by Seere, Diana
She took the tray with her sincere thanks. It would be hard to adjust to the real world after living in the Stanton orbit. Four-star meals at any time of day, no request too strange or expensive, everything free and easy.
Just as the man who brought her the tray walked away without a word, Sophia Stanton, Asher’s only sister, suddenly appeared in the doorway. Six months pregnant, six feet tall, and exuding more wild sexual vitality than ever, she declared, “I knew it! You’re in perfect health!”
Caught in her lie, Sam felt herself blush, touching her ear. “I really do have a terrible headache.”
Sophia grabbed the tray and strode past her into the front room of her little cabin. “You do, and his name is Asher. I have often had an identical pain in my skull, as have the rest of my siblings.” Setting down the tray, she took a seat at the white pedestal table of Sam’s kitchenette and took a bottle out of her purse. Not wine. Something stronger in a small amber bottle. Without asking, she poured it into Sam’s iced tea. “This treatment is more effective than most, although there can be side effects.”
“Oh no, I don’t…” Sam had decided to abstain from alcohol while she was at the Stanton ranch. And at any other time Asher might be within private helicopter or jet distance, which meant the entire planet. No doubt he was also investing in private space rockets, so she’d have to stay sober in the rest of the known universe.
She sat at the table and handed the glass to Sophia. “No thanks. I’ve got bottled water.”
Sophia pushed it back. “I can’t have it. Bad for the baby. Drink up for both of us. I promise I won’t let my big bad wolf brother get anywhere near you.” She winked. “Unless you want him to.”
Sophia’s twin brother was Derry, and both were bear shifters. The youngest Stanton, Edward, could take the form of a mountain lion. But both Gavin and Asher, the eldest Stantons, were werewolves, as was the father of her child.
Her husband Zachary, however, had been born human. It was only because of Sam and the biotechnology research at LupiNex that Zach was now a werewolf.
“This has nothing to do with Asher,” Sam groused.
Rolling her eyes, Sophia crossed her arms over her chest and waited.
Figuring it was mostly iced tea, Sam lifted the glass and took a sip. Fire burned the back of her throat, but she took another as the medicinal properties struck her bloodstream and she began to feel a little better. Slightly more relaxed. Less homicidal.
Slightly.
“Good girl,” Sophia said.
Sam gulped down half the spiked tea and then banged it on the table. “Nothing has anything to do with Asher.”
“What did he do now?” Sophia asked.
Sam lifted the hamburger and took a huge bite. Then another one. Before her mouth was empty, she said, “This is delicious.”
“Can I have the fries?” Sophia asked, rubbing her extended stomach. “I’m eating for seven.”
Sam sat up, dropping the burger. “No! A litter? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Relax, Sam. Kidding.” Sophia shoved a few fries into her mouth. “But I feel like there has to be more than one in there. This boy is going to be huge. Every day I eat as much as I do the week before hibernation season, and that’s saying something.” She reached over and stole another sweet potato fry.
Sam put the rest of them on a small plate and handed it to her. “They’re all yours.” She smiled at Sophia’s round belly, sending a silent thanks to the science that had enabled LupiNex—well, her, actually—to find a serum that kept mixed human-shifter children healthy at birth when they were most vulnerable. Because of Sam’s injection, Gavin’s once-human wife, Lilah, had successfully given birth to healthy twins. And Sophia’s baby had excellent chances.
Asher’s human wife and their newborn son hadn’t been so lucky, many years ago. His inability to recover from that tragedy was both understandable and maddening for those who loved him.
Such as his family. Such as his sister, Sophia. Those were the ones who loved him.
Sam only lusted after the impossible, unattainable god. Who had something terribly wrong with him that he wasn’t sharing with the one person best able to help him.
“You’d think he would confide in the scientist who created the serum that secured the health and well-being of his niece, his nephew, his sister-in-law—hell, his brother, too, who could’ve been just as broken as he—” Sam cut herself off. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”
Sophia topped up the liquor in Sam’s glass. “He’s hiding something.”
“Yes! Do you know what it is?”
Sophia shook her head. “None of us do. But it seems to be getting worse. He’s been acting stranger and stranger.”
“Strange how? Have you seen him faint?”
“Almost. He covered up for it by pretending he’d tripped over Dellie’s blanket.” Dellie was the nickname the family had given Cordelia, Lilah and Gavin’s baby daughter. “But we saw how pale he was. Santino won’t tell us anything.”
“Me either.”
“Santino is too obedient. We need someone who can pry it out of Asher. Which leaves you,” Sophia said. “When you find out what’s wrong with him, you’ve got to tell the rest of us. Or at least tell me. Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten nursing school. I have skills!”
“I know, I know,” Sam said enthusiastically. “If only he weren’t so pigheaded.”
Sophia snorted. “Don’t let him hear you call him that.”
“I’ve called him much worse than that. He’s proud of how stubborn he is.”
“Stubborn is fine. Don’t call him pigheaded.” Sophia smiled. “He’s a wolf, remember?”
“How could I forget,” she muttered, feeling her face get hot. But then she remembered the scar. The scar that was the impossible shape.
