by Zoe Chant
Next, a cannonball that turned out to be a human-shaped Cole thumped onto Caine’s back.
“Merry Christmas!” he yelled in both of their ears. “Caine, my dragon wants to meet your hellhound! Can it? Please? Your hellhound is so cool!”
“Maybe later,” Caine replied, grinning.
“Is there room for another hug in there?” Hank came up behind his wife and nodded at Meaghan. “Hell of a Santa parade, huh? I don’t think our party’s going to top that.”
“You have to tell us everything!” Abigail was running over from her and Jasper’s car, followed by Jasper, who was cradling Ruby. “Who was that man Caine stopped? Was he something to do with the hellhound shifters?”
Tension prickled along Meaghan’s spine. But it wasn’t her tension. She looked up at Caine. *Are you all right?*
He squeezed her hand. *With you beside me? Always.*
“And what was he saying, about being inside your mind?”
This time the tension crackling up her spine was definitely her own. Oh God. The last thing she wanted to do now was talk about all the ways that evil hellhound had needled into her brain…
*Do you need me to scare them off?* Caine’s voice was the perfect antidote to the memory of those acid words.
*Maybe,* Meaghan admitted. Caine smiled at her.
*It’s up to you,* he whispered in her mind.
Meaghan bit her lip. All she’d wanted for so long was a Christmas surrounded by people who actually wanted to be around her—and now that it looked like she was going to have one, all she could think about were all the things she would rather do right now than be at a party.
Like make up for the last three days, for a start.
Caine’s cheeks colored. *Did you mean to say that out loud?*
*Did I what?* Eyes wide, Meaghan stared around the gathered shifters. “Oh God. Did everyone hear that?”
“Hear what?” Abigail asked, elbowing her way past the dragon shifters. “Merry Christmas, you two. I’m so happy for you.”
*I guess not?* Caine suggested.
Warmth emanated from the golden light in her heart, filling her whole body. Her cheeks heated up when she realized it was coming from Caine. He was sending her joy, and love, and very inappropriate thoughts along the strange new connection between them.
*I think only I can hear you. Because of this.* He sent another flood of love along the connection.
Meaghan bit back a smirk. *Does that mean if I think about—*
“Skreeeark!”
A snowy owl appeared out of the trees, wheeled once around Meaghan and Caine’s heads, and landed on the closest tree branch. Meaghan gasped.
“Olly? Is that you?”
Olly’s snowy owl was beautiful, with soft white plumage with darker flecks on her chest. She landed on top of Hank’s SUV and tipped its head on one side, just like Olly did when she was assessing a situation in human form.
“I can’t hear if she’s saying anything,” Meaghan murmured.
“No, because you’re not a shifter.” Cole wrinkled his nose and kept talking before Meaghan could explain about being able to talk to Caine inside her head. “But I can’t hear her anyway. She isn’t talking to me.”
Caine let go of her hand, but only so he could wrap his arm around her. He lowered his face to her ear and whispered: “She says, inspecting a situation from all angles is important before you get into a situation, but it can also help when you want to get out.” His eyes warmed. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”
“I think so.” Meaghan leaned into him. “Tell her thanks from me.”
Caine frowned with concentration, and Olly startled, fluttering her wings. “Sorry!” he called out. “I think I need to practice on my telepathy volume.”
Olly preened one of her wing feathers and then leapt into the air and flew off. Meaghan waved at her.
*You don’t have volume problems talking to me,* she reminded him.
*That’s because you’re right here. In my heart.* Smoky flames flared in his eyes. *Where you should have been from the start.*
“Well!” said Opal, rubbing her hands together somewhere very far away. “This party won’t start itself. Come on, Cole, inside and wash your hands. Jasper, did you remember to…”
The voices faded as the Heartwells headed for the house. Caine started to follow them, but Meaghan dragged her feet.
“Caine…” she murmured, and then again, sending it along the golden thread that connected them, *My love…*
Caine shivered in a way that sent heat flooding through her core. *Yes?*
It was amazing, how easy communicating telepathically with him was. Talking to him like this was like being wrapped in his arms, in some faraway, private world of their own.
*I know what Olly meant. About finding the perfect time to disappear.* She raised her eyebrows and sent a teasing, highly inappropriate thought down their connection.
Caine’s eyes went dark. “Ah.”
*Do you want to—*
Caine cut her off with a kiss that made every inch of her tingle. When he pulled back to breathe, she grabbed his collar and kissed him back. He wrapped his arms around her, one around her waist, the other cradling the back of her head as he deepened the kiss.
Meaghan was trembling by the time their lips parted. Caine was breathing heavily. They both were.
Their eyes met.
“Let’s get out of here,” Caine murmured.
A thrill went through Meaghan. “How? Steal one of the Heartwells’ trucks?”
“I have a better idea.” Caine kissed Meaghan’s hands. “Thank you for showing me I can trust this part of me.”
He took a step back. His skin started to shimmer, then the air twisted around him and the hellhound stood in front of Meaghan.
It lowered its head, stretching out its front legs beseechingly. Meaghan bit her lip over a smile that threatened to tip her from light-headed joy straight into happy tears.
