Sophia didn’t know who she was more angry with—Asher and her brothers for toying with Zach, who had been through more than enough for any man—or with Zach himself, who lumped her in with them.

After everything they’d shared, how could he still think she was just another Stanton? Moments ago, although she’d been completely absorbed with Jess, Molly, and Lilah and her babies, Sophia had heard Zach calling her. She’d responded to the Beat.

She could see the love in his eyes. Well, there were other strong feelings too, but it was all wrapped up in love.

“Yes, you do know,” Sophia said. Zach, she added silently.

Zach’s face twisted with longing, but he spun on his heel to face Asher. “You say I’m free to go.”

“If I say it, it is true.”

“So I can pack up my bag and leave? Not that I have a bag, come to think of it. My wallet? I’ll need an ID and credit card to get home. Do you have it? Will I have to play more games, pass more tests, save more lives, before you return my own possessions to me?”

Sophia clenched her teeth together. She understood Zach had been through a lot, but he didn’t have to act like everything he’d been through was such a bad thing. They’d found each other, right?

Yes. Yes they had, damn it.

“Zach, your wallet is in the dresser of the room you’ve been sleeping in,” she said coolly. “Where it’s been since you arrived.”

Asher cleared his throat. “If you’ll let me remind you, Zachary, we brought you here because you were out of your mind with pubescent lust, a danger to others, to us, and to yourself.”

“And whose fault is that?” Zach’s eyes swept around the room, settling on Gavin. “I’m done apologizing or asking for your assistance. I’m going home.”

Sophia had plenty to say to him but not in front of her brothers. Her twin had gotten married without consulting her—she was entitled to exclude him from her private bond with Zach.

She gestured to the hallway with one imperious finger. “If you’re through enjoying my brothers’ company, perhaps you’d be kind enough to share mine?”

It was the kind of question that wasn’t a question. Waiters, bankers, socialites, senators—they all bowed when she used that voice.

But Zach didn’t bow. He grinned. “It would be my pleasure.” Eyes locked on hers, he turned his back to the others and came toward her. The change in his mood was welcome.

Her pulse accelerated. She could see what he wanted—oh my, he looked so deliciously good—but she wanted to talk. It was ironic that she, Sophia Stanton, a woman as infamously commitment-phobic as her twin had been, wanted to talk about their relationship instead of jumping into bed.

They had to talk about their future. About what they shared and what they could share. Would share. He’d called her to him with her mind, for God’s sake. It wasn’t just so they could find each other right away for a quick fuck.

At least she was pretty sure about that.

“Let’s walk around the lake,” she said, striding out of reach. If he touched her, she’d burst into lust flames right here in the hallway, her brothers only steps away, and they’d never have a real conversation. “Have you ever seen the boathouse?”

“I did some exploring.” His voice was gruff. “Will we be interrupted there?” His hand found her bottom and caressed her in long, firm strokes.

To save herself from temptation, she swatted his hand away. “I won’t let us be interrupted.”

His hand returned, sliding up her hip to the curve of her waist and pulling her against his body. “Good.” He brushed aside her hair and kissed the nape of her neck. Heat flooded the spot where his lips met her skin, and her nipples hardened into firm, aching points. He could do this to her with a single touch.

All thought of conversation drifted away for a moment. This was why she’d chosen the boathouse. No beds. If they went to her cabin, they’d be naked in seconds. If they even made it that far.

“Sophia,” he whispered as his fingers found her left nipple and squeezed, instinctively adding fuel to her body’s fire.

She groaned but pushed him away. “To the boathouse.” She pointed at him. “You and I are going to keep our clothes on.”

His gaze raked over her body like strong, naughty hands. “I can work with that. Clothes can be even sexier than being naked.”

This was going to be harder than she’d thought.

Weaving slightly, she marched out the door to the path that curved around the lake. The boathouse was a short stroll, but it seemed longer with a hot, aggressive male coming on to her the entire time. She finally grabbed his hand to keep it from exploring the rest of her, which she wanted as much as he did, and held it to her heart. Its pounding grew louder and stronger with him so close.

She led him up the stairs to the roof of the boathouse, which her father had modified to boast a glassed-in porch with dining furniture and a view of the lake, mountains, and house. The family liked to eat meals out here sometimes and watch the sunset.

“Not quite what I had in mind,” Zach said, taking in the panoramic windows. Anyone outside could see them. “Or did you want to put on a show for your brothers to prove a point?”

“We’re going to talk.” She felt suddenly nervous.

“About what?”

Why was he making this so hard? “About us, of course.”

He looked away, crossing his arms over his chest. “You heard me talking about going home.”

