Sean focused directly on her, gaze intense. “Then I am the first ...”

“Naked man between my legs, yes.” Andrea brushed fingers through his warm hair. “In my pack, if a female let a man in her bed, he pretty much stayed there for life. We only had about one female for every ten males. Everyone was desperate for mates.”

“The first.” Sean drew a shuddering breath. His eyes changed again, the Shifter in him wanting to roar his triumph. He’d touched her first. Before any other male could claim her.

Sean fought his way back to sanity. “Then why don’t you stop me?”

Andrea’s foot glided up to his thigh, her light touch erotic. “Because I don’t want to.”

“Sean?” Kim’s voice cut through the darkness, followed by Connor’s.

“Sean! Is Andrea all right? Where are you? ... Oh.”

Connor and Kim stopped, out of breath, to stare at the couple on the ground. Sean moved protectively to cover Andrea; she was small enough to be hidden under him. Kim clapped her hand to her mouth and spun around, her laughter snorting out of her, but Connor gave a happy whoop. “Did she accept the claim then, Sean? When’s the ceremony?”

Sean growled. “Be off with you before you embarrass her.”

“It’s all right.” Andrea said to Connor around the wall of Sean’s body. “We’re just playing, Connor. Be a love and fetch some clothes from my house?”

“I’ll do it.” Kim started back across the yard. She was shaking as she walked, and when she was out of earshot—for a human—she shouted with laughter.

“Stop gawping, lad,” Sean said.

“Get a move on, Sean,” Connor said. “Our house needs more females. And cubs. Our family’s in danger of dying out.”

“Don’t be daft, lad. I can’t very well persuade her to do the ceremony with you standing over us in the mud.”

Connor heaved a sigh of aggrieved youth. “Fine, fine. Just hurry it up, will you?” He spun around and loped back toward the Morrissey house.

“And get those burgers off the grill before they burn the house down.”

“Already did it,” Connor sent back over his shoulder, and then the back door banged behind him. He’d probably already eaten one too.

“Why don’t you shift back?” Sean asked Andrea. He was looking down at her, eyes glittering with the anger of a male interrupted from doing a favorite male thing. “You can shift back and run off home. You didn’t need Kim to fetch your clothes.”

Andrea smiled at him. “Maybe I just wanted to have a few more minutes alone with you.”

“Don’t tempt me, love.” Sean’s voice shook. He leaned to her, nuzzled her cheek, breath hot. “I want much more than a few minutes.”

Andrea licked his chin. “Then don’t waste them,” she said, and kissed him.

Sean let himself get buried in her kiss, his mouth roving her throat and neck, down to her soft, tight br**sts. But Kim was far too swift in fetching Andrea’s clothes, and they had to part, Sean shifting to save himself embarrassment from just how damned desperately hard he was.

“Excuse me, what the hell are you doing?” Andrea demanded half an hour later.

Andrea had been hot and horny while Sean walked her the few steps home and accompanied her upstairs. Once in her bedroom, instead of pursuing their interrupted mating, Sean shifted back to his human form and dressed himself. He’d laid the Sword of the Guardian across the top of Andrea’s dresser, and now he’d opened a drawer and started removing her underwear.

“Sean.” Andrea planted her hands on her hips. “I asked, what the hell are you doing? Trying to figure out what size I wear?”

“I’m cleaning out a space for my own clothes.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m moving in here, love. While you’re dreaming up Fae warriors, I need to be with you to stop the dreams.”

Andrea huffed out a breath. “Glory can do that. I’ll have her sleep in here with me.”

“Glory’s not here, is she? Trust me, she’s off looking for Dad, and when she finds him, she’ll hole up with him awhile.”

“What? Leaving poor, helpless me all unprotected?”

“She knows you’re protected. By me.”

Andrea snapped her brows together. “You can sleep in the spare room.”

“That’s not on, love. I can’t wake you up if I’m not sleeping with you. If you’re summoning things or they’re using your dreams to make a hole from Faerie, I’m going to be right next to you to stop it.”

Goddess help me. Sean cuddling up to her the last couple of nights had warmed and soothed her, but what they’d done in the clearing had left her burning. The memory of his firm arousal pressing to her so-slick opening hadn’t faded, and in fact excited her even through her anger. If he got into bed with her tonight, she’d never be able to hold herself back. She’d give in to him completely, and then the mating ceremony would be a mere formality. Shifters did have casual sex without mating—all the time—but this wouldn’t be casual, and both of them knew it.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Sean turned from the dresser. “To keep you safe. What else? And to figure out that’s going on. That Fae appeared in the trees while I was home grilling burgers. No warnings—he was just there.”

“Don’t look at me; I don’t know why.”

“That’s why I’m going to hang around you, to find out why.”

Andrea sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands.

One second later, she sagged against him on the mattress, his thigh against hers, his arm around her shoulder. “We’ll figure this out, love,” he said. “I won’t let you be hurt.”

“That’s not it. I mean, that’s partly it. I thought that when I came here, my troubles would be over. Instead, I’m more confused than ever. I have a Feline who likes to climb through my window and go through my underwear, I have nightmares that scare the shit out of me, and now a Faerie creature pops into existence because I dream his voice. Instead of peace and quiet and shopping with my aunt, I’m shot at by humans and pursued by a Feline who’s on the edge of mating frenzy.”

“Welcome to Shiftertown,” Sean said. “And I don’t want to force you, love, no matter how frenzied I am.”