Why was she calling it impossible if she’d seen it for herself? Obviously it was possible it was shaped like a cat, and for her to deny it was to deny reality. That was hardly scientific. Her mission was to find the truth wherever it led her.
“He has a scar,” Sam said. “From the fight with Tomas last year. It’s infected and—” She stopped herself from describing it in detail. She wasn’t Asher’s doctor, but she’d like him to confide in her anyway, and he’d never do that if he caught her sharing private details, however crucial they might be, with his sister. Instead of saying more, she took another drink.
“And he’s trying to hide his weakness from everyone,” Sophia finished with a long sigh, “even his own family.”
Sam nodded.
“You’ve got to get him to confide in you,” Sophia said, echoing Sam’s own thoughts. “That can’t be too hard.”
“Excuse me? Why do you think I’m hiding in my room tonight? I’m too angry. He won’t confide in me. I’ve demanded he tell me what’s wrong, how long he’s been suffering, but no.” Instead he deflected her concerns—her legitimate, professional concerns—by kissing her. And then he’d thrown her on his bed and kissed her again.
“You’ve got to keep trying,” Sophia said.
Sam shot to her feet. “No. I can’t. Absolutely not.”
Bracing a hand on the table, Sophia also stood, towering over Sam. “You can and you will. I’ve seen what you’re like. You’re mad at him now, but by tomorrow you’ll be back at it, determined to solve the puzzle even if you have to smash it into pieces before you can put it back together.” She gave Sam a devilish smile. “You’re like him that way. Unstoppable.”
“I’m nothing like him.”
Chuckling, Sophia lifted the plate of fries and carried it with her to the door. “Of course not. You’re nothing like him.”
“I’m not!”
Sophia opened the door. “Zach told me to tell you he hopes you’re feeling better,” she said, walking outside.
There was no point in arguing with her; she was already out the door. Sam sighed. “Tell him I said thank you.”
Just before s
he turned away, Sophia added, “He also said not to take no for an answer. Not sure quite what he meant about that.” With another grin, she walked away.
Leaving Sam even more frustrated.
But then again, that’s what Stantons do.
It must be in their DNA.
Chapter 4
Asher knew that the questions would start immediately, but he expected them to come from Samantha.
Not his own brother.
Walking into his office without knocking, Gavin appeared, carrying a drooling baby dressed in gender-neutral yellow in his arms.
“Who do we have here?” Asher cooed, reaching for the baby, who clung like a monkey to Gavin’s half-buttoned cotton dress shirt, a few chest hairs caught in its chubby little fingers, making Gavin wince.
“Tobias.”
Standing, Asher rounded his desk, eager to hold his nephew. With outstretched hands, he felt a wave of warmth pulse through him, the lump in his throat less intense as time gave him more exposure to the babies. He’d been surprised by his own reaction to the twins, expecting he would avoid contact and have to come up with explanations for his low level of time spent with them.
Instead, he sought them out.
“Why can’t you dress them in blue for Tobias and pink for Dellie? At least we could tell them apart that way,” Asher said softly, using a light voice for the sake of the baby. Tobias looked like a small primate, bald head on Gavin’s chest, grinning with a tight smile, his chin quite red from teething.
“Lilah insists on never boxing them in to an identity.”
Rather than rolling his eyes, Asher merely chuckled. “Let me hold him.”
“He, uh—he’s going through a new phase,” Gavin explained as Tobias refused to let his little body move from his father to his uncle.
Disappointment rippled through Asher, but maturity overrode the desire to hold the baby. “I understand this is a developmental phase some babies go through earlier than others,” Asher declared. Later he would charm the child, but for now he demurred. “Does he do this to everyone?”
“Everyone. I can barely get him to let me hold him. But it’s a phase. He’ll change.”
Asher kissed the baby’s soft head and got a squeal of delight and a tight pull of a loose strand of his dark hair in return. “He’s strong!” Asher said, the tug barely registering in terms of pain but greatly in terms of amusement.
Gavin raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t come to talk about Tobias’ hair-pulling technique,” he said, wincing and peeling the baby’s fingers out of his chest hair, “though he’s mastered it to an art form.”
“Then to what do I owe this interruption?”
“What did you do to Sam yesterday?”
Gavin had always been blunt—too blunt for his own good, at times—but this bold question cut deeper than usual.
“I— Whatever do you mean?”
“Coyness does not look appealing on you, Asher. You were rushed here for a medical emergency, bringing my best scientist along for the ride after stalking her while she was on vacation, and now she asks you questions of great importance regarding LupiNex’s projects and the danger to the shifter world, and you refuse to answer?” Gavin gave him a hard look, the strange duality of his brother being both father and a hardcore interrogator disconcerting.
“Is that what she told you?”
“Is that what happened? Because frankly, I’m inclined to believe her over you. You’ve been acting very out of sorts lately. What, exactly, happened to you in Lincoln, Nebraska?”
“As I explained earlier, I had an injury from the fight with Mason Webb and Tomas that did not heal properly. Dr. Santino is changing my treatment plan to correct it.”
“That is one hell of a cover story. Now tell me the truth.”
Dammit.
