“Sean, is it the Collar?”
“You should go,” he rasped. “You should run from me.”
Not that she had a choice smashed against the car by his body weight. She lifted her chin. “No. I’m not afraid, and you’re obviously hurting.”
“I know you’re not afraid. And you should be.” Sean’s hands closed on her shoulders with fingers that could crush her bones. “You should be terrified of me, love. Low in your pack, here at the mercy of the most powerful Shifters in Hill Country. You’re bound to us, obligated. You should be groveling, grateful that you have your Fae healing gift to give us in return.”
Andrea gave him a little smile. “Forget that.”
“Aye, and here I stand, worried that I’ll hurt you, a Lupine, a half Fae, a woman I’d never met until she turned up at a bus station and looked me with the most beautiful eyes I’d ever seen.” He leaned closer, his body hard against hers. “What are you, Andrea Gray, that you make me feel like this?”
Trapped between the metal car and Sean’s strength, she knew he was right—she should be afraid—but fear was the last thing on her mind. “Maybe it’s the mating frenzy talking.”
“It’s more than that.” Behind his anger, Andrea sensed Sean’s confusion, his struggle to understand the one thing that didn’t fit his world—her. “In that bar just now, you should have been hiding behind me in terror, letting me protect you, and yet you attacked Callum, a pride leader, without hesitation. He should be way out of your league.”
“He messed with you.” When Callum had gone for Sean, Andrea’s emotions had snapped. Her wolf had answered a primal need, and she’d pulled off her clothes with only one thought ringing in her head. Protect the mate.
She ran restless hands up Sean’s arms. “He wanted to kill you. I couldn’t let him do that.”
Instinct was a hell of a thing. Her rage at Callum for attacking Sean had overridden all fear, all reason. She’d only wanted to taste Callum’s blood and make him pay.
If her fighting instincts had overwhelmed her, her mating ones were now filling her with fire. Sean bent her back against the car, his growl animal-like as he brought his mouth down to hers. His hands slid, warm, under her shirt, touching, molding, sliding around her waist and under her br**sts, bare because Andrea hadn’t bothered to put her bra back on. His mouth opened hers, the kiss claiming her, possessing.
They were so alone down here, with only the chatter of birds filling the air and the swish of water rushing past trees. No one might come back here for hours.
Sean broke the fierce kiss to nip Andrea’s cheek. He thrust her shirt down to nibble his way to her shoulder, his thighs hard against hers, his arousal even harder.
“Sean.”
“Don’t stop me.” His words were whispered, savage. “I need this. Don’t stop me.”
She wouldn’t dream of it. “I just like saying your name,” she said.
Sean raised his head. His eyes were almost white, the beautiful blue swallowed. Every line of his face was tight, his mouth pulling in pain.
“Fucking hell,” he whispered. “No. Let me have this.”
“Sean?”
Sean collapsed to his knees, his hands so tight on her wrists that Andrea went down with him. They ended up in the mud near the wheel of the car, Andrea crouching, Sean folding in on himself.
“Where do you hurt? Let me see.”
Sean curled one arm across his belly. “Everywhere. You’re right, it’s the Collar.”
Andrea stared at Sean’s Collar, but it was a silent silverblack streak on his neck. She’d seen it shock him deeply in the bar, but he’d fought first the human and then Callum, as though he felt nothing. And then he’d said, I’ll pay, and pay like hell.
“Delayed reaction?” she asked. “But Collars don’t work like that. Do they?”
“We’ve learned.” The words jerked out of him. “We can use ... adrenaline ... to keep the pain away. But only for so long. Then ... payback.” His words faded, the Shifter in him fighting the hurt.
Andrea wrapped her arms around him. His skin was slick with sweat, his breath coming fast, his heart going in rapid-fire beats.
“You should go home, love,” he whispered. “This won’t be pretty.”
Andrea didn’t bother to answer. She kissed his damp hair, rested her head against his, and closed her eyes.
The pain wove through Sean in bright, hot lines that streaked from his Collar and around his body like fishing line—strong, tight, strangling. It was somewhat like what caught her in the nightmares, though not as arbitrary and terrifying. This was almost organized, technology making the magic threads ruler-straight.
Andrea eased her concentration under the threads and slowly, slowly started to loosen them. The pain clamped Sean hard, the Fae magic almost gleeful. He’d cheated the magic, and now the magic wanted its revenge.
No, Andrea told it. You will obey me.
Magic wasn’t an entity. It was a force, without intelligence. But Andrea fought it now, and it fought back like an enemy.
In her mind’s eye, Sean’s Collar gleamed on his throat like a white-hot band, the Celtic knot a tangle of bright energy. When fighting adrenaline flowed through a Shifter, the Fae magic sensed it and triggered the shocks. The manmade electricity was enhanced by the magic to make the pain excruciating, plus the magic also made certain the Collar never ran out of power and could never be removed. Andrea knew all this intellectually, but seeing the pain with her mind, feeling it with her fingers, made her very, very angry.