Jennifer Ashley: Primal Bonds

She had no right to smell this good. She was a bloody Lupine, like Glory. Sean had never understood his father’s fixation with Glory, but damn it, Andrea was getting under his skin. He couldn’t make himself stay away from the bloody woman. And then she did things like this.

Sean wanted to jerk Andrea back into him, peel off her clothes, make love to her on the sagging sofa or maybe the desk. He wanted to lift her in his arms, rush her home, and tell Liam he was ready for the mate blessing. Under sun and under moon; get on with it, man.

“Not now,” he said again, directing the words to himself.

Andrea straightened and turned, putting her back against the door, her stormy eyes making him wild with wanting. “You know I’m grateful for what you’ve done for me, Sean.”

“Aye, and your undying gratitude is what I live for.”

“Really?” She looked him up and down with a hint of a smile.

“Sure it is.” He heard the bitterness in his tone, but he couldn’t keep it out.

Her brows moved upward, her smoke-colored eyes looking straight into his heart. He had to wonder what she saw there.

Sean had pictured her, before he’d met her, as a submissive little she-wolf—shy and scared, grateful to him for making it possible for her to relocate to Austin. But what he saw in front of him now was a sensual, curvaceous female with eyes the color of smoke, who lifted her head and met his gaze without flinching. She didn’t glance to the side or bow her head, as someone low in a pack should. It was as though Andrea couldn’t be bothered to remember she was supposed to be a submissive little she-wolf.

“We should go,” Sean heard himself saying. “They’ll be wondering what we’re doing back here. You know how Shifter gossip is.”

“Rampant,” Andrea said.

So was Sean, at the moment. He leaned down and nipped her cheek. “I’ll walk you home.”

“That’s sweet, but Glory’s walking me home. She’s plenty scary. I’ll be fine.”

“And tonight, with humans running about shooting up places, I go with you.”

Andrea squarely met his gaze. She always did that, making it clear that she knew that Sean was dominant to her but she didn’t give a damn. Her mouth softened into a smile. “What an offer. A walk with something that worships a scratching post.”

Her teasing made him want to pin her against the door and nip her until she couldn’t speak for laughing. “Lupine humor, as inventive as ever,” he said, exaggerating his Irish lilt. “I’d offer you a doggie biscuit, but I don’t want to soil me dignity.”

“Not a rawhide bone? Stingy.”

He leaned toward her again, heart pounding. “If I were to offer you a bone, that’s not the type I’d be thinking of.”

Her answering smile fanned the fires all through Sean’s body. “Good answer, Guardian. There’s hope for you yet.” She turned the knob behind her, and Sean forced himself to let her go.

Sean did walk home with Andrea and Glory, letting the two females stride ahead, the pair of them talking like they hadn’t seen each other in days. The bloody women lived together; you’d think they’d have had enough time to talk about shoes and things without having to go on and on about them now.

Mostly Sean walked behind them so he could watch Andrea’s sexy rear end sway beneath her jacket. The feeling of it rubbing against him in Liam’s office still tingled across his crotch, guaranteeing ’twould be another sleepless night.

He was trying to go slowly with Andrea, knowing that she was worried and uncertain after what that bastard in her old Shiftertown, Jared Barnett, had done to her. When Andrea had rejected his mate-claim, as was a female’s right, Jared, amazed and affronted, had terrorized the hell out of her. He’d followed her around, threatened her and her stepfather, had his friends leave roadkill or lighted rags on her doorstep, and even had them beat up her stepfather. It got to be so bad that Andrea hadn’t been able to leave the house. Her stepfather’s pack refused to extend her protection: first, because she was not related to them by blood, and second, because they thought she should take Jared’s offer. Jared was giving Andrea, a nobody Lupine half Fae, a chance to be safely mated, and she’d had the gall to refuse.

Andrea had finally managed, with her stepfather’s help, to sneak away to Colorado Springs to the human government’s Shifter oversight office and request a transfer to the Austin Shiftertown. A lot of paperwork and calls to Texas later, and Andrea had their approval. Which had led to the problem of Glory’s pack accepting her, and then Sean’s mate-claim.

And now his wanting for the woman was driving him insane.

Andrea and Glory said good-bye to Sean in front of Glory’s house. Sean pulled Andrea into a full embrace, inhaling her scent. He liked that Andrea hugged him back, not fighting the Shifter way of saying good night. Her body felt good and warm, the strength and softness of her making him want to hold her for hours. Glory’s hug wasn’t nearly as intoxicating, and her embraces were always accompanied by a flood of perfume.

Sean waited until Andrea had safely shut the front door behind herself and Glory before he jogged next door and up the steps to the Morrissey house. Sean went straight to his room to put away the sword and from there heard Liam come in and up the stairs. In the hall, Sean found his sister-in-law, Kim, Liam’s human mate, in the doorway to the master bedroom, arms folded over her pregnant abdomen.

Kim was petite by Shifter terms, though humans might consider her about average, maybe a little smaller. She always insisted that she was fat, which baffled Liam and equally baffled Sean. Women should have generous breasts and nice bums. If Kim was a little plumper now, it was because she was carrying Liam’s cub. That made her beautiful. Sean suddenly imagined what Andrea would look like, thickening with Sean’s child.

Kim caught sight of Sean and transferred her glare to him. “Sean,” she said in a voice that brooked no argument. “Tell Liam that he is not to don a bullet-proof vest and go off chasing the bad guys.”

Liam looked aggrieved, but Sean agreed with Kim. Liam was hotheaded enough to do something daft like hunt down a carload of trigger-happy humans by himself.

“Liam,” Sean said. “You are not to don a bullet-proof vest and go off chasing the bad guys.”

“Don’t start, little brother,” Liam growled.

“She has a point. Your cub in there will need his dad.”

Liam slid his large hand lovingly over Kim’s protruding abdomen. Ever since Kim’s announcement that she was pregnant, Liam had been perpetually worried. He ought to be. Though Kim was robust and though Shifter-human pairings were not unknown, having the child would be tough on her.

“We have good people,” Sean went on. “Including me. Use them.”

This shooting hadn’t been the first one. A similar incident had occurred just prior to Andrea’s arrival in Austin, humans driving up to a Shifter bar, unloading bullets, and screaming off again. No one had been hurt, thank the Goddess. Sean had talked to the police, but they’d put it down to gang violence and didn’t seem very interested, not when the potential victims were only Shifters.

“Fine.” Liam frowned, and Sean knew that the preliminary round of this argument had been won. By Kim. Again. “Kim, go back to bed,” Liam said.

Kim’s blue eyes sparkled. “You come to bed.”

“I will. I need to chat with Sean a bit, then I’ll be up.”

Kim slid his hand from her belly but gave him a smoldering smile. “I’ll still be awake.”

“I’m counting on that, love.”

Sean rolled his eyes in mock irritation. “Don’t tell me the two of you will be keeping the rest of us awake again.”