Primal Bonds

  “Sean, is it the Collar?”

  “You should go,” he rasped. “You should run from me.”

  Not that she had a choice smashed against the car by his body weight. She lifted her chin. “No. I’m not afraid, and you’re obviously hurting.”

  “I know you’re not afraid. And you should be.” Sean’s hands closed on her shoulders with fingers that could crush her bones. “You should be terrified of me, love. Low in your pack, here at the mercy of the most powerful Shifters in Hill Country. You’re bound to us, obligated. You should be groveling, grateful that you have your Fae healing gift to give us in return.”

  Andrea gave him a little smile. “Forget that.”

  “Aye, and here I stand, worried that I’ll hurt you, a Lupine, a half Fae, a woman I’d never met until she turned up at a bus station and looked me with the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.” He leaned closer, his body hard against hers. “What are you, Andrea Gray, that you make me feel like this?”

  Trapped between the metal car and Sean’s strength, she knew he was right—she should be afraid—but fear was the last thing on her mind. “Maybe it’s the mating frenzy talking.”

  “It’s more than that.” Behind his anger, Andrea sensed Sean’s confusion, his struggle to understand the one thing that didn’t fit his world—her. “In that bar just now, you should have been hiding behind me in terror, letting me protect you, and yet you attacked Callum, a pride leader, without hesitation. He should be way out of your league.”

  “He messed with you.” When Callum had gone for Sean, Andrea’s emotions had snapped. Her wolf had answered a primal need, and she’d pulled off her clothes with only one thought ringing in her head. Protect the mate.

  She ran restless hands up Sean’s arms. “He wanted to kill you. I couldn’t let him do that.”

  Instinct was a hell of a thing. Her rage at Callum for attacking Sean had overridden all fear, all reason. She’d only wanted to taste Callum’s blood and make him pay.

  If her fighting instincts had overwhelmed her, her mating ones were now filling her with fire. Sean bent her back against the car, his growl animal-like as he brought his mouth down to hers. His hands slid, warm, under her shirt, touching, molding, sliding around her waist and under her breasts, bare because Andrea hadn’t bothered to put her bra back on. His mouth opened hers, the kiss claiming her, possessing.

  They were so alone down here, with only the chatter of birds filling the air and the swish of water rushing past trees. No one might come back here for hours.

  Sean broke the fierce kiss to nip Andrea’s cheek. He thrust her shirt down to nibble his way to her shoulder, his thighs hard against hers, his arousal even harder.

  “Sean.”

  “Don’t stop me.” His words were whispered, savage. “I need this. Don’t stop me.”

  She wouldn’t dream of it. “I just like saying your name,” she said.

  Sean raised his head. His eyes were almost white, the beautiful blue swallowed. Every line of his face was tight, his mouth pulling in pain.

  “Fucking hell,” he whispered. “No. Let me have this.”

  “Sean?”

  Sean collapsed to his knees, his hands so tight on her wrists that Andrea went down with him. They ended up in the mud near the wheel of the car, Andrea crouching, Sean folding in on himself.

  “Where do you hurt? Let me see.”

  Sean curled one arm across his belly. “Everywhere. You’re right, it’s the Collar.”

  Andrea stared at Sean’s Collar, but it was a silent silverblack streak on his neck. She’d seen it shock him deeply in the bar, but he’d fought first the human and then Callum, as though he felt nothing. And then he’d said, I’ll pay, and pay like hell.

  “Delayed reaction?” she asked. “But Collars don’t work like that. Do they?”

  “We’ve learned.” The words jerked out of him. “We can use ... adrenaline ... to keep the pain away. But only for so long. Then ... payback.” His words faded, the Shifter in him fighting the hurt.

  Andrea wrapped her arms around him. His skin was slick with sweat, his breath coming fast, his heart going in rapid-fire beats.

  “You should go home, love,” he whispered. “This won’t be pretty.”

  Andrea didn’t bother to answer. She kissed his damp hair, rested her head against his, and closed her eyes.

