“Me,” Deni said. “You can try it first on me. Use whatever is left in the bracelet. I’m sure my mother would be fine with me using it to free myself and my mate.”
Jace’s hold on her tightened. “No. Not until they know what they’re doing.”
“Sean will figure it out.” Deni leaned into Jace, feeling warm and protected. “I want this damned Collar off. I want to heal all the way. With you, and without the Collar.”
Jace growled, but she saw sympathy in his eyes. “All right, but I’m with you every step of the way. Every second. And if Sean hurts you more than necessary, he answers to me.”
“Oh, good,” Sean said. “No pressure. Don’t worry, lass. I’ll be trying these ideas on meself as well. I have a mate who can make us all better if I screw up.”
“I hope I can,” Andrea said. She held her son close, his gray eyes so much like his mother’s.
“I’m just feeling better about this all the time,” Sean said.
“We can do volunteers from our Shiftertown too,” Eric said. “Those who would most benefit. If there proves to be so little Fae gold, the weaker Shifters should be released first, those whose Collars hurt them the most. Those of us who can control the Collars’ effects—we’ll suck it up for a while.”
“Speaking of your Shiftertown,” Deni said, and Eric focused on her.
“Don’t worry—I’ll make sure Jace can move here officially,” Eric said. “And have leave to visit me and bring you with him as often as possible.” Eric swallowed, the light in his eyes dimming. “I’ll miss him, but I know what a mate bond is like.” His hand drifted to Iona’s, and his mate rose on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.
Another thing Jace was doing for her, Deni reflected. Traditionally, Shifter women moved into the homes of their mates, leaving their own families behind. But it would be difficult to obtain permission to move Deni and her two cubs to the Las Vegas Shiftertown, and it would also mean leaving Ellison. To prevent Deni having to leave her sons behind, Jace had volunteered to move here instead. A break with tradition, but a kind one.
“Well,” Liam said, pushing himself from the window seat and handing Katriona to Kim. “I’m looking forward to conducting yet another mating ceremony. Unless Eric fights me for the honor. But we have other business at hand. Tiger.”
Tiger unfolded his big arms and moved to the basement door—the door to the true basement, not the Morrisseys’ secret space. The Shifters at this meeting were Liam and family and Liam’s trackers, plus Eric and Iona. Liam had asked for Eric’s advice on the sticky problem Deni had uncovered at the Shifter bar.
Tiger unlocked and opened the door to reveal the young woman Deni had caught with the phone that showed she’d made many calls to the police. She’d washed off the Shifter groupie makeup but stared around at the Shifters with defiance in her eyes. Broderick, who’d insisted on guarding her, brought her up the last of the stairs with his hand lightly on her shoulder. Broderick’s gray eyes swept the trackers, and he looked almost as defiant as the young woman.
“This is Joanne Greene,” Liam said. “She’s been following Shifters around and reporting things to the police—the fight club, what Shifters do at the bar—and asking the cops to talk to Shifters and watch them . . .”
Deni had wondered what Liam would do with the young woman. Dylan now went to her, and the woman’s defiance dissolved into terror. Dylan stopped a foot in front of her, in her personal space. “Tell my son what you told me,” Dylan said.
Her chin came up. “Why should I?”
She was young, even for a human. In her midtwenties, Deni guessed, if that. Connor, who was only a little younger than Joanne, shook his head. “I’d tell him. If you think Grandda’s scary, wait ’til you face Uncle Liam.”
Broderick squeezed her shoulder. “Best get it over with.” He sounded sympathetic, interestingly enough.
Joanne took a deep breath. “Because you took my sister,” she said.
Liam blinked in surprise, and so did most of the Shifters present. “Your sister?”
“My sister, Nancy,” Joanne said. “She’s the true Shifter groupie. Loves to chase Shifters. She was here, in Shiftertown. Then she disappeared. What did you do with her?”
Liam gave her a blank look. “We didn’t do anything with her, lass. Where was she last? With what Shifter?”
“I don’t know.” Joanne’s eyes flashed anger. “Does it matter what Shifter? She was at your bar, then she went to your fight club. That was a few weeks ago. She hasn’t come home since.”
“And the human police agree with you that a Shifter must have taken her?” Deni couldn’t help asking.
Joanne looked even angrier. “They say they have no evidence of harm. They think she ran off on her own.”
Dylan didn’t move any closer to Joanne, but his look of menace was hard. “And so you stir up trouble for all Shifters, endangering us, our mates, our cubs, without coming to us and asking about her first?”
Joanne stepped back in fear, bumping into Broderick, but she spoke in a clear voice. “Come to you? Why should I come to you?”
Dylan started to answer, but Broderick took a step sideways, putting himself in a position where he could defend Joanne against the others if need be. “Go easy on her,” he said to Dylan. “She’s afraid for her sister. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same thing if you lost track of someone you loved inside another Shiftertown.”
Dylan’s expression hardened. “No, what I would do is find the right culprit and shake him until he coughed up what he knew. And then decide whether to let him live.”
“She’s been telling me about it,” Broderick said, as Joanne gazed at Dylan in fear. “I don’t think a Shifter took her sister, but it looks like something happened around a Shifter event. You and Liam have all kinds of resources. Help her.”
Liam gave Broderick a thoughtful look. “Maybe we will. Dad.”
Dylan looked over Broderick and Joanne, then he turned away. Without a word, he walked out of the living room and then out the front door with an even stride. The bang of the door in his wake was loud, and for a moment, no one said anything. Dylan often did such things—keeping his own council and walking away to solve problems on his own. He was older than most Shifters in Shiftertown, and had experience and wisdom no one else had. The Shifters had learned to tolerate his abruptness.