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We pulled into the pharmacy. “Come on, kiddo, this’ll take only a second.”

“Okay,” Dylan said. He had his handheld video game console with him. Usually, I would’ve asked him to leave it at home, butwhen he was this tired, he deserved a break from the chaos of errands.

Dylan plopped into a cushy seat near the pharmacist’s counter and curled up with his game. I handed my prescription to the pharmacist, and he nodded and said it’d be a few minutes, so I stood off to the side to wait and pulled out my phone.

Me: I can’t believe I almost forgot my birth control.This whole situation has my head in such a mess.

Cassidy:I can.You subconsciously want another one, don’t you?! Btw, that job I sent you has a good maternity leave policy…

She followed that up with a few laughing emojis and devil ones, too.

I smiled down at my phone. I’d always told Cassidy I was a one-and-done type of mom. I’d never even thought about having more kids—I’d never met a man I’d want to have kidswith.So, I’d been diligent about taking my birth control, even when I wasn’t dating. It was easier to keep taking it.

But somehow, in Lakeview, it had slipped my mind. And when Stephan had mentioned having another, there was a tiny part of me that considered it. Even this morning, I’d thought… What if I simply let it lapse? Rolled the dice and saw what happened?

Of course, I wasn’t going to do something so impulsive and irresponsible. I wasn’t twenty anymore. But I’d thought about it.

I glanced over at Dylan. He was still curled up in the chair, focused on his game. I imagined a little girl, identical to Bella, tugging at his arm for his attention. Another little shifter blowing smoke out of her nostrils. Dylan as a teenager, asking me to show him how to install the car seat in his first car… Dylan, in his twenties, meeting his sister’s first boyfriend and scaring the life out of him…

I was typing out my response to Cassidy when another customer came to stand next to me. I shuffled slightly to the side.

“Wow,” a familiar-yet-unfamiliar voice said. “He really does look like a mirror image.”

I looked up, then took a stumbling step closer to Dylan’s chair and farther away from the strange man. The strange man who wasn’t so strange. It was unnerving to look at him: tall, broad-shouldered, with messy blond hair, a stubbly beard, and hazel eyes. He was the spitting image of Stephan. At a quick glance, I would’ve thought hewasStephan, if not for the ugly, raised pink scar jutting over his right eye.

“Sean,” I whispered. I regained my footing and angled my body so I stood between Dylan and Sean. Dylan twisted in his chair and looked up. I grabbed his shoulder and squeezed hard before Dylan could say anything, and to my surprise, Dylan stayed quiet. I wondered what his dragon sensed about Sean.

I didn’t have super-senses like shifters, but even I could feel the anger radiating off Sean like a stench. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his hazel eyes were flecked with a burnished gold, though not nearly as bright and shining as Stephan’s.

Stephan had told me he was dangerous. I had believed him, but it was different than seeing it up close.

“That’s right,” Sean growled. “Surprised to see you out on the town all by yourself, girly. Especially when my brother has made himself so many enemies.” He grinned, showing his sharp canines. I couldn’t tell if they were his fangs, or if his human teeth were simply that sharp. “Seems irresponsible for an alpha to leave his mate sodefenseless.”

“What?” I glanced anxiously around the pharmacy. “I’m notalone.The enforcers?—”

“Oh, is that who that was?” His grin widened. It was clear he knew exactly who had been following us. “You should tell Stephan to choose someone a little stronger to look out for you.”

My heart dropped to my feet.

Sean narrowed his eyes, then peered over my shoulder at Dylan. “You know, it’d be a shame if your little dragon got involved.”

Dylan shuddered under my touch, and I tightened my hold on his shoulder. “You stay the hell away from my son,” I snarled, as if I were a dragon myself.

“Miss Founty?” the pharmacist asked from behind the counter. He had his hand on the phone behind the counter. “Your prescription. Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” Sean answered for me. He took a step back and threw a friendly smile at the pharmacist. “I’ve got to run. But you might want to tell Stephan he’s got an enforcer to tend to.”

Sean stormed out of the pharmacy. My knees nearly gave out as relief crashed over me. I turned toward Dylan, and he scrambled off the chair and hugged me hard. He was shaking. Or was that me? My hands quivered as I called Stephan.

26

ACE

“What the hell happened? Where’s Harley?” I leaped off my bike and ran to the dark Jeep parked at the edge of the parking lot, where Striker was crouched next to Tank.

“I’m fine,” Tank muttered. “Thanks for asking.” He had an ice pack on his head, and he’d have a nasty black eye tomorrow.

“Sean and a few of his guys jumped him,” Striker said.