The noise and smell of the place hit her hard. Smoke, beer, and body odor, mostly Shifter body odor. Music and lots of voices. It was dark inside, incongruous with the white glare of the afternoon. Andrea tucked her sunglasses into her pocket and scanned the interior.
The bar where Liam worked was more like a family place. Cubs couldn’t enter until they reached the human age of twenty-one, but grown families congregated there to meet friends and other families. But no one would encourage mates and cubs to come here. These Shifters weren’t from one enclave—she could scent that. There were two Shiftertowns in Austin, Liam’s and the north Austin one. Another, smaller Shiftertown existed in back Hill Country, up toward Llano. Andrea didn’t know enough Shifters down here to place everyone, but living in communities, Shifters picked up the collective scent of that community. She smelled four or five distinct ones in here.
Glory was easy to spot, sitting on a barstool in her black leather and lacy top, chatting to the human bartender and the Shifter males around her. She saw Andrea and lifted her bottle of beer in greeting.
“Hey, Andrea. Did Dylan send you running after me?”
“No.” Andrea edged against the bar and gave Glory a hard stare. “I came running after you on my own. What are you doing here?”
“Enjoying myself. Who’s your friend?” Glory gave the human who’d followed Andrea her widest, most tooth-filled smile. “He looks edible.”
“He and his friends gave me directions.”
“Oh, he has friends, does he?”
“Glory.”
The young man looked from Glory to Andrea, and his face changed. “Aw, fuck, you’re a Shifter.”
Andrea stifled a sigh. “I never said I wasn’t.”
“Damn it, I was trying to help you.”
“Why were you?” Andrea fixed him with a stare. “Why didn’t you want me to come in here?”
The guy clammed up. He wasn’t good at hiding things; humans often weren’t. Something about this bar scared him, though Andrea couldn’t tell whether it was simply because it was a Shifter place or something more sinister was going on.
He gave her an ugly glare worthy of Nate the tracker. “Forget it, bitch. It’s your funeral.” He spun and strode away.
“We need to go,” Andrea began, but Glory clamped her hand on Andrea’s arm.
“No,” she said in a hard voice, though she kept smiling. “You need to stay.”
Andrea stopped. “Why?”
Glory leaned close, bathing Andrea in heavy perfume. “Because there are some very interesting conversations in here.”
“Meaning?”
“Just listen.”
Andrea slid onto a barstool and signaled for the bartender to bring her a beer. Good Shifter hearing let Andrea eavesdrop while accepting the cold bottle the bartender put in front of her. If she’d been in her Lupine form, her ears would have been twisted hard behind her.
A table full of Felines had the most interesting conversation, and Glory nodded ever so slightly when Andrea focused on snatches of their talk. They were confident, Andrea thought. They must recognize Glory—she stood out, even for a Shifter—but they didn’t seem to worry about her overhearing. The Felines talked for a while, and Andrea went cold. Something was going on, and it didn’t take her long to figure out what.
When Andrea pulled Kim’s car into the driveway an hour or so later, it was to face three Morrissey males: Sean, Dylan, and Liam. They stood with arms folded, right in front of the car, frowning like a tribunal ready to pronounce sentence.
Glory parked her own little car next to her house and leisurely exited her vehicle. Andrea got out of the Mustang and closed the keys in her hand, ready to return them to Kim. Without acknowledging the three watching men, she started for the porch, but Sean stepped in her way. His blue eyes glittered under the black slash of his brows, and his face was hard with anger.
“I take the blame, Sean,” Dylan said behind Andrea. “I made her worry about Glory.”
Andrea saw movement inside the house. Kim and Connor watched from the other side of the living-room window, making no move to greet Andrea.
Andrea looked from Sean to his brother and father. “What is this?”
“What did you think you were doing, lass?” Sean said, his voice deceptively soft. “You didn’t tell Liam, or Dad, or even Ellison where you were going. Instead, you coerced Kim into helping you and told her to keep quiet.”
Andrea stared at him. “I didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to leave Shiftertown. Even the humans are all right with me doing that.”