by Diana Seere
“SIT DOWN!” he thundered, clearly expecting Sophia to cower.
“I will NOT,” she roared back, raising herself to full height, which was considerable in fashionable high heels. She blazed with indignation and something more dangerous.
She knew Asher was wrong.
“This is getting hot,” Nero Rossini muttered, giving Sophia a look of wild craving that made Derry turn his attention to the man. With the simple movement of a few facial muscles and the flexing of a fist, Derry made his message crystal clear. Edward admired the economy of his brother’s communication.
“She’s wondrous,” Lars Jensen said in a voice filled with marvel, clearly oblivious to the interplay between Nero and Derry.
“Sophia, we do not have time for this childishness—”
“YOU SIT DOWN!” she countered, loud and strong as she cut Asher off. It was evident to Edward that Sophia wasn’t just being defiant. This was no headstrong challenge. The steely look in her eyes was part Asher, part bear, and part something he didn’t know. Her mother?
Whatever it was, she pulled from a part of herself they’d never seen before.
Must be a trend.
“I will not be addressed this way at a time of life-or-death importance,” Asher said in a coldly restored voice, his wrist flicking with that dismissive gesture Edward knew so well.
“Then why do you think you can speak to her this way?” Florence Nagy’s voice was low, like a plow dragged over crushed ice, and it made every head in the room turn.
He turned on her, neck moving like a robot’s, but Edward saw Asher’s fingers digging into the back of the leather chair he clutched. “We have one of the worst crises in the shifter world since the seventeenth century and the riots in eastern Europe. My brother has created a serum that takes away our powers—and one that, with further experimentation, will be able to be injected into any human and turn them into a shifter. My human sister-in-law is pregnant with the first baby in the family since—”
Asher’s voice cracked in half.
“Since Claire. Your wife,” Florence said, the livid wrinkles in her forehead smoothing with compassion.
Gavin looked like someone had smacked him. His swallow was audible, the bob of his Adam’s apple followed by a loud click in the quiet room. Scanning the room as if Lilah had quietly returned, Gavin’s stare ended on the oak door, his eyes going unfocused, brow knitting.
Sophia’s hair swung in a curtain of shiny black waves as she turned her attention between the matriarch and her eldest brother. “That’s what this is really about, Asher? Gavin?” She looked at her twin. “Derry?”
Edward was slightly hurt she didn’t include him in the recitation of her blood brothers.
“Some ridiculous protective streak has kicked in because Lilah’s pregnant, and now you want to treat Molly like she’s too stupid to know? This is some male pack behavior? You’ve spent years fooling her, using her blood to make a shifter serum, and now that she’s in danger of being kidnapped and having her blood—my God, her blood—used for a weapon by the wrong people, you think she should still be kept in the dark?”
“Lilah’s pregnancy has nothing to do with wanting to protect the secrecy of the shifter world,” Asher scoffed. “And if Molly Sloan knew about us—”
“She knows.” Edward stood slowly as he said the words. Sophia dropped into her seat with a look of amazement at him, face tipped up. Derry placed a comforting hand on her elbow and whispered something in her ear. She just slowly shook her head.
Edward’s declaration made him the center of attention. A mad flush shot through him, surfing on waves of blood that pelted his body like an ocean storm, but he spoke anyhow, overriding all fear.
It was easier than he’d expected.
“She knows,” Edward repeated. “And she knew long before she became mine.”
Mine.
There. Now they knew.
And there was nothing anyone could do to stop him.
Eva spoke above the murmurs and gasps. “How long has she known, Edward?” Her face was a mask of blank, bland indifference, but he knew she was in turmoil underneath.
“I don’t know, but she has a power I’ve never seen in humans before.”
Derry rolled his eyes. “If she didn’t, we wouldn’t be here, Ed.”
“Not her blood. She sees us.”
“She’s not blind,” Derry joked, tapping Sophia’s arm, expecting a smile. She didn’t give him one. Edward knew that Derry hated conflict and would use jokes as a way to stop it. In the past, he’d always been grateful for his older brother’s comic relief.
