Pride Mates

Chapter Seven

She took it well. Liam had to give her that.

No screaming, no outraged swearing, no gibbering in terror. Kim simply looked at him, her eyes unreadable.

"Why not?" she asked steadily. "If I can prove that Brian had nothing to do with the murder, it won't matter whether his Collar can malfunction. I have no reason to share the information far and wide."

"You should let someone else take over Brian's defense," Dylan said.

Now the anger came. "Oh, no, no, no. This case is going to make my career. Besides, I'm your best hope of springing him."

Dylan's eyes were hard. "Brian understands the need to protect the Shifters."

Kim struggled from Liam's embrace and sprang to her feet. "Are you saying you'd let him go down? Make him pretend his Collar malfunctioned to keep everyone from knowing the Collars don't work at all?"

"This isn't about the Collars," Liam said. "And anyway, the Collars do work."

"You're crazy. If Brian's found guilty, he gets the death sentence for Shifters. Do you know what that means?"

"He won't die at the hands of the human government," Dylan said. "If he's convicted, we'll take care that he doesn't face an executioner."

"What, you'll send Sean to turn him to dust?"

Sean looked away, unable to meet her eyes.

"No, not Sean." Liam stood up beside her. "It's not his job."

Kim gave him an uncomprehending look; then her eyes widened. "You mean it's yours? Oh, Jesus effing Christ, Liam."

"It's a Shifter problem," Dylan said in his quiet voice.

"And now I'm a Shifter problem? You can't take my word that I won't tell anyone? Liam, you saved my life tonight. I owe you."

"It's not up to us," Sean broke in. "We don't make the law."

"The oldest excuse in the book. Aren't you the leader around here, Dylan? Can't you make, you know, an executive decision?"

Dylan shook his head. "These are clan matters and Shifter secrets. Only Fergus can override the law."

"Who the hell is Fergus?"

"The leader of the South Texas clan," Liam answered. "Dad thinks you should have a hearing with him. I don't agree."

"Why not? Maybe this Fergus will see reason."

"Fergus? Reason?" Liam wanted to laugh. He thought about the big man with the long black braid, the thugs he surrounded himself with. Fergus hadn't been happy when Kim managed to get Brian a jury trial. He'd wanted Brian to plead guilty and be done, the human prodding into Shifter business over. Liam still didn't understand why Fergus was so ready to wash his hands of Brian, but Brian had been ready to obey.

Until Kim had persuaded Brian to fight. Of course she had. Kim was a fighter. Fergus had been livid when he learned Brian had a competent defense attorney.

"He's dangerous, Kim," Liam said, his voice sharp with worry. "All Shifters are dangerous, Fergus especially so. You shouldn't have come to see me at all."

"I owe it to my client to try to help him get free."

"And now you know too damned much."

"Keep it quiet, Liam," Dylan growled. "I can contain this, but not if the neighbors hear you..."

Kim looked wildly out the window to the house next door. "What? What happens if the neighbors hear?"

"They might go to Fergus," Sean said. "We might not be able to stop them. We're your best protection."

"You can't keep me here." She had good lung power for such a small woman.

"We can and we will," Dylan said, eyes glittering. "We protect the clan."

Connor looked distressed. "Stop it, Grandda'. You're scaring her. She's going to think we're all crazy."

She'd not be far from wrong, Liam thought. Kim quivered with rage and fear, and Liam felt the overwhelming need to put his arms around her and soothe her. She needed to be held in the same way he and Sean had held Sandra, calming her nerves, easing her worry.

Holding Kim would calm Liam as well. His adrenaline was wearing off--he could tell by the dull buzzing in his head. Very soon now, he'd start to pay the price for killing the feral Shifter. Sean didn't look as bad, but then Sean hadn't fought; he'd only dispatched the feral's soul.

"Keeping you here is the safest thing," Liam said to Kim. "If Fergus thinks we have you under control, he won't send anyone to make sure you are."

Kim's anger would have knocked a weaker man sideways. She'd started to trust Liam, and now she felt betrayed. "Under control?"

"Kim, love, when I said I'd protect you, I meant it. That means from everyone, my own father or my clan leader if necessary. If you go home tonight, Fergus will send Shifters after you. I'd have to stay with you, bodyguard you day and night." Liam ran a finger along her chin. "Not that I'd find that a bad thing."

Kim stared at him without softening. He wished he could make her understand that she'd put herself in danger the minute she'd taken Brian's case. Dylan and Fergus had argued long and hard when Kim had sent word she wanted to talk to Liam, and now Kim was in greater peril than ever.

Someone banged on the front door, and Liam caught a scent of Lupine overlaid with a large dose of Oscar de la Renta.

Sean rolled his eyes. "Perfect. She's all we're needing."

"Your door's locked," a woman's voice called through the wood.

