The Billionaire Shifter's Second Chance (Billionaire Shifters Club Book 3)

by Diana Seere

  “How could I not feel it?” Molly confessed, confused by the question. “If he was less than ten inches, I’d—”

  “Not that! Did you feel… it? You know.”

  It?

  “What are you talking about, Jess?”

  The room began to spin, a glow chasing away her anger, forcing it to spend time in a corner of her mind, still there, ever waiting.

  Jess clearly struggled with some inner decision, her face reflecting scores of emotions until she squared her shoulders, leaned in and touched the same wrist Edward had just held a half an hour ago, and whispered:

  “Did you feel the Beat?”

  Chapter 15

  They would smell her all over him, he thought as he crossed the threshold, bracing himself for the inevitable, his body primed for confrontation and determined to win.

  Good.

  Let them smell her. The claim would be clear.

  The long oak table was at a high shine, glossy and wide, like a boat one embarked to go on a life’s journey. Over a dozen pairs of eyes stared at him as he slammed the thick door and marched in, wearing hastily thrown-on clothes and a shirt with buttonholes that didn’t match the buttons. Asher’s face was a mask of disgust tinged with cold, calculated evaluation. He said nothing as Edward took a seat between Lilah and Derry, his gaze on Gavin, who spoke with great emotion.

  Edward didn’t catch his words at first, though, because Derry leaned over and whispered, “Aren’t you an olfactory feast?” His long, slow inhale made Edward homicidal. The last thing he needed was to commit fratricide tonight.

  He focused on the room.

  Asher was at the head of the table, of course, with Miklos Nagy at the other end. Nero Rosini and old Ragnar Jensen were at the cross points, but the Stantons and Nagys always held more power in the shifter world.

  Edward took it all in with a roving eye and a pulse-pounding sense of destiny. Derry was to his left, then Sophia, followed by Asher. Rounding the curve of the table, the Jensens began, with Ragnar Jensen, then his sons, Lars, Johann, and Bjorn, who sat next to Florence Nagy, then Eva (a cousin), Tomas, Gregor, and at six o’clock, Miklos Nagy. The gaggle of whispering, rude Rosinis stretched on interminably, three of them on their phones until Nero silenced them all with a look.

  Morgan was behind them, standing in the shadows as he preferred. If Asher knew the old man’s secrets, he’d never shared them with Edward. Nobody doubted that Morgan, a fixture at the Novo Club, belonged here tonight.

  Lilah sat between Liliana Rosini and Gavin, her face calm, her scent anything but.

  Lilah’s scent. It had changed. He didn’t smell just fear.

  A covert glance at Gavin confirmed what Edward suspected.

  Ah.

  He smothered a smile. Becoming an uncle would be fun.

  And then he remembered Asher’s wife, Claire, and the horrific birth. She’d been a human too.

  Gavin clenched Lilah’s hand like it was a life preserver. Edward wasn’t sure who was saving whom.

  “Gavin, now that we’re all assembled and our attentions are no longer split,” Asher said, his eyes cutting over to Edward, “please continue. You,” he said to Edward with a side-eyed glance, “missed the ritual Gathering Shift. We’ve moved on to discussing business.”

  Edward didn’t mind missing the ritual. He’d been engaged in far more primal instincts back at the cabin.

  Ragnar Jensen cleared his throat, rheumy eyes on Lilah. “Shouldn’t we wait until we’re alone?”

  Gavin stiffened.

  Edward groaned inwardly. While he’d never attended a true Gathering, he knew that the first order of business for this meeting would be a display of egos. Each patriarch, like a male peacock, needed to strut and show his feathers.

  “Lilah is my wife,” Gavin said through gritted teeth.

  “Your human wife.”

  Lilah’s eyes darted to Gavin, deferring.

  “We’ve discussed this, Ragnar,” Asher answered on Gavin’s behalf. Even Asher seemed short of patience for the old man’s blustering. “She is more than human at this point.”

  “Yet she has not borne a child. How could she shift?”

  Lars Jensen coughed, then said, “The Book. She can read the Book. She’s like the legends, Father. We’ve discussed this, remember?”

  The look on Ragnar Jensen’s face made it clear he did not believe.

