His words tugged at Glory’s heart, but he wasn’t getting off that easy. “What has that to do with choosing a mate?”

“I chose a mate once upon a time. She died.”

“I know that. I’m sorry. Really, I am. I lost my mate too, you know I did.”

That had been a hundred years ago. Glory’s pack and her mate’s had lived rough in the heart of the Rockies, but they’d been happy. Glory was robust even for a Shifter female, but fecundity had been low in both packs, and she’d never conceived. Within a year of her mate blessing, her mate’s pack had been attacked by ferals, and they’d been wiped out, down to the last wolf. Her mate had hidden her beforehand so that she’d be safe, a decision Glory had fought like fury, but she realized now that if she hadn’t obeyed him, she’d be dead too. The ferals would have taken her, used her, and let her die.

Her parents’ pack had found her days later, lying in shock among the dead. The Guardian had sent the souls of the entire pack to the afterlife, and Glory had been taken back to her family. She’d never wanted to mate again.

That is, until her pack had been relocated to this Shiftertown twenty years ago, and she’d moved in next door to Dylan. Life went on, she’d learned, even after horror.

“I know,” Dylan said. Glory had told him the entire story, which he would have heard anyway from Wade, her pack leader, even if she hadn’t. No one kept secrets from Dylan.

Glory drew a breath. “I’m not trying to tell you to get over Niamh. I’m saying I want more than an on-again, off-again affair with you. There is happiness in the world, Dylan, in spite of everything, and I want it. If you can’t give it to me, then I don’t want you here.” She wet her lips. “I don’t want you tearing me apart.”

Dylan moved to Glory slowly, as he might toward a hurt cub. His hands on her shoulders nearly undid her. “You are so strong.” He caressed her skin below her Collar. “So strong that I never knew you were hurting.”

“I guess I hide it well.”

“You do, that.” Dylan leaned closer and nuzzled her. “I’m sorry, my girl,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry I can’t be what you want.”

The tears slid out before Glory could blink them back. “Then you understand why I need you to leave?”

Dylan nodded. He nuzzled her again, and his lips grazed her cheek. When he backed away, she thought she would die of grief.

Not the same, her common sense told her. He’s not dying; he’s just leaving. But right now, her heart couldn’t tell the difference. Gone was gone.

“You’ll want your things,” she said in a strangled voice. Not that he’d brought much into her house; the entirety would fit into an overnight bag.

“Throw them away. Or leave them outside the door and I’ll have Liam fetch them later. Your choice.”

Possessions meant so little to a Shifter, especially this Shifter. “What will you do?” she asked.

Dylan shrugged, gave her a little smile. “Who knows? But I’m good at taking care of myself. Didn’t I have to raise three sons on my own?”

Glory nodded, unable to speak anymore. Dylan wiped a tear from her cheek and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “Be well, love.”

And then he left her, walking out the door and back down the porch steps in the same even stride he’d used to mount them. Without stopping, looking back, or even glancing at his own house, he got into his pickup, started it, and pulled smoothly away.

Glory waited until the sound of the truck had faded into the distance, then she walked upstairs, entered her bedroom that still smelled of him, and pulled down the shades. Only then did she let herself fall across the bed and weep until she had no tears left.

“So what did you think of my dad?” Andrea asked as Sean drove rapidly down Thirty-Fifth. “My stepdad, I mean.”

Sean glanced at her, his eyes still holding the fires they had last night and this morning, and again when he came to tell her that Liam wanted them to go back to the bar in north Austin. The throbbing of the bond hadn’t gone away. She felt it wrapping around her heart, squeezing tight.

“I liked him,” Sean was saying. “You said he was a good man, and he is, I could see that.”

“I miss him.” Andrea sighed.

“I can try to have him transferred here, if you want. And if he’d be wanting that. It would mean leaving his pack.”

“You can do that? The humans told him he couldn’t come with me, and then a pack here would have to let him in ...”

“You let me and Liam worry about that.”

He had such power and spoke about it so casually, hands resting lightly on the wheel. His generosity touched her.

She grinned at him. “If you’re this nice to all the girls you get into your bed, I’m surprised you don’t have a line at your door. Maybe stretching all the way down the street.”

Sean glanced at her, fire dancing between them. “Only ones I want for my mate, love.”

“So the rest of them must just be after your fine ass.”

“No woman’s ever bought me underwear for my ass, that’s for certain. But what can I do? Lupines like to play. You throw a stick, they race after it. Cats wouldn’t dream of doing that.”

Andrea drew her finger across her lip, wetting it. “But you give cats a little ... nip and they go insane.”

Sean stared at her a moment longer before traffic on the curving road dragged his attention back to it. He moved in the seat, as though something in his pants had tightened. “And now, it’s the tease.”

“I don’t have much else to do. Teasing you fills the time.”

Another sideways glance, the sparkle in his eyes stoking the fire high. “Would you be willing to fill it with something else?”

“Not right now,” Andrea said. “You’re driving, and we’re on a mission.”

“Mmm, I’m thinking some Shifters are going to be damn sorry they’re pulling me away from the mating frenzy.”

“Maybe it’s why Liam wanted you to do this instead of him.”

“Could be. If they take too much time messing with me, I might tear them up for interrupting us.”

“Don’t get too carried away. Your Collar will go off, and they’ll just laugh at you.”