by Zoe Chant
This whole exchange had taken less than the time it took her to catch her breath. Enough time to—
She stopped thinking about that, just in time for the maggots in her head to tighten. The thought-tangent slammed shut.
*There. Was that so hard?* Parker’s voice was layered over with greasy smoothness. *Pay attention. You might have been livestock before, but you’re mine now. One of the family. And the first step in our on-boarding process—*
Sheena was trying not to see, but her skin prickled with anticipation for the thing she was trying not to think about, either. Wriggling around in her mind, feeding off her thoughts, Parker didn’t need any more warning than that.
He spun around.
Fleance was standing on the wreck of the car. Parker had turned around just as he was preparing to attack, but when he saw he’d been spotted, Fleance stilled.
*Did you really think that would work?* Parker sounded scornful. *I would have thought you’d know better than to attack me now.*
Fleance glowered at him. If Sheena didn’t know they were both the same type of shifter, she would have thought Fleance was some sort of magical fire creature, and Parker was a demon. They were both black dogs the size of no fucking dog she’d ever seen, but while Fleance’s coat looked like someone had combed the night sky, Parker’s was ragged, with raw-looking skin showing through the gaps. Smoke curled from his skin like steam from Rotorua’s earth. She’d thought she was imagining it last time, or mixing it up with the smoke from the burning houses, but now…
Fleance bared his teeth in a snarl. *I’ve had enough of your games, Angus. You can’t keep treating people like pawns!*
*Why not?* Parker yawned. *No one’s stopped me yet.*
*Caine did. And by the look of you, it almost killed you.*
Anger writhed in Sheena’s head. She was on her feet and growling before she realized it wasn’t her anger. She cowered backwards, hoping Fleance hadn’t seen her reaction.
Fleance seemed completely focused on Parker. He either didn’t care about, or couldn’t feel, the anger seeping as thick as oil from the alpha hellhound’s mind.
*I came here to make you pay for what you did, Angus. You hurt so many people and used us to do it. Manu, Rhys and me—we were just kids! I’d just lost my parents. I trusted you. How could you do this to me?*
Parker sighed and flicked his ears. His emotions rolled over Sheena, thick and foul. He didn’t even care. He was happy to let the kid whine, let him get it out, but—
Sheena was as off-guard as Parker was when Fleance struck.
He didn’t stop talking, or rear up, or tense. He had no tell at all. One second, he was standing on the ruined car and Sheena was trying desperately not to let Parker’s description of his voice as whining taint her own mind, and the next he was in the air. Parker jerked into motion, but he wasn’t quick enough. Fleance hit him and they both went down in a roar of sulfurous smoke.
9
Fleance
He couldn’t believe it had worked.
He knew what Parker thought of him. That he was a shrinking coward, too pathetic to realize how useless it was to fight against Parker’s chains. The fight the day before would have proved to Parker that he was still too weak-spined to stand up for himself. That he wouldn’t take Parker down if it meant risking inviting him back inside his head.
That was then. Now, he had Sheena to protect. Anything was worth keeping her safe.
So, he’d whined, and complained, his voice as nasal and annoying as he could make it without taking the piss. And when he’d seen Parker relax and—heart sinking—Sheena let down her guard, he’d made his move. Halfway through a sentence, mid-complaint. Bam.
And now he had Parker in the dirt.
The larger hellhound scrabbled at the ground, trying to get enough purchase to pull himself upright. Fleance didn’t let him. He pinned Parker with his forelegs, snapping at his shoulder and neck.
Parker snarled at him, foul-smelling saliva dangling from his jaws. He surged forward and Fleance just managed to dodge his teeth. The movement put him off-balance and Parker took advantage at once, slithering to his feet.
He didn’t stop. Neither did Fleance. By the time Parker had put on an unnatural burst of speed and slithered to where he was, he’d already dodged aside in time to rake his claws down Parker’s flank. Parker screamed and turned on him. They faced off, stalking around one another, each waiting for the other to make a mistake.
