Page 103 of Tribute
“We’re not sure.”
Rehz grunted and moved closer. “Then take a fucking educated guess.”
“I’m not trying to prevaricate. We really aren’t sure what is going on. You are the first female who has ever been intoUngrichspace twice and survived. Our primary concern is that you have some signs of raised hormonal activity.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Rehz interrupted.
“Changing hormonal levels can be a sign of many things, including pregnancy, but these are . . . strange. And despite our best efforts, we have failed to detect any noticeable difference in the lining of your uterus.” He frowned. “In fact, it looks as if the surface has been scraped clean.”
Anna brought her hand to her mouth. “Did they . . . take something out of me?”
Dr. Ilkar shrugged. “Other than your uterine lining? I’m sorry, Anna, but we just don’tknow.”
She forced herself to breathe through the rising nausea. “When will you know?”
“We won’t. You might have been pregnant at some point down inUngrichspace, but you’re not anymore, and that’s all we can determine. We will monitor your hormones and hope your symptoms disappear when you next ovulate and have a normal cycle.”
“IfI ovulate. I’m missing a lot of eggs, remember? If I’d been pregnant with a human baby and lost it, my hormones wouldstill be acting like this. Whatever they did to me, can’t you make it stop?”
“I don’t know what else we can do.” He hesitated. “We can offer you something to control the nausea. We don’t expect it to last for much longer once your hormone levels settle down to normal.”
“Thank you.” She wanted to scream at him, but it wasn’t his fault. He was trying to help, even if it wasn’t really working. Her lips felt numb as she shaped her next question. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“Not that I’m aware of. We didn’t want to burden you with this knowledge, Anna Lee. We thought it better to wait and see whether it would even be necessary for you to know.”
“What might have been done to my own body?” She raised her eyes to his face. “You sound just like theUngrich.”
“I’m sorry. That was not our intention,” he said gently. “We thought to ease your distress, not add to it. You have been through something of an ordeal.”
“Thank you.” She slipped out of her chair and walked away to the far side of the room, where her bed awaited her. She vaguely heard Rehz questioning the doctor again, but she couldn’t bear to turn around. Getting into bed, she drew the sheets up tight and stared at the wall.
Something was tugging at her memory about the last few moments before she’d been flung out ofUngrichspace . . .
Had she conceived? They might have implanted something they’d concocted in their lab from her and Aled’s previous visit. Which would explain why Palk had been so desperate to get them back inUngrichspace so quickly. And if she had become pregnant, what the hell kind of baby would she have been carrying? It might have been a monster—the first of a new species that would annihilate the existing Mitan population. Intellectually, she knew that would be a disaster, but her bodydidn’t care about that. She still felt the loss. Her hormones and her emotions were all over the place.
“Anna.”
The mattress dipped as Rehz sat down.
“Can you just leave me alone, Rehz?” she whispered. “I need to . . . process this.”
She flinched away from his hand in her hair, and he swore under his breath.
“Don’t do this. Don’t fucking shut me out.”
She pressed her lips tightly together as her vision blurred. She was barely holding it together, and she didn’t want him to see her distress. If she gave in and turned to the comfort of his arms, she might never stop screaming. And he would despise her for that. He thought she was strong.
“Whatever happens, we can work this out. We’ve survived far worse, and nothing that can ever happen will make me turn away from you. Do you understand that?” He spoke softly, and the ache of love in his words made her heart hurt.
“Anna . . .”
She waited—holding her breath, barely moving—until he sighed, turned away, and walked back into the center of the room. She heard him speaking to Kai and Aled and closed her eyes. It hurt too much to even think about what might have been done to her. But Rehz was right about one thing. She was a survivor. For the first time in her life, she desperately wished that she weren’t.
CHAPTER
FIVE
Rehz glanced over at Anna as she finished her dinner. Sure, she was talking, but only to everyone else and . . . fuck, shutting him out so hard that it was like slamming into a wall. At least they were out of the medical center and had more privacy. After discussing it with Kai and Aled, they’d decided to accept the president’s offer and take up temporary residence at his house in Zangreb Province.
