A Mate for Kai (The Program Book 6) by Charlene Hartnady

defiance. Her chin was tilted up. Her shoulders were back. She was naked and magnificent and pregnant.
    Fucking pregnant.
    Fuck.
    “Ruby.” The dragon shifter King sounded bored.
    “Blaze.” Ruby tilted her chin even higher, looking down her nose at her brother, through long lashes.
    Brant’s eyes widened and he diverted his gaze. Zane did the same. The two royal guards turned their gazes to the ceiling.
    Good.
    They were right to look away, at least, they were if they valued their eyes.
    Where had that come from? She wasn’t his female. He felt actual relief when the males kept their gazes elsewhere. Although vampires were far from being prudes, they didn’t walk around stark naked. Shifters seemed to hold no such reservations.
    Kai could feel his mouth hung open. That his eyes were wide in his skull. Fucking pregnant. Her belly looked tight, it was neat yet well-rounded. His child. His. Fuck.
    “No.” He growled. “It can’t be.” Another loud growl was torn from him. It had to be a mistake.
    Brant slung his dress shirt over her shoulders, which Ruby accepted with a small nod of the head. She worked her hands through the sleeves, quickly doing up two or three of the buttons, to secure the garment, which fell high on her thighs.
    The younger looking shifter gave a haughty laugh. “What, are you such a damned idiot that you can’t recognize a female in the middle of her heat?” Inferno scoffed. “Then again, you are a lesser male and a vampire at that. So maybe it’s not so surprising. Idiot.”
    “Fuck you.” Kai pointed a finger at the dickhead shifter. “I was told that…never fucking mind.” He snarled. For some reason, he still couldn’t dump this female in the shit. Blame it all on her. He couldn’t. If it made him an idiot. A fool, then so be it. The thing that got him the most was that the shifter male was right.
    “Everyone needs to calm the fuck down,” Zane said. “You need to calm down.” He looked directly at Kai. “We need to be calm and rational about this. What’s done is done. It cannot be undone.”
    “That’s for fucking sure,” Brant muttered.
    Calm down.
    Now.
    Like fucking hell.
    “There is nothing to talk about.” Those vivid green eyes locked with his. “You will mate my sister or you will die by my own hand. Choose. Now.” The male had similar golden tattoos across his chest. They seemed to shimmer and brighten. Maybe it was just his imagination, but it was as if scales appeared beneath the ink. Maybe they were melded together with the ink. It was hard to tell. It wasn’t his imagination though when the male’s teeth elongated. When tendrils of white smoke drifted from his flared nostrils.
    “Stop this,” Ruby said. For the first time since arriving this evening, her voice was timid and unsure. “I resigned myself to doing this alone. You know that. I have no need of a male in my life.”
    Kai hated hearing her say that. If it were up to this female he would never have known about this. She didn’t need or want him. The knowledge burned him.
    “You should’ve thought of that before.” Blaze snarled, taking a step towards his sister.
    Call it instinct. Call it more of the same stupidity. Kai snarled right back at the shifter king, taking a step towards the male. King or not, his show of aggression towards Ruby, towards his unborn child, was unacceptable.
    Ruby might not be his but the child she carried inside her belly most definitely was. Everything in him bristled. Every nerve ending, every muscle, every goddamned tendon. Everything readied itself to protect what was his. So this is what an angry dragon shifter looked like. Bring it on!
    Zane instantly stepped between them. The male’s hand felt heavy against his chest. “Everybody needs to calm down. Kai was not aware that the female was in heat. This has come as a shock to him. A shock to us all, I assure you. We need some time to digest this.” He took a deep breath. “Kai is struggling to think