Primal Bonds

  “My friend is in there,” Andrea said. “I need to get her. Then we’ll go.” She’d drag Glory out by the hair and back home if she had to.

  “I’m coming with you,” the young man said.

  He was human; he could go wherever he wanted to. Andrea shrugged and let him open the door. Humanlike, he gestured for her to go first. Such a weird custom. Who knew what danger waited on the other side?

  The noise and smell of the place hit her hard. Smoke, beer, and body odor, mostly Shifter body odor. Music and lots of voices. It was dark inside, incongruous with the white glare of the afternoon. Andrea tucked her sunglasses into her pocket and scanned the interior.

  The bar where Liam worked was more like a family place. Cubs couldn’t enter until they reached the human age of twenty-one, but grown families congregated there to meet friends and other families. But no one would encourage mates and cubs to come here. These Shifters weren’t from one enclave—she could scent that. There were two Shiftertowns in Austin, Liam’s and the north Austin one. Another, smaller Shiftertown existed in back Hill Country, up toward Llano. Andrea didn’t know enough Shifters down here to place everyone, but living in communities, Shifters picked up the collective scent of that community. She smelled four or five distinct ones in here.

  Glory was easy to spot, sitting on a barstool in her black leather and lacy top, chatting to the human bartender and the Shifter males around her. She saw Andrea and lifted her bottle of beer in greeting.

  “Hey, Andrea. Did Dylan send you running after me?”

  “No.” Andrea edged against the bar and gave Glory a hard stare. “I came running after you on my own. What are you doing here?”

  “Enjoying myself. Who’s your friend?” Glory gave the human who’d followed Andrea her widest, most tooth-filled smile. “He looks edible.”

  “He and his friends gave me directions.”

  “Oh, he has friends, does he?”

  “Glory.”

  The young man looked from Glory to Andrea, and his face changed. “Aw, fuck, you’re a Shifter.”

  Andrea stifled a sigh. “I never said I wasn’t.”

  “Damn it, I was trying to help you.”

  “Why were you?” Andrea fixed him with a stare. “Why didn’t you want me to come in here?”

  The guy clammed up. He wasn’t good at hiding things; humans often weren’t. Something about this bar scared him, though Andrea couldn’t tell whether it was simply because it was a Shifter place or something more sinister was going on.

  He gave her an ugly glare worthy of Nate the tracker. “Forget it, bitch. It’s your funeral.” He spun and strode away.

  “We need to go,” Andrea began, but Glory clamped her hand on Andrea’s arm.

  “No,” she said in a hard voice, though she kept smiling. “You need to stay.”

  Andrea stopped. “Why?”

  Glory leaned close, bathing Andrea in heavy perfume. “Because there are some very interesting conversations in here.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Just listen.”

  Andrea slid onto a barstool and signaled for the bartender to bring her a beer. Good Shifter hearing let Andrea eavesdrop while accepting the cold bottle the bartender put in front of her. If she’d been in her Lupine form, her ears would have been twisted hard behind her.

  A table full of Felines had the most interesting conversation, and Glory nodded ever so slightly when Andrea focused on snatches of their talk. They were confident, Andrea thought. They must recognize Glory—she stood out, even for a Shifter—but they didn’t seem to worry about her overhearing. The Felines talked for a while, and Andrea went cold. Something was going on, and it didn’t take her long to figure out what.

  When Andrea pulled Kim’s car into the driveway an hour or so later, it was to face three Morrissey males: Sean, Dylan, and Liam. They stood with arms folded, right in front of the car, frowning like a tribunal ready to pronounce sentence.

  Glory parked her own little car next to her house and leisurely exited her vehicle. Andrea got out of the Mustang and closed the keys in her hand, ready to return them to Kim. Without acknowledging the three watching men, she started for the porch, but Sean stepped in her way. His blue eyes glittered under the black slash of his brows, and his face was hard with anger.

  “I take the blame, Sean,” Dylan said behind Andrea. “I made her worry about Glory.”

  Andrea saw movement inside the house. Kim and Connor watched from the other side of the living-room window, making no move to greet Andrea.

  Andrea looked from Sean to his brother and father. “What is this?”

