Ellison showered, shaved, and came out of his room to see Deni cooking breakfast with Will. Jackson had already left for a job he had with a moving company; Will worked at a furniture warehouse. Shifters were good at lifting and carrying.

Deni looked rested, cheerful even. Ellison put his arm around her as she stirred the mess of eggs and cubed potatoes in the frying pan and kissed her cheek.

“Don’t put too much salt in mine,” he said.

“Don’t backseat cook.” Deni smiled at him, and Ellison’s heart lightened.

It would lighten even more when he saw Maria. Ellison told Deni he’d be right back, gave Will a brief hug, caught up his hat, and walked out the door.

Running across the street to see how Maria was doing after she’d been badgered last night would be the neighborly thing to do. Right? Ellison could pretend he’d come to get a taste of whatever pancakes Sean was cooking today.

Andrea met him at the door, with little Kenny Morrissey, her firstborn, on her hip.

“Maria? No, she’s not here,” Andrea said. “She left without a word very early this morning, and I don’t know where she is. I was hoping she was with you and Den.”

Chapter Four

Maria. Missing. And Andrea stood there calmly, cuddling her son, like nothing was wrong.

“What do you mean, you don’t know where she is?”

Ellison took a broad step forward, his wolf growling all the way.

A mistake—a big mistake. Sean materialized out of the kitchen, holding a pancake turner. His eyes were Shifter white, focused on Ellison, the lion in him responding to a threat to his mate, his cub, his territory.

The Guardian was the last person a Shifter would ever see, the point of the Guardian’s sword sending the Shifter’s soul to the afterlife. Whatever else Sean might be—friend, mate, tracker—he was also death.

Ellison stepped back, hands up, trying to show Sean that he meant no harm—to Sean’s house, mate, cub, or pancakes.

“Why don’t you know where she is?” Ellison asked Andrea.

“She was gone when we woke up,” Andrea said. “Or at least when I checked on her. I was up early, with Kenny, and I heard the back door close.”

Which explained why Ellison hadn’t seen Maria go. Or else she’d left while Ellison had been in the shower. Shit.

“Did you call her?” Ellison demanded.

“Of course I did,” Andrea said. “No answer. Left a voice mail.”

Ellison didn’t need to ask Andrea for Maria’s number. He’d memorized it a while back. “And you don’t have any idea where she went?”

Sean stepped in front of Andrea, though the deadly look had faded from his eyes. “Come in and have pancakes, Ellison. I’ll make some with pecans. Your favorite.”

They were trying to placate him. Calm the wolf down.

Kenny was looking at Ellison with round gray eyes, his mouth working on one fist. Shifters of crossed species were born in human form and revealed their Shifter form when they were about two or three. Sean was Feline, Andrea Lupine—Kenny could go either way. From his eyes though, Ellison would bet wolf.

“Thanks, but I’ll pass,” Ellison said. “Where was Maria planning to go? She say anything to you last night?”

“We don’t keep her prisoner,” Andrea returned, irritated. “She comes and goes when she wants, wherever she wants. She doesn’t have to check with us.”

The reasonable part of Ellison knew Andrea was right, but the Shifter part of him didn’t give a crap.

“She needs to check in when Shifters are threatening to start their own personal breeding projects with her. Tell you what—she can come and live in my house. I’ll look out for her better.”

Sean’s expression hardened. “Not gonna happen.”

Liam’s stipulation when Maria had come to Shiftertown was that, while she could take a room with whomever she chose, she couldn’t live in the house of an unmated male, for obvious reasons. She’d lived for a time in Liam’s house with Connor there, because he hadn’t made his Transition yet, and the mating need hadn’t yet manifested in him.

But once Tiger had moved in last November, Maria had to vacate. She’d moved in with Andrea and Sean, Dylan and Glory without fuss, understanding, she said.

That Andrea didn’t know where she’d gone bothered Ellison a lot.

“She needs looking after,” Ellison growled. “If y’all can’t do it, we need to find someone who can.”

He swung around and walked off the porch, not slowing down. “Where are you going?” Andrea called worriedly behind him.

“To look for her. Where’d you think?”

The scenario in his head went like this—Maria gets up early, deciding to find Connor and study for her SATs with him. She walks out the back door, and Broderick is lying in wait. Ellison is in the shower, and Broderick drags her off.

Anything human in Ellison disappeared. He’d already claimed Maria, in his head and in his heart. He’d held off, because Dylan had explained exactly what had happened to her down in Mexico. Give her time, Dylan had said. Liam, Sean, and I will protect her until she’s ready.

Ellison was ready. He’d kill Broderick and bounce his head down the sidewalk if the Lupine had touched Maria. Ellison’s Collar sparked with his adrenaline, warning him to calm down, but Ellison told his Collar to take a flying leap.

Broderick lived two blocks over and two blocks down. A short distance for wolves who were used to patrolling vast tracts of territory.