Primal Bonds

Andrea was so elegant, and Sean felt nothing but brutal frenzy. He’d spilled his seed but was hard again, ready, still inside where she could squeeze him.

  Andrea touched his cheek, her fingers featherlight. “Sean,” she murmured. “You all right?”

  Sean let the growl come, and with it, his words returned. “I’m buried inside my sweet, hot little mate. How are you thinking I am?”

  “Horny. A mate-frenzied male.”

  “You bet.”

  “Now you sound like Ellison.”

  Sean thrust again. “Don’t mention that Lupine idiot while I’m making love to you.”

  Andrea laughed, the little beauty who teased him raw. “You’re so easy, Sean.”

  “You’re mine. Mate blessed. Which means we get to screw until we both can’t walk.”

  “Half mate blessed.” Andrea’s smile was languid as she ran fingers down his back. “I saw it, you know. While I was healing my father. The bond between you and me.”

  Sean stopped, heart thumping. “The mate bond?”

  “I don’t know. But I saw it. The blessing isn’t simply words and traditions. It’s real, the Father God binding us together.”

  “Is it, now?”

  Andrea smoothed his hair. “It is, now.”

  “Are you going to become a true believer, like those Shifters who wear white and meditate in stone circles all the livelong day?”

  Andrea’s foot caressed his bare calf. “I wasn’t thinking I would. I have plenty to do right here.”

  “We do. Connor’s not going to be happy unless we tell him tomorrow that a cub is on its way.”

  “Do you want children, Sean?” Andrea’s voice was hesitant. “I’m not Feline. The child will be born human, and we won’t know which animal it will become until later. Plus it will have Fae blood.”

  “I know. It will be—entertaining—to see what our child will be.” He nuzzled her, finding her beautiful scent. “But, yes, I want cubs. With you.”

  But pregnancy meant risk for Shifter women. Fear caught in Sean’s heart, so hard he couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. His logical mind told him that a female’s odds for survival were so much better now that they had access to medicine and doctors, and besides that, Andrea had healing magic. But Sean had seen too many females die bearing cubs or just after, sometimes the cubs dying as well, to be completely worry-free.

  “I’ll be all right.” Andrea traced his cheek, sensing his fears. “We’re safe here, and I have so many people to look after me now.”

  Sean knew the mating frenzy was pouring dire scenarios into his head, making him fear, so that he’d stay with Andrea and rut her all night and on into the next day. And the next night.

  A biological drive, Liam had speculated once. Making the Shifter need to make cubs, giving him any excuse to have his woman under him. In the wild, Shifters had simply given in to it. Civilized Shifters felt the same mating frenzy, But we ponder about it a bit more, Liam had said. From what Sean had observed, Liam and Kim didn’t ponder about it much.

  Sean touched her Collar. Liam wanted to try removing it, but Sean didn’t want him to now. Liam’s curiosity could put Andrea at far too much risk.

  The smile Andrea gave him heated his blood. “So what do you want to do next, Sean? You’re my first, but I’m not innocent. I’ve heard about all kinds of interesting things we can do.”

  Sean’s already fast pulse sped. A sudden vision flashed through his mind: Andrea on her hands and knees in the woods, he coming behind her, folding down over her while he drove inside her. The feel of her soft backside against his groin, smelling the fine silk of her hair, tasting her neck.

  “Goddess, you make me want to do things to you,” he whispered. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “I’m Shifter. I’m resilient.”

  “You’re also Fae.” He touched her wrist, slim and dwarfed by his hand. “Smaller than most Shifter women.”

  “Fae are pretty kick-ass too.” To demonstrate, she hooked her legs around his and rolled, landing on top of him. “See?”

  Sean had let her do that. Not that he minded having his beautiful mate on top of him, her breasts pressing his chest, her smile wide in the evening light. “Aren’t you the wicked one?”

  Sean traced Andrea’s Collar again, letting his fingers drift down her chest. Would risking Andrea be worth getting all Shifters free? No. She was his mate, in all ways, and his instinct was to protect her with everything he had. Even if every other Shifter in the world had to die, it didn’t matter, so long as Andrea was safe. To a mate-frenzied, dominant Shifter male, that was right.

