Sean shrugged. “Back in Ireland, no one, supposedly, believed in Shifters, but we were the best customers. We always paid our bills, and we were grateful for the sacks of flour and salt and the coffee our village man would get in. We hunted a bit more then, but the day we discovered we could get rabbit in a tin, well, it changed our lives.”
Andrea studied his straight face. “You are so full of shit.”
Sean let himself smile, but his eyes held worry. He was trying to distract Andrea from her thoughts about Glory, who’d not come home last night. Glory often went out and stayed out until the next morning, but Andrea didn’t like that Glory hadn’t even called. With Callum out there still plotting, Andrea worried.
Another problem with Glory not returning was that they’d run out of groceries, and Andrea had been stumped about what to do. Back in Colorado, the stores in town hadn’t wanted Shifters in them but had grudgingly let a few Shifters shop for the entire Shiftertown. One person in Andrea’s pack had been assigned to collect food orders from the families each week, then he made the run into town and brought back said food and supplies.
Andrea hadn’t realized things how differently things were done in this Shiftertown. Glory always asked Andrea what she wanted from the store, never suggesting Andrea do the shopping, so she’d assumed that Glory was a designated shopper.
Andrea had written up what she needed this week, but the list was still on the refrigerator, and food was running low. When she’d told Sean, puzzled, he’d laughed at her, put her on the back of his motorcycle, and driven her to the grocery store closest to Shiftertown.
Andrea gazed at boxes stacked inside a long row of refrigerators with clear glass doors. “I don’t even know what most of this stuff is.”
“Ready-to-eat frozen meals. I’ve tried them. They pretty much taste like the package they come in.”
“Why would anyone want to eat it then?”
“They’re for the perpetually busy. Humans work nonstop, and then throw away all the money they make on cardboard food because they’re so busy working they don’t have time to cook real food. Ironic, that is.”
“Do they have coffee here?”
“Love, they have everything here.”
Sean led the way down the bewildering array of colorful offerings to a row of coffee in cans plus bins of coffee beans at the end of the aisle.
Andrea watched Sean fill a small bag with fragrant coffee beans, his intense gaze fixed on the task. “I never thought I’d need a mate to help me navigate the mysteries of a grocery store,” she said.
“Mates are good for something, then.”
Mates were good for far more than that, but Andrea wasn’t about to flatter Sean’s vanity with that remark. He’d been extremely proud of himself ever since they’d done the mating ceremony yesterday, and the fact that she was sore all over today was testimony to his joy. Sean had a few scratches and bite marks on his flesh as well, silent signals of Andrea’s mating frenzy. She wondered what would happen when they really let themselves go. Wonderful thought.
“You don’t think Glory went off with someone?” Andrea asked. “Eric, maybe?”
Sean shook his head as the stream of coffee topped up the bag. “Not right under Dad’s nose. Glory’s mad at him, but I don’t think she’d go that far. Not yet.”
Andrea agreed, but she’d prefer her aunt holed up consoling herself with a younger man than out-and-out missing.
“Or maybe she went to face my father again,” Andrea said, “and he took her into Faerie.” Far-fetched, but Andrea was trying not to think of the alternative—Glory hurt somewhere. Maybe Callum had found her and was using her to gain a hold over Dylan.
“I’m thinking Glory doesn’t want to be within smelling distance of Faerie or Fionn.”
“Damn it, I keep trying her cell, but she doesn’t answer.” Shifters weren’t allowed voice mail, so Andrea couldn’t leave a message. The phones could call one another, but that was about it.
“Once we’re done foraging for food here, we’ll go see Liam again,” Sean said. “We’ll make a search if we have to. If Glory gets pissed at us for interrupting whatever she’s got going on, that’s her problem.”
“I’m glad you’re so calm.”
“I’m not, but going into hunter mode in the middle of a human grocery store would be a bad idea.” Sean folded up the coffee bag and put one hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find her, love.