"It's easy," the feral Shifter said. "Go with it."
Liam gritted his teeth against profound pain. "Easy for who? Who the hell are you, anyway?"
"I was called Justin."
"Yeah? What are you called now?"
"Human names have no meaning for us anymore."
"Oh, for the gods' sake." Liam lay flat on his back on the cement floor, his limbs on fire. He felt the beast in him snarling and raging, but his body hurt so much it could snarl and rage all it wanted to. Lying still was a good thing.
Heat pressed on the warehouse, and Liam felt the tingle of an approaching storm. He sensed clouds building, the electricity that fused the air miles away.
"Where is the boy?" Liam asked
"Still here." The Lupine smiled. "I'm saving him for you, like I was told."
Liam then sensed Michael in the alley outside. The Lupine must have chased after him and tethered him. Liam tasted the boy's fear on the wind, arousing both Liam's protective nature and his innate instinct that the male offspring of another male had to be eliminated. The two feelings warred in him, escalating his confusion.
"And why haven't you rid yourself of me as I lay here helpless?" Liam asked.
"I know my place in the hierarchy. You will lead us to greatness."
"You've lost it, mate."
"You're the leader. I smell it on you. You defeated the only one greater than you, and now no Shifter can best you. I'm weak, but you will make me strong."
"Shite." Liam's neck felt like fire and at the same time, strangely light. Justin peeling away Liam's Collar had been the worst agony Liam had ever felt in his life. He'd screamed as the metal had unfused from his skin, his mind clouding with nothing but pain. When the fog cleared he'd found himself flat on his back, unable to move.
"The pain will go away," Justin said. "And then you'll be free."
"Terrific."
"Shifters are strong, my master. Stronger than any human will ever be. Why should we be slaves to them? When they put Collars on us, they only made us stronger."
Liam felt weak as a flea. "How did you figure that?"
"You feel it, don't you? The instincts you suppressed for so long, the strength you lost when the Collar was put on you. I bet at first you didn't have the strength to make it through a day without vomiting. We've learned how to live even with the oppression of the Collars. So when they come off, the instincts pour back, your strength comes back--twenty years worth of it in one go."
"Bloody hell."
Liam knew Justin was right, as crazy as the man sounded. His strength was slowly returning to his limbs, whatever drug he'd been given starting to wear off. Liam's sense of smell and hearing seemed sharper than ever, and the growing storm pounded at his brain.
The heightened scent ability was a little unfortunate, since Justin hadn't bathed in a long, long time. Justin didn't seem to mind, but then ferals had different ideas about cleanliness. To hell with that. Even if Liam were now feral, he was still taking showers.
Liam worked to mask his raw fear, and raw fear covered the killing instinct rising inside him. All his protectiveness was quickly ebbing. Michael was not his offspring. He should kill the cub while he could. Liam fought the urge with difficulty.
I am so screwed.
Liam thought of Kim, how terrified she'd be if she could know the thoughts that whirled through his brain.
Mate. Mine.
Liam wanted her--on her back, on her hands and knees, he didn't care. He wanted her here so he could bury himself inside her. Over and over again until she and her sassy mouth knew who had mastered her.
No, I'd never hurt her.
Kim would give him children, his brain ground on remorselessly. As many as Liam wanted. Birth control be damned. He'd find some way to counteract it and never allow her to take it again. He'd lock her in the attic room of his house until she obeyed. It was big up there--Connor could take Liam's room. And Liam would move into the master suite after he killed Dylan.
Oh, father god, help me.
Dylan should die. He was defeated, Liam now leader of the pride. Justin had known that without being told. Dylan should be driven out where he'd face death alone--or he could be given the dignity of letting Liam break his neck.
Glory would mourn him. But Glory was a be-damned Lupine, and who cared how much she howled? If she loved Dylan so much, she could join him.
Liam rolled over and pressed his face to the floor. This isn't me. These aren't my thoughts.
It's inside you. It's what's right. Give in to it.
"No!" he shouted.
Justin laughed. "I went through that too. It's much more fun to go with it."
