At last they were finished, carrying the bags of food Sean had paid for and heading for Sean’s motorcycle. Sean had calculated buying just enough to fit the saddle bags and no more. He settled everything, and Andrea climbed on behind him. She liked holding on to his waist as they moved through the streets to Shiftertown. Sean was strong, warm to lean into. She rested against him and closed her eyes, breathing his scent.
Liam was home when they walked next door, but Dylan had gone again.
“I wish he’d stay put,” Andrea growled.
“He has a lot to think about.” Liam looked from Andrea to Sean, his blue eyes grim. “I’ll put out a lookout for Glory, but I haven’t heard anything.”
A step sounded on the stairs, and Eric descended, his face a bit white, his gait shaky. “Are you all right?” Andrea asked him.
“We tested the Collars last night,” Liam answered for him. “Eric’s getting good at it, but it’s still hell.”
“Hell is one word for it,” Eric said. He wore jeans and a T-shirt but was barefoot, his hair damp from a shower. “Damn painful is another.”
“You don’t know where Glory is, do you?” Andrea asked him. “You didn’t arrange to meet up with her?”
Eric looked surprised. “Are you kidding? With Dylan watching me? I’d be bloody stupid to step between the two of them.”
“I bet Dylan went out looking for her,” Kim said.
“I just hope he finds her.” Liam looked both worried and annoyed. “I’ll call Spike and have him start a search for her—discreetly. Sean, can you help me today?”
The way he said it told Andrea that he expected Sean to understand what he meant. Sean’s eyes flicked to Feline white blue and back again.
Liam also shot a pointed gaze at Eric, who took the hint. “The less I know about this, the better, right?” Eric asked. “I’ll go for a walk.”
His green gaze was speculative, but he brushed by Liam on the way out, showing that the two Shifter males had become friends.
“All right,” Andrea said once Eric was gone. “Mind telling me what’s going on?”
“Liam wants to try to remove your Collar,” Sean said.
Her eyes widened. “Remove it?”
Sean put a protective hand on her back. “He’s trying to find out how to remove all Collars, but doing it can make the Shifter crazy, even more feral than before. But you.” Sean traced the design of the Celtic knot. “Your Collar doesn’t affect you. Liam wants to study it, to see whether he can safely remove it from you.”
Interesting. “Ooh, I’ve always wanted to be a lab rat.”
“I won’t let him if you don’t want to.” Sean’s voice took on a hint of growl. “I’ll protect you from him with my last breath.”
Andrea found Liam’s gaze on her, his alpha stare matching Sean’s. Wasn’t that wonderful? Two powerful Felines pinning down a little Lupine. She smacked that gaze right back at them.
“Yes,” she said to Liam. “The answer is yes. I’m curious, and it might be worth it to find out.”
Sean did not want this, and he let Liam know with every bit of body language that he didn’t. Liam, damn his eyes, pretended to ignore him.
Connor was at school, so they didn’t have to explain why they’d left him behind to go to the innocent-looking garden shed behind another Shifter’s house; Kim was at her office. Eric didn’t like being left out, but Eric understood. The less he knew, the less culpability he’d have if humans found out what they were doing. Eric and his Shiftertown didn’t need to pay for the Morrisseys’ experiments.
The inside of the garden shed looked innocent as well. Tools hung on the walls, an old lawn mower sat in the corner, and the whole place smelled of grass, earth, and oil.
Liam removed a small tarp hanging on the wall and took down his tray of instruments. No one who didn’t know would understand what the little files and probes were for—to fix the lawn mower, maybe? Liam kept them deliberately grimy, sterilizing them only if he needed to nick Sean’s or Dylan’s or his own skin.
The Shifter to whom this garden shed belonged wasn’t home, but Liam came and went here as he pleased. Kim had saved that Shifter’s life, and the grateful Feline and his mother who lived with him obeyed Liam’s every wish.
Liam had Andrea sit on a stool. Andrea did, betraying no fear, but Sean knew her enough to read her by now. He saw the minute flicker of her lashes, the small nervous movement of her hands as she brushed a speck of dirt from her jeans.
“I’d love to tell you this won’t hurt,” Liam said. “But I have no bloody idea.”
