Pride Mates

by Jennifer Ashley

  “Then what can we do?” Sandra asked, angry. “If this DNA has already convicted him?”

  “We can prove he was nowhere near the scene of the crime that night,” Kim said. “Which is why I’m here. Neither the private investigator I hired nor my journalist friend who’s been following the case can find any information on his whereabouts that night. I mean, no information at all. Like he’d vanished for twenty-four hours. But I can’t believe no one saw Brian or knew where he was going.”

  Hell, everyone on this street had known within minutes that Liam and Sean were taking the human lawyer to Brian’s house. They probably knew Kim’s full name and her favorite color by now. “I’m having the investigator look into Michelle’s side of things—see if she had a jealous ex or an abusive father, or even a normally nice friend upset that Michelle was dating a Shifter. I’m trying to find any evidence the police overlooked in their zeal to arrest a Shifter.”

  “Your investigator came around and asked me questions.” Sandra sounded pissed about it. “But Brian didn’t tell me himself he was walking out with this girl, so how could I know?”

  “But you might know something that can help,” Kim said. “I’m sorry, I know this is painful for you, but Brian’s clammed up about Michelle, so I have to poke and pry. I think getting him released is more important than keeping his personal secrets, don’t you?”

  “Is it?” Sandra had a bit of the same Irish lilt as Sean and Liam, but Brian didn’t. He’d told Kim that his father came from a different clan, she guessed not an Irish one. Either that or his clan had lost their accent after living in Texas awhile.

  Kim didn’t really understand how the Shifter clans worked, though Brian had tried to explain a little. She knew that each immediate family belonged to a larger, extended family group called a pride, and they belonged to an even more extended group called a clan. Shifters never married within the pride, and tried to marry outside the clan. When a female married, she joined her husband’s clan and pride, leaving her own. Kim had thought clans were based on what kind of animal the Shifter turned into, but Brian said it was more complicated than that. This Shiftertown was home to several clans, as well as several species of Shifters, and there was another Shiftertown with more clans on the northeast edge of Austin.

  Liam’s father, Dylan Morrissey, was more or less the official head of the Austin branch of his entire clan, but also the unofficial head of this Shiftertown, even over the other clans. But no, Kim couldn’t talk directly to Dylan, Brian told her. He was off-limits to non-Shifters. She could petition him through Liam and Liam only.

  Why not Sean? Kim wondered, glancing at Liam’s brother. What position did he hold in the clan hierarchy? Officially and unofficially?

  Sean helped himself to coffee and exchanged a glance with Liam. “So you need to find someone who was with Brian at the time in question?” Sean asked.

  Kim could have sworn that Liam had nodded ever so slightly, as though letting Sean know it was all right to say this. Nonverbal cues were flowing thick and fast.

  “An independent witness would be terrific,” Kim said. “Someone without a grudge against Shifters. And preferably not a Shifter him- or herself.”

  “Tall order,” Sean said.

  “The girl is human,” Sandra snapped. “What human will come forward and say my son didn’t do it?”

  She had a point. Kim knew that locating a witness was a long shot, but it would be a nice change to find something concrete. Innocent until proven guilty was not working in Brian’s case. The fact that he was Shifter had already condemned him in most people’s eyes. Kim had to exonerate him or he didn’t stand a chance.

  Liam started massaging the tops of Kim’s feet, which made her tense limbs start to droop.

  “I might be able to find out where Brian really was,” Liam said. “You should have come to me about this right away, love.”

  “I didn’t know that, did I? Like I said, Brian is the first Shifter I’ve ever met, and to get him to tell me that you, Liam, even existed was an amazing feat.” Brian hadn’t bothered to mention Sean.

  “We don’t like talking about ourselves,” Sean said.

  “I don’t see why not. Shifters exposed themselves years ago, and everyone knows all about you. There’s nothing to hide anymore.”

  She felt the three exchange another wordless communication, and it irritated her. It reminded her of being eight years old and watching her two best friends whispering and giving her gleeful looks, not letting her in on the secret.