“What we have is special, Zach,” she said. “More special than I think you realize.”

He fell silent as he walked to the window overlooking the northern mountains. “I do realize,” he said finally.

“Do you? This isn’t just lust or infatuation.”

“I know that,” he said. “But what is it to you?”

The boathouse lighting was dim, and she couldn’t read his expression. She felt vulnerable, not knowing what he was feeling.

“It’s the Beat. It’s what—it’s what my brothers have with Molly, Jess, Lilah. It’s those babies you saved.” She forced herself to go on, knowing it was insane, but she had no say over what came out of her mouth. What she felt just was. “That could be us. I… I would like to be a mother. I’ve never wanted to before, but now it’s all I can think about. With you, Zach. I want to have a baby with you. I want the next baby you hold in your arms to be ours.” Tears burned her eyes, but mostly she was overflowing with joy and hope. She could picture him so clearly, holding their boy or a girl—or both!—and being her partner through all the years to follow.

Zach turned, looking as if she’d struck him. “You— We just— It’s only been—” He took a deep breath. “It was a difficult day. You were worried about Lilah. And then really happy. Of course you’re thinking about wanting it for yourself.”

“It’s more than that, Zach. It’s much more.”

He scrubbed his face with his hands. “Something like this happened at work last year. One of the lab techs got pregnant, and then two other women told me they felt all this pressure to find a man before it was too late, get married, have kids, the whole thing. They asked me out. Both of them on the same day. After ignoring me for two years.”

She recoiled. “I am not a lab tech.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way,” he said. “But I feel… Come on. Too much, too soon. If you think about it, we barely know each other. And suddenly you want to have my baby?” He shrugged.

“It’s our fate.”

He smiled. “I’m a scientist, Sophia. I don’t believe in fate.”

She took a deep breath, about to shout at him, insist he admit he loved her, pound on his chest with both fists until he relented.

No. She fisted her hands at her sides and pressed her lips together. She wouldn’t beg this time. Not over this. She was strong but not invincible.

“When will you be returning to Boston?” She spoke in the most unemotional voice she could muster.

“As soon as I can find my wallet. Although I’ll probably have to wait until morning for a flight.” He took a step toward her, his voice dropping an octave. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave without seeing you first.”

“Without fucking me, you mean,” she said.

“Hey.”

“No, no. I get it. You think this is just a sexual seminar, like a corporate spa retreat with really good service. You want to enjoy the perks one last time before you go home.”

“That is not what I said,” he snapped.

“Not in so many words. But actions speak louder than words. Especially for shifters. We communicate in other ways.” She spun toward the door and began to hurry away before he saw the tears in her eyes. Seeing her cry would only make things that much worse. How humiliating. How had she fallen so low?

“You think I’m using you for sex?” He laughed a hard, cold laugh. “Maybe you should look in the mirror.”

* * *

She gaped at him, emotions swirling in her eyes, her face changing as if he were viewing her through a reflecting pool, every ripple revealing a new part of her.

“Me? You think I am using you for sex?”

“That’s generally how you make a baby, Sophia,” he growled, reeling from her pleas of a moment ago. A baby? She wanted a baby? Zach couldn’t locate his own damn wallet after being brought here against his will, and now his boss’s sister wanted to use him as a stud service?

“I’m not— That’s not all I want.” She stood taller. “But yes, the instinct is there. Baby Fever isn’t a joke for shifters, Zach. It’s built into us—especially female shifters. It’s a primal need. Ignoring it is impossible.”

His turn to gape.

“My God, you’re serious!”

“I’m trying to talk about this with you. You’re my One. I’m yours. And when fate chooses your One, you—”

“What is a ‘one’? And fate? Please. Fate is just another word for making other people do what you want. Quit hiding behind it.”

“I’m not hiding anything!” Her voice went high, almost shrill. It made him want to comfort her, to stop arguing, to soothe and reconnect, but he fought that part of himself.

He wasn’t quite sure why.

“Look, Sophia.” His words made her flinch. “I’m not part of your world. I wasn’t raised with all this.” Zach waved around the room.

“What? Wealth?”

“Being half human and half animal.”

“Oh. That.” She said it as if it were nothing, as if it were trivial, as if his fundamental genetic change were a mere detail.

“That is huge.”

“But you are a shifter now! You are, and you’re having a hard time adapting. I insisted Asher bring you here so we could train you.”

“You mean so you can train my cock.”

“I haven’t heard any complaints.”

