“Barb?” Her voice was strangled now as she fought the rising nausea erupting in her stomach.

“I told you I was an animal, Merinus,” he bit out. “Do you not remember me warning you, that day at the station?” His gaze was hard, cold as he watched her now. Merinus felt the chill of it running over her body. “You should have believed me.”

Merinus let go of his arm, fighting to breathe past the panic filling her.

“Then we just fight it,” she said, her lungs fighting to draw air past the constriction in her throat. “We don’t—don’t—” She waved her hand at the erection showing beneath his jeans.

“Fuck?” he questioned her sarcastically, arching a golden brow in inquiry. Merinus shook her head, her temples throbbing, her pulse rocketing through her body.

“Withdrawal is just that.” She fought to breathe evenly. “We’ll get over it. We just abstain.”

“Fine,” he growled. “You can abstain all you want. I’m not so willing—”

“No.” She shook her head, moving away from him. “You have to, Callan. You have to. We can’t bring a baby into this. Please. Babies are innocent. They don’t deserve this.”

She was crying again. Her stomach was rioting with nerves, her chest tight with pain. She could feel panic overwhelming her, hysteria rising inside her. She couldn’t have a baby. She wasn’t ready for a baby.

“Come on, we need to get home.” His arm went around her waist. Merinus jumped back from him. Terror was freezing the blood in her veins. She shook her head, holding her hands up, backing away from him.

“You can’t touch me,” she whispered. “We can’t let this happen, Callan. We can’t. I won’t let you do this to me.”

“Merinus, let’s go home. We’ll settle it there,” he told her, his voice pitched to a soothing level.

“Damn right we’ll settle it,” she gasped, determination hardening her voice. “We’ll settle it in different rooms, Callan. On different sides of the house. This is over. I refuse to have a child, now or in the near future. Especially with a man determined to risk everything he is for pride. I’ll be damned if I’ll trust you to protect our child, when you don’t even take measures to protect yourself.”

She watched the anger settle in his face, in his eyes.

“I will allow no child of mine to be tested or taken from me, Merinus,” he informed her coldly. “You can count on that.”

“And just how the hell do you think you can ensure that?” Incredulity sped through her.

“I will ensure it,” he bit out, gripping her arm and moving her steadily along the path back to the vehicle.

“The conversion hasn’t been completed yet. When it has been, we’ll deal with it. Until then, I will not let you go. Brother or no.”

“You can’t keep me forever.” She stumbled against him, shivering as the soft, ultra soft hairs of his chest caressed her arms. Damn him. He didn’t have to feel so good. He didn’t have to do this to her.

“We’ll just see about that.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Callan half dragged Merinus into the house, his expression stony, his eyes glittering with renewed anger. That was just fine, Merinus thought, because she was none too calm herself. Anger pulsed through her body as hot and pure as the desire did.

“I need a shower,” she bit out, jerking away from him as he slammed the door behind them. The whole gang was assembled now, she thought sarcastically as she watched the interested expressions of the six other people in the room. Even Dr. Martin was there, calmly sipping his coffee as he eyed them.

“Good idea,” Callan bit out. “When you’re done, you get your ass to the bedroom where you can’t get into any trouble.”

She cast him a mocking glance.

“I remember Kane saying that one. He learned better, too.”

Several snickers and varied coughs sounded through the room. Merinus didn’t wait around to see who did what, or Callan’s reaction to it. Checking to be certain his large T-shirt covered her rear sufficiently, she swept through the house, heading for the bedroom and a hot bath.

“She called her brother.” Callan watched Merinus disappear into the hallway. “I expect the full brood to descend on us. It’s time to make plans.”

“I told you she was trouble,” Dayan growled, his eyes glittering with hot anger beneath the bruises that marred it.

Callan stared at the man, seeing a fury that worried him.

“I would refrain from such comments until I forget the fact that you were ready to attack her,” Callan ordered him tightly. He would never forget the sight of Dayan ready to spring and attack. Dayan’s lips curled, and Callan nearly lost his control again.

“Get outside and patrol the house if you can’t contribute something to this conversation.” Callan stalked to the coffee pot, pouring a large mug and fighting for composure. He heard a chair scrape eerily over the wood floor. Seconds later, the back door slammed with window rattling force.

“Anyone else?” he asked without turning around. Silence greeted the question.

He turned back to them, seeing the concern on their faces.

“Kane’s Special Forces,” Taber informed him quietly. “A higher quality than those buffoons the Council keeps sending out. His brothers aren’t slouches either. He’s trained them. They’ll find the house. They’ll come in loaded to hell and back to take her.”

“I figured that already,” Callan snarled.

He knew everything there was to find out about the family. Seven brothers and her father, each man confident, strong. They were arrogant and commanding forces to be reckoned with alone. Together, they would be a small army.

“If he takes her, or if he kills you, she’ll suffer,” Dr. Martin spoke up. “The withdrawal won’t go away according to my tests, Callan.”

