Primal Bonds

Glory led Andrea across the street to a little bakery that served luscious-looking ice cream. Glory ordered two heaping cones of three different flavors, handed one to Andrea, and shoved the cash across the counter to the server. Andrea licked her cone as she followed Glory to a tiny table. The ice cream was delicate and good, and happily, Shifters could devour large quantities and burn it off later with a good run. There were advantages to being Shifter.

A serious-looking man in a suit stopped in front of their table. “Excuse me, but you can’t be in here.”

Glory looked up in surprise. “I come in here all the time. Ask them.” She waved her ice-cream cone at the humans behind the counter.

“New policy. You can buy the ice cream, but then you have to go. No Shifters lingering in the store.”

Glory gave her ice cream a long, almost sensuous lick. She looked up at the man over it, and he started to sweat.

“Why not?” Andrea asked him.

He wiped his forehead. “Not when establishments that allow Shifters are getting shot up. The management decided. I’m sorry, ladies. I have to ask you to leave.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

The man’s stern stance faltered as Glory rose, her six-foot height made higher by four-inch heels. She pinned him with her Shifter stare, and he swallowed hard, trying to stand his ground.

Glory ran her tongue around the ice cream. “Are you telling me you’re kicking us out?”

“Leave him alone,” Andrea said quickly. “It’s not his fault.”

“But he looks like he’d taste good,” Glory purred.

Andrea got up. She was about the same height as the man, and she knew she looked positively harmless next to Glory. Good Shifter, bad Shifter. Andrea gave him a sweet smile. “You’ll be fine if you back away slowly. Give her a little more ice cream, and she’ll leave.”

Glory continued to lick her cone and give the man her hungry stare. The manager swung around and signaled to the servers behind the counter, who were watching with wide eyes. “Give them whatever they want. No charge.” He gave Andrea a pleading look. “And then you really have to go. I’m sorry. It’s not my decision.”

“We understand.” Andrea asked for a couple of pints each of dark chocolate and vanilla-cinnamon, and the servers scrambled to pack the tubs.

Glory continued to lick her ice-cream cone, watching the man with a cold stare. Andrea took the bag with the pints of ice cream and urged Glory to come with her.

Glory gave her melting ice cream one last lick, dabbed a bit onto the man’s nose, and handed him the half-empty cone. She sauntered out as only Glory could saunter, aware that all eyes were on her.

Andrea and Glory held it together until they reached the little car down the street, then they dropped inside it and collapsed into laughter. Glory high-fived Andrea, started the car, and ruthlessly backed out into traffic.

“This is bad, though,” Andrea said as they drove north across the Congress Street bridge. Rain was just starting to patter down, the scent of the bat colony that lived beneath the bridge filling the humid air.

“I know.” Glory swung around a slowing car. “Fucking humans. The Collars aren’t enough?”

“Maybe this is what the shooters want—terrifying humans into keep us penned in the Shiftertowns. Why, I wonder?”

“Does there have to be a reason? Humans are afraid of us, and people act like ass**les when they’re afraid.”

“I know that, but I mean, why now? It’s been twenty years since humans have known about us. They know what we can and can’t do by now—or what we will and won’t do. It seems like there’s something more behind this.”

“Whatever.” Glory was furious, which added to her already maniacal driving. Andrea sank back in her seat, holding on and speculating the rest of the way home.

“Hey, Glory left her bag here,” Connor said from where he sat with Kim on the other side of the kitchen.

Sean flipped burgers on the griddle, cooking inside because it was too rainy to do it outside. Glory had stormed in, vented her spleen about being kicked out of her favorite bakery, and stormed out again. Andrea hadn’t said much to Sean, just looked concerned and presented Connor with a pint of dark-chocolate ice cream, his favorite.

“These aren’t Glory’s,” Kim said, rustling the tissue paper in the red bag. “Andrea told me what Glory bought.”

Connor helped Kim pull out the tissue paper and then the rest of the bag’s contents. Connor held up a pair of black briefs that had the word “Fine” printed on the back. “Did you buy these for Liam, Kim? I dare him to wear them.”

Sean froze, spatula in midair, grease dripping to the floor.

Kim’s blue eyes went bright with amusement. “Not me. I haven’t been shopping in a while. I think Andrea left these.”

“What for?” Connor stared at the briefs before his puzzled look gave way to a smile. “Oh, these are for, Sean.” He cackled with laughter as he shook out another pair that had a cupid’s bow and arrow on the crotch. “Hey, what do you think this means?”

Sean jerked back to the stove and slid his spatula under a burger before it burned to a crisp. “Bloody hell.”

Damn Andrea, she was as changeable as the sea. Staring him down, telling him she wanted her freedom one moment, buying him sexy underwear the next. Not giving it to him, but slyly leaving it where the rest of his family could find it. Either she was signaling her intentions or making him a laughingstock. Or both.