Andrea had left her clothes in an almost tidy pile on the bar. Sean scooped them up and stared down the human bartender, who cowered in a corner.

“My advice?” Sean said. “Find another job.”

He yanked open the door and walked out at a deliberate pace, Andrea, still in her wolf form, trotting beside him.

“My underwear, Sean?”

Andrea unfolded herself from her cramped position on the floor of the car. Normally she wouldn’t worry about her nakedness after shifting, but like hell she’d let those gun-toting humans see her in all her glory. She’d waited until Sean had driven out of the parking lot to shift to human form, and now she didn’t feel like flashing greater Austin while Sean sped them home.

Sean pulled a tiny pair of panties out of his jacket pocket. He looked good for a Shifter whose Collar had just shocked the hell out of him, very good, even better dangling her underwear just out of reach.

“The black lace again,” he said. “I like these.”

Andrea snatched them. “Great. I’ll buy you a pair.”

“Have you taken over all my underwear shopping now?”

Andrea had pulled on her shirt and now wormed her way up to the seat, which was cold to her bare behind. She lifted her hips to get the panties up over her butt. “I never said that.”

“But you rushed to defend your mate from attack in there. That was sweet.”

Andrea’s face heated. “Of course I did. Callum is an ass**le. He’s responsible for Ely almost dying, and I wanted to kill him.”

“Agreed. But no one’s ever leapt to my rescue like that, not since I was a cub. It felt good.”

Andrea looked at him in surprise. “Never?”

“Never.” His words were emphatic.

“I probably didn’t need to,” Andrea said. “You could have torn Callum apart. Your Collar wasn’t stopping you.”

“Could have, yes. Did I think it wise? No. Shifter deaths, they’ll only cause problems. That’s a certainty.”

“You’re evading the question, Sean. Why didn’t your Collar bother you?”

“Why didn’t yours?”

Andrea shrugged. “The Collar doesn’t work on me.”

He gave her a swift, startled look, sunglasses hiding his eyes. “Why? Is it defective?”

“No. I mean it’s never worked on me. I don’t know why.”

Sean looked back at the road, his face still. “And how many people know this fact?”

“No one but me. And now you. I decided it would be wise not to mention it.”

“Very wise, I agree. Is it to do with your Fae blood?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea.” Andrea looked out the window as she zipped up her jeans, but she barely saw the picturesque sight of downtown Austin floating toward them. “All I know is, the day the Collars were put on us twenty years ago, I didn’t understand why the Shifters around me were screaming in pain. It took me ten seconds to realize I’d better start moaning and writhing with everyone else.” She remembered the terrible agony of the Shifters around her, how she’d grabbed her stepfather’s hand and tried to ease his hurting while pretending to be in pain herself.

“Aye, I remember the blissful day we took the Collar. They made Connor’s mum put one on, even though she was so close to term with Con. I think it’s why he came early, that pain, and why she died giving birth to him.”

Andrea heard the sad anger in Sean’s voice, and she covered his hand on the wheel with hers. It was a terrible thing for young mothers to die, and until recent years, it had happened to Shifters all too often, including Andrea’s own mother, who’d died trying to deliver a son.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Aye.” He caught her fingers between his. “Let me tell Liam about your Collar.”

“Why?” Sean was the first person she’d ever told apart from her stepfather.

“He’ll keep it a secret, I promise you,” Sean said. “But he’ll want to know. And I can’t tell you why until I talk to him.”

Andrea gave him a shrewd look. “Does it have anything to do with why your Collar didn’t work?”

“Oh, it did work, Andy-love. In time, I’ll pay, and pay like hell.”

“What does that mean?”

Sean flinched, body jerking. Andrea didn’t need to see his eyes to know they’d gone Shifter white behind the sunglasses.

“Damn, I thought I’d have time to get home,” he said softly. “But I was worried about you, and Callum and his humans enraged me.”

“Sean, what the hell are you talking about? What’s wrong?”

Sean swerved the car, and Andrea grabbed the seat as they careened off the main road and down a street that headed toward the river. They flashed past the entrance to a park, to which hundreds of people had flocked this fine Sunday afternoon.

“We’re not allowed down here,” Andrea said. Glory had showed her a map when Andrea had arrived, with “no-Shifter” zones marked in red. This park was one of the reddest.

Sean kept driving, leaving the park behind. A few miles ahead, he turned down a quiet road that snaked along the river. Trees closed overhead, blotting out the glare of the day. Sean halted the car on the very banks of the river and turned off the engine.

He nearly threw himself out of the car, and Andrea scrambled out as well. She had taken two steps when she found herself pinned against the car by a large, virile Shifter with white blue eyes, sunglasses gone. He was half shifting, snarling in pain.