"Let her in, Sean," Dylan said, resigned.

"About time." A tall woman dressed head to toe in black walked in when Sean opened the door. She wore tight pants and a sleeveless silk shirt and had folded her blonde hair into an intricate French braid. Silver high-heeled sandals studded with rhinestones completed her outfit. "Why'd you lock the door? You never lock it." She fixed white-blue eyes on Kim. "Who's this human woman, and why are you all yelling?"

The newcomer was lithe, with athletic grace, the kind of female Kim had despised when struggling with teen self-esteem. This Shifter lady could be a model for a fashion doll, except that she exuded personality with a capital P. Even her Collar gleamed.

Liam, Sean, and Connor viewed her with irritation. Dylan looked downright uncomfortable and avoided her gaze. Interesting.

The woman put a long-fingered hand on one hip. "I'm getting into bed when I hear my big cat neighbors trying to calm down a shouting woman. What am I supposed to think?" She pinned Kim with her predatory stare. "What are you doing to them, honey?"

Kim looked the woman up and down, pretending she wasn't unnerved. "That's what you wear to bed?"

"Depends on who's in it with me." The woman's gaze slid sideways to Dylan, who pretended not to notice. "Who is she?"

"None of your business, Glory," Connor tried.

Of all of them, Connor seemed to be the most oblivious to her overt sexuality. But then, if this Glory had something going on with Dylan, his grandfather, Connor would probably think her impossibly old. Even if she looked thirty at most. Damn, Shifters had good genes.

Glory sniffed the air, nostrils flaring. "Liam's scent-marked her. I never knew your tastes ran to humans, Liam."

Liam slid an arm around Kim's waist, and Kim wished it didn't feel so good there. "I'm protecting her from nosy Shifters."

"Sure you are." Glory's light blue gaze moved up and down Kim with too much perception. "But who protects you from her?"

Liam's grip tightened. "Good night, Glory."

Glory smiled a knowing smile, her lipstick coral pink. "All right, I won't pry." She gave Kim another assessing look. "Big cats are sensational, sweetie. I keep some extra-large condoms handy if you need them." She spun on the toes of her shiny shoes and sauntered out, blackclad hips swaying.

"I can see why you worry about your neighbors," Kim said as Sean closed the door again. "She's really something."

"Glory's a Lupine," Connor said. "She's always giving us grief. Why she wants to live in a big cat neighborhood, I don't know."

"She doesn't have a choice, does she?" Liam looked out the window, probably making sure that Glory went back to her own house and stayed there. "I'm taking Kim up to my room--alone. We need to have a chat."

"To your room?" Kim stared. "Why?" She wished she weren't so intrigued at the thought. She needed to be afraid of these men, to flee them, to not let them keep her here.

Then she thought of the feral Shifter in her bedroom and her big empty house with the dusty Shifter remains on her carpet. Contrasted with this bright, warm house, her own place suddenly had too many ghosts.

"You'll sleep up in my room," Liam was saying. "It's the cleanest. I even do hospital corners." He picked up Kim's bag, then put his arm around her waist again. He liked doing that, as though she naturally belonged in his embrace.

"Wait a minute. You expect me to stay overnight in a house with four single men?"

Sean grinned. "We're perfect gentlemen, Kim. Everyone knows that. Don't let us worry you."

"I'm not worried about my reputation, I'm worried about the state of the bathrooms."

Liam laughed softly, his warm breath tickling her ear. "They did a cleanup when I told them you were coming. And if they didn't, they'll be doing it now, won't they? This way, love."

Liam took her to a roomy upstairs hall with three bedrooms and bath and a stair that led to an attic. Kim had to admit everything looked nice. Polished wood, freshly painted walls, clean carpets. But the house was definitely missing feminine touches, which made it a little sad and incomplete.

Liam led her into a large bedroom with only one picture on the wall, a travel poster of a green vista in Ireland.

"Interesting neighbors you have," Kim said. "Do she and your dad have something going on? I noticed a lot of tension there."

Liam closed the door and dumped Kim's bag on the floor. "She and Dad have an on-again, off-again affair. When they get along, it's a beautiful thing."

"And when they don't?"

"We head for the hills. Right now they're in neutral."

"That was neutral? I see what you mean about heading for the hills. She's a wolf Shifter, Connor said, but your dad is a big cat like you?"

"Not exactly a match that would have happened before we took the Collar. But they care about each other. Deep down inside."

Must be very deep down inside. "I'll take your word for it."

Liam laughed his warm, throaty laugh. "I'm skeptical too, love, but it works for them. Come here." He sat on the bed, putting his back against the headboard, and patted the mattress beside him.

"On the bed. Of course." Kim put her hands on her hips. "If kidnapping and arguing don't work, try seduction."