Liam hated Justin's laugh. He hated the male for doing this to him. Liam's Collar lay on the floor about ten feet away. It was nothing but a piece of silver and black chain with a Celtic knot on it, a harmless bit of metal. Without it, Liam was free.
Liam climbed to his feet. Pain still gripped him, but it was starting to recede. He fixed his gaze on Justin.
Justin grinned. "You see? You're getting stronger. I'll show you how the Collars work, and we can go back to Shiftertown and start freeing Shifters. You're stronger than this Fergus, now. I can feel it. It won't take you long to kill him."
Liam growled. Justin backed up some more and let out a growl of his own.
Weak, mewling bastard who's made me want to kill my own father and make a slave ofmy mate.
Justin growled again, this one defensive. A growl of fear.
Wherever he'd come from, Justin must have been fairly far down in his hierarchy. He smelled wrong, weak, evil.
Liam followed Justin's advice and let the feral beast come. All the thoughts that had been spinning in his head focused into one specific thought, and Justin was its target.
Liam leapt, and Justin started to scream.
Chapter Twenty-one
Sean took Kim to the east side of Shiftertown, speaking little but tight with tension. Dylan remained behind, saying it was his job to keep coordinating the search.
"These streets are a maze," Kim said anxiously as they turned down yet another block.
"We can't search as well in a car."
"No kidding."
The roads were narrow and potholed, and blind alleys ran behind buildings like a maze without end. This part of Austin had been more or less abandoned when the Shifters moved in nearby. Kim had been a kid at the time, but she remembered her father saying that thriving businesses had moved out of the area and left it to Shifters and the homeless.
Not many homeless were around, which was odd. It was true that in the summer, vagrants left southern cities, like migrating birds, to find the cooler climes of the north. Even so, many stayed, panhandling from prosperous businessmen and politicians in downtown Austin. None lingered out here. Was that because they thought the pickings wouldn't be good or because they feared Shifters?
Whatever menace they felt, Kim picked it up as well. The humid air bristled with electricity, a prelude to a storm. She glanced at the horizon and saw that dark clouds were indeed building, thunderheads ominous. Austin didn't get many tornadoes, but some came through on occasion, and those clouds looked ready to play. All the more reason they needed to find Liam and Michael.
"I hope we find Michael before Nate and Spike do," Kim said. "I know they're helping, but I don't trust them. And I can't believe his name is Spike."
"He was a Buffy fan."
Kim had a surreal vision of Tattoo Guy eating pop-corn and cheering on Buffy and her pals, and wanted to laugh in nervous hysteria.
Sean, Shifter-fashion, would not let Kim walk ahead of him. He turned down yet another alley, shadows gathering in it from the storm and the coming night, and stopped so abruptly that Kim ran into his back.
"What?" she demanded.
"Call Dad."
"Mind telling me why?" Kim pulled out her cell phone as she tried to peer around him.
"We've found Michael." Sean walked slowly into the al
ley.
Kim's phone read "no service." Damn wireless providers. Perfect when you were in the middle of a teeming city where there were plenty of other ways to communicate, useless out where you needed them the most.
She could walk back down the long alleys behind the crumbling buildings until she found a good spot. Alone. Without Sean and his mean sword to protect her.
Kim ducked into the alley behind Sean. If they'd found Michael, they could grab him and hightail it out of here.
Sean slipped his sword out of its sheath without breaking stride. Oh, no. Please, no.
Kim raced after him, her sandals pattering on the broken asphalt. She reached the small body stretched out on the pavement the same time Sean did and went down on her knees beside him.
"Michael." Kim lifted him, breathing a sigh of relief to find him warm, his small heart beating. "Oh, thank God."
Michael whimpered, and Kim held him close. The boy's eyes were tightly closed, as though he'd withdrawn far into himself. Kim cradled him, rocked him, pressed her cheek to his hair. One of his hands was manacled, the chain stretching to a ring in the brick wall.
"You're all right, sweetheart," she said. "I have you. Sean, can you get the chain off him?"
Sean didn't sheathe the sword. "Something's dead."
