by Zoe Chant
Well, good luck with that. From what Fleance had said it was a pointless endeavor.
She drew a ragged breath that almost choked her. Everything had gone wrong and Fleance was going to pay the price.
What a load of bullshit. The words thundered through her head. Not Parker’s, not Fleance’s—not from outside of herself. Whatever her self was now.
As usual her first thought was that they were Aroha’s words, Aroha’s voice, but they weren’t. And they couldn’t be her hellhound’s. It wasn’t a creature that had words, yet.
Hope sparked inside her. Could it be her sheep? It had been so silent she’d thought it was gone forever, but maybe—no. Her sheep was many things but she wasn’t sure it even knew what swearing was.
That only left one option.
The voice… was hers.
She wasn’t used to her voice thundering. Not in her head, not anywhere. Or sounding so confident.
But it—she—was right, wasn’t she? This whole thing was bullshit. Parker, packs, alphas being supposedly so much more important than everyone else—it was all a bloody con.
Something rose up inside her like a pot boiling over. It was the smell of smoke in the dark night, harsh and bitter on the back of her tongue, but it was more than that. Lanolin. Sweet clover. The restlessness of dry grass tickling the backs of her knees, combined with and at odds with a deep and unyielding focus. It filled her from heart to fingertips, driving away the rancid maggot-touch of Parker’s power.
Parker’s snout whipped around, teeth bared. *What was that?*
Sheena didn’t reply. Not because she didn’t know the answer—well, maybe a bit—but mostly because the bitter-clover-sweet boiling inside her was expanding past her skin now. It crept out in bursts and sparks. It should have looked like whatever was happening to Parker, like her skin was splitting apart, but instead it felt…
She looked past Parker and met Fleance’s gaze. The air between them crackled.
The hell with Parker, and packs, and alphas, and all the shifter mythos she’d spent her life happily not knowing.
Fleance was hers, and she wasn’t going to let anyone take him away from her.
HIM, her inner animal roared inside her head. Thunder? This was the whole storm. HE TRIED TO TAKE OUR MATE FROM US!
She glared down at Parker. Down? she thought, How am I looking down at him?
That one moment of distraction was just enough for her inner animal to take control.
It lunged forward, fire streaming from its nostrils. Parker lurched away and Sheena’s hooves cut into the gravel where he’d been. Her teeth snapped together a hand’s breadth from his tail.
*What?* Parker’s eyes narrowed and his power tightened around Sheena’s limbs. At least it tried to. Her animal sneered and shook it off. *How is this possible?*
How is it possible? Sheena wondered, as amazed as he was.
Fleance’s voice flickered against her mind, hushed and rough-edged but wonderful. *Sheena, you’re…*
*Enough!* Parker raged. *What is this? Some kind of trick?* His power twisted around Sheena again. This time she barely needed to shrug to get rid of it. *What are you?*
*What you made me,* she reminded him. But that couldn’t be entirely true, because she wasn’t tripping over her feet anymore. And she’d landed on hooves, not paws…
Parker’s lip curled. *I had nothing to do with this… this… monstrosity!*
*You’re one to talk,* she retorted, *you mangy, moth-eaten dishrag! I’m—*
She stopped. What was she? Not a sheep anymore. Surely. A hellhound? But she was looking down on Parker now, not up like she had when she was a sheep or a hellhound. But she still felt all brimstone-fiery—but…
*You’re incredible.* Fleance’s voice stopped her runaway train of thought. *Look.*
He sidestepped to the edge of one of the still pools. Keeping one wary eye on Parker, who was still muttering to himself, Sheena followed him.
Untold years of silica had built up around the pool’s edges in a vibrant orange, but the water itself was crystal clear. Sheena checked Parker’s position again—Fleance was standing protectively between her and the other hellhound, but his sides were still heaving as he obviously tried to ignore his injuries—and looked down into the water.
She had no idea what she was looking at.
HA HA, said the storm inside her head. JUST AS I EXPECTED!
So, what exactly is it I’m looking at, Sheena asked it before her silence could stretch out too long.
DON’T YOU RECOGNIZE ME? IT’S ME! AT LAST! The reflection puffed up. MY TRUE, INNER, MAGNIFICENT SELF!