  A cell phone vibrated on Liam’s belt. He looked at the readout, and without a word gently lowered Kim’s feet to the floor. He stood and walked to the kitchen, closing the door, shutting them out.

  Kim felt cold without his warmth beside her, even in the July heat. “Anything you can tell me might help,” she said to Sean and Sandra. “Right now I can only win this case by tearing holes in the prosecution, and there aren’t many holes. I need something that will stick a fork in the case and shred it.”

  Sandra drank her coffee, her gaze moving from Kim to the windows. Kim caught a glimpse of her sadness as she looked away, her near despair.

  She’s resigning herself to losing her son, Kim realized. Sandra thought there was no hope. She’d already started grieving for him.

  Sean was watching Kim with an assessing look. She still wasn’t sure about him, or where the haunted feeling she got from him came from.

  “I don’t like to lose, Sandra,” Kim said briskly. “I want to see Brian walk free and the real person pay for his crime. I won’t let you down.”

  Sandra didn’t answer. Sean nodded at Kim. “I’m sure you won’t.”

  Liam strode back into the room. Kim realized that the other two had said very little while Liam had been gone. Had he signaled them not to? And why?

  Liam took up his coffee cup without sitting down and took a long swallow. He looked over the rim at Sean, who came alert.

  “Everything all right?” Kim asked. “Did you get bad news?”

  Liam clicked his mug to the tray. “No, an errand Sean and I need to run. I appreciate you coming all the way out to Shiftertown, Kim Fraser, but now it’s time for you to go.”

  Chapter Three

  “What’s going on?” Kim demanded as she strode down the driveway with Liam. “I just get you talking, and suddenly you’re throwing me out.”

  Liam looked down at the fuming woman next to him. Sunlight danced on her black hair, the afternoon warmth making her smell good.

  He was finding her enticing, even when she was mad as hell. When he’d announced the interview was over, she’d jammed her shoes on her feet, said a sweet good-bye to Sandra, and stalked out. Now as they walked back down the driveway, she glared at him.

  “Sandra was uncomfortable,” he offered. “She’s not easy around humans.”

  “And you? Are you comfortable around us?”

  “Not really. But more than she and Sean are.”

  “Is that why you work at a bar?”

  Liam shrugged. “Humans like to see Shifters in bars. It brings in business.” She didn’t need to know the real reason he worked there.

  They’d reached the sidewalk in front of 445A. Kim swung to face him with hands planted on hips. “I’m trying to help. Why does Sandra believe Brian has no chance? I’m on the case.”

  Liam hid a smile. She was like a fox terrier determined to bring down a lion. He admired her balls, first in believing Brian’s innocence, and second, for coming down to meet big, dangerous Shifters like him and Sean. She didn’t realize how dangerous her pilgrimage was, and Liam wasn’t going to tell her.

  “And you on the case should be good enough?”

  “I’m good, Mr. Morrissey. Michelle and her family will only get closure if the right guy goes down.”

  Liam lifted his hands. “I agree with you, love. It’s not me you have to convince.”

  “Then why won’t you tell me anything?” She regarded him with suspicion. “Something
’s going on. You and Sean know it. Sandra knows it. Hell, Brian knows it. I’m the only one in the dark. Help me out here.”

  Liam put his hands on her shoulders, and her blue eyes flickered with discomfort. Why did humans worry so much about touching? “We’re grateful to you. You’re the first human we’ve met who cares about Shifters. But you have to let me handle it from here.”

  If she didn’t, Kim could die. Liam had already broken Fergus’s rules by not placating her and sending her away at once, but Fergus could stuff it.

  He couldn’t tell Kim that he didn’t know all that was going on, either. Sandra was hiding something, even from Liam, and it annoyed Liam that he didn’t know what.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Kim asked him. “I shouldn’t have even come to talk to you, but I’m desperate. I have to be very careful about every point I have, so whatever you come up with will have to be checked and double-checked. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s that I can’t.”

