The Hellhound's Un-Christmas Miracle - Zoe Chant Page 0,33
followed suit. The table was so small their knees almost touched beneath it. Fleance felt his senses start to shut down out of self-defense—all of this, her, her scent, the fact that she was only wearing a robe, was all too much—except at that moment Sheena whipped the covers off the plates and the smell of their meal overwhelmed everything else.
His stomach growled. Sheena groaned out loud.
“I always forget how hungry shifting makes me,” she said, reaching for her knife and fork. “And I’m only a sheep—I hope I ordered enough.”
Fleance blinked. She’d ordered seared steaks and a seafood platter, and half a dozen sides including a heaped pile of steaming ravioli in butter sauce and a crispy noodle salad. Two slices of chocolate cake fought for space at the very edge of the table.
“I should have gone for the cheese platter, too,” she muttered, worried. “Oh, shit. I forgot you’re the one paying for this.”
“Don’t worry about—”
“I’ll pay you back, okay? As soon as I get my stuff back.”
“Really, don’t worry about it.” He caught her gaze and tried to smile. “What’s mine is yours.”
She didn’t look reassured. “Right. Well… it’s kai time. Food time. Let’s focus on that because whatever you’ve got to say, I feel like I’m going to need to hear it on a full stomach. Here, try these prawns…”
They both filled their plates. Fleance tried to focus on the food, which was excellent, but he couldn’t keep his attention away from her.
She was so beautiful. No, that wasn’t the right word, either. She was so… much. He already knew what she looked like, but that was a staccato series of impressions, hyper-focused by adrenaline and outlined in fire. This was the first chance he’d had to slow down and look at her properly.
Her freckled skin was a few shades darker than his—not hard, given he turned invisible in snow even without his hellhound powers—and her hair was an incredible mass of thick curls that just brushed her shoulders. Her eyes were a hazel brown flecked with gold that reminded him of that first intoxicating taste he’d gotten of her scent—like rolling hills of golden grass speckled with shadows.
But she was more than that. What she looked like, her scent—he’d known that within a second of meeting her. And then he’d discovered that she was the sort of woman who refused to run and leave him, who’d jump into a fight no matter how outmatched she was and try to help a man she’d only just met. A man whose job should be protecting her, not the other way around.
She was someone who looked at Parker like he was a monster, and at Fleance like he wasn’t.
Somehow, in the years he’d been a shifter, he’d gotten the idea that the mate bond was the final step in finding your mate. Perhaps it was because theirs had sprung into existence so quickly—and the feeling of that happening, of Sheena’s heart seizing his with gleeful ferocity, still took his breath away—but all the mate bond told him now was how much he still had to learn about this woman whose soul was bound to his.
She deserved better.
Cold sweat broke out on the back of Fleance’s neck. Sheena gasped, and he realized he’d let too much slip. He was used to keeping his emotions hidden beneath the surface of his mind, but he hadn’t yet mastered keeping them from reaching Sheena through the mate bond.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m still getting used to… everything.”
“It’s a lot,” she agreed. She licked a smear of sauce from the corner of her lips and helped herself to another serving of ravioli. “I mean… on top of everything else I’ve never even heard of shifters that can turn into animals that don’t exist. I’m still getting my head around it.”
“You haven’t met any mythic shifters before?” When she shook her head, Fleance whistled. “Hellhounds aren’t the half of it. Where I live now, Pine Valley—”
“Pine Valley? Is that exactly what it sounds like?” When Fleance nodded, Sheena snorted. “Good to know other countries are as good at naming stuff as we are.”
“It’s become something of a hub for mythic shifters. Makes sense, I guess, given one of the oldest families there is a dragon clan.”
Sheena almost choked on her drink. “Dragons?”
“The Heartwell clan lives in the mountains above the town. A brother and sister, and their families.” He hurried to clarify as Sheena’s eyes got wider. “Small families. They only have one child each,