Primal Bonds

Sean gave him a look of disgust. “I don’t have time to fight you right now. Besides, a mate challenge has its proper rituals, as you should know. Wade should have kept you away from me until time.”

“Wade Sawyer is weak. We didn’t have to wait in the old days. If a Shifter wanted to challenge for a woman, he went after the other male, no rituals, no declarations. They just fought to the death.”

“That’s what you want, is it? A fight to the death?”

“Yes.”

No wavering. Jared’s scent of fear was smothered by that of anger and determination.

“Are you stupid, lad? If I fight to kill, I’ll kill you.”

“Maybe you will. Or maybe I’ll kill you. But it doesn’t matter. Because of you, Guardian, I lost Andrea—a submissive, half-Fae bitch who was my only chance at having a mate. There is no other unmated female of mating age in our Shiftertown, and I am the Shiftertown leader’s son. I’m expected to carry on the line.” Jared shed his jacket and tossed it on the grass. “So I have nothing to lose. If I kill you, I get Andrea. If you kill me, I avenge my honor.”

“I said I’d fight you,” Sean said, holding on to his patience. “I accepted the mate challenge. But not right now. I don’t have time.”

Jared pointed at the ground. “Right now. No referees, no rules, no one stopping us from killing each other. Just two Shifters fighting to kill or be killed. Like in the old days.”

“You’re bloody obsessed with the old days. What about your Collar?”

“I’ll fight through the pain.”

“You’ve got a death wish, lad.”

“I have no honor left. What do I care?”

Sean knew that the idiot would attack whether Sean was ready or not. Sean slid his leather jacket from his shoulders, laid the sheathed sword on the grass, and dropped his coat on top of it. “Can’t wait an hour, can you? Glory’s in trouble somewhere, and I need to meet up with my dad and find her.”

Jared shrugged again, then moved his shoulders in circles to stretch out his muscles. “No,” he said. “Now.” And he attacked.

“Ronan?” Andrea called into the Morrissey house. “Liam?” She walked through the empty rooms and peered up the staircase. “Eric?”

She mounted the stairs and knocked on bedroom doors, finding the rooms behind them empty. The big attic where Connor slept was also empty. “Where the hell is everyone?”

Back at Glory’s house was the same. No notes, no messages, nothing. The entire Morrissey family had vanished.

Andrea crossed the street to Ellison’s, but no one answered the door. Ellison lived with his sister and her two cubs, who were nearly grown young men, but none of them were home. In rising panic, Andrea knocked on doors down the block, but no one seemed to be around.

What the hell?

Panic made her heart speed. She forced herself to stay calm, to reason out what could have happened while she was in Faerie talking with her father. If Callum or the Fae had come for all the Shifters in Shiftertown, there would have been a big fight. The Shifters wouldn’t simply disappear—Felines and Lupines and Ursines alike. Therefore, the Shifters must have gone to ground or were hiding the mates and cubs in preparation for a fight, which would happen who-knew-where.

Andrea heard a car turn down the street. Without hesitation, she sprinted back down the street and ducked around Ellison’s house. The car didn’t slow but carried on past Shiftertown and toward downtown Austin without stopping.

Andrea ran across to Glory’s house and around to the back. She stopped, panting, in the grove of trees. “Father!” she shouted.

Fionn didn’t answer. Instead, a strong hand closed on her shoulder and another clamped over her mouth when she opened it to scream.

Jared fought like a crazy thing. He didn’t bother sliding out of his clothes before Shifting; he simply morphed into his wolf form, his clothes splitting to rags. Sean didn’t have time to undress like a civilized being before Jared was on him.

Damn it, I liked this shirt. Sean’s claws tore fabric from his body as his wildcat took over. Jared ran smack into him, and the two went down in a tangle of limbs and claws.

Jared, with nothing to lose, had no reason not to kill Sean. He was fighting for his honor, not Andrea, while Sean fought to stay alive to save her from Jared.

Sean sensed his sword in the tall grass where he’d left it, the blade waiting to see which Shifter it would send to the afterlife. It offered no help while he and Jared tumbled through the field, wildcat on wolf, kicking up dust into the clear blue sky.

Jared’s Collar sparked around his neck, driving blue veins of electricity into his body, and Jared snarled in pain. Sean’s Collar did the same, but adrenaline ran so high that they both went on fighting.

Jared hooked a claw around Sean’s Collar and twisted. One link that Liam had dislodged before easily came loose, giving Sean a surge of feral-spiked rage.

Sean roared and shook his head. Sean’s sides were already bloody from Jared’s claws, Jared’s dark fur dripping scarlet from Sean’s. For seconds they stood back to catch their breaths, and then they were fighting again. Grappling, clawing, ears back, each trying to close jaws over the others’ throat.

Savage snarling filled the air, but it didn’t come from Sean or Jared. Before Sean’s enraged brain could reason out what was going on, a half-dozen Felines sprinted across the parking lot and leapt on them both.