Pride Mates (Shifters Unbound #1)(28)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

The Liam who looked at her was no longer the affable, sexy man she’d met yesterday. The Liam next to her sparked with contained fury and would have scared the shit out of her if she’d walked into the bar’s office and seen him like this behind the desk. She realized that Liam had showed her the “nice” Shifter, the one humans could talk to. The one she could sit with on a bed and kiss.

No, wait, she could kiss him even now. She’d taste his fury and let him know she shared it, while he ran his hands over her body.

How would sex with Liam be when he was like this? Raw and wild. Against the wall or on the hood of the car—all-out, good-time sex. That’s what I’m talking about.

Liam opened the door of the house and walked in. The inside didn’t impress Kim. People obviously lived here, but they just as obviously didn’t much care about cleaning up the place.

Liam strode through the cluttered living room and kitchen littered with dirty dishes, and opened a door. Cool air poured up stone stairs beyond. Cellar? Storm shelter? A place like that could house snakes, scorpions, black widows…

“In there?” she asked. She thought she could face a hostile Shifter, but spiders? Not so much.

Liam passed her without a word. Thank God for the Shifter custom of the male entering a place first. If there were spiders down there, Liam could stomp on them before she went down.

Dylan nodded at Sean, who’d retrieved his sword from her trunk, indicating he should enter after Liam. Then Dylan, then Connor.

Kim hesitated at the top of the steps, still thinking about spiders—and Fergus. She could run, make it to her car, and hightail it back to Austin. No one was behind her; she could get a good head start.

Connor looked back at her, the light from the kitchen glinting on the fear in his eyes. He was terrified and, from the greenish cast to his face, still nauseated from the Summoning. Would the bully Fergus try to hurt Connor if Kim ran for it? Probably.

“Bastard,” she growled, and started after Connor. She couldn’t do that to the kid.

Connor flashed Kim a nervous grin and kept going. Kim picked her way along, feeling out of her depth and refusing to touch the stone walls.

The Morrissey men waited for them in a tiled corridor that was completely incongruous with the house above. The walls were polished wood and, to Kim’s astonishment, filled with paintings and beautiful photographs. Real paintings by real artists that museums paid major money for, photographs by people like Ansel Adams. Spanish-style, carved wooden doors with small square windows lined the corridor between the priceless artwork.

What the hell kind of place was this?

Liam led the way to the end of the hall and opened a door to a cavernous room. Dylan went in first this time, then Liam, then Sean, then Connor. Kim, in most need of protection, entered last.

The room was huge, meant to hold several hundred people. The walls were paneled with warm wood, the purple-red hue speaking of exotic Oriental forests. The ceiling was arched like a cathedral, the arches intricately carved and marching toward an enormous fireplace at the end. Money and artistry had gone into shaping the chamber, which was far larger than any of the houses above it.

The room was also filled with Shifters.

There must have been a hundred of them, each as physically honed as Liam, Dylan, and Sean. The sign outside said that only fifty-two Shifters lived in this Shiftertown, so these must have driven in for the occasion. Every single one was male.

The crowd parted as Dylan led the way forward, past the looming arches, through the sea of Shifters, to the center of the room. Four men waited for them there: a big guy with a long black braid and a leather motorcycle vest, surrounded by three equally thuglike men.

“Let me guess,” Kim whispered to Liam. “That’s Fergus.”

Liam nodded grimly. Fergus turned hard blue eyes to Kim and gave her the Shifter once-over.

“This is her?” he asked. His accent was more Southern than Texan, and his tone said he’d expected her to be more formidable.

Liam set his mouth, and Dylan became their spokesman. “This is Kim Fraser, the defense attorney for Brian Smith.”

All eyes on Kim. Nostrils flared as the Shifters took in Kim’s scent and the fact that Liam had marked her. Every single Shifter in here wore a Collar, but it dawned on Kim that the Collars might not make a damn bit of difference if she tried to run or fight. These were dangerous men, watching for now because they chose to.

“Crap,” she said under her breath. “And me without my pepper spray.”

“We like pepper spray,” Liam answered.

“Figures.”

Fergus pinned her with a blue stare, then looked at Sean and held out his hand.

Sean unstrapped the sword on his back and took it to him. Fergus didn’t say thank you; he just grabbed the sword from Sean and passed it to one of his underlings. As he turned, strands of braided leather swung across his hip from a handle hooked to his belt.

“Is that a cat-o’-nine-tails?” Kim asked Liam.

“Most like.”

“Why, in case he loses his own?”

Liam’s sudden smile burst over his face. Connor laughed openly.

“Shut it,” Dylan hissed.

Fergus’s attention riveted to Kim. “Come here, woman.”

Kim remained where she was, not about to trot obediently to him. Liam stood beside her, his body solid and warm, making her feel suddenly safe.

“I said, come here.”

Kim lifted her chin. “Do the words ‘screw you’ mean anything to you?”

Fergus’s eyes glittered as the Shifters muttered to each other. Fergus’s three henchmen folded their arms and glared. One had a shaved head and a neck covered in tattoos, one had a sandy blond ponytail, and the third had short black hair. He looked ex-military, although Shifters weren’t allowed to join the military.

“Bring her to me,” Fergus said curtly to Liam.

Liam didn’t move. The room was silent, the tension ramping high. Fergus’s eyes changed from blue to whitegray.

Kim didn’t know what all Fergus could do—another Summoning to make Liam drag her across the room to him? Kim felt like a sapling in a tall forest; Shifter males were mostly over six feet tall, and she was five feet high in flats. And where were all the women Shifters? Baking cookies?

“You know you can’t kill me,” Kim said in her brisk courtroom voice. “There’s already one Shifter in jail because of a human’s death, and even though I’m convinced he didn’t do it, plenty of people think he did. If I disappear or turn up dead, you’ll have your county sheriff and possibly the feds all over you.”