sense. He swallowed. “I’d just moved out of home. The last thing my parents and I did before I left for college was pack up all the shit in my room—my uncle was coming to stay while he was in town for business, and Dad joked that if he did his own laundry they might just keep him, and I could fend for myself over the break.
“I got the call in the middle of my first class. I hadn’t even unpacked my bags. There’d been an accident…”
He broke off. “I didn’t hear the details. Or I don’t remember. I still don’t know if anyone actually told me exactly what happened, or how, just… It didn’t matter, anyway. I couldn’t stop thinking about that last joke my Dad made. Then I was home again, and they were both dead, and the only reason I wasn’t left to fend for myself was that Uncle Angus was staying, after all. He managed all the—the legal stuff. I tried to go back to college, but I couldn’t cope. Mom and Dad had given up so much so I could get into a good school, and I couldn’t even finish my first year.”
“No one could blame you for that.”
“I could. I couldn’t not blame myself. What happened to my parents was so random, so unexplainable, I thought at least if I could blame myself for something I could have controlled, I’d…” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I thought. It felt like it made sense at the time.”
He should be angry at his past self, he knew that. But those days were the last he’d had as himself. He’d been young and stupid and thoughtless—and human.
Inside him, his hellhound shivered and whined softly.
“And at the same time as all that was happening… My uncle was there. No matter what was falling apart, he was there for me. Maybe I should have been more suspicious of that, but I was just glad to have anybody. I’d only met him a few times before. A couple of Thanksgivings, a summer holiday when I was in elementary school. Mom said he was always too busy with work to be around much, but he was the only family I had left and when he stepped in, I thought it was just because that’s what family does.” Fleance paused. He’d never talked about any of this and now, it seemed too easy. The words kept coming, slipping out as thought they had a life of their own. “He arranged for my parents’ home to be sold, gave me a place to live in a new city, and… offered me a place in the family business. I didn’t even ask what the business was. I was sick of being sad and useless and—I wanted to show Uncle Angus that I was worth all the time he’d spent on me.”
“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