Pride Mates

by Jennifer Ashley

  “Don’t believe him.” Ellison thunked into the booth next to Liam and smiled at Kim. “Liam doesn’t have a civilized bone in his body.” Even Ellison’s grin was wolfish.

  “I’m sure she’s comforted, hearing that from a Lupine.”

  “Lupine?” Kim wrinkled her brow. “I heard you say that before.”

  “Means I’m a wolf, baby,” Ellison said. “Not a pussycat.”

  Kim’s eyes took on a touch of fear. Liam reached across and touched her hand. “It’s all right. He’s a good wolf.”

  “Don’t tell her that. I’m the Big, Bad Wolf.”

  “Like the feral Shifter,” Kim said softly.

  Ellison instantly lost his grin. “What?”

  Liam shot Kim a warning look. “A rogue. I took care of it.”

  “He was a wolf? Damn. I’m sorry, Liam.”

  “I said I took care of it.”

  Ellison frowned, his big body folding in on itself, his sunny nature dimming.

  “Two chicken-fried steaks, extra gravy,” Annie said, depositing the food in front of them. “And a mess of fries. Anything else you need?”

  “Bring me a beer, honey.” Ellison glanced at Kim’s and Liam’s bottles. “A good old-fashioned American beer, nothing Irish, Mexican, or German.”

  “We got some strawberry blonde ale in the back,” Annie said. “Made right here in Austin.”

  She swished away before Ellison could protest. “Aw, I hate microbrew. Yuppie beer.”

  “Then I won’t invite you to the annual microbrew tasting party,” Kim said, as Liam munched a crispy, hot chip. They were chips, damn it. What asshole came up with french fries? “Brewers from around the county set up booths and give free tastings all day long. You have to be invited, but I’m allowed to bring guests.”

  Ellison’s face fell. “Well, maybe it’s not so bad. Some of these brews are downright good.”

  Liam laughed at him, but his heart warmed. Kim was no wilting flower. She was scared, angry, uncertain, and unhappy, but she wasn’t going to hunch in on herself and cry.

  Good. She needed to be strong to take Shifters. She’d have to take the lot of them, now, because she wouldn’t be going home tonight.

  Chapter Six

  Kim ate hungrily. Getting attacked and watching her attacker die did that to a girl.

  This was all so weird. The cowboy sitting next to Liam, sipping his pale beer while watching Liam put away his chicken-fried steak, made jokes, but his eyes were wary, watchful—going from dark blue to light and back again as he and Liam talked.

  Ellison seemed very upset that the feral had been a wolf Shifter. Why? Because Liam and Sean, who’d killed him, were big cats? Kim didn’t understand what difference that made. A Shifter was a Shifter. Wasn’t he?

  Kim sensed that she’d stumbled upon something with layers and layers of complexity. She’d been so confident she could help Brian, striking a blow for Shifter rights at the same time, but now she wondered at her ego. The more she’d learned about Shifters today, the more she realized how very little she knew.

  Ellison eventually moved off to talk to others, taking his microbrew with him. Kim wiped her mouth with the extra napkins Annie had brought. “Thank you. I guess I needed the food.”

  “A good meal with a good friend is one of the joys of life,” Liam said, sounding like he meant it. “Even if it’s in a Shifter bar.”

  Kim’s chest felt suddenly hollow. She yearned for this kind of simplicity, but her life was chaotic and stressful and so damned busy. How long had it been since she and her girlfriends had met for a meal, to talk and catch up? To laugh and wallow in memories of friendship? Too long. One of them had moved out of state since the last time the group had met, and the others were caught up in their own lives. Kim hadn’t talked to most of her friends for more than a minute in months. Silas was the only exception and that was only because of his interest in Brian’s case for his documentary. But even his e-mails were brief.

  She put down her fork. “I really should get back home. Your friends have probably repaired my door by now, and I have to work tomorrow.”

  “You’re working on a Sunday?”

  “I’ll work at home, but I have a lot to do. Cases to prepare, appeals to file. Brian’s only one of my responsibilities.”

