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"So that means we can play?"
"I guess if you're going to insist... "
"And I am."
"Then a sensible wolf has no choice but to give in."
He rose, and offered me a hand. I placed my fingers in his, grabbed the beer with my free hand, and slid off the stool.
He escorted me down the dark hall, and opened the last door. Candles flickered in the wall sconces set in each corner, throwing pale light across walls painted in various shades of green, so that they resembled leaves in a forest. The ceiling was black, and dotted with hologram stars that offered little in the way of light. What looked like a mat of dry leaves sat near the right wall. This was obviously the air bed. Had I been here with anyone else but Misha, that would have been the first thing I tried out. Instead, I headed for the pondlike spa, easing myself into the steaming, bubbling water with a sigh.
Misha locked the door, then pressed several buttons on the security panel to the right of the door, setting the timer and the psychic shield.
"So," I said, dropping all pretense of niceness. "Tell me why I should let you fuck the hell out of me."
"Because you want a kid."
"Besides that. You and I both know that I could walk out onto that dance floor and within five minutes have half a dozen wolves ready and willing to get their chips ripped out and attempt to have a kid with me." Though there was only one particular wolf I'd actually be interested in.
Misha nodded. "The chance of having a son, with no strings attached, is something few male wolves would pass up."
"So why should I settle for you?"
He slipped into the opposite end of the spa, and stretched his arms across the edge. The heat of the water lent warmth to his pale skin, but it did little to erase the calculating chill from his gaze. "Because you also want answers."
"You haven't yet proven you can give them to me."
"No, but I will."
"And what do you get out of the deal?"
He raised an eyebrow. "A son or a daughter to carry my name."
The slight edge in his voice made me frown. "Why is that suddenly so important?"
"Because I'm dying."
I blinked, not sure I had heard him right. "What?"
"I'm dying." He shrugged, as if it was something he'd long ago accepted. "And I want to leave this world knowing something of me is left behind."
There was only truth in his words, not lies. At least in this one instance.
"You're dying because you're a clone?"
He smiled. "You know more than I thought."
"We've had Talon for a few months now."
"Ah, yes." He considered me, icy eyes slightly narrowed, nostrils flaring. Another wolf on the hunt, and I wasn't entirely sure for what. "Talon was produced in the same batch as I. There were three others produced alongside us. Talon and I are the only ones left alive."
"Why?"
"Because the very chemicals used to help give us life is now snatching it away." He grimaced. "I've begun to age at twice the normal rate. It isn't yet showing, but it soon will. If the pattern of my disintegration follows that of my lab brothers, I will be dead inside five years."
"And Talon?"
"Will undoubtedly soon suffer the same fate."
