“That is a gross oversimplification of a complicated genetic situation, but it is in effect true.”

“Gotcha. What has this to do with me?”

Drake speared a piece of chilled marinated steak. “I am a wyvern. I have a human parent. You are a human. It is against the rules of nature for a wyvern to take a human mate.”

“Why?” I asked, wondering if that was the rule Dmitri had referred to.

“Because too much human blood can dilute the dragon genes. Diversity is one thing—dilution to the extinction of dragonkin is another. Thus, for you to be my mate regardless of this fact indicates that we were intended to be together, no matter what the consequences.”

“You’re talking about children, aren’t you?” I asked, setting down my fork, annoyed that even Drake would bring up this silliness. “Look, I don’t know what Pal told you he overheard, but I’m not pregnant. I’ve never been set-your-calendar-by-it sort of reliable, so if everyone would lighten up about this, I’d be . . .” The words dried up on my lips at the sight of the emotions that passed over Drake’s face: incomprehension, surprise, followed quickly by a fierce expression of utter and complete possessiveness that made me realize that until I’d opened my big mouth he hadn’t the slightest inkling about that whole pregnancy business.

“You’re pregnant,” he finally said, a little wisp of smoke escaping from his nose.

I slapped my hands on the table on either side of my plate and stood up. “No, I’m not. I just said I’m not! Why does no one believe me?”

“We mated several weeks ago,” Drake said, his eyes narrowing on me, but I had a feeling he wasn’t really seeing me. I could almost hear his brain working as he cast his mind back over the last month. “We had unprotected sex. Frequently. If you were in the middle of your cycle . . . yes, it is possible.”

“Possible is not the same thing as probable. Anything is possible, as Amelie is always telling me. But this is not happening, Drake. So wipe that pushy, going-to-tick-Aisling-off look right off your face. Yes, we didn’t use birth control. But it was only for a few days, and since I was newly mated, my body probably hadn’t changed over to mate yet.”

Drake just looked at me, the only sound being Jim as it snored its way through its postlunch nap.

“It doesn’t work like that?” I asked.

He shook his head.

I sighed. “Great. Now I have to go get an at-home pregnancy kit before the breakdown gets a good grip on me.”

“That will not do you any good,” Drake cautioned as I pushed my plate aside and grabbed my purse. My appetite was gone, shriveled into nothing in the sudden, gripping worry that everyone was right and I was wrong.

“Why? Jim, wake up. We have to find a pharmacy right away.”

“Huh?” Jim asked, its voice sleepy as it shook itself awake. “What’s up?”

“The chemicals that a human test uses to determine pregnancy are not relevant with a mate,” Drake answered, standing when I headed for the door.

Jim’s eyes opened wide as it whistled. “Oh, man. You told him, and you didn’t let me hear? I miss all the good stuff!”

“Fine. I’ll use a dragon one, then,” I told Drake from the doorway. “Just point me to someplace that sells one.”

Drake shook his head again. “That is not possible.”

“They don’t make them?”

“They do, in fact, but just as the chemicals in the human one wouldn’t be applicable in your case, nor would those in a dragon test. You are a mate, Aisling. You are neither fully human nor fully dragon. You are something unique.”

“Well... hell!” I swore, slamming my purse onto the table.

“Abaddon,” Jim corrected.

“Whatever. Was your mother or father human?”

Drake’s eyes burned with a bright light that I was familiar with. I’d seen it before, when he looked at anything that qualified in his dragon brain as treasure. “My mother, Dona Catalina de Elferez, was born in Seville, Spain, sometime around the year 1580.”

It took me a couple of beats to get past that date. “So, what did she do when she thought she might be pregnant?”

Drake smiled fondly. “She tried to kill my father.”

“I know just how she felt,” I muttered.

“She succeeded thirty-five years later, after I was born,” he added, handing me my purse. “If you are finished, I will drive you home.”

“Wait a minute—your mother killed your father?” I grabbed Drake’s arm before he could leave the room. “She killed him?”

“Yes.” His eyes held mine for a moment, the emotions in them too mixed to read. “Like you, she did not take kindly to the idea of being a dragon’s mate. My father was less sympathetic than I am, however. He forced the oath out of her by threatening to kill her family unless she accepted her role. He slaughtered half her family before she finally gave in.”

He paused for a moment, ignoring my openmouthed, silent, bug-eyed gawk of horror. “She’s stubborn like you, too. An unfortunate trait that I hope is not passed along to our child.”

“I am not pregnant!” I ground through my teeth as I left the private room, forcing a smile on my face for Istvan and Pal, who were in the middle of their meal. They immediately jumped up.

“No, please, sit down and finish your lunch. I’m just a little”—I shot a look at where Drake stood next to me, his hand possessively on the small of my back—”tired. It’s been a long day, what with Jim eating the imp king and everything.”

All three men looked at Jim with identical startled expressions.

“It’s a long story, one I’ll have to tell another time. Right now I’m going to go home. It was nice to see you both. I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

Without waiting for Drake to start tossing around orders and commands that would be sure to infuriate me, I hurried out of the restaurant. I half hoped Rene would magically be waiting for me out front, but the street was strangely empty of taxis.

“I will take you home,” Drake’s voice announced from behind me.

“My home?” I asked, braced for the worst. “My home with Nora? I don’t have anywhere else to go, but I’ll keep her safe from the imps.”