Oh man, she nailed him on that one. It was like a zinger to his balls, her eyes eating him up, the sexual tension suddenly thick, replacing the actual conflict between them. His hands began to tingle, the familiar early shifting signs starting to kick in. Having gone through this a few times now, he knew not to fight it. Let it just be. The shift was inevitable if it unfolded.

If.

Unbearable if he fought it.

“You can’t even look at me without drooling, Zach. The chemistry between us is out of this world.”

“Literally.”

She made a tight smile. “But this is more than sex.”

“Is it? The more, I mean? Because from where I’m standing, your entire family is nuts, Sophia. If I didn’t know all the craziness about shifting was true—viscerally true—then I’d think this was all a nightmare.”

“Am I a nightmare to you?”

“No.” He had to be honest. It was killing him not to touch her. And yet, if he gave in, where would that leave him? Even more entangled, embroiled in a mess in this foreign world where power came from centuries-old books and those wealthy people with their own rules about society. Family.

Him.

“You hear the Beat, don’t you?”

“The what?”

She crossed the space between them and put her hand over his heart. It quickened at her touch, racing to move closer to her, his pulse suddenly hard, slamming against bone.

“The Beat. You feel it. I feel it. In the shifter world, there is a legend that says when the Beat is felt, it’s fate. No one I know experienced it until Gavin and Lilah. Then Derry and Jess. Even Edward and Molly. It’s rare—so rare, we were raised to believe it was a fairy tale, as silly to believe in as Cinderella or the fae. Suddenly three of my siblings have it with their One. And now… it’s here. Between us. It connects us. We’re fated mates, Zach. You and me.”

The hunger for his confirmation fairly glowed in her expression, Sophia’s face starting to transform, the bones framing her eyes like twin thrones for a goddess. The room crackled with energy, his hair starting to stand on end, his skin buzzing with an impending shift.

Who was he, really? In such a short time, he’d been forced to become someone else, a foreigner in his own body, an alien in both the shifter and human worlds. A freak accident turned him into a monster, a demigod, a wolf. Without that core of who he was, he felt like a whirling dervish, turning and turning to find enlightenment in the rush of movement.

Ever seeking, never sated.

He wanted to say yes, that he felt it. He wanted to open his chest and confess, let her kiss his heart in the moonlight, curl into a ball in her lap at the same time he covered her body with his own as a blanket, a shield, a force field. Zach felt all of it at the same time, the churning bliss of love finally chipping away, worn down by doubt.

By anger.

By fear.

“What beat?” he asked, betraying himself, hurting her, knowing his words were cruel.

“You don’t— But I know you feel it. We talk to each other. The unspoken words between us. The—”

Forcing himself to be cold, drawing on Asher Stanton for inspiration in that, he raised his eyebrows in a mocking expression. “Really? Now shifters are mind readers, too? Telepathic? What’s next—if I click my heels three times, do I magically teleport to Boston? You must save a fortune on airplanes.”

“Zach,” she said softly, letting go of his chest, moving backward. One step felt like a mile.

He softened, slightly. “Look, Sophia. You’re a nice person. But I don’t think I’m ready for this. It’s not you—”

“Don’t you dare!” she said with a horrid gasp, the sound making his heart turn to tissue paper in his chest. “Don’t you dare give me the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ kiss-off! That’s my line!”

“It’s true, though,” he said as if following a script. He’d never broken up with a woman before, so he had no blueprint, but popular culture had embedded itself in him somehow. “I’m not ready for what you want.”

“It’s not your choice! You think I’m ready? You think I want to feel this insane need inside me, a need for a baby I’ve never thought twice about before? That’s the point, Zach! You don’t have a choice!”

They were speaking completely different languages. The words were in English, but the meaning was so different. Anger poured through him, her focus on his lack of choice making him close off, withdraw, retreat.

And need to escape.

He grabbed her, moving past her mouth to plant a gentle kiss on her cheek and whisper in her ear, the scent of her so beguiling it was as if her musk alone could make love to him. “It’s too much. All of this. I need time to go home. To process. To think.”

“You don’t know what you need,” she lashed out.

“I need to figure out what I need.”

“You can’t walk away like this and expect me to be here when you come back.”

Gauntlet thrown.

“Why do you assume I’ll come back?” Jesus, he was saying all the wrong things. When did they start flinging barbs designed to draw emotional blood? That’s not what he meant, and yet her belligerence just triggered more of a need to dominate her, the layer on layer of conflict driving him to stand taller, edge closer.

To win.

To conquer.

“You were planning to run off to Boston just now, and—”

“I assumed you would go with me, Sophia. When I said I wouldn’t leave without seeing you, that’s what I meant.”

“Oh.”

