He looked into Andrea’s stormy gray eyes and saw the mate bond reflected there. She was going to break his heart.

“Andrea,” he whispered, just to say her name. “Andy-love.”

“Feeling better?” Andrea drew her nails lightly down his chest.

“I don’t think I’ll ever feel better than this.”

“Is that right?” She smiled up at him, so hot and good, and then her fingers squeezed one of his ni**les, and she bit his neck.

Sean growled long and low as the mating frenzy reared up, hard, and he drove into her once again, until they were both crying out in joy.

The best place for talking about serious shit was on the front porch with beer. Sean and Liam sat alone that night as the moon rose, bottles in hand. Liam had his booted feet up, but Sean rocked back on the porch swing, trying to focus on the problem at hand and not the fact that Andrea was in the house next door, warm and waiting in her bed.

Sean had reported all to Liam on their return home, but Liam had listened, nodded, and said nothing. Not until after dinner was over and the world was dark had Liam indicated that he and Sean should talk. Sean understood how Liam worked—he listened, digested, thought, and then made decisions. Andrea had gone home, perceiving that Liam wanted to talk to Sean alone, but the promising look she’d given Sean made him very impatient to be done.

“This is not good,” Liam said.

“No,” Sean agreed.

They drank in silence.

“The humans are taken care of?” Sean asked after a time.

“Dad reported. They’re gone.”

“Dead?”

“Alive,” Liam said. “Shitting themselves to do whatever Dad wanted, so he said.”

Sean nodded, and they went back to the beer.

“That’s not the end of it,” Liam said.

“Aye.”

“Callum, who claims to want nothing to do with humans, hired humans to shoot up bars and restaurants,” Liam said, spinning it out. “I told the other clan leaders in his Shiftertown what he’s been up to, and they’re not happy. His clan is protecting him from me and them. As long as they sit on him and keep him quiet, fine, though I’d love to kill him over Ely.”

“So would I. Not to mention his family.”

Liam shook his head, his eyes flicking to cat slits and back again. “If we start a clan war, there will be too much bloodshed, and the humans will come down on us, and all Shifters will suffer. Damn it.” He drank his beer, a leader unhappy that the simple solution wasn’t going to work. “If this was the wild, he’d be dead.”

“If this was the wild, it wouldn’t have happened at all,” Sean said. “Shifters hiring humans to terrorize Shifters? Never. This is a problem that could have only happened after the Collar.”

“Which brings me back to why he bothered. He had his humans shoot up bars and restaurants where Shifters like to go. Causing the human owners to get jittery and forbid Shifters entry, and causing other Shifter-friendly businesses to start banning Shifters. Widening the divide between Shifters and humans.” Liam took a thoughtful sip of beer. “Why?”

Sean shrugged. His heart thrummed with the mate bond, distracting him, his body pounded with the mating frenzy. His mind was reliving Andrea lying against the hood of the white car, smiling at him, sunshine on her bare br**sts while her black curls spread across the hood.

“Humans to Callum are nothing,” Sean said. “Tools to be used and discarded.”

“It’s more than disdain of humans though, isn’t it?”

Sean knew without expressing it, and Liam knew too, that they’d stirred the surface of a current that ran deep. “I can see Callum’s way of thinking. We’re stronger now, healthier, better organized. He’s wondering why Shifters try to integrate with humans when we can kill them instead.”

“They were all Felines at that bar, you said,” Liam mused. “I’m guessing they don’t want Lupines or bears joining their little party.”

“Didn’t seem that way. They looked at my bringing in Andrea as an insult, and not just because she’s half Fae.” Sean grinned. “You should have seen their faces when she attacked Callum and took him down. It was priceless.”

Liam shared his smile. “Next time, take a picture and show me. She’s a treasure, that one.”

“I know.” Sean’s entire body sang, thinking about her. She’d soothed his hurts and made all the pain go away. “I treasure her.”

Sean’s gaze wandered to the house next door, and he caught Liam watching him with a knowing smile. “She’s good for you, Sean. I’ve not seen you this interested in—well, anything—in a long time.”

Not since Kenny died, he meant. Sean shrugged. “I’m not fooling myself that Andrea hasn’t rejected the mate-claim because she adores me. She doesn’t have much of a bloody choice.”

“So let her go. Tell her you release her. We can keep it to ourselves so Jared will stay away from her, and Wade won’t give her hell.”

Sean’s deep-seated rage flared. For some reason he wanted to launch himself at Liam, to slam his brother to the ground for even suggesting Sean release the mate already bound to his heart. Andrea’s scent was so mixed with his that he couldn’t separate them anymore.

When Sean’s vision cleared, he saw Liam laughing. Laughing hard.

“Damn it, Liam.”

Liam kept chuckling. “I’d react the same if you told me to let Kim go back and live among her people.”

Sean sat back and took another drink of beer. “I’m thinking I’m so screwed.”

“That’s the mate bond, that is. You know you’d die if she went away. You’ll fight the world to keep her at your side and keep her safe.”

“Exactly.”

Sean thought about what he’d explained to Andrea, that his father still struggled with the pain of his broken mate bond. Dylan hadn’t been able to keep his first mate safe, and recently he’d slipped in the hierarchy, so what made him think he could protect a second one? That must eat him up.

“Kim told me Glory kicked Dad out,” Sean said.

Liam nodded. “And he hasn’t come back here.”

Sean started peeling the label from his beer bottle. “Dad can take care of himself. He’s damn good at it.”