by Diana Seere
“Zach’s not a human,” Jess flatly declared. “In fact, none of us are. The only person in our circle who is truly human is Sam.”
Asher reddened. “What does Dr. Baird have to do with Stanton family matters?”
Zach just shook his head.
Then lifted his future wife into his arms and walked into the hallway.
“Before you leave, Zachary,” Asher said, making him pause, Sophia rolling her eyes at her brother while also checking out Zach’s wounds on his chest, “I’ll need to be debriefed about your interaction with Tomas.”
“Of course,” Sophia interjected. “But first Zach needs a shower.”
Zach looked down at her. “I need far more than that.”
Her mouth stretched wide with an eager smile.
“Business first,” Asher said. “When you’re done showering and dressing, you can meet me in the—”
“Pleasure first,” Sophia and Derry said in emphatic unison.
Once again, Zach turned to leave, but the elevator doors opened, revealing Gavin and Sam, along with the shifter physician from the ranch, Dr. Santino.
“We came as soon as we heard— Oh my goodness!” Sam gasped, rushing to Zach, who glared at her. “You’re covered in scratches—and are those shards of glass in the dirt all over your back?”
This time Sophia firmly pulled out of his arms, dropped to the ground, and stood before him, walking behind to look. “Zach!”
“Nothing a few days in bed won’t cure,” he replied, grabbing her around the waist, relishing the feel of his nude skin against her clothed body.
“What did Tomas do to you?” Sophia asked, her attention shifting from reconnection to concern.
“I tackled him and we fell out a window,” Zach said simply, sighing. Information first, sex later, it seemed, even if he wanted the reverse. He gave her a gentle smile, stroking her hair off her face. She said yes.
Yes.
The Beat thrummed between them like it was all sound rolled into one rhythm, like it was a whisper, like it was breath. It just was, strong and ever steady, unlike before.
Asher pulled a buzzing phone out of his pocket, as did Gavin and Derry, all at once. Gavin’s eyes bounced from his phone screen to Zach’s body, inventorying. “We have video from a bystander, showing a wolf and a panther fighting in East Cambridge. Right on the street.”
Zach gave him a stark, challenging look, aggression filling him with a deep protectiveness, his hands not leaving Sophia’s waist. “He escaped. I could have beaten him, but I need more time.”
“Time?” Gavin gave him a tight look.
“To learn to shift. To recalibrate. I’m still not fully integrated.”
Now Sophia looked at him in confusion. “Integrated?”
“What he means,” Sam said, averting her eyes from Zach’s nude human body in a way that almost made him smile, “is that he needs to learn to move with ease from one form to another. You all grew up as shifters. Zach didn’t.”
Gavin, Asher, Derry, and Sophia looked at her, baffled. Zach felt alien, other, isolated and alone.
Until Sophia asked, “Is it like learning a new language? You’ll always have an accent if it happens too late?”
“I don’t think there is an analogy,” Sam said bluntly.
Dr. Santino tapped Zach’s arm. “If you shower in one of the guest rooms, I can clean and dress your wounds.”
“Wounds?” Zach asked.
A cold, painful finger traced a line down his back, along the spine. “You have a nasty gash here. Looks like a shard of glass ripped through you,” Dr. Santino said. “I require ten minutes of your time at most. You do want it treated properly.”
“Don’t worry, doc. I’ll clean him up.” Sophia’s eyes twinkled. “I am a nurse, after all.”
Asher made a distinctly male sound of exasperation.
“Sounds good to me,” Zach said, pulling Sophia closer, finally getting her out of the room again. He wouldn’t mind if she was a plumber. He only wanted to get her all to himself, if just for a little while.
And then forever.
Sophia followed Zach down the quiet corridor of private suites for out-of-town shifters who preferred to avoid human hotels. He seemed to be drawn there by instinct, which perhaps he was. So much remained to be discovered about his powers.
While they walked, she couldn’t stop looking at his injuries. “Maybe I should let the doctor treat you right away.”
“No. You and I are going to be alone for a few minutes first.”
