“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 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.