"No seduction." How Liam could claim that while looking at her with those sinful baby blues, she didn't know.

Why did no seduction sound so disappointing? Maybe because Kim had felt a tingle of attraction for him since the moment she'd met him? As she'd talked to him throughout the day, she'd been lulled by his deep voice with its Irish lilt, softened by the warm blue of his eyes. Even him turning into a wildcat and killing a wolf on her bedroom floor hadn't quite brought her to her senses.

Kim gave up and sat down beside him, stretching her legs out next to his. His hard thigh warmed hers.

"What did Glory mean when she said you 'scent-marked' me? That sounds disturbing." Kim didn't smell anything different about herself, but then she wasn't a Shifter.

"Protection, love. Shifters know their families and friends faster by scent first, then sight. I made sure that when they smell you now they smell me and know to leave you alone."

"I don't remember you spraying me or anything." She wrinkled her nose.

"When I hugged you outside Sandra's house, I let my scent twine with yours."

"Oh." She'd remembered that hug all day, his body hard and strong against hers, his arms so comforting. She'd thought it part of the Shifter's strange need to touch. "But I went home and took a shower."

Liam gave her the smile that made his eyes sparkle. "It's more than smell--the scent-mark is a little bit magic as well. It fades with time if you never see the Shifter again, but for now, everyone in Shiftertown knows I'm taking care of you."

Kim was uncertain how to feel about that. She didn't like being "protected," but then again, having Liam charge in to save her from the feral had been a good thing. She'd also noted how the Shifters at the bar had sized her up. Without Liam's mark, would she have been fair game? Unnerving thought.

Liam had fallen silent, as though lost in thought. His big body took most of the bed, leaving Kim only a tiny portion. She wondered what it would be like to sleep in this small bed with him. A woman would have to cuddle up to him, maybe spoon against his back. Her arm would snake around his waist, and she'd want to tickle his belly button.

"Do Shifters have belly buttons?" she asked.

Liam's preoccupied look dissolved into a smile. "You're a treasure, lass. The gods sent you to us, I think."

"It just occurred to me."

Liam eased his T-shirt upward. His jeans rode low on his waist, baring his flat stomach and the indentation of his navel.

"I'm human in every way when I'm in this form," he said. "It's not only our appearance that changes. It's everything. Bones, muscles, organs. It's hellacious painful when we first do it."

"How old were you when you shifted the first time?" Kim couldn't drag her gaze from his abdomen. She wanted to taste his belly button and slide her tongue down from there to his low-riding waistband.

"I was about five as humans count years. I was still a cub. I remember thinking I was dying."

"It must have been weird to suddenly be a wildcat--whatever kind of cat you are."

"It's called a Fae-cat. But you've got it the other way 'round, love. I lived as a wildcat for five years before I shifted to human. Standing up on two feet and having eyes that couldn't see so well in the dark--it scared the bejesus out of me."

"You were born a cat?"

"My parents were both full-blood Feline Shifters, so yes. When there's a mix--wolf and cat Shifter, or wolf and bear, say--then you're born a human babe. You shift to whatever is the dominant gene when you're about five or six."

Interesting. None of her research had told her any of this, which made her realize just how little humans knew about Shifters. "What is a Fae-cat, exactly? I couldn't decide if you were mountain lion or leopard or what."

"It's hard to explain to a non-Shifter. We're a unique breed, left over from times before humans populated the earth. The Fae made us. They bred in the strengths of all members of the big cat family, at least the big cats of ancient times, the ancestors of wildcats that exist now. We're fast like cheetahs, can see in the dark like leopards, have the power of lions, the cunning of tigers. That's why we call ourselves Felines, not a specific breed. The Lupines are wolves, but not exactly like any wolves you'd find in the wild."

"In other words, the best of the entire species."

"You could say that."

"So, if you can crossbreed, like you said, then your dad and your next-door neighbor could produce children. In theory."

"In theory, though cross-species fertility is not as high as fertility within a species. Dad's only about two hundred, so he can still father cubs. Glory won't tell her age, but she's still in the fertile range."

"Dylan is two hundred years old?" Kim asked in amazement. "He doesn't look much into his forties. How old are you?"

"I was born in 1898, as humans count years. Sean came along in 1900."

Holy shit. "You look damn good for a centenarian. What about Connor? Don't tell me he's eighty-two."

"He's twenty. Born right after we took the Collar. His mum died of bringing him in, poor lass."

Kim's thought of Connor downstairs, with his good-natured smile and his worry about them frightening her. "Oh, Liam, I'm sorry."

Liam shrugged, a shrug that meant he'd resigned himself to it. "It happened often enough when we lived outside of humankind. It's one of the reasons the clan leaders decided to take the Collar. We were a dying people."

"She was married to the brother you lost, wasn't she? Kenny? That sucks. Poor Connor."

