Primal Bonds (31 page)

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 through 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.

W
hen 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.”

“
I
t’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.”

Ronan marched so close to Andrea as they crossed the yard that their bodies touched. Andrea felt him quivering hard with fighting instinct.

Andrea stopped at the weak spot on the ley line, her skin tingling as she neared it.“Father,” she called.

The air split, and a pale, cold light touched her. Fionn Cillian stood tall and strong in the shimmering entrance to Faerie.

Andrea held out her hands. “I need you. Can I talk to you?”

Fionn smiled, his warrior face filled with triumph. He caught Andrea’s hands in his, ignored Ronan’s cry of surprise and outrage, and tugged Andrea, alone, into Faerie.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

S
ean checked Glory’s usual haunts and turned up little. Glory was more adventurous than most Shifters, liking to hang out in human bars and dare the patrons to make something of it. No one could mistake six-foot-tall Glory for anything but a Shifter, but she enjoyed letting humans be fascinated by her.

In a bar way out on the west side of town, Sean finally found a trace of her. Glory had told him about this place a few years ago, though Sean had never taken her up on her offer to visit it. It was closed this early in the day, but Sean didn’t need to go inside to catch Glory’s scent.

The scent was strongest at the field beyond the parking lot, where asphalt crumbled into waist-high weeds. No cars lingered in the lot, including Glory’s, but here, he smelled blood. Not much—someone had cleaned it up, and he couldn’t smell who under the stench of blood. But he knew the blood was Glory’s.