Pride Mates Read Online Free Page B

so I have to poke and pry. I think getting him released is more important than keeping his personal secrets, don't you?"
    "Is it?" Sandra had a bit of the same Irish lilt as Sean and Liam, but Brian didn't. He'd told Kim that his father came from a different clan, she guessed not an Irish one. Either that or his clan had lost their accent after living in Texas awhile.
    Kim didn't really understand how the Shifter clans worked, though Brian had tried to explain a little. She knew that each immediate family belonged to a larger, extended family group called a pride, and they belonged to an even more extended group called a clan. Shifters never married within the pride, and tried to marry outside the clan. When a female married, she joined her husband's clan and pride, leaving her own. Kim had thought clans were based on what kind of animal the Shifter turned into, but Brian said it was more complicated than that. This Shiftertown was home to several clans, as well as several species of Shifters, and there was another Shiftertown with more clans on the northeast edge of Austin.
    Liam's father, Dylan Morrissey, was more or less the official head of the Austin branch of his entire clan, but also the unofficial head of this Shiftertown, even over the other clans. But no, Kim couldn't talk directly to Dylan, Brian told her. He was off-limits to non-Shifters. She could petition him through Liam and Liam only.
    Why not Sean? Kim wondered, glancing at Liam's brother. What position did he hold in the clan hierarchy? Officially and unofficially?
    Sean helped himself to coffee and exchanged a glance with Liam. "So you need to find someone who was with Brian at the time in question?" Sean asked.
    Kim could have sworn that Liam had nodded ever so slightly, as though letting Sean know it was all right to say this. Nonverbal cues were flowing thick and fast.
    "An independent witness would be terrific," Kim said. "Someone without a grudge against Shifters. And preferably not a Shifter him- or herself."
    "Tall order," Sean said.
    "The girl is human," Sandra snapped. "What human will come forward and say my son didn't do it?"
    She had a point. Kim knew that locating a witness was a long shot, but it would be a nice change to find something concrete. Innocent until provenguilty was not working in Brian's case. The fact that he was Shifter had already condemned him in most people's eyes. Kim had to exonerate him or he didn't stand a chance.
    Liam started massaging the tops of Kim's feet, which made her tense limbs start to droop.
    "I might be able to find out where Brian really was," Liam said. "You should have come to me about this right away, love."
    "I didn't know that, did I? Like I said, Brian is the first Shifter I've ever met, and to get him to tell me that you, Liam, even existed was an amazing feat." Brian hadn't bothered to mention Sean.
    "We don't like talking about ourselves," Sean said.
    "I don't see why not. Shifters exposed themselves years ago, and everyone knows all about you. There's nothing to hide anymore."
    She felt the three exchange another wordless communication, and it irritated her. It reminded her of being eight years old and watching her two best friends whispering and giving her gleeful looks, not letting her in on the secret.
    A cell phone vibrated on Liam's belt. He looked at the readout, and without a word gently lowered Kim's feet to the floor. He stood and walked to the kitchen, closing the door, shutting them out.
    Kim felt cold without his warmth beside her, even in the July heat.
    "Anything you can tell me might help," she said to Sean and Sandra. "Right now I can only win this case by tearing holes in the prosecution, and there aren't many holes. I need something that will stick a fork in the case and shred it."
    Sandra drank her coffee, her gaze moving from Kim to the windows.
    Kim caught a glimpse of her sadness as she looked away, her near despair.
    She's resigning herself to losing her son, Kim realized .