strangest of all, liam had listened to her. kim had told him more in ten minutes than she'd told abel in the year she'd been dating him.

did that say something about liam or something about abel?

kim set down the emery board and picked up her cell phone. she punched abel's number and listened to his phone ring.

"yes?" he answered. he sounded rushed.

"hey, it's me."

"kim?" he sounded baffled. "what is it? was i supposed to meet you tonight?"

"no. i just thought we could talk."

"oh." pause as he rustled something on the other end of the phone. "can i call you back? i'm in the middle of about ten things."

kim waited for her anger to come. but she felt-nothing. "sure."

"tomorrow. sleep tight, honey." click.

"yeah. sweet dreams, babe." kim keyed off the phone and dropped it on the table. abel was a workaholic trying to make a name for himself at the firm. of course he was in the middle of ten things. he always was.

maybe it's time to cut that tie, a little voice in the back of her mind said. maybe it's beyond time.

you know you didn't think that until you met liam...

kim picked up the phone again and scrolled to where liam had typed in his name and number. it looked so normal, the four letters of his name, then an area code and seven-digit phone number like everyone else had.

you call me, any time of the day or night.

had he really meant that? or was it a mere platitude? call me, honey. except when i'm busy, watching tv, out with my friends, or not interested in you right now.

just to be a pain in the ass, kim pressed the button to call the number. one ring, and then liam's warm voice filled her ear.

"kim!" as though this was the best call he'd received all day. "you all right, love?"

"yes, i'm fine," kim said, her entire body warming. "i was..."

"checking to see if i'd answer?" liam's amusement came across loud and clear.

"something like that. how's sandra doing?"

"better. sean talked to her. you're not still working, are you?"

"i'm always working, liam. cases don't keep a nine-to-five schedule."

his chuckle sent a shiver down her spine. "you need to stop now and again, sweetheart. take it from me. i know."

kim realized. "oh, you're at work now, aren't you? at the bar. i'm sorry, i shouldn't have interrupted."

"i told you, love. anytime. you rest easy, now."

take that, abel. "thanks, liam. you too."

a pause. it stretched on.

"you still there?" she asked.

"yes." he sounded suddenly subdued. "good night, kim. call me again tomorrow, all right?"

she promised to, clicked off the phone, and held it to her lips. her own boyfriend might or might not remember to call her back, but this shifter had sounded happy to hear from her, even if he was up to his butt in bar receipts. she wasn't sure whether that made her feel good or lonelier than ever.

chapter four

liam slid his phone into his belt as he mounted his harley, waiting for sean to join him. kim's voice touched the raw sexual being inside him, the one that had wanted to unfasten her straining blouse buttons in his office. even more warming was the thought that she'd made the choice to call him.

he'd stopped himself from asking, what are you doing right now? what are you wearing? or not wearing?

liam thought again of the directions to kim's house he'd easily brought up on a computer search. maybe after this takedown, he'd drive out there to check up on her. maybe she'd let him in, and maybe he could persuade her up to her bedroom for another foot massage...

"everything all right?" sean asked as he straddled the bike behind liam.

liam shifted uncomfortably, willing his growing hard-on to calm down. "it's fine. why wouldn't it be?"

"because that thing in your pants looks painful."

liam never found it easy to lie to his brother. "i was talking to kim."

sean started to laugh. he moved the sword strapped to his back to a comfortable position, then slid his arms around liam's waist. "you have it bad, liam. give up the dream and go shag a pretty shifter. annie maybe."

liam started the bike. "she works at the bar now. i never get involved with the help."

"i didn't say get involved. i said shag her. she's been happy to oblige you in the past."

"it's you she wants, sean. i see her sweet gaze following your ass."

"can we get a move on? i'd like to make this kill and be done with it."

liam didn't reply. he knew sean needed to calm his nerves, and stirring up his big brother was his favorite method.

liam glided the bike, a harley he'd bought for next to nothing and restored, into the street, then turned the corner and drove out of shiftertown. he headed through crowded streets to the highway that would take them east out of the city. in his rearview mirrors, the skyline of downtown austin glowed against the dark sky, the lit-up dome of the capitol a yellow beacon.

they turned down an inky-black road past bastrop and rode across open country. fergus's trackers had called right after liam and sean had finished their burgers, saying they'd followed the feral to some abandoned warehouses way east of town. the feral had made camp there, and the shit wasn't going anywhere, so could sean and liam please bestir themselves and come do their jobs?

if the trackers ran true to form, liam knew they wouldn't show their asses if there was any kind of fight. they'd hightail it out of there as soon as liam and sean arrived. it was the trackers' job only to point the way, after all.