  And the shock and disbelief in Liliana Rosini’s eyes made it abundantly clear that the poor woman had been kept in the dark about Lilah.

  “We are not gathered to discuss my wife,” Gavin hissed, baring his teeth as if he had fangs. “We’re here to talk about the theft of a serum that could destroy our world as we know it.”

  “A serum you invented,” Miklos Nagy said, his voice neutral.

  Gavin sighed and stood, his palms flat on the thick table, his stance menacing. “If you want to point fingers and assign blame, be my guest. None of that will change reality. Someone has stolen a serum that can stop a shifter from shifting.”

  “Because of you,” Tomas said with a sneer.

  Gavin arched one eyebrow. He didn’t need to say a word, because everyone in the room knew that Tomas had worked for LupiNex and left under less-than-ideal circumstances.

  Edward really, really despised the man. As if he sensed the thought, Tomas stared at him, nostrils twitching.

  That’s right, Edward thought.

  Smell her. She’s allllll over me.

  He smirked at Tomas, who shot him a shaky, disconcerted look before going back to a frown.

  “Three days ago,” Gavin announced in a loud voice, pretending not to hear the groans and whispers at the table, plowing forward with his agenda, “someone stole the serum, the blood samples from which the serum was made, and—”

  “Molly’s blood, you mean,” Edward challenged. His heart slammed in his chest as he stopped breathing. He found himself standing suddenly on his feet with hands clenched. Hot breath poured out of him in short pants, the beard around his mouth warming.

  Lilah looked at Gavin in horror. “Molly? What does Molly have to do with this?” One hand crept to her belly, flattening, her other reaching for a bubbly soft drink in front of her. Pale and disturbed, she looked like she was on the threshold of being sick.

  Sophia reached for Derry’s wrist and whispered, “Did you know Molly was involved?”

  He shook his head, bright blue eyes moving to Asher instantly, then narrowing. “No.”

  “Who is Molly?” Ragnar Jensen asked, confused, his gaze meeting Florence Nagy’s, the two sharing a bemused look.

  Gavin held his hands out, palms down, in a calming gesture. “Let me explain the story, and then you can ask all the questions you like.”

  “I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark,” growled Miklos, his look imposing, clever eyes scanning the room.

  “No one has been kept in the dark,” Gavin said gruffly.

  Lilah snorted.

  Asher’s eyebrow flew up in a rare show of emotion.

  “Molly Sloan is an employee of the Platinum Club,” Gavin said. “She is a human with a rare genetic sequence that bridges the human and shifter world. For reasons that are too complicated to explain now and that are not pertinent to the emergency, we have been harvesting her blood—I knew her only as Donor Twenty-Eight until three days ago—by pretending to be the Boston Blood Center. She donates every six weeks, her blood used in the development of a serum designed to shut off the shifter genes.”

  “Why would anyone not want to be a shifter?” Nero Rosini asked in horror. “Might as well cut off a man’s balls!”

  “Nero!” Florence gasped.

  He looked chastened but continued. “What is the purpose of this research, Gavin?”

  “The purpose was pure science. To see what could be accomplished. And also to develop practical applications, such as—”

  “And as a result, we now have a madman running about with a serum that can turn him into a shif
ter,” Asher announced.

  “Wait—I thought you said the serum had the opposite effect?” Florence interrupted.

  Gavin sighed. “It’s complicated.”

  Whispers and murmurs filled the room.

  “And Molly’s blood. You said it was stolen,” Edward announced. He couldn’t let go of the importance, of reminding the group that she was in danger.

  Gavin and Asher shared a disturbing look. “Yes. It would not be difficult for a determined individual to identify her. We thought we’d employed enough levels of security, hiding her identity even to ourselves within a large group of other anonymous, numbered donors…”

  “But you’ve kept the truth from her,” Edward said in a low, even voice through gritted teeth.

  Florence and Miklos gave him a meaningful look.

  “Is this woman Molly someone you care for, Edward?” Florence asked, her voice soft and compassionate.

  Tomas laughed, the sound cruel and sharp. “Can’t you smell the woman on him, Mother? We all know exactly why he was late. While we were eating dinner, Edward was eating—”

  His mother cut him off with a severe look.