  Liam circled his thumbs on her shoulders. “Well, you will have to trust me, sweetheart.”

  A shiver went through her body. She wanted to be touched; he could feel it. She needed it. But she fought it. Humans.

  She glanced at his hands. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re not PC?”

  “Why, because I enjoy touching your soft skin and call you sweetheart? Or because I won’t let you have it your own way?”

  “What was the phone call you took about?”

  “Oh, now you’re prying into my business, are you? It was personal. Do you have a boyfriend?”

  She blinked. “Talk about personal.”

  “Do you?” Liam repeated. “Someone special in your life?”

  Kim pursed her lips as though she had to think about it. “Yes, a boyfriend. Sort of.”

  “Aren’t you sure, then?”

  “We don’t go out much. We’re busy.”

  “That’s a tragedy.”

  She bristled. “Why?”

  Liam leaned toward her. She smelled nice, this human. He liked her hair, all silky and curly, and he wanted to bury his nose in it.

  “If I had someone like you, love, I’d be with her all the time. I wouldn’t want her out of my sight. And I definitely wouldn’t let her run around Shiftertown by herself. What is this man thinking about?”

  Kim looked annoyed. “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

  “He needs to take better care of you.”

  Indignation now. “He doesn’t need to take care of me at all. I’m my own person.”

  “Maybe.” Liam leaned closer, feeling his eyes change as he inhaled her scent. “But when you’re in Shiftertown, I take care of you. No one will bother you here, I promise you that. They’ll answer to me.”

  “I doubt I’ll come to Shiftertown again.”

  “Even so.”

  Liam slid his arms around her and drew her close. She resisted. He traced patterns on her lower back and rested his cheek on her hair until she softened a little. He was right; her hair was silky and warm.

  Kim started to relax against him, her body reacting to his. He needed to protect her. He’d made that decision the minute she’d walked into his office, to protect her from all other Shifters, most of all the leader of his own clan. “Everything will be all right now.”

  “Why do I want to believe you?” She sounded skeptical.

  She had a nice voice, low and contralto. He imagined her whispering to him as she lay next to him in bed. Her hair would tangle on his pillow, and wouldn’t she be pretty? He could understand keeping his human form for lovemaking if the human was Kim Fraser.

  He straightened up and brushed a curl from her face. “Give me your cell phone.”

  “What for?”

  “So I can admire the fine technology a human woman can afford to buy.” He held out his hand. “I want to give you my phone number. What did you think?”

  Kim pulled her cell phone out of a pocket of her briefcase and handed it to him. The phone was fancy, as he’d suspected, with all kinds of buttons and extras. Shifters were allowed to have only old models, recycled, most of the features disabled. Not that some Shifters didn’t futz with them on the sly.

  Liam started punching buttons. “I’m programming in my private number. For you only. If you need something, you call me. Any time of the day or night.”

  Kim watched as he tucked the cell phone back into her briefcase. “Anytime?”

  “Anytime.”

  “What if I call every hour to check on your progress?”

  “Then you do.”

  Her brows rose. “You trust me a lot.”

  “Because I’m asking you to trust me.”

  Kim chewed on her lip, making it red and cute. “I suppose I can see that.” She held out her hand. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Morrissey. I’ll be in touch.”

  Liam put his arm around her waist and turned her around. “I’m not leaving, love. I’m walking you back to your car.”

  “Why? It’s only a few blocks away.”

  “I told you, when you’re here, you’re under my protection. Do you think that means I’d abandon you right here on the sidewalk?”

  “I haven’t the faintest idea what you mean.”

  “I mean I’m walking you to your car.”

  She made a noise of exasperation. “Whatever.”

  Liam wanted to laugh. She was adorable, his fox terrier. And determined.

  And bloody inconvenient. The phone call had been from his father, telling Liam news he’d been waiting to hear. Ms. Lawyer needed to get out of Shiftertown. Liam and Sean suddenly had other things they needed to take care of.