They both made the same one.
Sheena came out of nowhere. She attacked Parker from behind, giving Fleance the opening he needed.
They circled him like sharks. Fleance tried not to be distracted by the way Sheena stalked—her pure, animal grace. When he snapped at Parker, she charged him; when he wheeled around, she was already there. Even without the mate bond, they moved in unnatural harmony.
But every movement cost Sheena, more and more. Her feet twitched as she set them down, trying to force her onto another course. By the time they managed to pin Parker down, she was panting, short, pained gasps.
This close, Fleance could smell the rot in his uncle’s flesh. Something was wrong with him. More wrong than usual. It was as though the evil in his soul had started affecting him physically, as well.
Parker’s head was hard against the ground. His one visible eye rolled to fix on Fleance.
*Checkmate,* his uncle hissed.
*No.* Flames licked at the corners of Fleance’s mouth. *You made a mistake, uncle. You shouldn’t have touched Sheena. You could have walked away, and none of this would be happening.*
*Walk away?* Parker was all fire and sick-smelling yellow smoke. *Walk away? Look at me!*
*I’m looking. What happened, your Portrait of Dorian Gray finally overloaded?*
*I’m an ALPHA. I need a pack! You think I’d let an opportunity like her just walk away?* Beside Fleance, Sheena whined. He moved his weight so she could lean on him, but she stayed away, trembling.
He had to finish this. Everything Parker was feeling would be boiling through Sheena’s brain. She was strong, but he wouldn’t put her through a second more of that torture than was necessary.
*This is meant to be the lucky country,* Parker raged. *My luck! Mine for the taking!*
*The lucky country? That’s Australia,* Sheena murmured. *Dick.*
His eye rolled towards her and she flinched before he glared up at Fleance again. *Now,* he said, his voice bubbling with hatred.
Now?
*No! I won’t!*
Sheena’s voice crashed through his head. She cringed back and Parker slid away, insubstantial as smoke.
Keeping one eye on the other hellhound, Fleance turned to Sheena. *What’s wrong?*
Her eyes were wide with panic. He took a step closer to her and she snapped at him. If he hadn’t jumped back, she would have bitten his face.
*No!* she cried again, stumbling backwards on feet that seemed to be trying to stay locked in place. *Stop it!*
*I’m not going to sugarcoat it, kid. You should have seen this coming. I would have turned her even if she wasn’t your special girl, but now?*
Parker’s voice slithered against his mind. Fleance’s skin crawled. Caine described Parker’s mental presence as like chains, but Fleance had always felt it as vines, or tentacles, creeping Alien-like into his soul. He told himself that Parker couldn’t reach him now—his voice was slithering against his mind, not into it—but it didn’t stop his hellhound scratching the ground. He wasn’t sure whether it was trying to run at Parker or dig through the earth to escape him.
He couldn’t let that happen to Sheena. It had taken Parker weeks to break him; he hadn’t even managed to hold Caine for a day.
*You know the difference between you and me, Flea? I’ve got it figured out. I’ve got a growth mindset.* His voice was a hiss, searching for a gap in his mental defenses. *I’ve learned from my mistakes.*
What was he talking about? What did Parker have to figure out? Fleance�
��s hellhound growled fire as he turned his focus inwards, bulwarking the shields around his mind until there was no way Parker could get in.
His shields hummed as Parker said something, but they were so thick not even his words could make it through. He didn’t need telepathy to know the bastard was laughing.
He’d already wasted too much time.
Fleance twisted all of his hellhound’s rage and strength together, honing it sharp as a knife. It was almost enough to make him forget the blood trickling down his leg. The way he wasn’t putting all his weight on it, because he wasn’t sure it would take it.
He would get one chance to strike—just one. And the trick he’d tried before wouldn’t work. This time there would be no surprises. Just strength against strength, and he had to hope the hits he’d managed to land on Parker already would even the field.
He charged forward.
Straight into Sheena.