  The pain wove through Sean in bright, hot lines that streaked from his Collar and around his body like fishing line—strong, tight, strangling. It was somewhat like what caught her in the nightmares, though not as arbitrary and terrifying. This was almost organized, technology making the magic threads ruler-straight.

  Andrea eased her concentration under the threads and slowly, slowly started to loosen them. The pain clamped Sean hard, the Fae magic almost gleeful. He’d cheated the magic, and now the magic wanted its revenge.

  No, Andrea told it. You will obey me.

  Magic wasn’t an entity. It was a force, without intelligence. But Andrea fought it now, and it fought back like an enemy.

  In her mind’s eye, Sean’s Collar gleamed on his throat like a white-hot band, the Celtic knot a tangle of bright energy. When fighting adrenaline flowed through a Shifter, the Fae magic sensed it and triggered the shocks. The manmade electricity was enhanced by the magic to make the pain excruciating, plus the magic also made certain the Collar never ran out of power and could never be removed. Andrea knew all this intellectually, but seeing the pain with her mind, feeling it with her fingers, made her very, very angry.

  The Collar’s spells were strong, locked hard in place. Andrea knew she couldn’t negate the power, but she could at least ease its intensity.

  It took longer than she’d have liked, but Andrea managed to snake her healing magic beneath the Collar and loosen the wires of pain. Sean’s body began to relax, as, one by one, the bright wires unwound themselves from him and retreated.

  Sean drew a long breath. When Andrea opened her eyes, he was looking at her, his irises calmed back to lake blue.

  Andrea exhaled in relief. “Better?”

  Sean’s answer was a growl. He dragged Andrea into his arms and brought his hard mouth down on hers.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  His mate. Andrea had leapt to his defense, ready to fight for him, and then, when Sean had collapsed in mortal pain, she’d pushed her Fae magic into him and healed him. He’d felt the Collar’s agony cease and slink away, as though she’d commanded it to go. He’d opened his eyes to find Andrea’s head bowed, eyes closed, her brow puckered in a little frown as she concentrated on easing his pain.

  She was the most beautiful thing on this earth.

  The ground was wet, cold, uncomfortable. Sean dragged Andrea up with him, kissing her as he rose to his feet with newfound strength. He pushed her down against the stillwarm hood of the car, and she smiled and wrapped her arms around him.

  Andrea’s mouth was a point of heat. Sean licked it. He liked the taste so much he continued licking across her lips, and then down her chin and her slender throat. Her shirt was tight against her body, and Sean reached to tear the fabric away.

  “Don’t.” Andrea’s hands came up.

  Sean drew back a little, his heart pounding, dying for her. He couldn’t stop his snarl of frustration, and she laughed.

  “Let me. I don’t want you to rip it; it’s one of my favorites.” Andrea grasped the hem of the shirt and slipped it off over her head.

  There she sat, on the hood of Glory’s car, bare from the waist up. She was so beautiful, smiling up at him with her breasts naked in the winter sunshine. It was cold, which tightened her nipples into dark points, but when he touched her, she was warm, so warm. Sean leaned down and drew a nipple into his mouth, suckling her as he pushed her down on top of the hood.

  “Not fair.” She hooked her finger into his waistband. “Take these off. If you get to look at something, so do I.”

  Sean barely registered her words. He yanked off his boots and then his
pants. She raised on her elbows to watch him and laughed, her eyes sparkling.

  “You’re wearing them. The smiley faces.”

  “I wanted to make you laugh. But not just now.” He tugged off the underwear and tossed it on top of his jeans.

  Andrea’s laughter died as she roved her gaze to his very obvious wanting. She lingered there, her smile returning, sly and a little bit smug.

  “What is so damn funny?” he asked.

  “I was blessing my luck that the alpha who volunteered to claim me wasn’t ancient. And limp.”

  “I haven’t been limp since I laid eyes on you, Andy-love.”

  “That must have made for some painful moments.”

  “It is pain.” Sean climbed onto the car over her. “It’s pain to watch you when I’m not inside you, not having you all the time.”

  “We’d never get anything else done.”

  “And why should I be caring? There’s plenty of others to get things done for me.”

