Ronan let out another growl, this one louder. “No. We wait for Liam.”

For answer Tiger reached over and broke the chain that held Walker to the wall, then pulled the handcuff open from Walker’s wrist.

Ronan was on his feet. “Damn it, Tiger. What are you doing? And did you have to break the chain? We need it for Scott.”

Carly picked up the end of the chain and examined the place where Tiger had sheared it off. “Sheesh, who is Scott, and why in the world do you have to chain him to your wall?”

“Scott’s going through his Transition,” Elizabeth answered, as though chaining people up was commonplace in her house. “When his fighting instincts get too bad, we have to restrain him. It’s either that or replace the furniture every day. And Scott worries he’ll hurt Coby.”

She cuddled the little boy, who was already waking up. Coby looked around with unfocused brown eyes at the many people gathered in his house, opened his mouth, and let out an annoyed yell.

The sound went straight into Tiger’s brain and stirred a basic, primal instinct. He and Ronan moved at the same time, Elizabeth saying, “It’s all right. He’s just hungry. And wants attention. Don’t you, little guy?”

Tiger reached Coby before Ronan did, and Elizabeth relinquished him to Tiger. As Tiger lifted the boy, Coby unscrunched his face, stopped crying, and gave a few happy kicks in the air.

“I love how Tiger can do that,” Elizabeth said. “It’s like magic.”

Tiger nuzzled Coby’s forehead, then handed him back to his mother. “I should see Scott,” he said. “Make sure he’s okay.”

He headed for the kitchen, where he knew Ronan’s three foster cubs lingered, listening to the adults. Behind him, Ronan said, “Walker’s gone.”

Tiger paused at the kitchen door, but he’d already known Walker had made use of the open window to escape. “He’ll be back,” Tiger said.

“Shit, Tiger,” Ronan snarled, his bear temper coming through. “Why are you doing this to me? Liam’s going to skin me alive. I’ll end up a bear rug on his living room floor.”

“Walker will be back,” Tiger repeated, knowing he was right. He went on into the kitchen.

Scott, a black bear Shifter in his late twenties, whose change from cub to full-grown male was making him crazy, grinned at Tiger and held up his hand. Tiger, who’d learned about high fives from both Scott and Connor, slapped his palm, then caught the young man’s hand in a tight clasp.

Cherie, the female cub going on twenty-one as humans figured years, gave Tiger an impulsive hug. Olaf, who’d changed back to his ten-year-old boy form and resumed shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers, flung his arms around Tiger’s leg.

Tiger sensed Carly behind him. She was watching him with wonder on her face, surprise at his camaraderie with the cubs coming through her scent, but her smile warming his world.

* * *

“I’m going to work today,” Carly said as they walked back to Liam’s house. “It’s Saturday, we get a lot of tourist traffic, I wasn’t hurt in the wreck, and I need the paycheck.”

“Too dangerous,” Tiger said. He held her hand again, and again the other Shifters shot him looks of wariness. Carly stared right back at them and squeezed Tiger’s hand.

“Too bad,” Carly said to Tiger. “I’m going.”

“Then I go with you.”

Carly pictured the giant Tiger standing in the gallery while yuppie tourists strolled around him, trying to look at paintings around the pillar of Tiger. He wouldn’t fit in there, among slender people who shopped for art as casually as they shopped for postcards.

Or maybe he would. Tiger had raw strength and wild beauty that was the stuff of art.

“Fine by me,” Carly said. “But I’m going.”

She expected Tiger to argue more, but he said nothing as they walked on, hand in hand, through the sunshine.

They arrived back at the Morrisseys’ to find Liam and Spike climbing tiredly out of a small pickup. Spike lifted a hand in greeting to Tiger but said nothing at all as he turned and jogged away down the street.

Liam gave Tiger a sharp look and motioned for him and Carly to follow him into the house.

Sean and Andrea had gone, but Connor was there, wiping the kitchen counters with a large blue dishcloth. “I love Sean’s pancakes,” Connor said when they came in. “But damn, he makes a mess.”

Liam glanced at him but kept the frown on his face, his gaze moving back to Carly and Tiger. Wherever he’d gone, whatever he’d done outside of Shiftertown, he’d returned in a black mood.

“Well, I have to be going,” Carly said into the tension. “Don’t worry about me. Tiger’s coming along to keep me safe.”

“No.” Liam’s word was flat, final. “Tiger’s not leaving Shiftertown.”

Tiger tightened his grip on Carly’s hand. “Then Carly stays.”

“Oh, no, she doesn’t,” Carly said. “I have a million things to do. Not only do I have to work, I need to start unpacking my stuff again, and explain to everyone I know why my engagement ended, which is going to be extremely humiliating. My car’s totaled, so I have to see about getting a new one, not to mention talk to my insurance company—I doubt Shifter Bureau is going to come forward and admit they deliberately wrecked my car, and pay the damages. Plus I’ll need to deal with Ethan and whatever he’s going to throw at me. A full day. Can’t handle all that sitting here.”

“Then I go with you,” Tiger stated.

The look Liam shot at Tiger made Carly’s next words die on her lips. Before this, whenever Liam had pinned Tiger, his gaze had been steady and strong, the stare of a man no one messed with. But this look held depths of rage.

Liam’s eyes flicked from sinful blue to almost opaque silver, and he took on the stillness Carly had observed in the Shifters before. In one instant, Liam changed from tired man weary from whatever journey he’d taken to a dangerous enemy ready to strike.

Tiger growled in response. The same rumble that had shaken Ethan’s house flowed from Tiger’s throat, the kitchen windows humming with it. Connor looked up, eyes wide.

Liam’s face elongated until it was the muzzle of a lion, the hair on his head flowing into a formidable black mane. Tiger kept his hands clenched but didn’t change, his low tiger growl going on and on.