissing me.” She licked her lips.

He watched the movement of her tongue and held back his groan. “Yes. But, a kiss would only give it to you in small doses. Since you have gone without for at least three weeks you really need a larger amount. That is why the child continues to force you to consume more and more red meat.”

“
Well, I survived your other bites so I guess it wouldn’t kill me. It only hurts a little.”

“
If I recall correctly my bite brought you pleasure not pain.” Fuck. Why did he go there? His cock was blazing and hard, throbbing with every heartbeat.

“
Can I just give you my arm and you take it like they do at the doctors when I’m giving blood.”

Shaking his head, he informed her, “It’s done through a major artery. Your neck, underside of your arm, the bend of your thigh.” He allowed his gaze to travel to those areas on her body as he called them out.

When he mentioned her femoral artery he could smell her sexual desire kick up. Adair could try and pretend all she wanted that she was tough. As if she were immune to what had happened between them in the mountains, but the evidence of it was in the seductive notes of her response.

Leaning toward her, he placed both of his hands on either side of her shoulders, caging her between his arms and the couch. “So, tell me, delectable one, where would you like me to start?”

“
Start,” the single word came out on a whispered moan.

“
Yes.” He lightly grazed the side of her face, fingering the hair that wildly framed her face behind her ear. He felt her shiver against his fingers. “Once I begin tasting you, sweet Adair, I can’t see myself stopping for a long time. Not until we both have been brought to satisfaction.”

She blinked once. Twice. Then she shocked him by leaning up and caressing the gray streak in his hair. Her touch gave him a completely different experience than when Nyca had done it after it appeared. This time his body seemed to come alive. His heart was racing and his cock stretched even more.

“
When did this come—”

Cupping the back of her head, he pulled her closer to him. Laying his lips along hers he didn’t want to discuss his gray lock. No, he wanted to taste Adair. Deepening the kiss his pulse kicked up when he felt her moan and her tongue brush against his own.

He growled, slipping his arm around her back he drug her body against his. He needed to feel her heat, not as hot as his own but still enough to soothe his soul.

She locked her arms around his neck and held him just as tight.

Separating their lips, he whispered, “Adair, I need you.”

“
Prove it,” her brown eyes were lit up with passion as she teased him.

Moving an arm beneath her knees he scooped her into his lap and rose to his feet with her. Because her apartment was so small, he had no problem discovering the door that led to her bedroom. In there he went straight to the middle of the room. Standing beside the bed he allowed her feet to lower to the floor as he started kissing her again. Yes, he needed blood, but he couldn’t get enough of her mouth. The sweet flavor of her kiss, the intense smell of her arousal was an addiction he could not see ever getting tired of.

“
If you want to save the clothes you’re wearing, you will need to remove them. I can’t see myself not tearing them to shreds to have your luscious body displayed for me. I will not make the same mistake I did the last time, rushing through our time together and denying myself the delight of seeing all of you.”

A coy smile turned the corners of her lips up.

Stepping away from him, she headed to the lamp on the side of her bed.

“
What are you doing?”

“
Um, I think it will be better if the lights are out. You know like when we were in the darkened forest.” Her gaze shifted away from his.