Sharp Change

by Milly Taiden

  Seff removed the heavy chain holding down Tryx. He watched the two women embrace and hold each other. Now that Chase had dismembered the last threat, Sophia would be safe.

  Off to the side, Seff watched Chase change back into his skin and shrug into a pair of jeans. Riel walked into the room and stopped next to him. Both of them watched the alpha walk straight to Sophia and stop when she glared angrily at him.

  “Sweetheart?” Chase frowned, and Seff wondered at the awkward reunion.

  Curious over her obvious anger, Seff watched Sophia take a few steps to stand in front of Chase. She gave him a slow smile and then punched him hard in the stomach.

  “Ow!” Chase grunted and rubbed his stomach while watching her. Sophia threw him a disgusted look. What the heck had the alpha done to his mate? Seff and Riel snickered over Chase’s woman trouble and continued to watch the show.

  “That was for being such a closemouthed jerk,” she hissed and then twined her arms around Chase’s neck.

  Chase stood unmoving, warily watching Sophia.

  “And this is for coming to our rescue.” She yanked his head down and kissed him. Seff looked away and smiled when the other men in the group laughed, whistled, and catcalled at the make-out scene in front of them.

  On their way back, Seff watched Sophia sit stiffly next to Chase. He’d never understand women. She kissed him and then refused to speak to him. Chase looked confused, and Seff did not envy him. Women were more trouble than they were worth. When Chase lifted his hands in question at Tryx, the tiny female just glared at him and turned her face away.

  * * *

  Sophia stepped into the house and went straight for the shower, slamming the door so hard it rocked the panel causing it to crack. She wanted to ensure he knew how pissed she was with him.

  Turning the lock at the last second, she allowed herself some alone time in the bathroom while she undressed. Let him stew over that one. She took a nice warm shower and washed her hair, making sure to take twice as long as usual in the bathroom. It allowed her to release some of the tension and frustration running through her. At the end of her long shower, she massaged lotion over every part of her body. She stared at her abdomen in the bathroom mirror. She smiled, remembering her dream, and tentatively touched her belly.

  She put on her robe and left the serenity of the quiet bathroom behind. Barefoot, she walked through the bedroom and out to the balcony. She took a deep breath and sat on the edge of a cushioned lounger. The night air was warm as it caressed her skin. In the distance she could see the lights from the closest neighbor’s house.

  Chase’s house was not as isolated as River and Julia’s. In Chase’s case, his neighbors were close enough that she was able to look into their windows with her new shifter vision. She wondered if they could do the same back into Chase’s windows.

  His scent drifted from right outside their balcony door. She knew he was probably wondering what was wrong with her, but she’d been hurt by his actions.

  “You can come out here, Chase,” she said softly, knowing he heard her.

  His bulky mass filled the exit and then moved to stand before her. He’d obviously showered in one of the other rooms; his hair was wet, and he smelled clean and fresh.

  When her eyes roamed his sexy body, heat traveled through her and curled into a ball of arousal in the pit of her stomach. His cargo shorts and white T-shirt complemented the bronze of his muscled skin, making him look ideal for the cover of an outdoor magazine.

  Sitting down on the seat next to her, he pulled one of her hands into his grasp and lifted dark anxious eyes to her face. “What did I do? Tell me. I swear I’ll fix it.”

  She raised a hand to his face, cupped his cheek, and glanced away. “I’m not sure it’s something you can fix. You either trust me, or you don’t.” He could claim they were mates all he wanted, but trust was more important to her than any animal attraction linking them together.

  “I trust you, Sophia.”

  He said the words with so much conviction, she wondered if she’d been wrong.

  Wanting to believe him, she peered at him from under her lashes. “Why didn’t you tell me I was pregnant? Tryx said you knew from the moment of conception, and you didn’t think it was important to tell me? What if I would have decided to ignore my promise to you and shifted?” Her voice wobbled, and she blinked back tears.

