New Species 02 Slade (27 page)

“Go back to sleep. I hated to wake you but Justice

said you wanted to know when he knew. I’m sure Slade

will come here as soon as he returns to personally check

on you. Just rest. You need it.”

“Thank you.” She smiled at him. “Can you tell

Justice I appreciate everything?”

“Sure.” Brass backed away to return to the living

room.

Trisha studied the bedroom. Brass had closed her

drapes but weak light peeked between them. She

glanced at the clock, surprised to realize it was five

minutes past six in the morning. She rolled over and the

drugs lured her back to sleep.

Slade is safe.

* * * * *

meeting. He needed to go to Trisha. He wouldn’t truly

feel calm until he could look into her eyes, inhale her

scent and hold her in his arms. He planned to do a lot

more than that once he touched her but he refused to

allow those thoughts to flow since every male clustered

inside Justice’s office would smell his arousal.

“I’m very grateful you are safe.” Justice sat on the

corner of his desk, his gaze roaming the fifteen officers

crammed into the room either sitting or standing, and

sighed loudly. “We have answers. The assholes

responsible for this attack who were arrested have

spoken to the police. I just ended a conference call with

the lead detective on the case.”

“They hate us,” Tiger stated. “That’s why they did it.

It’s why we’ve been attacked in the past and for the same

reason they will do it again.”

Fury growled from his position near the closed door

where he leaned against the wall. “Every time we believe

the threat lessens, something happens.”

“Calm,” Justice demanded, meeting each gaze in

turn. “It’s because we hired the doctor and word got

out.”

Shock stiffened Slade’s spine. “Why would they care

about her specifically?”

“She did a two-year residency in gynecology.”

Justice ran his fingers through his loose hair. “Someone

printed her résumé in the newspapers. Those assholes

have gotten it into their brains that’s the reason we hired

her.” He focused on Fury. “They believe she’s here to

help you figure out why we can’t have children. I’ve

issued a statement that it was her years as a trauma

emergency doctor that was the deciding factor for

choosing her above the other applicants. I’m afraid they

don’t believe the truth. They are certain we are trying to

find a way for you to impregnate your mate, Fury.”

He snarled. “Ellie and I aren’t test subjects. We

haven’t taken any measures to do such a thing. We want

a baby but we both agree it’s not worth the painful agony

of allowing doctors to destroy our lives with the taking

of blood and their needles and scans.”

“I know this.” Justice shifted on the desk. “If Mercile

wasn’t able to discover what went wrong, I’m certain

there’s no fix for the problem. They had specialists in

fertility nearly torturing our females to death. We’re just

flawed that way. I wouldn’t have hired Dr. Norbit for that

purpose even if anyone were willing to volunteer to

have tests run on them. I’d have hired someone else who

solely dealt in that branch of medicine.”

“They put a bounty on my head.” Slade spoke.

“That’s how they got most of those assholes to agree

to go after her.” Justice’s gaze met Slade’s. “You were the

incentive for killing her and they offered money as well

for the one who brought your body to the man who leads

them. They know it’s only a matter of time before we die

of old age and as long as we’re sterile, they are

comforted that Species won’t thrive.” Anger deepened

his voice. “The idea of us being with human women

really pisses them off too.”

“I hate humans.” Flame grumbled the words.

“Males.” He flashed an apologetic glance Fury’s way.

“The females are sweet. Your Ellie is a wonderful

human. I wish her no ill will but those males anger me.”

“It’s not all of them,” Fury corrected. “It’s just the

ones who hate us.”

“The point is,” Justice continued, “the idea of us

having another human female at Homeland, a doctor, has

stirred up their rage. I considered hiring someone to

replace Dr. Norbit but I happen to believe she is a

valuable addition to us. She’s a good doctor who can

handle anything, as we’ve seen.” He met Fury’s gaze.

“She saved your life. She holds no malice toward us. I

trust her and that is worth the added annoyance of

making us a bigger target because of her experience.” He

pushed up from his desk. “Thankfully she never hooked

up with one of our males. That would really send those

lunatics over the edge.”

Slade tensed and his mouth parted. Before he could

speak, Brass did.

“She may hook up with one of us. She’s a very

attractive female.”

“Any male who cared about her would avoid doing

that,” Flame warned.

“Too true,” Justice agreed.

Flame spoke again. “We’re trying to open up another

home for our people. We’re going to need her to travel

often to help us set up the medical facility there and

every time she leaves the gates it’s going to put a target

on her back. Hell, we can’t even trust the humans who

work here at Homeland. Someone gave away her

traveling agenda and the precise route. We’ve got Brass

and Wager guarding her around the clock. There’s no

way the human hate groups wouldn’t make her a prime

target. She’d be in as much danger as Justice is if she

were with one of our men. It would only make them

want to kill her twice as much as they already do. She’s

keeping us alive if we need a doctor and then she’d be

sleeping with one of us. They’d assume that she’d make

fixing our fertility problems a priority since they’ll

assume most females wish to have babies.”

