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“Now, this will be perfectly painless. The good doctor is going to do an examination to make sure you are well after your little ordeal with the monsters.”
“The Ragoru are not monsters,” Arie said, her face flushing with anger. “They are feeling beings who want what most humans want… peace, happiness, love… family. What the huntsmen are doing to them is wrong.”
Her grandmother gasped. “I am so sorry, Lord Edwar. Honestly, I don’t know what has gotten into her…”
He raised a hand and her words dropped off, his muddy green eyes narrowing on Arie speculatively. Arie could see tiny gold flecks burning within the depths of his eyes that gave the orbs a hellish light. His hand caressed hers, but she didn’t miss the way his fingers tightened around hers, demanding compliance.
“Poor girl. Clearly those brutes brainwashed you.”
Arie bristled but held her tongue at the clear warning. Her eyes darted over to the elderly doctor as he seated himself at her other side and opened his reinforced medical bag. He gently extracted her hand from Edwar with a disapproving frown and took his wrist between her fingers. He pulled his pocket watch out and glanced down through his bifocals at it as he took her pulse. He leaned down toward her and Arie caught the faint scent of mint, tobacco and whiskey. He glanced up at her, his faded blue eyes filled with sympathy.
“Pulse is good,” he said in a raspy voice as he continued to take her vitals, stopping only so often to make a notation. “When was your last cycle, my dear?”
Arie frowned, counting back in her mind. She’d had her menses less than a week before the Withering Days had commenced, and then again after the next full moon in Janua. She blinked slowly, a fire lighting in her belly as excitement stirred through her before it was doused with dread. Her hands clasped around her belly protectively and met the doctor’s eyes.
“Around the full moon of Janua,” she murmured, fear skating up her spine.
The doctor sighed and scribbled in his notebook. “According to my calculations, you are at about two months. Unfortunately, Ragoru gestation is unknown still. I am assuming that is the sire?” He arched a thick white eyebrow at her and Arie nodded.
She could feel the weight on the couch beside her shift as Edwar leaned forward to speak. “Ragoru gestation? Do you mean to say that my intended was impregnated by those creatures?”
“That would be a fair guess given that she was with them for several months and, from what I understand, by her own admission was mated to their triad,” the doctor replied as he looked over his spectacles at the First Elite.
“Terminate it!”
Arie’s arms tightened around herself and sprung to her feet as her panicked gaze snapped back and forth between Edwar and the physician. “No! I won’t allow you to kill my baby!”
“It is not a baby,” Edwar attempted to convince her with a more soothing tone, but she would hear none of it.
“It is! And it is mine!”
“If I may,” the doctor interjected, “we don’t know anything about how Ragoru young implant or what effects termination will have on her system if you plan on getting children on her yourself. I recommend allowing it to grow to term and deliver naturally.”
Edwar scowled, but then his expression shifted as he tapped a long finger on his chin thoughtfully. “That could work to our advantage. Once it is born, we could dissect it. The Order may gain some useful information from this abomination. How long before she could be successfully bred after delivery, Doctor?”
Arie’s jaw dropped in horror. He was speaking callously of killing and dissecting her baby and then breeding her as if it were nothing. The doctor beside her turned away to pack his bag but not before she caught his wince. Clearly that had not been what he’d intended, but Edwar was now set on course and Arie knew that fighting would only speed up her child’s demise.
“Usually, I recommend at least a year between pregnancies to ensure the mother’s health,” the physician answered quietly.
“That is not what I asked, Master Physician,” Edwar ground out impatiently.
Wallace stuck his stethoscope forcibly into his bag and snapped it shut. “Six weeks is required to heal post-delivery from a vaginal birth. More if we need to surgically remove the young.”
“That shouldn’t be necessary. I do not care if it survives delivery. So, six weeks. She could be bred in as little as three months.
“Hypothetically, yes,” the doctor agreed irritably.
Edwar’s fingers curled around her hand, and he spoke to her grandmother. “This little matter of inconvenience changes nothing. We will have to keep her secluded later once she begins showing until she has recovered post-delivery but otherwise, we can move along in our plans as discussed.”
Arie bit back another refusal, knowing that she had no choice but to go along with it for the time being. He didn’t seem like a man of considerable patience, and she wouldn’t risk her baby to the temper of a man determined to kill it. There had to be an avenue to escape! Unfortunately, she had no way to know how long she’d have until her rog was ready to come into the world, or when she would become too swollen to make her escape.
What should have been a happy occasion to celebrate between her and her mates was tarnished by her captivity.
She grew morose as she imagined how happy Kyx would have been. Her sweet mate. She couldn’t allow Edwar to destroy their baby. Yet, now more than ever, Arie could feel the ominous ticks of time passing by in sync with the grandfather clock and she jumped as the clock chimed the hour.
Chapter
Thirty-One