  Liam piled his silverware on his plate, pushed his plate and hers aside, and clasped Kim’s hands. His movements were jerky, and his skin was hot. “You need to come home with me first.”

  “Why?” Not that, with his hands warm on hers and his sexy blue eyes gazing at her, she wanted to argue much.

  “Sean will have told Dad what happened, but Dad will want to hear your side of the story.”

  “My side of the story? I don’t have a side. I saw what you saw.”

  “This is a Shifter problem. Dad needs all the information he can get.”

  Kim let herself squeeze his hands in return. “All right, but not for long. I really have work to do.”

  “Dance first?”

  “Sorry?”

  The jukebox was going full blast, some country music tune Ellison had keyed in. “I need to work off some energy. Are you too much of a city girl that you can’t do a Texas two-step?”

  “You’re Irish,” she said as he pulled her up. “Don’t you—you know, jig?”

  Liam laughed, a sound so warm that everyone around them who heard it smiled. His eyes crinkled, and his laugh drove out the lingering horror of the wolf Shifter’s attack.

  Something should bother Kim about what had happened—something more than dead Shifter wolf and Sean with his sword and Liam being a snarling wildcat, that is. She needed time to sit, think, let her adrenaline shut down while her brain took over.

  Liam didn’t want to let her shut down. He pulled her out of the booth and to the middle of the floor. Other couples were already dancing—very close—but they were Shifters, so Kim couldn’t tell the difference between couples who were lovers and those who were friends. Shifters liked to touch.

  Liam pulled Kim into an embrace, his feet finding the rhythm of the dance. Kim knew the steps, but she hadn’t danced in a long time, and she moved stiffly.

  Liam ran his hand along the curve of her waist. “Relax, darling. I’ll take care of you.”

  Kim’s eyes were so blue, Liam thought. If he were into poetry, he’d say blue like an Irish sea. But he hadn’t seen Ireland in such a long time that he couldn’t be sure if the waters around it were still so pure blue they would break your heart.

  Kim set his already pounding heart to racing. Her lips were red, full, luscious. Liam didn’t kiss—when he bedded women he was too busy to do any kissing, and besides, he and the female were usually in animal form. But touching Kim’s lips with his suddenly seemed like a good idea.

  His libido was getting ahead of his brains. This woman wasn’t, and could never be, for Liam. She was here temporarily, dragged into Shifter troubles she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand how deeply she was in them, either. When she figured it out, she’d sure as hell not be in the mood for any kissing.

  His libido told his brains to shut the hell up. Her scent was exciting, sweet. She looked up at him and smiled, and her small hands moved to his waist.

  Warm supple woman slid against his body, and Liam’s blood flowed toward his groin. He imagined her under him, hips lifting as he slid into her. Her blue eyes would close, her round breasts would press his chest, and her legs would rise to twine his waist.

  Gods, he needed sex. After a fight he always ran in his cat form to get it out of his system, before he paid the price. He hadn’t had the chance to run tonight, so his body urged him to do an even better thing, take this woman home and love her.

  If he’d been doing what Sean suggested, having a good night’s shag with a Shifter woman every night, Liam wouldn’t be sweating now, fighting his urges and his Collar. He’d never, ever had urges to be with a human woman.

  Then again, he’d never met Kim.

  Li
am pulled her closer, hands moving to her hips. I’m the Shifter who doesn’t need anyone, who puts the good of Shiftertown before everything else.

  Right.

  Kim laughed. “I forgot how much I liked to dance,” she said over the music.

  “Doesn’t your man ever take you out on the town?”

  “Abel? We go to fancy dinners, usually with a group of lawyers he’s trying to impress. No dancing.”

  “His name is Abel, is it?”

  “Yeah, Abel Kane. Can you believe his parents named him that?”

  “He could change it. I hear humans do that.” As though a name were a mutable thing. Humans were crazy.

  “He says people remember it,” Kim said. “I guess he’s right.”

  “But he doesn’t dance.”

  Kim laughed. Apparently thinking of this boyfriend dancing was hilarious. “No, he doesn’t dance. I didn’t know Shifters did, either.”

  “We do a lot of things.” Liam twirled her once, pulled her against him again, and then the song drew to a close.

