Primal Bonds

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Sean opened his eyes to a Lupine nose right in his face. “Oh, beautiful,” he croaked. “Dog breath.”

He tried to open his eyes wider but found that he couldn’t see much past the black and wet nose. “Where the hell am I?”

The Lupine growled, and while Sean had lived a long time among Lupines, that didn’t mean he understood every nuance of every sound they made. He raised a hand to his face, noting that no part of him did not hurt. He’d been clawed and shot, beaten, and half electrocuted by his Collar.

He lay in a dry cave, but that didn’t much help him figure out where he was. The hills around Austin were sprinkled with caves, some of which were tourist attractions, some known only to weekend spelunkers. Sean assumed that this cave was in the last category; that is, if he was still anywhere near Austin at all. There were plenty of caves out in the middle of nowhere.

As Sean’s senses returned, so did his intense pain. He closed his eyes, as though that would force it away.

The sword wasn’t here. Its presence was unmistakable, Sean’s link to it formed the day he’d been chosen as Guardian. He hoped to the Goddess that he’d buried it well enough, that he could get his hands on a cell phone so he could call Liam or his father to go find it before anyone else did.

The Lupine was sniffing him again. If he drools on me, I’m killing him.

Sean opened his eyes to see the Lupine shift back to the man Sean had already placed by scent—Wade, Andrea’s pack leader. Sean hoisted himself into a sitting position and then spent a few minutes huddled against a wave of pain. “I feel like shit.”

Wade backed away. “You were pretty far gone. You might want to lie down again.”

Not if you’re going to keep poking your nose in my face. “How did you find me, anyway?”

“I was following Jared. I feared he’d gone to harm Andrea, and that’s against the rules.”

“Bugger the rules. Jared was after me. What happened to him? We were fighting, and he went down.”

“He’s dead. I didn’t have room to bring you both.”

“Dead?” Poor, stupid sod. “So you left him for the humans to find?”

“I told you, I didn’t have room for him. You’re lucky I got you away. Jared was a fool and above himself.”

“Yes, he was a thrice-damned idiot, but he was also under your protection. What are you going to tell his dad, who is a Shiftertown leader?”

Wade shrugged. “That Jared broke the rules and suffered the consequences. Shifter law is Shifter law.”

What a piece of work. Wade was the worst kind of pack leader—enforcing rules to the letter without any thought of mercy.

“I have to go back,” Sean said. He started to push himself to his feet but fell back with a gasp. “Shite.”

“You’re hurt. Rest a while.”

“Did you call for help? Call Liam—why haven’t you already?”

“Your cell phone is broken, I don’t have one, and Glory’s wasn’t on her. I wanted to get you to safety.”

Sean’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah? Why didn’t you take me back to Shiftertown? To my house or even yours?”

Wade avoided his gaze. “There’s fighting there.”

“What kind of fighting? Callum, is it?”

“I think so, yes. They attacked Liam when Liam returned from sequestering his female.”

Sequestering his female. Sean wondered what Kim would think of that phrase.

“Then we should be back there,” Sean said. Again he tried to get his feet under him, and again, his legs refused to obey. “I appreciate your tender loving care, but damn it, we need to help Liam.”

Wade didn’t move. “You’re not going back yet. Wait until it finishes.”

“No matter how it finishes, they’ll need me.”

“No.” Wade’s voice went hard. “Callum’s Felines will win. Accept it, Sean. The Morrisseys’ power in this Shiftertown is over.”

“Oh, you’re sure about that, are you?”

Wade’s voice was flat. “You and your family will lose. Callum will lose too, because he’s an idiot. But the Lupines, we will win.”

Mother Goddess help us all. “Don’t be daft, man. Whichever faction wins will be damn strong, strong enough to take out a bunch of overconfident Lupines.” And Sean would make sure the faction that won was Liam’s.

“No, it won’t. Callum has the advantage, and he’ll kill you all, but he bought his power at too high a price.”

“Price? What the hell are you talking about?”

Wade tried to shut up and look wise, but Sean reached out and easily caught Wade around the throat. Sean squeezed, ignoring the agony in his own arm. “What price?”

Wade gasped for breath, eyes bulging. “Goddess, Sean.”

Sean didn’t relent. “Talk or I snap your neck.”

“Fae,” Wade rasped. “Callum made a bargain with some Fae.”

Sean loosened his hold, but only slightly. “What bargain? Tell me, damn it.”

Wade dragged in air, coughed. “The Fae promised magic to dampen the effect of the Collars while Callum’s Felines fought this battle, to give Callum the advantage. In return, Callum pledged his men to aid the Fae whenever they call.”

Holy crap. “Aid the Fae? What Shifter would make a bargain like that?”

