“You’re mine. Mate blessed. Which means we get to screw until we both can’t walk.”

“Half mate blessed.” Andrea’s smile was languid as she ran fingers down his back. “I saw it, you know. While I was healing my father. The bond between you and me.”

Sean stopped, heart thumping. “The mate bond?”

“I don’t know. But I saw it. The blessing isn’t simply words and traditions. It’s real, the Father God binding us together.”

“Is it, now?”

Andrea smoothed his hair. “It is, now.”

“Are you going to become a true believer, like those Shifters who wear white and meditate in stone circles all the livelong day?”

Andrea’s foot caressed his bare calf. “I wasn’t thinking I would. I have plenty to do right here.”

“We do. Connor’s not going to be happy unless we tell him tomorrow that a cub is on its way.”

“Do you want children, Sean?” Andrea’s voice was hesitant. “I’m not Feline. The child will be born human, and we won’t know which animal it will become until later. Plus it will have Fae blood.”

“I know. It will be—entertaining—to see what our child will be.” He nuzzled her, finding her beautiful scent. “But, yes, I want cubs. With you.”

But pregnancy meant risk for Shifter women. Fear caught in Sean’s heart, so hard he couldn’t breathe for a few seconds. His logical mind told him that a female’s odds for survival were so much better now that they had access to medicine and doctors, and besides that, Andrea had healing magic. But Sean had seen too many females die bearing cubs or just after, sometimes the cubs dying as well, to be completely worry-free.

“I’ll be all right.” Andrea traced his cheek, sensing his fears. “We’re safe here, and I have so many people to look after me now.”

Sean knew the mating frenzy was pouring dire scenarios into his head, making him fear, so that he’d stay with Andrea and rut her all night and on into the next day. And the next night.

A biological drive, Liam had speculated once. Making the Shifter need to make cubs, giving him any excuse to have his woman under him. In the wild, Shifters had simply given in to it. Civilized Shifters felt the same mating frenzy, But we ponder about it a bit more, Liam had said. From what Sean had observed, Liam and Kim didn’t ponder about it much.

Sean touched her Collar. Liam wanted to try removing it, but Sean didn’t want him to now. Liam’s curiosity could put Andrea at far too much risk.

The smile Andrea gave him heated his blood. “So what do you want to do next, Sean? You’re my first, but I’m not innocent. I’ve heard about all kinds of interesting things we can do.”

Sean’s already fast pulse sped. A sudden vision flashed through his mind: Andrea on her hands and knees in the woods, he coming behind her, folding down over her while he drove inside her. The feel of her soft backside against his groin, smelling the fine silk of her hair, tasting her neck.

“Goddess, you make me want to do things to you,” he whispered. “But I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m Shifter. I’m resilient.”

“You’re also Fae.” He touched her wrist, slim and dwarfed by his hand. “Smaller than most Shifter women.”

“Fae are pretty kick-ass too.” To demonstrate, she hooked her legs around his and rolled, landing on top of him. “See?”

Sean had let her do that. Not that he minded having his beautiful mate on top of him, her br**sts pressing his chest, her smile wide in the evening light. “Aren’t you the wicked one?”

Sean traced Andrea’s Collar again, letting his fingers drift down her chest. Would risking Andrea be worth getting all Shifters free? No. She was his mate, in all ways, and his instinct was to protect her with everything he had. Even if every other Shifter in the world had to die, it didn’t matter, so long as Andrea was safe. To a mate-frenzied, dominant Shifter male, that was right.

Sean growled. His fingers became claws, which he retracted before he could scratch her. Andrea’s growl answered. She leaned down and licked his throat.

The snarl that came out was pure feral. Reason, concern for all Shifters, even romance, went right out of Sean’s brain. He dragged her down to him, rolled over her, and entered her again with one swift thrust.

Andrea’s answering growls made him crazy. He thrust into her again and again, her arms and legs encircling him, pulling him into her warmth. She started to shift and came back, her smile wide, her gray eyes beautiful. She didn’t shift all the way back. Sean felt wolf claws on his back, which pushed him into madness. The world went a little black, but it was all right because his mate was under him to guide him and keep him safe. The mate bond locked around him, the mate frenzy drove him on, and Andrea’s sweet smile broke his heart.

“I know you don’t much want to see to me,” Glory said on the porch next door. “But the air in my house is crackling. Your son is noisy, Dylan.”

Dylan, lounging on a chair in the shadows, didn’t answer. Liam sat with his arm around Kim on the porch swing, and the Feline called Eric Warden sat with a beer on another chair, his long legs stretched out. He was a handsome devil, that Feline. His hair was a rich dark brown with little highlights that told Glory that he spent much time in the sun. Maybe with the sun kissing him all over? And his eyes—the color of jade with the intensity of fire.