Primal Bonds

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sean stared. “Why the hell should they want the Sword of the Guardian? It’s not like anyone can just pick it up and use it.”

Dylan shrugged as he lifted his beer. “Who knows? To intimidate you, our clan ... this entire Shiftertown, maybe. If Shifters think their souls are in peril because you lost the sword, will they be trusting you?”

“Are they crazy?”

Sean recalled the night he’d been chosen as Guardian, when he’d been barely past cub age. He remembered shivering on a windswept Irish promontory under January moonlight, while the dead body of the previous Guardian lay on the ground, the naked sword across his chest. Sean remembered his dismay as white-hot Goddess magic turned his own blood to fire, his absolute knowledge that he would be the one to lift the sword and drive it into the former Guardian’s heart. He’d been terrified that night, Dylan and Niamh so proud.

“Most Shifters know that the Guardian has to be chosen,” Dylan was saying. “But if the Guardian isn’t strong enough to protect the sword, how quickly will they choose a new Guardian, or kill the old one?”

“Bloody hell, Dad. I’m flattered that Callum and his friends thought I had so much power. But the sword is a sacred relic. They’d have messed with that?”

“I’m thinking they would have.”

Sean knew full well that some Shifters now believed they could get to the Summerland without the Guardian to turn the body to dust and release the soul. The sword had been forged for the purpose of keeping Fae from trapping or torturing Shifter souls, but the Fae were no longer around, and having the soul trapped was not a likely danger.

Then again, Sean also knew that superstition died hard. Shifters might say they didn’t believe they still needed a magic sword, but Guardians had been around for centuries. Beliefs got lodged deep inside and were not easily pried out.

“Would it scare you, Dad?” he asked out of curiosity. “If the Guardian wasn’t around when your time came?”

Dylan thought as he took another drink. “It’s something we grow up with, the cycle of life: birth, mating, cubs, then the Guardian’s sword at the end. It’s a relief, knowing that you won’t be ending alone, because the Guardian will be there to help you to the Summerland. There’s no evidence we need a Guardian anymore, but why take the chance?”

Sean nodded. “I think that too. I’m betting every Shifter in this bar does.”

“So you see how powerful a Sword of the Guardian would be in the wrong hands? Keep yours safe.”

Sean needed to see the sword now, to know that it still leaned against the wall in Liam’s office with his big brother keeping an eye on it. He glanced toward the office door, but his gaze was arrested halfway there.

Andrea had moved in front of the jukebox, and now she started to dance. A hip swinging, undulating, sexy, gyrating dance. The gaze of every unmated male—Shifter and human alike—swiveled and fixed on her. Ellison whooped and started swaying behind her, beer held high, his body nearly touching hers.

A growl tore from Sean’s throat. Dylan rescued Sean’s beer as Sean sprang from the booth and hurtled across the room to Ellison. Sean’s fingers turned to claws as he latched onto Ellison’s shoulder and jerked him away from Andrea.

Ellison’s Lupine eyes flashed gray white. “Hold on there now, my old friend. We were just dancing.”

“Stay away from her.” Sean’s voice was grating, throat clogged with rage.

The song wailed to an end, and the jukebox clicked off. Silence descended on the room as the two males faced each other. Andrea breathed hard from the dance, her breasts rising most distractingly under her low-cut shirt.

Ellison saw his sideways glance at her and laughed. “Woo, Sean.” He clapped Sean on the shoulder. “You’re walking on a knife edge, my man. Better get this thing blessed, or you’ll be challenging every male who even looks at her.”

Sean knew he should calm himself, laugh it off, but instincts were a bitch. He stepped to Ellison, everything in him wanting to gut the Lupine for coming near Andrea.

Ellison lifted his hands, beer still in one. “Steady, big guy. I’m leaving.” He backed slowly out of range, making sure not to turn his back on Sean.

When Sean didn’t pursue him, the bar relaxed and conversation and laughter started up again. A blood-drenched conflict had been avoided, and Shifters could go back to drinking and enjoying the night.

Andrea was glaring at Sean, hands on hips. “I was dancing, Sean. Get over yourself.” Before Sean could reach for her or say a word, she slammed away from him and marched back to the bar.

After the bar closed, Andrea stashed her apron in the office and left through the back door, only to find Sean waiting for her. The sword’s hilt rose above his shoulder, glittering in the moonlight.