  “What did you think you were doing, lass?” Sean said, his voice deceptively soft. “You didn’t tell Liam, or Dad, or even Ellison where you were going. Instead, you coerced Kim into helping you and told her to keep quiet.”

  Andrea stared at him. “I didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to leave Shiftertown. Even the humans are all right with me doing that.”

  “Alone.” Sean’s voice was a growl. “When humans have been shooting Shifters.” He was furious, his eyes blue white, but he only stirred her own anger.

  “First of all, Sean, I can pass for human. Second, Glory was out there, and I wanted to bring her home before she got hurt. Third, I couldn’t tell you about it, because I didn’t notice you anywhere around today. Where the hell have you been?”

  “Colorado.”

  Andrea stopped. “What? Why?”

  “Taking care of business.”

  “What business? And anyway, how did you get there and back so fast?”

  “There’s this fine invention called an airplane.”

  “Which Shifters aren’t allowed on. That’s why I had to take that stupidly long bus ride to get here.”

  Kim opened the front door, despite Connor’s obvious attempts to pull her back. “Leave her alone, Sean. You’re getting to be as bad as Liam.”

  Glory strode unapologetically up the porch steps, passing Dylan without a word. “Instead of snarling at Andrea, you all need to hear what we have to say.” She walked past Kim and into the house. Kim opened the door all the way, inviting the rest of them in.

  Sean’s anger tasted fiery as he led Andrea inside. He was rarely angry like this, but when he’d returned to Austin and found Andrea gone off alone, all reason had left his brain. When Kim, worried, had volunteered the information that Andrea had left to look for Glory, Sean’s feral rage had taken over. Liam had tried to hold Sean against a wall to keep him from charging off to tear apart the city, but Sean had twisted free of Liam and slammed out of the house just as Andrea had driven up in Kim’s car.

  She’d emerged from the Mustang with that cool look that disdained Sean’s protectiveness. But she was his mate, damn it, or as near as. One glance into Andrea’s gray eyes told him she didn’t care. The woman was driving him over-the-edge insane.

  Sean stood right behind her in the living room. Andrea didn’t like that, but too damn bad. Her scent aroused the fires inside him, rage and wanting all mixed together. He recognized the primal urge of a male in mate frenzy, and he clenched his teeth against it. He’d left town thinking she was protected, and returning and finding that his father had let her leave Shiftertown, unescorted, had made his dominant anger explode like a geyser. Liam had had to hold him back from that fight too.

  With effort, Sean wrenched his attention from Andrea and focused on Glory’s words.

  “These Shifters were going on about how they don’t want Shifters and humans mingling anymore,” Glory was saying. “They say it’s diluting us, making us weak. Interesting, don’t you think?”

  “I heard them too.” Andrea stood so close to Sean that he could easily wrap his arms around her, though he knew that if he did, she’d only elbow him in the gut. “I thought they were reacting to the shootings, but then they went on about how the they thought the shootings were a good thing. The incidents would widen the distance between humans and Shifters, as it should be, they said.”
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  “The Shifters were from north Austin?” Liam asked.

  “From everywhere, Liam,” Glory said. “North Austin, out by Llano, plus from this Shiftertown right here.”

  “The bastards,” Connor spat. “Shifters in this Shiftertown should be loyal to Liam.”

  Liam rubbed his forehead. “Shite, this is all we’re needing.”

  “A faction.” Dylan’s voice was grim. “Shifters from different clans and Shiftertowns forming their own power group. Were they different species?”

  Glory shook her head. “All Feline.”

  “Hairballs, every single one of them,” Andrea put in.

  Sean wanted to touch her. He wanted to run his hands along her shoulders, lick her from neck to the base of her spine.

  “We need to be having a chat with these Felines, I’m thinking.” Liam looked at Sean, eyes flat and angry. “Up for some confrontation, Sean?”

  “Yeah,” Connor said eagerly. “Send Sean in to kick some ass. Can I watch?”

  Sean’s attention was pulled from Liam and problems in Shiftertown to the curve of Andrea’s cheek, the way her black ringlets brushed it when she turned her head. He could lean down and nuzzle her, smell her hair, taste the salt of her skin. A low growl left his throat.

