Primal Bonds (Shifters Unbound #2)(78)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

They’d spent the rest of the day and evening recovering from the fight, Sean and Dylan and Liam having to face the delayed reaction to the Collars. It had been bad. Eric, who’d been testing out how much he could resist his Collar, hadn’t fared much better.

Liam had sent out Spike and the other trackers to clean up the parking lot of the bar where Felines had battled Sean and Jared and to recover Sean’s bike. Sean moaned when he saw the shot-up engine and gave the motorcycle a caressing hug while Andrea watched in sympathy. “I’ll take care of you now,” he’d said to it. “Me and Andrea. She has a wicked grip on a wrench.”

Glory’s car had been found as well. Dylan had discovered that Wade’s tracker had driven Glory’s car out to a road past the caves to the west of town and abandoned it, on Wade’s orders. Glory hadn’t been best pleased about that and made sure everyone knew it.

The human police had come to the bar outside Shiftertown to ask Liam about the reported noise in Shiftertown that day, and Liam had glibly told them, “Shifter games.” He’d smiled his warm smile and let his Irish lilt roll from his tongue. Kim had backed him up, as had Silas the reporter. “Running and jumping and other frolicking,” Liam had said. “Like your human Olympics but not as organized.”

The police, who really hadn’t wanted to deal with Shifter problems, bought his explanation and went away.

That night, as the moon rose, the Shifters were rested and joyous and now slightly drunk.

“Under the light of the moon, the Mother Goddess,” Liam said, his smile so broad that Andrea was surprised he could speak. “I recognize this mating.”

Simple words, but they meant everything.

Liam didn’t get a chance to make a speech this time. As soon as he pronounced the blessing, Shifters around them went crazy, whooping and shouting, howling and bellowing, and Sean swept up Andrea for a deep, possessive kiss.

“I love you, Sean,” she whispered, her heart in the words.

She couldn’t kiss Sean long, however, because the family was all over them. Andrea got squeezed into a round of hugs—Connor’s enthusiastic, Liam and Kim’s loving, Eric’s strong, Glory and Dylan’s warm. Glory had dressed in her favorite leopard-print pants and spike heels, and she smiled with newfound happiness. Neither she nor Dylan had mentioned a mate blessing, but Andrea felt in her bones that it wouldn’t be long coming.

The celebration lasted all night, Fionn there celebrating right along with the Shifters. Fionn had softened a bit, observing his daughter’s happiness with Sean.

Dina had loved this man, Andrea thought as Fionn held her after the mate blessing, no matter how strange their relationship might have been. They’d shared the mate bond. Andrea now felt love from Fionn for her as he hugged her close.

Ronan came to thank Fionn for saving his life and started a discussion with him about beer. Apparently Fae liked ale as much as Shifters, and Andrea left Fionn to Ronan, Ellison, and Eric, who began introducing Fionn to a succession of beers from across America.

In the small hours of the morning, Sean took Andrea by the hand, winked at her, and crept away with her from the mad festivities to Glory’s empty house.

Glory watched them go as she slid her fingers through Dylan’s. “I’m thinking we should stay somewhere else tonight, or we’ll never get any sleep.”

“Kim offered us the use of her house,” Dylan said, taking a sip from his bottle of Guinness.

Glory smiled. “Kim’s generous.” She couldn’t stop herself from feasting her eyes on the man at her side—tall, blue-eyed, hard-bodied, with a quiet strength that belied the ferocity with which he’d fought earlier today. She watched him draw beer from the bottle, his mouth moving as he savored it, and her female places squeezed.

“Kim knows,” Dylan said. “Sean and Andrea will be wanting their space, and Kim said she got in enough food to satisfy even Shifters.”

“Plus she has cable. Luxury.”

Dylan stopped, his eyes quiet. “I don’t mind anywhere we stay, as long as I’m with you, my girl.”

Glory felt the mate bond for him wrap around her heart, and she nearly dissolved with its warmth. Taking a mate for the second time would be different, but the love would be no less intense. She understood that now.

She leaned into Dylan. “I’m feeling a bit of that mating frenzy coming on myself. Think anyone would notice if we slipped away?”

“I’m thinking they wouldn’t miss us.”

The smile Dylan slanted her was primal, and Glory’s excitement doubled. She slid her hand to his fine ass as they walked around the house to his truck, and then she leaned her head on his shoulder while he drove her across Austin and up into the hills.

Sean and Andrea didn’t make it upstairs before their clothes came off, pieces scattered down the stairs like a breadcrumb trail. Then Andrea was under Sean on her bed, right where she wanted to be.

The lovemaking was intense, Sean sliding into her while she opened to take him deep. Andrea knew in her heart a cub had already begun forming inside her, knew it with the tingle of warmth that was an extension of the mate bond.

She’d tell Sean later. Right now, he was pressing into her, his eyes flickering from blue to white and back again, the Collar gleaming on his bare throat. She arched against him, loving the feel of his strong chest on her br**sts, stirring more and more fires.

He was hard, he was big, and he was driving Andrea into the bed for all he was worth. Sean’s hands turned to claws as the frenzy drove them on, and so did hers, both of them growling as they suppressed the change to keep on doing this.

As the night moved on, Sean and Andrea kept loving each other, the mating frenzy claiming them, the mate bond winding them tightly together. Their bodies were drenched in sweat, their lips raw with kissing, their bodies twined so close that Andrea didn’t care whether they ever came loose.

Eventually, as cold night warmed to day, their raw, frantic sex wound down into tender, gentle sex. That in turn wound down, more slowly, into sleep. They drifted off, cuddled against each other.

When Andrea woke again, the sun was high, and Sean and she lay together in a tangle of warm limbs.

It was quiet outside now, all of Shiftertown sleeping off a collective hangover. Mate blessings were few and far between, and Shifters didn’t have much to celebrate in this world of captivity. Last night they’d celebrated both the mate blessing and the conclusion of a damn good fight, so they’d gone at it double force.