by Diana Seere
It took every ounce of strength she possessed to put her hand on his and push it away—instead of moving it down to the hot, needy center between her legs. “Remember, Zach,” she said, somewhat breathlessly, “you need to learn control. Without it, Asher will never give you total freedom.”
He growled, buried his head in her hair for a moment, inhaling deeply, then released her. “You’re right,” he said. “Sorry.”
God, how she wanted him. Swallowing hard, she led him up the stone steps to the massive wood door and pushed it open.
“Cool door,” Zach said. “Was it crafted by hand?”
Without thinking, she replied honestly. “A former lover installed it ages ago when I rejected his marriage proposal.”
Zach froze in the doorway. “You dumped him, and he gave you a door?”
“I think he meant for it to show how I let him in once but then locked him out forever.”
After a long moment, Zach crossed the threshold. “I see you kept the door.”
She cringed. Mentioning former lovers was probably a mistake. “It’s a nice door.”
“Unlocked, ironically.”
Hearing the so-very-male insecurity in his voice, she put her hand on his shoulder. “It is locked to him.”
And with that small touch, an electrical current shot through her arm and throughout her body, setting her on fire.
Oh God, oh God. She felt the thick muscle of his bicep through his torn shirt and began shaking with the urge to tear it away, press her lips to his hot male skin, and taste her way around his body until he shouted her name.
Sophia, he said in her mind.
Trembling with frustration, she buried her face in her hands. “Zach, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” She looked up into his eyes. “I’m supposed to be the one showing you how to control yourself and your urges, but…” She trailed off, her mouth going dry.
His voice dropped an octave. “But?”
To hell with it. She flung her arms around his neck and pressed against his hard body. “I want you again now.”
“Thank God.” He thrust his hand under her coat, between her legs, and dragged the fabric of her ruined dress up over her hips, sliding his palm over her wet folds as he clamped his mouth over hers.
She flung a hand behind her for balance, knocking over a lamp on the marble table near the hall closet. When she twisted away to pick up the lamp, he caught her around the waist and tackled her to the thick Persian rug. The sunken living room was just around the corner, and several bedrooms were available upstairs, but neither of them were willing to wait that long. She could feel his desire as if it were her own.
He tore his pants off—not bothering with the fastener or zipper first—and climbed on top of her. She reached up to his shirt, fumbled with the buttons, and then pushed it off his broad shoulders and down his arms with a slow attention to detail she could only manage because she’d just had him. But it felt too long ago, and her body was already aching for him and his for her.
“Your scars,” she whispered, frowning. “From—”
“My first shift.”
Kissing a line down from collarbone to bicep, she felt him groan, muscles tight in some places, loosening in others.
She reached down for his cock, hard and massive, and wrapped her fingers around it as she sucked his tongue into her mouth. He groaned, sliding to one side so his hip was on the floor, protecting her from his weight, and she wriggled down to kiss him, holding his erection with two hands as she prepared to guide it between her lips—
Just as the front door opened.
“Oh! Excuse me!” It was her sister-in-law, Lilah.
The door slammed shut.
“Oh no,” Sophia muttered, reluctantly lifting her head away from the pleasure in her hands.
“Don’t stop,” Zach said, tunneling his fingers through her hair.
Well, Lilah had gone… and slammed the door behind her…
Sophia slid his cock into her mouth and delighted in the sound of Zach’s moaning, the jerking of his body.
The door opened again. “I don’t care if she just got out of the shower,” Gavin was saying, “shifters abandoned modesty eons ago—”
Zach sat up and put his arms around Sophia, who was completely naked except for the shredded remains of her dress and a pair of high heels. Cute of him to try to shield her but rather hopeless given his massive cock jammed in her mouth. She removed it, brushing away wetness from the corner of her mouth with an overly dainty gesture.
“Gavin,” Sophia said, lifting her chin and staying where she was. “How nice of you to drop in.”