  Liam’s waiting stare didn’t pull him out of it. The whole family knew damn well how distracted Sean was with this unfinished mate-claim. Liam and Connor were taking side bets on how long it would be before Sean combusted.

  Liam looked away. “Dad?”

  Dylan shrugged. “It’s your call now, son. I’ll back you up if it comes to a fight, but the first approach must come from you.”

  Liam acknowledged that, and even in his distracted state, Sean could tell Liam wasn’t happy about it. Liam hadn’t worn the mantle of power long, and it still bothered him to have his father defer to him. Sean understood; his own anger at his father today disturbed him underneath it all. Changes in the hierarchy were hell.

  Sean knew that someday he’d slide in dominance beneath his own son, and the thought of having a son brought him back around to thoughts of mating. With Andrea. Sean let his fingers drift under Andrea’s hair to the smooth skin of her neck. She flushed but didn’t shake him off.

  Glory laughed. “Well, we know Sean’s priorities today.”

  “He can’t help it.” Liam slanted a smile at Kim, the mate for whom his frenzy hadn’t yet cooled. “Trust me, I know how it goes. Take Andrea home, Sean. We’ll kick some Feline ass later.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “I don’t need to be taken home,” Andrea said as Sean opened the door of Glory’s house. He went inside first to check that the way was safe and gestured her to follow him.

  The house was dark and empty. Glory and Dylan had remained at the Morrisseys’, Dylan helping to reassure Connor that Andrea wouldn’t be punished. Andrea had been a bad wolf, and so had Glory, but the mean alphas were going to cut them some slack for the good intelligence they’d brought home.

  Andrea went straight to the kitchen and grabbed the coffeepot. The cold day was getting darker and colder, and she needed coffee.

  Sean divested himself of his sword and then leaned his fists on the breakfast bar, muscles tightening. “I’m damn sorry if you walking into danger bothers me, Andy-love. I’m funny that way.”

  “I only went to find Glory to talk her into coming back home. I have to live in this house; I don’t want the walls falling down around me because Glory and Dylan have a knock-down, drag-out fight.”

  “Dylan wouldn’t do that.”

  Andrea noisily ran water to fill the pot. “No, he gets all cold and disappears, and then I have to live with Glory’s bad temper. Why can’t the two of them just mate and get it over with? Then the rest of us can sleep.”

  “Because it eats him up inside, my mother’s death.” Sean’s fists were even tighter, his knuckles whitening. “It was a long time ago, but he hasn’t gotten over it. The grief, it destroyed him.”

  Andrea let out her breath as she scooped coffee grounds into the top of the pot. “I understand. I saw what my mother’s death did to my stepfather.” Grief could be a terrible thing. Her stepfather hadn’t truly recovered from it, and it had been more than thirty-five years.

  “My mother was a little bit like Glory,” Sean said. “Very in your face. Kind of like you.” The corners of his mouth quirked in a tight smile. “I think if Glory weren’t so like my mum, it wouldn’t be so hard for Dad. But he’s not sure he can give himself to Glory, not sure he has a right to. He’s a complicated man.”

  “Whereas you are so simple.” Andrea plugged in the pot and waited impatiently for the heavenly sound of percolation. Shifters could have automatic-drip coffeemakers, but Andrea thought it tasted better in an old-fashioned pot anyway. It was satisfying to watch the coffee burble into the little glass knob on the top of the pot as the water boiled. And the scent was glorious.

  “I am simple,” Sean said. “I wait for people to die so I can send them to the Summerland. I fill in the time between that messing with my computer and hoping to mate before I die myself.”

  “Don’t overwhelm me with sentiment.” Andrea faced him across the counter. He really had no idea that he was one of the most complicated and changeable males she’d ever met. One minute he was growling and controlling, the next so protective she thought she’d never feel in danger again, the next grieving for his dead brother and feeling compassion for his father. Which one was the real Sean Morrissey? Answer, all of them. Sure, Sean, real simple.

  “What were you doing in Colorado anyway?” she asked him. “How did you pull off flying there? Shifters aren’t allowed on planes.”