In the past, he’d needed it.
As seconds ticked on, a resolve formed inside him, one that stopped the incessant emotional reactions within that had formerly paralyzed him.
No, a voice inside him said.
It’s time to exercise my no.
“She can look at any of us and know our animal,” Edward said.
Liliana Rossini shrieked.
Tomas Nagy laughed, a bitter, nasty sound and carefully caught Edward’s eye. “She may be fucking with you, and you’re too much of a sucker to know the difference. She saw me shift.”
“What? You never reported such a breach?” Tomas’s father, Miklos, made a sound between a roar and a gasp. It scraped Edward’s ears raw.
Tomas gave his father an insolent shrug. “The elevator doors at the Plat malfunctioned. She kept her mouth shut all these years.” He stared at Edward as if to say, Until now.
“I know what I know,” Edward declared boldly. “She is not lying. She can see our true form.”
The room filled with worried whispers.
Tomas made a dismissive sound. “She saw me shift because I slept with her—and trust me, she’s the reason people use the term ‘wildcat’ in bed—”
Without any memory of the half second that must have passed when Edward lunged across the table, he felt the shift of skin beneath his human palm, his own body rippling in reply. Shifting was contagious; when a shifter touched another in the process of changing, it was like a yawn.
Good luck suppressing it.
Entangled in limbs and fur with a fellow mountain lion, Edward was nothing but blood and claws, teeth and air, instinct and revenge rolled into animal form. Human voices stopped, the only sound he heard the huff and sputter, the grunt and groan, the airy breath of posturing as the room turned into a zoo.
Quite literally.
Tomas’s teeth were on his neck, digging deep but not yet through fur when Edward twisted and slashed, his claws sinking into a haunch, then a wolf’s musk filled his nostrils, and he found himself at the center of the table, Asher at his back, hot, foul breath heating the back of his neck.
In one corner, Derry and Sophia towered over a batch of Rosinis, Liliana a beautiful black bear, Nero a jaguar, a Jensen cutting between them. Eva moved like ink on a hoverboard, sleek and unobtrusive, eyes flashing, circling the outer edge of the room.
Asher used his powerful back legs to pivot and shove Tomas Nagy into a far window, the shatter of glass making all of the shifters halt. Panting, Edward challenged Tomas, who turned on his back, showing his belly to Asher, scratches covering one side of his fur-covered body, his nose stippled with red drops. Prowling with eyes made of sky and ice, Asher took on old Miklos, who sat in his chair, tail moving slowly like a viper about to strike.
And yet he, too, deferred to Asher. Inaction was submission.
Edward sniffed the air, closed his eyes, prepared for another fight. The kinetic force in what he heard set him ablaze, muscles tense, instinct picking up every micromovement in the room.
Eyes locking with Asher’s, he made no hint of deference. Asher’s mouth tightened, then his long teeth showed, the skin around his eyes narrowing.
Deep in his throat, Edward let loose a warning sound.
Gavin’s eyes glowed, his head turning quickly, eyes darting to the door as he sprang toward the room’s exit. Edward shook his head, tast
ing blood against the curve of one tooth. His own.
Gone.
Gavin hadn’t spoken, but the implications of the word were clear.
And then he felt it too, and nothing else mattered. Scent. Molly’s scent diminished by the second, fading. Gavin’s child, the sweet, sweaty odor Lilah now inhabited, and Jess—
Why would their scents fade?
Following Gavin, he ignored the warning growl from his brother, the alpha, shedding the paws that batted against him, even shoving Florence Nagy aside as her old mountain lion body moved with a sad, languid disappointment.
By the time he reached the door, Gavin was in human form, naked, flinging it open.
To find all of the human women missing.
Chapter 17
“Gavin isn’t going to have to chew your baby out of your womb, is he?” Jess asked Lilah, her voice filling with an increasingly speculative worry, her face stretched with horror as she looked at the private jet’s ceiling. “God, I can’t believe I’m marrying into this family too. You have your own jet. And you have Roger!”