Her second-oldest brother recoiled, covering his eyes with one arm. “Oh for God’s sake, Lilah said you were getting out of the shower.”
“Not yet,” Sophia said, “but we probably will soon. Do you want an estimated time for that so you can come back then?”
A choking sound drew her attention to her companion. Blushing furiously, he was doing his best imitation of the crimson Persian rug under their naked bottoms.
She took pity on him. “Gavin, do you mind waiting outside? Zach… We want some privacy. Please.” She put steel in her voice. Gavin could be as impossible as Asher when it came to their only sister.
Gavin had recovered from his shock and was now scowling at Zach. “For his sake, I pray this interaction was voluntary, Sophia,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “Asher was just telling me—”
Sophia got to her feet, indifferent to her nudity. Gavin was right; as shifters, they were so frequently undressed in front of one another, modesty was a foolish affectation. “Don’t listen to Asher,” she said. “He’s so worried about Tomas, he can’t think straight.”
“I swear to God, Mr. Stanton,” Zach said, reverting back to his old identity as the devoted scientist in Gavin’s biotech firm, “I would never touch your sister unless she invited me to.”
“And being Sophia, of course she did,” Gavin said sourly, shaking his head.
“Hey,” Sophia said.
“Asher needs to talk to all of us together now that we’re here,” Gavin said, turning to the door. “And Lilah’s waiting outside. Now I know why she looked like she was about to give birth on your front step. I want to get her back to the house so she can rest. We just arrived. She and I were both hoping you could see to her as soon as… ah… is convenient. She has some cramping I don’t like.”
“I imagine she doesn’t like it either,” Sophia said.
Zach had put on his pants, but the fly was ripped, and they kept falling down. He shoved his hands in his pockets to hold them up, looking to Sophia’s eyes rather manly in spite of the situation. Shirtless was a good look for him. He had just the right amount of hair dusting his chest—dark and thick but not gorilla. The happy trail pointed right at the broken zipper, reminding her of the pleasures her family had interrupted.
“Sophia,” Gavin snapped.
“What?”
He shook his head in disgust. “Please come to the main house as soon as possible.” His scowl deepened. “Alone.”
She moved to Zach’s side, caught his hand in hers. “Why alone?”
“It’s a family meeting,” Gavin said. “Family.” He stepped outside and closed the door between them.
“You’re an only child, yes?” she asked Zach, who looked perplexed by the question.
“Yes. Why?”
“That sounds heavenly right now.”
Chapter 7
Sophia let out a frustrated groan, a sound like pebbles being rolled down a rocky slope, her mouth tight with anger and her face red as Zach tried to breathe in and out of his nose, devolved back to basics.
In. Out. Flex. Clench. Stretch. Blink.
Gavin Stanton, the founder and CEO of LupiNex, and Zach’s boss, had just found him naked with the man’s sister’s lips wrapped around Zach’s cock.
That alone violated at least thirteen workplace employment policies. And if Sophia had actually succeeded in ge
tting that pinky finger where it had been headed before the front door opened a second time, make it fourteen.
His zipper was broken, so his hands remained curled into fists in his pockets, holding up the waistband, the fabric scratching against his bare ass. It tickled, but the sensation came from a mile away, blood rushing through him at breakneck speed as he tried to process everything that had happened to him.
What had happened since waking up alone in a strange bed and finding himself Asher Stanton’s prisoner on a ranch in the middle of Nowhere, Montana, wasn’t exactly in his mental repertoire of experiences. Not even imagined experiences. He had to make it up as he went along, which was becoming wearyingly familiar.
Most of the past year had been nothing but pain for Zach. Literal pain as his body had nearly killed him. Mending pain as his bones knitted back together, longer and stronger, tendons stretching and morphing to find new attachments.
One of the nurses who’d helped him during his recovery had joked that he was like Humpty Dumpty until Zach had pointed out that no—it was like Humpty Dumpty had an extra half shell and someone needed to re-shatter him to make all the pieces fit.
