Mackenzie hit it first, and she was fast. Derek had seen shapeshifters move with a speed that seemed impossible, but Mackenzie moved like gravity couldn’t touch her. By the time he got to the door, Mackenzie had jumped the porch railing and hit the ground running.
Derek swore and jumped as well, but he lacked Mackenzie’s grace. His foot slipped in the grass and he stumbled, hitting the ground hard enough to jar his bones. He ignored it and pushed himself to his feet in time to see Mackenzie slap her hand against the truck’s hood as it rolled to a stop. She spun and placed her body directly in front of the driver’s side door, her entire posture full of protective challenge.
Andrew ignored her and stalked to the other side of the vehicle, where Kat was already scrambling with the handle. Panic shot through Derek as Kat kicked open the door and tumbled out, her erratic heartbeat audible from ten feet away.
Andrew caught her loosely, as if afraid to close his arms around her. “I thought they’d taken you. They were going to.”
Derek had joked a hundred times about his cousin’s crush, but the look on Kat’s face as she lifted her gaze to Andrew’s was naked love, plain and simple. The strength of it made Derek feel uncomfortably voyeuristic, but he couldn’t turn away from the way Andrew’s power flared, fitful and unbalanced.
He was dangerous. His friend was dangerous, frighteningly so, and Derek could do nothing but watch in helpless confusion as Kat pressed her palms to the angry red scars on Andrew’s chest, the ones that had been ugly gashes only a few hours before.
“You’re okay.” Her voice trembled, partly lost in the soft sound of Jackson closing the driver’s side door. “You’re okay. You’re—you’re okay.”
Derek felt the gentle slide of Nick’s hand around his arm as Andrew nodded and frowned. “I guess it wasn’t as bad as they thought.”
Instinct rose again, the terrifying need to intercede battling the knowledge that Andrew would never hurt Kat. But that’s not just Andrew anymore. Derek slipped from Nick’s grasp and took a slow step forward. “Kat, you’re shaking so hard you can barely stand. Let’s go inside. Andrew will come with you.”
Instead, the blond man snatched Kat off her feet with a snarl.
Derek froze, afraid to move and set off a confrontation Kat wouldn’t survive. “Kat, are you—?”
“I’m fine.” She sounded steadier now, and she stroked the side of Andrew’s face. “I’m fine,” she repeated, and this time the words were all for Andrew, low and gentle as her thumb brushed his lips.
Tension made Derek quiver, and he glanced at Nick. “I don’t know what to do.”
She bit her lip. “Just…give him a minute.”
It seemed to be working, the interminable moments where no one moved. Then the front door slammed, and Andrew started, his arms tightening around Kat. Her breath whooshed out in a soft grunt of pain.
Worry snapped the leash on Derek’s self-control, and he lunged forward at the same time as Mackenzie. Andrew spun away, one fist flashing out in a dizzying jab that caught Derek on the jaw hard enough to spin him. He barely had a chance to regain his balance before Andrew swung again, this time at Mackenzie. She twisted out of the way as Kat’s voice rose, loud and edged with anger. “Back off! Leave him alone!”
Derek caught Mackenzie’s arm and dragged her away just as a shivering wave of power spilled over the front yard. The hair on the back of his neck rose, and his legs locked in place. Mackenzie began to tremble next to him, and he glanced over at Nick, who looked mostly annoyed by the wash of commanding energy.
Alec stepped into the sudden, tense silence. “Andrew Callaghan, put that girl down before you hurt her. No one’s going to touch her, but if you’re not going to take care of her, you can’t have her.”
Andrew bared his teeth at Alec with an uncontrolled burst of power. The arm around Kat’s waist tightened again, and her gasp this time was louder, filled with unmistakable pain. Derek’s heart pounded as Kat drew in another unsteady breath and whispered, “Andrew, you’re hurting me.”
He set her down on her feet immediately, though he kept his arm around her. “I’m sorry,” he told her thickly. “I didn’t mean to.”
Kat wrapped her arms around Andrew’s waist and relaxed against him with a trust that terrified Derek. She seemed oblivious to anyone else as she rested her cheek on Andrew’s bare chest. “You wouldn’t have done it if Alec wasn’t an asshole.”
Nick turned to Alec with an irritated hiss. “Next time, poke him a little harder. Call his mother names or something.”
Alec’s worried gaze stayed fixed on Kat and Andrew. “You’re not the one who’s going to have to smack the kid down when he starts challenging people. If I give him a goddamn inch now, I’ll have to beat on him even harder later. Maybe I don’t want to.”
“It doesn’t help Kat at the moment for you to act like you own her and force that challenge.”
Derek cut through the arguing by reaching out for Nick’s arm. Andrew’s power was stronger, but the look in his eyes was familiar. Confusion and instinct tangled and torn between a desperate need to protect Kat and the fear of being the one thing she needed protection from. It was everything he’d felt with Nick those first confusing months after his change, all the emotions that had driven him to avoid her long after instinct had settled and he didn’t have to worry about breaking everything he touched.
He caught his friend’s gaze and nodded once. “Tell me what you need.”
Andrew let go of Kat and backed away. “I think…I need to go home.”
“Okay.” Derek slid his hand down Nick’s arm and grasped her hand. “Nick and I will drive you.”
“And me,” Kat said quickly. “I’m going with Andrew.”
“No.” Andrew took another step back and shook his head. “No, I’m going alone. I need to be— No.”
Watching pain blossom on Kat’s face would have been hard enough, but with Nick standing next to him the guilt cut deeper. He’d done the same thing a dozen times. He’d pushed her away when his instincts had roused, terrified of his less-than-human urges. He’d pushed her away because he was terrified of hurting her.
He’d hurt her every time.
“Andrew.” Kat’s choked voice broke Derek’s heart. “Please…”
“Derek, you and Andrew should get in the car.” Nick dug in her pocket for her keys and held them out. “I want to talk to Kat for a second.”
He clasped the keys and took a shaky breath. “You okay with that, Andrew?”
Andrew wanted to say no; it was etched on his face, in the tense set of his shoulders. “Yes.”
Derek caught Nick’s gaze. “Thank you.” He didn’t know if he meant, Thank you for taking care of Kat or Thank you helping me with Andrew or even Thank you for giving me a second chance. At that moment all that mattered was that Nick was there, with him. Taking care of the people he cared about.
Taking care of him.
“You’re welcome.” Her expression softened. “I’ll be just a minute.”
Andrew brushed past him, arms crossed over his chest, almost in a daze. Derek followed him to the car and settled into the passenger seat, watching through the windshield as Nick spoke briefly to Kat, her hands on her upper arms. She had to look up to speak to Kat, but everything about her demeanor screamed authority.
Kat’s expression tightened, and Derek swore he saw tears in her eyes. Unable to watch any longer, he turned to the backseat. “You okay?” A stupid question, but the only one he could ask.
“Better than okay,” Andrew rasped, his eyes closed and his head against the back of the seat. “I’m a damn wondrous miracle, right?”
“You’re alive. I know better than anyone that it may not feel like a good thing right now, but it gets easier.”
“I don’t know what to think or feel yet, but I’ll take your word for it.”
Derek turned around again to see Jackson slip his arm around Kat’s waist. Mackenzie laid a hand on her shoulder, and the two of them coaxed her toward Alec’s house. Derek wished there was time to sleep. “Do you want me to tell Kat anything?”