“But now I do think we need time apart.”

“So you can think.” Her mouth twisted.

“Yes.”

“Because you don’t feel the Beat.” Her eyes lasered in on his, bright and wild, his blood starting to rush as if she hypnotized him, as if her eyes were the center of a magnetic force that whipped his pulse into a frenzy. He hardened, the sudden erection painful, restless, needing her wet, wonderful heat.

Tap tap tap.

“Go away!” Sophia called out, her imperial nature reminding him of how different they were.

Maybe too different.

Impossibly different.

“It’s Sam,” a crisp, professional voice called out from the other side of the door. “I need to talk to Zach.”

“He’s busy!” Sophia roared. “I said, Go away.”

Ignoring her, Zach turned around and opened the door to find Sam standing there, panting from exertion. She’d clearly just run here. In her arms were stacks of folders and at least one of those old books, the title on the broken spine partially covered by her folders, though he could read Alchemy, Healing, and Change.

“I am sorry to interrupt, but—”

“Then don’t!” Storming across the room, Sophia zoomed in on Sam, towering over her, the potential for violence evident in her limbs. “Leave!”

Sam flinched but to her credit, stood her ground. “I can come back at a more convenient time,” she said nervously, giving Zach a WTF? look.

Sophia held Zach’s gaze, her face filled with defiance, with self-righteous anger, with a pleading that asked him not to fuck this up. He felt the pieces of himself that he could still find and hold on to turning to threads as he unraveled, one repeating thought taking precedence.

Go home.

Go home.

Go home.

“Never mind,” Sophia said, her voice suddenly cold as ice, smooth and rational, all hint of emotion gone. Stepping past Sam, she made her way to the door and as she left the boathouse solarium, called back, “I was just leaving.”

Damn it.

“I’m so sorry,” Sam said, one eyebrow cocked as they watched Sophia saunter down the path, moving at a fast but not hurried clip. “I take it you two are having an argument?”

“She wants me to father her baby, and I said I needed to think about it.”

“Oh!” Sam frowned. “Oh.”

“Right.” Zach let out a low chuckle and sank into a chair, elbows on his knees, fingers threading through his dark hair in frustration. “Please tell me this is a parallel universe and I’ve accidentally stumbled into some Harvard quantum physics professor’s fucked-up government-funded experiment.”

“That would be so much simpler, wouldn’t it?” she said in sympathy, joining him in a chair across from where Zach sat.

“Would it?”

“Yes,” she said simply, gesturing at the piles of documents in her arms. “You really don’t understand how complex the shifter world is.”

“I’m sensing that.” He paused. “Sam, what’s ‘baby fever’ and why does Sophia insist I have no choice but to give her a baby because we feel a beat together? She keeps calling me her ‘one.’”

Sam’s eyes flew wide open. “Baby Fever? She has mating fever for you?”

“She told me it came on suddenly and she can’t control it. That I have no choice and I have to give her a baby.” The look he gave her was intended to solidify the sheer absurdity of Sophia’s demand.

“Of course she did. And you agreed?”

“What? No! Why would I agree?”

Sam sighed, pulling off her glasses and rubbing her right eye, starting to talk then stopping repeatedly, clearly struggling to find the right words. Finally she said quietly, “Because Sophia is right.”

“She’s what?”

Sam’s palm went up. “Not ‘right’ as in you should agree with her. No, no. Right as in that’s a simple biological fact of shifters. Female, mostly, but it can happen to the male. Baby Fever is a biological need to procreate. Sophia can’t curb the impulse any more than we can pretend we don’t feel the need to eat, or—”

“Or any more than I can stop an uncontrolled shift.”

“Exactly.”

“Shit,” he muttered.

“It’s a lot to take in.”

“You are the queen of understatements, Sam.”

She gave him a kind smile. “I came here for an urgent matter, Zach. Edward told Molly, who told me, that you can read the books in Asher’s office? You are fluent in the old language?”

“I guess. They said it wasn’t English.” Zach shrugged.

“You have brain activation we need to study in depth. What else?”

“What else… what?”

“What other special powers do you possess?”

“I can roll my tongue and tie a cherry stem with it.”

“That’s great for your Match.com profile but insignificant in terms of measurable scientific data, Zach,” she said dryly.

“How am I supposed to know what my shifter powers are, Sam? I don’t know them until I exhibit them! My body’s changed, irrevocably. Look at me.”

She did, her cheeks flushing as she took him at his word and combed him over, her approval obvious. “You’ve… changed.”

“I’m seven inches taller, seventy pounds heavier, and my feet and… well, everything got bigger.”