The pilot cut in on the address system. “Ms. Murphy? Can I help you?”
“A talking jet!” Jess marveled. “How many billions do the Stantons have?”
“Cut her off. Now,” Lilah ordered Molly. “She’s had way too much to drink.”
Molly tilted her head and studied Jess. “Why would you think that Gavin would chew the baby out?” She shuddered.
Jess waved her hand. “You know. Twilight.”
“Gavin’s not a vampire!” Lilah snapped.
Jess frowned and looked at her empty glass. “Oh. Right. Never mind then.” She screwed up her face, struggling clearly with concentration. “Um, so how long will you be pregnant?”
“You’re full of stupid questions tonight,” Lilah replied. “You’re the premed student. Shouldn’t you know the answer?”
“It’s a perfectly normal question to ask someone who has become impregnated by a wolf,” Jess answered with a haughty air. “Wolves have a gestation cycle of about nine to ten weeks. Human gestation runs for about forty to forty-one weeks. Which one is it? Oh! And I know the perfect name.” She stole Molly’s drink out of her hand and guzzled it before Molly could react.
“What?” Molly asked. Lilah shot her a look and mouthed, Please don’t encourage her.
“Wolfgang!” Jess shrieked, laughing until she rolled off the chair.
It was going to be a long flight back to Boston.
Jess crawled up onto a leather sofa, curled up into a ball, and fell into the quiet, happy stupor of a drunk woman recently engaged to a sexy billionaire who loved her more than life itself.
Molly watched her in silence for a few minutes, pondering her own existence, and then decided she was being far too self-involved. She turned her gaze to Lilah, who was regarding Molly as seriously as Molly had just been regarding Jess.
The woman was pregnant with a werewolf’s child. She herself had the shadow of a wolf hovering over her shoulder.
Will I be able to see the baby’s shadow when he or she is born? Molly wondered. She glanced at Lilah’s belly. Can I see now? If I look really hard?
“Wolfgang,” Lilah muttered, shaking her head. “I’ll get even with her for that one when she sobers up.”
Molly stared unblinking at Lilah’s midsection, trying to see what was probably impossible to see. How little the baby must be at this stage—wouldn’t its shadow be even tinier?
“Do you know? About the baby?” Molly asked softly. Would a shifter and human couple always have a shifter child? It was impossible not to wonder.
“You mean if it’s a boy or a girl?” Lilah asked.
Flushing, Molly avoided Lilah’s gaze. “Yeah, that’s what I meant.”
A long pause stretched out between them. “No, I don’t know,” Lilah said. “It’s too soon.”
Molly looked up and saw that Lilah was talking about more than the gender.
The plane struck some turbulence, leading both of them to put on their seat belts, interrupting their awkward conversation for a few seconds.
“I’m sorry,” Molly said. “I don’t mean to pry.”
“I do know that the gestation period, as my sister so sensitively put it, should be the normal length. They’re mostly human, I think. Not that they’ll admit it.” Lilah chuckled bitterly. “Especially Asher.”
“I’m so happy for you,” Molly said. “About the baby, I mean, not about— Oh, this is so awkward!”
“It’s all right.” Lilah smiled. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just so nice to talk to somebody who knows. I was so incredibly lonely before Jess found out. To have a close friend know as well… It’s a huge comfort.”
Molly warmed with pleasure. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to go through this by myself. You must’ve been so strong. So brave.” Molly thought of that night she’d seen Tomas shift in the elevator. Part of her had refused to believe what she’d seen, making it easier to tuck it away like a half-forgotten dream. But if she’d really cared for Tomas, if she’d fallen in love and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, if she’d felt their union was as inevitable as the turning of the Earth and the rotation of the moon, if she’d felt the Beat…
Her palm began to ache. She rubbed it, flinching at the sense of a knife’s edge slicing through skin. But there was no blood, just the usual smoothness where a crease should’ve been.
“I wasn’t brave. I was swept away in something stronger than myself. I thought I had a choice, but really… I was just following my—” Lilah cut herself off with a shake. “It sounds so ridiculous to say out loud.”
