“That’s just mean. You know I’d love to know that but I can’t risk it. If you aren’t going to answer me, I need to go.”

“Wait! How are you feeling? Are you healthy? Any unusual symptoms or anything? I’m assuming you haven’t seen a doctor?”

“You know I can’t risk that. I’m tired a lot but I read that’s normal. My appetite is great. I haven’t thrown up in weeks and am past the morning sickness stage. I have to go. Thanks for talking to me.”

“You have to call me more often. At least once every few days. You’re alone. Something could go wrong. Please?” The doctor sounded panicked.

“I’ll call you once a week.”

“Do you promise? I am worried about you. You don’t know everything and I can’t tell you over a phone.”

“Tell me what?” Becca’s heart pounded with fear. What did the doctor know that she wasn’t saying?

“Just call me and we’ll keep talking.”

“I have to go.” Becca hung up.

* * * * *

Trisha hung up and put her house phone to her ear. She’d called Justice when she’d picked up her cell with the woman and let him overhear the conversation on speaker phone.

“Did you recognize her voice? You deal with most of the humans we come in contact with.”

Justice sighed. “No. I didn’t recognize it but the accent is fake. She slipped a few times. Maybe she’s lying about the pregnancy.”

“No. She knows too much. She said she felt the baby move for the first time. She’s between eight and ten weeks along. That’s when we feel movement. That’s good. Thank God. I was terrified we wouldn’t have any time to find her before the baby was due. She is about halfway through her pregnancy, Justice. I delivered my son at twenty weeks. She doesn’t know New Species babies grow and develop faster. We have to find her fast. My husband is canine. Feline pregnancies could go faster and I’m assuming he was feline, considering she didn’t mention the penis swelling during sex that is common with canines. Hot sperm is more noticeable with felines. We won’t know until the first feline mixed baby is born how long their pregnancies last.”

“Let me… Hang on. Tiger just walked in.”

Tiger chuckled. “We got a trace. We know about where the call came from. I have good news and bad news.”

“What’s to report?” Justice hit speaker phone. “Can you hear us, Trisha?”

“I can,” she stated. “What’s the bad news first?”

“It looks like this woman is probably the real deal. The call was traced to an area near Reservation. She must live out there, which means she probably did come in contact with our people.”

“That’s good news,” Trisha agreed.

“Not when we have a human pregnant by one of us and we didn’t know about it. It’s bad until we have her here and secure.” Tiger took a breath. “The good news is that it’s a remote area. We’ll send teams out and look for her. There aren’t that many cabins out there if she’s really living in one. It might take a few days to go to all of them but it shouldn’t take more than three days. We’ll find her soon.”

Justice sounded relieved. “That’s great.”

“Yes. Will she be showing, Trisha?” Tiger moved closer to the phone.

“She says she is and she felt the baby move which should put her between eight and ten weeks. You’ll definitely see a rounded stomach from the baby. She will smell faintly like Species too, up close. I did. The further along she gets the more she will carry that scent and the stronger it will get.”

“Justice, if you don’t mind, I’d like to head this one. May I take the helicopter and fly up there?” Tiger paused. “I’d like to keep the team tight, only take handpicked Species who are good with humans and we’ll have to bring in a few of the task force for this. They’ll go in first to avoid raising suspicion.”

“Yes,” Justice agreed.

“Me too,” Trisha said. “I’m going. I’ll call Slade and tell him we’re all leaving. I’ll pack our bags and get Forest ready to travel. I want to be there when you find her, Tiger. She’s going to be scared as hell. Did you hear what she said about her family, Justice? Do you think they are part of those protestors who picket the NSO? Maybe that’s how she met one of ours. He might be an officer at Reservation’s gates. It makes sense if that’s the case. Her family hangs there, she’d be with them and she’d have spent time with our guys.”

“Makes sense.” Justice hesitated. “Yeah. That’s fine. Find this female, Tiger.”

“I’m on it,” Tiger growled softly. “I’m more worried about someone else finding her before we do or this family of hers discovering her secret if they are fanatics. It wouldn’t end well.”

“I know.” Anger tinged Justice’s voice. “Just find her and get her and her baby home to us so they can be safe. Thank you for allowing us to trace your calls, Trisha.”

“I didn’t really have a choice,” she muttered. “I’m still not happy about lying to her. I gave my word I wouldn’t do that.”

“You didn’t trace her. I did.” Justice cleared his throat. “I asked my males if any of them had shared sex with a human and that didn’t go well. It caused anger and they felt I was trying to invade their privacy. Finding the female and getting her behind our gates is priority. I can’t image what would happen if she goes into labor and ends up at a hospital. Our secret would be out. It would be on every news station and anyone who hates us would know her location to target the infant. Worse, she could go into labor alone and die if there are complications.”

“I know.” Trisha pushed her fingers through her hair and gripped the phone tighter against her ear. “I’ve had nightmares about that. That’s why I tried to keep her on the phone as long as possible to give you a shot at finding her. If this doesn’t work though, you’ve got to let me tell her the truth, Justice. She’s having an accelerated pregnancy and she’s going to be blindsided when she goes into early labor. She’ll think she’s losing the baby.” Emotion choked her voice. “Don’t make me go there. It was my worst fear when I was pregnant with Forest. I can’t do that to her and maybe if we tell her, it will make her come in on her own.”

“We can’t risk it. Until we know for sure that she’s not some reporter fishing and that it’s a verified Species baby she’s carrying, you aren’t to tell her anything. That’s an order. I’m sorry but too much is at risk. Your son would be in danger.”

“I know.” She blinked back tears. “I just keep putting myself in her shoes. She sounds genuinely scared about something. Whoever her father is, he must be one scary asswipe to instill that kind of fear.”