The night was brisk though not as cold as previous nights, spring at last touching the air. The sky had cleared, and the moon was a round disk of white.

Andrea said a silent prayer to the moon goddess and pretended to ignore Sean as he fell into step beside her. He was still angry at her for dancing with Ellison, she felt that, and she was still angry at him for trying to keep her home tonight. The Ellison thing had been partly her fault—she’d been dancing to show Sean what he was missing by being so high-handed.

They reached Shiftertown without either of them saying a word. Though it was late, Shifters lingered on porches, enjoying the brisk night and the bright moonlight. “Now then, Sean,” they called out, in a friendly fashion. “Andrea.”

Sean raised his hand in greeting, and Andrea waved too, secretly pleased that they greeted her by name. The Shifters here were gradually accepting her, and the thought warmed her. She wasn’t fool enough to think they’d welcome her half Faeness with open arms without Sean, but even so, she liked the feeling of belonging.

Glory wasn’t home, the house dark and silent. Dylan hadn’t asked Andrea about Glory tonight, and he’d departed right after Sean had interrupted Andrea’s dance. Andrea had sensed Dylan’s sorrow when she’d brought him the beer, but she doubted he’d make the first overture to Glory. It was too bad. They were two lonely people who needed each other. No, correction, two lonely, stubborn people.

Speaking of stubborn, Sean followed Andrea upstairs and into her bedroom. Andrea sat down on the bed, pulled off her shoes, and stretched her aching feet as Sean unbuckled the sword and laid it across the dresser.

Andrea studied the moonlight on the sword as she rotated her ankles. “Can anyone wield the sword but a Guardian?”

Sean gave her a quick, questioning look. “Legend says no.” He skimmed his fingers over the sword, then came to sit on the bed next to her. Right next to her. The mattress dipped with his weight, and as annoyed as Andrea was at him, she realized she’d come to like the sensation.

“Does that mean you’re not sure?”

He shrugged, his shoulder brushing hers. “It means legend says no. The Guardian must be descended from the original Guardian of the clan, and he is chosen in a spiritual ritual.”

“So I hear. What I mean is, if I took the sword and stuck it through a dead Shifter’s heart, would he turn to dust?”

“Actually, I have no idea, love.”

Love. It was difficult to stay angry at him—not that he was right—when he called her love in that warm voice. “As I understand, the original sword was made by a Fae, right?”

Sean nodded, looking curious at her questions. “Created by a Shifter smith and a Fae woman who wove her magic through it. A Fae bastard had wanted a sword made so he could trap and torture Shifter souls with it, but the Fae woman, his sister, turned the tables on him and made it so the sword released the souls instead. That’s the story, anyway.”

“And she made it so the sword can’t hurt Shifters, right?”

“I didn’t say that. If I stick its sharp point into a live Shifter’s body, he’d be a bit pissed off at me. But I’d only stick it in someone if he was dying already or into a crazed feral who needed to go down.”

“You would,” Andrea said. “But what if someone else got hold of it?”

Sean’s gaze went sharp. “Has my dad been talking to you?”

“Dylan? No. Why?”

“Because he told me tonight that Callum had planned to grab the sword. He’d wanted to use the fact that he had it to intimidate other Shifters into following him. It could work, I think.”

Damn Callum anyway. Was this what the Fae warrior had been talking about? The danger if she didn’t bring him the sword? Why would a Fae care if Shifters were angry at their Guardian? It made no sense to her.

“Doesn’t Callum’s Shiftertown have its own Guardian?” Andrea said. “Why not take his sword?”

“Mine is the original sword made by Niall O’Connell and his Fae mate. The others are later copies. Much more symbolic if Callum stole this one. Besides, his Shiftertown’s Guardian is a bear, and I’m not thinking even Callum would risk pissing off the Ursines. But Liam is new at being leader, and Shifters like to test new leaders. Callum’s clan’s protecting him now, but they know as well as Callum does that if he tries anything else, we’ll take him down, and that will be the end of him.”

Andrea drew her feet to the bed and wrapped her arms around her knees. Sean spoke with firm finality, no regrets about the violent justice he’d mete out. But Shifters walked a tightrope now that they lived in Shiftertowns—if they turned against each other, it would be a disaster.

“I think Callum just got bored,” she said. “In Colorado, we were still pretty close to basic survival, no thoughts of conspiracies and that kind of thing. Survival, mating, and raising cubs—that was it.”

