Fatal Call (New Breed Novels Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

safe, then I should go after the Induction.”
    Fuck. Just hearing her say it made him want to keep her there. Just lock her up and throw away the damn key. The protective instinct screamed inside him, telling him that he knew what was best. Man, no wonder mated males could be such dicks.
    “I worry about you.”
    “I do not want to leave you. You know that.” She laid her hand on his cheek. “Tonight we’ll celebrate for James. Let them have one more night before I tell them about this tomorrow morning. And I think we should keep my history with Bane to ourselves. It will only worry them more.”
    “Right.” Not that it mattered. He was worried enough for the whole of the Order. The protective instinct curled up in his belly like the motherfucker was taking up permanent residence. Perfect.
     
    Helen looked over her notes and shook her head. She was suffering from a severe lapse in concentration. All of the males would be off duty tonight for James’s Induction into the Order. But tomorrow night was Diesel’s first night back in the field since losing his leg. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was worried. Her mate was every bit as capable as he was before the accident, and it wasn’t just her faith in him making her feel that way. As a doctor and surgeon, it was her professional opinion. He was ready. But it was freaking her out just the same.
    She walked out of the lab and down the compound’s main corridor toward her office, pushed through the swinging door to the surgical ward, and smiled as soon as she entered. By the beds where they had just recently been under her care stood Troy and Evy. They were smiling and holding hands. She couldn’t help but grin back. They were young, but they were going to be awesome parents.
    “Hey, Thomsen family. I wondered if I might see you.”
    Their smiles got even wider. God, they were cute. It was hard to believe that less than two weeks earlier she was helping Troy in the compound hallway while the mating call mercilessly tried to bend him to its will. Males definitely got the shaft.
    “I wondered if you could explain some of the stuff from this morning again? For Troy?”
    “Of course. Come into my office and let’s have a seat.”
    They followed her in and she pulled the privacy curtain out of habit. “You must have a lot of questions. I may not have all the answers, but we’ll work together to make sure Evy gets the best care we can give her.”
    Troy cleared his throat. “I guess I was wonderin’ about Evy gettin’ pregnant while she was on the pill.”
    “Good question. I’m sure you know that shifters don’t use birth control because the male can usually sense when his mate is fertile. It’s also nowhere near as effective, if at all. In Evy’s case, she had just come to us from the human world and she was on the pill to help with pain caused by a disease called endometriosis. I think the synthetic hormones in the medication made it difficult for you to detect when she was fertile.”
    Troy looked startled. “Wait. She has a disease? Is she going to be okay?”
    Evy reached over and took the male’s hand.
    “Endometriosis causes benign growths in the pelvis. When she was human, she was diagnosed and put on the pill to treat the pain associated with the condition. Shifters don’t get a lot of the health problems humans do. Our high levels of k’ul prevent many diseases. That’s one reason we have a much longer lifespan. I thought I’d do an ultrasound on her pelvis just to be safe. There’s no evidence of endometriosis whatsoever. She’s perfectly healthy, Troy. I suspect that after her transformation was complete, her high levels of divine energy healed her.”
    He kissed Evy’s temple. “Thank the Goddess.”
    “How often will you want to see me, Helen?”
    “Normally, a pregnant shifter should be seen every four to six weeks during the first three trimesters. But, as you know, Maya was born at ten months. She was five months early,