Obsidian didn’t care about that. “Why are you here?” He eyed them with suspicion.

“I wanted to check on you and I’d like to talk to Allison.” Justice smiled. “I realize now we came at a bad time.”

Fury cleared his throat. “Real bad, judging by our noses. We’re sorry if we interrupted the two of you. I spoke to Moon earlier. He said you and the doctor were close and that you felt secure being with her. He just forgot to mention how close.”

Fury stepped closer and a fainter scent teased Obsidian’s nose. “What is that?” He sniffed more, moving out onto the porch. “It’s sweet and strange.”

The male didn’t back away. “You’re probably picking up baby powder mixed with my son.” Pride deepened the male’s voice. “My mate and I had a child. His name is Salvation.”

Shock tore through Obsidian. “You bred a child? How?” He sniffed again, fascinated by the unknown smell. It was pleasant and nice.

“We can breed with humans.” Fury hesitated and inched even closer, holding up his hands to make it easier for him to pick up the scents. “I was holding my son before I left for my shift this morning to allow my mate to sleep longer. Her name is Ellie and she’s human.”

Obsidian backed away, confused. He stared hard at the male, hunting for clues of deceit but knew he spoke the truth. The scent he picked up was fresh and nice—life. His mind reeled from the knowledge that one of them had impregnated a female. Emotion rushed at him next, nearly overcoming him with grief.

“I even failed her with that.”

Justice appeared alarmed. “What do you mean? Dr. Allison?”

“46,” he rasped, shame gripping him. “The technicians wanted me to impregnate her but I wasn’t able to.”

“His mate,” Fury whispered. “She—”

“I know.” Justice cut him off. “Our females aren’t able to become pregnant as of yet. The doctors who work for us are running tests to find out why and hopefully fix the problem. They believe it might be a genetic problem between our males and females. We have dominant genes. All our children were born to male Species and female humans. Mercile created us too well and our children share our exact DNA.”

“I don’t understand.”

Fury was the one to explain. “Our children are Species. My son will look exactly as I do when he grows. We were designed so well that males only create male children who carry all our traits but none from the mother.” He paused. “Our females were designed the same way we were.”

“We have a few genetic experts who believe that’s why we always failed to reproduce children with our females. Our genes are too strong to combine to create a life.”

Fury nodded. “What Justice means is that we can only create males and our females will probably only be able to create female children. They think that’s why no Species couple has ever bred children.”

Obsidian allowed the new information to settle. Some of his shame lifted. It wasn’t a defect with just his body. The technicians had always been crueler when their breeding attempts didn’t gain the results they expected. It wasn’t his burden to carry for the unhappiness she’d suffered.

“Do you understand?” Fury gave him a sympathetic look. “You didn’t fail 46.”

“Yes,” he rasped. “Can our females breed successfully with human males? They are weaker.”

“Not so far.” Justice shifted his stance. “We only have one female who has shown interest in mating to a human. He’s one of our doctors but they are newly together. She’s refused testing and wants time to see if it happens naturally before she allows that. It’s understandable after everything she’s survived at Mercile. We all know how painful their tests could be for our females.”

Anger tinged Fury’s voice when he spoke. “We don’t think it’s going to be that simple. Some of our females were raped by humans during captivity but thankfully no pregnancy resulted. It would have only encouraged the bastards to hurt them more.”

“We’re not giving up hope though.”

Alli’s voice startled Obsidian. He spun, glaring at her. He’d been too focused on the males to hear her approach, distracted by the information they’d shared.

“I told you to stay.” Anger exploded inside him over her defiance.

She had dressed in a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt, her wet hair pulled back so it hung in one clump down her back. She rolled her eyes then stared evenly at him.

“We really need to work on your bully issues.” She glanced behind him and her smile seemed forced. “Hello. Won’t you come in?” Her hand shot out and gripped his forearm before she glanced up at him while tugging him closer. “Move out of the way. They obviously came here for a reason. It’s polite to invite them inside. We sit down and talk.”

“I don’t want you near other males.”

The top of her cheeks turned slightly pink. “Enough,” she whispered. “Don’t be rude. Justice North controls the NSO and Fury is his second-in-command.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want any males near you.”

“Oh my god,” she hissed. “Stop! They have mates.” She stared at Justice. “I’m really sorry.” Her cheeks were a brighter red. “He is working on his social skills still.” She directed an angry glare at him. “And doing a bad job right now. Will you please let them inside? Stop blocking the door. He’s my boss, Obsidian. I work for him. Or I did. Please just behave? For me?”