“Hello,” she whispered, patting the hellhound’s nose. “Are you two better friends now?”
The hellhound huffed out a mouthful of smoke and wagged its tail. Meaghan laughed. “Okay. Let’s go.”
She swung herself up on the hound’s back. Its muscles bunched and it leapt into the air. Meaghan whooped as the wind whipped past her face. The hellhound bounded across the snow, its paws crunching on snow and stepping lightly on thin air.
Meaghan laughed. The hellhound’s joy was infectious. Its love for speeding through the night, with the sky full of stars above and the pristine snow below just waiting to be jumped on, sizzled through her golden mate-bond.
The snowy slopes gave way to white-sheeted pines. The hellhound slipped between them like a ghost, gleefully not leaving even a single broken twig as a trace of its passage. Meaghan laughed again.
“Show-off.”
The hellhound woofed happily and Meaghan buried her face in the thick ruff of hair around its neck. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. The shining light inside her glowed stronger, illuminating the thread that bound her to Caine more closely and intimately than she’d ever imagined could be possible.
They burst out of the trees into the clearing where Caine’s cottage sat, snug and welcoming with warm light pouring from the windows. The hellhound crunched down into the snow on the front drive and waited patiently for Meaghan to slide off its back. Then it shook itself, shimmering, and Caine’s arms were around her.
She stared up at him, and couldn’t stop a bubble of laughter hiccupping out of her.
“What’s so funny?” Caine squeezed her closer and kissed her forehead.
Meaghan nuzzled into Caine’s naked shoulder. His body was hot beneath her hands, his pulse strong as she kissed his neck. Her own shoulders were shaking and she could barely speak around her giggles.
“You… you forgot your keys again…”
25
Caine
Caine smacked his palm against his forehead. “Of all the—damn
it.” He looked up at the cottage. “I’ll check the balcony door again. One minute…”
What are you doing? His hellhound nosed at him curiously. Caine silently explained about keys.
His hellhound huffed. We don’t need that. Just walk in. Like this. It gave him a mental nudge and Caine stepped forward. Like when I hid us from the alpha in the square, remember? You thought you were hiding under the trees. I was hiding us in the tree. It bared its teeth in a wolfish laugh. From the ex alpha.
Caine reached out to the door. To his amazement, his hand passed straight through it.
“Holy…” He looked back over his shoulder at Meaghan. “One minute.”
“Hey, I happen to know how long your ‘one minutes’ are—”
Caine held his breath and darted through the door. It was like walking through mist.
When he was on the other side he let out his breath in a rush. All right, Hellhound. Now, let’s not do that again while I open the door…
The lock was solid under his hand. He unlocked the door and pulled it open. Meaghan’s mouth was still open mid-sentence.
“Wow,” she said.
“I can see that coming in useful,” Caine reflected. His hellhound grumbled something and he frowned. It hadn’t been words—more of a feeling. The same feelings he’d spent the whole year trying to force down. He frowned.
“What is it?”
“My hellhound. It’s telling me that it’s important that I use these abilities in the right way. To do right, not to do wrong, like Angus made the other hellhounds do.” He paused. “I know that breaking into my own house isn’t exactly chasing down evildoers, but I think it’ll let me off the hook this time.”
His hellhound huffed out a smoky laugh. Breaking into your own den!
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Meaghan’s voice was tentative. “I know you didn’t want to go into it back at the Heartwells’, and I don’t want to push you into baring your heart, but…”
“I’ll always bare my heart to you, Meaghan. Don’t worry about that, not ever.” Caine pulled her close and kissed her. “I told you my family was never really there for me growing up. Angus was. He was always getting into trouble, too, but I always assumed he was good at heart. I guess I let the fact that he was my friend blind me to who he really was.”
Meaghan still looked concerned. Caine kissed her until the line disappeared from between her eyebrows.
“He’s not going to hurt anyone else. Jackson put him and the other hellhounds away, and I don’t know why, but I know they’re not going to try anything.”
“Even though they can walk through walls?”
They’re not going to walk through anything, Caine’s hellhound said smugly. Not without permission.
“We can forget about them for now,” Caine told her. “Besides, I have other things on my mind.”
He kissed her again, long and slow, and Meaghan smiled against his lips.
“Good,” she murmured. “Me too.”
The house was warmer than it had been the first time he brought Meaghan back here. Warmer and tidier and more like home. It gave Caine a sense of satisfaction that he recognized as coming from his hellhound.
A proper welcome for our mate, it said, flicking its ears. Good.
The temperature might have been more bearable, but Caine and Meaghan hurried upstairs as though they were being chased by icy winds. Meaghan was holding his hand tight as they ran together, but something was missing, he was sure of it; then they were in the bedroom, tumbling onto the bed, and Caine couldn’t think of anything except how lucky he was.
Meaghan rolled onto her back beneath him. Her hands roved down his chest, leaving trails of fire across his skin. Caine moaned and she bit her lip over a delighted grin.
“This doesn’t seem fair,” she said. “You always ending up with no clothes on, while I’m all bundled up.”
Caine brushed his fingertips along the edge of her jacket collar. “It’s not fair at all.”
