When the infamous Jett Black growled a command, both Harper and Hayden turned on him to demand simultaneously, "What the hell have you done with my sister?"

"As you can see, Aylese is fine," he replied and gestured to a black jaguar as she carried a cub over to the couch and stretched out with him held securely between her front paws. "She's just having difficulty communicating in this form."

Hayden screamed bloody murder and climbed atop the desk, the stapler held threateningly as she stared wide-eyed at the predator. Harper paled to ash at the sight of the big cat with cobalt blue eyes and knew it was Aylese. "Oh my God," she exclaimed in horror. "You turned her into a jaguar!"

The bastard replied, "Aylese said if you don't calm down that she's going to tell your mother about the time you both snuck out to meet the Blythe brothers behind the bleachers."

"How the hell do you know about that?" Hades demanded in a shocked tone.

"You wouldn't dare," Harper gasped. Aylese gave her a big toothy grin and chuffed out what sounded like a laugh. There was no doubt now that the bastard was in cahoots with the monsters at GenMod because they had somehow managed to turn her sister into a shifter. She sank to her knees and wailed miserably, "Oh, Lese. What have they done to you?"

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Harp, what the hell are you smoking?" Her twin snapped. "That animal is not Aylese."

"Shut the hell up, Hades," she snapped back before turning pleading eyes on Jett. "I'll tell you anything you want to know, just please, change her back."

The big cat rose and walked across the floor, the cub prancing along beside her. When Lese rubbed her head against her, Harper lost it. She wrapped both arms around her sister's neck and cried all over her fur. Aylese was a jaguar, and it was all her fault for getting her involved. The guilt was unbearable.

"Harper, your sister is going to be fine," Jett assured her. "I'm not sure what happened, but I am positive that Dr. Montford can explain it."

She lifted her head and looked hopefully up at him. Her hopes were dashed when one of the men who had entered the room with him admitted, "I have no idea how this happened." When Aylese leveled a lethal stare at him, he hastily added, "I'll need to do a complete physical exam to determine precisely what caused the shift, but I do have a theory."

"Spit it out," Jett demanded.

"In layman's terms," Ryker added in a tone of longsuffering.

"I believe the cub is the crux of the issue," he postulated. "She should shift back to human form if we take him away."

Much to her complete surprise, Aylese rounded on the unsuspecting doctor with a roar of fury, "Yowl, yowl!" From the feral look in her eyes and the aggressive stance, there was no way that her sister was going to give up the cub. Whether or not she would maul the doctor remained to be seen.

Jett quickly placed himself between them and said soothingly, "No one is going to take our cub from you, love. Pier is just trying to help so don't eat him." He must have had some way of communicating with her without words because he flashed the jaguar a wicked smile and teased, "Such language in front of the cub."

Aylese picked the cub up with her teeth and carried him back to the couch. Harper followed suit, and both of them watched the doctor with a narrow-eyed glare. Hayden remained on her knees atop the desk and stared at them all as if they were insane. Judas Priest, this just kept getting more bizarre by the minute.

"Care to try again?" Jett asked and bared his teeth at the doctor. Baring of teeth was the way animals communicated a warning, and she realized that the man must be a shifter as well. If he was, then that meant the cub her sister was protecting had to be the baby that Harper had rescued. Her suspicions were proven correct when the doctor spoke again.

"It has to be related to the cub," he insisted. "Without running a battery of tests, I have no way of knowing what they did to him. He could be releasing some form of toxin that caused Aylese to shift due to prolonged exposure. If that's the case then letting her remain in proximity to him will only exacerbate the issue."

"Or not," a stunningly beautiful woman opined from the doorway.

"I suppose you have a theory as well," Jett deduced.

"I don't know what made her shift, but I'm pretty sure I know why she won't shift back," the woman replied. "Aylese has a mother's instincts, and she's accepted Justis as her own child. Her cat knows that she's more capable of protecting the cub in jaguar form and as long as there's a threat to him, she'll fight to stay in control."

Without looking away from her sister, Jett commanded, "Ryker, Wilds, clear the room."

The big, scary looking dude tossed Hayden unceremoniously across his shoulder and before Harper could protest, Ryker had scooped her into his arms. Both she and her twin were shouting dire threats and raising immortal hell as they were carried out. The rest of the people followed, closing the door behind them.

No sooner than they were in the hallway, the arrogant ass dropped her like a hot potato. Her entire body was tingling from head to toe, and her skin felt singed where it had been pressed up against his. The big man hadn't wasted any time putting her sister down either, and he looked even grimmer than he had before.

As expected, her twin started bitching the minute her feet hit the floor. Harper was still an emotional wreck over Aylese being a jaguar, and the last thing she felt like doing was fighting with her sister. "Judas Priest, Hades, give it a rest and calm down," she pleaded wearily.

"Calm down?" She thundered furiously. "I've been kidnapped, manhandled, stuffed in a trunk, and you want me to calm down? None of this would have happened if you hadn't stolen a baby for God's sake."

Much to her complete astonishment, the most unlikely of saviors came to her rescue. Ryker de Lyon bit out in a low growl that rang with authority, "For your information, your sister rescued my brother's child from a lab where he was being tortured. She's a fucking hero and deserves some respect."

That announcement had managed to render her twin speechless, and Hayden stared at her in shock. Her family considered her to be an irresponsible screw-up and it felt incredible to have her actions vindicated for once. A lone tear slid down Harper's cheek as she looked up into Ryker's flashing golden eyes and offered him a smile of gratitude.

