“What . . . what is this? Where am I?” Samantha looked around groggily. Her head ached, and something warm and wet was running down her cheek. Also, she seemed to be lying on something soft but firm. What was going on?

“Oh good—you’re awake,” said a voice in her ear. “Sorry I had to knock you out, but you were becoming troublesome. But I’m glad you came back to consciousness before the big event. It’s going to hurt so much more this way.”

“What?” Samantha blinked, trying to make her blurred vision come back into focus. When it did, she was sorry it had. Standing on her left was Lounds, with a wide, evil grin on his face.

Memories began to come back to her. Lounds had threatened her and she’d run. He grabbed her, dragged her back, and brought the butt of his gun down on her temple. That must be why her head ached and her scalp and cheek were sticky with blood.

The firm thing she was lying on was the fashionably made-up birthing bed. The cold metal handcuffs were gone from her wrists, but Lounds had found the soft restraints kept for patients who had to be stopped from hurting themselves. He’d used them to tie Samantha’s arms and her ankles to the bedrails.

She pulled against the restraints, but though they were soft, they were also incredibly strong, and the knots were tight. Clearly Lounds was taking no chances on her escaping this time.

“Stay away from me! Leave me alone!” she cried weakly, hating the terror she heard in her own voice but unable to help it.

“Oh, I don’t think so. I’m not done extracting my revenge yet.” He snickered. “Do you see what I did there—extracting my revenge instead of exacting it? Because extracting is precisely what I have planned for you, Samantha. I’m going to be extracting your baby.”

Samantha struggled in her bonds, but it was no use. Lounds simply laughed and picked up a pair of sterile suture scissors from the emergency C-section tray lying open on a rolling stand beside him.

She didn’t want to think about what else was in that tray. Extremely sharp scalpels for one thing, and abdominal retractors for another. It made her sick to see that Lounds already had a large plastic specimen jar open and ready.

It’s for the baby. As soon as he gets it and the cord out, he’ll put it in there and take it away. Or maybe he would just take her entire uterus, as he had threatened, with the baby still inside it. That would really make the most sense, if he was serious about harvesting her organs thoroughly. . . .

Then the clinical thought gave way to pure emotion, pure anguish.

My baby . . . he’s going to kill my baby!

Lounds cut her scrub top open in one long motion, as though he were cutting a length of wrapping paper. As he spread it open to bare her belly, Samantha got ready to do the only thing she could do—Shift.

She didn’t want to do it—didn’t even know if she could, since she’d only Shifted once before, and that had been an accident. But there was a nearly full moon outside, and even though she wasn’t out in the moonlight, she could feel its presence, silvery and lighter than air, calling to her softly, singing sweetly through her blood.

Sadie said it’s bad for the baby, she thought. But surely being cut out of its mother’s womb would be worse. Shifting was the only chance she had—the only way she could save herself, and hopefully her baby too.

“Ah—I think this one looks nice and sharp.” Lounds put down the scissors and picked up a scalpel. Leaning over her, he tugged down her scrub bottoms and underwear, leaving her half naked and trembling. “I believe I’ve heard that most surgeons favor what they call a ‘bikini’ cut incision for this kind of surgery,” he remarked, giving her a nasty smile. “It minimizes recovery time. But since I’m not planning on you recovering at all, I think I’ll take a more direct approach.”

He placed the blade of the scalpel right below her navel. It was razor sharp, of course, so even the lightest pressure cut the skin. Samantha felt a warm trickle, and blood pooled in her belly button.

It was now or never.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

Help me, she thought, not knowing who she was praying to but praying anyway. Help me do this. . . .

She was just beginning to feel the first stir of changes in her body, as the moon began to mold her into something else, when the door to the birthing suite banged open.

“Get the hell away from my mate, you son of a bitch,” growled a deep, angry voice.

Samantha’s eyes flew open and she looked up. Keller was standing there, eyes blazing, big hands curled into fists.

“Keller!” she breathed.

There was murder in his pale-green gaze as he glared at the Hyena Shifter. “I said, get away from her!” he snarled, and he pounced.

* * *

Keller had followed the tiny spark through the mazelike corridors of the huge hospital, tracking it like a bloodhound, always keeping it in sight no matter how many distractions got in the way. He felt the little life glowing like a carefully shielded candle flame, and he knew that when he found it, he would find Samantha.