She’d come out of nowhere, and the noise she made as he struck her took all the breath out of his lungs. He staggered back. *Sheena—what are you doing?*
Her lips twisted back over her teeth and the skin on her shoulders twitched as though she was in pain.
*I can’t stop it,* she growled. *Fleance—*
Her voice cut off with a yelp. Fleance snarled defiance at his uncle.
*Leave her out of this!*
*She got herself involved,* Parker sneered. *Hitting me with that plank—she’ll pay for that. Oh, don’t worry, kid, I’m not going to hurt her,* he drawled before Fleance could respond. *You know me better than that. I’m not going to touch the girl. Hell, you’re doing a good enough job of that yourself. Me? I’m giving her a job. A future.*
*As your hitman.*
Sheena was still standing like a statue. Her legs quivered under a too-familiar strain. Fleance didn’t need to imagine what she was feeling; he’d experienced it too many times himself.
Parker laughed in his face. *Hitman? You’ve been watching too many movies. Try a couple of legal dramas, instead. You think I’d go to all this trouble to get done for murder?* He pushed on his powers, giving the impression of looming forward without actually moving an inch. Fleance’s hellhound scratched the ground. It had to be his imagination, but he thought the ground rumbled in response.
Parker’s voice wormed back into his head. *Murder leaves bodies. You know how I feel about mess, kid. It’s just not me! Look, what we had before worked, and I don’t see any reason to fix something that ain’t broken. It’ll be just like the good old days. Me sweet-talking the clients, and the young lady on hand for… negotiations.*
That would have been enough to make Fleance leap on him, but despite his lazy drawl Parker’s eyes were sharp. And Sheena was still between them. A human shield. Fleance wasn’t willing to bet her safety on his ability to move faster than Parker could order her to get in his way.
He forced himself to relax. If Parker made a surprise attack, he didn’t want to be paralyzed in place. Especially if he makes Sheena do it, he thought, and felt sick.
*How is this learning from your mistakes? It’s the same thing you did with Manu, Rhys and me. How did that work out again?* he said to Parker, hoping his voice didn’t betray just how scared he was. He didn’t see any way out of this except by taking down Parker—and that meant going through Sheena. Could he do that? Even to save her?
*Well, on a smaller scale, to start with. Don’t want to push her in at the deep end,* Parker joked, as Sheena’s sides trembled with stifled movement. Her back twitched as though her own muscles were fighting against her attempts to escape the alpha’s control. *Unless…*
Fleance’s attention snapped back to him. *Unless what?*
If there was any way to get Sheena out of this, he would take it.
Parker scraped one forepaw casually against the gravel. *Training up new hires is no one’s idea of a good time. Remember how long it took with the brown fella? It’s gotta be something in the water down here. If it’s going to take as long with your girl—*
Dread clawed its way up Fleance’s spine.
*—maybe we can come to an arrangement that benefits us both.*
*What do you mean?* Fleance snarled.
*I need a crew. You need your mate to keep her hands clean.* Parker’s grin became feral. *Your new alpha obviously doesn’t give a shit about you leaving the pack. Come back to your old job and I won’t need to waste time getting your replacement up to speed.*
Fleance’s hellhound stilled. The air around him went clammy, as though the ice on the ground was rising to cling to his coat, seep in deep to curl around his bones. Parker thought Sheena was still his mate. That made her the best piece of leverage he could have.
*Don’t do it!* Sheena’s voice knifed into his mind, ragged-edged and desperate. *It’s not w—*
Her voice cut off and she flinched, her whole body clenching into a fist. Fleance’s hellhound snarled. How dare Parker do this to her!
When he spoke again, Parker’s voice was lazy, as though he wasn’t tightening his grip on Sheena’s chains.
*What do you say, kiddo? Things always worked smoothest when it was just the two of us, anyway.*
Because after Parker had turned Rhys and Manu, Fleance hadn’t been able to ignore his true feelings about what Parker was making him do.
