A week later, Sophia knocked on the office door that had the title Facility Director on it for her delayed meeting. For the first time since she started working here, they were meeting in her boss’s office.

Tori Winchester gave permission to enter.

Making her way toward the center of the room, she noticed it was decorated in warm and inviting tones.

“Oh, Sophia. It is so good to see you,” Tori said.

Sophia looked at the chairs in the office. “Are you expecting someone? I can come back later. I’m early.”

“I am, but come in. He can wait since he’s late,” Tori assured her. “I was starting to get worried after your message about being sick. Are you feeling better now? Never mind, I can probably answer my own question since you look fabulous.”

Sophia knew she looked more like she’d been on vacation than sick, but that was all thanks to her new genes. Her gaze roamed the credenza behind the older woman. The last time she’d been there, she’d been unable to see the pictures on it clearly. With her poor vision and her need for constant squinting, even while wearing her glasses, the images on the credenza had been blurry. Now that she was able to, her gaze took in everything on the large mantle.

“I feel so much better now. I think I just needed some time off after burning the candle at both ends of the stick. In fact, I—” Her eyes focused on a framed photo of two men and a woman.

There was a dark-skinned, good-looking man, a young woman, and another much uglier man. Her heartbeat slowed to a crawl when she recognized the dark man in the picture as the same one whose throat she’d ripped open in the attack at the lab.

“Dear, are you all right?” The older woman’s previously warm voice forged itself into sharp steel.

Sophia’s eyes snapped to Tori and then back to the picture.

Tori opened a drawer and reached in, but Sophia was too stunned to notice what she pulled out.

Recognizing the second male as the rat-man made her eyes widen in shock.

Tori’s expression of a warm, soft, elderly sweetheart slipped to show a hard and bitter face. The edges around her eyes deepened, and her lips compressed into a straight line.

“I’m…I’m sorry, I guess…I’m not feeling as well as I thought. Maybe it’d be best if I came back at another—” Sophia stopped short when she noticed the gun pointed her way.

“No, I don’t think that would be best.” The woman’s no-nonsense voice filled Sophia with dread.

Her hands folded protectively over her belly. She frantically tried to think of a way out of this situation. She couldn’t help but gape at the previously sweet Mrs. Winchester and wondered what the hell was going on.

“I see you noticed the photo of my beautiful Nichola,” she sighed sadly. “She was a beauty, wasn’t she?” The angry question required an answer as Tori’s extremely steady hand held the gun up toward Sophia’s face.

“Yes, she was quite lovely.” Sophia darted another look at the photo, taking better stock of the woman in the middle. The girl in the picture was young, probably a teenager in the shot. She had a wide smile and blonde hair parted in the center with the ’70s trademark feathered waves. The girl was clothed in bell-bottom jeans and resembled Farrah Fawcett in Charlie’s Angels.

Hoping to buy some time, Sophia decided to ask the obvious question. “What happened to her?”

Tori seemed to gauge the sincerity of her question before she answered. “It was quite tragic, the story of my Nichola.”

Outwardly calm, Sophia screamed out for Chase in her mind, knowing he waited for her in the car and might not hear her in his human form. She hoped that even though the call would be faint, he’d still be able to sense something was wrong.

“She fell in love with a wolf shifter.” Sophia let her eyes go wide, pretending to be clueless. “Oh, don’t look at me like you don’t know what I’m referring to. Your sister is married to one of them.” Tori spat the words as if they were burning her tongue in distaste.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t understand what you’re talking about,” she said, hoping the woman would elaborate on her bizarre tale.

“Well, of course, you wouldn’t, I haven’t told you the whole story yet. As I was saying, she fell in love with one of those shifters. I tried to explain to her how dangerous those animals could be, but she refused to listen to me.

“She was obsessed with becoming one of them so she could be her lover’s true mate. At least the wolf told her he wouldn’t change her because it was too dangerous.” Her eyes grew distant. “Her entire life lay before her, and she wanted to waste it on that…that animal! Since the shifter she loved refused to bite her, she went to one of her close friends for help. A fucking rat face found someone willing to turn her for money. A wolf shifter bit her, but her body couldn’t handle the change and it killed her.”

“I’m…I’m so sorry for your loss.” She hoped Tori would put the gun down if she showed her some sympathy.

Sophia sat completely still, unwilling to push the obviously disturbed woman over the edge and have her pull the trigger in her craze. “How…how long ago did this happen?”

“Forty years ago.” Tori’s enraged features made it seem like it had just happened.

“But, how old was she?” Sophia tried putting two and two together, only she was coming up with more than four.

“She was barely sixteen and still just a baby in my eyes.” The woman’s temper seemed to be cooling.

Sophia’s mind raced. She processed the information. “But…she couldn’t have been your daughter. You told me you’re sixty years old.”