“You say I’ve been acting ‘out of sorts.’ What have you observed?” Asher smiled at Tobias, who grinned back in return. A troubling thought snaked through him as he watched the baby. Had Gavin brought his own son to this meeting to soften Asher up? Was Tobias merely a distraction device Gavin was leveraging to weaken Asher’s resolve?
If so, he’d greatly underestimated his younger brother.
And worse—it was working.
“I am not going to play this game.” Gavin pivoted so that Tobias was out of view.
“What game?”
“The game where you try to pry all of the information I have out of me without giving one centimeter.”
“That’s not a game, brother. That is called being smart.”
“Then be smart alone. I am done. You listen to me,” he said severely, leaning in. “Lilah and I are living here with two vulnerable babies, safe inside the compound here, because you insisted. All of us are here now—all five Stantons, plus mates and children. We have two infants, a pregnant sister, and now the top scientist in the world for shifter blood issues and medical anomalies living at the ranch, along with everyone else. The combination of people unable to defend themselves and those most equipped to give us tools to win this is extraordinary. If you’re too pigheaded—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“If you are too stubborn to let down your guard and reach out for help from resources that are quite literally the only ones you can use to defeat whatever Tomas is unleashing, then you are putting my wife and my children at risk, and I won’t allow that to happen. Ever.”
The intensity of Gavin’s words broke though. If Asher’s wife and child were still alive, he would act the same way.
But they weren’t.
So he couldn’t.
“I understand. And you are right. I am hiding important information from all of you.”
“Spill it.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It really is, Asher. You’ve tried my patience. Just say it.”
“The closer I am to Tomas Nagy, the more I can see the world through his eyes.”
Gavin reared back, extreme doubt twisting his features. “That is your big secret? Any shrewd man knows to take the perspective of an enemy and try to strategize from their viewpoint.”
Slowly, with great reluctance, Asher slid out of his suit jacket, lifting up the fine weave of his cotton shirt over his left hip.
“What are you—” Gavin’s words died in his throat as Asher tilted his pelvis, pulling down the waistband of his slacks.
To reveal a dark, feline-shaped scar.
“Through his cat eyes.”
“Jesus.”
“No, he only makes an appearance in grilled cheese, not on shifter bodies,” Asher said dryly.
“This isn’t remotely funny, Asher.”
“Trust me. I know it is not.”
“Does Sam know?”
“Yes. She saw when I fainted on the helicopter, back in Nebraska.”
“So you did faint!” Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “Tomas was there, wasn’t he?”
Asher nodded. “Yes.”
“You saw him?”
“Unfortunately.”
“How close were you?”
“A few hundred yards apart. Our eyes met.”
“Did angels sing?”
“I thought you said this wasn’t funny, Gavin.”
“You’ve kept this from us? From all of us? Since the fight where Webb died and Tomas escaped?”
“I thought it was best.”
“You thought wrong. What does Sam think? Has she done lab tests on you? How do you see through his eyes? Through a cat’s eyes? You should have been working with her closely all along!”
The thought of getting close to Samantha made Asher’s throat go dry.
“There is more.”
Gavin shifted Tobias to his other hip. “Go on.”
“I… behaved abominably with Dr. Baird.” Closing his eyes, he drank down the last gulp of liquor in his glass, enjoying the burn along his throat. He deserved pain. Invited punishment. Perhaps a hair shirt and self-flogging were in order.
The
image of a flogger and Samantha’s bare ass made him close his eyes and compose himself, breath suddenly shaky.
“You always behave abominably with Dr. Sam,” Gavin said sourly, jostling baby Tobias on one hip, letting the child use his finger as a chew toy. “What cruelty did you inflict on her this time in an effort to show dominance and make her bend to your view of the world, Asher?”
“I kissed her.”
The confession was catharsis in action, and his brother reacted exactly as he had expected.
Jaw dropping, face going slack, and with a horror mirrored inside Asher’s chest.
“You kissed Dr. Sam? Sam? Samantha Baird? You… you kissed her?”
“Yes. It was a liberty I had no right to take, I assure you, and—”
“Took you long enough, brother.” Gavin’s throaty laugh made his baby giggle along, wide blue eyes like gemstones. As father and son turned to stare at him, Asher felt a muscle near his heart loosen, just enough to breathe with less effort, to stand with less rigidity.
To ground himself in place.
“You are laughing at me.” His eyes darted to tiny Tobias. “And you too.”
The baby drooled in response, grin widening.
“I am laughing with you, Asher. I’m laughing with joy at the fact that you’ve climbed over the wall you built around yourself and finally ventured out into the big, bright emotional world of the living. But good God, your timing is terrible.”
“Come now. I have not been that bad.”
Silence. Even the baby went still.
“You act as if putting my need for companionship aside for the sake of the greater good of the shifter world is some sort of character flaw, Gavin,” Asher scoffed, quickly assembling a harness and rope to climb right back over that wall Gavin just mentioned.
“If that were all that you did after Claire and the baby died, Asher, your behavior would have been understandable. But it’s been years, and you turned yourself into a walking slab of marble. Our brother died with them.”
“I am quite alive.”
“In every way but those that count.”