"discrimination is never funny."

"you're a righteous woman, kim. i like that."

"how can you just sit there?"

"i usually sit when i'm drinking coffee. or i lean against something. if i lie on my back, it goes down the wrong way." kim started to rage, and liam reached over and took her hand. "i'm sorry, love. i'm glad you care so much. it's sweet. but i'm not bothered."

"how can you not be bothered to have people walk all over you? abel acted like you were behind a viewing wall in a zoo."

"because they don't walk all over me." he glanced around, but they were relatively alone in their corner of the restaurant. "we don't ever let them. do you understand?"

"not really."

liam lifted his coffee again. "neither does fergus. that's why he chose the shiftertown out in the desert. he can't stand for anyone to bruise his ego."

kim sat in silence, running her finger around the rim of her cup. she spoke carefully, as though she had to choose each word. "what you mean is, you don't get upset when they won't let you into restaurants or forbid you having cable, because those things aren't important to you."

"now, you're catching on."

"and abel doesn't bother you because you don't value his opinion."

"not really. on the other hand, he says anything nasty like that to you again, i'll crush him."

kim had a sudden vision of a lion lying on a veldt in complete relaxation, swatting an obnoxious fly with his tail. the fly had abel's head. the same lion would have cubs climbing all over him, which he'd turn and greet with a lick.

"it's like we live in a different world from you," kim said. "and we don't even know it."

"something like that."

the look she gave him was stunned. "i've been feeling sorry for you."

"don't worry about that, love." he grinned. "if last night was a pity f**k, i'm all for them."

she turned bright red. "it wasn't. and don't talk about sex while i'm trying to get my head straight."

"i was thinking about doing more than talking about it."

"stop." she pressed her palms flat on the table. "when you do that, i can't think."

"i'm glad. thinking, it's an overrated activity."

"liam, where does fergus get all his money?"

liam managed to look blank. "does fergus have money?"

"you know he does. there's that underground complex for one, and all that artwork for another. it didn't spring there overnight."

"shifters live a long time, and some are good with money."

"but shifters aren't supposed to have much money."

"no." liam took a calming sip of coffee. trust kim to pry at their most basic secrets, leaving liam to have to think of ways of explaining. he didn't want to lie, not to the woman he'd chosen as mate, but at the same time she wanted to rip the lid off everything they desperately needed to keep protected.

"how do you think we live, sweetheart?" he asked her, keeping his voice down. "we're only allowed low-wage jobs, and yet we're expected to feed our families, pay the rent. you don't think i live on what i make as a part-time bar manager, do you?"

"i did notice you had a casual attitude about going to work. as in, you never go."

"but i have the job. so the human committees can mark down on their sheets that i have employment and be happy that they've done well by me."

"so you do have money?"

"now then, kim, a man would think you didn't want him for his looks and his fine personality."

kim flushed again. "you obviously don't want me prying, but you expect me to be your mate-for life-without explaining what's really going on with you."

liam laid his hand lightly over hers. "i was teasing. let's just say my family is provided for. as will be my mate and my offspring."

"offspring. now we're back in dangerous territory."

"i thought all women would want to know that their mate can take care of the cubs. but all right." liam withdrew his hands. "let's talk about brian."

kim looked surprised at the change of subject. "all right, let's talk about why fergus doesn't want me to save him. why he wants brian to plead guilty."

"i wish i knew, love. brian's no threat to fergus, nowhere near challenging for leadership. fergus has helped brian and his family in the past. they aren't close, but not enemies."

"maybe brian pissed him off somehow."

"if he did, i never heard about it. i would have heard." it bothered him that he knew little of what had gone on between brian and fergus. liam had always thought he had his finger firmly on the pulse of shiftertown. he knew everyone, and they knew him. if a shifter were in trouble, someone would tell him or sean. that was the way it worked. in brian's case, it hadn't.

kim said, "when i first came to see you, you told me you didn't know much about brian."

"i was trying to put you off. a human poking around in shiftertown is dangerous."

"but you took me to see his mother."

"i liked you." that liking was growing into something far deeper, perilously deeper. the joy that flashed through him every time he saw kim's beautiful eyes and sassy smile grew stronger each day. the thought should dismay him, yet it didn't.

mating could start off as nothing more than a drive to reproduce, and some shifters never moved beyond that. but others, like his father and mother, his brother kenny and mate sinead, had developed a relationship that went beyond mating, even beyond love. it was a bond humans couldn't understand, and liam felt it forging between himself and kim.

it was a heady feeling, and one he feared would turn into worse pain than any he'd ever experienced. the collar's torture would be nothing compared to kim breaking his heart.

kim frowned at her coffee. "i can't believe that now that i have good questions to ask brian, you won't let me near him. you're not making my job easy." she looked up, an idea lighting her eyes. "but wait a sec, i can't believe fergus wouldn't let brian's mother talk to him."

