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“It’s called a deep breeding,”Grath told her at last.“It’s what happens when my precum stimulates the mouth of your womb to open and let the head of my shaft inside so I can shoot my seed directly inside you.”
“Oh…what does that mean?”Mattie looked at him with wide eyes.
“Means you’redefinitelygetting pregnant tonight, little girl,”Grath growled, stroking her back and shoulders with his big, warm hands as he looked into her eyes. “There’s no way around it—even if you’re not ovulating right now, the chemicals in my seed will cause you to. So I’m absolutely planting a baby in your belly—maybe more than one.”
“Mmm…” Mattie gave a little laugh. “Well, that will certainly be the answer to all of Grandma Thelma’s hopes and prayers.” She pulled him down for a long, lingering kiss and then looked into his eyes. “Go on, Grath—breed me and bond me some more. Let’s keep it up all night long.”
And so they did. It was definitely the best Christmas Eve Mattie could ever remember and it was all because she’d agreed to try…Faking it with the Hybrid.
EPILOGUE
“Oh my God—so the guy who attacked you in high school turned out to be aserial killer?”Sophie looked at her with wide eyes.
Mattie nodded grimly. They were sitting in Sophie’s suite back aboard the Mother Ship and she was telling her friend everything.
“Yes, it was awful! He’d been chopping off women’s heads foryearsand keeping them in his cabin as trophies, only he called them his ‘art collection.’ His Dad knew about it too—we had to tell the police the next morning when we led them to the crime scene.”
She shivered, remembering what a mess it had been. Only having Grath by her side and knowing they were bonded helped her get through the stressful situation of explaining everything that had happened to Chief Wainright, the head of the tiny Christmasville police department.
She and Grath had been separated and questioned at one point, but since they both told the same story, the Chief had no choice but to believe them. It helped that when he went to arrest Luke’s father, the older Hartsford confessed to everything.
“He was a sick boy…a sick boy,” he kept saying over and over as tears poured down his face. “I thought about trying to stop him but he was only killing whores, so he wasn’t really doing no harm to anybody.”
Mattie most definitely disagreed with this statement and she was certain all the sex workers who had lost their lives would disagree as well. It turned out that the police around Christmasville had been looking for Luke for years—ever since prostitutes had started disappearing from the local truck stops. Finally the mystery of the “Truck Stop Killer” as they had been calling him, had been solved.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to go back home and testify several times before this is all over,” she told Sophie. “The police took pictures of everything in the cabin, but I still have to tell what I saw and how Luke was acting and what he said.”
“Of course. That makes sense, though I’m afraid it’s going to be hard on you.” Sophie squeezed her arm sympathetically. “Did ittotallyspoil your Christmas with your family?”
Mattie lifted her chin.
“Absolutelynot,” she declared. “As awful as the thing with Luke was, it turned out to be the best Christmas ever. After we finally got away from the police, we still had time to eat Christmas dinner with my family. And afterwards, Grath got down on one knee and asked me to marry him again—forrealthis time.”
“Oh, that’s so romantic!” Sophie clasped her hands to her heart. “How did your family react?”
“Well, they were kind of confused at first—like why was Grath proposing again when he’d already done it at the Yule Ball? But then, when we admitted that we’d been faking our relationship up until then, they finally understood.” She shrugged. “So I’m afraid we failed our test—which is what Grath is telling Commander Sylvan right now. So we can’t go to Vi’ri’tex Delta after all.”
“Oh, but I’m sure Sylvan will forgive you for letting your family know in the end,” Sophie protested. “I’m positive he’ll still let you go.”
“Even if he would, we still can’t,” Mattie told her. “Because Vi’ri’tex Delta is so far away and there are no viable worm holes to get there. So you can only go by folding space.”
“Oh, of course—that’s a problem because after your bonding night, you still don’t know if you’re pregnant or not,” Sophie nodded. “But you know, they have rapid pregnancy tests now. If you want, I’ll have my sister Liv set one up for you.”
“That would be nice,” Mattie said. “But just to tell me what sex the baby is—and if there’s more than one. See, Grath and I had kind of a special experience that sometimes happens with someone of his heritage when they bond with a female.” She could feel herself blushing as she talked. “It’s called a, uh, ‘deep breeding’ and it’sguaranteedto get you pregnant,” she added, almost in a whisper.
“Oh my!” Sophie put a hand to her mouth. “Well then—I’m afraid you’ll be out of commission for a while. You’re right—you and Grathcan’tgo to Vi’ri’tex Delta.”
“I don’t mind,” Mattie said, smiling. “I thought I wanted that mission so much but honestly, what I wanted was a way totestmyself—to see how much I could handle. But after what happened down in Christmasville, I honestly feel I’ve been testedenough.”
“My goodness, I woulddefinitelyagree with you there!” Sophie exclaimed.
“So for now, I’ll be happy if Grath and I are just assigned Class 1 planets that are close enough to get to by wormhole,” Mattie said. “Er…as long as Commander Sylvan allows it.”
“Don’t you worry about that.” Sophie patted her hand. “The Kindred don’t discriminate against pregnant people. If you want to work, you get to work. If you’d rather stay home and take time for yourself—well, that’s okay too and you still get your full pay. Plus we have free healthcare up here on the Mother Ship—the best you can get. You’re going to have abeautifulpregnancy, just wait and see.”
“Thank you!” Mattie felt tears of gratitude pricking her eyes and had to sniff hard to control them. “I’m so happy I came to work for the Kindred! If I hadn’t, I never would have met you or Commander Sylvan—or Grath! And Icertainlywouldn’t be bonded now with a baby on the way.”
“And to think just a few days ago you were complaining about him to me and saying you wished you could get another Protector!” Sophie teased her gently, her eyes dancing.
