“Is he?”
Sean left off the enticing fun of licking the shell of her ear. “Love, if Dad didn’t want you here, you wouldn’t be here. Never mind that Liam’s now Shiftertown leader. If Dad thought you a true threat, your request would never have been approved, no matter what your pack leader wanted, no matter how many times I insisted on making the mate-claim.”
Andrea looked puzzled. “Dylan doesn’t have say over Glory’s pack leader. He’s Feline and not the leader of Shiftertown.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Sean wanted to laugh. “You think power only flows within a pack or a clan? That nothing outside can influence it? Living in a Shiftertown has taught me a lot about dominance and power, leadership and control. It’s not who wins in the pecking order, it’s who has true dominance. And my father has it. Liam’s leader now, but he still listens to Dad.”
“What about you?” Andrea’s mouth softened into a smile. “Do you listen to your father?”
“Mostly.” Sean traced her lips. “But he also listens to me. If I say you’re the one for me, he’ll concede. Eventually.”
“I never know what to make of you, Sean Morrissey.”
“Not many do. Come here.” Sean kissed her again, soft touches, his hand stealing around her back. She responded by nibbling his lip, running fingers through his hair.
Sean kissed her lips and face and throat, then he gently rolled her so that she faced away from him. He spooned up against her back, arm around her waist. “You sleep now. No more nightmares. I’m here to drive them off.”
“With your big stick?”
Sean chuckled and moved his hips, his hardness through his briefs finding the cleave in her panties. “Bikinis,” he said. “I knew it.”
“We’re strangely fond of each other’s underwear.”
“I promise not to wear yours if you don’t wear mine.”
Andrea started to laugh, her body shaking in a wonderful way. Sean hid a groan. He had to be crazy, lying here with her, promising himself he’d leave her alone.
“The big, bad Guardian in women’s underwear,” she said.
“You hush now.” Sean kissed the soft skin behind her ear. “Sleep.”
She giggled some more, a sound that drove heat into his bones. “I’ll dream about that. You big, strong Shifter, you.”
Sean turned the kiss to a nip. “Hush.”
“No doubt about who’s the dominant in this room.”
Andrea laughed again, the sound softer as she relaxed back into him. Sean held her in a safe embrace, cradling her like a cub until she fell into limp, dreamless slumber.
When Andrea awoke in the morning, Sean was gone. She didn’t like the bite of disappointment that gave her.
Last night, Sean had held her like a mate would, kissing and cuddling, touching, nuzzling. Shifters did that in their animal forms, curving around each other and basking in the safe joy of being together. Her stepfather had done so when she was little, holding her after her mother died, the two of them united in grief.
She’d not had the comfort of such a thing in a long time. Sean was tearing down the walls Andrea had built against the world, and she wasn’t certain whether to embrace that or cower in terror.
Andrea showered, dressed, and went downstairs to find Dylan in the kitchen drinking coffee, alone. Cowering in terror started to sound good. Glory’s scent was all over Dylan, and from the way his eyes flicked to Shifter white and back to blue, Andrea knew that he could smell Sean’s scent all over her.
“Nothing happened,” she said as she moved to the coffeepot.
“Sean is almost at his century mark,” Dylan said in a dry voice. “He can sleep with whatever female he likes.”
Andrea poured herself coffee from an old-fashioned percolator pot, carried the cup to the table, and sat down across from Dylan, making herself face him. Andrea remembered how he’d looked at her the night Glory had brought her home, with a white-hot stare that Sean must have learned from him. Dylan had blue eyes, like his sons’, and a touch of gray in otherwise black hair, but he possessed a grim darkness that Liam and Sean both lacked. Dylan was a few centuries old, born long before the Shifters ever considered making themselves tame for humans. His eyes carried the weight of his years, and he hadn’t hidden the fact that a half-Fae Lupine was not someone he wanted living in the same house with him.
“You know, I didn’t come here to make trouble,” Andrea said. “Not between you and Sean, or you and Glory. Honestly. I just wanted somewhere to lick my wounds, somewhere to find my equilibrium.”
Dylan nodded, eyes settling again to human blue. “And this is a fine place to do it. You’re safe here, Andrea. I promise you.”
Andrea turned her coffee cup on the placemat, breathing the coffee smell to keep up her courage. Dylan might not be Shiftertown leader anymore, but that didn’t mean he’d run off with his tail between his legs. Slipping in the hierarchy meant that he was only a little less powerful than Liam.
She drew a breath. “Sean told me that if you hadn’t wanted me to come here, I wouldn’t have been allowed.”
“True.”
“Then what made you let me?” Andrea sipped the coffee, cool enough to drink now. It was rich and good; Glory’s coffee always was.
“Glory. She’s fond of you and thought it would be best if you came here. I trust her judgment.”