Page 87 of Bitter Heat
As if the police could do anything. By the time Pater left and came back with them, they’d have murdered each other.
Kerry stepped farther into the hallway, his stomach pushing up against the fray. “Stop!” he cried out. His deep voice cracked hard. “Stop it now!”
Everyone stopped moving, except Monte, who took the opportunity to punch Janus square in the jaw before Lukas pulled him back and away. “You filthy mongrel. Fucking our son’s omega. Getting involved in his life,” Monte hissed, squirming against Lukas’s hold, his hands out, eager to get his claws back into Janus’s flesh.
“Kerry,” Janus said, his eyes darting from the danger he perceived in the Monhundys to his omega. Because that’s how Kerry knew he saw him. Ashisomega. “Get back in your room and lock the door. Don’t let anyone inside until I say it’s okay.”
Kerry shook his head. “And what do you plan to do? Beat them to death?”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
“Everyone must calm down,” Dr. Rose shouted, his formerly fresh and pomaded hair flopping around madly. “You need to calm down before this man loses this baby.”
Monte and Lukas stopped their grappling, and Janus carefully took Kerry’s hand, looking into his eyes. “You’re all right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I need to check.”
“All right.”
“He didn’t touch you, did he?” He turned to glare at Dr. Rose, who blinked in affronted confusion at this accusation.
“No.” Kerry smiled at Dr. Rose. “I told him you wouldn’t like that.”
“And who, pray tell, isheto get any say in what happens to your body? You are contracted to my son, and in his absence, I have control over you, and—”
“No.” Janus lifted his hand as if stoppering up Monte’s words. “He’s a human being. Not a slave.”
“The court and the Holy Church of Wolf will have something to say about that.”
“Let them,” Janus said with a snarl. “Go on then. Go get a court order, or a priest, or someone up here right now to make this man do anything at all.” He stepped forward menacingly. “I will tear each one of them apart if they touch him. He’s mine. And no one else’s.”
“That child in that whore’s womb is my son’s!” Monte exclaimed.
“Good luck taking him if Kerry wants him,” Janus said darkly. “Once he’s born, he’ll be under my protection, too.”
“Your protection,” Monte scoffed. “Did you hear that Lukas?”
“I did.” Lukas was pale, but his expression was more shocked understanding than rage. “I think we should go to our rooms and calm down, Monte. Before you say or do something we can’t take back.”
Monte gasped. “What? Are you…Lukas, this baby is our chance at a do-over!”
Lukas bent close and said sharply. “Yes. This is likely our only chance, Monte. Now shut your mouth. This very second.”
He gripped Monte’s arm tightly and then seemed to flounder a moment in confusion of where to go.
“This way,” Pater said quietly. He motioned them down the hall away from Kerry’s room and to one of the open rooms on the opposite side. He didn’t give his usual spiel about the lights, or the candles, or mention the bags, which they had abandoned at the foot of the stairs from what Kerry could see. He closed the door on the two of them and then turned to Janus as if awaiting instructions.
“If you’d like, Dr. Rose,” Janus said with a bit of an edge to his voice that showed his struggle for calm, “you can come into Kerry’s room and watch my examination of him from the distance of the doorway.”
Dr. Rose nodded his agreement to that offer, and Kerry let Janus guide him back into his room, where Janus promptly pulled him into his arms and scented him from neck to chest and back again. Then as soon as Janus was satisfied that he was, in fact, untouched and healthy, he guided Kerry onto the bed.
“There, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Now, slide under the covers and take your pants off. I’ll be gentle. And he won’t see a thing.”
Kerry didn’t take his eyes away from Janus as he did as Janus asked, submitted to the internal exam, and then the external, too. He rejected the opportunity to listen to the baby’s heartbeat through the stethoscope. An option that Dr. Rose had never allowed him, always pressing the device to his ears without asking. And then Janus turned to Dr. Rose with a stern expression on his face. “So? Are you satisfied?”
“I am.” Dr. Rose stared between them. “How did you…I mean, when did you know?”