“What?”
“My destiny,” Lilah said.
A shiver danced down Molly’s spine. She reached for one of the cashmere throw blankets and pulled it around her shoulders.
Tears burned in her eyes. If Edward were her destiny, he wouldn’t be back in Montana keeping secrets from her. He’d open himself to her, he’d tell her everything, he’d keep her safe.
Safe. She nodded to herself and stared out the window. That was it, wasn’t it? She’d lived by her own wits for so long, from a younger age than any person should ever have to. No father, her mother dead before her teens, a string of incompetent or evil foster families… she’d had to take care of herself. She’d learned early when a guy was looking at her in a dangerous way, when a girl in school was going to be mean and set the others against her. She’d learned to punch and kick and run, she’d learned to make friends of adults at school who could protect her, make sure she had a place to sleep, food to eat, clothes to wear, no matter how pathetic—because nobody else would.
When she’d learned that Edward had put her in danger—that he’d left her in danger without telling her—something inside her had snapped. Now she felt battered, bruised, bleeding. And every self-defensive instinct she’d learned over the years was activated, making her run to safety without questioning what she’d lose.
His touch. His kiss. The sound of his voice in her ear, her soul.
She had to look after herself. She had to.
Who else would?
A rough bump jerked Molly awake. The plane was landing in Boston. Her blanket was tucked around her shoulders, her seat reclined. Lilah must’ve done that for her.
She looked over at her friend, who was sitting up, playing a game on her phone. Molly could hear the fun beeps and sound effects.
“We’ll have to pour ice water on Jess’s head to wake her up,” Lilah said, not looking away from her screen. “She’s totally out.”
“No wonder,” Molly said. “She drank enough to knock out a horse.”
“We could leave her here,” Lilah suggested. “Roger can fly her back to Derry. He can deal with the body.”
“He certainly can, from what I’ve heard,” Molly said with a smile, looking out the window. Dawn had just broken. Seeing her familiar Boston, the airport up against the ocean, even at this ungodly hour, was lifting her s
pirits. She was home. She was safe.
Slumped in a ball on the bench seat, a seat belt stretched over her sleeping form, Jess let out a loud moan. And then, “Who’s rocking the boat? You trying to make me sick?”
Roger’s flight assistant rushed over with a gold bucket. “Welcome to Boston, Ms. Murphy.”
Lilah and Molly laughed.
The humor was fleeting. By the time they were stepping off the plane and getting into a waiting limo, Molly had fallen into a bruised funk again. She was home now, but her problems remained. There was a company out there that had stockpiled samples of her own blood and made some kind of drug out of it. Gavin’s company. There were people she’d seen every six weeks who had lied to her face, people she’d thought were friends.
“I want to see Samantha,” Molly said suddenly to Lilah. They were on the freeway, heading to her apartment. The traffic was thickening as the city roused itself for another day.
“Who’s Samantha?” Lilah asked.
“A nurse at the Boston Bl— No. Gavin’s company. I’d thought it was the Boston Blood Center.” Molly had also thought Samantha was her friend.
Now she wanted answers.
“I don’t think LupiNex has any nurses,” Lilah said softly. “They do research and development. Not any clinical work in Boston that I know of.”
Molly felt another stab of pain. More lies. “I don’t even know if Samantha is her real name. But she was always there when I went in.”
“Where was the lab? Where you gave blood?”
“In the same building as the Platinum Club. I only had to take an elevator up—” Molly bit her lip. The LupiNex offices were upstairs. All those years, she’d never suspected. “I’m so stupid.”
“Don’t blame yourself. They lied to you.” Lilah’s voice hardened. “Gavin lied to you. You and all the other donors. Even if he didn’t know who you were exactly, he shouldn’t have hidden the nature of the research.”
“Please don’t hate him because of me.” Molly had to admit LupiNex could hardly have told human blood donors that their scientific research was for shapeshifters. That didn’t mean she forgave him, of course, but it did take the edge off. “You’ve got a baby to think of. And you love him. Please don’t, I don’t know, leave him because—”