  Couples dispersed. Jordie Ross kissed his wife on her upturned lips, stroking his fingers over her throat. The fond look she gave Jordie as she walked back to her girlfriends stabbed through Liam’s heart. His own parents had looked at each other like that once. So had Kenny and Sinead. Mates for life, they’d thought.

  Liam kept hold of Kim’s hand. “Time to go.”

  Kim’s wariness returned as he led her out of the bar. “Go where?” she asked.

  “Home.”

  “You mean your home.” And his father. Would Liam’s dad be elderly and kind, with the same blue eyes as his son and a warm smile, or a rigid patriarch who terrified every person who crossed the threshold?

  Liam nodded silently, his eyes giving nothing away. His sudden quietness made Kim nervous, but then she thought about her own house waiting for her, how large and lonely it was.

  The place had never warmed up again since Mark’s death, no matter how hard she and her parents had tried. There’d been a hole in every Christmas celebration, every Easter dinner, every Halloween night’s trek through the neighborhood. The family had gone through the rituals each year, realizing that rituals were unfulfilling when someone you loved was missing from them, but they’d been unable to do anything else. Kim had tried to liven up the house with remodeling a few years ago, having a party to celebrate, but while the house looked more modern, it was still empty.

  Kim thought about Shiftertown, how alive it was, how these people had been forced to reside here but had made it bearable with the closeness of family and friends.

  “I’d like to see where you live,” she decided. “Even if I have to be interrogated by your father.”

  “He won’t interrogate you.” Liam’s smile returned. “Like Ellison said, we’re pussycats.”

  Kim wasn’t sure what to make of that, but she followed him through the crowd that had gathered outside the doors and in the parking lot. They were mostly Shifters, laughing and talking and waiting for a chance to ooze into the packed interior.

  The night had cooled, the humidity lessening. Overhead, stars poked through the lights of the city against vast blackness that stretched to eternity.

  “What a nice night,” Kim said. “Do you live far? Can we walk?”

  How weird that she wanted to. In this city of cars, walking was what you did along Lake Austin or in Zilker Park or on Sixth Street on Saturday night. You didn’t walk to actually get somewhere.

  “It’s not far,” Liam said, “but we’ll drive. It will be safer to leave your car inside Shiftertown than out here.”

  He had a point—this was a bad part of town. Liam drove again, and Kim was content to look out the window. This late, no kids lingered on the lawns, but the houses glowed with light. People sat out on lit porches to talk or simply watch the night.

  Liam pulled the car into an old-fashioned driveway—two strips of concrete with grass in the middle—about two blocks from where Brian’s mother lived. Liam got out of the car and came around to open the door for her.

  Kim looked up in surprise as Liam helped her out and shut the door, a courtesy she wasn’t used to. In her world, a woman had to pretend she didn’t want or need little courtesies from men. If she wanted a man’s job, she had to act like a man. Be even stronger than a man, actually, and more ruthless. Kim knuckled down and played the game, and she was surprised at how much Liam’s gentlemanly gestures pleased her.

  Liam’s house was a bungalow, like Sandra’s, two stories with square brick pillars on the porch. One corner of the porch held a picnic bench and a table, the other, a porch swing.

  “I’ve always wanted a porch swing,” Kim said. “Stupid, but I was never allowed to have one. Homeowner’s association didn’t approve.”

  “You’re welcome to lounge on our porch swing anytime you want.”

  “Anyone ever tell you you’re a sweetie, Liam? Isn’t it a little late for a visit, though? Will your father be up still?”

  Liam’s smile answered her. “We’re night people.”

  “Like vampires? Hell, I’ve had too much beer.”

  “No. Not like vampires.” Liam opened the front door and ushered her into his house. “Vampires are different.”

  Kim wasn’t certain what to make of his answer. Was he teasing? But heck, Shifters existed. Why not vampires?

  She’d definitely had too much beer.

  The front door led straight into the living room, which was dominated by a big box of a television. The couch and chairs had been grouped around it, with folding TV trays for end tables. The tables were littered with soda cans, beer bottles, bowls holding crumbs of corn chips, and stacks of videotapes and DVDs. It looked as though they’d had a movie night. The floors were polished wood with mismatched rugs and runners on them, unlike Kim’s cool tile floors with plush handwoven carpets.