Her eyes darted to his crotch. He nearly exploded with laughter and leaned in to make a joke, enjoying the banter in a strangely freeing way, no tension. Just some lighthearted joking with the only human on this ranch who seemed to give a whit about him and his thoughts.

Zach needed light right now. Easy.

And most of all, human.

“What in the bloody hell are you two doing alone up here?” boomed Asher Stanton from behind them just as Zach’s fingertips landed on Sam’s knee, her face cracking with a smile.

“We’re— Wait!” Sam jumped to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

“Keeping this animal from putting his hands all over you.”

“Oh, Christ,” Sam said, giving Asher a look of withering frustration. “Zach and I were having a business meeting.”

“I have never attended a business meeting in which I place my hands on a woman’s knees in a dimly lit, isolated boathouse. Is this some human protocol of which I am unaware? If so, I consider it disgustingly crass.”

“I was about to tell her a joke,” Zach said, feeling defensive.

“Your sense of humor leaves much to be desired.”

“Are you here to insult me, or is there some other reason for finding us? Because I’m done being insulted. Your sister’s done a fabulous job of it today.”

“What did you do to her?” Asher snapped.

Zach knew older brothers could be protective, but this guy was over the top. “I said no to her demand to give her a baby.”

Ah. Direct hit. Asher shook in place as if Zach had punched him with a right hook.

“She what?”

“She insisted I give her a baby.”

“And you said no?”

“Yes.”

“Why on earth would you say no?”

Zach started laughing.

“You are king of the mindfuck, aren’t you, Asher?” Zach announced, folding in half, letting the hilarity of the situation wash over him, his emotions so high and bubbly he was afraid he might shift.

“Asher, in the human world, people don’t have Baby Fever,” Sam tried to explain while Zach fell to pieces, her words making him chuckle harder.

“They don’t? You mean you never want to have a child, Samantha?” Asher’s voice nearly broke as he lowered it.

“What? Me? Um, well, I have my career, and I’ve never met someone who wanted what I want out of life, and you know…”

“No,” Asher said. “I do not.”

Two minds worked inside Zach’s body. One was fully engaged in hysterical laughter. The other cataloged the fact that Asher Stanton was not asking Sam about human behavior, in general.

He was asking Sam about whether she wanted a baby.

Sam drew herself up and found her lab voice. As Zach willed himself to pull it together, he listened. “My interest in children is none of your business. I’m merely trying to explain why Zach would say no to Sophia’s request.”

“It isn’t a request. It’s a biological imperative. If Sophia—my God, Sophia? Really? Sophia asked you to give her a baby, Zach? I’ve never heard of a more absurd proposal!” Asher choked out, his hesitant speech pattern uncharacteristic.

“Because Zach is human?”

“Well, there’s that, but no,” Asher said, clearly flustered. The man was a statue, an emotionless robot, so seeing him animated made Zach pause and take a deep breath, not wanting to miss this.

“It is because Sophia is Sophia! Have you any idea how many men she has cavorted with?”

Zach’s temper flared, like someone threw phosphorus in his blood. “Shut the fuck up, Asher. You’ve crossed a line.”

“Forgive me.” Asher drew back and seemed to tuck himself into the box where he put all of his feelings. “I did not intend to shine a light on her past but more to give insight into the rare nature of my sister’s request. She has never—not once—felt so bound to a lover as to even so much as mention a baby.”

“See?” Sam said to Zach quietly. “It’s special.”

“She keeps talking about this beat—”

“Do you feel it?” Asher snapped, his chin jutting up, eyes widening as if challenging Zach.

Telling the truth felt like betraying himself. Lying preserved what little freedom he still had.

“No.”

“Then Sophia is being ridiculous,” Asher said flatly. “Impulsive and childish, as usual. Perhaps she just wants attention after seeing Lilah and Gavin’s babies. Besides, we don’t know that you can give someone a baby.”

“Excuse me?”

Sam cleared her throat. “What he means is, we haven’t tested your sperm samples to look at procreation capacity.”

“My sperm.”

“Yes.”

“Are you asking me for a sample?”

“Not now—not here,” Sam said, looking around as if she’d hand him a cup and a phone with internet access to a streaming porn site if she could. “The ranch doesn’t have the lab facilities we have at LupiNex, back in Boston. But yes, we would like a sample.”

“Are you quite finished? I’d prefer to talk about any topic other than Zach’s cock,” Asher interrupted.

Zach burst out with braying amusement. “You’d prefer Sam talked about yours, eh?”

The crack of knuckles against his jaw was like a lightning bolt in a hot summer thunderstorm.