“Caro,” he continued, voice softening. “Even though the thought of not seeing this through kills a part of me, I’ll endeavor to respect your preference.” He pressed his palm to her stomach. “But a life I helped create is growing inside of you, and that’s not something I could ever wish to destroy.”

She blinked at him. “You want me to keep the baby.” The words sounded foreign on her tongue, almost as if they’d been pulled out of her heart and forced into the air.

“I do, but I won’t choose for you.” He drew his thumb over her still-flat abdomen. “You believe this to be an abomination, I’m sure, but I view it as a miracle. It’s something I never even considered dreaming about, and while I wish it were under different circumstances, I’ll never regret it.”

“Abomination or not, the fated line predicted it and apparently my council expected it.”

A low growl emanated from him, confusing her. “Yes. We’ll come back to that.”

“Come back to what?”

“How fucked up that is,” he said. “You might be used to having people issue verdicts on your behalf, but I’m not. They sent you here under false pretenses with the expectation of me planting my seed in you. How that doesn’t infuriate you is beyond me.”

“If it was fate, it was going to happen with or without their intervention.”

“Leaving you no choice but to comply?” He shook his head. “I disagree. The intention of foresight is to have an opportunity to change it; otherwise, what’s the point?”

“So you would prefer me to have refused and not created a child?”

“No, I wouldn’t change anything about how we met or what ensued. But your elders played you, and I find that unacceptable.”

“I see.” She agreed that they should have been allowed to choose and that what her council did was wrong. “But I wouldn’t change the outcome either. They must have known that.”

“Did they?” Incredulity colored his features and tone. “That remains to be seen. We need to learn more about what they’ve predicted, as well as Skye, so we can better prepare ourselves. To protect our child, Caro.”

He took the mug from her and set it aside, then grabbed her hands with his own. “Your son suggested sending me to Osiris, and if I thought that would protect you and our child, I’d think about it. But until we know more, that’s not an option either of us can select. We need to be a team. That’s the only way this is going to work.”

Her breath caught in her throat at the intensity in his expression and in his eyes. He meant every word; of that, she had no doubt. Could she partner with this man? The one who essentially tricked her into bed that first night they met, promising her information that he later withheld?

He had granted her a semblance of freedom these last two weeks to do whatever she wanted. Caro had tried misting more than once, and he didn’t stop her. No compulsion. She’d remained, mostly because she wanted to know more about Osiris’s seer. Now that information mattered even more.