“What about your theory on conception?” Callan quizzed him sharply. Dr. Martin shrugged. “The hormone produced only during pregnancy slows it down, but little else. What worries me is the effect your hormones are having on her contraceptives. It counteracts them. And somehow, someway, a minute amount of your sperm has become perfectly normal. There’s a chance, albeit slim, that she could conceive at any time.”

Callan rubbed at his neck wearily. More complications, more test results that did little to help them.

“We need to meet with her brothers before this goes any further,” Taber said worriedly. “We can’t take a chance with you, Callan. Or with her.”

“Let her call them, Cal,” Sherra advised on the end of Taber’s statement. “They have to be terrified for her. She’s their baby sister. John’s child. Maria would have hated this.”

The reminder of his surrogate mother and her devotion to John Tyler pierced at him.

“It wouldn’t hurt to let her call,” Taber agreed. “Let her arrange for them to meet with Doc before they come in like the damned Marines. Merinus won’t thank you if you hurt one of them.”

She would likely try to kill him herself, he grimaced.

“Maybe you’re right,” he sighed. “Maybe it would calm her down some. She’s like a damned volcano ready to erupt.”

“And when she does, it’s your ass that’s gonna get burned,” Sherra told him with little sympathy. “Your attitude with her sucks.”

Callan frowned.

“It’s normal.” Doc grinned. “The mating ritual of all animals. The males fight for dominance over their females. Human males have lost the fight in the past generations with feminism and equal rights and getting in touch with their sensitive sides,” he snickered. “Callan’s DNA refuses to allow him the choice in dominating her. It’s part of his genetic code.”

Callan snarled. Just what he needed, a fucking scientific explanation of the problem.

“Great,” Taber muttered. “Just what we needed to know.”

And the need to dominate was growing worse. Callan’s fight with his needs, his sexual desires, was a constant battle now.

“I’ll need more samples from Merinus after your next, um, association.” The doctor cleared his throat, ignoring Callan’s look of amazement at his choice of words. “As her body reacts so violently to any touch but yours, I suggest you come with her.”

“I guess I’m here for the night again then,” Sherra yawned, stretching tiredly. “So I’m heading on to bed.”

“Me too.” Dawn, the most silent of the group, rose from her seat. She carried her cup to the sink, rinsed it, then set it in the basin.

“Let’s go, Tanner.” Taber was on his feet, slapping Tanner on the back as he rose. “Time to go to work.”

“Yeah, work,” Tanner grumbled, but there was no hesitation in his movements. “Man, remind me when I get all dominant to find a woman that doesn’t argue. You could hear Merinus cursing Callan all through that forest.”

“Watch your mouth,” Callan ordered darkly.

Tanner grinned, lifted his hand in a friendly salute and followed Taber out the kitchen door. The house was silent now, emptied of the Pride and their worries, concerns and affections. It left Callan feeling tense, almost alone. The feeling left him longing for Merinus. Not just sexually, but for her companionship, the measure of understanding he had found in her, despite her anger. He rose to his feet and paced into the living room. He turned the television on low, hoping to fill the silence that had never bothered him before. As he lowered himself wearily to the chair, a small vibration in his jeans had him frowning in surprise. Merinus’ cell phone. He pulled the device from his pocket, stared at it a moment, then flipped it open.

“Yeah?”

There was silence over the line.

“I want you to give this phone to Merinus.” The command in the male voice had Callan’s brows lowering, his possessive instincts towards Merinus flaring.

“And may I ask who’s calling?” Callan smirked. As though he didn’t know. The silence again. The echo of quiet rage.

“Is she alive?” Had he been a lesser man, a shiver would have worked down his spine, Callan thought.

“Of course she’s alive,” he bit out. “Killing innocent young women is next year’s job. This year I’m just

stalking asshole soldiers.”

“You have enough of them following after your ass,” the voice snapped. “I sent my sister there with an offer of help, not so you could abuse her.”

Callan came to his feet.

“I have not abused her,” he growled furiously. “If anything, that woman has, at every opportunity done her best to foil my best attempts to keep her from my problems. I blame you, Mr. Tyler, as her older brother, for her willfulness and her total disregard for authority. Your sister is a menace.”

Frustration edged a deeper growl from his throat as he allowed his frustrations rein on the man who had most likely caused Merinus to develop such traits.

“Then you will have no problem giving her this phone so I can make arrangements to collect my willful sister,” Kane remarked smoothly, suspiciously. “I’ll be landing at the airport in a matter of hours. I expect her to be waiting for me.”

Callan stilled. “I don’t think that’s possible, Tyler.” He kept his voice smooth, calm. “Regrettably, your influence on her has been detrimental. She is a stubborn, determined woman, but she is now my woman.”

Silence again. Callan imagined the man was fighting for control himself, a way to ease his sister from whatever danger he believed she was in.

“Don’t make me come in and take her,” Kane warned silkily. “You wouldn’t like it, Lyons.”