“That makes sense,” Sheena said awkwardly. Her fingers tightened around his hand. “Awful sense, but—you were a kid and you’d just lost your parents. Of course you trusted him, of course you wanted him to stick around.”
“I would have done anything for him.” Fleance stared down at his plate without seeing it. “I told him so, and he said… he was glad to have me on board. I thought he was offering me a job. I told him I didn’t have any experience. I wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted to show him I could be useful. I was going to give college another go, get a degree in business studies, but…”
His uncle had gone along with it, that was the worst thing. He’d let Fleance fill his head with dreams, while he put his own plans in motion. And then the timer had run out.
“…that didn’t happen. My uncle took me out on a fishing trip one weekend, to this cabin way out in the woods. He said he had two days off before his next business deal, so I guess that’s why he didn’t waste any time. The moment we were out of the car, he shifted and attacked me.”
Clang!
Sheena dropped her wine glass. Red wine spilled over the table, but she barely noticed.
“He attacked you?” Her eyes opened wide. “Wait—we were talking about Parker. Your uncle isn’t…”
“Angus Parker. My mom’s brother. And my old alpha.”
He’d expected her to back away, but instead, she stood up so quickly she bumped the table. The wine bottle only just remained upright as she stumbled around and grabbed the front of Fleance’s shirt in both hands.
“You could have led with that, you know!” she exclaimed. “You—” She stretched out both hands flat against his chest, fingers wide, as though she was trying to hold his heart in place. “You…” she repeated, and a blush spread across her face. She dropped her hands. “Sorry,” she muttered, grabbing her chair and pulling it around the tiny table until it was jammed close against his, “but in my defense, you can’t just bloody say something like that! Parker is your uncle? And he treated you like that?”
Instead of backing away, she dropped into the chair, eyes fixed on his.
“Yes,” Fleance said, not sure whether his brain was falling behind his mouth or it was the other way around. Sheena swore and took his hand.
“Then I can guess that whatever happened next, isn’t good. He attacked you? Why?”
“He… wanted me to join the family business. His business. I told you he used his pack to do his dirty work. He started with me.”
“So he… let me get this straight. He attacked you to control your hellhound, and because he was an alpha and you weren’t, you had to do what he said?”
“No, he—” Fleance rubbed the scar on his neck reflexively. Sheena’s eyes tracked the motion and when she saw the marks on his neck, she went very still. “I already told you hellhound shifters aren’t born. They’re made. It’s like an infection,” he said, and deep inside him, his hellhound shivered with shame. “And Angus Parker turned that infection into a key business practice.”
“He… turned you? Your own uncle? You trusted him, and you’d just lost your parents, and—” Her face twisted, and she grabbed him by the shoulders. “He’s a monster. No wonder you came after him to protect your pack. I want to kill him myself!”
He gently eased her hands from his shoulders. Somehow, he didn’t quite manage to let them go. “I know I’m making myself sound like the victim. But I was the one who walked straight into Parker’s trap. And then I became part of the trap. Everything he did? Terrorizing people into leaving their homes, destroying their lives? That was me. I hurt people. And then, when Parker turned Rhys and Manu—”
“You must have tried to stop him,” Sheena protested.
“I didn’t. I couldn’t. I tried, when he started turning the others to add to his pack, but trying isn’t doing. There was nothing I could do to save any of us.” His muscles were so tense, Fleance felt as though he was encased in a suit of armor. “Everything Parker did, he managed because I was there to help him. I’m as culpable as he is. I couldn’t stop him then, I wasn’t strong enough, but even after my new alpha broke Parker’s control I didn’t do anything to put right the damage he caused. My hellhound…”
He dropped her hands. His hellhound hadn’t said a word since he said that being turned into a hellhound was like an infection. He could feel it listening, so intent it was shaking.
“…My hellhound has been having problems since last Christmas,” he said. “I thought at first that it was broken, somehow, that after everything else Parker had left me with a part of my soul that wanted to hurt people like he made me do. But I’m the broken one. I saw everything that Parker did and when I had the chance to finally put an end to it… I did nothing. I hid behind my new alpha and told myself I’d put the past behind me. Like it wasn’t anything to do with me anymore.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself.” Sheena’s words struck the shell he’d constructed around himself like rocks. “You just said he forced you to do all those things. And he’s your uncle. You didn’t fail anyone. You weren’t hiding, you were recovering.” She tucked her hands into the too-long sleeves of her robe and scowled. “I was born too early. Some of my organs weren’t even finished growing. Which means I’ve been sick enough of my life to know that you have to be easy on yourself while you’re