"What?"
Sean's nostrils flared, and his eyes went white. Gripping his sword, he kicked the rest of the rotten boards free from the open doorway and ducked into the shadows of the building. A second later, Kim heard him exclaim violently.
Kim stood up. Michael clung to her, whispering, "The bad man. The bad man."
"What bad man, Michael?"
He didn't answer. The tether let her carry him just inside the shaded doorway. A wide warehouse floor opened out in front of her, an empty room a couple of stories high. Texas dust coated the floor and hung in the air.
Sean stood over a body sprawled in the middle of the floor. The man was large and naked, with shreds of clothes around him. Kim couldn't see his face, and fear stabbed through her.
"Liam?" she asked, heart in her throat. Please, please, no.
"No," Sean said. "I've never seen him before. But he's Shifter, and he's dead."
Sean solemnly raised the sword, point down, the hilt between both hands. He whispered words Kim couldn't catch as he brought the blade down into the Shifter's chest. Air around the fallen man seemed to shimmer. Then, as had the Shifter who'd attacked Kim in her bedroom, its body crumbled to dust.
"He was feral." Liam's rich voice rolled out of the shadows. Sean straightened and turned, and Liam himself walked toward them from the back of the warehouse. Kim went slack with relief. "He told me Fergus and Brian were experimenting on him," Liam went on. "They found a way to remove his Collar. That's what Brian was doing the night his girlfriend was killed, and that's why he couldn't tell anyone where he'd really been."
Kim put Michael down on the cool pavement, smoothed his hair, and reassured him she'd be right back. The boy lay down and curled into a ball, and Kim hurried inside. "Liam."
Sean put a large hand on Kim's shoulder and yanked her back. Kim collided with Sean's chest, and his hard hand kept her pinned.
"What are you doing? Let go of me."
Sean didn't release her. Liam kept walking toward them. He was shirtless, and angry scratches bled across his chest. But he didn't move as if he was hurt; he walked slowly, like a lion stalking its prey, every step deliberate, focused.
"Don't touch her," Liam said clearly to Sean.
Kim tried to start forward again, but Sean's iron grip held her back. "No," he said in her ear.
Liam stopped. "I said, get your fucking hands off her."
Kim went ice-cold. Sean let go of Kim's shoulder, but he didn't step away. "Let her take Michael home."
"Better idea. You run like hell and leave Kim and the boy to me."
Kim's heart pounded. "Liam, what is the matter with you?"
Liam walked into the light. His eyes were fixed, glittering, wrong. Around his throat was an angry red line where his Collar had been.
"He's feral," Sean said grimly.
"Oh, God."
Kim's heart pounded. No wonder Fergus wanted Brian dead; no wonder he'd told Brian to plead guilty and face the consequences. Fergus couldn't risk that Brian wouldn't tell a courtroom about their experiments on the Collars. Shit.
The Liam who stood before them was nothing like the Liam Kim knew. His warm smile, his loving blue eyes, the compassion that usually radiated from him--all had been wiped away. This man had hatred in his eyes, primal rage, the need to kill. He'd killed the feral in there and left Michael chained.
"Liam," she whispered.
The Lupine who'd invaded Kim's bedroom had terrified her. Having Liam's white-blue gaze trained on her now was ten times scarier. No other Shifter was powerful enough to stop him, and Liam knew it.
"Run away, Sean Morrissey," he said. "Or I'll kill you too."
"I have to stay. I'm the Guardian." Sean went on in a low voice, "I already sent one of my brother's souls to eternity, Liam. Please, please don't make me have to do it to you."
"You stood back and let him die."
Kim gasped. "Liam."
Sean flushed. "How the hell would you know, Liam? You weren't even there."
"I know you, Sean."
Sean's rage crackled, and the storm outside answered with a rumble. "Fuck you, Liam. Kenny died while you played good little deputy to a man you loathe."
"And Fergus will pay for that."
"Stop it!" Kim put herself between the two Shifters--not a reassuring place to be. "I know you're not thinking clearly right now, Liam, but fighting Sean isn't going to help. Kenny died, and I'm sorry, but you two killing each other won't bring him back. Do you think that's what he would have wanted, you remembering him by blaming each other?"
