Page 43 of Evan and the Alpha

“We can’t,” Terek says with a snarl. “He’s forced the issue.”

“How?”

Sobek gives me a sorrowful glance. “It’s you.”

“Me?!” I snap. “Look, I’m not forcing you to do anything—let alone fight some guy. I don’t want you to do that. I’d be happy if you never fought anybody else. Especially your dad.” I shake my head at him, then give Terek a look.

Terek snorts. His voice is full of mocking disdain when he says, “It’s clear the omega thinks you’ll lose, Sobek. He worries about you.”

“Of course I’m worried about him!” I cry. “He’s injured! He’s—we’re supposed to be!” I gesticulate wildly, winging my arms around, because I can’t find the words. My face feels like it’s on fire. “And I’m worried about you!”

“About me?” Terek snorts.

“Clearly, he’s concerned you can’t win,” Sobek sneers. “In your advanced age, your infirmity …”

“What?” I spit. “It’s not that I think he’s going to lose—or that you’re going to win, or whatever! I don’t want you two to fight! It’s dumb! There’s literally no reason to fight—”

“There is every reason,” Sobek snaps at me.

I look at Darwin, then Terek, feeling lost. Darwin takes pity on me, adjusting his spectacles. “Ah,” he says, “isn’t there something about … an alpha needing a territory?”

“Yes,” Terek agrees with a nod. “An alpha with an omega must have a territory.”

I fold my arms. “I don’t see why.”

Sobek sighs. “For the last time, you need somewhere to build a nest and lay your eggs—”

“Seriously?!”

They all stare at me. I stare back. “You two are gonna fight to the death over a territory, which I don’t need, because you can’t get it through your thick skulls that I. Am never. Going. To lay eggs!”

The two kroakka exchange looks. I stomp my foot. “I keep telling you—I can’t have kids! Not like that!”

A hand folding over my shoulder stops me. I pause, panting for breath, then look up at Tek, who shakes his head. “Evan,” he says, “you just had a heat. Of course you can.”

I feel like all the rage that was just animating me drains out of my toes. I shake my head. “No, that’s … I can’t …”

Tek glances away quickly. I look at Darwin. “That’s not … possible, right?” When the anger left, dread crept in, and now it seeps through me, climbing through my limbs, twisting all my organs, as it spreads its chill fingers through me. “Right?”

Darwin coughs into his hand, clears his throat. He pulls off his spectacles and starts polishing them. “Under normal circumstances,” he begins, his voice high and reedy, completely professorial, “you’d be absolutely correct, Evan. It’s not possible for male humans to be impregnated, and unlike the kroakka, our biology is relatively fixed.”

I toss a nervous grin at Sobek, as if sayingsee?

Darwin coughs again. “Except,” he says, then pauses, his soft brown gaze darting between all of us, “these aren’t normal circumstances.”

Dread grabs my heart and squeezes. “What do you mean.”

Something inside me knows exactly what he means. I just don’t want to admit it.

Sobek isn’t wrong: I’ve been changing. Maybe since I was kidnapped. Maybe since I set foot on the planet. I don’t know when it started. And I can’t really say why or how I know. But I feel different. Somehow.

Darwin clears his throat. His cheeks turn rosy. “Well, Evan, I mean that we can’t precisely know exactly what effects human-kroakka … ah, interactions might have.”

“You seriously think banging him could change my biology?”

Darwin turns even brighter. “We don’t know,” he says. “It’s within the realm of possibility. Of course, it would be exceedingly rare to find a species that is so compatible, that …”

I turn slowly, looking at Sobek. “You … seriously think I’m …”