Sheena’s eyes widened. Internally. The glowing pits in the reflection stayed shiny—and burning—with smug glee.
Her inner self? Beneath the thunder and lightning, the animal did sound like… her sheep. And…
She looked closer at the reflection in the pool.
Beneath the flames spouting from her mouth and nostrils, behind the eyes like twin pits to Hell itself and under the dark smoke that coiled from her coat like she was smuggling dry ice…
A big-eyed face covered in curly black hair. Two soft ears and two curling dark horns twisting over where her hair turned white on the rest of her head and body.
Her sheep, but massive. Still adorable, also on fire. Not a hellhound, a… hellsheep?
HELLSHEEP! YES! THAT’S ME!
You’re very loud, Sheena thought at it, feeling ever so slightly overwhelmed.
GOOD!
*Having fun ogling yourself in the mirror, Snow White?* Parker sneered. *That’s enough. You’re still mine. Whatever you are.* His voice prickled with opportunity. *A hellhound-sheep hybrid? Looks like I can turn other shifters after all. Now that’s interesting. If I can do the same to other shifters… Might end up a bit of a menagerie but hell, everyone’s banging on about diversity these days…
The hellsheep snorted out brimstoney smoke. HE’S RIGHT. ENOUGH! WE SHALL END THIS!
Parker’s voice wormed around her legs like slithering chains. *Trot on over here, girlie.*
*You said you would let her go!* Fleance growled.
His uncle blinked at him, slow and condescending. *If you’ll recall, kiddo, I said I wouldn’t make her work jobs for me. Let her go? Are you kidding me? I mean, sure, those teeth don’t look any good for biting unreasonable clients, but she can still make herself useful doing the coffee.*
Fleance bristled, but it was Sheena who lunged forwards, her hellsheep’s voice roaring in her skull: TEETH? I’LL SHOW YOU TEETH!
There was a brief psychic pinch as Parker, rearing up, tried to pin her in place with his alpha powers, but the cables around her legs snapped like daisy-chains. He almost fell over backwards in surprise as the hellsheep bore down on him.
At the last second, his eyes flashed with alarm—quickly covered over by a sneer of disdain. The smoke seeping from beneath his fur thickened at the same time the fur itself faded away. In less than the time it took Sheena to leap at him, he’d faded completely from view. There was nothing but a wisp of smoke in the air.
The hellsheep’s teeth clacked shut in the air where Parker had been a moment before. COWARD! it roared. COME OUT AND FIGHT!
He’d turned invisible, Sheena thought, then added: But if he was just invisible, her teeth would have chomped something. Which meant he wasn’t just invisible, he must be…
Like when I fell through the car, Sheena thought, and concentrated.
Fleance’s voice brushed against her mind. *He’s phased out. But since you’re his pack, you should be able to match his… Rhys calls it a frequency. We could all do it. But we could never use it to fight him. If you can shake off his chains like that…*
HE’LL NEVER KNOW WHAT’S COMING! Sheena’s hellsheep trumpeted.
*Might as well give it a go,* Sheena added. Fleance wouldn’t have heard her hellsheep, but he heard her. His body radiated worry.
*Be careful.*
*I will,* she reassured him.
GET READY TO DIE, ARSEHOLE! roared her hellsheep, and she added silently: Of course, I’m not sure I’m the one who gets to decide whether I’m careful or not…
All it took was the memory of the car seat turning to mist beneath her, and she was there. The closest thing she could compare it to was trying to open her eyes in a dream. The world around her looked convincing enough, but part of her brain still thought she was asleep.
Her hellhound stepped forward. Its leg passed through a small shrub like it wasn’t there. Feels like a dream, she thought, dazed. Then: If I can walk through things that are on the ground, then does that mean I could fall through the ground…
STOP THINKING, her hellsheep demanded. START DOING!
She couldn’t see Parker, but she didn’t need to see him. Her brain felt like it was short-circuiting, a runaway train rebuilding the track underneath itself. She couldn’t see Parker but she could feel where he was. That radar in her head dealt to that.
