Page 100 of Broken Souls

She growls in my hand, and I remove it so I can hear her. “You tell me,” she snaps. “I’m assuming it was your idea.”

When I don’t say anything, she cackles. “Oh my gods, it was your mother’s and you didn’t know. What a fucking idiot. Bet you wish you let me beat the shit out of her now.”

“What are you talking about?” I ask, each word pulled through gritted teeth.

“The baby isn’t yours, you damn neanderthal. It’s your brother’s.”

“The hel it is,” I growl, my tone ice to her fire.

She laughs wildly. “Think about it. Hybrids are infertile.”

“I’m not.”

“Oh, no? Let me guess, your mother told you that, and she isn’t known for lying at all.”

I stare at her.

She stares at me.

And then I’m on my feet and pulling out my phone to tell Mother to get up here.Now.If I leave this office to go get her myself and run into Maddox, I’m liable to fucking kill him before I even know if this fucked up theory is true.

It better not be.

But I can’t help but remember how concerned he was for her when Talon called her a traitor. How he tried to stop me from hurting her. How he chewed through his own arms to escape the witch’s snare. Forher. You don’t fucking do that for someone you don’t love.

My fingers tightening on my phone, I toss it onto the desk, then turn to look at my wife. My eyes drop to her stomach. “If she’s his,” I say. The words are tight, choking me, but I have to get them out. I have toknow. “Will you keep her?”

She stares at me, now on her feet. Then she scoffs. “As if I think you’d let me. You can’t try for an heir if I’m already pregnant.”

I step towards her, my heart in my gaze. “It is your body, Micha. The decision will be yours and yours alone. If you decide to keep her, I will claim her as mine.”

She blinks, then nods like she gets it. “Maddox changes his whole DNA when he shifts, doesn’t he? So I guess from a biological standpoint –”

“She will be mine because she isyours.And everything about you ismine.”

She stares at me, her jaw slack. Then she shakes her head and mutters, “You’re such a fucking neanderthal.”

But there’s a wistfulness to her tone, a remembrance of the time before, when she used to say that with love, and my chest tightens with the hope that I can fix this. That she has not completely given up on us despite what she said.

“So will –”

A knock on the door cuts me off. Her eyes drift from mine, dismissing me so easily, like I mean nothing to her, and for a moment I am tempted to sell Mother to Aleric just for her interruption. Instead, I step towards my wife and finish the question whose answer I need to know. “Will you keep her?”

She doesn’t look at me.

“Micha.”

Her eyes drift over to mine. “No.”

My chest expands even though she does not. She doesn’t tell me her decision stems from the child not being mine, but I let myself believe it. Let myself hope for one moment that she still wants me and me alone.

Then I turn to face the door. I want to know the answer to the question Micha raised. If the child is mine. If Mother has lied to me yet again. If Maddox is fucking in on it. Fuck. If the child is his, it doesn’t matter if she decides to keep her or not. I willkill him.

“Come in,” I say.

Mother enters gracefully, no fear rolling off her. Not even a twinge of worry. She steps over the broken chair as if it’s a natural part of the landscape, then stops in front of me and waits.

“Sit down.” My words are tightly controlled, utterly flat, and there is the first flicker of concern. She knows me well enough to know this is the state I fall into when I leave my humanity behind. If she has had any part in Micha being raped, I will cut out her eyes and pour helfire down the two holes so they never reform before I sell her to Aleric.