Her eyes darkened with fear. “Oh, Sean. Oh, crap.”
“Not your fault.” Sean rubbed his hand down her back. “Not your fault.”
She raised her head. “I need to see this Fae.”
“Not a good idea.”
Andrea wrenched herself from his grasp. “I don’t care. Stop protecting me. Show me where you saw him.”
“Andrea.”
She was strong and fast as she twisted away and to her feet. She was halfway to the dark window before Sean got off the bed, but instead of climbing out and running off, she stopped and pulled off her shirt.
Sean couldn’t move. He saw black lace cupping the generous curve of her breasts before Andrea unhooked her bra with one hand and started peeling off her jeans with the other.
Her naked breasts were firm and high, round peaches tipped with dusky red. Another slash of black lace enclosed her hips, and Sean lay transfixed as she stripped off the panties. Her slim waist flared to lush hips, with a wisp of black between her thighs. For one instant, Andrea and Sean looked at each other, she a woman bare for the man who wanted her. Then she shifted.
Shifter wolves were larger than natural, wild wolves, the females almost as large as the males. Andrea wasn’t as big as Sean’s wildcat but looked every bit as strong. Her fur was black, like her hair, her gray eyes the same shade as her human eyes, which was unusual. Most Shifters’ eyes changed with the shift—Sean’s became very light blue as did Liam’s; Glory’s turned to silver. Not Andrea’s. Hers stayed the same, smoky gray and beautiful.
These thoughts shot through his head seconds before Andrea turned and gracefully leapt out onto the porch roof. Sean sprang from the bed, tore off his clothes, shifted, and followed her.
Andrea, as a wolf, nosed around the clearing behind the house. The rain had stopped, the wind tearing gashes in the clouds, revealing the waxing moon. Sean sniffed the wind, but the air was clean. All scent of Fae had gone.
Sean shouldered past Andrea to the spot where he’d seen the Fae. He watched as Andrea, doglike, sniffed the dead leaves, pawing at them with one large foot. She looked up at Sean with her smoke gray eyes, again meeting his gaze without fear.
The dominance roles of Shifters were more obvious when they were animals, when verbal communication didn’t interfere. A thorough discussion of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle was out of the question, but Shifters could communicate basic emotions, the most simple signals being dominance and submission.
A submissive Feline or Lupine would keep his head lower than the dominant’s, or run a few paces behind them, or move aside for those more dominant in the pride. That was survival—the leader kept an eye out for enemies, and one growl sent the pride or pack either into hiding or into defensive positions. Stragglers or wanderers couldn’t be guarded. The leader protected, and the rest stayed out of his way or obeyed his commands without question, for their own safety.
What they didn’t do was stand in front of the dominant and look him straight in the eye. They didn’t deliberately turn away and start investigating the area of danger, not letting him take the lead. They didn’t twitched their tails derisively when the dominant growled at them to stay back.
Sean didn’t want Andrea walking across the place that the Fae had occupied. The line between the real world and Faerie blurred in places, and who knew whether that doorway would open suddenly, the warrior Fae ready to drag her in. He shouldered Andrea away from the spot, rumbling a long lion growl.
Andrea gave him a glare and curled her lip. The words bite me might as well have been stamped on her forehead.
So, Sean bit her.
Andrea whipped out from under him, whirled, and clamped her jaw around his throat. Sean snarled and shook her off. He shoved her to the ground with one big paw, the temper of his beast aroused.
Sean had wrestled with his brothers growing up, but he’d never fought with Lupines. The interspecies truce that kept them from tearing each other apart cautioned against even playful wrestling matches. Sean guessed Andrea had never read the pact or wouldn’t care if she had.
Andrea squirmed out from under him, rolled to her feet, and sprinted away. Sean sprinted right after her. Andrea stopped, then spun and faced him, down on her forepaws, rear in the air.