  Sean growled. His fingers became claws, which he retracted before he could scratch her. Andrea’s growl answered. She leaned down and licked his throat.

  The snarl that came out was pure feral. Reason, concern for all Shifters, even romance, went right out of Sean’s brain. He dragged her down to him, rolled over her, and entered her again with one swift thrust.

  Andrea’s answering growls made him crazy. He thrust into her again and again, her arms and legs encircling him, pulling him into her warmth. She started to shift and came back, her smile wide, her gray eyes beautiful. She didn’t shift all the way back. Sean felt wolf claws on his back, which pushed him into madness. The world went a little black, but it was all right because his mate was under him to guide him and keep him safe. The mate bond locked around him, the mate frenzy drove him on, and Andrea’s sweet smile broke his heart.

  “I know you don’t much want to see to me,” Glory said on the porch next door. “But the air in my house is crackling. Your son is noisy, Dylan.”

  Dylan, lounging on a chair in the shadows, didn’t answer. Liam sat with his arm around Kim on the porch swing, and the Feline called Eric Warden sat with a beer on another chair, his long legs stretched out. He was a handsome devil, that Feline. His hair was a rich dark brown with little highlights that told Glory that he spent much time in the sun. Maybe with the sun kissing him all over? And his eyes—the color of jade with the intensity of fire.

  Liam chuckled in response to Glory’s comment. “You’re always welcome, Glory. The noise, it runs in the family, I think.”

  “Tell me all about that,” Connor said from his perch on the porch railing. “I have to wear earplugs every night.”

  “Your time will come, lad,” Dylan said.

  “And then we’ll be making fun of you,” Liam put in.

  Glory wished Dylan’s voice didn’t make her long for him so much. She missed him with every breath. Dylan was the best of lovers, alternately fierce and gentle, whatever his mood and the situation. And not only did she miss him in bed, she missed him. Dylan was the only one who truly listened to her. She wasn’t top of her pack, didn’t have the power someone like Dylan deserved, and Dylan didn’t seem to care.

  She crossed her legs, noting that she’d chipped paint off one toenail. Damn the Fae who’d made her charge across the yard in open-toed shoes to Andrea’s rescue. Fionn, the bastard, had gone back to Faerie. Glory was sorry Andrea had let him out of the handcuffs.

  “I was talking to Wade today,” Glory said. “He thinks Callum’s plan was idiotic but says he wouldn’t mind if all Felines take each other out. Then Lupines would have the edge.”

  Liam listened with a calm expression. “Aye, he would say that.”

  “Don’t underestimate Callum,” Dylan said, his voice quiet. “His clan’s protecting him, meaning we can’t touch him, but who knows when they’ll try to turn it into a clan war.”

  “Aye, Dad, and if that happens, we’ll fight them.”

  Dylan’s eyes glittered in the darkness, but he went silent. Glory thought she understood. Dylan wouldn’t lecture Liam in front of the others, even if he thought Liam wrong. The first few years a Shifter took over his pride or clan were the toughest; others would test his power again and again until the new leader either fell or proved he couldn’t be moved. Callum’s rebellion was one such probe. If Dylan protected Liam too much, guide
d him too closely, the other Shifters would never respect and obey Liam.

  Of course, Glory wasn’t high enough in the hierarchy to tell Liam this. She could only listen, bring him intelligence, and let Liam make his decisions.

  And I wanted Dylan to be impressed with me for finding out that Callum had put the humans up to the shootings, she thought in disgust. How pathetic am I?

  “So tell me, Feline from Las Vegas,” she said, to stop herself from looking too much at Dylan. “What’s your interest in our problems?”

  She made her voice go a little throaty, casting a suggestive look at him. Yes, she did it just to annoy Dylan, and she resisted glancing at Dylan to see how he took it.

  “I don’t mind helping out,” Eric said.

  Eric was here to learn about Collars, Glory knew. They’d trusted Glory with the information, and she’d kept her silence. Did Dylan remember that? Admire her for her discretion?

  Goddess, I might gag.