  “Not being allowed and not doing it are two different things, love. I have human friends who own airplanes.”

  “Oh, now you tell me after my bus journey across three states.”

  Sean had the gall to smile. “I was in a hurry.”

  “Are you going to share why you went there?”

  “To ask your stepdad about your Fae father. I wanted to know everything your mother said about him, things you were too young to remember, and I wanted to be face-to-face with him when I asked it.”

  And now she had Sean the intelligence gatherer, who probed all the way to the root of the problem instead of just baring his teeth at it.

  “You saw my dad?” Andrea’s eyes prickled with tears. “How is he?”

  His tone gentled. “He’s fine, lass, though he’s missing you. And he was happy to talk about your mum. Seemed like he was glad to have someone to talk about her with.”

  The tears threatened to spill out, and Andrea blinked them back. “I’m so glad you two got along.”

  “We did. You were right about your stepdad. He’s a fine man, and brave for his rank in the pack. He’s relieved that you’re here, and safe, and happy. He sent his love.”

  Oh, damn you, Sean Morrissey. Andrea was trying to stay angry at him for being rabidly overprotective, and suddenly he moved back to being the Sean who knew exactly what Andrea needed. He’d gone not only to ask about her Fae father, but to bring back reassurance that Andrea’s stepfather was well and that Terry didn’t blame Andrea for what she’d done.

  “I also saw Jared,” Sean said.

  “You did?” She smiled. “I’m kind of sorry I missed that.”

  “He’s still pretty pissed off, especially since there are no other unmated females of age in your old Shiftertown. But don’t worry, love. He’ll not do a bloody thing to you ever again, not unless he wants to challenge me. I almost hope he does, so I can wipe the floor with his sorry ass.”

  Sean’s protectiveness was rising again, but Andrea couldn’t help but feel grateful for all he’d done. Being harassed and stalked wasn’t something a woman just got over. Being stalked meant waking up every morning wondering what terrible thing would happen next, looking over your shoulder with every step, falling asleep wondering whether you were safe to do so. Because of Sean, Andrea could now wake up
without fear.

  “Why are you doing this to me?” she asked.

  “Looking after you?” Sean sounded surprised. “I mate-claimed you. I take care of you now. I told you that when I first met you.”

  “I didn’t mean that, exactly.” She’d meant the easy way Sean disarmed her, the way he turned what made her angry into something wonderful he’d done for her. The way he was making Andrea care more and more about him. “And anyway, it’s only a claim, not an official mating. You’re not obligated to take care of me, yet.”

  Sean’s eyes narrowed. “All of that is shite, and you know it. We follow the rituals of mate-claim and mate blessing because we’d just give ourselves to the frenzy if we didn’t, no holding back. We’d be ferals, bloody barbarians.” Sean leaned toward her, the scent of musk and leather reaching her, the look in his eyes heating her blood. “I’m very close to the frenzy now, love, and I’m not going to be able to wait for coffee.”

  “It is kind of warm in here, isn’t it? Maybe you’re just flushed.”

  Sean’s smile went sinful. “It’s bloody freezing in here. You’re feeling the frenzy too, aren’t you, love? Maybe a touch?”

  More than a touch. Damn him.

  Sean came around the counter. Andrea held her ground as he took a stance behind her, like he’d done in Liam’s house, his tall body warming her all the way down. He leaned to her, his body heat like a blanket, and she felt his teeth on her neck. “You’re the one who was buying me all the underwear,” he murmured into her skin. “Want to guess which pair I’m wearing?”

  “Sean ...” The happy bubbles died across the kitchen, a rich aroma permeating the air. “The coffee’s done.”

  “Unplug it.”

  “I’m dying for coffee.”

  “I’m dying for you.” Sean licked Andrea’s neck, his breath hot. “I can’t hold back, love. I’m trying, I’m trying damn hard, but I can’t.”

  Andrea looked straight up at him with those smoke gray eyes. If this had been a hundred years ago, when Shifters were wild, Sean wouldn’t have waited for her decision. He’d have scooped her up and taken her. After all, she was his mate, she belonged to him, and the frenzy was killing him.