it were slim to none. Despite the fact that the truck was ten or more years old, Andrea knew, as she started it up, that it would be in perfect condition. Shifters learned to keep vehicles running in top shape, being forbidden to buy brand new ones.
She pulled the pickup through the alley and around to the front of the house. Ellison Rowe, another Lupine and a friend to the Morrisseys, came out of his house across the street and jogged over.
Ellison’s pack had been relocated here when Shifters took the Collar twenty years ago, but by all evidence he loved being a Texan, even by adoption. He never left home without his big belt buckle, cowboy boots, hat, and Texas drawl.
“What’s up?” he asked, leaning on the open window.
“There’s been another shooting. Down in San Antonio. Sean’s cousin.”
Ellison’s face changed. “Aw, shit, not again. What the hell is going on?”
“Must be a new hobby for humans.”
“Damn,” Ellison growled. “Come and play Shoot the Shifter. Step right up, have a good time. Assholes.”
Sean emerged from the house in a button-down shirt in place of his T-shirt, the sword strapped to his back. Ellison straightened up. “I’m sorry, man,” he said.
Sean nodded his thanks. He approached the driver’s side, and Andrea slid over to let him get in. Sean carefully laid the sword across the seat, but the pickup was narrow, and the hilt had to rest on Andrea’s lap.
“Goddess go with you,” Ellison said as Sean buckled his seat belt. “Andrea, don’t let this Feline get you into any trouble, now, hear?”
“No worries there,” Andrea said, giving him a little smile. “Will you tell Glory where I am if she comes back?”
“You bet.” Ellison patted the top of the truck and stepped away as Sean pulled the truck away from the curb. Ellison watched them go, his stance somber.
Sean was silent as they rolled through the streets outside Shiftertown. As though a switch had flipped in him, Sean had gone from a Shifter male flirting with a female to a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. His blue eyes flickered as he gave the traffic on Ben White a steely gaze, his hands tight on the steering wheel.
“Sean,” she said softly. “Please don’t count on me to save your cousin. Ronan’s was a flesh wound. If vital organs have been hit, that’s different.”
Sean acknowledged this with a tight nod. “I know that, love. But I can’t not try.”
“Oh, I’m willing to try. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
“I like hope,” he said, his mouth softening. “Hope—it’s a fine thing.”
The sheathed sword’s hilt was hard on Andrea’s lap. She brushed it with her fingertips and felt the Fae magic in it, a tingle that worked its way through her body. Andrea could see it in her mind, golden threads of Fae spells wafting from the metal.
She saw those same kinds of threads in her nightmares too, shimmering wires that sought to bind her, to trap her. Last night, she’d fought them again, flailing and thrashing to get away, and they’d drawn tighter, tighter.
She drew a sharp breath.
Sean glanced at her, his face too tight. He was nearly vibrating with tension, his grief and anger held too closely inside him. Shifters shouldn’t do that; it ate them up.
Whenever Shifters became overwhelmed with an emotion, especially one like grief, they withdrew from the world, taking time alone to work through it. This instinct had kept the pack from weakening in the wild, because the pack leader wouldn’t have to worry about protecting a Shifter too grief-stricken to fight. But Sean could never disappear for weeks while he licked his wounds, because the clan always needed its Guardian. The Guardian freed souls with one thrust of the sword but was never free himself.
Andrea lifted the sword and slid over in the seat until her thigh touched his. Sean’s need for touch screamed itself at her, and she couldn’t justify denying him comfort because she wasn’t certain how she felt about his mate-claim.
The Shifter in her recognized that Sean had ten times the strength of Jared, physically and emotionally, not to mention in the dominance department. If Sean ever decided to force the mate-claim, Andrea might not be able to withstand him. Sean could have forced it today—hell, any time since she’d arrived. But he hadn’t. He’d soothed her fear with his Shifter touch and told her he’d wait for her. That put Sean a hundred times