  “Must be nice to be at the top of the food chain.”

  “It is. I have the privilege of claiming the best female Shifter in the world and bringing her out here where no one can find us.”

  He tugged her jeans open and down her hips. Andrea helped, pushing away the fabric that kept him from her. The lace panties came off and followed the rest of the clothes to the ground.

  Sean exhaled as he slid inside her. He belonged here, safe inside Andrea Gray, his beautiful love.

  They fit together so snuggly, but when he began to move, it was hot, slippery, fiery, and fine. The awkward position, the fact that they were on a car in the woods, made the excitement burn. Andrea held his hips, her head going back as she felt it. In, in, in, all the way in. Goddess, you are beautiful.

  How crazy to be naked out here, the river sliding by not five feet away, while he pumped and pumped and pumped inside her. This lovemaking wasn’t slow and lovely, like their first time. It was all animal, hard and fast and needy. This was like being feral, back in the wild days when humans had never heard of Shifters, back before anyone had tried to tame them.

  Andrea moved beneath him, her little cries winding him hard into the frenzy. Sean was making noises too, panting like a crazy man, grunting and groaning. He couldn’t get enough of her.

  Their mouths came together, tasting, devouring. Sean felt the wildcat in him wanting to come out, his claws sprout on his fingers. Damn what he wouldn’t give to have her in his wildcat form, when mating was basic and mindless.

  But this was even better. He could kiss her lips, watch her eyes, touch her face, have her. When they were fully mated, they’d shift and go for a run, and then he’d take her down and not stop.

  Sean’s breath grated in his throat, Andrea’s breathing was as rapid, her hands skating over him as she pulled him down on her.

  “Andrea,” he said between kisses. “Mate. I don’t care about sun and moon. You’re my fucking mate.”

  “I am right now,” she said in a throaty voice. She drew her fingertips down his chest, nails barely scratching him.

  Damn it, why did she always have to laugh and tease and play? And then gaze up at him with those beautiful gray eyes, as though she wanted to peel back all his layers and look at the real Sean?

  As it had last night, the mate bond reached out and wrapped around Sean’s heart. The iron bands of it were more painful than the Collar’s torture, because while the Collar lay quietly until provoked, the mate bond would tighten forever. Once begun, it would never die. His father was fighting the pain of having that mate bond ripped from him, and it gave Andrea the power to destroy Sean.

  You belong to me. Mate, lover. Mine!

  Sean shouted her name as his climax grabbed him and squeezed him hard. His seed sped out of him to be swallowed by the heat of her sheath, but still he went on, thrusting again and again inside her. Andrea arched to him, her own climax taking her, but Sean never wanted to stop.

  And with his mate smiling that sultry smile, sliding arms around Sean and groaning his name with her beautiful red lips, he never would.

  Both Sean and Andrea were panting as they wound down, the residual warmth of the engine keeping the cold from their bodies. Not that Sean would ever feel cold again. The mate bond, and Andrea, would see to that.

  He looked into Andrea’s stormy gray eyes and saw the mate bond reflected there. She was going to break his heart.

  “Andrea,” he whispered, just to say her name. “Andy-love.”

  “Feeling better?” Andrea drew her nails lightly down his chest.

  “I don’t think I’ll ever feel better than this.”

  “Is that right?” She smiled up at him, so hot and good, and then her fingers squeezed one of his nipples, and she bit his neck.

  Sean growled long and low as the mating frenzy reared up, hard, and he drove into her once again, until they were both crying out in joy.

  The best place for talking about serious shit was on the front porch with beer. Sean and Liam sat alone that night as the moon rose, bottles in hand. Liam had his booted feet up, but Sean rocked back on the porch swing, trying to focus on the problem at hand and not the fact that Andrea was in the house next door, warm and waiting in her bed.

  Sean had reported all to Liam on their return home, but Liam had listened, nodded, and said nothing. Not until after dinner was over and the world was dark had Liam indicated that he and Sean should talk. Sean understood how Liam worked—he listened, digested, thought, and then made decisions. Andrea had gone home, perceiving that Liam wanted to talk to Sean alone, but the promising look she’d given Sean made him very impatient to be done.

