“A hunch.”
“A hunch?”
Fleance met Sheena’s eyes and something shivered inside him. A door he hadn’t even known he’d kept locked trembled against its hinges.
“It was more than a hunch. I’ve known Angus Parker for a long time.”
“You’ve been chasing him?”
“I know his tactics.” That’s one way of putting it. So close to the truth that it’s an even worse lie. Fleance cleared his throat. “Parker has made a career out of using his powers to force people into corners so he could trick them into bad contracts. He started off by terrorizing individuals or small businesses into folding. But after a while, that wasn’t enough. A few years ago, he targeted Pine Valley. It’s a small tourist town, way off the beaten track. The perfect test case to see if he could take on a whole community.” Fleance stared at his wine glass, unable to meet Sheena’s eyes. “And it would have worked if there wasn’t another alpha hellhound already there. Caine Guinness caught on to what Parker was doing, fought him, and forced him to leave Pine Valley in peace.” He sighed. “Without another alpha to fight him, I don’t think even the dragons could have taken Parker out.”
“And you fought him then, with this Caine guy?”
Fleance hesitated. Parker bit her, but she’s already a shifter. She won’t turn. The thought wound itself eel-like around his spinal column. I don’t need to tell her everything. That Parker’s dangerous, yes, that I’ll keep her safe, yes… but I can keep the rest a secret.
Who I really am.
What I did.
What I came here to do, and failed to do, and what I’ll have to do now instead.
I have to lie to her. Because who would want to be tied to what I really am?
His shoulders tightened. No. Parker might have made him a monster, but he didn’t have to act like one. He wouldn’t be with her under false pretenses.
He looked across at her. Now that he’d soaked in what she looked like, finer details sprang to the forefront: the slight tremor in her hands as she sipped her wine; the dark smudges under her eyes and the way her expression sometimes slipped, just briefly, and one hand flew to hover painfully an inch above her leg where Parker had bitten her.
“You’re a sheep shifter, right?”
Her eyebrows went up. “Valais blacknose, present and accounted for. My whole family are. I can’t turn invisible, or—or make people afraid of things that aren’t there, or set fires that magically disappear. My special ability is being so bloody cute no one takes me seriously.” She bit her lower lip. “So, please, take me seriously. Tell me what’s going on here, or at least—tell me about yourself. Because right now I’m terrified. I left my wallet, my phone, everything back at Silver Springs and I don’t know what’s happening with my aunts, and…” She took a too-quick glug of wine and wiped a spill from the side of her mouth. “I know I sound like a scared kid right now but I could really do with some reassurance.”
“You don’t sound like a scared kid.”
“I feel like one.” She made a face. “I’ve spent the last three months convincing everyone who knows me that I can look after myself, and I didn’t even have to leave the country to find out that’s not true.” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m just glad you’re here. Whatever that arsehole back at Silver Springs had in mind… I wouldn’t have made it out without you.”
She thinks I’m some sort of hero, Fleance thought, guilt twisting in his gut. She doesn’t know that if it wasn’t for me, Parker never would have been here in the first place.
“If it helps, I’m certain your aunts are safe,” he said out loud. “I know the way Parker works. He’ll terrorize people, but he’s never left a body count.”
Sheena flinched at the words body count, and Fleance cursed himself. Before he could say anything else, she put down her glass with a clonk and rubbed one hand across her forehead.
“You know so much about who this guy is. Are you some sort of shifter detective, or something?”
Fleance’s throat went dry. He was meant to be telling her the truth, not letting her come up with tempting lies. But that was what he’d done for so many years: let his mind be smooth as a pond as he slid in Parker’s wake, not letting his alpha see any trace of his true thoughts.
Not anymore. Not with her.
“I wasn’t part of Caine’s pack then,” he began.
“You keep saying ‘pack’ like I should know what that means,” Sheena interjected.
He frowned. “Sheep shifters are pack animals, aren’t they?” he asked.
“Uh, flock animals, sure.”
“Then you know that some shifter groups have particular… structures. Hellhounds are extremely pack-oriented. The alpha has control over all the subordinate hellhounds.”
Sheena scowled. Somehow, that made Fleance feel like he was on more solid ground. Her frown took over her entire face. It was a whole, all-in expression, everything that tentative smile hadn’t been.
“Control?” she asked. Even her voice was a frown.
“An alpha leads their pack. It makes sense they couldn’t do that without some sort of force. And with hellhounds, that force is magical. We all serve our alpha. And until Pine Valley, Parker was my alpha.”
Sheena gasped. “No.”
The smile that stretched across his face felt like a sick, sour thing. “When Caine defeated Parker, he took control of his pack, too. Me, Manu and Rhys.”
“Manu—isn’t that a Māori name?”
Fleance recognized the word—Māori were the indigenous people of New Zealand. Manu’s people.
“Where do you think Parker got the idea to use New Zealand as his bolt hole?”
Sheena leaned back in her chair. She’d gone pale beneath her freckles. “So you came here to… to…”
The truth. He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. “To serve my pack. I thought, wrongly, that I could serve them best by coming