  Liam liked Kim’s curves against his body as they walked, her narrow waist under his hand. She didn’t try to break away from him, resigned, it seemed, to let him walk with his arm around her. As if they were a couple, in human terms.

  Something warmed inside him, a space filling. Liam abruptly cut off the feeling. He could not afford to get involved with her. Protect her, yes; enjoy her, no. No matter how tempting she was.

  Kim was breathing rapidly at their pace, her ridiculously high heels slowing her down. He wished she’d kick off her shoes and peel off her stockings and walk barefoot in the grass. He imagined her strolling along beside him, shoes in hand, a smile on her face.

  Too soon they reached her car, a black two-door Mustang. The car chirped as she pushed the button to unlock it.

  Liam pulled her into another hug. Kim resisted again, but he scooped her against him, letting his mouth rest on the curve of her neck. She was warm, her skin salty, her pulse beating under his lips.

  “Good-bye then, Kim. You take care.”

  He meant it. There was danger out there, and Brian’s troubles were only part of it.

  Kim took the card from her pocket that she’d tried to hand him earlier. “You’ll call my office as soon as you have anything for me, right? Anything at all?”

  Liam turned the card around in his fingers, savoring the feel of the raised letters of her name. “Of course, love.”

  “Even if you don’t think it’s relevant?”

  He didn’t bother to answer. Liam opened the car door for her, and Kim gave him a flustered look before tossing her briefcase inside.

  Liam smoothed her hair from her face. He could stand all day looking at her, breathing in her scent, touching her sleek hair.

  He let her go. He wasn’t allowed to have her, no matter that he was hot and hard for her. She was beautiful, but not for him.

  Kim gave him a smile, one that heated his blood, and slid into her driver’s seat. She cranked the engine, let it roar to life, then reached over to switch the AC to high.

  She rolled down the window, sending a trickle of cool air over his skin. “Thanks, Liam,” she said. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I’m just worried.”

  “We all are, love.” He stood up, patted the roof of the car. “You go on, now.”

  The window slid silently upward. Kim gave him one las
t nervous smile, then pulled the car onto the street. The taillights flashed red before she turned a corner, and then she was gone.

  Liam might never see her again. The emptiness of that hit him.

  No, that wouldn’t happen. She was under his protection now. He had her phone number and her address. He’d make sure she’d need to speak to him again, and he’d make sure she had to see him in person to do it.

  When Liam reached home after picking up Sean from Sandra’s, their father Dylan was there. Three generations of males lived in the Morrisseys’ two-story bungalow—father, two sons, and Liam’s nephew, Connor.

  Connor was twenty, tall and lanky, still a cub by Shifter standards. By human standards, he was old enough to go to college, and Connor had been attending a community college this year. Shifters weren’t allowed to apply to the prestigious UT Austin, but it had been voted to allow them some college-level education. No degrees. Wouldn’t want Shifters taking over professional jobs or learning enough to be a threat.

  Connor’s classes were out for the summer, and he passed the time catching up on DVDs. Laws forbade Shifters access to TiVo or premium cable for some reason, so movie rental outlets near Shiftertown did big business. Connor was watching The Howling and laughing his ass off.

  “You’ll have to go with him, Liam,” Dylan said as soon as Liam walked in, continuing the conversation he’d had with Liam on the phone.

  Liam gave a grim nod as he got himself a Guinness from the refrigerator. Dylan had told him that Fergus’s trackers located a feral Shifter east of town, one that had slaughtered a Shifter woman and her cubs a few nights ago.

  May hell rot all feral Shifters, Liam thought. He and Sean had found the bodies, a devastating sight that made his heart ache. As Guardian, it was Sean’s duty to dispatch the feral, but Liam was looking forward to exacting some justice of his own. Besides, no way he’d let his brother face the attacker alone. Not after what had happened to Kenny.

  “I’ll go too,” Connor said. He’d come silently out of the living room and leaned against the breakfast bar in the kitchen. “If it’s a simple takedown.”