  A better man would have answered Florence. A better man would have popped Tomas in the face. A better man would have run out of the room, grabbed Molly, and whisked her away to safety.

  Edward, though, wasn’t certain what kind of man he was, and so instead of doing any of those things, he turned to Asher, ignored the curious looks, and said, “She deserves to know.”

  Surprisingly, it was not Asher who responded but Gavin.

  “Absolutely not. It would only increase the danger. To us and to her.”

  Followed by Lilah, who jumped to her feet, hot-faced and livid, and squared off against her husband, her finger poking his chest.

  “Absolutely yes! Molly was in our wedding, Gavin. She’s a very good friend. I can’t believe you’d keep her in the dark like this.”

  The look on Gavin’s face—a mix of outrage at being confronted in public by his own wife and the need to placate her—made Derry and Sophia burst out into laughter. Edward wasn’t even close to that same reaction, though.

  He was far too furious.

  “The entire shifter world is at risk. We are protecting the human by not telling her,” Asher declared.

  Lilah whirled on him. “The human? The human? You’re half human too, you know! You turn her into some kind of object that you control when you call her that! She has a name. It’s Molly.”

  Edward was starting to really, really like his new sister-in-law.

  Before Gavin could reply, his wife spoke again. “And I’m sure that if it were a man who had this special blood, you’d damn well tell him!” Lilah added, poking Gavin again.

  Sophia and Liliana Rosini sat up.

  “Yeah, Asher and Gavin,” Sophia said in a chilly voice. “Would you have a different reaction if she were a man?”

  “Oh God, not this feminist crap,” Gregor groaned.

  “For the record,” Gavin said in a gravelly voice, his focus on Lilah but his finger pointed at Gregor, “I did not just say that.” He leaned in, forehead touching hers, his hand going to her stomach. “Lilah, honey. In your condition, it’s understandable that you would be extra-emotional about everything.”

  “Condition?” Asher’s one-word question sounded like an icicle dropping from a twelve-story building.

  Gavin’s eyes flashed with pride. “Lilah is pregnant. Six weeks along.”

  The room filled with the sound of congratulations, but Lilah didn’t respond. Instead, she shook her head slowly, stepping out of Gavin’s arms.

  “You’re blaming the fact that I have an opinion that differs from yours on my ‘condition’?” She used finger quotes.

  “Oh no,” Derry whispered into his hand. “When they use the finger quotes, all hope is lost. Surrender your testicles at the corner of I’m Sorry and What Was I Thinking.”

  “No, I—”

  She cut Gavin off. “If a deranged enemy of the shifter world has managed to break into your lab, get past your security, steal the blood and all the serums that LupiNex developed, and you consider this to be a crisis so major that you’re convening the four most powerful shifter families in the world, don’t you think the one person who knows nothing about the danger she’s in should be forewarned?”

  Gavin planted his hands on his hips and towered over her, staring down. “I think that years of working on shifter DNA and being part of the shifter world for my entire lifetime makes me more of an expert on this issue than you, Lilah. I think you need to calm down and rest.” His eyes floated to her belly.

  “And you’re blaming my hormones on the fact that I think you’re a pigheaded, paternalistic, chauvinistic control freak who is denying Molly valuable information about her own body and her own fate!”

  Her mouth tight, face shiny with sweat, fists curled into balls, Lilah dodged a well-meaning caress from her husband and stormed out of the room, slamming the thick oak door behind her.

  “MEN!” she shouted from the other side of the threshold.

  The room crackled with silence.

  Derry was the first to speak, holding up a glass of port in a halfhearted toast to Gavin.

  “That went well,” Derry said drolly.

  Edward swore he winked.

  Trying to sober up so she could think clearly, Molly was drinking club soda when Lilah burst into the room with her eyes blazing.

  “That impossible… insufferable… arrogant… controlling… man!” Lilah punched the air. Her face was deeply flushed and shining with perspiration.

  “What did Asher do now?” Jess asked.

  “Not Asher. Gavin!”

