Interesting. “But the dreams, they’re nothing about healing?”

“No. I don’t know what they are.”

From the worry in her eyes, he feared she did know, and that it wasn’t good.

“Something to do with the Fae?” Sean asked.

“I don’t know,” she repeated, voice sharp. She smelled of fear, anger, distrust.

Sean stroked her hair, calming her with his touch. He didn’t mind doing that for her, running his fingers through her silky hair, finishing the stroke on her cheekbone.

“You can trust me, sweetheart,” he said.

“Can I really?”

“Yes. My dad is shagging your aunt, probably right now. That makes us almost family.”

A slight smile rewarded him. “If we’re related, you can’t claim me as mate.”

“I didn’t say blood relation. I said family. Mate is the best kind of family.”

A sigh. “I wouldn’t know. My stepfather loved my mother, but his people never took to her. They were relieved when she died.”

“All deaths are grief,” Sean said, running his fingertips across her lashes. “For all Shifters. We all grieve.”

“You do, maybe.”

Goddess, she was so brittle. That was Andrea, brittle and fragile at the same time. She’d been hurt, and Sean wanted to erase that hurt. He wanted to wipe out her nightmares and destroy everyone who had ever caused her pain.

“You can trust us, Andrea,” Sean said. “You can trust me. Whenever you think you’re alone, you won’t be.”

Her expression softened, and she grinned. “Fine words from a man who climbed in through my window and got into my bed.”

Sean propped himself on his elbow. “You invited me to do the last bit, love.”

He let his fingers trail down her cheek to her neck, around the neckline of her pajama top, which came to a V below her Collar. He touched the Collar’s Celtic knot that rested against the hollow of her throat. He wished he could have seen her before the Collar had been fused to her skin to keep her tamed for humans. He could have pressed kisses down her neck to her shoulders, nuzzling in under her hair. He still could, but he longed to taste her, not the metal bite of the Collar.

She watched him while he touched her, gray eyes big. Many Lupines had gray eyes, but they were light gray, like Glory’s. Andrea’s were the color of deep smoke, of leaden skies over an Irish sea. Her lashes were dark, thick, and full, which went with her lush black hair. Black Irish, she’d be called where he came from. Dark hair and creamy skin, gray eyes that recalled the Sidhe, the Fae, the Fair Folk.

Fair bloody bastards. They’d created Shifters for their own pleasure, so Shifters could hunt for the Fae and entertain them. Animals that could turn human and back again, Oh what fun we can have with them! But they made Shifters too strong. Shifter had allied with Shifter, and they’d turned on their Fae masters and driven them back to Faerie. Good riddance.

Once in a while, a Fae emerged and coupled with a Shifter or a human to produce a half-Fae offspring. Those were the dangerous kind. The half Fae could live among humans—they weren’t as fragile as the full-blooded Fae who weren’t easy with all the iron now in use in the human world. Half Fae weren’t affected by iron, and they had that Fae charm. It had been a half-Fae human and his son who’d helped convince the human government that Shifters were dangerous and needed to be kept on a leash—the Collars had been the half-Fae human’s idea.

And now there was this half Fae, half Shifter. Andrea Gray, scared and angry, the Shifter-Fae war being fought inside her own body.

You can trust us, Sean had said. He’d really meant, You can trust me.

Andrea touched his throat, tracing Sean’s own Collar. Sean closed his eyes to enjoy. The feel of her light fingers around the edges of the Collar was erotic and enticing, and yet, he also loved simply bathing in her warmth and the scent of her.

Sean jumped when her lips brushed his chin. He opened his eyes to find her face an inch from his, and then she closed the space between them and kissed him.

A slow, leisurely kiss. A slide of lips, moist with heat. She smelled good, like honey and that bite of mint that was the Fae in her.

Her mouth moved on his, and Sean answered, licking, stroking. He caught her tongue and gently suckled it, and she made a sound in her throat that made his already hard c**k lift.

But this wasn’t a night for mating frenzy. It was cool in the room, they were warm snuggled under the blankets. This was a time to kiss, touch, nip, getting to know each other. Shifters mated for life. If Andrea accepted his claim, there would be time. So much time.

Andrea nipped and tasted Sean back, her touch light on his shoulders. She was fragile and strong at the same time, her body honed but fine boned, her curves round and delicious. Shifter but different.

Sean nuzzled Andrea’s cheek, and he feathered kisses along her jaw. Her hair smelled good, a fine place to bury his nose and inhale.

“Dylan will know you’re here,” she whispered.

He bit her earlobe. “Of course he knows I’m here. Even if Glory didn’t tell him, he can scent his own son.”

“He doesn’t like me.”

Another bite. “He likes you fine, love. He’s uncertain, but he was clan leader for all his life. It’s his job to be suspicious of anything different.”

“Different like me.”

“Give him a chance. He’s giving you one.”