Asher Stanton was doing his damnedest to break him. But Zach wasn’t about to walk on eggshells around the man.
Hmmm. Wrong metaphor.
Hairs on the back of his neck and upper arms began to tingle, and he looked up, catching Sophia’s eye. She stared at him with a little smirk, her cheeks full, the skin under her eyes showing amusement.
“What?” he asked, a little too gruff.
“You’re adorable.”
“My boss just caught me with my cock in his little sister’s mouth. I’d hardly call that adorable.”
Shock filled those big brown eyes, the brown deepening as her pupils dilated. He let himself sit there, curling his abs, forcing his shoulders down in a gesture meant to teach his body to relax.
His body.
Was this even truly his body? What did those words mean anymore? His body was the one that clenched first, that sat down on a chair, pants unbuttoned and open, cock deflated by shock and embarrassment. His body was the one that stood taller than everyone but Derry Stanton, Zach’s view of the world radically different now. Not just because he’d become a shifter—whatever that actually meant. His literal view of the world had altered irrevocably.
Depth perception was different. Colors had changed. The added height from his growth meant he looked down at people, at objects, and had to constantly fight a low-level vertigo that plagued him. His entire body was bigger, which meant his coordination was off. Strength had increased, and the amount of muscle everywhere was a source of thrill and confusion.
His old body was one he’d spent thirty-one years in. This new body was only eight months old, and much of that time had been spent in medical recovery.
So whose body was this? he asked himself as a strange numbness settled in, bordering on depression. A black hole, swirling within, made the muscles of his legs twitch. Instantly restless, his body burned to move while his mind struggled to make sense of all the change.
The speed of change was too much.
“Zach,” Sophia said, interrupting his thoughts. Her voice was filled with kindness. “You’re safe here.”
“Not if your brothers get me alone in one of these rooms.”
She didn’t laugh, instead combing over his body with appreciative eyes, remnants of her dress hanging off one shoulder like an invitation. The darkness inside him, the part that threatened to suck him in and hold him down, began to feel more like a warm oasis. Only when he looked at her did the cold feeling lighten.
“You can match my brothers. Go toe-to-toe with them. You’ll have to.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are a shifter now. That’s why I insisted Asher bring you here to the ranch.”
“You insisted?”
“We need to train you.”
Was that rocking blow job part of the training? he wondered.
She laughed. “Yes, technically, sex is part of training you to be a shifter. A civilized one, at least.”
“Seriously?” He used his mouth to talk, unnerved by the discussions that took place without speech, unwilling to openly talk about it because maybe, just maybe, he was hallucinating.
“I’m not kidding.”
He stopped breathing, letting that sink in, a mortifying ripple across his body making his skin tingle. “So,” he said, clearing his throat, “this is just… training.” Using his hand, he motioned between them, waving as if connecting them.
As her mouth opened, he saw the conflict in her eyes, the confusion of her brow turning down, the puzzlement as her lips pursed then opened.
“I—”
Tap tap tap.
A polite knock at the front door rescued her from answering what Zach already knew. Pity had been one of many emotions in her eyes.
Zach was a shifter pity-fuck.
“Not again,” Sophia said as she walked to the door, heedless of her partial nakedness, and opened it a crack. “Yes?” Zach caught a glimpse of a tall, lean man with a distinguished face. Blond, with a beard. He had quiet eyes and a very calm affect.
“Asher sent me to collect you, Sophia,” the man said softly, his voice peppered with the same British accent Sophia had, though lighter.
“Edward! Gavin just burst in to tell us the same thing. Is Molly here? Are you going?” Sophia asked, managing to be both breathless and domineering.
Zach ran through his limited knowledge of the Stanton family. Another brother? How many brothers did she have? Good God.
“Yes.”
“And is Molly going?” Sophia’s voice could cut bridge cables.
“Of course. He said it’s for family.” The man sounded offended.