liam parked well down the road from the warehouse, he and sean doing the last stretch on foot. a chain-link fence surrounded the property of the once-prosperous business, but the flimsy barrier had been sliced open in plenty of places, with one whole section of it knocked flat. crickets chirped in loud profusion outside the fence, but once liam and sean stepped over the fallen chain link, all animal noises ceased.

liam smelled the stench right after that. even a human would notice it, but to a shifter the smell was like a body blow. liam felt his lips curl back, his teeth elongate into fangs.

he tried to suppress his killing instinct, but it wasn't easy. dylan seemed to think he and sean would come out here and solve the problem in cool detachment. but dylan hadn't seen the shifter woman's body, hadn't found her children. liam wanted to savage, no offers of mercy. so did sean, probably even more than liam did.

without a word, the brothers separated, sean unstrapping the sword from his back. liam moved noiselessly through the shadows of the warehouse and stepped through a door that gaped open to the night.

the stench made him gag. liam's cat's eyes adjusted to the dark, and he walked forward, scanning each sable shadow.

before liam had made it halfway across the warehouse floor, the feral stepped forward to meet him. he didn't look as wild as liam had thought he would. he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, sweat-soaked in the humid texas night. except for being caked with dirt, not wearing a collar, and his oppressive bo, he looked like any other shifter from shiftertown. of course his neck was so black with filth, liam wouldn't have been able to see a collar if he had one.

"don't you take baths, man?" liam asked.

the shifter snarled, his face elongating into something between human and wolf. a lupine. bloody wonderful.

"there's good soap nowadays," liam went on. "makes you sweet as a garden. you should try it. that is, if you're not busy killing wee ones like the bastard you are."

the lupine grated, "traitor. collared pet."

"no, lad. survivor. we don't go around murdering anymore, didn't you hear? especially not the cubs, and damn you don't know how much i want to kill you for that."

"i wanted the woman. not her spawn by another shifter."

"those days are over, lick-brain." liam took the collar out of his pocket, feeling the strength of the steel, the bite of magic that wound through it. "i'm offering you this chance because my father makes me play by the rules, no matter what. me, i'd rather kill you." he stepped forward. "one size fits all. come on, take it like a man."

"i'm not a man. neither are you. are you too weak to fight me, feline?"

"no," liam said. "but you have two choices. face me, or face the guardian."

the other shifter tensed. "the guardian isn't here."

"yes, he is." sean stepped out of the shadows behind the shifter. he drew the broadsword, its blade ringing in the still air.

the shifter swung to sean. he inhaled sharply, then whirled back to liam and did the sniff-fest again.

"i only smelled..." the shifter broke off, his light blue wolf eyes fixed on liam.

liam held out the collar, still offering. "you take the collar, i might resist killing you. maybe you didn't understand what you were doing. i have about two brain cells that believe that. you refuse...well, let's just say our sean is even more pissed at you than i am."

liam felt the air contract as the man shifted all the way. he didn't bother taking off his clothes; he let them fray as his wolf's body split the fabric. sean waited, and liam wondered if the lupine understood how much sean was holding back. the brothers' instructions were to kill the feral only as a last resort.

the wolf shook off the remains of the clothes, his eyes filled with rage. liam didn't move. "come on, lad. shiftertown pretty much wants you dead without quarter. dylan convinced me to give you a chance. don't throw that away."

the wolf snarled. he rose on his hind legs, returning to human form. now he was naked, not a pretty sight.

"i smell it on you." his nostrils flared in contempt. "a human. you scent-marked a human woman." how the shifter could smell anything beyond his own stink, liam didn't know, but his blood ran cold. "abomination," the shifter hissed.

"you know big words, do you?" liam asked. "let me give you some short ones: take the f**king collar."

with a crackle of bones, the shifter morphed back into a wolf. liam braced himself for the attack, but the wolf abruptly whirled and sprinted in the other direction.

sean was there, his sword biting into the shifter's side. the wolf didn't slow. he howled, leapt out of the warehouse, and ran off into the night.

"shit." sean brought the sword up again. "idiot!"

he could have meant liam, the shifter, or himself. liam balled his fists as fear poured through him. "bloody hell, he's going to track her."

"what are you talking about?"

"kim. he smelled her on me."

"he's been wounded by the guardian's sword. he won't get far. we'll ride after him and finish it."

"not wounded enough." the feral had seemed unusually strong-he must have been to kill a shifter female guarding her cubs. shifter females didn't go down easily, and one protecting her precious young would fight twice as hard. liam could taste the feral's adrenaline spike in the air, a more vicious tang than it should have had. something was wrong with him that sharply ramped up liam's fear.

liam started swiftly out of the warehouse, running by the time he hit the weed-infested parking lot.

"liam." sean sprinted after him. "if he makes it, he'll track the scent back to shiftertown first, and dad will make short work of him."

"not if he's as good as i think he is. he'll track both my scent and hers. kim took that double-scent home with her."