Free The Covenant by Annabel Wolfe Page B

“If
    anything happens to her—”
    “Don’t,” Larik interrupted savagely, not able to handle the idea of it.
    That Aspen with her vibrant beauty, cool poise, and inner sensuality could
    possibly die was inconceivable. Normally he could think pretty sensibly
    under any circumstances, but the ability eluded him at the moment. He
    struggled to collect his thoughts and order them in the usual way. “This isn’t
    like the virus.”
    “Serious attacks of vomiting. I thought you told me that.”
    Think. Concentrate.
    A mental inventory of the symptoms ran through his head. “Yes, true,
    but she didn’t have a fever yesterday. No elevated white cells. Just the
    vomiting. She felt fine later, not worse.” The more he thought about it
    logically, the better he felt. “No muscle weakness, no joint pain. With the
    virus, by the time the first symptoms appear, it’s supposed to progress
    rapidly. If she threw up yesterday morning, she should be dead by now.”
    That sent Trey straight into the sleeping quarters at a run, but he
    returned a moment later. “Damn it, don’t do that to me again or I will kick
    your ass. She’s just sleeping.”

    The Covenant: The Starlight Chronicles 2
    55
    Sleeping. A little sickness in the morning that passed. Not to mention
    the out of character sexual eagerness from the very beginning that neither of
    them had argued with one bit…a warning bell went off in his mind.
    Larik suddenly felt a little weak in the knees and sank down into a chair
    at the table. He sat there and shoved his fingers through his hair, not sure if
    he wanted to laugh out loud in relief, or faint dead away. “It…well…could
    be something else.”
    Trey stared at him. “Like what?”
    “I suppose she could be pregnant.”
    The stupefied look on his friend’s face did extract a small laugh, but the
    more Larik thought about it, the more the symptoms fit.
    Trey shook his head. “Like all female military personnel, she has a
    chip.”
    True, all females on assigned duty had a microchip implanted to keep
    their hormone levels such so they didn’t have the inconvenience of
    menstruation. When and if they wanted to breed, they simply had it
    reprogrammed and almost immediately ovulated. It all made sense, Larik
    realized. Her unusual sex drive and their heightened desire for her could all
    be because she was in a breeding cycle. Despite all the evolution and genetic
    engineering, they were still basically animals in the sense males knew
    instinctively when a breeding female was available.
    “Chips fail.” He frowned. “But more likely, I’d guess, the constant
    medical scans could disengage it, switch it over. I believe most females have
    theirs checked after each exam. Here, she’s having a scan every single day.
    I’m going to bet from that first one, she was set to be impregnated.”
    “Oh, hell.” Trey sat down also as if his legs gave way. “Okay, that’s an
    interesting complication to an already unusual mission. I didn’t count on
    being a father when all was said and done.”
    “Could be mine.” Larik cocked a brow.
    “Maybe.” Trey didn’t blink an eye. “Either way, we’ll work it out.”
    “I hope she isn’t too upset by this. Military female personnel are
    required to take extended leave once they breed. The timing in her career is
    probably not the best.”
    “Yeah, good point. This is our fault essentially, not that we intended it
    to happen. I’m just relieved she isn’t actually sick.”

    56
    Annabel Wolfe
    They obviously both were. Enough that the responsibility of child was a
    serious one, having Aspen be truly ill was a devastating possibility that had
    them both in full panic. Larik said slowly, “I’m hoping Kartel will come
    through and get us out of this, especially now. I want her off this planet and
    back on Minoa for the pregnancy. I don’t like whatever is going on here.”
    “Any more interesting notes from Ravenot to that address you