  “This is not good,” Liam said.

  “No,” Sean agreed.

  They drank in silence.

  “The humans are taken care of?” Sean asked after a time.

  “Dad reported. They’re gone.”

  “Dead?”

  “Alive,” Liam said. “Shitting themselves to do whatever Dad wanted, so he said.”

  Sean nodded, and they went back to the beer.

  “That’s not the end of it,” Liam said.

  “Aye.”

  “Callum, who claims to want nothing to do with humans, hired humans to shoot up bars and restaurants,” Liam said, spinning it out. “I told the other clan leaders in his Shiftertown what he’s been up to, and they’re not happy. His clan is protecting him from me and them. As long as they sit on him and keep him quiet, fine, though I’d love to kill him over Ely.”

  “So would I. Not to mention his family.”

  Liam shook his head, his eyes flicking to cat slits and back again. “If we start a clan war, there will be too much bloodshed, and the humans will come down on us, and all Shifters will suffer. Damn it.” He drank his beer, a leader unhappy that the simple solution wasn’t going to work. “If this was the wild, he’d be dead.”

  “If this was the wild, it wouldn’t have happened at all,” Sean said. “Shifters hiring humans to terrorize Shifters? Never. This is a problem that could have only happened after the Collar.”

  “Which brings me back to why he bothered. He had his humans shoot up bars and restaurants where Shifters like to go. Causing the human owners to get jittery and forbid Shifters entry, and causing other Shifter-friendly businesses to start banning Shifters. Widening the divide between Shifters and humans.” Liam took a thoughtful sip of beer. “Why?”

  Sean shrugged. His heart thrummed with the mate bond, distracting him, his body pounded with the mating frenzy. His mind was reliving Andrea lying against the hood of the white car, smiling at him, sunshine on her bare breasts while her black curls spread across the hood.

  “Humans to Callum are nothing,” Sean said. “Tools to be used and discarded.”

  “It’s more than disdain of humans though, isn’t it?”

  Sean knew without expressing it, and Liam knew too, that they’d stirred the surface of a current that ran deep. “I can see Callum’s way of thinking. We’re stronger now, healthi
er, better organized. He’s wondering why Shifters try to integrate with humans when we can kill them instead.”

  “They were all Felines at that bar, you said,” Liam mused. “I’m guessing they don’t want Lupines or bears joining their little party.”

  “Didn’t seem that way. They looked at my bringing in Andrea as an insult, and not just because she’s half Fae.” Sean grinned. “You should have seen their faces when she attacked Callum and took him down. It was priceless.”

  Liam shared his smile. “Next time, take a picture and show me. She’s a treasure, that one.”

  “I know.” Sean’s entire body sang, thinking about her. She’d soothed his hurts and made all the pain go away. “I treasure her.”

  Sean’s gaze wandered to the house next door, and he caught Liam watching him with a knowing smile. “She’s good for you, Sean. I’ve not seen you this interested in—well, anything—in a long time.”

  Not since Kenny died, he meant. Sean shrugged. “I’m not fooling myself that Andrea hasn’t rejected the mate-claim because she adores me. She doesn’t have much of a bloody choice.”

  “So let her go. Tell her you release her. We can keep it to ourselves so Jared will stay away from her, and Wade won’t give her hell.”

  Sean’s deep-seated rage flared. For some reason he wanted to launch himself at Liam, to slam his brother to the ground for even suggesting Sean release the mate already bound to his heart. Andrea’s scent was so mixed with his that he couldn’t separate them anymore.

  When Sean’s vision cleared, he saw Liam laughing. Laughing hard.

  “Damn it, Liam.”

  Liam kept chuckling. “I’d react the same if you told me to let Kim go back and live among her people.”

  Sean sat back and took another drink of beer. “I’m thinking I’m so screwed.”

  “That’s the mate bond, that is. You know you’d die if she went away. You’ll fight the world to keep her at your side and keep her safe.”

  “Exactly.”