"Aye. A feral got Kenny ten years ago. We've looked after Connor, but it's not the same for him."

Kim leaned against Liam's strong arm, suddenly wanting to comfort him. "And I thought I had it bad growing up. But I was always cared for, never had to worry. Even when my parents passed away, they'd taken care of me to the end. I was already working, but they'd left me the house and plenty of money. I never wanted for anything."

The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Poor little rich girl."

"It let me do work I believed in. I don't have to take cases based on how much they pay."

"No, you're free to help hapless Shifters."

Kim sat up. "You all sound like you don't take this seriously, like you don't want me to get Brian free. Brian's mother is barely holding it together. You and Sean had to do the comforting sandwich with her, remember?"

"Aye." Liam went silent. His T-shirt had slid down again, covering his honed body. Damn.

"Believe me, when I'm defending someone, I make certain he gets a fair trial," Kim said. "It's a right we all have that can get lost if we're not careful. And besides, I think Brian's innocent. I seem to be the only one who does."

"Kim." Liam cut through her diatribe. "Brian is innocent. He couldn't have killed that girl. But to prove it, you might reveal secrets that could destroy all Shifters, everywhere."

"Secrets like the fact that the Collars don't work? Or that some Shifters don't even wear them?"

Liam gazed into the distance. "It's not quite that simple."

"Then explain to me what's going on." She softened her tone. "Believe me, I'll do what I can to get Brian exonerated, but bringing down your family isn't what I had in mind."

"I'm glad to hear that," Liam said mildly.

"So how is it possible that you killed that Shifter?" Kim asked. "The Collars really don't work?"

"Oh, they work, love." His eyes were clouded. "They work."

"May I look?"

Liam nodded. Kim knelt back on her heels to examine the thin black and silver chain around his throat. She lifted his hair at the back of his neck, wishing it wasn't all warm and silky and distracting.

The chain had no clasp and was fused to his skin, the links snug but not tight. A Celtic knot rested at the base of his throat. When Liam had been in his wildcat form in her bedroom, she'd seen the glint of the Collar against his fur.

"How did it not strangle you when you shifted?"

"When the Collar goes on, it becomes a part of the Shifter. Don't ask me to explain the technology or the magic, because I don't understand it myself. The Collar allows us to change to our animal forms--because if we were denied that we'd die. Our animal form is part of us, with us at all times. So the chain adapts to it."

Kim ran her fingers around the Collar, feeling the cool contrast of the silver with his hot skin, the bump of the Celtic knot. "What do you mean by 'the magic'? It's triggered by your adrenal system, isn't it? To shock you or tranquilize you when your chemical balance changes, right?"

Liam chuckled. "You saw me shift from cat to man, and the wolf die away to dust under Sean's sword, and you still don't believe in magic?"

"Not really. There's an explanation for even the most bizarre things."

"Remind me to take you to Ireland someday. I'll show you magic. An Irishman made these chains, an old man who was permeated with magic himself."

"A leprechaun?"

Liam laid his head back and laughed. Kim's hand was still on his neck, and catching his head in her palm felt intimate and warm.

"No, sweetheart, no little men in green with shamrocks. The man who made the first Collars was half Fae. Your government--and others in the world where Shifters are allowed to live--agreed that the old mage could supply the chains that keep us weak."

"You keep talking about Fae. What's Fae?"

"Sometimes called Fair Folk or fairies, but they're not cute little people with wings. The Fae are ancient and arrogant beings who once regarded the earth as theirs. Terrifying, they are. They made Shifters to be their pets, their hunting beasts, but we weren't having any of that."

Kim wasn't certain how much of this she bought, and she couldn't tell if he believed it himself or was having her on. "You said the man who made the chains was half Fae. Do you mean he's dead now?"

"He is. But he passed the knowledge to his son. The son stays hidden away in Ireland and sends the Collars as they're needed."

"How was it that you could fight and kill the feral Shifter then? Or do the Collars work only if you try to attack humans?"

"No, like you said, the Collars are keyed to our adrenal systems. Doesn't matter who we're violent toward. But some of us have found ways to...delay...the system. It's painful, but it can be done."

Liam met her gaze calmly, but something raged behind his eyes. He'd changed since he'd come into this room, but she couldn't put her finger on how. "You've learned how to override yours, you mean," she said.

Liam shrugged again, but his shoulders remained hunched. There it was--the key. Instead of Liam the strong and protective, he'd withdrawn into himself. He'd talked with her and smiled at her, but his thoughts were far away.

"I have," he said. "I only override it when necessary."

"Like tonight." Kim touched his chest, feeling his heart beating too rapidly beneath her fingers. "And that hurt you?"

"It did, love. That's why I'm sitting quietly on this bed and leaving your beautiful self alone. My entire body is brutal raw with pain."