Sean looked at her sitting next to him, all folded in on herself, her eyes gray like a misty evening. What male wouldn’t want Andrea under him in the night, those beautiful eyes darkening with desire?

“I think Callum’s not wrong that we’ve gotten a little comfortable,” Sean said. “We have food and shelter, time to pray and love and play. Families are staying together and growing larger. So of course we have to start fighting each other for power.”

Andrea gave him a wry look. “When you force different species to coexist on the same patch, there’s bound to be friction. Look at your Dad and Glory.”

“I’m not wanting to at the moment, thank you very much. A better example is you and me.”

“Cross-species mating?” Andrea said with a little smile. “Can it possibly work? We could go on an afternoon talk show.”

“I want it to work.” Sean turned the full force of his gaze on her. “Because when I first saw you, love, I started to believe in forever.”

Andrea gazed back at him with gray eyes so filled with loneliness that Sean’s heart squeezed hard. He wanted to make all her hurts go away, and damn it, he would.

“You thought that across a crowded bus station?” she asked in a light voice.

Sean leaned closer, breathing her heat. “You said you didn’t want a mating without the bond. Well, that bond is here, in me. I’m feeling it—I’m not feeling anything else these days but that. It’s yours for the taking, love.”

Andrea drew her legs even closer to her chest, curling into a ball like a frightened cub. “Sean, I don’t know who I am. How can I decide whether to accept a mate-claim when I don’t even understand what I’m supposed to be?”

“You’re supposed to be my mate.”

She shook her head. “No, I mean, what am I? I’ve got a Shifter mother, Fae father. I know what I am as a Shifter. Nothing—too far down in my pack to be anything but a cub producer.”

His eyes flashed. “Goddess, what asshole told you that?”

“Who do you think? The brilliant leader of my Shiftertown and his son. Not to mention everyone in my stepfather’s pack. I grew up being told that that was all I’d ever be good for, over and over again—that is if anyone wanted my tainted Fae blood in their cubs.”

“I’m hoping you didn’t believe all that, Andy-love.”

“When I grew older, it started to piss me off. But there, in that Shiftertown, they weren’t going to let me be anything else.”

She looked so sad that she broke his heart. “Oh, love.” Sean scooped Andrea onto his lap and closed his arms around her. Earlier tonight when Andrea had given him her scathing glare, so angry at his protectiveness, Sean had told himself that he understood. It wasn’t that Andrea minded being protected—she didn’t want to need to be protected. Sean snarling at every male within range only reminded her of her situation, over which she had little control. Didn’t mean Sean would stop snarling at them; it just meant he understood.

“But you’re here with me now, and you can do whatever you want—well, whatever humans will let us do, but we’ll not be under their thumbs forever. What I want is you, the woman for me. My whole life has become wrapped around you. And I’m liking it that way.”

Andrea liked it too, but the revelations she’d had were complicating things. “My whole life has become ... I don’t know. Insane. Everything I knew and thought I understood is gone.”

“From what you just told me, that’s a good thing, love.”

Sean’s gaze held anger, difficult to meet even if the anger wasn’t directed at her. You are the child of a warrior, Fionn had told her. A highborn lady in your own right. Perhaps that part was true.

“That’s not the point,” she said. Sean’s sandpaper chin was at kissing level, and Andrea barely resisted licking it. “When you’re a child and a certain way of life is all you know, it’s truth to you. It’s your world; there is nothing else. Even when I wasn’t happy, I knew what to expect every day. Now, I have no clue what to expect. Humans shoot at us, the Feline next door makes me care about him, a Fae pops out of my dreams and claims to be my father, and my aunt likes to wear black-leather bodysuits.”

“Aye, Glory has some interesting tastes.”

Andrea looked past Sean’s strong face into his beautiful blue eyes—the eyes of a wildcat who’d taken in a stray and made her feel safe. “You never have told me why you stepped up to mate-claim me. To keep the peace, you said, but you and Liam could have strong-armed someone else into doing it. Ellison, for instance. Why would you risk mating with a Lupine half Fae you’d never even met?”

The look he gave her was dark, intense, and vastly lonely. “Because I was selfish enough to grab the opportunity. Females have their pick of males, and I knew damn well no female would willingly choose a Guardian. But if she didn’t have a choice ...”

