“It’s not the sort of information one lets slip in casual conversation,” Alex observed tartly. “Or inanykind of conversation, really.”
I thought of the old bite mark, ridged and shadowed in the room’s warm light. “It’s not... one of you three, is it?” For some reason, I found the idea disconcerting.
Jax let out a startled breath of laughter. “God, no.”
“I don’t thinkanyoneknows who his mate is,” Flynn said. “But either way, that kind of information is pretty far above our pay grade.”
“I’ve never even heard him use gendered pronouns,” Jax added. “It’s always ‘they’ and ‘them.’ I’d assumed it was someone high enough up the food chain in the underground that it would be dangerous if the information got out.”
Alex shot them a quelling look. “It’s not our job to speculate.”
“No,” Kam agreed. “Sorry—I can see how that would be sensitive information.”
“And it’s not why we’re here, anyway,” Flynn said. “We’ve got a proposal for the two of you.”
I steeled myself, sending Kam a mental apology. “I’m sorry, Flynn,” I began. “I think I know what you’re going to ask, and—”
“No, Leona,” Jax said, interrupting. “It’s not that. Not what you’re thinking.”
My jaw snapped shut. After a moment, I regrouped. “Oh? Then, what is it?”
Alex took a deep breath. “Jax and Flynn want to propose a no-strings-attached heat contract. You’re due soon, and since we’ll be staying here anyway, there’s technically no reason why you’d have to use a blocker.”
My mind went abruptly, explosively blank. Kam glanced at me, taking in my compete loss of brain-to-mouth functionality.
“A heat contract,” he echoed. “You mean in the old sense? A one-time agreement unrelated to courting or mating?”
It occurred to me with a distant sort of recognition that Kam had been born to an ancient, purebred family. They’d followed the traditional alphomic ways, right up to the bitter end. He knew about these concepts as something more than hypothetical. He’d grown up around them.
“That’s right,” Alex confirmed. “No courting. No biting. Careful and considered use of birth control methods to prevent conception.”
“Seriously, you should hear what she’s insisting on,” Flynn put in. “There won’t be a single sperm cell surviving the carnage.”
Jax threw him an unimpressed look before turning back to us. His bright blue gaze was serious. “Leona, you don’t have to take that poison to stop your heat. Not this time, at least.” His expression saidnot ever, if we can help it.
My heart began to pound... with fear, or nervousness, or excitement—I wasn’t sure.
Kam’s fingers were still tangled with mine, and his grip was almost tight enough to hurt.
“Say yes, Leona,” Flynn said. “Kam—say yes.”
“You don’t have to be alone,” Jax added quietly. “Our kind are meant to come together. To help each other.”
I tore my eyes away from them—dark and fair, brown-eyed and blue—to meet Alex’s gaze.
“You can’t be all right with this, surely?” I hadn’t meant for it to come out sounding like a question.
Alex drew breath, only to hesitate, choosing her words.
“My packmates don’t technically need my permission to offer you a heat contract. It’s between them and you.” She paused. “And as hard as it is for me to really believe it in my heart, the reality is that it harms no one.” Her eyes flickered to Jax for an instant. “Irina and I were young. We were alone. We gambled on black market contraceptives and our own self-control, and we lost. On both counts.”
“There will be five of us this time,” Jax went on. “All looking out for each other. And, as Flynn says, there will also be more birth control products than you can shake a stick at.” His eyes went distant. “There are god-knows-how-many pups with my DNA languishing in the slave plantations. I am extremely cognizant of the dangers involved in bringing new lives into this world.”
I swallowed hard, picturing blue-eyed youngsters with chiseled jaws and sandy hair.
I turned to Kam with a pleading look, not sure what I was asking of him.
He gave me a smile, but it was strained around the edges. “I think you should do it,odama,” he said. “What’s the harm?”
