“Kim offered us the use of her house,” Dylan said, taking a sip from his bottle of Guinness.

Glory smiled. “Kim’s generous.” She couldn’t stop herself from feasting her eyes on the man at her side—tall, blue-eyed, hard-bodied, with a quiet strength that belied the ferocity with which he’d fought earlier today. She watched him draw beer from the bottle, his mouth moving as he savored it, and her female places squeezed.

“Kim knows,” Dylan said. “Sean and Andrea will be wanting their space, and Kim said she got in enough food to satisfy even Shifters.”

“Plus she has cable. Luxury.”

Dylan stopped, his eyes quiet. “I don’t mind anywhere we stay, as long as I’m with you, my girl.”

Glory felt the mate bond for him wrap around her heart, and she nearly dissolved with its warmth. Taking a mate for the second time would be different, but the love would be no less intense. She understood that now.

She leaned into Dylan. “I’m feeling a bit of that mating frenzy coming on myself. Think anyone would notice if we slipped away?”

“I’m thinking they wouldn’t miss us.”

The smile Dylan slanted her was primal, and Glory’s excitement doubled. She slid her hand to his fine ass as they walked around the house to his truck, and then she leaned her head on his shoulder while he drove her across Austin and up into the hills.

Sean and Andrea didn’t make it upstairs before their clothes came off, pieces scattered down the stairs like a breadcrumb trail. Then Andrea was under Sean on her bed, right where she wanted to be.

The lovemaking was intense, Sean sliding into her while she opened to take him deep. Andrea knew in her heart a cub had already begun forming inside her, knew it with the tingle of warmth that was an extension of the mate bond.

She’d tell Sean later. Right now, he was pressing into her, his eyes flickering from blue to white and back again, the Collar gleaming on his bare throat. She arched against him, loving the feel of his strong chest on her br**sts, stirring more and more fires.

He was hard, he was big, and he was driving Andrea into the bed for all he was worth. Sean’s hands turned to claws as the frenzy drove them on, and so did hers, both of them growling as they suppressed the change to keep on doing this.

As the night moved on, Sean and Andrea kept loving each other, the mating frenzy claiming them, the mate bond winding them tightly together. Their bodies were drenched in sweat, their lips raw with kissing, their bodies twined so close that Andrea didn’t care whether they ever came loose.

Eventually, as cold night warmed to day, their raw, frantic sex wound down into tender, gentle sex. That in turn wound down, more slowly, into sleep. They drifted off, cuddled against each other.

When Andrea woke again, the sun was high, and Sean and she lay together in a tangle of warm limbs.

It was quiet outside now, all of Shiftertown sleeping off a collective hangover. Mate blessings were few and far between, and Shifters didn’t have much to celebrate in this world of captivity. Last night they’d celebrated both the mate blessing and the conclusion of a damn good fight, so they’d gone at it double force.

The sun warmed the window as Andrea watched Sean sleep, her heart full of love. Sean was a hot, hard-bodied male, and he belonged to her.

Sean opened his eyes, which were deep blue and clear of sleep. He gave her a smile. “I didn’t have time to give you your gift last night, love.”

“Gift?” Andrea grinned back. “You mean all that sex wasn’t a gift?”

“Oh, aren’t you the amusing one?” Sean kissed the tip of her nose, rolled away, and took a tissue-wrapped package from the nightstand drawer. “For you.”

Andrea took it, feeling something soft beneath the paper. “I didn’t get you anything.”

Sean’s eyes warmed. “Yes, you did.”

Andrea paused to give him a long, satisfying kiss, then she tore off the tissue and lifted a pair of lovely black silk panties between her fingers. On the back of the panties, bright red script spelled out Smart Ass.

“Goddess, Sean, these are great. Where did you find them?”

“Same place you found mine. The girl there was happy to help me out.”

Andrea remembered the young clerk in the store, the one friendly to Shifters and interested in Connor. She’d probably had a blast helping Sean pick them out.

Andrea swung the panties around one finger. “I’ll have to wear them. But not, I’m thinking, just now.”

Sean’s look was wicked. “No, we definitely aren’t needing any panties right now.” He took them from her and dropped them to the nightstand as he pushed her back down into the mattress. His kiss was warm and languid but held an edge that said more wild lovemaking was to come.

They were deep into the kiss when Andrea heard a car door slam, and Sean raised his head again.

“My second gift has arrived,” he said.

Much as she liked gifts, Andrea wasn’t sure she relished the interruption. Gifts could wait. “How many did you get me?”

“Only as many as I know you need.” Sean’s eyes held a mysterious glint. “Don’t you want to see what it is?”

With Sean lying on top of her all naked and fine? Andrea wet her lips. “They can leave the package on the porch.”

Sean lifted away from her, removing his delicious warmth. “No, love. This is something you have to get yourself.”

“Right now?”