“I’m angry at the male who shared sex with her.” Justice growled. “He should have taken precautions or followed up with her. They obviously weren’t close enough that she could feel she could go to him to protect her. When we find out who he is, he and I are going to spend some time in a training room. He put us all in this situation.”

“I get a piece of him after you do,” Tiger snorted. “I tell the officers to use condoms if they share sex with humans but this sounds as if it’s one of Brass’ males so he will probably get the pleasure of pounding in the ground rules.”

“Yeah, beat him up.” Trisha was disgusted. “That will teach him. I’m glad Slade isn’t running Reservation right now and we’re home. I hate it when I have to patch him up.”

Justice chuckled. “It’s a male thing.”

Chapter Thirteen

Flame studied the cabin that appeared empty of life and waved the human team forward. They carefully surrounded the cabin, three of them keeping out of sight in the trees. One of the humans, Bobby, knocked on the front door. He wore jeans and had grease smeared on his hands. They all were dressed in casual wear so they didn’t appear suspicious and frighten the off the woman if they found her. They had a cover story if someone answered the door. Bobby would ask to use her phone to call a tow truck for his supposedly broken-down car.

No one answered. Bobby peered in the window and waved everyone forward as he dropped to his knees. He picked the lock and had it open by the time Flame reached his side. They glanced around the small living room and Bobby turned to Flame.

“Someone is definitely living here.”

Flame walked farther inside the home and inhaled. “It’s a female who lives alone. I only pick up her scent.”

His heart rate increased with excitement that this might be the right place when he spotted a crib in one of the two bedrooms. Everything for the infant smelled new and unused. The second bedroom was the woman’s and he pulled back the covers, leaned in and pressed his nose against the sheets. One good whiff and he knew they’d finally located the right female. He could smell her, the faint scent of pregnancy, and Species.

Flame pulled his cell phone as he turned to face the human team. “This is the right place. She must be coming back soon, her things are here, so implement the plan.”

Bobby grabbed his radio. “Call off the search. We found her. Return to base and stay out of sight.”

Flame dialed Reservation. “We found her but she’s not here. I believe she should come back soon. I scented what we expected to find. I’m going to wait in hiding for her to return. Have the helicopter standing by and fueled. I want it sent the second I have her.”

He hung up and glanced at the men around him. “I can handle her. I think it’s best if I make contact alone. Go ahead and return to base.”

Bobby, the team leader of the task force assigned to Flame, hesitated. “Are you sure? I’ll stay behind as backup.”

“No. This isn’t a dangerous situation. We’re doing a favor for Trisha. Her cousin ran away from an abusive husband and she was worried. She won’t fight or cause harm. I’m just going to give her a message.”

“Oh.” Anger tensed Bobby’s features. “We’ve been busting our asses for that?” He spun, stomping away.

Flame let him go and hated making him angry. He liked the team but they hadn’t shared why they were looking for the female, didn’t want to tell them why she was really so important and didn’t plan to. The less they knew the better but they’d needed them to make contact, knock on doors. Anyone opening a door to a Species would have been alarmed and word might have spread. It wasn’t something they wouldn’t gossip about or worse, call the police over. That meant the reporters would get a whiff of a story. The female might have heard they were in the area and fled.

Flame watched the men leave. The NSO was terrified that if it got out they could have children with humans, it would cause a lot of problems. They trusted the task force but the tabloids offered too much money for some to resist. Keeping that information known to Species and their mates only was essential. Everyone who knew the truth was personally invested to protect that secret. He closed and locked the front door, found a good location to wait and leaned against the interior wall. He had patience.

* * * * *

Becca smiled and rubbed her stomach as the baby kicked softly. She was sure that was the fluttering feeling she kept getting. It made her happy every time, assuring her all was well inside her belly.

“I know.” She lifted her hand to grip the wheel with both of them. “This dirt road is kind of rough and sucks. You feel that, don’t you?” She slowed the car a little on her way to the cabin. Talking to the baby had become a favorite pastime. “We’re almost home.”

She parked in front by the door, shut off the engine and released her seatbelt. She stood, stretched a little and wiggled her butt. The bumping around on unpaved road always made her rump feel a little numb. She shoved the door shut, opened the back passenger one and leaned in to grab the two grocery bags.

“Hungry? I am starving! We missed breakfast when we ran out of milk and it took longer to get to town than normal thanks to that logging truck hogging the road. I wasn’t about to try to pass him.”

She hefted the bags, used her hip to close the door and climbed the porch steps, careful not to trip. The chair next to the door took one bag as she used her keys to get inside, turned and grabbed the bag again. Her foot shoved the door closed behind her.

“I want a big ole steak. Doesn’t that sound good? And milk.” She walked into the kitchen, dumped the bags on the counter and reached in for one of the meat packages. “Sorry for the tummy rumbling you’re hearing.” She chuckled. “I bet it’s pretty loud in there where you are since I can hear it out here.”

She grabbed a pan she’d left on the stove, pulled it to the front burner and tore open the plastic. Starved was an understatement. Hunger seemed to plague her constantly. She dumped the steak into the pan and tossed the packaging in the trash next to the stove.

“Five minutes, kiddo. We’ll be slurping milk and chowing down on a T-bone.”

She turned to put away the rest of the groceries and movement caused her to gasp. A tall man dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt stepped into her kitchen from the dining room. Terror gripped her instantly. She hadn’t locked the door when she’d entered the house and her frightened gaze jerked up to his face.

“Oh shit,” she muttered. It wasn’t just some random stranger bent on robbing or killing her. He was a New Species. His light-red hair was windblown and his catlike eyes blinked at her. His hands slowly rose, palms out at his side.