  As Liam led Kim inside, Sean and another man came down the stairs to her left, and a young, lanky Morrissey bounded out of the kitchen that opened beyond the living room.

  “Is that her?” the young man asked.

  The oldest man moved past him and held out his hand to Kim. “I’m Dylan.”

  Liam’s father. He didn’t look any older than forty, but like Sandra, his eyes held the weight of years. Those eyes assessed her, much as Liam’s had, but without the warm interest. His grip was strong, not overpowering, but it let Kim know he could overpower her anytime he wanted to.

  Kim decided that if she’d met Dylan instead of Liam, she’d have hightailed it out of Shiftertown and never looked back. No wonder Liam was the one Brian said everyone approached. You had to be brave to look into Dylan’s eyes and not quail.

  Sean stepped off the stairs. “Connor, why didn’t you clean up this crap? I told you Kim was coming.”

  “I’m doing it.” The young man started gathering the jetsam into his big hands.

  “My nephew, Connor,” Liam said. “Our brother Kenny’s son.”

  The brother who’d died. Kim watched the long-limbed Connor shoulder his way into the kitchen, trying to carry everything at once.

  Liam gestured for Kim to sit down. A couch, which had seen years of bouncing children and men’s booted feet, sagged when she sat on it. Connor reappeared and handed Kim a cold soft drink. Kim wasn’t in the mood for one, but she thanked him, opened the can, and took a sip. No reason not to be polite.

  Liam sat down next to her, close, as he had at Sandra’s. Shifters really didn’t understand personal space. Or if they did, they didn’t care.

  Sean stood ill at ease, his hands in his pockets. He wore a frown, as though he didn’t like having Kim there, but not because he didn’t like Kim. Dylan watched also, but with a quietness that the younger men of the family didn’t have. He was closer to the predator than any of them.

  And here I am, the gazelle.

  To calm her nerves, Kim looked around at the décor, which was mostly bachelor clutter. “Hey, I have a suitcase just like that.” She pointe
d at a black bag with metallic studs that stood next to the TV set. “Wait a minute, that is my bag.” She glared at Liam, who didn’t look the slightest bit guilt-stricken. “Gee, I wonder how it got here.”

  “Remember my friends who went to fix your back door? They brought it.”

  Kim set her can carefully on a TV tray. “Want to tell me why? Or do you have a fetish about stealing other people’s luggage?”

  It was Dylan who answered. “Because you’re staying here, Kim. Liam knew you’d want your things.”

  “What do you mean, staying here? Spending the night? I haven’t had that much to drink.”

  Liam slid his arm around her, strong, holding her there. “You need to stay.”

  “The Shifter wolf is dead. You and Sean killed him. I’m safe now.” Finally the thing niggling at her broke through the fog in her brain. “Liam, how were you able to kill him? Your Collar should have stopped you from fighting, even against another Shifter. Right?”

  Liam said nothing. She felt Sean standing above her, Connor’s awkward uneasiness, and Dylan’s strong silence.

  “Liam?”

  Liam’s eyes were blue, hard, holding her gaze. “I’m sorry, love. That’s why we can’t let you go.”

  Chapter Seven

  She took it well. Liam had to give her that.

  No screaming, no outraged swearing, no gibbering in terror. Kim simply looked at him, her eyes unreadable.

  “Why not?” she asked steadily. “If I can prove that Brian had nothing to do with the murder, it won’t matter whether his Collar can malfunction. I have no reason to share the information far and wide.”

  “You should let someone else take over Brian’s defense,” Dylan said.

  Now the anger came. “Oh, no, no, no. This case is going to make my career. Besides, I’m your best hope of springing him.”

  Dylan’s eyes were hard. “Brian understands the need to protect the Shifters.”

  Kim struggled from Liam’s embrace and sprang to her feet. “Are you saying you’d let him go down? Make him pretend his Collar malfunctioned to keep everyone from knowing the Collars don’t work at all?”