  Thinking of the unannounced pregnancy—not wanting her to faint—Molly jumped up and hurried over to her. “Hey, what happened?” She put an arm around Lilah’s waist. “Why don’t you sit down?”

  “This Scotch is gone,” Jess said, kicking the empty bottle with her toe (it had fallen on the floor), “but I found more. Want a hit?” Grinning, she slumped back on the sofa and held up the new bottle as if it were the Olympic flame.

  “I need to hit something,” Lilah said, pushing Molly’s hands away. “This anger can’t be good for the baby.”

  Jess blinked. “What baby?”

  Molly and Lilah looked at each other.

  “For a future doctor, she’s kind of oblivious, isn’t she?” Molly asked.

  Lilah’s fury cooled enough to allow her to manage a fleeting smile. “Hopefully she won’t go into obstetrics.”

  Jess jumped to her feet. “What are you talking about?” Grabbing the edge of the sofa for balance, she gaped at Lilah’s midsection. “Oh my God, there’s a baby in there.”

  “Took you long enough,” Lilah said. “I’ve been hinting for two weeks.”

  Jess stumbled over and grabbed Lilah’s stomach. “When does it come out?”

  “Listen to you,” Lilah said, snorting. “This is how you’re going to talk to patients, Ms. Future Doctor?”

  “Hopefully, she won’t have a bottle of whisky in her bloodstream when she’s doctoring people,” Molly said.

  “Hopefully,” Lilah agreed.

  “Congratulations, by the way. I didn’t have a chance to say anything earlier.” Molly settled for squeezing Lilah from the side because Jess was in the way. “You’re literally glowing. I didn’t think you could get any more beautiful. How far along are you?”

  Lilah tried to smile, but she was still obviously upset. “Just over six weeks. But I’m not sure I can survive eight more months of Gavin being a caveman. Especially after—” She cut herself off, shaking her head.

  Jess suddenly bent over and pressed her face into Lilah’s belly. “Hello in there, little lady.”

  “We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl,” Lilah said.

  “Gavin knows you’re pregnant?” Jess asked.

  “Nah, I thought I’d keep it a secret for a few more years,” Lilah said. Th
en she scowled. “He’d deserve that, the arrogant turd. Then he’d know how it feels to be kept in the dark about something of vital importance to him personally.”

  Molly didn’t want to interrupt the pregnancy announcement between sisters, but she couldn’t take it anymore. “What happened in the meeting, Lilah?” she begged. “Please, I need to know what’s going on.”

  Lilah gently pushed Jess away from her belly, where she was cooing and mumbling, and grabbed Molly’s arm. “We need to talk. You’re in danger.”

  Her tone sent chills down Molly’s back. “What? No, I don’t think— What did you hear?”

  “You must’ve noticed that Morgan has been shadowing you,” Lilah said.

  “As if I’m a shoplifter,” Molly spat. “How could I not notice? I won’t be surprised if he searches my luggage before I go back to Boston.”

  Lilah’s eyes widened. “You think they suspect you of something?”

  “Obviously. But whatever Edward knows, he’s not telling.” Molly ran her fingers through her hair, knowing it had to look terrible from rolling around in bed—and on the counter, and in the antique limo—with Edward. The quick shower afterward had only made it worse. “I know I’m just an employee, but I’d appreciate a little more trust than that. I’ve been with the club for years now, handling large accounts for the clothes and shoes and accessories and everything. If they found some kind of error in the books, I wish they’d give me the benefit of the doubt and just ask me—”

  Lilah gripped her shoulders. “Molly, no! They don’t suspect you of doing anything wrong. They know you haven’t. Please don’t think that’s it.”

  “You don’t know that. You’re just—” Molly cut herself off. She didn’t want to insult Lilah, but she was just a former waitress and… a human, like Molly. The Stantons and other families must have secrets they keep only to themselves.

  “Just a wife?” Lilah asked.

  “I’m sorry. I hope you know what I mean.”

  “Unfortunately, I know all too well,” Lilah said, the color rising in her cheeks again. “That’s why I’m so angry. They think they know best; they assume they can handle everything by themselves… No. This time I have to interfere. Molly, they aren’t afraid of you, they’re afraid for you.” Her voice shook with emotion. “And so am I.”