He did. It wasn’t hard for him to see how much it meant to her. “I’ll drop you off at…”
She shook her head again. “No. It’s probably best if I take my car just in case I want to come back.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “Sam, you shouldn’t be driving around alone until we’ve figured out who wants to hurt you.”
She nuzzled her nose into his neck, sniffed, and licked. His gut clenched, and his cock hardened. She lifted her face. “Fine, have someone follow me. I won’t go anywhere without telling you, but I prefer to take my car. I’ve taken self-defense classes, I’m not completely useless, you know.”
Her jaw was set, and her brow was lifted in expectation. Arguing would probably be pointless. He’d just have to follow her over there.
Sam clutched all the relevant papers and shoved them into her new tote bag. She ran down the stairs knowing she’d left poor Ry waiting. He turned to her at the doorway, his face serious. Uh-oh.
“You know I’m going to follow you there and back.” His voice was steely and commanding.
“Yep. I’m OK with that.” What she didn’t tell him was that she preferred to keep her car handy in case of emergencies. Since shit had literally hit the fan lately, she didn’t know when she’d need it.
He followed her car the entire length of her drive to Sophia’s house. He sat idle in his SUV until Sophia opened the door and led her inside. He waved and drove away slowly. Talk about paranoid.
“You think that’s bad? At least he’s letting you drive your own car. Chase won’t even let me go anywhere without a driver. He thinks I’m just going to pass out behind the wheel,” Sophia complained.
Sam’s gaze went back to the other woman, and that’s when she noticed the dark circles under Sophia’s eyes. “Are you OK?” The pretty geneticist appeared to be sick.
Sophia beamed. “I’m pregnant. It makes me really tired.”
OK. Didn’t pregnancy make all women tired?
“I’m different.” Sophia said, reading her mind. “I get more tired than most women. I can sleep for days. At least this time it’s not twins, or I really would be sleeping for days.” She sighed and motioned Sam inside.
Wow. Would that happen to her?
Sophia answered almost like she’d read her thoughts. “I don’t think that would happen to you, so don’t worry. Most other shifter-pregnant women don’t need as much rest as I do. Although you’ll find you do need more than your usual amount of sleep.”
“You’re different?”
“Yes. I am a dual shifter, and so it takes a little more out of me.”
Sam stared at the petite brunette. “You can turn into two different animals?”
She nodded. “Yes, and it really is quite fun, except for the being exhausted during pregnancy part. You should ask Troy about my lioness one of these days.”
That was way too much to take in for all the crazy stuff happening lately. “I brought some papers I found inside Ginny’s trunk.”
They headed to the living room where two cots held the twins.
“Should we be in here?” Sam whispered.
Sophia laughed. “Yeah. They can sleep through an earthquake. Plus, I can’t leave them alone yet. Raven is getting me a nurse to help around here with them, but that’s not for another week. Until then, I’m on my own.”
“Wait. You said you have dual animals inside you.”
Sophia bent over Selena and moved the clear pink pacifier away from her face. “That’s right.”
“So what are your babies, one animal or the other?”
Sophia grinned, her expression bright and excited. “They’re dual shifters as well. It looks like Shane might be the first wolf/lion shifter born to an Alpha wolf. If he turns out to be Alpha in both, it can prove really interesting.”
Sam was amazed. She couldn’t wait to see if cute little Shane would be a dual leader one day.
Sophia groaned and glanced down at her smart phone. She pressed buttons and grinned. “See what I mean. Chase texts me every hour on the hour wanting to know how I’m feeling. Paranoia at its best.” She laughed. “It’s OK though. We had some big scares in the past, so I don’t hold his concern against him.”
Sam remembered Ry’s protectiveness. It seemed all of the shifter males went overboard ensuring their mate’s safety.
She sat down on a dark-chocolate-colored leather sofa and passed papers to Sophia. “These are the documents I came across. I’m not sure what they mean, but it may be the reason why I’m not a shifter.”