Liam's gaze swiveled to her. Being pinned with that stare had to be one of most frightening things that had ever happened to her.
She'd had sex with this man, watched him while he slept, held him when he hurt. Somewhere inside that walking menace was the Liam who mourned his dead brother, who teased Kim and worried about the missing Michael, who grieved that he'd hurt his father.
Please don't let that all be a sham. Please let that man still be in there.
Please let me reach him.
"Don't leave me," she said to him. "I love you."
Liam didn't move, didn't betray any emotion. "It's not love. You're my mate. We have the mate bond."
She put her hands on her hips. "I'm not a Shifter, thank you very much. I have emotions, not instincts, not mate-bonds. If I say I love you, that's what I mean. At least, I love Liam."
"Emotions are instincts. You dress them up and write songs about them, but that's what they are."
"Oh, way to romance a girl. I liked you better with the Collar."
"Of course you did. Because you could control me."
"Like anyone could ever control you, Liam Morrissey. The man who does whatever he pleases, Collar be damned."
Sean leaned down to her. "Do me a favor and run like hell instead of provoking him."
Liam roared. "I said, don't touch her!"
Michael started crying. Sean backed off. Kim headed for Michael, and found Liam blocking her way. She hadn't seen him move, but suddenly there he was, right in front of her.
"Michael's hurt and scared," Kim said to him. Right there with you, kid. "Let me take him home. His mother is worried."
"Sean, get the boy out of here. Before I give in to my instincts and kill him, and you."
Kim folded her arms, trying a glare. "What, you mean you haven't given in to your instincts already?"
"No. Sean, do it."
Kim sent Sean a shaky look. "I agree with him. Please get Michael out of here."
"And leave you here with him? Are you insane?"
"Liam is right about the mate-bond thing," Kim said. "I don't think he'll hurt me."
"You don't think so
?" Sean asked. "Not very convincing."
"Stop arguing. Michael has a mother worried sick about him, and he needs to go home. I'll be fine." She glanced at Liam. "I'm pretty sure."
"Kim, I've never seen him like this. He wasn't like this before we took the Collar. This is--something else."
"The instincts are enhanced," said a new voice.
Fergus pushed himself from the wide door frame where he'd been leaning and strolled inside. His own Collar was still intact, thank goodness, but he moved confidently, as though he knew he'd done something clever.
"See, this is why you shouldn't argue," Kim said to Sean. "You lose your window of opportunity to get away."
"Says the woman who never shuts up," Fergus said.
Kim turned what she hoped was a fearless gaze on Fergus. "Just what I need. Another asshole to make my day complete."
"Your mate has a mouth," Fergus said to Liam. "You need to teach her manners. If you don't, I will."
Liam pivoted to face Fergus, his boot heel turning on the gritty cement floor. Fergus stopped, his body coming alert.
"Then again," Kim said. "I might enjoy this."
The world had gone to hell. The smell of death clogged Liam's nostrils, despite Sean already sending the feral's body to dust. He smelled fear as well. Watery terror from the cub. Fear from his own brother. Fear from Kim, his lover, his pride mate.
Fergus's fear was the strongest of all.
The whole place stank of terror, enough to gag him. If Liam killed all of them, except Kim, he could get rid of the smell.
A little corner of his brain tapped him. What the hell is the matter with you? Sean was right--it hadn't been like this before the Collar. They'd lived freely, hunting when they wanted to, going hungry when there was no food to be had. They'd huddled together--three brothers, father, and mother--warming one another, playing together in the good times, sticking together in the bad. Loving each other.
Now Liam hated every Shifter in this room, Fergus especially. He didn't hate Kim, but she drove him the most crazy. He wanted to get her away from the others, to keep her safe. They wanted her--Shifters needed mates, and Sean had never claimed a mate. Sean was a danger.
The cub was a tiny thing, no threat, but it was the offspring of another Shifter. Kill it, Liam's senses whispered .
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