The Collars were fused to the wearer’s skin, so they never moved, never slipped. Liam touched a probe that looked like a small flashlight to the Celtic knot at the base of Andrea’s Collar. A spark leapt from the knot to run around the Collar, and Andrea jumped. Sean snarled.
“No, I’m all right,” Andrea said quickly. “It just—I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Don’t hurt her, Liam.” Sean knew he’d die if Andrea was hurt. He’d be scrambling around like a madman trying to save her, the mate bond closing like iron around his heart. If Liam hurt her, clan leader or no, brother or no, Sean would attack him.
Andrea’s hand on his calmed his craziness, her gentle touch a link to sanity. “I’m really fine, Sean. Is that it?” she asked Liam.
“No.” Liam took out another instrument that looked like a scalpel, scrubbed it clean with some antibacterial wipes, and dipped it in alcohol. “I’ll try not to cut you.”
“Oh, that’s reassuring.”
Liam held up the knife. “I also have to ask you not to talk.”
Sean squeezed her hand. “Andrea likes to talk.”
“Especially when I’m nervous.”
“Well, for now, resist the urge,” Liam said. “Shifters have fine metabolisms, but not if I accidentally slit your throat.”
Andrea opened her mouth to answer that, her lips shook a little, and she closed them again. Her fingers closed harder on Sean’s as Liam very carefully slid the knife under a link in Andrea’s Collar and again touched the probe to the knot.
The Collar loosened. Sean and Liam already knew that the technology to unfuse the Collars worked, as far as it went. They’d learned that last summer when they’d discovered the experiments that the Shifter who owned this shed had been performing in secret. But the technique had been rudimentary and either killed the Shifter outright or made him so crazy he went feral. Liam, Sean, and Dylan had been working on refining the process, but so far they hadn’t been able to figure out a better way. They couldn’t experiment much on themselves without risk, and it wasn’t as though they could ask for volunteers.
Andrea sat still as stone as a link came free. Her gray eyes were large, the fear in them real. But it was only fear. No pain.
Very slowly, Liam loosened another link and another. A tiny drop of blood squeezed from Andrea’s neck, and Liam dabbed it away with another antibacterial wipe.
Andrea closed her eyes and held Sean’s hand, but as more links came away, she breathed easier. “It doesn’t hurt,” she told Sean. “Well, no more than would someone pulling staples out of your flesh.”
Surface pain, she meant, not deep, profound, bonejarring pain that made a Shifter insane. Sean had let Liam remove a couple of links of his Collar one night a few months ago, and he thought he’d die of the pain. Andrea simply sat there and watched Liam work.
Link by link, the Collar came away, until finally, Liam disconnected the Celtic knot. Andrew sat holding Sean’s hand, Collar-free, her gray eyes clear. Sean’s heart gave a throb of joy. His mate was free.
“Nothing?” Liam asked as he held the Collar delicately in one hand. “You don’t, for instance, want to disembowel me or turn on Sean and rip out his throat?”
Andrea grinned. “Not about this.”
“Amazing.” Liam peered at the thin red line around her neck and then at the Collar. He pulled a microscope from a tool drawer, set it up, and studied the Collar th
rough it, looking like a cross between an Irish biker and a biology professor. “This is a regular Collar all right. No different from mine or Sean’s or the ones I have in case I run across crazy ferals.”
“Is that good?” Andrea asked.
“It’s a wee bit puzzling.” Liam lifted his head. “Same technology, same magic, same everything. Different reaction.”
“Fae blood or the healing,” Andrea said.
“Or it didn’t fuse to you correctly the first time.” Liam leaned close to her neck again, causing Sean’s mate-instinct to flare. He put a strong hand on Liam’s shoulder and steadily pushed him back.
Liam’s look was amused. “Don’t worry, my brother in a mate frenzy. I won’t touch her.”
“Didn’t fuse correctly?” Andrea repeated in a worried tone. “Does that mean if you put it back on, it might?”
“By the look of your neck, which no, Sean, I wouldn’t dream of touching, it did fuse properly. You’re right that it might be a Fae thing. You wouldn’t mind if I put a drop of your blood on a slide?”