He’d endured too much at the hands of shifters. She would have to make it up to him. “I’m going to kill Tomas myself.”
“Like hell you will.” His arm tightened around her waist. “You’ll stay safe. You’re going home to your ranch, where Tomas can’t get you. Do you understand? You can’t risk getting hurt.”
She rested a gentle hand on his back. Fragments of glass, gravel, and dirt clung to his skin. “You’re the one who can’t risk any more injury. My love, what if I’d lost you?” Her voice wavered. “I couldn’t bear it, Zach. I couldn’t. Do you understand? I’m going to take care of you, too. Starting now.”
She noticed that the floor in front of the last doorway had a dusting of rose petals. She guided him through the doorway into a warm, candle-lit bedroom and then into a luxurious bathroom tiled in green marble.
An elaborate first aid kit waited for her on a silver tray near the sink.
Morgan. He was the type of man who could sedate you with his venom one minute and then prepare a sterile medical clinic and romantic getaway the next. Whatever the Novo paid him, it wasn’t enough. Not that she’d forgiven him for what he’d done to her, but the rose petals and first aid kit were a start.
“First I wash and tend to your wounds,” she said.
“No,” Zach said, pushing her against the wall. “First I make hot, sweet love to my intended bride.” He bent his head and kissed her fiercely, desperately. As their mouths opened and tongues touched, the Beat thundered, celebrating its triumph.
Zach! she cried silently.
I hear you, Sophia, he responded, deepening the kiss. I hear you. My love. My One.
She welcomed his tongue into her mouth, her heart singing with the taste of him. Burning desire shot between her legs. She straddled his thigh, bore down, grinding against him. It had been so long. It had been an eternity. All of creation had waited for this moment, the moment they came together and vowed their futures to one another. The moment they accepted their fate.
He moved his lips away just long enough to say, “I love you. Sophia. I love you.”
“I love you, Zach.” She slid her hands up his hard, muscled abdomen, at first oblivious to the way he tensed, sucked in a breath, and hunched over. But then she realized she was hurting him. He’d almost made her forget he was wounded.
She put her fingers on his lips and leaned away. “First we clean and dress those wounds.”
“I’m… fine,” he said, flinching.
In less than two seconds, she’d removed her tailored black suit and opened the glass door to the shower. There were three showerheads, and she twisted each of them on—and then turned to him with a seductive smile. “This won’t be typical of the baths I usually give my patients,” she said, reaching for him, “but you’ll be just as clean.”
“Quite the contrary. I’ll be even dirtier when we’re through.” Lips curving in a predatory smile, he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her inside with him.
Although her hands were trembling—she wanted him so badly, and the injuries infuriated her—she made quick work of washing him as best she could. As the dirt and dried blood came off, she was relieved to see more healthy skin than she’d expected. The deep gash on his back looked painful, but nothing else was so serious, and soon the fragments of stone and glass were washed away, leaving her One glistening and gorgeous under the spray.
And extremely erect.
“Are you through?” Sending water
flying, he shook out his long, damp curls.
“I should bandage you now,” she said.
“Shoulda coulda woulda,” he said, and then went down on one knee—again—and then…
Went down.
“Oh, baby,” she groaned as he buried his face in her pussy.
He looked up. “We were interrupted before. Time to finish the job.”
She dug her fingers in his hair and held on. “Excellent. Work. Ethic.” Deep breath. No, forget breathing. Breathe later. He was devouring her. She flung a hand out to the tile wall to support herself. Not working. She sat down on the bench.
Oh my fucking—
Oh my, oh my.
Vaguely she worried about his unbandaged injuries. Vaguely she told herself he had superhuman—even supershifter—strength, and they were in a relatively sterile, therapeutic environment for flesh wounds.
Speaking of flesh… His tongue swept between her folds and then up and around and over, and then his fingers were there and his elbows were pushing her knees wider and…
With one hand, she clutched the edge of the seat and arched her back, pressing herself into his face, writhing against his hot, slippery skin. Her other hand slid up her ribs and stroked her breast, pinched her hard nipple, and then couldn’t resist any longer and reached out for him. She had to touch him, scratched and bruised, her hero, her love, her One. His muscles flexed under her hand, and she imagined him falling out of the building, fighting with Tomas, running to her side to claim her.