Hang in there, Sammie—I’m coming! He wished he could speak to her through their bond, that he could send some kind of reassurance. But there was no way—nothing he could do but follow the spark, hoping to find her and the baby as fast as he could.

It led him to a dark and empty corridor in the new wing of the hospital.

At last he found a room with the light on. And when he peered through the glass window on the door, he saw Samantha.

She was tied and helpless, half-naked, with tears running down her flushed cheeks. Lounds was bending over her, and in his hand was something that glittered, silver and deadly.

Rage like nothing he had ever known before washed over Keller in a red wave. Pure fury suffused him at the sight of the woman he loved—his mate—tied and being tortured.

Keller had thought it was impossible to be angrier, but at the sight of his mate’s emotional distress and physical pain, the rage inside him doubled and then trebled. His Cougar roared its lust for blood, and Keller knew the need to kill the male who was hurting Samantha was so strong, he couldn’t control it anymore.

He sprang into the room, changing as he came, letting his Cougar out all at once. His three thousand dollar suit ripped to shreds as the huge Cat burst free of its human bindings and hurtled itself at the Hyena Shifter.

To Lounds’s credit, he was only surprised for a moment. He dropped the scalpel he’d been holding and began to change as well, almost as quickly as Keller. By the time Keller had him by the throat, he had already grown a shaggy, spotted ruff to protect himself from the Cougar’s six-inch-long fangs.

Keller bit him anyway, sinking his long canines, serrated like steak knives, deep in his enemy’s hide. The huge Hyena Lounds had become threw back its head and gave a howling snarl, kicking and scrabbling at Keller’s belly with its hind feet and back claws.

Nimbly avoiding the attack, Keller bit harder, sinking his fangs deeper, trying to get a killing hold on the other Shifter’s throat. If he could just crush the Hyena’s windpipe . . .

“Keller! Keller, help me!”

The faint, weak voice from the bed brought him back from the depths of fury and made him look to see what was going on with Samantha.

She was struggling weakly on the bed. But not just struggling . . . changing, he saw with alarm. If she Shifted now she could harm or even unintentionally abort the baby.

“Help me!” she begged again, and he saw she was trying not to Shift but didn’t know how to stop.

Throwing the now-limp body of the Hyena to one side, Keller Shifted back to human form in a split second and ran to her side.

“Easy, baby—take it easy, Sammie,” he murmured, stroking her cheek, still sticky with blood. “Come back to me . . . come back to yourself.”

“I’m . . . trying.” The words sounded like they were forced from a throat which was only half human. “Don’t want . . . to Shift. When I started . . . I thought it was the only way. But the baby . . .”

“Yes, the baby. Think about the baby,” Keller told her earnestly. Reaching up, he untied her hands from the restraints and placed them carefully over her lower abdomen. “Concentrate on the baby,” he said, holding her eyes—which were flickering rapidly from blue to gold and back to blue again. “Think about him or her, about holding her in your arms, calling her name and seeing her look at you. . . .”

“The baby,” she whispered, her hands caressing her belly protectively. “The baby. I won’t Shift because it would be bad for the baby. . . .”

“That’s right. Deep breaths.” Her body had been rigid, but now she seemed to be relaxing. When she looked up at Keller again, her eyes were a steady blue . . . and filled with tears.

“I didn’t know,” she whispered, still caressing her belly. “Didn’t know I was p-pregnant until after you left. Then I went in the bathroom and I f-felt it kick for the f-first t-time.”

She began to sob, and Keller gathered her close, his heart overflowing with sorrow and love and pain.

“Oh, baby. Oh, Sammie, I’m so sorry,” he whispered roughly into her hair. “I was such a fool—I should have just admitted how much I love you. I never should have blocked you and ruined our bond.”

“I was the one who was an idiot,” she sobbed. “I thought all you cared about was the baby, and I was so scared about making such a huge change in my life. I never even gave you a chance. Oh, Keller. . . .”

“For the last time, call me Liam.” He kissed her forehead and smiled at her. “The mother of my child should call me by my first name. Although the baby isn’t the only thing I want—it’s you, Sammie. I fell in love with you.”

“I know that now.” She smiled at him through her tears. “I know that and I love you too, L—”

Keller thought she was finally going to call him by his first name. But then her eyes widened and she screamed, “Lounds!”