“Dad.”
Dylan pulled Sean into a brief, tight hug before helping himself to a Guinness.
“Are you full up here?” Dylan asked. “Or do you have a corner left where your old dad can sleep?”
Sean leaned against the breakfast bar to watch his father take a drink. “Sure we do. But I thought your move in with Glory was permanent.”
Dylan hard face cracked a smile. “Is anything with Glory permanent?”
“You tell me.”
Pain laced Dylan’s eyes, and he covered it by taking another sip of beer. “I loved your mother, Sean.”
Sean shrugged, as though they hadn’t had this discussion many times. Sean and Dylan, Dylan and Liam. “I know you did. But she of all people wouldn’t want to see you buried in grief after fifty years. She’d say, ‘What is wrong with you, man? You’d best be getting on with life.’ ”
The smile flitted across Dylan’s mouth again. “I can hear her saying that. Funny thing, I can hear Glory saying it too.”
“Well, then.”
Dylan retuned his attention to his beer. “It’s not an easy thing. It never will be.” He clicked the bottle to the counter. “I didn’t come to talk about my troubles, Sean; I came to talk about yours.”
“About Andrea, you mean.”
“About Andrea and you.” Dylan’s dark blue eyes were serious. “It was a good thing you did for her, claiming her so she could relocate. But she’d not an ordinary Shifter, son, and I’m not just talking about what she did for Ely today.”
“I take it you’re meaning more than her being half Fae?”
Dylan nodded. “I’ve met half Fae before, even half-Fae Shifters. Andrea is different from any Shifter, half Fae or otherwise I’ve ever known. She’s not dominant. Glory isn’t top of her pack, and Andrea is well beneath her in the hierarchy. But Andrea acts more like an alpha.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Alpha females were rare and had to fight hard for pack or pride dominance, with the males below her always ready to take her down. The few alpha females Sean had met were more ruthless than any alpha male and would rip the heart out of said male the instant he couldn’t make eye contact with her. With alpha females, a male had to be constantly on guard, or preferably, in another state.
“Not quite what I mean, no,” Dylan said. “Andrea isn’t an alpha. But at the same time, she doesn’t give a damn how alpha anyone else is. When Glory brought her home, Andrea walked right up to me and looked me in the eyes. No avoidance, no submissiveness. Her stare wasn’t bravado or defiance; she just didn’t care. Glory still has a hard time meeting my eyes, even after all these years, but not Andrea. I see Andrea do the same to you. It’s as though she has no interest in the hierarchy, like she’s somehow outside it.”
Sean had noticed that, and her lack of fear somehow spiked his libido. “Maybe she learned the trick because she grew up more or less at the mercy of her own pack. The Colorado Shiftertown is pretty insular, and they always treated her like an outsider. It couldn’t have been easy on her, poor lass.”“Granted. But it’s something to watch.” Dylan came to Sean, put his strong hand on his son’s shoulder. “Be careful of her.”
“Don’t worry. I plan to watch Andrea very closely.” From an inch away, if Sean had his way. Better still, from even closer. “Are you staying here tonight then?”
Dylan let his gaze drift to the eastern window, through which they could see the line of Glory’s house. “No,” he said quietly. “No. I’ll be next door if you need me.”
Sean nodded, and then father and son stepped together and shared a long embrace. Sean and Dylan were the same height, Dylan’s hair as dark as Sean’s except for a bit of gray at the temples.
“You need her, Dad,” Sean said. “Shifters, we’re not meant to be alone.”
They released each other, and Dylan stepped back. He broke eye contact first, and that fact pulled at Sean’s heart.
“Good night, son.”
“’Night, Dad.”
Dylan left. Sean watched with mixed emotions as Dylan crossed the yards between the houses and lightly ran up onto Glory’s back porch, entering the house without knocking.
Sean’s father did need Glory, as interesting as that lady was. Dylan was slowly conceding his place in the pride to Sean and Liam, and he needed someone to both soothe him and distract him from the pain of that.
Andrea had the nightmare again. This time the threads that bound her were white, so bright they blinded her. She fought, screamed, kicked as they wound tighter and tighter, ivylike fingers slicing into her wrists and ankles.
Andrea. It was a whisper, the silver threads of it tangling around the wires that already held her. Andrea. Beautiful one.
Andrea screamed loud and long.
“Andrea!”
Andrea jumped awake and sat up straight. Sean Morrissey stood inside her open window, in his underwear, the glare from the harsh streetlight streaming in behind him.
CHAPTER SIX
Andrea yelped and yanked the covers up to her shoulders. “Sean, what the hell are you doing in here?”
“I heard you yelling,” Sean said, as calmly as though they stood in the middle of a park. “My window, it faces yours. And you left yours unlocked.” He turned and pulled down the sash, closing off the frigid air.
“I’m on the second floor. In the middle of a well-patrolled Shiftertown.”