The man nodded once, placing his huge palm on her belly. “You can be very reactive, and you are very upset. I cannot be with you every moment right now, and I cannot allow you to lash out and harm yourself.”

Claire felt warm tears seep from the corner of her eyes.

Suicide had been her plan, her only recourse against Shepherd: to punish him, to deny him who he would have as mate, to keep his child from him. Yet time had worked on her just as Shepherd must have intended. The baby was more than a blob of cells that made her constantly ill. It was a little moving sign of life... her son. And the man who had created him was at her side, tending her as if she were a dying woman.

But she wasn’t dying and she wasn’t going to kill herself. Shepherd was right; she could never harm her child. And so he’d won the war against her. And Claire knew, deep down, he had won weeks ago. That did not change the lingering fear something very bad would be exacted for his sins.

Claire’s voice broke. “You’re going to lose, Shepherd. I don’t know how, but I know you will. You are going to lose everything in this madness. All your good intentions, all your progress, will have been for nothing if you follow this evil agenda.”

“Now is not the time for arguments. When this is over, when we are established in our new home, grieve your friends if you will. In time, you will see I was right. We stand on the dawn of a new world. Do not be afraid of it, little one. You never have to be afraid again.”

She could hardly see straight, but she did try to fight when another syringe was produced and injected into her arm. Then there was no reason to fight, for the world was nothing but strange noisy dreams.

10

Out of breath, Corday burst into Brigadier Dane’s sleeping chamber, startling the woman awake. The man was wild, doing nothing to restrain his voice. “They know an attack is coming. They are probably listening to us even now.”

There was no time for nonsense, Dane furious the man would speak of resistance matters in a room they both suspected was bugged. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I had a visitor tonight. Shepherd’s second-in-command, the Beta, he was in my house.” Corday peeked through the blinds, looking for movement outside. “I’m sure he’s followed me.”

Shoving the covers from her body, Brigadier Dane rushed to dress. “And you led him here? Have you lost your mind?”

Using the meat of his hand, Corday wiped the sweat dotting his forehead into his hair. “You don’t understand. He told me where Shepherd is keeping Claire.”