The two Shifters rolled over and over, and Sean stood back like a referee, his sword ready. Weeks ago, Kim wouldn’t have been able to tell the fighting wildcats apart, but she knew Liam now. He and Fergus were matched in size, but Liam’s cat was thicker with muscle, his coat darker, his eyes a deeper gold. Right now his eyes glittered with hatred, and his teeth were fully extended as he snapped them at Fergus’s neck.

Fergus scrambled out of the way, half shifting back to human to do so. Liam followed him, pinning him again. The wildcats clawed and bit. This was worse than the fight between Liam and Dylan, because there’d never been love lost between these two. Rage and hatred burned in the thickly humid air.

Thunder boomed outside, and then a bolt of lightning struck the roof. Kim screamed as bricks came down around her.

She saw Liam turn to her, drawn from the fight. In that moment, Fergus, his hide nothing but bloody strips of skin, pounced on Liam’s back. His mouth was open wide, jaws ready to snap Liam’s spine in two.

Sean shouted. Kim couldn’t hear him over the thunder; she just saw his mouth open. Liam whirled in time, closing his teeth on Fergus’s throat. He ripped, and blood sprayed across the floor.

Fergus went down in a heap. Liam stepped back, his fur red with Fergus’s blood, and roared his victory. His eyes held fire, joy, and triumph.

Sean walked forward with his sword. Liam stopped him, rising into his human form as he moved, his body covered in scratches and angry bruises. He went to Fergus and nudged him with his foot. The wildcat’s body flopped against the floor, blood spilling from a pool beneath it.

Liam turned away, contempt for his fallen enemy in every movement. As soon as his back was turned, Fergus whipped to his feet, bellowing in dying rage as he launched himself at Liam. Kim shrieked.

But Sean was there. He stepped between Fergus and his brother, and caught Fergus’s leap on the Guardian’s sword.

Fergus’s wildcat eyes widened as the sword went through his chest. He’d been dying already, and the blade completed it. The body fell to the ground, silent and still. Chanting in a language Kim didn’t know, Sean slowly withdrew the blade. The big cat shimmered, then crumbled to dust.

“You weren’t supposed to do that,” Liam snarled at Sean. “His final breath should have been mine.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve done it.” Sean’s stance was defiant. He’d have done anything, the tiny rational part of Liam realized, to keep from having to send a second brother to the Summerland.

Again his love for Sean and the wildcat’s jealousy warred within him. “Go,” Liam said. “If you don’t, I might kill you, and I don’t want to lose you too.”

“Kim,” Sean said.

Liam’s white-hot rage rose. “Kim stays with me.”

Sean strode for the door, moving fast. “Kim,” he said again.

“It’s all right. I’ll stay.”

Her voice was quiet, a cool note amid the heat. Sean gave Kim one last look, then made himself sheathe the sword and duck out into the deluge.

Liam was across the floor, pulling Kim against him before Sean’s footsteps faded.

“Kim.” He loved saying her name.

“Are you hurt?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” Liam pressed Kim against the brick wall.

He wanted her with an intensity he’d never felt before. She was his mate, his, forever. A dim part of Liam’s mind kicked him. You love her. Don’t hurt her.

“You should get away from me,” he said.

“What?”

Liam focused on her eyes. They were beautiful, wide and blue. Like an Irish lake, he’d thought once. He hadn’t changed his mind.

“Don’t let me hurt you.”

Kim touched his face. He flinched, then made himself accept her touch. “I don’t want to go,” she said. “Besides, it’s frigging hailing out there.”

“I can’t go slow. I can’t be nice.”

She smiled and laced her arms around his neck. She was shaking, but her eyes were soft. “Sounds like fun.”

“Kim.”

“Liam.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “I don’t want to go slow. I need you.”

He kissed her. The bricks scraped his arms as he shielded her from the wall. She wrapped her legs around his hips, her skirt riding up her thighs. It was easy to shove aside the elastic of her thong, to find her opening with his cock. She sucked in a breath, eyes widening, as he slid firmly into her.

How could he have ever thought that sex in human form was boring? He was content never to do it as a wildcat again. Kim was hot and wet, so easy to enter. She arched against him, her ni**les rubbing him through her thin shirt. Liam shielded her from the wall with his arms, the bricks abrading his already bloody skin.

His adrenaline hadn’t cooled from the fight. He needed this mating. Liam’s heart rocketed, his blood hot.

Kim’s sheath clenched him, her body and his fitting together perfectly. His mind went blank. All he felt was Kim, all he smelled was her body and her sex, her breath, her hair. He licked her face. He tasted her neck. He thrust into her, his blood pumping. Outside, lightning crackled, blinding flashes followed by booms of thunder. The hail fell like bullets on the roof, balls of ice bouncing in through the wide door.

“Liam. Yes.”

Liam squeezed his eyes shut and leaned his forehead on the wall. He shoved himself into her as though he wanted to crawl inside her and be part of her. His shoulders bunched; his breath burned in his lungs.