"Thank you," she said tremulously.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you," Jett's voice said, and she turned to see him standing behind her in the doorway wearing nothing but his jeans with the sleeping cub cradled in his arms. "I owe you a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid, Harper. Not only did you save my cub, but you sent my mate to me."

Aylese appeared beside him wearing his shirt and pulled Harper into a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you, Harp," she said emotionally. "For saving Justis and making me the happiest woman alive."

"Lese," she said brokenly and returned the hug. Relief at seeing her sister in human form again had left her as weak as a kitten. "I'm glad you're both all right. I've been so worried about you."

"Aylese, thank God," Hayden said fervently as she pushed Harper aside and hugged their sister fiercely. "Can you please tell me what the hell is going on? Who are these people? And what the hell are you doing dressed like that?"

Their half-sister laughed and returned the hug before saying, "Give me a minute to get dressed, and I'll explain everything."

"We'll meet you all in the dining room," Jett interjected as he handed the cub over to the unknown woman who'd spoken earlier and slid his arm around Aylese's waist. "I'm ravenous this morning."

Harper could only stare in amazement as her sister blushed and giggled like a school girl before allowing the Prince of Pussy to lead her away. Obviously, the man had lived up to his reputation because she'd never seen her normally prim and proper sister look or act so happy and carefree.

"Well then," one of the men said in amusement as they watched the pair walk away. "Ladies, the dining room is this way. Shall we?"

Hades gave him a scathing look and marched off in the direction he'd gestured. Harper shook her head in exasperation and followed her aggravating sister. Neither she or her twin said a word to each other as they prepared their plates from the buffet and sat across from each other at the same table.

The men followed suit and huddled around another table, scarfing down the mountains of food they'd piled on their plates and talking in low murmurs that she couldn't hear. The whole scene was surreal because she couldn't help wondering if they were all shifters and why they were there.

She'd been so preoccupied watching them that she hadn't noticed that Aylese and Jett had joined them until the couple sat down at their table. And there was no doubt that they were a couple. From the looks of them, they were head over heels in love. The Purity Princess and the Prince of Pussy. It boggled the mind.

Once everyone had finished eating, Jett suggested that they adjourn to a sitting room where he began to make introductions. "Ladies, these are my brother's in all but blood. Ryker de Lyon, Wilder Pantere, Ari la Blanc, Dr. Pierce Montford and Onyx Farrell," he informed them. "My mate's sisters, Harper and Hayden Stone."

Harper gave them a nod in greeting while Hayden just glared at them all before demanding, "Now that the niceties are out of the way, tell me what the hell is going on."

Jett turned his amber eyes on her and asked, "Harper, would you care to explain?"

Not really, but she did it anyway. For the next hour, Harper explained how she'd gotten the tip, gone undercover and rescued the baby from the lab. Hades had looked stricken when she'd described seeing the child being tortured. Aylese had started crying, and Jett had lifted her onto his lap to comfort her.

Every man in the room looked almost as feral as the big guy they called Wilds. Then she'd told them about the lab being destroyed and her plan to look into the companies executives being derailed. Her hopes were bolstered when the one introduced as Ari informed her that he was an IT specialist and offered to help.

Ryker's reaction had been appalling. While they were talking, Ari had moved from across the room and sat in the chair next to hers. The lion shifter had stepped between them and growled at the other man until he'd gone back to his original seat. Ari had understandably looked shocked at the blatant display of rudeness.

An expert in animal behavior, if she hadn't been so focused on what they were discussing, Harper would have recognized the action for what it was. Ryker was exhibiting the possessive nature of a male staking a claim on a female. The other men in the room had picked up on it and kept giving him amused looks.

Once she'd told them everything she knew, Jett said, "Thank you, Harper. You've given us something to go on. Now we track the bastards down and deal with them."

"Or you could try drawing them out," she countered. "After all, we know what they want."

"We are not using Justis as bait," Aylese vehemently denied.

"I meant me," she corrected.

"No fucking way," Ryker roared loud enough to almost make her jump out of her skin.

"They've already come after me once," she pointed out and glared at the arrogant ass. "Chances are they'll do it again."

"Which is exactly why you're staying right here where you'll be safe," he countered in a commanding tone that set her temper on edge.

"I'll do whatever the hell I please you arrogant ass," she seethed. The nerve of the man, acting as if he had the right to tell her what she could and couldn't do.

"You'll do as you're told," he roared, and the sound actually rattled the chandeliers.

"Why don't we table this discussion for now," Jett interrupted tactfully. "Let's see if the leads Harper gave us pan out before we proceed further."

"Fine," both she and the arrogant ass snapped simultaneously.

"Now that we've got that out of the way, can someone take me to the airport?" Hayden interjected. "I'd like to go home."

"I'd be happy to take you anywhere you want to go," Ari assured her with a wicked wink. A split second later, Wilder's hand was around the other man's throat, and he had slammed him back against the wall. "Fuck me. Not you too," Ari managed to choke out.

While everyone else appeared shocked at the barbaric display, Hayden went on the attack. "Let go of him you big ox," she demanded and jumped on Wilds back. The big man released his victim, flipped her over his shoulder and held her tightly against his chest while she flailed and cursed him viciously.

Harper barely bit back a laugh because her twin had finally met her match.