Page 31 of The Pregnancy Pact

Decision made, I walked on, fortifying myself with every footstep.

He’s every bit as trapped as you are, I reminded myself. He’s got the wealth, power, and prestige, yet we’re both trapped by the same arrangement. Don’t be afraid of him. Don’t cower. Don’t bend. Don’t fold. He needs you like you need him.

Stopping outside the door, I braced myself, twitching my shoulders back, trying to affect a dignified stance. One that said, I may be stuck with you, but you haven’t defeated me. I’m figuring my own way out. I’ve got this.

I knocked on the door.

Within moments, I heard the echo of footsteps, then the cabin door slid back, revealing the beautiful Overlord standing on the other side. I wasn’t sure what I expected to see from him. Anger? Hostility? Irritation that I’d run off?

Whatever I’d anticipated, it wasn’t a frown between his dark brows and a set to his jaw that spoke of anxiety. It wasn’t to hear him say, with a note of concern in his voice, “Where were you?”

Chapter 17

Ellax

“Where were you?”

As soon as the words left my lips, I wished to recall them. I had no desire for this mere human to know that I’d been upset over her fleeing my chambers, to the point of pacing while I awaited her return. Still, for all my bravado, when I saw her standing outside the door, the question fled my lips and I could not call it back.

She blinked at me, her blue eyes widening gently in astonishment.

“Why, Overlord,” she said, in a tone that I could not quite decipher, “I didn’t know you cared.”

“I do not care,” I growled, stepping aside to allow her inside. “Except I do not wish my wife to be running about an unknown space ship unattended.”

She rolled her eyes as she pressed past me into the room. “Right. I’m sure that’s a deep concern of yours.”

She walked into the middle of my room, stopped, and spun to face me. “We need to get a few things straight,” she said, folding her arms across her chest. The action pulled at her shirt, drawing it tightly over her breasts. I should not have noticed. I did. For a split second, I forgot what she had said.

“I’ve reached a decision,” she announced, which shattered the lust creeping over my vision and drew my focus from her body to her words.

“Oh? A decision?” I kept my tone purposefully calm. “This will be interesting, female.” Moving past her, I seated myself in the closest chair, crossing one knee over the other. Steepling my fingers, I gazed up at her. “Let us hear this decision.”

She was not quavering, nor did she show any signs of retreat. Her face was hard. Her expression icy.

“You can sit there and play highhanded Overlord all you want,” the human woman now said. “You can congratulate yourself that you’re superior to me, to my race, to my kind. That’s fine, if it makes you feel better about yourself.”

I clenched my jaws to hide my irritation at her haughty tone. I was not used to being spoken to in this manner. Particularly by a human!

“However,” she proceeded, “we’re in the same boat now. We’re stuck together, unless your Council relents, and I kinda doubt they will. You need me as much as I need you.”

I felt my eyebrows raise.

“What sort of talk is that?” I chuckled. “I do not need you. You are a mere human female—”

“To whom you happen to be married,” she broke in sharply, stepping closer. Her arms were folded, her expression firm. “Not only married, but all of your superiors—not mine, yours—seem to think it’s a great idea for us to have a baby. I don’t think we can get out of this. It means we need to find a way to make this predicament work for both of us.”

I fought to keep my face from creasing in a sneer. “It works for you because you will be married to me, female. What more could you possibly hope to obtain?”

“For one thing, I have a name and it’s not female,” she snapped. “If we’re married, we’re going to lay down some ground rules. You stop calling me insulting names or belittling terms. Stop talking down to me. I’m your wife now, like it or not, which puts us on an even par.”

“Even?” I chuckled. “You mean equal. We will never be equal, fe—”

“Lorelai,” she broke in. “If you call me female again, I swear I’ll never go to bed with you. Then you’ll never get your baby, but you’ll still be stuck married to me.”

Straightening my spine, I glanced up from beneath my brows, not even bothering to hide my anger. “Are you threatening me?”

“I’ll do what I have to in order to survive,” she countered cooly. “Not merely to survive, but to gain some respect. I’ve fought so hard to come back from a life where I was worn down, humiliated, and trampled on. I’m not going back to that. Obviously, I didn’t foresee this particular turn of events, yet I intend to use this plot twist to my advantage.”

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