Primal Bonds
Sean had left his T-shirt and underwear on the floor. Andrea picked up the briefs, looked at the waistband, and grinned. At least now she knew what size he wore.
Andrea had never been to a human clothing store before. The Colorado Springs Shiftertown had been isolated, it had been difficult to get into town to do any shopping, and Andrea’s stepfather had never had a car. Andrea’s usual practice was to order her clothes from a catalog, and they’d been delivered to a post office that served all of Shiftertown.
Glory swept up Andrea and took her to a street she said was called South Congress, or SoCo, with funky shops and flea markets, one of the few shopping areas that allowed Shifters. Andrea approached the shopping trip with excitement and guilty pleasure. She knew Sean would have a conniption if he knew she and Glory had left Shiftertown on their own, but Sean had driven off on his motorcycle earlier that morning, probably to talk to the police again about the shootings or maybe on some other errand for Liam.
Andrea had the feeling Sean was going to be very nice to Liam for a while after nearly making a leadership challenge the day before. Knowing Sean, he’d do that to keep the peace, not because he thought he’d been wrong.
Glory parked her small car in a tight space right on the street the instant another car deserted it. While humans got busy gawking at Glory’s six-foot, svelte body in skin-tight black leather, Andrea was able to browse the flea markets without attracting much attention.
On this cold Saturday, Andrea’s sweater and leather coat hid her Collar. Her Fae blood made her a little shorter and slimmer than Glory, and she could walk right past most humans without them realizing what she was.
Of course, she thought wryly, whenever Glory was nearby, Andrea could stride around naked with a big arrow pointing to her Collar, and no one would notice.
Glory walked into a store that carried men’s and women’s clothing similar to what Glory liked to wear. The girl behind the counter, who made bright red and yellow vinyl look cute, snapped her gum and said, “Hey, Glory. How are y’all?”
“Not too bad, Mabel. Need to pick up some things for my honey.”
“Y’all know where to find them. You need any help, you just let me know.”
Glory nodded in a friendly way and led Andrea to an aisle filled with men’s T-shirts and boxer shorts in all colors and designs. Shelves and racks also held gadgets, the function of which Andrea had no idea and wasn’t sure she wanted to.
Glory snatched up some black satin boxers covered with big red hearts. “How about these for Dylan?”
Andrea burst out laughing. “For Dylan?”
“You’re right. He’s not so flamboyant. I’ll go with subdued.” She picked up some bright blue ones, with two golf balls surrounding a disproportionately large golf tee printed on it. “Dylan’s mentioned golf.”
“He has?” Andrea moved to the stand that displayed briefs.
“In passing. Mostly to say that only humans would invent a game where they hit a ball and then chase after it themselves.”
“Not an aficionado then.”
“No.” Glory put back the boxers and moved to browse the gadgets.
Andrea picked out three pairs of briefs, the designs of which made her laugh. She pictured Sean’s face when he opened the package and laughed harder.
A waste of money, really, Andrea thought as she took the briefs to the counter. Sean would either get the joke or look disgusted, but either way he’d throw them away.
But what the hell? It was Andrea’s tip money, and who said she couldn’t have fun with the mating dance? If Sean insisted on holding her when she had bad dreams and worrying about her getting hurt, she got to tease the hell out of him.
“Oh, those are cute,” Mabel at the counter crooned. “Are you a Shifter?” she asked as she put the purchases in a bright red shopping bag. “You don’t look like one.”
Andrea pulled down the edge of her sweater to reveal her Collar. “’Fraid so.”
“No offense. All right?” She had a musical Texas accent and winning smile.
“No offense.”
“How’s that Connor doing? Tell him to come in more often. I’m starting to think he’s forgotten about me.”
Mabel looked too sane to be a Shifter groupie. She didn’t wear Collar-like jewelry or have the frenzied look many groupies had. She had dark, friendly eyes, and maybe she just liked Connor.
Andrea smiled at her. “I’ll tell him.”
Glory bought a couple of the plain black satin boxers, a bottle of flavored lube, and a few toys Andrea pretended not to notice. Mabel laughed and cracked her gum, telling Glory her boyfriend was so lucky.
“Y’all come back now,” she said as Andrea and Glory left the shop.
“Wish all humans were that friendly,” Andrea said.
“She will be until Connor breaks her heart.”
Andrea glanced back at the brightly painted shop. “You think he will?”
Glory shrugged. “It’s inevitable, isn’t it?”
She had a point, unfortunately. The store clerk was about the same human age as Connor, but Connor wouldn’t take his place in the pride for a few more years and probably wouldn’t be looking for permanent connections for another ten years after that. Humans aged quickly, so the girl might be middle-aged before Connor got around to taking a mate.
Kim and Liam had gotten around the age problem because of Fae magic, which would lengthen Kim’s lifespan to match Liam’s. This was a secret bargain made between the Fae and Shifters long ago, that if a Shifter had to take a human mate, a Fae had to agree to lengthen the human’s lifespan. Andrea wasn’t sure why or how this had come about, but the bargain was still honored.