“Sean Morrissey, don’t tell me females in this Shiftertown don’t drool over you. I see them—like Caitlin your neighbor, and Rebecca. I see how the unmated honeys eye you in the bar, and it makes me crazy jealous. If you tell me you’ve been celibate all your life, I’ll know you’re lying.”

Sean’s answering blush confirmed it. “A tumble for fun is one thing,” he said. “But females have made clear that they have no intention of being mated to a Guardian. Guardians rarely mate or have cubs—their lives are about the sword and about death. What female wants that?”

“It’s not about death; it’s about caring.”

Something flickered in his eyes. “Goddess, aren’t you a sweetheart? But I’ve become more a symbol than a man. I can’t save lives, only take them. You tell me, Andy-love, what the hell is that good for?”

Andrea heard his bitterness, and her heart wrenched. She imagined the night he was chosen, a young Sean blinking blue eyes in shock when he was handed the heavy sword. His entire life changed, any plans and ambitions taken away. A Guardian was a Guardian for life.

“Guardians like you remind us we won’t always be enslaved,” she said in a low voice. “In death, your sword frees us.”

“You believe that, lass?”

“A Guardian released my mother’s soul when I was three. I remember being grateful to him for what he did. Even if my mother couldn’t be with me and my stepdad, we knew she was safe in the Summerland.”

“You were three years old, love. Barely able to shift yet.”

“I was still grateful.” She touched his cheek, a man so strong and yet so vulnerable. “You relieve grief, Sean; you don’t cause it.”

“But the Shifters have made the sword more important than their lives. That’s why Callum wanted to steal it. They’ve made it more important than fighting to stay alive.”

“I’m not sure that’s true ...”

“Love, it’s why my brother died.” His voice grew choked, eyes wet. “Kenny was fighting to keep some feral Shifters from stealing the sword that night. He chose to die rather than risk the Sword of the Guardian, and me. How does a man live with that?”

“Goddess,” Andrea whispered. “Sean.” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him down to her.

Sean closed his eyes and sank into her warmth. He’d never voiced these thoughts to anyone, not even Liam, the man he was closest to. And now this Lupine woman with her beautiful gray eyes comforted him in a way no one else had been able to. He’d seen the compassion in her eyes and the understanding.

“He loved you,” she said in her whispery voice. “If Kenny was anything like Liam or your dad or Connor, he loved you. He was fighting to save you, not just your sword.”

“And now he’s gone. He’s gone, and we’ll never have him back.”

His heart gave up to grief. Sean thought he’d been done with this, emptied of tears, but the pain welled up as fresh as it had been that night. He buried his face in his mate’s neck and wept.

Andrea held him close, tears in her own eyes. She stroked the hot silk of his hair, kissed it. Her own heart twisted with his grief, which made this strong, strong man break down. Andrea hated those ferals, whoever they’d been, for hurting this family and driving such pain into them.

“Sean, I’m so sorry.”

Sean lifted his head, kissing her cheek. He wiped tears from his face and pressed his forehead against hers. “Thank you, love.”

He held on to her still, for a little longer. Andrea kissed his lips, light kisses of compassion and caring, with only a taste of wildness. Andrea’s anger at him for trying to keep her home dissolved into understanding. Sean had watched his brother be slaughtered. He lived in terror that he’d have to see that happen to anyone else.

“Sean, I need to tell you something.”

Sean looked up at her in mild surprise, but only mild, as though his emotions had been all used up. “What’s that, love? You bought me more underwear?”

“You’re funny. No.” Andrea slid from his lap to her feet and walked to the dresser, where Sean had laid the sword. She drew a breath. “The Fae warrior asked me to steal the Sword of the Guardian.”

There was dead silence behind her.

Andrea resisted touching the sword on the dresser, feeling Sean’s gaze burning her back. She’d known she couldn’t not tell him, but she worried about what Sean would do with the information. She wanted to question Fionn some more about his claim to be her father and about her mother, but telling Sean he wanted the sword would probably kill that chance.

It shouldn’t matter. Fionn was probably lying about who he was to get what he wanted. Or, even if he truly was her father, his goal must be to get the sword and nothing more.

Let it go, Andrea whispered to herself. The Fae told you what you wanted to hear so that you would do what he wished.

But part of her cried out, yearning to know the truth.

“Bloody hell,” Sean said. “What did you tell him?”

“That I wasn’t stupid enough to snatch the Sword of the Guardian and take it to him because he gave me a line about being my father.” Andrea turned around. Sean remained on the bed, face quiet. “But if I don’t take Fionn the sword, what if he convinces someone else to? That’s why I wondered what would happen if a Fae wielded the sword. What would it do?”

