The Hellhound's Un-Christmas Miracle - Zoe Chant Page 0,26

as clear, and more horrifying than anything he’d imagined. If Parker turned Sheena…

Sheena was still talking. His hellhound whined, urging him to listen. “My leg’s still attached, right? And it’s stopped bleeding. Could be better, sure, but could be—” She winced. “—a whole lot worse. Teach me to go running into a fight with some arsehole ten times my size.”

She looked up and her eyes widened. Too late, he tried to control his expression the same way he’d controlled his internal emotions. Her lips parted in a question, and he could almost taste her words, as cold and bitter as the dread coiling at the back of his throat: Why did you let me do it? Why didn’t you protect me?

His heart ached.

But instead of accusing him, she closed her mouth in a tight line and hunched her shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “Shit, we haven’t even known each other for ten minutes and I’m already a fucking dead weight. I… This can’t be what you were hoping for in a mate.”

Her expression, which until then had shimmered and glowed with every emotion Fleance had felt reflected in the mate bond, closed over. She looked suddenly much smaller than he remembered, wrapped in his jacket, her bare feet turning white on the frozen ground.

Something snapped inside him. Or, more accurately, snapped into place.

She was his mate. And he was hers. Parker had hurt her, and he needed to protect her, not malinger over his own fears.

“I never thought I’d have a mate,” he said roughly. “I didn’t let myself hope for anything. Let alone someone like you.”

Her face twisted. “Someone totally hopeless?”

“Someone who would stand up to a man like Angus Parker.” He tipped her head back. “You’re strong, and beautiful. I’m the one who has failed you.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “What are you talking about? You haven’t—”

“I let you get hurt.” He ghosted his fingertips along her jaw, guilt twisting inside him as his need to touch her warred with the ugly truth he had to reveal. His hard calluses rasped against her soft skin, another reminder that although fate might have decided they were meant for one another, he was so far beneath her he’d spend his whole life catching up.

“It’s just a bite. I’ve had worse.”

“Not worse than this.” He wrapped his jacket more closely around her shoulders, then gritted his teeth. Delaying tactics. “A hellhound’s bite won’t just hurt you. It turns you into a hellhound shifter. Like an infection in your soul.” He reached for the ugly marks on her leg, holding his hand a scarce inch above her broken skin.

She didn’t shrink away. He didn’t realize, until she leaned closer to him, that he’d expected her to.

“But I’m already a shifter.” She made a sudden, jerky movement. “I’m already a shifter! He can’t—he can’t take my sheep away. Can he?”

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