Her hellhound bounded forward. It moved like a rugby ball: quickly and unexpectedly. Sheena homed in on what the radar map in her mind told her should be the center of her universe. Her hooves flickered through spindly trees and hardy fences, across ground sizzling beneath the frost and over vents hissing with steam. She didn’t know how far she ran, only that the air was growing paler around her and the bastard in her sights could run as fast as she could.
Almost.
A surge of energy drove Sheena forwards. She laughed deliriously. The air was thick with steam, now, and running through it—through through, not even touching it—felt like some wicked, daring trespass. Which it was. She’d passed a stay-on-the-path sign a ways back—passed through it as she nipped at Parker’s tail—and she was far, far off the trail now.
Mud boiled at her feet. The sky was wide and open above her, the blaze of stars a scream in the darkness that tore at her own heart. She wanted to sprint into the sky and tear the stars out by their roots and eat them, just because she wasn’t meant to.
She felt more alive than she ever had before. She felt… right.
OF COURSE YOU FEEL RIGHT! Her hellsheep bellowed. DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I’VE WANTED TO DO THIS?
Sheena understood at once. Ignore instructions? Wander off-track? Her sheep had spent its whole life acting like it was indestructible.
Now, for the first time, it was.
Or near enough, she added, and her hellsheep sent a derisive snort of brimstone-etched smoke across her thoughts.
NEAR ENOUGH? PAH! WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT! The hellsheep stamped its hooves in the dirt. Parker wheeled around. For a moment, Sheena thought he was about to attack. Despite her hellsheep’s confidence, her heart fluttered. She couldn’t help remembering the last time they had fought. Parker had moved so quickly she had no chance to get out of his reach.
NOTHING WILL EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO US AGAIN, her hellsheep growled. ESPECIALLY NOT SOME PUNY, STINKY DOG.
Parker bared his teeth. *You’ve made your point.*
Have I? Sheena wondered. She’d just been chasing him. It wasn’t exactly a cogent argument.
What was she going to do next?
PUSH HIM INTO A MUD PIT, her hellsheep suggested. SEE HOW HE LIKES IT!
Us falling into that hole wasn’t anything to do with him, Sheena reminded it, but the hellsheep didn’t care.
YOU’RE STILL AFRAID, it boomed. THIS IS WHAT HE DOES—SCARES PEOPLE. HURTS PEOPLE. OR MAKES THEM SO SCARED THEY HURT THEMSELVES AND BLAME THEMSELVES FOR IT.
There was the tiniest, thinnest sliver of shame hiding in its voice. It had been scared, too, Sheena realized. Parker’s fear magic hadn’t touched it, but the sensation of losing itself, becoming something else—no wonder it had hidden itself away.
You always tried to protect me, Sheena thought wonderingly. Whenever I was scared, or worried, you’d make us run off away from whatever it was. I thought it was annoying, but you were only trying to help.
DON’T NEED TO RUN AWAY NOW, her hellsheep boomed, its voice slightly bashful.
No, Sheena agreed. I’m sorry I didn’t understand when you were trying to protect me. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you how much you meant to me before Parker bit us.
WE CAN TALK ABOUT THAT LATER, her hellsheep said quickly. OR NOT AT ALL.
Sheena laughed. Of course her hellsheep was allergic to talking about feelings.
All right then, she told it. Let’s deal with this arsehole first. We can’t let him hurt anyone else.
BOIL HIM IN A MUD PIT, her hellsheep suggested.
Um…
Fleance appeared at the edge of her vision, slinking like a black shadow around the edge of the thermal clearing. Certainty settled in Sheena’s stomach. With her hellsheep on attack and Fleance on defense, there was no way Parker was getting away.
*What did you want to do with this guy, again?* she asked Fleance.
*Make him pay.* His voice was just as she remembered it from the first time they met: hard and determined. But there was a thread of uncertainty, like a fracture in a rock.
Sheena told him about her hellsheep’s suggestion.
*No.* To her surprise, she could hear an echo of his hellhound in his voice, like logs spitting on a fire. But it wasn’t arguing with his ‘No,’ like her hellsheep would have. Instead, it lent his voice a sense of righteous gravity.
There was a pause, as though Fleance was discussing something with his inner animal. *Penance,* he said at last. *That’s what my hellhound wants. Not revenge. It wants Parker to make right everything he’s done wrong.*
*He’s hurt so many people,* Sheena replied. *Where’s he going to start?*
*Right here.* Fleance let Parker hear him this time. *He can start by rebuilding Silver Springs.*
*I can what?* Parker snorted.