An icy-cold fear gripped Slade’s heart. Justice

received death threats daily. He had to have a full

security detail escort him everywhere. Being the leader

of their people put him in a deadly position. He could

mingle freely with only a few trusted humans and even

then it was a risk.

Trisha was the Homeland doctor who treated any

human who needed her help. The traitor could just cut

his hand and walk right up to her. She’d die before

anyone could reach her even with guards. The males

who belonged to those hate groups were insane. He had

no doubt that one of them would take on a suicide

mission to take out the enemy. That would be his Trisha.

And they would die if they touched her.

“True.” Justice shook his head. “It’s a good thing

none of our males are interested in her. I’d have to fire

her and hire another doctor. She’d have to be as guarded

as Ellie is. Ellie is only allowed to work with our females

since they pose no threat to her.”

Slade’s eyes closed and the pain inside his chest

became sharper, a near-stabbing agony. Trisha loved her

job, being a doctor was what she was, just as he was New

Species. That couldn’t change and trying would be a

fool’s errand.

She’d grow to hate him if he made her chose him

over the life she led. She’d resent him in time. He wasn’t

even sure if she cared enough about him to even be

tempted to lean in his direction if offered a choice.

“We’re going to have to tighten security. Dr. Norbit

will have around-the-clock protection until the threat

lessens. We need to find the traitor who betrayed us. In

time those assholes will realize nothing will help us have

children and they will cease having the fear that we’ll

reproduce and blow their dreams of watching us

eventually die out.”

Justice continued to speak but Slade stopped

listening. Being with Trisha could get her killed. It

would put her in too much danger. He got a tight rein on

his emotions, afraid someone would smell his strong

pain, and knew he’d grieve later, privately. He couldn’t

put her in that much danger or ruin her life. She meant

too much to him.

Sweat beaded Trisha’s forehead and she wondered if

she would be violently ill. She nervously sat inside the

reception area of Justice North’s office and fought the

urge to throw up. She glanced at her watch. She’d arrived

a little early and been informed that he was on the

phone.

She’d called the meeting but she’d had no choice,

knowing she had to be responsible about the dire

situation. It wasn’t just her own issues she had to deal

with. It would be a huge deal and she had to do the right

thing. That meant discussing it with Justice. It involved

New Species and he had a right to know. She just hadn’t

expected to feel sick to her stomach about it.

The tall woman behind the secretary desk closely

watched Trisha, appearing slightly concerned. “Do you

want some coffee or water, Dr. Norbit? You are really

pale.”

“I’m fine.” Trisha forced a smile. “Nerves.”

The woman nodded and focused on her computer

screen. “It should only be a few more minutes. Justice is

on a long-distance call with the newly acquired New

Species Reservation. They are opening up soon and it’s

been really hectic here. Isn’t that where you were

heading when your vehicle was attacked? I hope you are

all better now?”

“I’m fully recovered. Thank you for asking. And yes,

that’s where we were traveling to when we were

attacked.”

Trisha had never gotten to go see the place. She only

knew what she’d heard on the news. Brass had told her a

bit about the project. Four hundred miles to the north in

the woodsy area of Northern California, Justice had

bought up thousands of acres of land—an old resort that

had closed down years before and abandoned. The

owner had sold it cheap to avoid paying taxes on the

property. Justice planned to turn it into a home for some

of the New Species who didn’t want to “get along with

others”.

A smile curved her lips at the memory of Brass

saying those exact words to her. He’d explained that

some of the New Species were less human-looking than

the ones she saw at Homeland. They didn’t want to be

integrated with humans, instead just wanted to live in

peace within a safe place. They currently resided in an

unspecified location far from human contact but with the

hate groups, everyone feared for their safety if anyone

ever discovered where they’d been placed by the

government.

Justice had bought the old resort to bring them closer

to their own kind and to be able to protect them better.

They’d decided to rename it New Species Reservation.

She’d been assured that it was an appropriate title since

it was anything but a vacation spot. It would be run the

way Homeland had been set up, totally under New

Species law and control. It would also have high-level

security to protect the New Species who chose to live

there.

Brass had become a good friend to Trisha while he’d

stayed at her house for the first two weeks after her

ordeal. He’d made her laugh a lot and become important

to her. She’d worried a little that he might be attracted to

her but he’d never done anything out of line. When the

threat assessment to her had been lowered, she had

actually missed her constant companions who guarded

her.

Brass still checked on her and stopped by often with

a few action movies and she supplied the popcorn.

Sometimes he’d bring a few of his friends with him.

Trisha had gotten to know some of the New Species that

way. They treated her as though she were a little sister,

as if she were one of them, and she’d been grateful for it.

It had kept her from feeling self-pity.

Slade had never called or come to see her. As a

matter of fact, he’d dropped off the face of the Earth for

all Trisha could tell. Several weeks ago one of the men

had mentioned that Tiger and Slade were working at

Reservation. He wasn’t even living at Homeland