  “I’m sorry, love. I never meant for you to feel like I don’t trust you. I wanted to give your brain a chance to adjust to being a shifter before you had to deal with the fact that you’re going to be a mother. I just thought it might have been too much to handle in one shot.”

  He crouched down in front of her and gave her a sorrowful look. He lifted her hands to his lips, kissed them, and then placed them over his heart. “I swear to you I will never keep anything important from you again, sweetheart. Just please don’t…don’t go,” he pleaded softly, his voice full of emotion.

  She saw the sincerity in his eyes. Sliding off the lounger, she sat on the floor with him.

  Her hands cupped his face, and she smiled. “We’ll start fresh… No withholding of anything between us, because if you ever do that again I may have to kill you.”

  “Never.” He moved his head down to lock his lips with hers.

  She threaded her fingers into his hair and held him in place while their tongues mated. His hand moved to caress her cheek, her jaw, and then curl around her neck.

  She smiled and hugged him tightly. “We’re going to have two babies, Chase. Can you believe it?”

  He smiled and moved a hand to settle it over her abdomen. “Yes, we are. You up for it?”

  When she blew a raspberry, he laughed. “Are you kidding me? I’m going to be a fantastic mother. I excel at everything I do,” she boasted.

  “That you do. You’re already perfect, there’s nothing you can’t do.” Both got up from the floor and stood in front of each other. Once on their feet, he pulled on the satin tie holding her robe together.

  Their gazes locked, and he removed the robe. His clothes came next. Then he proceeded to kiss her neck. His lips traveled down her collarbone to her breasts and stopped to lavish nips and kisses on her nipples. Her eyes lifted to look at the stars, and the warm night air caressed her overheated skin.

  She grabbed his hands and pushed him to sit back on the lounger. Once he was seated, she straddled his thighs. She rocked her body over him in a sensuous slide of skin on skin and licked the shell of his ear.

  “Chase, I can’t wait to have you inside me.” She nipped the lobe. He groaned, and she ground her hips into his cock. “I want you to fuck me hard and fast. Right here, right now.”

  “Baby. You’re making me lose my mind,” he growled.

  She scored his shoulders with her nails and licked the soft area behind his ear, causing him to shiver. He became more forceful, his hands squeezing her breasts and pinching her nipples. She whimpered.

  “Oh, please, Chase, fuck me already.” Her body burned with the need to be filled by him.

  “Whatever my mate desires.” He lifted her body up and placed the head of his heavy shaft at her entrance.

  She slammed her body down, allowing him to fill her in one smooth thrust. They groaned in pleasure. She rode him hard and fast, his hands lifting and lowering her body on him repeatedly.

  Moaning loudly, she pleaded for him to make her come. Rocking her hips, she felt him stiffen. He moved his fingers between her thighs to flick on her sensitive clit while his lips latched on to her breast and sucked mercilessly on the taut tip. He bit down and pinched at the same time. Tension coiled at the pit of her womb. Her movements became jerky, and his hands tightened around her. He continued to slam her body over him again and again until she tensed. Pleasure exploded, and a scream tore out of her. He gripped her hips tightly, gave a purely male groan of satisfaction, and warm semen filled her womb when he came.

  She lay draped limply over him, her head tucked into his neck. He massaged her back
in slow circular motions, and she purred in contentment. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her inside.

  Belatedly she remembered the open windows and lighted rooms from across the way where the occupants may have seen and heard what was going on. Oh well, now she was an exhibitionist too. She smiled at the thought that Chase had turned her from a geek into a full-blown, sex-starved nymphomaniac.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was a week later when Sophia walked into Mrs. Winchester’s office for her delayed meeting. In the past, the sweet old lady had been so busy she’d never been able to meet with Sophia at her office. Their meetings always ended up taking place outside the research facility at some restaurant where they would have lunch and catch up.

  Since she was never in the lab, this was only the second time she’d visited Mrs. Winchester’s office. The first time had been as new lab head after having gotten the offer to lead the genetics research. Making her way toward the center of the room, she noticed that it was decorated in warm and inviting tones.

