“Sleep in the bed…”
She shook her head. “I can’t sleep there without you. So hurry up. I’m getting pretty damned tired.” He dressed in clean clothes while she pulled on one of his large T-shirts, the hem nearly reaching her knees, before grabbing a spare blanket from the quilt rack in the bedroom and heading for the sofa.
“I’ll be back soon.” He bent and kissed her soft lips as she stared up at him drowsily. “Hurry and come back. I’ll need you soon.”
He could smell the need building in her. He nodded abruptly and turned and left the room. She couldn’t live like this much longer, he thought. She was becoming exhausted, worn down. If she didn’t conceive soon, then he worried that her health would suffer. But what, he wondered, would happen when she did conceive?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Roni was starved the next morning. She had awakened late, showered and dressed, and headed immediately to the kitchen as she followed the scents of bacon, eggs and biscuits.
When she entered the sunlit room, it was to find the three women talking softly over heaping plates and steaming coffee. Her mouth watered violently.
“On the stove.” Sherra grinned at her as she eyed the plates with starving desperation.
“I feel like someone cut a hole in my stomach,” Roni sighed. “Taber’s going to have to install a kitchen in that damned apartment he calls a bedroom if he insists on spending all his time up there.”
“It won’t be much longer.” Dawn’s soft, melodic voice had Roni stilling in surprise as she turned to look at the other woman.
“Excuse me?” she said, confused.
Dawn shrugged. “You’ll conceive soon.”
“And you know this how?” Roni asked as she lifted a plate from the center island and moved to the stove.
“Because I can smell it.”
“Dawn,” Sherra spoke up warningly.
Roni glanced over as the other woman shrugged and lowered her head to her food.
“So what does it smell like?” She frowned, poured a cup of coffee and carried it and her plate to the table.
“We aren’t certain.” Sherra avoided her gaze.
“Dawn sounded certain enough. Is it information that can only be given if you kill me later?” Merinus smothered her laughter, though Sherra frowned disapprovingly. “No, but maybe something you don’t want to hear yet.”
Roni glanced back over at Dawn. “Give me a timeline and we’ll see how good you are.” She shoved a forkful of eggs in her mouth as Dawn turned to her in surprise.
“Within the next seventy-two hours,” she finally said, and as soft as it was, her voice was more than confident. “I noticed it with Merinus, right before she and Callan were forced to run from the Council. I saw her perhaps three days later, and she had already conceived. Your scent is similar.”
“So how does this scent thing work?” Roni swallowed the eggs and stared back at the other women.
It was intriguing how easily the Breeds could pick up such senses. They were completely human, no matter the propaganda Roni was certain was being spread. But the gifts their animal DNA gave them were amazing.
“It’s just a change in the pheromones.” Dawn shrugged. “As though a special, delicate fruit is slowly ripening. It seems whatever change is being made to the ovaries and the eggs, it produces this scent as it progresses.”
Roni looked to Merinus. Ovary change? Her stomach dropped with a sudden, overriding fear.
“The baby is completely normal.” Merinus laughed. “We’ve had several sonograms done and all the prenatal tests show everything is fine. You’ll conceive a normal baby boy or girl. I promise, no kittens, as Kane is wont to tease us with.”
Fury flashed in Sherra’s eyes.
“Excuse me. I have work to do.”
Roni watched her in surprise, almost missing the regret that flickered across Merinus’ face as Sherra rose to her feet and deposited her plate in the sink.
“Tell Callan I’ll be on patrol if he needs me,” she told Merinus as she walked from the room. “Tell Kane to get fucked.”