“They aren’t expecting you to get a job right away. You’ll be moved to the men’s dorm and adjust to life on the outside first. You’ll learn how to live independently and they’ll take you out with different males to show you what they do.
You’ll also be asked if you want to see a therapist.” She paused. “A doctor who will help you work through the anger and pain you suffered while you were in captivity. I strongly suggest it.
Kregkor is a good guy. He’s a bit of a nerd but he’s excellent at what he does.”
Suspicion and jealousy flared. “The male doctor Moon told me about? Do you know him well?
Does he want you too?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Kregkor? No. He’s married. Mated. You know what I mean. He’s got a few kids. You’ll see pictures of them and his wife if you visit his office at Medical. He works parttime for the NSO. I barely see him since he only comes when they call him.”
“Are there any other males who have shown interest in you?”
“No.”
He keenly studied her to judge if she was being honest but didn’t see any signs of deceit. “Good.
I’d fight them.”
“You really need to stop attacking males. They are your people.”
“You are mine.”
The doorbell rang. Obsidian growled. “They will go away.”
“You need to let me up. We have to see who is there. They’ll come in if we don’t answer the door since they know we are home.”
“I have the key to your space.”
“I’m sure they have spares.”
“What are those?”
“Other keys.”
“I will make them give me all of them.” He didn’t want anyone to have access to Alli but him.
The swelling in his dick had subsided. He gently pulled out of her, watching her face to make sure there wasn’t any discomfort for her.
She released him as he lifted up to rise to his feet.
“Stay!” He’d deal with whoever wanted access to Alli’s space.
He pulled the sweatpants up enough to cover his dick and closed her bedroom door when he stormed out of it. The doorbell annoyed him as it rang again. Whoever was outside was persistent. He remembered to unlock it before yanking it open. Two males waited on the other side. They stared at him grimly. He’d met one of them before but the second one was unfamiliar.
Justice spoke first. “Hello, Obsidian. It’s good to see you doing so well.”
The smell of a female mixed with the male’s scent. His sense of smell had been weakened after he’d awoken that first time at Homeland and he’d missed that before. He investigated the other male by turning his head to look that one over from head to foot, picking up another female scent coming from him. They were both mated, judging by the strong combination of scents. He decided they weren’t at the door to attempt to lure Alli into sharing sex with them.
“I want the other keys to Alli’s rooms.”
Dark eyebrows arched as Justice frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“I do,” the other male with the long brown hair announced. “I read the report that Kit filed this morning at the end of her shift. She complained that Moon stole a key from her because Obsidian believed we were locking Dr. Allison inside her house.” His focus shifted to Obsidian. “I am Fury.
We don’t have any other keys. That was the only one.”
“Alli said there are more.”
“She probably assumes that but that was the only key Security had.” The male smiled. “I give my word.”
“I don’t know or trust you.”
Justice stepped closer. “We understand. You need time to learn that we won’t tell lies. How are you adjusting to freedom? I apologize that I haven’t spoken to you recently but I’ve been very busy.”
“Justice deals with the humans outside the walls of our home,” Fury informed him. “It’s a tough job with long hours.”
Obsidian didn’t care about that. “Why are you here?” He eyed them with suspicion.
“I wanted to check on you and I’d like to talk to Allison.” Justice smiled. “I realize now we came at a bad time.”
Fury cleared his throat. “Real bad, judging by our noses. We’re sorry if we interrupted the two of you. I spoke to Moon earlier. He said you and the doctor were close and that you felt secure being with her. He just forgot to mention how close.”
Fury stepped closer and a fainter scent teased Obsidian’s nose. “What is that?” He sniffed more, moving out onto the porch. “It’s sweet and strange.”
The male didn’t back away. “You’re probably picking up baby powder mixed with my son.”
Pride deepened the male’s voice. “My mate and I had a child. His name is Salvation.”
Shock tore through Obsidian. “You bred a child? How?” He sniffed again, fascinated by the unknown smell. It was pleasant and nice.
“We can breed with humans.” Fury hesitated and inched even closer, holding up his hands to make it easier for him to pick up the scents. “I was holding my son before I left for my shift this morning to allow my mate to sleep longer. Her name is Ellie and she’s human.”
Obsidian backed away, confused. He stared hard at the male, hunting for clues of deceit but knew he spoke the truth. The scent he picked up was fresh and nice—life. His mind reeled from the knowledge that one of them had impregnated a female. Emotion rushed at him next, nearly overcoming him with grief.
“I even failed her with that.”
Justice appeared alarmed. “What do you mean? Dr. Allison?”
“46,” he rasped, shame gripping him. “The technicians wanted me to impregnate her but I wasn’t able to.”
“His mate,” Fury whispered. “She—”
“I know.” Justice cut him off. “Our females aren’t able to become pregnant as of yet. The doctors who work for us are running tests to find out why and hopefully fix the problem. They believe it might be a genetic problem between our males and females. We have dominant genes. All our children were born to male Species and female humans. Mercile created us too well and our children share our exact DNA.”
“I don’t understand.”
Fury was the one to explain. “Our children are Species. My son will look exactly as I do when he grows. We were designed so well that males only create male children who carry all our traits but none from the mother.” He paused. “Our females were designed the same way we were.”
“We have a few genetic experts who believe that’s why we always failed to reproduce children with our females. Our genes are too strong to combine to create a life.”
Fury nodded. “What Justice means is that we can only create males and our females will probably only be able to create female children. They think that’s why no Species couple has ever bred children.”
Obsidian allowed the new information to settle. Some of his shame lifted. It wasn’t a defect with just his body. The technicians had always been crueler when their breeding attempts didn’t gain the results they expected. It wasn’t his burden to carry for the unhappiness she’d suffered.
“Do you understand?” Fury gave him a sympathetic look. “You didn’t fail 46.”
“Yes,” he rasped. “Can our females breed successfully with human males? They are weaker.”
“Not so far.” Justice shifted his stance. “We only have one female who has shown interest in mating to a human. He’s one of our doctors but they are newly together. She’s refused testing and wants time to see if it happens naturally before she allows that. It’s understandable after everything she’s survived at Mercile. We all know how painful their tests could be for our females.”
Anger tinged Fury’s voice when he spoke. “We don’t think it’s going to be that simple. Some of our females were raped by humans during captivity but thankfully no pregnancy resulted. It would have only encouraged the bastards to hurt them more.”