Primal Bonds by Jennifer Ashley Read Free Book Online Page B

traffic bottled up on the interstate. In impatience, Sean shot off the freeway to take a back highway that headed straight south.
    The clinic lay just inside the city limits of San Antonio on the southeast side. Not many places treated Shifters, and ones that did were quickly deserted by their human clientele.
    Sean parked in the clinic’s small lot and came around to open Andrea’s door for her. She handed him the sword, which he strapped to his back, and they went inside to the clinical smell of disinfectant.
    Shifters were clumped inside the waiting room—they’d be friends and members of the clan. When they saw Sean walk in, his big sword on his back, some turned away and murmured prayers; others simply looked at him. They all knew what his presence here meant.
    Andrea walked beside Sean without meeting any gazes. She saw nostrils widen, eyes snap to her as they smelled Fae, but no one moved to stop her. They wouldn’t while she was with the Guardian.
    Dylan waited for them near a nurses’ station in the hall beyond. The nurse there, human, came out from behind the desk when Sean and Andrea entered, her already fierce expression turning to one of outrage.
    “You can’t go in there,” she snapped at Sean. “Not with that .”
    She held out her hand as though Sean would meekly unstrap the Sword of the Guardian and give it to her, like an unruly pupil handing over a toy to his angry teacher.
    Sean walked by her without a word, and Dylan fell into step with him.
    “You can’t go back there! I’m calling security.”
    Andrea turned back and stepped squarely in front of the woman, putting just enough growl into her voice. “Leave it.”
    The nurse stared, stunned. Andrea smelled her fear but also her cunning. She’d be on the phone as soon as Andrea moved to follow Sean.
    Swallowing a sigh, Andrea gripped the nurse’s wrist and yanked her along with them. The nurse’s protests died when they walked into the room at the end of the hall, which was full of Shifters and the smell of impending death.

CHAPTER FIVE

    T he grief in the room was palpable. It was difficult not to feel anything but compassion when Andrea beheld Sean’s cousin Ely lying in the hospital bed, his face sunken, his Collar a dark streak on his pasty throat. Tubes snaked into his arms, human machines gently beeping around him.
    Ely wasn’t much older than Sean, maybe at his century mark. His mate curled on the bed next to him, a ball of misery. Four younger men and a young woman—Ely’s cubs, she guessed by their similar scent—stood in positions of resigned grief. An older man waited on the opposite side of the room, just as grief-stricken. Ely’s father.
    Andrea tasted rage against the humans who had done this. No Shifter of venerable years should have to watch his son die; no cubs should have to watch their father cut down before them. And no mate should have the love of her life yanked away from her. The woman’s grief would bury her for years. It had already started.
    Sean moved to the side of the bed and touched Ely’s shoulder, his voice softening to gentleness itself. “Now, Ely, lad, what did you do to attract all those bullets to you? Magnetized yourself, did you?”
    Ely smiled, his face drawn in pain in spite of the liquids that dripped into his arm. “That’s me, Sean. Too damned attractive.” His whisper rasped. “Thank you for coming.”
    Andrea watched Sean suppress all his own rage and grief to caress Ely with a reassuring hand. “Look who I brought with me,” he said. “The pretty she-wolf that lives next door to me. Glory’s niece, the one I mate-claimed. Isn’t she a fine one?”
    Sean stretched out his arm, indicating that Andrea should come to him. Andrea had to let go of the nurse, but Dylan moved to block the nurse’s retreat. She’d never get past Dylan.
    Sean drew Andrea to him, arm around her waist. Ely’s mate lifted her head in anger.
    “The half Fae,” she spat. “Get her out of