had worked some kind of miracle. But Sean knew it had been all Andrea. He’d felt the magic of the sword change when she touched it, felt the magic remake itself. The sword had helped drive life back into Ely, to seal his soul to his body.
Sean had no idea how that had happened, and by the look on Andrea’s face, she didn’t understand either.
The Shifters reached out to Sean. “Guardian,” some murmured. They touched him as he passed, but Sean kept walking, acknowledging them but not stopping.
“Goddess bless you, Sean Morrissey,” one man said. His mate, in the circle of his arm, brushed a hurried finger over Sean’s sleeve.
Sean and Andrea made it out of the clinic into the crisp air of a day turning cold. Texas winters were like that—a morning could begin warm and fine and end up bloody freezing by nightfall.
Dylan’s white pickup waited incongruously in the lot. When they reached it, Andrea collapsed against it, breathing hard in relief. Sean stashed the sword in the cab and went to her, rubbing her chilled arms. “You all right?”
“I don’t know. What the hell happened in there?”
“They think I worked a bloody miracle. You and me together.”
“Didn’t we?”
Her body was tight, her eyes flicking from feral wolf to human and back again. Sean had felt the sword’s magic go into her, had felt the tug of it through the hilt, pulling on his own flesh. It had been strange, frightening, and heady at the same time.
“You worked the miracle, Andrea.”
She shook her head, her warm ringlets brushing his hands. “I just used the sword to enhance my magic. The sword’s a Fae artifact; its magic is the same as mine. Maybe that’s what happened.” She shivered. “Stop looking at me like that, Sean. You want me to have answers, and I don’t.”
“There’s more to you than meets the eye, Andy-love, that’s for damned sure.”
Andrea gave him a shaky smile. “And you still want to claim me as mate?”
Fire streaked through his body. Andrea had saved Ely’s life, had given Sean’s cousin the chance to see his children mated and his grandchildren grow up. She’d made certain Sean hadn’t had to lift the sword and drive it into Ely’s heart. Sean could now ride home with his arm around his girl, happy and warm, not scoured empty inside, drained by grief. She had given him that gift.
“Hell, yes.” Sean slid his arms around her until her soft breasts pressed his chest. “You’re a beautiful woman, Andrea Gray, even if you are a damned Lupine.”
“Go on and flatter me, now.”
Sean laughed. It felt so good to laugh. He scooped her to him and pressed a hard kiss to her lips.
She tasted like orange juice, sensuality, and sex, plus the sparkling of magic still flowing between them. Sean caressed her mouth open, tongue sliding inside to be met with the hot strength of hers.
Unlike their leisurely kiss in his driveway, Sean sought her with a kind of desperation that was echoed in her. He felt her Faeness in the fine bones under his fingertips, the satin of her skin. So delicate, and yet at the same time, so damn strong. The little noises she was making in her throat drove him wild.
She hooked her fingers around his waistband, hips moving as she kissed him. She might not realize she was rubbing against him, but his hard-on responded.
“I’ll flatter you more than that when you’re in my bed,” he said. “With me seeing if I can feel that magic deep inside you.”
“Hormones,” she murmured.
“What, love?”
“Shifter males are a walking mass of hormones.”
Sean stroked his fingers over her throat. “Is that why your own pulse is beating so fast? Don’t pretend you’re above a little mate frenzy yourself.”
“I’d never be in a mate frenzy.” She licked across his mouth. “I’m much too sensible.”
“Oh, yes?” He felt the grin spread across his face. “Andy-love, one day soon, we’ll have a chat about female and male lust.” His gaze swept to her bosom bared by the V neckline of her shirt. Her skin had broken out in goose bumps in the cold—she had dressed for the warmer weather of this morning. “It’ll be a fine talk.”
“Keep dreaming, cat-boy.”
Sean laughed again. She loved to tease him, and he loved being teased by her. It felt good to laugh now that the pall of death had lifted from his heart.
He shrugged off his leather jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. The coat was covered with