  Victoria, or Tori as she preferred to be called, was sitting at her desk. She glanced up and smiled softly at Sophia, motioning for her to take a seat. Tori Winchester looked amazing for her age. She was short, slim, and so petite she made Sophia feel like an Amazon at five foot three. Her short silver bob hugged the curve of her neck and was coiffed to total perfection. She wore a forest-green suit that screamed wealth. Tori’s emerald eyes were filled with life. The older woman was alert and sharp as a tack, which had allowed them to have some incredibly intellectual discussions in the past.

  “Sophia, it is so good to see you. I was starting to get worried after your message about being sick. Are you feeling better now? Never mind, I can probably answer my own question since you look fabulous.”

  Sophia knew she looked more like she’d been on vacation than sick, but that was all thanks to her new genes. Her gaze roamed the credenza behind the older woman. The last time she’d been there, she’d been unable to see the pictures on it clearly. With her poor vision and her need for constant squinting, even while wearing her glasses, the images on the credenza had been blurry. Now that she was able to, her gaze took in everything on the large mantle.

  “I feel so much better now. I think I just needed some time off after burning the candle at both ends of the stick. In fact, I—” Her eyes focused on a framed photo of two men and a woman.

  There was a dark-skinned, good-looking man, a young woman, and another much uglier man. Her heartbeat slowed to a crawl when she recognized the dark man in the picture as the same one whose throat she’d ripped open.

  “Dear, are you all right?” The older woman’s previously warm voice forged itself into sharp steel.

  Sophia’s eyes snapped to Tori and then back to the picture.

  Tori opened a drawer and reached in, but Sophia was too stunned to notice what she pulled out. Recognizing the second male as the rat-man Chase had torn apart made her eyes widen in shock.

  Tori’s expression of a warm, soft, elderly sweetheart slipped to show a hard and bitter face. The edges around her eyes deepened, and her lips compressed into a straight line.

  “I’m…I’m sorry, I guess…I’m not feeling as well as I thought. Maybe it’d be best if I came back at another—” Sophia stopped short when she noticed the gun pointed her way.

  “No, I don’t think that would be best.” The woman’s no-nonsense voice filled Sophia with dread.

  Her hands folded protectively over her belly. She frantically tried to think of a way out of this situation. She couldn’t help but gape at the previously sweet Mrs. Winchester and wondered what the hell was going on.

  “I see you noticed the photo of my beautiful Nichola,” she sighed sadly. “She was a beauty, wasn’t she?” The angry question required an answer as Tori’s extremely steady hand held the gun up toward Sophia’s face.

  “Yes, she was quite lovely.” Sophia darted another look at the photo, taking better stock of the woman in the middle. The girl in the picture was young, probably a teenager in the shot. She had a wide smile and blonde hair parted in the center with the ’70s trademark feathered waves. The girl was clothed in bell-bottom jeans and resembled Farrah Fawcett in Charlie’s Angels.

  Hoping to buy some time, Sophia decided to ask the obvious question. “What happened to her?”

  Tori seemed to gauge the sincerity of her question before she answered. “It was quite tragic, the story of my Nichola.”

  Outwardly calm, Sophia screamed out for Chase in her mind, knowing he waited for her in the car and might not hear her in his human form. She hoped that even though the call would be faint, he’d still be able to sense something was wrong.

  “She fell in love with a wolf. Oh, don’t look at me like you don’t know what I’m referring to. Your sister is married to one of them.” Tori spat the words as if they were burning her tongue in distaste.

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand what you’re talking about,” she said, hoping the woman would elaborate on her bizarre tale.

  “Well of course you wouldn’t, I haven’t told you the whole story yet. As I was saying, she fell in love with one of those wolf shifters. I tried to explain to her how dangerous those animals could be, but she refused to listen to me. She was obsessed with becoming one of them so she could be her lover’s mate. She turned to the wolf she fell in love with for help.” Her eyes grew distant. “Her entire life lay before her, and she wanted to waste it on that…that animal! The shifter bit her, but her body couldn’t handle the change and it killed her.”