Wade smirked, a neat trick while Sean was holding him by the throat. “My intelligence gathering is better than yours. You and Liam are so arrogant, thinking no one can displace you. Callum went behind your back, hooked up with the Fae, and now the Fae are going to kick your asses.”

Sean released Wade with a jerk of his hand. “I’ll kill him,” he said as he tried to make his legs work again.

“You only have to wait for Callum to pay the price,” Wade said. “The Fae will summon him and his friends to Faerie, and they won’t be able to resist. They’ll be Fae slaves, and then Lupines will rule Shiftertown.”

“With you as its leader? Don’t flatter yourself. Ellison will never follow you, nor will Glory.”

“Won’t they? How do you know? You treat them like shit. You call Ellison your friend, yet you nearly killed him the other night for dancing with Andrea. I was there—I saw. Glory’s in love with your father, but he can barely bring himself to notice her. No I think both Glory and Ellison will be happy to take their vengeance against the Morrisseys.”

Sean didn’t like that Wade might not be far from wrong.

“As for your half-Fae mate,” Wade said. “The Fae can have her after I kill you.”

“Fuck you.” Damn it, if Sean could just make his body obey, he’d break Wade’s neck and run off to find Andrea. His body had other ideas, like collapsing, hurting, dying maybe.

“Sean.” The whisper came out of the darkness, a woman’s whisper. A weak one but not Andrea’s.

“Glory?” Sean turned his head sharply and scanned the depths of the cave. “You’ve got Glory in here?”

“She was wounded by Callum’s humans. One of my trackers found her and brought her here to die in peace.”

“Damn it, why didn’t you tell us?”

“Why? You’re Felines. Glory is a Lupine and of my pack. I do with her what I please.”

Gobshite. “Glory, where are you?”

“Sean,” she whispered again, her voice far too weak. “Don’t listen to this asshole.”

Sean’s heart pounded as he glared at Wade. “Why didn’t you at least take her to a hospital? What the hell are you thinking?”

“I don’t like humans touching my pack. She’s dying. Let her go.”

Sean snarled. With all his strength, he pushed himself to his feet, noting Wade’s sudden alarmed expression. Satisfying. Sean was half dead, and yet Wade Sawyer was still afraid of him.

Sean stumbled in the direction of Glory’s voice. He found her after a few moments of painful searching, a body stretched out in the dirt, Sean barely able to see her in the darkness.

“Sean,” she whispered in relief.

Sean’s legs folded up, and he fell beside Glory, unable to do anything more than stroke her tangled hair.

Fear tore at him. Sean had to get to Andrea, had to warn her about Callum and his deadly bargain. He had to keep Andrea safe. The mate bond beat at him in panic and rage, and still, Sean couldn’t make his body move.

Andrea knew she fought a losing battle as the three Felines circled her. She’d give the fight all she had, would possibly even wound the Felines along the way, but in the end, she’d lose.

The Felines’ sparking Collars didn’t slow them down at all. How they’d managed that, Andrea had no idea. Her fake Collar had expanded and stretched when she’d shifted, almost like the real thing. Liam had prepared well. But being unhampered by a Collar was no advantage at the moment, because these Felines were busy being happy they got to kill her.

They attacked. Andrea fought—snapping, clawing, feinting, striking. Claws ripped through her skin, teeth tore her fur. The pain made Andrea fight back with savagery she never knew she had, but in the long run, it wouldn’t be enough.

A roar of rage cut through the grove, and the ground shook as though a tank battered its way through the trees. A huge bear barreled through the knots of fighting Felines, scattering them left and right, the ruff on his neck expanding with his anger. He flung a wildcat foolish enough to attack him through the air, rose to his full Kodiak bear height, and roared his power. The air vibrated with fury, and the Felines attacking Andrea fled.

Thank the Goddess he’s on my side.

Andrea ran to Ronan, thinking that she’d give him as many of Sean’s pancakes as he wanted. The nearby Felines hesitated, fear radiating from them, but beneath their fear was hard determination. They wanted to win.

They were smart enough to realize that attacking Ronan directly would be pointless. So the Felines used their cat swiftness to dive at Andrea, forcing Ronan into a defensive position. Of course, Ronan outweighed the three Felines collectively by about fifty pounds, and his razor-claws were at least eight inches long. He lifted one Feline that had closed teeth into Andrea’s fur and threw him aside with ease.

Andrea realized a slight disadvantage as they fought on, however. Ronan wouldn’t go for the kill. In spite of his massive size and strength, Ronan was a kindhearted male who didn’t like to hurt anyone. Frighten them, yes, give them a good thumping, any day. Kill, no. That was why he’d jumped in front of bullets but hadn’t dragged the human shooters out of the car to break their necks.

