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.*
He was about to argue—he’d only been human, he hadn’t had anything like her sheep to protect him—*I don’t have anything to protect me like your sheep did,* he told her. *I wasn’t a shifter. I was just… me.* His hellhound shivered as he remembered those first months. I let you down, it growled.
*Being human doesn’t make you less than being a shifter.* Sheena’s voice was steady. *I might just be a back-country bogan, but I know that much. I believe you can fight back the same way my sheep did. Maybe you already did.*
Fleance tipped his head to one side, confused. *Fleance, you told me your hellhound never wanted to do what this dick told you. Wanting to change your fate is the first step, right? Parker might have turned you, but you choose what you do with your new life.*
I can choose? Fleance wasn’t sure whether the words came from him, or his hellhound.
From the moment Fleance had been turned, Parker had steamrolled over him. He’d never even considered there was any other way. Besides, Parker was all he had. His parents were dead, his life had fallen apart, and suddenly there was this strange creature in his head…
He hadn’t seen a way out. Parker had made sure of that. But now…
He raised his head. In a burst, Fleance knows that Sheena was right. Parker might have changed his fate, but it was his fate. He couldn’t leave it between Parker’s teeth.
With that realization his hellhound burned brighter than ever before. It was a clean, sharp brightness, like the morning sun reflecting off still water, not the yellow sulfur-burn he’d always known. Power pulsed through him.
He glanced at Sheena. He didn’t need to say anything—understanding passed between them, quick as a flash.
Parker was still focused on Sheena. He wasn’t expecting Fleance to attack. Fleance went low and fast towards his belly, teeth bared. Parker twisted away—straight into Sheena’s hooves.
Crack!
The hellsheep kicked Parker in the head. He fell sideways, stunned, and before he could shake it off Fleance was at his throat.
He put one massive paw on Parker’s neck. The hellsheep roared over like a steam train and put its hoof next to his paw.
Parker’s eyes rolled, but his voice in Fleance’s head was dripping with disdain.
*This again? Face it, Flea, even if you’ve fooled yourself that you’re as good as an alpha, you’re not man enough to—aargh!*
Sheena’s hellsheep was too impatient to wait for him to finish. She chomped down on his neck.
The shadows that had haunted Fleance’s mind since he stepped into Parker’s web rearranged themselves. They blossomed with light, and weightless joy, and the sweet scent of clover.
*I don’t want him in your head again,* she told him, her voice low and warm and only for him. *Let this be my burden to bear.*
Relief spread through his veins, honey-sweet. He never would have asked Sheena to do this, but now that she had he couldn’t see it happening any other way. She knew how much it hurt him to have Parker in his head and she was too fiercely protective to put him through that again.
But the fact that she had the power to so neatly rearrange the echoes of power in his soul with a single bite…
My mate is an alpha, he thought, staring at her.
She was magnificent. Her sheep form had been adorable, but her hellsheep was ferocity on four legs. One glimpse into her burning eyes and you knew the only thing standing between you and a hellish kicking was Sheena’s goodwill—which she had more of that anyone else Fleance had met.
*Now,* Sheena declared, leaning down to glare into Parker’s eyes. *About making you do things…* She shrugged. *My hellsheep’s still recommending I dunk you into the nearest mud pool. Honestly, right now, I think it might have a point. You’re really annoying, you know that?*
Fleance had a better idea. *Remember all those shell charities, uncle? The ones that offered false hope to people after you’d got them scared they would lose everything? I think it’s about time they started doing some actual work.*
Yes, his hellhound murmured. This is right. Fixing what’s wrong.
Sheena nodded at him and he kept talking. He listed all the loose ends that had been tangling in his conscience since he was a teenager. Every family thrown out on the street, every business sunk into