*We’ll make it a proper family business again.* Parker chuckled. *Whaddaya say?*
*Don’t listen to—* Sheena’s voice cut off again, as though a door had slammed shut in her face.
Fleance’s heart hurt, somewhere in the dulled, numb mass of his body. Sheena knew what being under his uncle’s control meant, and she still wanted him to save himself.
He couldn’t do it. He hadn’t been able to save Sheena before, and he couldn’t defeat Parker in combat, that much was clear. He wasn’t an alpha. He wasn’t strong enough. The only way he could protect Sheena now was to agree to Parker’s terms.
*You should be jumping for an opportunity like this,* Parker said. *Don’t wait around, I might change my mind.*
Fleance lowered his head. His hellhound snarled, even though the gesture wasn’t one either hound would recognize as submission.
And it wasn’t. He was stalling for time. He had to think of something. Anything.
The thought of leaving Sheena to her fate didn’t cross his mind. Mate or not, his or not, he couldn’t do that to her.
Fleance reached out to her, trying to touch her mind and send her some reassurance, however ringed around with fear and anger, that he knew what she was going through and wouldn’t let Parker get away with it—but he couldn’t.
Instead of her mind, the hop-skip of energy and sunlight warmth that had so quickly become as familiar to him as his own face, he found roiling clouds of smoke. Black and thick, swirling around a center so dark that if he didn’t already know Sheena, he would be afraid of what it hid.
This was what it meant to be a hellhound. Until she learned to control the maelstrom inside her, even humans would feel on edge around her. Shifters would run screaming. Who wouldn’t, faced with something like that?
Fear streaked like lightning through the clouds surrounding Sheena’s mind. Fleance’s heart beat faster as they touched against him. It was pure adrenal reaction, on her part as much as his. The same burst of panic that had escaped him when he first set eyes on her.
And she hadn’t run.
He’d never had a chance to save any of the others. But this was his chance to save her.
*Time’s a wasting, kiddo.* Parker’s spine clacked as he stretched. He wasn’t even putting on an act of staying alert now; it was obvious that Fleance wasn’t a threat. *Do we have a deal?*
He wasn’t. Exhausted and bleeding, heartsick and desperate, Fleance knew it was true.
A shiver shuddered through him. No way out. Just like before. All those long years of trying to hold onto some core sense of self as Parker’s control eroded everything else about him.
And Manu. And Rhys.
He
raised his head.
*Deal.*
10
Sheena
Sheena’s ears roared as Fleance agreed to Parker’s deal. He was going to do it. Give up the freedom he’d only just begun to believe could be his… for her.
She’d tried to tell him it wasn’t worth it. From what he’d told her, he’d been through hell as part of Parker’s pack. Wasn’t that what had brought him here: his hellhound’s need to replenish his soul by righting what Parker had put wrong?
And now he was going to be back where he started. Because of her. Because she’d been too daft to get out of the way of Parker’s hellhound when even an actual sheep would have known he was bad news. Because her sheep—her throat constricted with grief—her sheep had always believed everything would turn out all right. Well, it bloody well hadn’t this time, had it? The one silver lining was that she was evidently as shit a hellhound as she was a sheep. If Fleance had just not been the total goddamn good guy that he was and agreed to take the fall for her, she probably would have brought Parker down from the inside through sheer incompetence. But he hadn’t, because he was good, and brave, and Parker had slammed the gate on her telepathic abilities before she could convince him to save himself.
*Move.*
She barely registered Parker’s voice before her legs responded to his order. She skittered sideways, legs moving out of tandem with one another, and almost fell over. Parker ignored her as he stalked over to Fleance, who was trembling with barely controlled despair.
She tried to reach out to speak to him again. Reassure him. Anything. It was no use. Parker wouldn’t let her anywhere except inside her own head. A head that hardly felt like hers, anymore. The crystalline terror she’d felt when she first sensed Parker’s presence had clouded over, full of smoke and hot ash. It was almost as though the smoke was trying to hide her thoughts from Parker.