Tori’s green eyes glowed with rage. “She wasn’t my daughter, she was my baby sister.”

Shocked speechless once again, Sophia was quiet on the outside while inwardly screaming out to Chase.

Tori lowered the gun. It pointed at the middle of Sophia’s chest.

“Those two young men in the pictures, they were her supposed best friends before that wolf killed her. Friends don’t get other friends killed. I’m sure you remember becoming acquainted with them recently. I will make them pay until the day they die for what they did.” Tori stood, continued to point the gun in Sophia’s direction and walked around her desk. Sophia wondered how she never noticed Tori’s insanity before.

Tori stopped in front of Sophia and motioned with the gun hand for her to stand. “Sadly, they weren’t as successful as they anticipated in retrieving those samples from you for me. Now that I have you here, you’re going to hand them over so I can give them to someone who will finally put an end to the shape-shifting gene. Get up.”

Sophia stood and continued to fold her arms over her belly.

Tori cocked her head toward the door. “Let’s go down to that lab of yours and get those samples before I lose my patience.”

Sophia turned to walk to the lab, and the pointy steel was pushed into her back.

Chase was restless. His wolf was hounding him again. Pushing to take over and shift out of his skin. His hands gripped the steering wheel. He looked around the deserted parking lot.

Sophia was meeting with her boss. After her meeting, she was supposed to destroy the samples in storage and meet him back in the car. He glanced around and realized there were no other cars in the lot. Other than his SUV, the parking area was empty. Unease settled over him.

It was the end of the day, the sun was setting, and it was too goddamned quiet. He concentrated on calming his distressed animal until he recalled the last time that had happened. He decided not to wait around for Sophia.

Opening the door to walk into the facility, the urge to run and ensure her safety overwhelmed him. There was no guard at the entrance, which made his discomfort level rise. He followed Sophia’s scent down the hall.

He heard her soft voice. She was speaking to someone and heading toward her lab. Cautiously alert, he moved with the grace of the predator he was.

When he neared the entrance to her work place, Chase could see Sophia and a woman standing a few feet behind her. The woman held a gun to Sophia’s lower back.

Sophia unlocked her cold storage and disabled the security on the file system, then moved a few steps away.

“Pull them out of the storage and place them on this table for me,” the woman ordered.

Sophia walked into the storage room and moments later walked out with vials and files. She walked back to the table the old woman indicated and put the research down.

“Now, I’m sorry I have to do this, Sophia, I really like you. You’re so intelligent. No one ever came even half as close as you to the results you’ve achieved in the past six months, which makes this really difficult. You should have just handed them over the first time I sent the hyenas for them. It would have saved us all so much wasted time, and could’ve kept you from this type of end.” She lifted the gun toward Sophia’s chest.

Anger surged inside Chase. He let the wolf loose and shifted out of his skin, muscles and bones popping too slowly for his liking. The only thought consuming him was to destroy the woman who was holding a gun on Sophia.

He growled and launched his body like a missile at the woman. Having heard his growl, the woman tightened her grip on the weapon. His jaws bit into her neck as her hand squeezed on the trigger repeatedly. Sophia scurried and crouched behind a table.

Loud screaming filled the air as Chase’s wolf mauled at the woman’s throat. Blood spurted. Her shrieks were soon cut off, and her delicate flesh lay torn open, bleeding on the floor.

Slipping back into his skin, Chase rushed to the side of the table that Sophia had ducked behind. He found her curled into a small ball on the floor, passed out. Her hands were protectively covering her belly.

He turned her over and noticed blood covering her chest. His heart stopped. His hands shook when his eyes found the small bullet hole on her right shoulder.

Lifting her unconscious body carefully off the floor, he ran for his vehicle. He placed her in the back seat and called the shifter doctor to ensure she was ready when he arrived.

He tossed a pair of sweatpants and T-shirt into the front seat from the gym bag he always kept in his truck for emergencies.

Spinning tires out of the lab’s parking lot, he made a call to River.

“Sophia’s been shot,” Chase said. “I’m taking her to the hospital before she bleeds out. Her animals are too weak to heal her in time.”

“Shit. What do you need us to do?” River asked.

“Need another cleaning at her lab. Her fucking boss has been behind all this.”

“Seriously?”

“Damn bitch shot Soph when I attacked her. And make sure the cleaners get all the papers and stuff on the counter by the vault. This time, it’s the real stuff. Don’t need someone getting their hands on it.” He’d had enough of that the last go around.

His nerves stretched taut. She lay pale and limp on the seat behind him, bright red blood trickling from her gunshot wound. Driving like the devil was on his tail, he arrived at the small private clinic reserved for his pack members.