  Glory fidgeted and crossed her legs the other direction. “How do we know Eric won’t tell our fractious Felines all about what you’re doing?”

  “I gave my word.” Eric sounded surprised. “Swore on the sun and moon.”

  “He won’t tell,” Liam said.

  “No,” Dylan added with finality.

  Damn, but Glory missed his voice. She missed that deep baritone whispering sexy things to her deep in the night, missed his tender nips on her skin as they made love. If she sat in Dylan’s presence any longer, she’d burst into tears or something, making a complete idiot of herself.

  Glory jumped up. “I’m off. For a walk. It will be a while before those two back off enough to let me sleep.”

  No one rose with her except Kim. Shifters didn’t stand when a woman did; they stayed put and watched for danger. Kim, human, said she found this rude, but it seemed natural to Glory that males waited so they could spring on an enemy if necessary. How humans had survived this long with their strange customs, Glory had no idea.

  Kim came to Glory and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Glory. Good night.”

  Glory hugged her back. She’d grown to like Kim, especially now that Kim had erased the sorrow in Liam’s eyes. Andrea was busy erasing the same kind of sorrow in Sean. Now if only Dylan would let Glory try with him.

  Time to leave.

  “Good night.” Glory gave Kim a kiss on the cheek, squeezed the hand Eric held out to her, patted Connor on the shoulder, and descended the porch stairs. She put a little wiggle in her hips, hoping that Dylan noticed.

  I so need a run.

  West of town lay hills that folded along the river, wild spaces where Shifters could pretend they were free. Glory drove there, parked her car well off the road, stripped off her clothes, shifted to her wolf, and started to run.

  It felt good to pound along the hills, under the wide sky and the bright moon. She smelled water and woods, damp earth and open spaces. The wind was cold but just right for a wolf with a thick coat of fur.

  Glory wanted to throw her head back and howl for the joy of it, but she kept a grip on herself. The land wasn’t truly wild; it was owned by farmers and developers now, humans who didn’t want to hear wolves on it. The other wild animals out here—coyotes, rabbits, snakes—kept silent, sensing her.

  Glory slowed, then sat on her haunches and sniffed the air, trying to calm herself. Dylan was finished with her. She needed to come to terms with that, even if it broke her heart.

  The run helped a little, but Glory was still restless by the time she made it back to her car. Shifting back to human, she stretched, dressed, started her car, and drove back to town.

  It was only eleven, and Glory wasn’t ready to go home yet. She turned along streets until she found a bar she occasionally visited on the outskirts of town. The bar wasn’t a Shifter hangout, but when a woman was six feet tall with a well-packed body and blond hair, the clientele seemed happy to accept her. Now that the shooters had been driven off it was a relatively safe place where she could sit and brood.

  She believed in its safety until she walked out to her car again two hours later, which she’d parked at the edge of the lot. A human male stepped out of the dark, shot her twice in the torso, and disappeared again.

  Glory’s Collar sparked as she instinctively tried to attack, but all feeling left her limbs, and she slid down the side of her car in a mass of pain. She quietly collapsed on the pavement, the gravel cutting into her face.

  As she lay there bleeding, dying, she felt great regret that she’d never see Dylan again. She’d never be able to apologize for her stupid pride, which had made her throw away what little he was able to give her. That giving had cost him dearly, and Glory had thrown it back in his face.

  A wolf scent came to her, sharp and pungent. She recognized the scent, which surprised her. Before she could form either hope or fear, the Lupine, in wolf form, walked up to her and sniffed her face.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “You’ve never been inside a grocery store, love?” Sean asked Andrea. “What, never ever? You’re missing a grand experience.”

  Andrea gazed at the vinyl-tiled aisles stretching away from them with some trepidation. Not only did the aisles go on forever, they were filled with shelves upon shelves of boxes, cans, bags, and jars that all looked alike. “How is anyone supposed to find anything?”

  Sean leaned on the handles of a wire cart, a luscious man out to do his morning shopping. “You soon figure out where they put the things you like.”

  “I thought you handed a list to someone, and they found the food for you.”