“In theory, nothing.”

“Then why would he want it?”

“The same reason Callum wanted it, most like. To wake Shifters’ fear of soul death. To make them wonder what a Fae would do with the sword. Just knowing that a Fae had it and we might never get it back would make Shifters crazy.”

Andrea made a noise of frustration. “I don’t know what to do.”

“That’s easy, love. Don’t give it to him.”

“But ... Oh, hell, Sean, what if he really is my father?”

“Would that make you give him the sword?”

“No, of course not. Even if Fionn is telling the truth about being my father, why would I trust him? I mean, he left my mother and never went back for her. Or me. He told me it was too dangerous, that he was hiding us from his enemies, who wouldn’t hesitate to kill us. But damn it, that could all be total bullshit. How would I know?”

“Do you want to cross into Faerie and find out?”

Andrea shuddered instinctively. She’d been raised to hate the Fae, the cruel people who’d bred Shifters to be their hunters and fighters. Faerie was a terrible place, so Shifters said. Cold and harsh, full of glittering Fae who would kill you in an instant, or worse—trap you and display you as a prize, maybe letting other Fae torture you for their pleasure.

“Not really.”

“I’d go with you.”

Andrea blinked. “What? You’ve got to be kidding me. Why?”

“You want to find out who you are, don’t you?”

Sean regarded her quietly while he made what was probably the most generous offer in Shifter history. A Feline volunteering to enter Faerie so his half-Lupine, half-Fae girlfriend could resolve her identity issues?

“Are you crazy?” she asked. “That’s way too dangerous. Then the Fae would have the sword and the Guardian.”

“I’d leave the sword with Liam for safekeeping.”

“And if they killed you? No, Sean, I couldn’t risk that.”

“I see you hurting, love,” he said calmly. “I don’t like that.”

“Now you’re acting like you can make everything all better.” She gave him the tiniest smile. “I’m not wrong about you being full of yourself, hairball.”

He came off the bed and to her, warming her with his strength and power. “I can make it better, little Lupine. I want to make everything better for you. I want to hold on to you and keep you from harm. I want to for the rest of my life.”

She shivered in excitement at the fierceness in his voice. “You can’t by taking me to Faerie. That’s crazy, Sean.”

“I’d rather take you than have you run off there by yourself.” He growled low in his throat, that mate protectiveness rearing again.

Andrea put her hands on her hips. “You’re going to start arguing with me again about me wanting to work at the bar, aren’t you?”

“’Tis dangerous. I’m not wrong about that.”

“We’ve been through this. I know it’s dangerous, but you can’t lock me away. You told me that I had the freedom to do what I wanted here, that I had freedom I didn’t have in my old Shiftertown. You can’t have it both ways.”

More growling, but his eyes stayed human blue, which meant he wasn’t as enraged as he’d been. Something had warmed between them, something that wouldn’t be undone. “Fine,” he said. “Work. Enjoy yourself.” His powerful hands went to her shoulders. “But no more dirty dancing with anyone but me.”

She smiled. “Jealous, were you?”

“You make my blood hot, sweetheart. I wanted to rip you away from him and break his neck.” He cupped her head in his hands, strong fingers on the back of her neck. “I want you so bad it’s fucking me up inside.” He smiled, a tall and virile Shifter male.

His kiss bit deep, stirring the fires that would never die inside her. Dancing tonight had been for Sean, not just for the joy of moving to the music. Yes, to tease him, but also because she wanted him to want her. She’d wanted him, not Ellison, to get up and come to her, to slide behind her and gyrate against her backside. This is what the mating frenzy did—threw caution to the wind.

Andrea’s hands went to his T-shirt, skimming under it to find his heart beating as fast as hers under his hot skin. “So don’t go.”

He shook his head, face pressed against hers. “I won’t leave you alone, unprotected. It’s my job to keep you safe. I can at least do my job.”

“While we’re going mad with mating frenzy?”

“I asked Ronan to guard the house. He’s happy to. He should be down on the porch now.”

“Good.” Andrea tugged Sean’s shirt off over his head while his hands went under her shirt, undoing her bra, pushing everything from her skin.

