The Mates of Monsters novel Chapter 70

The bed shifts and the blankets rise as he stands, but his footsteps don't carry out the doors—they haven't been so cruel since Nicodra's demise. Instead, he comes around the bed and sits where I'm laying, easing himself down to envelope me. "Don't," I say when he tries to bring me against him. I crawl off the bed the opposite way and begin to gather my clothes strewn about the floor.

"I apologize, Brigette."

I forget my damp panties and grab a fresh pair from my drawer in the dresser that we replaced the cracked one with. "What for?" I mutter, stepping into the new underwear and promptly strapping on my bra. He watches.

"I know this is stressful—"

"It is, but it isn't when you're desperate to have me and we're making love. It isn't when I'm with Helena and she's happy for us. It's stressful when you finish inside of me and then shame me for liking it."

His eyes darken. "I don't mean to shame you."

"Well, that's what you're doing when you go on about needing to stop. Like what we're doing is so wrong. If you don't want this then open the drawer and put them on, but don't blame me when you decide you'd rather not."

My words are cold, venomous, like an injured scorpion stinging as a last resort. He's working to stay calm—I can see it—he'd much rather explode into that Alpha energy. David runs a hand down his face and says, "I can't control myself anymore."

"Then maybe we need to take a breather. I can—I can stay in one of the guest houses for a few days."

David frowns. "No. You could be pregnant. You're not staying anywhere alone.

"I'll be leaving at the end of the month for Germany anyway."

"I don't think that's—"

"David," I warn, "I swear to the goddess don't finish that sentence because I'm going. Jeremy and I have been preparing for weeks."

He sits against the headboard, his arms crossed. "I know you want to go, but you won't be if you're pregnant. I'm sorry, but I won't have you across the world in that condition."

My face flushes with heat and my eyes sheen over with threatening distress. "Why are you punishing me?"

"It's not a punishment," he clarifies, standing.

"Yes. It is. You'd be punishing me for carrying your child. Do you even try to understand how deeply it hurts me to hear these things from you? You're right, I could be pregnant, and it kills me knowing that you don't want it."

"I never said that," he retaliates, coming before me. "I said I didn't want you to struggle because of it."

"So you would want it? If I am pregnant right now, you wouldn't be upset?"

"You think I wouldn't want our baby?"

I withhold my pain, trying to maintain the hardness on my face. "Yes. I do."

David, on his last bit of restraint, says, "You think I'm a monster?"