He gave her a swift, startled look, sunglasses hiding his eyes. “Why? Is it defective?”
“No. I mean it’s never worked on me. I don’t know why.”
Sean looked back at the road, his face still. “And how many people know this fact?”
“No one but me. And now you. I decided it would be wise not to mention it.”
“Very wise, I agree. Is it to do with your Fae blood?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.” Andrea looked out the window as she zipped up her jeans, but she barely saw the picturesque sight of downtown Austin floating toward them. “All I know is, the day the Collars were put on us twenty years ago, I didn’t understand why the Shifters around me were screaming in pain. It took me ten seconds to realize I’d better start moaning and writhing with everyone else.” She remembered the terrible agony of the Shifters around her, how she’d grabbed her stepfather’s hand and tried to ease his hurting while pretending to be in pain herself.
“Aye, I remember the blissful day we took the Collar. They made Connor’s mum put one on, even though she was so close to term with Con. I think it’s why he came early, that pain, and why she died giving birth to him.”
Andrea heard the sad anger in Sean’s voice, and she covered his hand on the wheel with hers. It was a terrible thing for young mothers to die, and until recent years, it had happened to Shifters all too often, including Andrea’s own mother, who’d died trying to deliver a son.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Aye.” He caught her fingers between his. “Let me tell Liam about your Collar.”
“Why?” Sean was the first person she’d ever told apart from her stepfather.
“He’ll keep it a secret, I promise you,” Sean said. “But he’ll want to know. And I can’t tell you why until I talk to him.”
Andrea gave him a shrewd look. “Does it have anything to do with why your Collar didn’t work?”
“Oh, it did work, Andy-love. In time, I’ll pay, and pay like hell.”
“What does that mean?”
Sean flinched, body jerking. Andrea didn’t need to see his eyes to know they’d gone Shifter white behind the sunglasses.
“Damn, I thought I’d have time to get home,” he said softly. “But I was worried about you, and Callum and his humans enraged me.”
“Sean, what the hell are you talking about? What’s wrong?”
Sean swerved the car, and Andrea grabbed the seat as they careened off the main road and down a street that headed toward the river. They flashed past the entrance to a park, to which hundreds of people had flocked this fine Sunday afternoon.
“We’re not allowed down here,” Andrea said. Glory had showed her a map when Andrea had arrived, with “no-Shifter” zones marked in red. This park was one of the reddest.
Sean kept driving, leaving the park behind. A few miles ahead, he turned down a quiet road that snaked along the river. Trees closed overhead, blotting out the glare of the day. Sean halted the car on the very banks of the river and turned off the engine.
He nearly threw himself out of the car, and Andrea scrambled out as well. She had taken two steps when she found herself pinned against the car by a large, virile Shifter with white blue eyes, sunglasses gone. He was half shifting, snarling in pain.
“Sean, is it the Collar?”
“You should go,” he rasped. “You should run from me.”
Not that she had a choice smashed against the car by his body weight. She lifted her chin. “No. I’m not afraid, and you’re obviously hurting.”
“I know you’re not afraid. And you should be.” Sean’s hands closed on her shoulders with fingers that could crush her bones. “You should be terrified of me, love. Low in your pack, here at the mercy of the most powerful Shifters in Hill Country. You’re bound to us, obligated. You should be groveling, grateful that you have your Fae healing gift to give us in return.”
Andrea gave him a little smile. “Forget that.”
“Aye, and here I stand, worried that I’ll hurt you, a Lupine, a half Fae, a woman I’d never met until she turned up at a bus station and looked me with the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.” He leaned closer, his body hard against hers. “What are you, Andrea Gray, that you make me feel like this?”
Trapped between the metal car and Sean’s strength, she knew he was right—she should be afraid—but fear was the last thing on her mind. “Maybe it’s the mating frenzy talking.”
“It’s more than that.” Behind his anger, Andrea sensed Sean’s confusion, his struggle to understand the one thing that didn’t fit his world—her. “In that bar just now, you should have been hiding behind me in terror, letting me protect you, and yet you attacked Callum, a pride leader, without hesitation. He should be way out of your league.”
“He messed with you.” When Callum had gone for Sean, Andrea’s emotions had snapped. Her wolf had answered a primal need, and she’d pulled off her clothes with only one thought ringing in her head. Protect the mate.
She ran restless hands up Sean’s arms. “He wanted to kill you. I couldn’t let him do that.”
Instinct was a hell of a thing. Her rage at Callum for attacking Sean had overridden all fear, all reason. She’d only wanted to taste Callum’s blood and make him pay.
If her fighting instincts had overwhelmed her, her mating ones were now filling her with fire. Sean bent her back against the car, his growl animal-like as he brought his mouth down to hers. His hands slid, warm, under her shirt, touching, molding, sliding around her waist and under her br**sts, bare because Andrea hadn’t bothered to put her bra back on. His mouth opened hers, the kiss claiming her, possessing.
They were so alone down here, with only the chatter of birds filling the air and the swish of water rushing past trees. No one might come back here for hours.
Sean broke the fierce kiss to nip Andrea’s cheek. He thrust her shirt down to nibble his way to her shoulder, his thighs hard against hers, his arousal even harder.
“Sean.”
“Don’t stop me.” His words were whispered, savage. “I need this. Don’t stop me.”
She wouldn’t dream of it. “I just like saying your name,” she said.
Sean raised his head. His eyes were almost white, the beautiful blue swallowed. Every line of his face was tight, his mouth pulling in pain.