I love you, I love you, I love you, she thought wildly, teetering on the edge of climax.
Zach rose, kissing his way up her abdomen—a second kiss over the second heart beating there—and then over her breasts to her lips, where their mouths came together slowly, lovingly, deliberately.
I am your One, he said, as audible as a symphony in a cathedral.
She rose to meet him, and they embraced under the gentle spray, heedless of any difference between her body and his, air and water, flesh and spirit. He helped her lift a leg over his hip and then he was inside her completely, filling her with a hard, satisfying pleasure, pounding in and out with the Beat, driving them both up the spiral into climax, harder and tighter, faster, and then at long last, together, they came.
Together.
As One.
An hour later, after Dr. Santino had stitched him up and after they’d returned to bed to love and care for each other, stealing as much time for themselves as they could, Sophia and Zach walked hand in hand to rejoin the group in the library. This time Zach wore perfectly fitted but casual clothing—provided wordlessly by Morgan, of course. Zach’s injuries were not as bad as they had first looked, and the doctor had treated him well, but the last thing he wanted to put on was a suit like the Stanton men seemed to prefer. Cotton khakis and a loose polo were just fine.
When they walked in, Jess and Derry were cuddled on a small sofa, Sam and Gavin sat at a table with a laptop, and Asher—
Asher waited in an armchair with his eyes fixed on the doorway. The moment he saw Zach, he jumped up, strode over, and demanded, “Tomas tried to convince you to join him, yes?”
Zach resisted the urge to snap at his future brother-in-law. Would it be so hard for the man to say hello? He had just gotten engaged to his sister, after all. Zach’s impatience wasn’t driven by muscular fatigue but by emotional weariness. Eager to leave Boston and get Sophia to the safety of the Stanton ranch in Montana, he didn’t want to be bothered by Asher’s interrogation. But he had to get it over with.
“Tomas claims my lab accident was planned.”
Sophia gasped and looked at him with soulful eyes. “Planned?”
“He claims I was chosen. That stabbing me with the serum was intentional. I was selected to be Subject Number Two.”
“I thought as much,” Asher said.
“What, exactly, did Tomas say?” Gavin asked tersely.
“He claimed you were part of a project to turn me into a shifter on purpose,” Zach said, knowing the words would shock Gavin.
“He’s lying,” Gavin replied bluntly. “I’m not surprised, but good God, that’s cold of him.”
“Cold? He’s evil!” Sophia hissed.
“I know,” Zach said, but Gavin’s words gave him comfort. “He claims I’m his invention. He wants to stop letting humans be more important than shifters. Claims it’s time for shifters to take their rightful place and rule.”
“More of that nonsense?” Derry asked, shaking his head.
“It may be nonsense, but it’s Tomas’ mission, and that makes it a threat to everything we know. And he’s convinced other shifters—and humans—to join him. We must stop him,” Asher said, looking Zach over with a cautious scan. “You came straight to the Novo Club after your altercation to protect Sophia?”
“And to tell all of you what he’d said,” Zach clarified.
For the second time in one day, Asher Stanton smiled.
Sam saw the grin, her head moving slowly, turning toward Asher in amazement.
“I was wrong,” Asher announced, the smile turning wry on his face.
All motion stopped. Even Morgan seemed to hold his breath.
And then Sophia wrapped her arms around Zach and gazed up at him with more love than he’d ever seen in his life. “It’s a miracle. You made Asher admit he was wrong.” Her mouth curved in a wide smile. “You really are my true alpha.”
Epilogue
There were no proper words to describe the unfettered view of your One’s beautiful, full, naked ass when she was on all fours, waiting for you to enter her.
None.
