Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set by Colleen Gleason Page A

“Maybe something is jamming the signals.”
    One of her fake cat’s ears brushed Seamus’s arm. A deep shiver went through him, a need so strong he knew he’d not contain it for long.
    Bree had no idea how good she looked in the skirt that hugged her ample curves, the makeup she’d already smeared, even the silly cat’s ears. Seamus wondered why every male in the roadhouse last night hadn’t tried to carry her off.
    The thought made him rumble with growls. Even the briefest image of another Shifter touching her had Seamus’s anger soaring.
    To hell with Dylan and his tame Shifters, to hell with the human cops and the hunters. Seamus needed Bree—didn’t want to be without her, ever again. Anything else going on in this house right now was irrelevant.
    Seamus grasped her arm. “Come with me,” he said, his voice barely working.
    Bree’s blue eyes behind the black paint widened. “Come with you where?”
    “Out of here. Away. We’ll go far from here, hole up, stay together.”
    Bree’s mouth formed a round
O
. Seamus expected her to look terrified, to yank herself from him, to fight him with the courage he’d seen in her.
    No fear filled her eyes. Instead, Seamus saw interest, curiosity, and longing.
    Then Bree’s face fell. “I can’t. I can’t leave my mom to deal with Shifters and the cops by herself.”
    No, she couldn’t. Bree’s family might be very small, but Seamus had seen the fierce loyalty between mother and daughter, the shared grief over the brother, the way they took care of each other.
    “Bring her,” Seamus said. “I’ll protect her too. But I have to go, now that I’m healed. I have no choice.”
    Bree’s mouth dropped open again. “Wait, you want me to run away with you and ‘hole up,’ as you said ...
with my mother
?”
    “We will take care of her. It’s the Shifter way.”
    “The Shifter way is the crazy way.” Bree’s smile held incredulity. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We’ll never get out past the cops.”
    “I can.”
    “Yeah, I bet
you
can.” Bree looked him up and down. “But I can’t.”
    “I’ll work on it. Bree ...” Seamus couldn’t help touching her, skimming her hair back from her face. The headband snagged on his fingers. “There’s so much I need to tell you. But I have to get away from here,
now
, can’t be arrested. It’s important.”
    Bree’s expression was serious. “Did you really kill the hunters?”
    Confused memories beat into his brain. The blood, the pain, snarling, screams, the smell ... “I don’t know. It’s ... unclear.” Seamus took Bree’s hand again, pressing down. “Now that I’ve found you, I can’t let you go. I
can’t
. I never would have healed this fast if not for you.”
    “You said that last night. But if you needed to leave so bad, why didn’t you go? I mean, this morning before we woke up? Before the Shifters came. If you’d gone in the night, they might not have found you.”
    Seamus was already shaking his head. “Because I didn’t want to leave without you. I wanted to convince you to come with me.” Humor trickled through his frustration. “I was stupid. Which is also down to you—my brains went out the window when I landed in your truck and laid eyes on you. There’s things I have to do. I have to know they’re safe—Goddess, please let them be safe—but I’m running out of time.” His words tumbled out, his worry escalating.
    “If you really need to leave,” Bree said. “I can distract them. You’re Shifter—I’m pretty sure you can be gone faster than they can think to start looking for you.”
    Seamus pulled his attention back to what she was saying. Offering to stay behind, to take the wrath of the police so Seamus could slip out and go. Sacrifice.
    Did Seamus have a choice? Either way, he lost. If he left without Bree, he’d likely never see her again. If he stayed, he’d fail his mission and those who counted on him.
Can’t have both
.
    What the human cops and Shifter