by Diana Seere
Tears filled her eyes. Instinct made him feel alarmed, but his human side pushed it away. These were tears of joy.
“When I saw Webb attacking you, I lost control. Utterly, madly lost all sense of myself. Your blood, your pain, all caused by him—caused by my failure to protect you—meant that I had to go beyond reason to make you safe. I’ve never done that before,” he confessed with a long, slow inhale. “Never shifted and attacked a man out of anger to protect someone I love.”
“Oh,” she said in a choked voice, pressing her forehead against his.
“But I would do it again. A thousand times over, if it meant making sure you were safe.”
She gave him a shaky smile, her sweet cheeks dimpling as her eyes glittered. “Thank you.” Her eyes went troubled. “But the other wolf. The one who attacked you?”
Ah, she was perceptive. “Asher.”
“Yes.”
Gavin gave a mirthless laugh. “He fought me because when I shifted in front of Webb, and you, I endangered the Stanton family. Possibly other shifter families. Revealed our secret. Our power. He considers my shift to be reckless.”
Should he tell her the rest? If he confessed that Asher had threatened to kick him out of the pack, would she love him less? She was so giving, so willing to sacrifice herself for those she loved.
Wracked with the push and pull of indecision, he went silent. Pensive. Unaccustomed to being unable to make a choice, Gavin felt a simmering anger grow inside. He needed to do something. Say something.
Make it clear that he would be with her no matter what.
“Reckless?” she asked, pulling back, a worried look on her face. Gavin wanted to kiss her concern away.
“He wants me to make a choice.”
Her soft curves, so intoxicating under his hands, went stiff. “A choice? What do you mean?”
Brutal, preternatural instinct made Gavin leap to his feet as a deep voice behind them interrupted. His unease had been justified.
“He has to choose between you or his family,” Asher said, walking into the room and shutting the door behind him.
Chapter 20
Surprised by Asher’s entrance, Lilah instinctively covered her breasts with her arms and turned aside in a huddle. But then the meaning of his words sunk in—he’d threatened to push Gavin out of the family?—and anger blasted away her modesty. She dropped her arms and jumped to her feet next to Gavin, her determination giving her muscles more strength than she’d ever felt before. They were united. They were One. They would face this together.
Gavin was less comfortable with her nudity, however, and rushed to cover her with a white cashmere blanket that had fallen off the upturned sofa. For his sake she took it, slowly wrapping it around her torso, determined to show Gavin’s arrogant bastard of a brother that she wasn’t afraid of him.
She fixed her gaze on this man who seemed determined to destroy her beloved’s happiness. “What did you say?”
Looking bored, Asher adjusted his diamond cuff links. He wore an elegant dark suit that matched his inky hair and set off his blue eyes. Eyes that reminded her of Gavin’s, but were darker, like a stormy sky. “He thinks he loves you. But although you are obviously lovely, you can’t offer him the permanence and connection his own kind can provide.”
She stood taller, outrage flooding her veins.
“Lilah, it’s all right,” Gavin said, putting his arm around her. “I’ve chosen you. Truly, there was never any doubt.”
Ignoring Gavin’s attempt to soothe her, she pointed at Asher. “Who are you to make that decision?”
One of his dark eyebrows arched. “Who are you to demand I explain myself?”
“I’m his”—she found the right word resting in her soul—“mate. His One.”
Asher smirked. “I doubt that very much.”
His mockery inflamed her like a lit match in a drum of gasoline. She shook off Gavin’s embrace. “I don’t care what you doubt. You’re”—her mouth tightened with rage—“damaged. Bitter. You’re miserable and want Gavin to suffer with you in your cold, lonely life—”
Gavin put a hand on her shoulder. “Lilah, please. There’s nothing to argue about. I’ve made my choice.”
