“Shite, Dad.”

“Fergus will have to know sometime,” Dylan said.

“We wait. We’ll tell him on our own terms, when we’re ready.”

Dylan nodded once. “Agreed.”

Liam loved his father so damn much, and now his instincts were telling him to push Dylan out, take over his power. The Collars might keep Shifters from being violent, but they didn’t take away the fiery urge to dominate.

Dylan knew it too. His instincts must have been telling him to cut and run, get out while the going was good. By the white lines around his mouth, Liam knew he was resisting the urge with difficulty.

“Damn it,” Liam said. “Why didn’t you warn me this was coming?”

“I hoped it wouldn’t happen for a few more years, that we’d both have time to prepare. But claiming a mate triggered something in you. You’re the oldest son. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that one day you’d take over the family.”

“I didn’t think it would be now, and I didn’t think it would hurt so much.”

Dylan smiled. “Your mother would be proud of you for showing compassion. For not throwing me out with your bare hands.”

“Mum was too damn good for us.”

“I know that.”

Liam met his gaze and said something that would have gotten him knocked across the room before today. “She’d want you to be with Glory. She’d want you to be happy.”

“Don’t push it, Liam.”

Liam wanted to laugh, but he was wound up too tight. His dad might have switched places with him in the hierarchy, but that didn’t mean the man was a wimp.

Liam grabbed Dylan in a bear hug, then released him abruptly and left the house.

Even in the embrace, Liam’s instincts had kicked in, urging him to remind his father who now ran the pride. Liam needed some distance from his father to get used to his new position, to learn to control himself.

He looked back and saw Kim peering down at him from his bedroom window, but even that couldn’t make him stay.

Chapter Nineteen

Kim found Liam in a sorry excuse for a park on the far side of Shiftertown. He sat on a low brick wall next to the only trees in the somewhat bare strip of land, hands braced on the top of the wall.

The park had one swing set for kids, no picnic tables, and bald patches where grass should grow. The city had tacked the park onto Shiftertown as an afterthought, then forgotten about it. The Shifters didn’t use it much, from what she’d seen, seeming to prefer the common greens behind their houses.

Kim approached Liam slowly but determinedly, wondering if he’d stand up and walk away. He didn’t. Liam didn’t look at her, either, as she sat down next to him and stretched out her bare legs. The summer warmth felt good on them, though she knew the day soon would turn excruciatingly hot.

“Is this your place?” she asked him.

He glanced at her. “Mmm?”

“The place you go when you want to think. My place is a coffeehouse on the river that sits right on the water. You can suck down a latte and watch the river go by. It’s soothing.”

Liam looked into the distance. “I’m thinking they wouldn’t be letting Shifters in.”

“Maybe not. But this is your place, isn’t it?”

“No, it was a convenient spot to sit my sorry ass down.”

Kim let it go. She wasn’t sure she should have followed Liam, but what she’d overheard of his conversation with Dylan confused and bothered her. She didn’t understand fully what Liam had explained about him knowing he was now dominant to Dylan, but she sensed the tension, the violence simmering below the surface. A person didn’t have to be a Shifter to feel it.

She argued with herself that maybe Liam wanted to be alone, but something inside told her she shouldn’t leave him by himself. His shoulders were tight, arms knotted, his mouth a rigid line. As usual, Liam kept his words light, almost careless, but the darkness in his eyes spoke volumes.

Kim sat in silence with him. Birds chattered in the trees, but otherwise, the park was quiet. No kids came to swing, and no cars turned down the quiet street beyond it. She heard faint sounds of the city on the other side of the derelict block beyond Shiftertown, Austinites heading to the city to make money or play politics. Here in Shiftertown, power that humans didn’t understand ebbed and flowed in ways they’d never realize.

“Are you all right?” she ventured. “I mean from having your Collar go off and…well, everything.”

“You’re referring to the exuberant and athletic sex we had later?” A ghost of a smile touched Liam’s mouth. “That’s why I had to sit down.”

Kim covered his hand, feeling the tension in it. “Liam, last night was my fault. I was the one who wanted to bring Silas here. There never would have been a Collar demonstration if I hadn’t.”

Liam touched her fingers to his lips. “Don’t fret yourself, sweetheart. I agreed to invite Silas. It’s my fault for encouraging his questions about the Collars. I didn’t anticipate Glory jumping in, damn the lass, or that Conner would get hurt or that anything very dramatic would happen. My thought was that I’d grab for Silas, let my Collar spark, and have everyone laugh at me.”

“Laugh at you in pain?”

“I’ve been in pain before, and I’ve gotten over it.”

“Liam…”

“What’s between me and Dad would have happened sooner or later, love, and maybe it was best the fight occurred with you and Connor and your journalist watching so avidly. You all gave me the strength to break it off. If me and Dad had been alone, it might have turned deadly before I could shut down my instincts.” He smiled, a little shaky. “So maybe I should be thanking you instead.”