Obsidian backed away, confused. He stared hard at the male, hunting for clues of deceit but knew he spoke the truth. The scent he picked up was fresh and nice—life. His mind reeled from the knowledge that one of them had impregnated a female. Emotion rushed at him next, nearly overcoming him with grief.

“I even failed her with that.”

Justice appeared alarmed. “What do you mean? Dr. Allison?”

“46,” he rasped, shame gripping him. “The technicians wanted me to impregnate her but I wasn’t able to.”

“His mate,” Fury whispered. “She—”

“I know.” Justice cut him off. “Our females aren’t able to become pregnant as of yet. The doctors who work for us are running tests to find out why and hopefully fix the problem. They believe it might be a genetic problem between our males and females. We have dominant genes. All our children were born to male Species and female humans. Mercile created us too well and our children share our exact DNA.”

“I don’t understand.”

Fury was the one to explain. “Our children are Species. My son will look exactly as I do when he grows. We were designed so well that males only create male children who carry all our traits but none from the mother.” He paused. “Our females were designed the same way we were.”

“We have a few genetic experts who believe that’s why we always failed to reproduce children with our females. Our genes are too strong to combine to create a life.”

Fury nodded. “What Justice means is that we can only create males and our females will probably only be able to create female children. They think that’s why no Species couple has ever bred children.”

Obsidian allowed the new information to settle. Some of his shame lifted. It wasn’t a defect with just his body. The technicians had always been crueler when their breeding attempts didn’t gain the results they expected. It wasn’t his burden to carry for the unhappiness she’d suffered.

“Do you understand?” Fury gave him a sympathetic look. “You didn’t fail 46.”

“Yes,” he rasped. “Can our females breed successfully with human males? They are weaker.”

“Not so far.” Justice shifted his stance. “We only have one female who has shown interest in mating to a human. He’s one of our doctors but they are newly together. She’s refused testing and wants time to see if it happens naturally before she allows that. It’s understandable after everything she’s survived at Mercile. We all know how painful their tests could be for our females.”

Anger tinged Fury’s voice when he spoke. “We don’t think it’s going to be that simple. Some of our females were raped by humans during captivity but thankfully no pregnancy resulted. It would have only encouraged the bastards to hurt them more.”

“We’re not giving up hope though.”

Alli’s voice startled Obsidian. He spun, glaring at her. He’d been too focused on the males to hear her approach, distracted by the information they’d shared.

“I told you to stay.” Anger exploded inside him over her defiance.

She had dressed in a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt, her wet hair pulled back so it hung in one clump down her back. She rolled her eyes then stared evenly at him.

“We really need to work on your bully issues.”

She glanced behind him and her smile seemed forced. “Hello. Won’t you come in?” Her hand shot out and gripped his forearm before she glanced up at him while tugging him closer.

“Move out of the way. They obviously came here for a reason. It’s polite to invite them inside. We sit down and talk.”

“I don’t want you near other males.”

The top of her cheeks turned slightly pink.

“Enough,” she whispered. “Don’t be rude. Justice North controls the NSO and Fury is his secondin-command.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want any males near you.”

“Oh my god,” she hissed. “Stop! They have mates.” She stared at Justice. “I’m really sorry.”

Her cheeks were a brighter red. “He is working on his social skills still.” She directed an angry glare at him. “And doing a bad job right now.

Will you please let them inside? Stop blocking the door. He’s my boss, Obsidian. I work for him.

Or I did. Please just behave? For me?”

The plea in her voice softened his reserve to keep the males outside. He grimly nodded and allowed her to tug him into the house. “I’m watching them though. I will attack if one of them touches you.”

Justice cleared his throat. “We won’t.”

“No,” Fury agreed. “This is interesting.”

“I have a feeling things just got more complicated.” Justice sighed. “Shit.”

Alli had to practically wrestle the stiff Species into a seated position on the loveseat and sat next to him in case he tried to attack Justice or Fury.

She wouldn’t put it past Obsidian to start a fight with either of them. She gripped him firmly, ready to tackle him if he tried to stand. He had no idea how important both of them were to his future life at the NSO.

“Please,” she whispered, leaning into him. “Let me handle this and just be quiet.”

Rage flashed in his glare.

“Do you trust me?”

It hurt, seeing the indecisive expression wafting over his face as he debated the answer. “Yes.”

Relief swept through her. “Thank you.”

She relaxed slightly but kept hold of him. She gave her attention to the two men who settled on the couch across the coffee table from them.

Justice appeared a bit stunned and Fury stared, his expression grim, at her hands gripping Obsidian’s arm. They might be checking on the newest member of the NSO but she had a sneaking suspicion it was about her fate. Justice confirmed it when he spoke.

“We held a meeting this morning about what you did, Allison.” He paused, holding her gaze.

“Your plan worked. Don’t think we aren’t grateful for that.”

Her stomach felt as if it lodged in her throat.

Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good. But?—there is always one of those coming when someone talks that way. She ignored her rapidly beating heart while trying to outwardly appear calm and collected since she sure wasn’t on the inside.

“We are,” Fury agreed. “You were very brave to put your life at risk. He could have woken feral and killed you.”

“You should have contacted Trisha to detail your ideas on how to wake the male. I realize she was at Reservation but we have procedures you agreed to follow. Rules.” Justice paused. “You betrayed the trust of everyone by using the friendships you’ve made to smuggle Obsidian out of Homeland. The medical staff knew you had access to him and no one realized you posed a threat to his security. The officers at the gate allowed you to pass without searching the truck because you’ve always shown them kindness when they came in for ailments you treated.”

Guilt weighed on her. “I know.”

“Part of me wants to ignore the things you’ve done because I believe the reasons were pure.

You had no malice in your heart.” He glanced at Obsidian before staring at her. “You are an excellent doctor.”

“Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say. A spark of hope that she might keep her job ignited at the compliment. It died quickly when Justice resumed speaking.

“Unfortunately, the trust has been broken. We can’t have someone who does irrational things when she or he is told no. That’s what you did.

Do you understand how fortunate it was that the members of the task force found you, instead of our enemies?”

“I know.” Tears burned behind her eyes but she blinked them back, unwilling to break down. “In my defense, may I point out that no one outside of the NSO knew we were missing? You were the only ones looking for us.”

“We’ve had breaches of information leaked to our enemies in the past.” Fury cleared his throat.

“By trusted human employees. There could be more of them that we haven’t discovered yet.