Andrea shrugged. “Sure.”
Liam reached to her already cut neck with his scalpel, and Sean couldn’t stop his growls. “Down, lad,” Liam said, his lips twitching that annoying, amused way. He flicked one drop of Andrea’s blood onto a slide, closed another over it, and eagerly went back to his microscope.
“It is different,” he announced. “Just a little. But who knows if that’s the Fae in you or just you. I’ve not looked at a Fae’s blood before. Maybe your father would be willing to give me a drop someday?”
“I could ask,” Andrea said. “Don’t hold your breath or anything.”
“Maybe it’s to do with the fact that she can touch the Fae magic in the sword,” Sean suggested.
Liam looked up in surprise, then broke into a grin. “You can feel the magic in Sean’s sword? I’m thinking that makes for interesting evenings.”
“You’re funny, Liam Morrissey,” Andrea said.
It was a good question though—perhaps her ability to use the Fae magic in the sword was connected with negating the effects of the Collar. She seemed to do both instinctively. Something to investigate when they had the time.
As Liam bent over the microscope again, Sean leaned down and nuzzled her. His eyes, so close to hers, were warm, inviting. Andrea had just touched her lips to his when her cell phone went off.
She snatched it up anxiously. “Glory?”
The answering voice was not one she wanted to hear. “No, it’s Wade. You need to come over here. You and your Feline.”
“Why?”
“It’s important. Get here.” He broke the connection, and Andrea was left staring at the silent phone.
“What?” Liam’s head was up, sensing Andrea’s and Sean’s tension. “What did he want?” He would have heard Wade’s voice too. Liam had Shifter hearing, and the man didn’t exactly speak softly.
“No idea,” Andrea said.
“Your old pack leader no longer has authority over you,” Liam said. “I’m the one you have to grovel to now.” He grinned as he said it, but the look in his eyes told her he didn’t want Andrea answering the summons.
“It might be something about Glory.”
“Don’t worry, love,” Sean said. “We’ll go.”
“Sean.” Liam’s look was stern, but Sean met it fearlessly, and Liam stopped. Liam might still have precedence over Sean, but Liam no longer had ultimate authority over Andrea. The mate’s hierarchy overrode the pride leader’s and the clan leader’s, even the Shiftertown leader’s. If Liam ever decided he needed to attack Andrea for some reason, he’d have to go through Sean first. The protection of the mate was a male Shifter’s ultimate concern, and by the way Sean looked at Liam, he was going to protect her to the death. Instead of annoying her, Andrea felt a burning joy inside her at his need to protect, to cherish. The mate bond was a crazy thing.
“My Collar?” Andrea said. She lifted her hair out of the way, as though expecting Sean or Liam to snap it back on as they would a necklace.
Liam closed his hand around the Collar. “I’m keeping this one. You can wear this.” He pulled a chain out of a drawer that looked exactly like a Shifter Collar. Andrea could tell the difference when she took it from Liam’s hand—the slight touch of Fae magic that ran through all Collars was absent.
Andrea raised her brows at it. “Nice.”
“I’m not risking putting the real one back on you,” Liam said. “The fusing process will be bad, and as I said, we can’t take a chance that your first one simply didn’t activate right. This one will pass for a Collar except under close examination. And I know your wild mate here will never let anyone close enough to examine you.”
Sean clicked the fake Collar around Andrea’s throat. The Collar looked real, and Andrea winced only because it rubbed her abraded neck. But Shifters healed quickly, especially Andrea with her healing gift, and soon no one would be able to tell that the first Collar had been removed. Looking at Sean, Andrea knew Liam was right that Sean wouldn’t let anyone else come close enough to check.
“Go on then,” Liam said as Sean helped Andrea down from the stool. “Call if you need backup.”
They went, Sean with his sword strapped to his back, his hand in Andrea’s.
When they reached Wade Sawyer’s house two blocks east and four south, Andrea recognized the scent of the second male Lupine inside even before Sean knocked on the door.
Sean did as well. He growled, but he rubbed between her shoulder blades, his voice reassuring. “Don’t worry, love. We’ll see what they’re up to. You’re safe with me.”