He carried her inside in a frantic rush. The pack doctor met him at the entrance in her operating gear. He followed her to the surgical room and lay Sophia on a bed. After that, he was dragged outside to allow them to work.

His wolf was quiet and sad, seemingly mourning his mate and his children, something Chase refused to do. Sophia was going to be fine, she had to be, or his life would end along with hers.

As he paced in the waiting room, his phone rang.

“Yeah, River, what you got?” Chase asked.

“We’re at the lab…”

“Good. Any problems?”

“Well, only if you call no body and no vials on the table a problem.”

* * *

Sophia opened her eyes and winced at the burning in her shoulder. She squinted until she could see clearly. She turned to scan the room and came face to face with a sleeping Chase.

He was sitting on a chair, his hand holding hers, keeping them connected even while he slept. She smiled at the sight of her mate. God, she loved that man. Moving her fingers in his hold, she squeezed his hand, and he jerked awake. He looked like shit.

“How are you feeling?” His voice was hoarse. His other hand lifted to brush a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Thirsty. Little ones?” She tried to talk past the sand in her throat.

Her hand traveled to her tummy, feeling the bump that hadn’t been there before. Her smile widened, knowing she was still nurturing their two precious bundles.

“They’re good, healthy.” He sat beside her on the bed and helped her take a sip of water. Then he fixed the pillows behind her back, allowing her to sit up.

“Sophia…I—”

She watched him swallow.

“I almost lost you. I-I can’t lose you.” His voice broke. “I love you.”

She smiled and pulled him down for a soft kiss. “I love you, too. So much sometimes, I think I’m going even crazier than I normally am, but I wouldn’t trade my feelings for anything in the world.” She looked into his eyes solemnly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She grinned, and he hugged her tightly, carefully ensuring her injury wasn’t bothered.

She smiled to herself. Who would’ve thought she’d end up with her very own FBA, man-candy Chase? Apparently, fantasies did come true, even for geeky scientists.

A nurse came in with a tray of stainless steel things. One had a needle. Chase’s face paled. She laughed at him as his phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID.

“It’s River. I lost the phone signal with him earlier. I need to take this outside,” he said, tilting his head toward the door. She had a feeling it could’ve been a solicitor call and he’d take it outside.

“How are you feeling, Ms. Reese?” the nurse asked.

Sophia took a moment to take stock of her aches and pains. Besides her shoulder, which didn’t even hurt that much, she felt fine.

“Everything feels fine. Just a dull sting on the shoulder and that’s it.”

“Good. The doctor will probably release you shortly,” the nurse replied, writing on the chart.

“Was it really that bad? I mean, aren’t shifters supposed to heal themselves? I’m surprised I’m here.”

“Normally, yes, the shifter part heals the human body on its own. But Alpha said you were newly turned and didn’t want to take a chance. You were losing blood quickly.”

Wow. She could’ve died. And of all the people, one she truly trusted and liked was the one who shot her.

The only good thing about all this was she was finally safe. It was over.

* * *

“I don’t give a fuck,” Ratface said, talking into his cell phone. “I’m out. She’s dead and I don’t owe you one goddamn thing. I don’t even know who the hell you are.”

“Listen to me, you ugly fucker,” the man said, “the job isn’t done. I need the girl.”

“Then get her yourself. My guys and I are leaving. I hate this too-quiet town.” Ratface looked out the window of Tori’s home. He hated that the woman was dead, but he wasn’t going to complain either.

When rushing into the lab hours earlier and seeing Tori’s mauled body after hearing gunshots, he couldn’t believe the sight. Nichola’s older sister was finally out of his life.

The bitch had made his life hell since Nichola’s death years ago. She’d hounded him, stalked him, never giving him a moment of peace, believing he was the reason Nicki had died.

He was and wasn’t the reason. If he’d known earlier what the girl had planned on doing, he would’ve stopped it. But he hadn’t known. She wanted to surprise him.

Then he smelled the little change in her chemistry that tore out his heart.

He shook his head to clear those memories. That part of his life was now over. He could move on, though he didn’t have anywhere to move on to.

“Fine, then,” the man said. “Leave. I’ll hire someone else.”

The line went quiet and Ratface slammed the phone onto the carpet. Plopping into the chair behind the desk in Tori’s home office, he stared at the pictures lining the front edge. The beautiful, young face he dreamed of every night for so very long stared back at him. A smile graced her lovely face.

His head dropped into his hands. How did things get so wrong? How did he let Tori talk him into this stupid-ass job? It was supposed to be easy and she’d promised to leave him alone if he got the research from someone in the lab.

Someone who happened to be a new wolf and newly pregnant, if his nose told him right during the time they were in the room with the kidnapped older wolf.

Yeah, he knew what he had to do. He couldn’t let more innocents die. Question was, would he be killed before doing it?