She turned on him. “It’s a miserable choice! You can’t give up your family for me. Even a normal person shouldn’t have to do that, but with you, with people like you, you’re different, you need your own kind or you’ll be isolated, vulnerable, far too alone—”
“Listen to her, Gavin,” Asher said, looking smug. “Even she can see the truth. You belong in your own world.”
“I belong with her,” Gavin said calmly. “We’ll be going now. Asher, if you’d be so kind as to leave us, Lilah and I can get dressed and depart.”
“No!” Lilah spun away from both of them. Something twitched deep inside her, like a fist unclenching.
Or a fist forming.
“You’re not giving up so easily,” she said, her voice low and ragged.
Gavin smiled at her, his eyes full of love. “It’s fine, darling. I have you. I’ll always have you.”
How could he be so calm? This was terrible. And so unnecessary. She lifted her arms, hungry to punch in Asher’s arrogant face, but they felt stiff and awkward.
The towel was a nuisance, and her fingers couldn’t seem to hold it. Besides, why would she need fabric to cover herself? She wasn’t cold. Her body was quite warm, even hot. She dug her bare toes into the floor, piercing her nails into the wood beneath, and tensed her legs to leap. Her teeth sharpened, scraping across her lips as she drew back to bite. She was going to attack, to prove her strength the way she was born to do...
“Lilah?” Gavin’s voice held a tone she’d never heard before.
Astonishment.
Wild strength filled her muscles, toughened her bones. She lifted her head and smelled Asher’s fear.
She wasn’t imagining it, either; she smelled it. She drew it into her lungs, amazed by the sensations washing over her: the sound of Gavin’s heartbeat, the taste of the leg of lamb on the tongue of a man in the lounge, the cold draft from a secret entrance behind the bookcase to their right...
“She’s beginning to shift,” Gavin said.
“Impossible,” Asher said, but he was stepping away from her, his voice unsteady.
Shifting? She held up an arm and saw the veins throbbing under her paper-thin skin. Pale-gray hair dusted her forearms, and her fingers were shortening, claws forming...
Aware of a new strength, she approached Asher, still angry and wanting justice, but Gavin’s arms came around her from behind.
“Lilah—”
She leapt out of his arms. Asher’s fear was irresistible. She wanted to taste more of it. But as she braced to pounce, Gavin tackled her. His touch distracted her for a moment.
You, she thought wildly. Mine.
“Don’t forget who you are,” Gavin gasped. “Lilah. You’re Lilah. You mustn’t lose yourself.”
She didn’t want to hurt him. She couldn’t ever hurt this one. For just a moment, she would let him hold her in place.
“Look at me, my love,” he said, turning her. “Look into my eyes. Say my name.”
Those blue eyes spoke to her through the tumult in her mind. My name. She opened her mouth to speak but found she couldn’t.
“Say it,” Gavin said.
Her body seemed to get softer. Her arms hurt where his fingers dug into them. Why was he so upset? He sounded angry. Her thoughts were buried under a red, angry mist. All she wanted was to get close to Asher and demand he accept her and his brother both. She would make him.
Gavin held her face, forced her to look into his eyes. “Say my name.”
This time she moved her lips to speak. After a moment she managed to say, “Gavin,” and the sound was rough and distorted to her own ears.
He embraced her, lifting her off the floor, and she realized he was weeping. Her body suddenly felt small and soft, merely a weak human being. Her mind began to c
lear.
Over several long, heavy seconds, she realized what had happened.
“I shifted,” she said, wrapping her arms around him, wondering at the mysteries of the world.
“Almost. You started.” Gavin’s embrace was so tight she gasped. “I should’ve believed it all. After accepting that you were the One, why not believe all of it?”
“She was already a shifter,” Asher accused. “She hid the truth from you.”
“No, you fool.” Gavin set Lilah on the floor. “The legend is true. Believe it!”
Still unsteady from partially shifting, Lilah rested her cheek on Gavin’s chest and looked at Asher, who slumped against the wall near the door.
“I can’t,” Asher whispered.