  “I’m…I’m so sorry for your loss.” She hoped Tori would put the gun down if she showed her some sympathy.

  “Yes, well, it was a long time ago. Do you know the worst part? The animal, the sick bastard that killed her, went on to meet one of his own kind, mated her, and had a family, while I’ve been mourning the loss of my Nichola all these decades!” She yelled, her rage bubbling over.

  “Oh my God.” Sophia sat completely still, unwilling to push the obviously disturbed woman over the edge and have her pull the trigger in her craze. “How…how long ago did this happen?”

  “Forty years ago.” Tori’s enraged features made it seem like it had just happened.

  “But, how old was she?” Sophia tried putting two and two together, only she was coming up with more than four.

  “She was barely sixteen and still just a baby in my eyes.” The woman’s temper seemed to be cooling.

  Sophia’s mind raced. She processed the information. “But…she couldn’t have been your daughter. You told me you’re sixty years old.”

  Tori’s green eyes glowed with rage. “She wasn’t my daughter, she was my baby sister.”

  Shocked speechless once again, Sophia was quiet on the outside while inwardly screaming out to Chase.

  Tori lowered the gun. It pointed at the middle of Sophia’s chest.

  “Those two young men in the pictures, they were her best friends before that wolf killed her. I’m sure you remember becoming acquainted with them recently.” Tori stood, continued to point the gun in Sophia’s direction and walked around her desk. Sophia wondered how she never noticed Tori’s insanity before.

  Tori stopped in front of Sophia and motioned with the gun hand for her to stand. “Sadly, they weren’t as successful as they anticipated in retrieving those samples from you for me. Now that I have you here, you’re going to hand them over so I can finally put an end to the shape-shifting gene. Get up.”

  Sophia stood and continued to fold her arms over her belly.

  Tori cocked her head toward the door. “Let’s go down to that lab of yours and get those samples before I lose my patience.”

  Sophia turned to walk to the lab, and the pointy steel was pushed into her back.

  Chase was restless. His wolf was hounding him again. Pushing to take over and shift out of his skin. His hands gripped the steering wheel. He looked around the deserted parking lot.

  Sophia was meeting with a
facility director. After her meeting she was supposed to destroy the samples in storage and meet him back in the car. He glanced around and realized there were no other cars in the lot. Other than his SUV, the parking area was empty. Unease settled over him.

  It was the end of the day, the sun was setting, and it was too goddamned quiet. He concentrated on calming his distressed animal until he recalled the last time that had happened. He decided not to wait around for Sophia.

  Opening the door to walk into the facility, the urge to run and ensure her safety overwhelmed him. There was no guard at the entrance, which made his discomfort level rise. He followed Sophia’s scent down the hall.

  He heard her soft voice. She was speaking to someone and heading toward her lab. Cautiously alert, he moved with the grace of the predator he was.

  When he neared the entrance to her work place, Chase could see Sophia and a woman who was standing a few feet behind her. The woman held a gun to Sophia’s lower back.

  Sophia unlocked her cold storage and disabled the security on the file system, then moved a few steps away.

  “Pull them out of the storage and place them on this table for me,” the woman ordered.

  Sophia walked into the storage room and moments later walked out with vials and files. She walked back to the table the old woman indicated and put the research down.

  “Now, I’m sorry I have to do this Sophia, I really like you. You’re so intelligent. No one ever came even half as close as you to the results you’ve achieved in the past six months, which makes this really difficult. You should have just handed them over the first time I sent someone for them. It would have saved us all so much wasted time, and could’ve kept you from this type of end.” She lifted the gun toward Sophia’s chest.

  Anger surged inside Chase, and he removed his clothes in a rush. He let the wolf loose and shifted out of his skin, muscles and bones popping too slowly for his liking. The only thought consuming him was to destroy the woman who was holding a gun on Sophia. He growled and launched his body like a missile at the woman. Having heard his growl the woman tightened her grip on the weapon. His jaws bit into her neck. Her hand squeezed on the trigger repeatedly. Sophia scurried and crouched behind a table.