She couldn’t believe he planned to leave. “We’re arguing and you’re just going to walk away in the middle of it?”

His hands clenched at his sides. “Yes. It’s taking every ounce of my control to do that. I need to put space between us now.”

He turned, striding toward the front door. She rushed after him and grabbed his arm. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do but she didn’t want him to go. They needed to work things out and she didn’t understand why he’d exploded into a rage.

“True! Wait.”

He came to an abrupt stop and she actually ran into his back. He turned his head, staring down at her. “Let go, Jeanie.”

The gravity of his demand wasn’t lost on her. Anger glinted in his beautiful eyes and he threw off deadly vibes but she wasn’t afraid. “I don’t want to fight with you. Why are you so angry?”

He seemed very unsettled. “I am being unreasonable. I’m sorry. I don’t want you to hate me.” He turned to face her, twisting his wrist enough to break the connection with her hand.

“I couldn’t. I’m just confused. You just…blew up.”

He slowly inhaled then exhaled, as if reaching for calm. “I realize that. No one affects me the way you do, Jeanie. I need space to calm down and running helps me think. You keep refusing to mate me. It hurts. I’ll be back.”

He spun on his heel and unlocked the door.

“You don’t have shoes or a shirt on,” she tried as a last-ditch effort to keep him in the apartment.

“I don’t need them.” He didn’t even glance back before he was gone and the door closed behind him.

* * * * *

True sipped his soda and grimly watched Darkness. “I came here to cool down.”

The male sighed. “Females are complicated. I knew something had happened when I saw you enter the bar dressed in so little.” He glanced down at True’s bare chest. “We don’t require shoes or shirts in our establishments but most of us prefer to be fully dressed in public.”

“I apologize.” He took another sip and put it down. “I should return. I made accusations I shouldn’t have.”

“You have doubts about her story?”

“No. I became insecure. I was only bred once at Mercile, never at Drackwood, after they discovered I’ve got a low sperm count. My experience with females is limited. Flirt and Jinx have feelings for my Jeanie and both of them were used often in breeding experiments and are very friendly with our females since they were freed. Perhaps if I were more skilled I could convince her to be my mate.” It injured his pride to admit it but Darkness was a male he felt comfortable speaking to about his problem. “I allowed that to cause an argument with her.”

He winced. “You didn’t tell her that, did you?”

“I asked her if she wanted to share sex with them first in order to make a choice.”

“Shit.” The male leaned back in his chair. “Let me tell you something, True. I’m very skilled.” He glanced around and then held his gaze as his voice lowered. “This information stays between us. You heard I was taken from Mercile for other experiments because they wanted to see how we’d do in a military setting. They sent me and a handful of other males to be trained by what the humans call mercenaries. They were heartless humans without honor. One of the things I learned besides how to kill by human standards was how to effectively interrogate information from an unwilling participant. They brought in a female who showed me the most effective ways to gain information from other females.” He paused. “How to terrify a female by using sexual threats or by forced seduction.”

True hurt for the male. “They made you hurt females?”

“This female…” His tone turned gruff and he dropped his gaze to his drink. “She was colder than the ice in my glass. First she showed me what she was capable of doing and then I was ordered to turn the tables on her by the human male in charge. The student-surpassing-the-teacher kind of thing.” He looked up then, his dark eyes appearing haunted. “She deserved it for the cruel things she’d done to me but I was told to kill her in the end.”

“That’s the female you spoke of?”

Darkness hesitated for a long moment. “The commander in charge of the project had hired her to teach me and the other Species males how to use sex against females. That was her purpose and she did her job well. I could force an unwilling female to beg me to fuck her by the end of my training and confess to even a crime she hadn’t committed. The commander then ordered me to use that knowledge to gain information from her. She’d been lying to the commander and plotting something bad. Mercenaries kill other ones who betray their trust. They demanded I take her out.”

“You did it?” True couldn’t comprehend such a deed, especially taking the life of a female he’d shared sex with.

“I did.” Darkness stood. “Her plan would have harmed the other Species males. I protected them from being used by her.” He held his stare. “My point is that I would make a bad mate for any female regardless of my skills of seduction. You have heart, True. I don’t. Mine was torn out a long time ago and damaged beyond repair. That’s what you have to offer your female. Go home to her and tell her how much she means to you. That’s what females value the most.”

True watched the male walk away, dodging other Species as he left the bar. He got to his feet and followed him outside. Darkness was gone by the time he reached the street. He jogged back to the men’s dorm with plans to tell Jeanie that she was his heart. He could improve his skills as a lover but he couldn’t live without her.

* * * * *

Jeanie’s state of undress had finally sunk in and she’d walked into the bedroom to retrieve one of True’s shirts from the dresser. It dwarfed her, more of a short dress than a top. After a quick search, she’d located a pair of drawstring boxers from a lower drawer and put them on too. She still sat on the bed, stunned by True’s abrupt departure.

It hurts. His words kept playing through her head. True had accused her of wanting to sleep with other men in order to compare them as if it were a sexual competition to establish who she wanted to settle down with. That smacked of irrational jealousy. It slowly dawned on her that he might be feeling a lot more than she ever suspected. Is it possible he loves me? Her heart rate increased. It fits.

She really wished he hadn’t left. They needed to sit down and discuss their feelings. The prospect of him returning her love made her impatient for him to return. She paced the room, finally quit the bedroom, and went into his kitchen to have a snack. Time crawled by. Where did he run to? Is he jogging around the entire property line of Homeland? It was pretty large. He’d been gone for almost an hour. She decided to lie down until he got back.

The doorbell rang. She rushed to the door, hoping it was him. He hadn’t taken his card with him and might have thought she’d locked the door. The tall New Species standing there was the same grim one from earlier.

“Ms. Shiver, these two males have come for you.”

He backed away and two men in uniform blocked the doorway. They were both human, in their late twenties and big. “What?”

“Hello, Ms. Shiver.” The dark-haired one with the dead brown eyes spoke. “You’re being transferred to Fuller. Please come with us.”

“Don’t put up a fight,” the blond man warned. “It would be pointless.”

She stumbled back, shaking her head. “No. I’m not being sent there.” She grabbed at the door, trying to close it.

One of them pushed it wide open, entering True’s apartment. “We have the paperwork. You’re to be transferred to Fuller immediately.”

“No!” She lunged, trying to put the couch between her and them. “True said I could stay here.” She caught the eye of the New Species. “Where is True? Get him.”

“I don’t know where he is.” The Species male stayed by the door. “Their paperwork is in order. Don’t fight them, female. You won’t be harmed.”