The sword began to sing as they went down on the bed, Sean’s mouth all over her. He kept amazing her, this man who’d claimed her. Wanting to keep her safe yet offering to help her find out who she truly was; fearing to lose her, yet wanting her to understand that she was free. His guilt and sorrow for Kenny tugged at her, making her want to hold him until his hurting went away.

She kissed him as Sean divested her of her pants and clawed out of his own, and then they were body to body, skin to skin, the frenzy winding them hotter and higher. Andrea cried out as he entered her; she was already open for him. Sensation after sensation swamped her, his thrusts spreading her until she twined her legs around his hips.

Sean, my mate. Mate of my heart.

Shifter bodies were made to respond like this, needing to mate until they couldn’t walk. The Fae in her couldn’t eradicate the wanting. Or maybe it was Sean himself who brought out that need in her.

The thought opened her eyes, opened her body, and made her cry his name in climax. Sean came seconds later, his body slick with sweat, his eyes wide and dark blue. The sword sang its joy at their joining, the threads twining within her and with the mate bond. Andrea had no idea whether Sean heard it too, because before she could ask him, he kissed her deeply, pinned her hands above her head, and started loving her all over again.

“These pancakes are great, Sean.” Ronan put his big elbows on the table and shoveled in another mouthful. “Mmm, blueberry. My favorite.”

Sean, at the griddle, ladled batter in a careful circle, filling in the middle as the pancake sizzled. His eyes felt sandy, his temper just as gritty. His mating frenzy hadn’t let him sleep much nor had his worry for Andrea, though he was pleased that her nightmares hadn’t returned last night.

The shower running upstairs told him Andrea was awake ... and wet and soapy and naked. Why Sean was downstairs cooking breakfast for Ronan, he wasn’t sure.

“I know things are tough right now,” Ronan said around bites. “But it’ll work out.”

“Whist, aren’t you the confident one?” Sean said.

“And I know that when you start saying things like whist that you’re pissed off. I’m trying to help. Don’t take it out on me.”

“Sorry. Didn’t sleep well.”

“I know you didn’t. I heard all that crazy, banging makeup sex. You don’t exactly keep it down. Here’s my advice: Just let the mating frenzy take over completely, and you two won’t have time to argue. Or the energy.”

Sean had almost forgotten about what he and Andrea had been mad about last night. Oh, yeah, her at the bar. Ellison. Didn’t seem to matter as much today. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

The bathroom door slammed open upstairs, and Sean and Ronan fell silent, Ronan to eat, Sean to cook and fantasize about a wet and naked Andrea.

Andrea came down the stairs in a T-shirt and jeans, her damp hair tousled. “I smell pancakes.”

Ronan held up his last forkful. “Sean’s wicked good with them.”

Sean flipped the batch from the griddle onto a plate and put it on the counter. Andrea smelled good, far better than the pancakes, and the sight of her mussed hair shot his temperature high. Her black ringlets were thin corkscrews against her face and neck, and Sean wanted to burrow among them, licking her still wet skin.

“That’s yours,” he growled, pushing the plate at her.

Andrea took it with a nod and carried the plate to the table. Sean had already laid out butter and syrup, knives and forks, juice and coffee. He was at least good at feeding his bloody stubborn potential mate.

Andrea poured syrup over her pancakes and licked her finger. Sean froze as he watched her catch the sticky drop of syrup on her tongue. His throbbing erection, which had risen when he’d pictured her in the shower, tightened still further.

“That’s the solution, is it?” Andrea asked Ronan as she licked her lips. “Sean and I should have sex until we can’t remember why we’re mad at each other? Or anything else?”

Ronan grinned and swallowed his last mouthful. “Hey, it would work for me. You have good hearing, Lupinegirl.”

“I’m part Fae.” Andrea lifted a forkful of pancakes. “I have quite a few traits that are ... enhanced.”

Ronan burst out laughing as Andrea popped the bite into her mouth. “I get why you like her, Sean.”

Sean got why too. Her shirt was clinging to her, her gray eyes were on him, and sticky syrup lingered on her lips. What they’d done all through the night hadn’t sated him at all. Andrea swiped away a drop with her moist, red tongue, and Sean stifled a groan.

“Hey, who’s that?”

At Ronan’s tone, Sean came alert, forcing his attention from Andrea. A Shifter was cutting across the yard toward the house next door, one Sean had never seen before. He knew no one was home over there—Liam had taken Kim and Connor out for breakfast.

“Stay put,” Sean said to Andrea, and signaled Ronan to follow him out.