Fleance looked into her eyes. The mate bond fluttered as her emotions caught it. He felt as though his brain was half-frozen, each thought sodden and heavy.
Parker had never targeted shifters before. That had been part of the threat: to keep his pack in line, as much as anything. If they didn’t do a good enough job carrying out his instructions to terrify his latest target, Parker would turn them, and finish the job that way. But only humans. Never shifters.
What had Parker said before, when he was talking about Sheena’s aunts? They’re both shifters, of course, which limited my options.
Relief washed through him, a cool, tidal wave that left him feeling light-headed.
“He can’t.” He pulled his hand away from Sheena’s leg and held her close. Her heartbeat thundered against his chest. “It’s okay. You’re safe. He won’t turn you into a monster like we are.”
“You’re not a monster.” Sheena’s expression darkened.
Fleance laughed. The noise surprised him. “You don’t need to say that. You’ve seen Parker. You’ve seen what hellhounds can do. The fire, the terror…” He smoothed her hair, willing her to understand. “You don’t need to pretend. I saw the way you looked at me when you thought I was the one who burned this place down.”
“Only for a second!” The mate bond twisted, echoing the guilt that flashed through her eyes. Fleance took her hands and hoped she could feel the reassurance he was trying to send back to her.
“It’s okay. I get it. You thought I was a monster.” She shook her head, but he went on, a wry smile pulling at his lips: “I am. I know that. I’ve had long enough to come around to that fact. But I’m your monster, now. I’ll keep you safe.”
A monster who’d been so weak, he hadn’t even been able to keep his mate from harm. That changed, now.
The next time Parker tried to hurt Sheena or her family, Fleance wouldn’t fail.
4
Sheena
I’m your monster.
Sheena wasn’t sure how she felt about the shiver that went through her at those words. It was a good shiver—in some very localized areas of her anatomy, a close to fucking unbelievably good one—but it was also…
Disappointed?
No, she told herself. Why would she be disappointed that her mate was a mythic shifter of a type she’d never heard of before, who’d just sworn to protect her from anything that might cause her harm? He was big, strong, and powerful in a way that seemed to surround him like an aura. He would protect her. And as recent events had just shown, she bloody needed protecting.
And—fuck it, she was angry, too. Yes, she’d been wary of Fleance when she’d seen his burning eyes. Just for a second. But he was nothing like that other hellhound shifter. His hellhound was nothing like that other monstrous, rotting creature. How could he think that—
She took a deep breath that turned into a hiss of discomfort, and Fleance was all concern.
Of course he is, she thought. Because I’m his mate and as I’ve just proved beyond all doubt, I’m just as useless as everyone always told me.
Fleance shifted back into his hellhound form and carried her through the bush to where he’d parked his car. The rental car was shiny and new and currently parked halfway across a paddock. Sheena grimaced automatically. Tourists…
She’d have to have a word with him about that. Along with all the other words, among them, What the hell just happened?
He let her down and shifted back into human form the moment her feet hit the ground, and whatever else she’d been about to ask, one new question leaped up in front:
“Hold up,” she burst out. Geez, bad enough that she was weak and injured. Had her brain totally carked it, too? How hadn’t she noticed this before? “You’ve got clothes on?”
Fleance looked down at himself. He was wearing the same outfit he’d had on earlier: a long-sleeved, gray woolen top that fit him like a glove, and dark jeans. And shoes. Shoes! And… she was wearing his leather jacket.
She stared back towards the village, half-expecting to see her brain left behind on the path.
He’d shifted straight back into human form… with his clothes. That was somehow freakier than any of the other shit that had happened today.
“You have got to tell me how you do that,” she breathed, her thoughts jumping back to the outfit that had disintegrated around her as she shifted into her sheep form. She tucked her borrowed jacket more closely around herself. It came midway down her thighs, so it wasn’t like she was completely naked, and anyway her sheepiness meant she rarely felt the cold—as though her brain was convinced she was permanently wearing her own wool coat—but… “Being able to shift with my clothes would have made so much of my life so much less embarrassing.”
“I’ll teach you how,” Fleance said. His eyes flicked to the collar of her jacket and then—ooh—down to where its hem was skimming her legs. Her skin heated up, and not because of any wool-coat-delusion.
That kiss had been incredible. And they were mates. There was more than just kissing involved in that. If Fleance was anything near as good with other parts of his body as he was with his lips…
He cleared his throat. “I’ll grab you a pair of pants, too.”
“Oh. Sure. Thanks.” Sheena blinked. Not the time, she told herself firmly, trying not to feel as though she’d just been brushed off. Except how could he brush her off when she hadn’t come onto him?
She’d told him she knew he wasn’t what he’d expected. How could she be? How could someone as incredible as him have thought he’d end up with an undersized sheep shifter?
She looked down at her leg to distract herself from the rush of exhaustion that thought sent through her. Fleance had opened the passenger side door