"possibly. clan rules are one thing; maternal ties are another. sacred, you could say."

"the same way fergus can't mess with me if i'm your mate."

liam nodded. "he can't unless i let him."

"let him? what's all this 'let' shit? shifters don't understand the term 'feminism,' do they?"

"i wouldn't say that, love. shifter females are no pushovers. but realize that shifters have lived in small groups for thousands of years, the males protecting the females and the cubs. it's instinctive for us. this is the first time we've dwelled in close communities-we still had the clans, but we rarely saw others in our clan. it's taking us a little bit of time to adjust."

she watched him in curiosity, one finger still rubbing the rim of her cup. liam thought about her sweeping the same finger over his c**k and instantly got hard again.

"where did you live before?" she asked. "i mean in ireland, before you came to shiftertown? you told abel you had a castle."

"a castle. that we did."

"with battlements and everything?"

"it was mostly a ruin by the time we moved in, but we fixed it up and made it livable."

"what did the irish think of you? this was before shifters came out, right?"

"oh, they had all kinds of explanations for us. the ones inclined to believe in ghost stories thought we were the fae, and that wasn't far off. lucky for them, shifters are ten times kinder than the fae. others thought we were former ira come to hide out. the more skeptical just said we were crazy. but everyone knew we kept the village protected, so no one tried to drive us out."

kim was watching him now, a bit like her office colleagues had, but liam didn't mind so much being subjected to her blue-eyed scrutiny. "why did you come to austin if you had a fine castle in ireland, and everyone loved you?"

liam shrugged. "once the traitorous bastard shifter in england sold his story and demonstrated that he could shape-shift, ireland got a little dangerous for us. people who needed money started taking bounties on shifters, dead or alive. kenny's mate, sinead, was pregnant, and we couldn't risk her getting hunted. we heard that in this country, shifters were being herded into camps rather than exterminated, but allowed to live in safety. so we packed up, and here we are."

"but sinead-connor's mom-died anyway."

"that she did." the sadness of her death had never gone away. "but if we'd stayed in ireland, we'd likely have lost connor too. he came early and was so weak. he needed quiet and medical care. here, me and dad, sean and kenny, we were able to look after him without having to worry about fighting off villagers with pitchforks."

"are you saying that you took the collar to save him?"

"pretty much."

"and then a feral shifter killed kenny." kim's eyes flashed with rage. "bastard."

liam's heart warmed at her anger. she understood. "may hell rot all feral shifters."

"ferals are the ones who refused the collar, right? why do they kill other shifters?"

liam's deep anger stirred. "because in their eyes, we betrayed them. instead of waiting to get slaughtered or watching our children die, we chose to sacrifice our freedom and band together. what infuriates them most is that we now live with other species of shifters-which, to ferals, is even worse than letting humans believe they tell us what to do."

"safety in numbers?"

"and strength." liam smiled. "when we buried our cross-species hatred, we got stronger. we helped each other instead of fighting. shifters were scattered and dying out. now we're growing in number again. and growing stronger."

"are you telling me that shiftertowns aren't so much places of captivity as they are fortresses? no matter what humans think they are?"

"i'd say sanctuaries, but you're not far from wrong." he lost his smile. "do you understand now why fergus doesn't want a human learning all our secrets?"

kim glanced around, but still, no one had come to sit near them. the coffee shop was pretty much deserted, the lunch crowd not yet surging through austin's streets. "then why are you telling me?"

a nonchalant shrug. "you're my mate. i tell you everything."

"sure you do. you're saying that you live in shiftertowns for your own ends and that you don't care about the things humans keep you from having-like cable and new cars and high-paying jobs. i sort of understand that. but the collars are still cruel."

"they are. invented by a half-fae with no love for shifters. the truth is shifters weren't all that violent in the wild. we used to hunt animals to eat-now we get our meat from the supermarket. but then, same with humans. we fight among ourselves for dominance or to protect the pride, but no indiscriminate slaughter."

"this from a man who killed a shifter in my bedroom and was about to battle his clan leader yesterday morning."

he shrugged. "extenuating circumstances."

"and you are supposed to hate other shifter species?"

"we've learned to suppress our prejudices for the health of us all. mostly. i count ellison my friend, but i can still call him dog breath."