The Felines caught on and attacked with renewed viciousness. They had no problem with going for the kill.

Ronan was happy to rough them up plenty, though. His arms moved like sledgehammers, paws throwing bodies left and right. His ears were flat against his skull, his teeth bared for all to see, and his roars filled the clearing. Andrea leapt and snarled and snapped beside him.

The Felines were bleeding, breathing hard, Collars sparking, though the look in their white blue eyes told Andrea they weren’t finished by a long shot. But they were slowing a little. Ronan’s growls sounded more like laughter now as he fell to all fours and charged, scattering the cats like fallen leaves.

But just when Andrea thought the Felines would abandon their attack and run back to the main fight, light rent the air, and she smelled the sharp scent of Faerie.

Fionn? She wasn’t ready for him to bring her back the sword, not until the risk that Callum’s Felines could snatch it was gone.

She noticed that the Felines didn’t look too worried, and then she saw that the tear happened not in the grove where she usually spoke to Fionn, but farther along the ley line, closer to the end of the block.

She remembered what Fionn had said about his enemies and Callum, and her blood froze. “Dylan!” she screamed.

One of Callum’s Felines stood by the opening, and he pulled through five Fae warriors. They were tall and nastylooking, armed with bows, and silver swords glittered on their backs.

A Fae spotted Andrea where she stood gaping, raised his bow, and fired. Andrea threw herself flat on the ground, but it was Ronan leaping in front of her who took the arrow. It drove deep, but Ronan was up again in an instant, his bear hide thick, and he ran for the Fae.

When Ronan faltered after he’d taken only a few strides, Andrea realized that the arrow must have been poisoned. Elf-shot, Shifters called it—spelled poison that paralyzed a Fae’s enemies until the Fae could make the kill. They didn’t always make the kill right away, she’d heard. Fae liked to play with their victims.

The faces of the tall Fae were ghost white, eyes burning black, mouths set with hatred and determination. But as fearsome as they were, the Fae couldn’t come far into this world without weakening, which gave Andrea a spark of hope. Iron sapped their strength and would send them fleeing back to Faerie. That didn’t help this instant, while the Shifters fought in animal form, without weapons, no iron in sight. But Andrea could change that.

Andrea forced herself into her human form. Her wolf wanted to stay wolf and fight, and she had to battle her own instincts to complete the shift.

“Back to the house!” she shouted at Ronan soon as she could form words. “There’s iron and steel there. We’ll hold them off.”

Ronan roared at her and didn’t obey. Andrea couldn’t speak Ursine, but she understood the gist—good-natured Ronan had finally found beings he wanted to kill.

“You’ve been elf-shot,” Andrea called. “We’ve got to get rid of them so I can help you.”

Ronan’s dark eyes lit with fire. He knew he’d been poisoned, but he was determined to take the Fae out with him as he went. He completely ignored Andrea and charged the Fae warriors.

Andrea said foul words while she forced herself back to wolf. It took too long—by the time Andrea made it to fur and fangs, Ronan had engaged the Fae.

The Fae warriors ran out of arrows and attacked with swords. Andrea darted around Ronan and sank her teeth into the sword arm of the tallest Fae. The Fae shook her off but dropped his sword, bleeding from her bite.

Ronan staggered and fell. The Fae moved in, horrible joy in their eyes.

Andrea shoved one aside, grabbed the back of another’s mail coat, and started dragging him toward the grove of trees behind Glory’s house. The warrior fought but couldn’t reach around to jab her with his sword. When he drew a silver knife, Andrea let him go and bounded into the grove. She didn’t have time to shift and scream for her father, but she could throw her head back and howl.

It was a full wolf howl, one made to echo from hilltop to hilltop across wide plains. It filled the clearing and bounced up and down the human-made houses, proclaiming that for all their domestication, Lupines were still wild, still powerful, still deadly.

Andrea heard a tearing sound and then felt the chill wind of Faerie. Fionn was there, reaching out.

“Touch me, Andrea. Quickly!”

Andrea ran at him. Fionn put one hand on the fur on her neck and stepped from Faerie into Shiftertown.

At almost the next instant, Fionn had a bow knocked, raised, aimed. Arrows flew—one, two, three. Three of the Fae warriors who had been sprinting for them dropped in rapid succession. The remaining two had the sense to flee back into the trees.

Fionn grabbed Andrea and nearly threw her through the gate to Faerie. Ronan, staggering badly, but not down yet, ran in after her, followed by another Feline who hit the ground, rolled, and came to his feet in the form of Dylan Morrissey.

Dylan had his hands on Andrea’s arms, dragging her up even as she shifted. He shook her, hard, eyes blazing with alpha rage. “What the holy hell did you do?” he shouted. “You’ve given the Sword of the Guardian to a gobshite Fae!”