Lilah wasn’t going to let Asher’s uncharacteristic moment of weakness go to waste. “If I’m not a human anymore, does that mean you’ll accept me into the family?”
“You were always a shifter,” Asher said. “It’s the only explanation.”
“Believe what you like,” Lilah said, “so long as you accept our—”
“Marriage,” Gavin finished.
She’d been about to say “mating,” but marriage was better.
Oh, much, much better. She gazed up at the One, her heart bursting. “I love you,” she said.
“Lilah, you don’t realize what this means,” Gavin said, “but it means everything.”
“You mean everything.”
He smiled, his cheeks streaked with tears. “Darling. Only with you.”
Touching his face, she wondered at his grief. “Don’t worry. I kind of liked it. Shifting. Will you help me when I do it again?”
He closed his eyes. “Oh, my love,” he whispered.
“Well, will you?”
“Just try to get rid of me.” Gavin ran a hand through her hair, tilting her head back as he lowered his lips to hers. “Leave us now, will you Asher?”
Silence.
Gavin looked up. “Now,” he growled.
Finally, Asher opened the door. “Come to the ranch at the next new moon. Both of you. We have much to discuss.”
When he closed the door behind him, Gavin was already pulling Lilah onto the floor with him.
Lifting Lilah’s exhausted, sleeping body into the limousine, he motioned for Manny to drive them to his penthouse apartment, his mind spinning. Her face was angelic in sleep. The night’s events were surreal.
Unreal.
His phone buzzed with a text. Eva. She wrote:
I assume Lilah’s with you.
Gavin tapped back:
Yes. Consider this her resignation.
Eva replied:
Pity. She was one of our best servers.
A smile twitched on Gavin’s lips as he answered:
She has a sister.
Eva’s reply was instantaneous:
Ms. Jessica Murphy will be hearing from Xavier Rand.
His finger hesitated over the glowing glass screen, uncertain. If he asked Eva about Lilah’s shifting, he made it public knowledge. Asher had been completely disassembled by the event. Confounded.
Dumbstruck.
Gavin had never seen his brother taken unaware like that. It shook him to the core. Just as the legend of the One and the Beat were considered old wives’ tales by the Stanton family and most reputable shifters, the idea that a human could become a shifter without the known methods for transformation was unthinkable. He and Lilah had not accessed any of the traditional pathways for a human to become one of them. Her shift was unprecedented.
It went beyond foolish legends all the way into the alchemy of magic.
With a shudder, Gavin looked at Lilah, his hand stroking her arm. Her steady breath was long and slow. Sleep overtook her after they made love, and he’d tenderly dressed her. Manny had been at the ready, as if he knew what to expect.
Of course he had. Asher must have told him.
But told him what, exactly?
The limousine pulled into the private bay in the underground parking garage, and Gavin moved Lilah’s prone form from the leather interior to the private elevator reserved solely for his apartment. The glide up was silent. Manny stayed with the limo.
As Gavin carried Lilah across the threshold, the thrill of imagining his future wedding, his bride, being carried in the same way made him release his worries.
Yet the mystery persisted. How had she shifted like that?
“Gavin?” she moaned in his arms as he set her gently on the bed, sliding off her shoes and untying her dress.
“Yes, my love?” he whispered.
“We need to return my dress. And Eva is going to kill me for disappearing like that,” she said in a mumbled voice, still more asleep than awake. “Again.”
“Shhhhh,” he urged, pulling the thick coverlet over her. He kissed her cheek and stepped back, taking her in.
Perfection.
The wide fullness of her hips would make her a powerful mate when she adopted her full wolf form. That keen sense of caring for others’ emotional needs would make her a valuable member of any pack that needed cohesion and a sense of community, of belonging.
If any family needed that, it was the Stantons.
She would become a strong alpha female, his partner for the rest of their lives.
His mind screeched to a halt.
Lives.
Their lifetimes did not match up.