  “That was the old days. The village grocer would get in what he knew you liked and make up an order for you, in his friendly little shop on the high street.”

  “Even for Shifters?”

  Sean shrugged. “Back in Ireland, no one, supposedly, believed in Shifters, but we were the best customers. We always paid our bills, and we were grateful for the sacks of flour and salt and the coffee our village man would get in. We hunted a bit more then, but the day we discovered we could get rabbit in a tin, well, it changed our lives.”

  Andrea studied his straight face. “You are so full of shit.”

  Sean let himself smile, but his eyes held worry. He was trying to distract Andrea from her thoughts about Glory, who’d not come home last night. Glory often went out and stayed out until the next morning, but Andrea didn’t like that Glory hadn’t even called. With Callum out there still plotting, Andrea worried.

  Another problem with Glory not returning was that they’d run out of groceries, and Andrea had been stumped about what to do. Back in Colorado, the stores in town hadn’t wanted Shifters in them but had grudgingly let a few Shifters shop for the entire Shiftertown. One person in Andrea’s pack had been assigned to collect food orders from the families each week, then he made the run into town and brought back said food and supplies.

  Andrea hadn’t realized things how differently things were done in this Shiftertown. Glory always asked Andrea what she wanted from the store, never suggesting Andrea do the shopping, so she’d assumed that Glory was a designated shopper.

  Andrea had written up what she needed this week, but the list was still on the refrigerator, and food was running low. When she’d told Sean, puzzled, he’d laughed at her, put her on the back of his motorcycle, and driven her to the grocery store closest to Shiftertown.

  Andrea gazed at boxes stacked inside a long row of refrigerators with clear glass doors. “I don’t even know what most of this stuff is.”

  “Ready-to-eat frozen meals. I’ve tried them. They pretty much taste like the package they come in.”

  “Why would anyone want to eat it then?”

  “They’re for the perpetually busy. Humans work nonstop, and then throw away all the money they make on cardboard food because they’re so busy working they don’t have time to cook real food. Ironic, that is.”

  “Do they have coffee here?”

  “Love, they have everything here.”


  Sean led the way down the bewildering array of colorful offerings to a row of coffee in cans plus bins of coffee beans at the end of the aisle.

  Andrea watched Sean fill a small bag with fragrant coffee beans, his intense gaze fixed on the task. “I never thought I’d need a mate to help me navigate the mysteries of a grocery store,” she said.

  “Mates are good for something, then.”

  Mates were good for far more than that, but Andrea wasn’t about to flatter Sean’s vanity with that remark. He’d been extremely proud of himself ever since they’d done the mating ceremony yesterday, and the fact that she was sore all over today was testimony to his joy. Sean had a few scratches and bite marks on his flesh as well, silent signals of Andrea’s mating frenzy. She wondered what would happen when they really let themselves go. Wonderful thought.

  “You don’t think Glory went off with someone?” Andrea asked. “Eric, maybe?”

  Sean shook his head as the stream of coffee topped up the bag. “Not right under Dad’s nose. Glory’s mad at him, but I don’t think she’d go that far. Not yet.”

  Andrea agreed, but she’d prefer her aunt holed up consoling herself with a younger man than out-and-out missing.

  “Or maybe she went to face my father again,” Andrea said, “and he took her into Faerie.” Far-fetched, but Andrea was trying not to think of the alternative—Glory hurt somewhere. Maybe Callum had found her and was using her to gain a hold over Dylan.

  “I’m thinking Glory doesn’t want to be within smelling distance of Faerie or Fionn.”

  “Damn it, I keep trying her cell, but she doesn’t answer.” Shifters weren’t allowed voice mail, so Andrea couldn’t leave a message. The phones could call one another, but that was about it.

  “Once we’re done foraging for food here, we’ll go see Liam again,” Sean said. “We’ll make a search if we have to. If Glory gets pissed at us for interrupting whatever she’s got going on, that’s her problem.”

  “I’m glad you’re so calm.”

  “I’m not, but going into hunter mode in the middle of a human grocery store would be a bad idea.” Sean folded up the coffee bag and put one hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find her, love. I promise you.”