*How are we going to make him do that?* Sheena wondered out loud. THREATEN HIM WITH THE MUD PIT, her hellsheep suggested. There aren’t any mud pits there, Sheena reminded it, it’s not MUD Springs…
IRRELEVANT, her hellsheep retorted. WE’LL TAKE ONE OF THESE ONES.
What do you mean, ‘take’? That’s not how mud pools work! It’ll get cold!
WE CAN HEAT IT UP AGAIN. Her hellsheep sounded annoyed. THAT’S HOW FIRE WORKS. MAYBE ONE OF FLEANCE’S DRAGON FRIENDS COULD HELP US.
*Do I need to remind you I’m an alpha?* Parker snarled. *How do you plan to make me do anything?*
*He has a point,* Fleance muttered.
*No, he doesn’t! What does being an alpha have to do with it? He’s only one shifter. There’s two of us!*
*You still don’t get it, do you? Honestly, I knew this place was a backwater but I thought you’d know something about how shifters work.* Parker stood taller, his eyes glowing. *Alphas are just plain better than everyone else, honey. Bigger. Stronger. We’re born to rule. And when we say jump…*
The command slithered up from the ground. Despite herself, despite her hellsheep, Sheena’s muscled tensed to jump.
*…Let’s just say things tend to work out in our favor.*
11
Fleance
Parker kept talking. Each word hit Fleance like a blow.
Sheena was trying to argue. Fleance resisted the urge to move to her side. Didn’t she see the tide had turned? They needed to keep Parker’s attention separated so at least one of them could escape.
*What about that guy? Caine? Fleance’s new boss. He turned into an alpha, right? So we can—*
*You just don’t fucking get it, do you? You can’t turn into an alpha. Alphas are born, not made. Face it, sweetheart, some of us are born to rule… and some to obey.*
The full reality of Parker’s words sank into Fleance’s bones like lead. He was right.
We always followed him, his hellhound muttered. The shame in its voice cut through him. I thought, now that we were free, we could stop him, but he’s right. We don’t know anything. We didn’t even know he could turn another shifter, like Sheena. What if he can take us back into his pack? We�
�re so far away from Caine and Meaghan…
He looked inside himself for his pack sense. It was still there, but it was faint. The other members of his pack—Caine and Meaghan, Manu and Rhys—felt more distant than the stars above.
The rapidly disappearing stars. Fleance’s heart sank. Morning was coming, and given the pathways and signs, he suspected this was some sort of tourist area.
Worms slithered over his mind.
*Always a fast thinker, aren’t you, Flea?* Parker chuckled. *You’re right to be worried. Oh, not that someone will spot us. Invisibility’s a handy thing that way. And we can walk through all this boiling dirt like it’s nothing.* His lips stretched in a wolfish grin. *It’s the tourists that concern me. If you insist on fighting like this, and something gets kicked up, or one of those pools spills over…*
He let the possibilities hang in the air.
Sheena’s laughter cut through them like a knife through butter.
*Sorry, I’m still hung up on alphas being ‘born not made’,* she hooted. *Are you serious? Right to rule? I thought you Americans hated that sort of thing so much you had a war about it.*
*Alphas are—*
*I mean, we’re hanging onto the bloody Queen and it still sounds like bullshit to me!*
Fleance had never heard Sheena like this before. Her psychic voice was smokey and… powerful.
And really, really sexy.
*It’s fate!* Parker snarled, losing his cool at last. *Unchangeable!*
*Unchangeable? Can you even hear yourself? You go around biting people like a bloody werewolf and you think fate can’t be changed? Look at me! LOOK AT ME!*
Parker jumped back as her voice darkened. The hairs on Fleance’s spine stood up. That was her hellsheep talking, he realized.
Sheena didn’t look at Parker. She stared past him, meeting Fleance’s eyes through the coiling steam.
*Neither of us were born to be hellhounds,* she said. From the way he growled, Fleance knew Parker could hear her, but her words were meant for him. *If one bite can change our fate, what’s to stop us changing it again? My sheep managed it.*