He shoved a fist hard against his mouth as if to stifle the sound of pain at the thought, then rubbed his palm across his stubbled chin. Realizing he would outlive her felt like being stabbed in the chest. His throat tightened, and a vibration of tremendous sorrow thrummed through him, soundless but impossible to ignore.
And yet...she had transformed. Shifted. Humans could not do that.
What, exactly, was Lilah Murphy now?
A sweet smile curled the corners of her mouth as she turned over on her belly, hugging a pillow, a long sigh of contentment bursting from her.
Asher had to be wrong. Lilah would never lie about being a shifter, and besides, the Novo Club members knew exactly who was—and was not—one of their kind. A simple sniff test proved it.
No shifter could make love to a fellow shifter and not know it.
The Beat. The One. Gavin and Lilah were fated for this, and the implications of her shift left him reeling.
A solitary man, Gavin rarely talked about his feelings. Sarcastic jabs and one-offs with his brothers filled the space inside him that needed such conversation. Right now, though, for the first time since his youth, he wished for an elder. A mother or father to turn to for help, for guidance. A family historian he could ask questions of, for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Both of his parents were gone.
He had no one. Asher was the closest, and it would be a cold day in hell before he’d turn to him again for anything. Asher was the current patriarch of the family by accident of being born first.
The clouds that covered the moon parted, shining moonlight through the sheer curtains of his patio doors. The light caught a gold glint on a book on one of the lower shelves of his bookcase.
It fairly glowed.
Distracted, he walked over to the bookcase. Might as well. The bottle of scotch was in the middle of it, in the small library bar.
First, he poured himself three fingers. Second, he drank it. And third, he reached for the book.
The letters swam before his eyes, the language vaguely familiar. Something not quite Hungarian, not quite Russian, not quite anything.
A language his father had told him was outlawed in his great-grandfather’s time.
Cracking open the book, the strong scent of aging parchment filled his nose. A series of disjointed images raced through his mind like snapshots from a bygone era. They flowed through him like a spring stream, impossible to remember yet leaving the essence of a rush. The book smelled like knowledge. Insight.
Answers.
Lilah made a tiny, feminine sound of contentment as Gavin relaxed
into a leather chair next to her, turned on a small reading lamp and settled in, understanding perfectly the language that just moments ago he could not read.
Sunlight greeted Lilah like a lover’s kiss as she opened her eyes. Confusion blanketed her with a quick panic until she realized she was in Gavin’s bed. Before she even rolled over, she felt under the covers. Her dress and shoes were gone, nylons stripped away, and she wore only panties.
And Gavin’s scent.
The best fashion of all.
As she inhaled deeply, the world seemed more textured, filled with nuance and possibility. She could smell it, the odors firing her brain, making synapses connect, layering her senses and expanding her understanding of the world.
Stretching, her joints felt stronger, bigger, more powerful, and as she turned she saw him.
Hers.
Gavin had fallen asleep in a deep club chair between the bed and an old oak bookcase. A cracked-leather book rested, spine up, in his lap. She looked at the title but couldn’t understand the foreign language.
Her eyes crawled over his face, taking in his rare innocence. In sleep, he looked like a little boy. She wondered if their little boy would look like this, with high cheekbones, long lashes blonde at the ends, a light flush across the bones where the corners of his eyes faded into his temples.
With mussed hair and in the throes of slumber, he was breathtaking. Last night’s activities washed over her in a sudden push of memory.
Her hands flew to her face, her arms, her nude belly.
Her entire body.
That hadn’t been a dream?
She had really...shifted?
Clearing her throat, she sniffed and was nearly blinded by a rush of color and whimsy, detail and sensation. It was as if her nose could process sound and sight. Taste and touch.
What was this?
She stood, her head aching. Coffee. She needed coffee. She might be a wolf (might? what?) but she was still human enough to know a caffeine-deprived headache. Wearing only panties and not caring one bit, she walked quietly out of Gavin’s bedroom and into the wide expanse of his living room.