Wade’s mate answered the door. She gave Andrea a worried look but said nothing, only ushered them inside. Sean entered the living room first and remained in front of Andrea as the second Lupine rose to join Wade on his feet.
“You remember Jared Barnett,” Wade said.
Jared looked the same: dark hair, blue eyes, slouch to his overly muscular shoulders. Andrea realized something new, though, as his scent curled inside her nostrils—Jared was a weak Lupine who’d been given precedence in the hierarchy by the power of his father. Jared hadn’t been strong, just protected by his sire.
Back in Colorado, the sight of Jared had triggered Andrea’s fight-or-flight reaction—dismay, fear, the need to be anywhere but near him. And now, nothing. Andrea felt no desire to run. Jared no longer had importance in her world. Sean had given her this gift. He’d set her free.
“What do you want?” she asked Jared.
“Be nice to me, Andrea,” Jared said. “And I might be nice to you later.”
Andrea rolled her eyes. Sean’s low, wild-sounding snarl made the color drain from Jared’s face, but Jared tried to pretend he didn’t hear. Idiot.
Andrea switched her gaze to Wade. Wade didn’t have anywhere near the presence of Sean, but he was the dominant Lupine in the room, and it was clear that he didn’t think much of Jared.
“Why did you let him come here?” Andrea asked Wade.
Wade shrugged, pretending indifference. “You are of my pack so it was natural for him to come to me about you.”
“She’s no longer of your pack,” Sean said. “She’s in our pride now. Or were you forgetting?”
Sean didn’t even have to raise his voice. The simple syllables in his Irish lilt spoke of danger lurking below the surface. The fear scent in the room rose sharply, and sweat formed on Wade’s upper lip.
Wade brought his fingertips together in a nervous gesture. “That’s a little tricky. Andrea is still not quite in your pride. You’ve only been blessed under the sun, and one more mate blessing is needed. Technically she’s got one foot in both camps, and on that technicality, Jared can make his request.”
“What request?” Andrea demanded.
“A challenge,” Jared said. He couldn’t meet Sean’s gaze or Andrea’s, so he looked at Wade. “Witness that I challenge Sean Morrissey of the South Texas clan for the mate Andrea Gray. Or, I should
say, I accept his challenge, since I made the mate-claim first.”
“Done,” Sean said before Andrea could speak. He took Andrea’s hand, and Andrea felt his rage matching her own. “Wade, set up the time and place. Andrea and I have things to do.”
“It’s ten feet under the trees, Ronan,” Andrea argued. “You can walk next to me the whole time. Or behind me, whatever you want.”
“That’s where the Fae appeared,” Ronan said, his dark eyes narrowing. Seven feet tall and full of muscle, Ronan still had to flick his gaze aside when Andrea pried him with hers.
“I know that,” Andrea said. “I want to talk to him. I have some questions to ask him.”
“Oh, come on, Andrea. Sean will kill me.”
Sean had escorted Andrea back to the Morrisseys’ house to leave her under the protection of Ronan while he, Eric, Dylan, and Liam joined the hunt for Glory. Andrea wasn’t thrilled by Sean’s easy acceptance of Jared’s challenge, but more because she worried about Jared trying something treacherous than Sean’s ability to defeat him. That Jared thought he had the right to challenge, and that Wade agreed with him, made her taste rage.
“Kick his ass, Sean,” Andrea had told him before Sean left. Sean had smiled, said, “That’s my girl,” and kissed her.
Now Andrea faced Ronan. “Sean wants you to protect me from Jared. And so do I. Fionn is my father, he’s not going to harm me, and I need to ask him some serious questions. Now hurry, before everyone gets back.”
The problem with leaving Ronan as a protector was that, while few could best him physically, Ronan was not as dominant as Sean and Liam. Andrea might find it a challenge to get her own way with the Morrisseys, but Ronan only groaned at her demands.
“Ten feet,” Ronan growled.
“I promise.”
Ronan held up his hands. “All right. All right. We’ll walk out there. You’ll talk to your dad. Then right back inside.”
Andrea patted his shoulder. “You’re a sweetie, Ronan.”