Andrea raised her brows at it. “Nice.”
“I’m not risking putting the real one back on you,” Liam said. “The fusing process will be bad, and as I said, we can’t take a chance that your first one simply didn’t activate right. This one will pass for a Collar except under close examination. And I know your wild mate here will never let anyone close enough to examine you.”
Sean clicked the fake Collar around Andrea’s throat. The Collar looked real, and Andrea winced only because it rubbed her abraded neck. But Shifters healed quickly, especially Andrea with her healing gift, and soon no one would be able to tell that the first Collar had been removed. Looking at Sean, Andrea knew Liam was right that Sean wouldn’t let anyone else come close enough to check.
“Go on then,” Liam said as Sean helped Andrea down from the stool. “Call if you need backup.”
They went, Sean with his sword strapped to his back, his hand in Andrea’s.
When they reached Wade Sawyer’s house two blocks east and four south, Andrea recognized the scent of the second male Lupine inside even before Sean knocked on the door.
Sean did as well. He growled, but he rubbed between her shoulder blades, his voice reassuring. “Don’t worry, love. We’ll see what they’re up to. You’re safe with me.”
Wade’s mate answered the door. She gave Andrea a worried look but said nothing, only ushered them inside. Sean entered the living room first and remained in front of Andrea as the second Lupine rose to join Wade on his feet.
“You remember Jared Barnett,” Wade said.
Jared looked the same: dark hair, blue eyes, slouch to his overly muscular shoulders. Andrea realized something new, though, as his scent curled inside her nostrils—Jared was a weak Lupine who’d been given precedence in the hierarchy by the power of his father. Jared hadn’t been strong, just protected by his sire.
Back in Colorado, the sight of Jared had triggered Andrea’s fight-or-flight reaction—dismay, fear, the need to be anywhere but near him. And now, nothing. Andrea felt no desire to run. Jared no longer had importance in her world. Sean had given her this gift. He’d set her free.
“What do you want?” she asked Jared.
“Be nice to me, Andrea,” Jared said. “And I might be nice to you later.”
Andrea rolled her eyes. Sean’s low, wild-sounding snarl made the color drain from Jared’s face, but Jared tried to pretend he didn’t hear. Idiot.
Andrea switched her gaze to Wade. Wade didn’t have anywhere near the presence of Sean, but he was the dominant Lupine in the room, and it was clear that he didn’t think much of Jared.
“Why did you let him come here?” Andrea asked Wade.
Wade shrugged, pretending indifference. “You are of my pack so it was natural for him to come to me about you.”
“She’s no longer of your pack,” Sean said. “She’s in our pride now. Or were you forgetting?”
Sean didn’t even have to raise his voice. The simple syllables in his Irish lilt spoke of danger lurking below the surface. The fear scent in the room rose sharply, and sweat formed on Wade’s upper lip.
Wade brought his fingertips together in a nervous gesture. “That’s a little tricky. Andrea is still not quite in your pride. You’ve only been blessed under the sun, and one more mate blessing is needed. Technically she’s got one foot in both camps, and on that technicality, Jared can make his request.”
“What request?” Andrea demanded.
“A challenge,” Jared said. He couldn’t meet Sean’s gaze or Andrea’s, so he looked at Wade. “Witness that I challenge Sean Morrissey of the South Texas clan for the mate Andrea Gray. Or, I should say, I accept his challenge, since I made the mate-claim first.”
“Done,” Sean said before Andrea could speak. He took Andrea’s hand, and Andrea felt his rage matching her own. “Wade, set up the time and place. Andrea and I have things to do.”
“It’s ten feet under the trees, Ronan,” Andrea argued. “You can walk next to me the whole time. Or behind me, whatever you want.”
“That’s where the Fae appeared,” Ronan said, his dark eyes narrowing. Seven feet tall and full of muscle, Ronan still had to flick his gaze aside when Andrea pried him with hers.
“I know that,” Andrea said. “I want to talk to him. I have some questions to ask him.”
“Oh, come on, Andrea. Sean will kill me.”
Sean had escorted Andrea back to the Morrisseys’ house to leave her under the protection of Ronan while he, Eric, Dylan, and Liam joined the hunt for Glory. Andrea wasn’t thrilled by Sean’s easy acceptance of Jared’s challenge, but more because she worried about Jared trying something treacherous than Sean’s ability to defeat him. That Jared thought he had the right to challenge, and that Wade agreed with him, made her taste rage.
“Kick his ass, Sean,” Andrea had told him before Sean left. Sean had smiled, said, “That’s my girl,” and kissed her.
Now Andrea faced Ronan. “Sean wants you to protect me from Jared. And so do I. Fionn is my father, he’s not going to harm me, and I need to ask him some serious questions. Now hurry, before everyone gets back.”
The problem with leaving Ronan as a protector was that, while few could best him physically, Ronan was not as dominant as Sean and Liam. Andrea might find it a challenge to get her own way with the Morrisseys, but Ronan only groaned at her demands.
“Ten feet,” Ronan growled.
“I promise.”
Ronan held up his hands. “All right. All right. We’ll walk out there. You’ll talk to your dad. Then right back inside.”
Andrea patted his shoulder. “You’re a sweetie, Ronan.”
Ronan marched so close to Andrea as they crossed the yard that their bodies touched. Andrea felt him quivering hard with fighting instinct.
Andrea stopped at the weak spot on the ley line, her skin tingling as she neared it.“Father,” she called.
The air split, and a pale, cold light touched her. Fionn Cillian stood tall and strong in the shimmering entrance to Faerie.
Andrea held out her hands. “I need you. Can I talk to you?”
Fionn smiled, his warrior face filled with triumph. He caught Andrea’s hands in his, ignored Ronan’s cry of surprise and outrage, and tugged Andrea, alone, into Faerie.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Sean checked Glory’s usual haunts and turned up little. Glory was more adventurous than most Shifters, liking to hang out in human bars and dare the patrons to make something of it. No one could mistake six-foot-tall Glory for anything but a Shifter, but she enjoyed letting humans be fascinated by her.