The heightened scent ability was a little unfortunate, since Justin hadn’t bathed in a long, long time. Justin didn’t seem to mind, but then ferals had different ideas about cleanliness. To hell with that. Even if Liam were now feral, he was still taking showers.

Liam worked to mask his raw fear, and raw fear covered the killing instinct rising inside him. All his protectiveness was quickly ebbing. Michael was not his offspring. He should kill the cub while he could. Liam fought the urge with difficulty.

I am so screwed.

Liam thought of Kim, how terrified she’d be if she could know the thoughts that whirled through his brain.

Mate. Mine.

Liam wanted her—on her back, on her hands and knees, he didn’t care. He wanted her here so he could bury himself inside her. Over and over again until she and her sassy mouth knew who had mastered her.

No, I’d never hurt her.

Kim would give him children, his brain ground on remorselessly. As many as Liam wanted. Birth control be damned. He’d find some way to counteract it and never allow her to take it again. He’d lock her in the attic room of his house until she obeyed. It was big up there—Connor could take Liam’s room. And Liam would move into the master suite after he killed Dylan.

Oh, father god, help me.

Dylan should die. He was defeated, Liam now leader of the pride. Justin had known that without being told. Dylan should be driven out where he’d face death alone—or he could be given the dignity of letting Liam break his neck.

Glory would mourn him. But Glory was a be-damned Lupine, and who cared how much she howled? If she loved Dylan so much, she could join him.

Liam rolled over and pressed his face to the floor. This isn’t me. These aren’t my thoughts.

It’s inside you. It’s what’s right. Give in to it.

“No!” he shouted.

Justin laughed. “I went through that too. It’s much more fun to go with it.”

Liam hated Justin’s laugh. He hated the male for doing this to him. Liam’s Collar lay on the floor about ten feet away. It was nothing but a piece of silver and black chain with a Celtic knot on it, a harmless bit of metal. Without it, Liam was free.

Liam climbed to his feet. Pain still gripped him, but it was starting to recede. He fixed his gaze on Justin.

Justin grinned. “You see? You’re getting stronger. I’ll show you how the Collars work, and we can go back to Shiftertown and start freeing Shifters. You’re stronger than this Fergus, now. I can feel it. It won’t take you long to kill him.”

Liam growled. Justin backed up some more and let out a growl of his own.

Weak, mewling bastard who’s made me want to kill my own father and make a slave ofmy mate.

Justin growled again, this one defensive. A growl of fear.

Wherever he’d come from, Justin must have been fairly far down in his hierarchy. He smelled wrong, weak, evil.

Liam followed Justin’s advice and let the feral beast come. All the thoughts that had been spinning in his head focused into one specific thought, and Justin was its target.

Liam leapt, and Justin started to scream.

Chapter Twenty-one

Sean took Kim to the east side of Shiftertown, speaking little but tight with tension. Dylan remained behind, saying it was his job to keep coordinating the search.

“These streets are a maze,” Kim said anxiously as they turned down yet another block.

“We can’t search as well in a car.”

“No kidding.”

The roads were narrow and potholed, and blind alleys ran behind buildings like a maze without end. This part of Austin had been more or less abandoned when the Shifters moved in nearby. Kim had been a kid at the time, but she remembered her father saying that thriving businesses had moved out of the area and left it to Shifters and the homeless.

Not many homeless were around, which was odd. It was true that in the summer, vagrants left southern cities, like migrating birds, to find the cooler climes of the north. Even so, many stayed, panhandling from prosperous businessmen and politicians in downtown Austin. None lingered out here. Was that because they thought the pickings wouldn’t be good or because they feared Shifters?

Whatever menace they felt, Kim picked it up as well. The humid air bristled with electricity, a prelude to a storm. She glanced at the horizon and saw that dark clouds were indeed building, thunderheads ominous. Austin didn’t get many tornadoes, but some came through on occasion, and those clouds looked ready to play. All the more reason they needed to find Liam and Michael.

“I hope we find Michael before Nate and Spike do,” Kim said. “I know they’re helping, but I don’t trust them. And I can’t believe his name is Spike.”

“He was a Buffy fan.”

Kim had a surreal vision of Tattoo Guy eating pop-corn and cheering on Buffy and her pals, and wanted to laugh in nervous hysteria.

Sean, Shifter-fashion, would not let Kim walk ahead of him. He turned down yet another alley, shadows gathering in it from the storm and the coming night, and stopped so abruptly that Kim ran into his back.

“What?” she demanded.

“Call Dad.”

“Mind telling me why?” Kim pulled out her cell phone as she tried to peer around him.

“We’ve found Michael.” Sean walked slowly into the alley.

Kim’s phone read “no service.” Damn wireless providers. Perfect when you were in the middle of a teeming city where there were plenty of other ways to communicate, useless out where you needed them the most.