He undid her coat button by button. When Meaghan raised herself up to pull it off, he gently moved her around until he was lying back and she was straddling him. The feeling of her weight on him made him groan with need.
“You’re right,” he said, his voice gravelly with need. “This isn’t fair. I want to see and touch every inch of you.”
Meaghan’s eyes gleamed. Slowly—so slowly it made frustration thrum across every inch of his skin—she pulled her sweater over her head, revealing a t-shirt that hung loosely over her curves.
She took a deep breath. “What you’re saying is, I shouldn’t ask you to close your eyes this time?”
“Hell no.” He grinned wickedly at her. “And I recall that being an order, not asking.”
Her eyes creased with a grin she didn’t bother biting back. Her smile stretched across her face, giddily free. “Oh, you want me to order you, huh? In the bedroom?”
“I wanted you to order me before. With Angus. I wanted you to command me not to obey him. But you did so much more than that.” He cupped her face in his hands. “You weren’t scared of my hellhound. You didn’t need to command it to do the right thing, or chain it up. You trusted that we could win, together, and we did.”
“Oh, Caine.” Meaghan put her hands over his. “My love. I’d never chain you.”
*Except in the bedroom?*
Her eyes widened. “Hey! You hush.”
Caine mimed zipping his mouth shut and she groaned.
“You hush… if you want to.”
“I don’t. I want to tell you how much I love you. All the time.” He slid his hands down her sides, then up under the hem of her shirt. “And how much I wish you’d hurry up and take this off.”
She took off her t-shirt. Caine’s cock throbbed at the way her body moved. Her wide hips and soft belly rocked slightly as she pulled the shirt over her head. He knew how she moved when she was lost in ecstasy. This tiny movement was a taste, a reminder, that made him even hungrier for more.
She reached one hand behind her back and undid her bra. One strap slipped off her shoulder, then the other, and she dropped her bra on the bed.
“Oh God.” Caine sat up, holding her on his lap, and caressed her breasts. He ran his thumb over one of her nipples and she gasped. “You’re incredible.”
She made a soft noise at the back of her throat and Caine’s hips jerked forward automatically. His cock was pressed up against Meaghan’s belly, hard with need.
“You are,” she replied, her voice breathy. “You’re… ahh. Amazing.”
Caine’s hand slid down her back. Meaghan’s hands were wandering too, her touch whipping his desire white hot.
Then her fingertips brushed up against the scar on his leg.
Meaghan’s eyelashes whispered against his cheek. “Sorry.” She drew her hand back, but Caine stopped her. He pressed her palm against the scar that punctured his thigh.
“That’s how I got my hellhound,” he murmured.
Meaghan’s fingers tightened over the gnarled toothmarks. “Last time—”
The last time you touched my scar, I stopped you, and pulled away, and the next morning I acted like I couldn’t wait to see the back of you. Caine dropped his head on her shoulder.
“Last time I was scared. I didn’t know who or what I was. I do now.” He pressed his lips against her shoulder, her neck, her lips that tasted like home. “I’m yours.”
26
Meaghan
Meaghan’s breath caught. “I love you.”
She took his face in her hands and pushed him down until she was lying on top of him. Any worries she had about being too heavy, too clumsy, were swept away by Caine’s groan of need.
“And I’m yours,” she gasped as his hand slipped under the waistband of her pants to cup her backside. She raised her hips to undo her pants and wriggle out of them, and the back of her hand brushed against Caine’s cock.
He jerked like he’d been hit by lightning.
Oh, shit.
Meaghan swore out loud.
“What’s wrong?”
She groaned and pounded one fist against the mattress. “Déjà vu. Same as last time. You don’t have a key, and I don’t have…”
She stopped.
“I love you,” she whispered. “Every bit of you. I want to be with you, forever, and I should feel terrified saying that. But I don’t. I’m not scared at all. And… I have something for you.”
Before Caine could say anything, she jumped off the bed and found her jacket. She searched through the pockets. It’s here somewhere—aha!
She climbed back into bed beside Caine and held out her closed hand.
He sat up. “What’s this?”
“Your Christmas present.”
His face fell. “I don’t have anything for you—”
“Really? Nothing at all?” Meaghan teased. “When I went to all the trouble of kidnapping you.” She grabbed his shoulders. “And shoving you in the dog-box.” She pushed him down the mattress and straddled him. “And dragging you into town in your pajamas.”
She rested her hands on his chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart. “And worst of all. When you were hurting, and beaten down, and thought you were a monster, I ran away. I left you.”
Caine closed his hands over hers. “I drove you away.”
“And I let you. You think people haven’t tried to drive me away before? I’m the most annoying person I know. I pride myself on ignoring every hint short of a boot in the ass.” She sighed. “I let you down.”
Caine squeezed her hands. “You know that’s not true. And even if it was—” Meaghan opened her mouth to argue and he pressed a finger over her lips. “It’s over. There’s no way things could have worked out that would make me happier than I am now.”
“I know.” Meaghan held her closed hand up so he could see it. “That’s why this is for you.”
Caine uncurled her fingers one by one and picked up the many-folded printout. “What’s this?”