Page 45 of Out of the Darkness

“You and Madelyn had sex, didn’t you?”

His head snapped in her direction, his brows furrowed. “How the fuck is that any of your business?”

Melanie pressed her lips together, her hands fidgeting in her lap. The change in her demeanor was a little jarring, even to him. “It’s not,” she replied.

“Alright then.”

“Can… can you just answer the question, Xavier?”

“Yes!” he exclaimed loudly, slamming his fists on the desk. “Okay? Yes, I fucked her. Several times. Is that all you wanted to know, or do you want all the dirty details too?”

“God, no,” she gasped. “I just… When was the last time you spoke to her?”

“Two weeks ago or so, why?”

If he was being honest, he didn’t like the direction the conversation was going. There was something in her voice that told him that she wasn’t asking sheerly out of morbid curiosity. There was a point to her questions.

Melanie nodded, seemingly to herself. “And how did she seem? Did she seem okay?”

“Melanie,” he pressed. “What’s going on?”

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Okay, you know Madelyn was at the clinic when she was taken.”

He nodded impatiently.

“Well, we found her purse at the scene, and there were some… things in it.”

“Okay,” he stated hesitantly. “What kinds of ‘things’?”

“I don’t know if I should be the one to tell you, I mean, this is probably something that you should hear from Madelyn herself,” Melanie muttered quickly. “I just thought that maybe she had said something to you about it since she didn’t say anything to me.”

“Well, she didn’t. So, spit it out.”

He could see how much it hurt her that Madelyn hadn’t said anything to her, but her evasiveness around the whole thing was beginning to put him on edge. Melanie was making it sound like there was something wrong with Madelyn. If that was the case, then finding her was even more dire. Being in the hands of someone like Colby was bad enough for someone in perfect health, and it sounded as though Madelyn wasn’t in perfect health.

He knew that Colby wouldn’t kill her right away. He wanted to use her to get to him, and he couldn’t do that if she were dead. But who knew what the guy was doing to her in the meantime? The thought didn’t sit well with him.

“Melanie!” he snapped, making the frustrating woman before him jump. “What’s wrong with Madelyn?”

“Nothing! Jesus.” When he lifted an eyebrow, she rolled her eyes. “I’m serious, Xavier. Nothing is wrong with her. It’s just, well, she’s pregnant.”

He blinked, his mind coming to a screeching halt. “She’s… what?”

Melanie nodded. “Yeah, I’m guessing that’s why she had Bernie take her to the clinic. The test results, anti-nausea meds, and prenatal vitamins were in her purse. I’m guessing you are the father?”

Blood roared in his ears at the term ‘father’. He never once considered becoming one because what the hell did he have to offer a kid? The ability to teach them how to kill someone swiftly or painfully and get away with it? How to learn everything there was to know about their targets and stalk them from the shadows without being seen? None of that was even remotely conducive to raising a child.

Xavier only had two father figures himself, and neither had been good examples. His birth father was an abusive asshole with a drinking problem, who forced him to watch as he tortured and killed his mother. Rodrigo raised him to be a killer and taught him that emotions were a weakness. There was no way he would make a good father with them being his role models, and he was ashamed to admit it, but the thought terrified him. It was an odd feeling, too, because he wasn’t scared of much.

However, the biggest concern was how Madelyn felt about becoming a mother. They hadn’t been together long enough to have the whole ‘kid’ conversation, and he had planned on waiting until things settled down a bit between them before telling her how he felt about being a father. He wanted her to be able to make a sound decision on the subject.

Because she was a shifter’s fated mate, she was more prone to having rambunctious shifter boys, and raising them was not for the faint of heart. Now, though, it was too late because she was already pregnant. The choice had been made for them.

There were now two lives he was responsible for.

Something on his face must have given away his thoughts because Melanie gasped, causing him to look up at her. “Well, what do you know,” she commented in disbelief. “He has a heart after all.”

His computer went off before he could tell her to go to hell, and both of them leaned closer to the screen.

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