Liam.

Glory half changed, trying to meet the attack, but her Collar kept sparking, her body jerking with pain.

Dylan knocked into Liam’s side, shifting as he went. Liam’s clothes ripped as the wildcat burst out of them. Then the two were rolling over each other with savage intensity, snarling, raking claws, biting. Their Collars triggered, muscles and fur shuddering with the shocks, but they didn’t stop.

“Mate,” Glory rasped. Her hands were at her neck, the Collar stark black against her white throat. “Stupid. I attacked his mate. He couldn’t help it. He had to defend…”

The rest of the Shifters moved back to give the fighting wildcats room. Sean watched, white-faced, looking poised to run back into the house.

“Stop them,” Kim shouted at him.

He answered, tight-lipped. “I can’t. I’m the Guardian.”

“So guard something!”

Connor shrieked. Shifters jumped, turned his way. Connor balled his fists. “No,” he yelled. “No!”

Sean grabbed for him, but Connor shook him off and leapt for the two snarling wildcats. He’d half changed to a gangly young wildcat when his Collar went off in midleap. His scream echoed through the clearing.

“Connor,” Kim shouted.

Glory dragged herself up and ran to him. Still Sean hung back, watching, waiting.

Connor’s Collar kept sparking, and he keened as he had when Fergus had done the Summoning. He shifted back to human, his clothes in shreds.

Glory pulled him into her arms. “Kim, help me,” she called.

One of the wildcats rolled away from the other and landed against a tree. Its limbs distorted, and Liam emerged, naked, dirt and long, bloody scratches streaking his body. The other cat became Dylan, lying flat on his back in the mud, panting.

“Kim!” Glory yelled.

Glory was rocking Connor on her lap. Kim went to them and dropped to her knees behind Connor, feeling ineffectual.

“He needs your touch,” Glory said. “You’re family now.”

Kim put her hands on Connor’s bare back. “It’s all right, Con.”

“He needs more than that. Goddess, how do you humans survive?”

Because being human is all about personal space? Shifters’ personal space was different. Kim had thought she understood—Shifters liked to touch, the same way cats rubbed against other cats they knew and liked.

But she realized now that there was more to it. The Shifters’ need to touch wasn’t simply for affection; it was comfort and reassurance. And maybe release from pain? Kim remembered how Sean and Liam had held Sandra between them to calm her the first day Kim had come to Shiftertown. Kim had thought that the three were being sexual, but she knew now that there hadn’t been anything sexual about their group huddle.

Kim slid her arms around Connor and leaned onto his back. “It’s all right, sweetie,” she said. “They’ve stopped.”

Glory had Connor’s head on her shoulder, her arm around him. Connor had stopped his horrible keening, but he shivered violently.

He really was young, Kim had realized when he’d shifted. As a wildcat, Connor was underdeveloped, little more than a cub, never mind he was twenty in human years and attending college. The gulf between his world and Kim’s gaped wide.

Gulf. Oh, hell, Silas.

Kim looked up. Silas remained with Annie, who’d taken a protective stance in front of him. Silas’s eyes were wide, but the man had seen the worst areas of Iraq and Afghanistan. Two Shifter-cats battling it out shouldn’t faze him. She hoped.

“Why didn’t your Collars work?” he asked into the silence.

Dylan still lay on his back with his eyes closed, his face ashen. Liam answered, “They did. This is pain you’re looking at, lad. Dad was teaching me a bit of a lesson, is all.”

Liam’s answer was evasive, but he wasn’t lying about the pain. He looked awful, and so did Dylan.

Ellison had shifted back to human form but hadn’t resumed his clothes. He went to Liam, helped him to his feet, put an arm around him. Sean stepped to Liam’s other side, wrapped his arm around Liam’s shoulder, nuzzled his cheek.

“Go to him, Kim,” Glory said. “I’ve got Connor.”

“What about Dylan?” Dylan lay alone, breathing hard, his body white and gleaming with sweat.

“Leave Dylan be. Liam’s your mate. He needs you.”

Kim gave Connor one last hug and unfolded to her feet. She never could decide whether Glory was a complete bitch or a complicated woman. Glory’s tongue was sharp, but she looked up at Kim with such anguish in her eyes that Kim suddenly wanted to hug her.

She resisted and went to Liam.

Ellison relinquished his place at Liam’s side to Kim. Kim kept her eyes averted from Ellison’s very naked body, but Ellison didn’t seem to notice or care.

“We need to get him to the house, away from everyone,” Sean said from Liam’s other side.

Kim nodded. She and Sean helped Liam walk, step by shaky step, to the back porch, and inside the quiet Morrissey house. It was dark, no one having been inside since sunset, but neither she nor Sean bothered to turn on the light.

“Get me to the couch,” Liam said. “I’ll be all right.”

Kim and Sean lowered him gently. Kim took Liam’s hand between hers, and Sean started to sit down next to him.

“Stop fussing like old biddies,” Liam growled. “It’s not that bad. You need to make sure Connor’s all right.”