“Humph.”
“I’ll take that as a yes?”
“Why do you let Asher turn you into an errand boy?” Sophia asked.
Edward seemed to ignore the bait. “Is Zach here? I’d like to meet him.” The man’s voice radiated so little emotion but wasn’t cold or threatening. In fact, Zach started to think this was a Stanton brother he might actually like.
Maybe.
“Hi,” Zach said, keeping one hand in his pants to hold them in place. “Zach Hayden.” He crossed the foyer, hand out. Edward stepped into the cottage and shook his hand with bright, curious blue eyes that held a thousand questions.
Zach was taller, but barely, and clearly had about twenty pounds of muscle on the guy, yet he felt like he was standing before a physical equal.
“Where are my manners?” Sophia exclaimed, as if not introducing them were worse than standing there with all her private parts on display. Zach moved his body just enough to give her cover. “Edward, this is Zach. Zach, this is my younger brother, Edward.”
The handshake ended. Edward just watched Zach. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was definitely unnerving.
“When you shift, how many animals do you become?” her brother finally asked, a shadow coming over his eyes, mouth turning down as if he were reliving a dark memory.
“What?” Zach looked to Sophia for clarification. She just winced.
“We haven’t explained it all to Zach yet,” she told Edward in sotto voce. “He’s just arrived. We’re working on uncontrollable shifting.”
Edward started, then—wait a minute. Did the guy actually blush?
“That… that— How?” Edward’s head recoiled, his brow going down, gaze entirely on Sophia.
“You want details?” She pointed at Zach’s split zipper, his unclothed chest, her body.
“No.” Edward’s answer might as well have been a slammed door.
Sophia giggled. Giggled. “Never change, little brother. Never change.”
“But before the family meeting, I do need to know, Zach: How many animals do you become?”
“I-I’m a wolf.” The words were surreal coming out of his mouth, but he answered the only way he knew.
&nb
sp; Edward’s voice sharpened. “That’s it? Nothing more?”
“No. Why? Can— Do— Are some of you more than one animal?”
Sophia and Edward exchanged an inscrutable look, one that made Zach want to grab her and run away, store her someplace safe and away from the rest of the world forever. Clad in fabric shreds and high heels, she was deeply underdressed. Zach’s shirtless state and torn pants matched her look, making it clear they’d violated the basic standards of decency in public.
“Come to the family meeting,” Edward said in a tight voice. “And we’ll explain.”
To show she wasn’t going to take any shit, Sophia held Zach’s hand as they walked into the great room in the main house for the meeting, Edward right behind them. Gavin had held business conferences in the big space, and thus it was well equipped for a group—there was a panoramic view of a serene mountain lake, comfortable seating, wood beams overhead, a massive stone fireplace and, of course, a full bar.
Braced for battle, Sophia scanned the room for Asher but didn’t see him. Gavin, however, was at the bar and, upon seeing Zach, turned a dark shade of seriously pissed.
“Sophia,” he said tightly, giving his little sister a condescending look.
“He stays.” She put her palm at Zach’s back and strode over with him to get coffee for both of them.
Gavin frowned at Zach. “Asher won’t allow it.”
“Fuck Asher,” Zach said.
Sophia turned to him in surprise. Zach was regarding his former boss with a steely antagonism that hadn’t been there before.
“Excuse me, Mr. Hayden?” Gavin asked, also taken aback.
“I’ve been thinking,” Zach said, pulling away from Sophia and crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ve just realized, Gavin, that you owe me all the help you can give.”
The corners of Gavin’s eyes tightened. “Is that so?”
“That is so,” Zach said. “If it weren’t for you, after all, I’d be a healthy man living in Boston with a normal but promising biotech career ahead of me, no months of agonizing pain or recurring nightmares about a horrifying, unprecedented, near-death experience. No uncontrollable urges to turn into a wolf. And most importantly, if it weren’t for you, Gavin, I’d have my freedom.”