Zach’s blood raced with the pure lust of anticipation as Sophia, belly round with child, looked over her shoulder, long black hair hanging down to kiss the bedsheets. They were back in Montana at the Stanton compound, and he’d moved into Sophia’s place there, accepted by all her brothers.
Not that they ever had a choice.
“Do you need an engraved invitation?” she asked with a sultry curl of those luscious lips, her beautiful breasts hanging low, her creamy skin begging to be spanked, caressed, manhandled.
Oh, how he loved the second trimester.
She wasn’t due for many months, the baby boy—yes, it was confirmed by Dr. Santino—healthy and, to everyone’s surprise, a singleton. While Gavin and Lilah had struggled with the typical new parent adjustments, they’d done it twice over with twins.
Bears gave birth to litters, so one baby seemed to stun Sophia and Derry into a strange silence when the doctor had confirmed it.
For Zach, though, one was more than enough.
“Zach!” Sophia said impatiently, wiggling her ass, the rounded curve of so much erotic skin making him even harder, though it seemed impossible. “I’ll just touch myself if all you’re going to do is stare at me with that silly grin.”
“You’ll do no such thing.”
Defiant, her hand reached between her legs, one finger rubbing her wet lips and migrating up to her clit, her back arching down to ride a rhythm she started so quickly that Zach felt remorse alongside the sudden roar of need that made him grab her hips and center himself.
Oh. She was more than ready.
He needed to sate her.
The wet, warm sanctuary that greeted him as he slid his hard cock into her was so divine, he ran his hands up her hips, over the ribs, capturing her heavy, wondrous breasts in his hands as his chin ran a line from her ass cleft up her spine, kissing a trail along the way. Breaking his grasp on the right, he moved her hand and replaced it with his own, thumb doing the slow, deliberate work of a man determined to make his woman come hard as she vise-gripped him, mating in body and soul, fused through flesh and ecstasy.
She began to shake, her head dropping, the low sounds of pleasure heating up as Zach’s own orgasm built so fast it felt like a fireball, an act of nature that integrated without parallel. Power shot through him with a blinding surprise as he yelled her name, pouring himself into her as he thr
ust hard, harder, her ass arching back against him to catch his cock as deep as possible inside her, his fingers moving slick against her clit as she moaned and trembled, exploding with a clenching, pulsing series that milked him.
And then both their phones buzzed at the exact time a tentative knock on the door made them both jolt.
“Must be about Tomas,” he groaned, pulling out of her reluctantly, bending to kiss her ass—literally.
“Not the name you’re supposed to say in a moment of passion with me, my dear,” Sophia grumbled, curling on one side and reaching for her phone.
Sure enough, even as Zach’s heartbeat raced from exertion, his cock still warm and wet from being in her, he called it. His phone screen said Asher.
“Zach here,” he barked.
“Is Samantha with you?” Asher demanded.
“We’ve been through this a thousand times,” Zach said with an exasperated sigh. “I have no interest in her, so cut the jealous suitor act, Asher.”
“She’s missing.”
Zach’s heart felt like it took a helium balloon ride up his throat. “What?” He looked at Sophia. “Sam’s missing?”
“A new security team member managed to lose her,” Asher said acidly. “He’s been fired, but that doesn’t change the—”
“No, she’s not missing,” Sophia looked at him like he was crazy. “She’s in Costa Rica. On some scientific field experiment thing.”
“How precise of you,” Zach said, smothering a grin.
“Hey,” she said.
“Thank you,” Asher said, hanging up and leaving the phone dead in Zach’s hands.
“What was that about?” Sophia asked as Zach climbed in bed with her, burrowing under the covers so he could touch as much of her as possible.
“No idea. Besides, Sam can handle herself.”
“Asher doesn’t think so,” she said in a singsongy voice. “Asher doesn’t think anyone can handle themselves. He’s appointed himself MI6 and CIA of the world, with a little Blackwater thrown in for taste.”
“I’ve got you covered,” Zach said as he nuzzled her neck. The sheets smelled like her musk and their sex. Best scent in the world. He wondered if he could find a way to bottle it, mass produce it in a lab, and sell it.
