failsafe. Since Caine isn’t here, if I lose control, I’ll need something to stop my hellhound.”
“Your hellhound could phase right through that!” Fleance retorted.
Behind Rhys, Manu groaned and mouthed That’s what I told him! Rhys pursed his lips. “I was working on the hypothesis that if I didn’t actively acknowledge that fact, my hellhound wouldn’t think to do it.”
“And you thought that would work?” Fleance’s jaw hurt. If he’d known his packmates would pull something like this, he never would have told them about his hellhound’s problems.
Rhys’s eyes glinted in the moonlight, behind his thick glasses. “We’re all experienced at controlling what we let ourselves think,” he remarked lightly.
Fleance grimaced. He couldn’t argue with that. When they’d been under Parker’s control, the alpha had raked through their thoughts like leaves. “And you waited for Caine and Meaghan to be out of town before you started your little experiment?”
“It’s not like I’m breaking any rules. You’d have let me know if I was,” Rhys drawled. “Since I’m not a torn heap of bloody pieces on the ground, I assume I’m morally in the clear. Anyway, you’re the one running away.”
“He’s got you there,” Manu pointed out.
“I’m not—” Fleance groaned, exasperated. “Caine will understand.”
“When he finds out? Which means you haven’t told him. And you haven’t torn yourself into tiny pieces, either, so we have to assume you’re as morally in the clear as I am.” Rhys grinned, his smile as narrow and sharp as his face. “Did you leave a note on your pillow? That’s traditional, isn’t it, when you’re running away from home?”
Fleance turned away. “I don’t have time for this.”
“You’re going after him, aren’t you?” Rhys didn’t need to say who he was talking about.
Fleance paused. Manu’s psychic voice brushed against his mind. *He’s the reason your hellhound keeps going psycho-cop.*
*I couldn’t replicate the symptoms. But I never fought Parker as hard as you did. My hellhound must not have been affected in the same way…* Rhys pulled out a notebook and jotted something down in it. Fleance tensed automatically.
Rhys had been trying to find a way out of Parker’s power ever since their former alpha first turned him. He’d been convinced there was a logical basis to their hellhound magic. Parker had taken great pleasure in disproving more than one of his theories.
Parker isn’t here now, Fleance reminded himself. He’s not going to find Rhys’s notes and use them on us. That’s why I’m doing this, remember?
He nodded to the notebook. “What do you mean, you never fought? You were always trying to find a way out.”
“A way out of being a hellhound. Not a way out of Parker’s master plan. I wanted to be out; you wanted to be good.”
Fleance glared at him. Inside him, his hellhound seethed. Years of frustration and helplessness had crushed it down, and now he was free and had done nothing to fix the misery his former alpha had caused.
No wonder his hellhound snapped at the smallest misdeed. As far as it was concerned, Fleance had forgotten the one thing he’d always sworn to do. Make Parker pay.
“Parker is a loose end,” he said out loud.
“And you’re going to snip him off?” Rhys raised one eyebrow. “Do you even know where he is?”
Fleance looked past him to Manu, who looked uncharacteristically beaten-down. He acknowledged Fleance’s silent question with a brief nod. “That was what I was for, wasn’t it? He wanted a bolt-hole to run to if everything went wrong.” His mouth twisted. “And someone to play the native guide. Flea, I can’t go back there. My family doesn’t know what happened to me. I can’t… not like this.”
“I’m not asking you to. I’m doing this alone.”
Manu looked equal parts relieved and ashamed. Rhys shot him a dark look, then turned back to Fleance. “You’re sure about this?”
“I’ve got a passport. Parker made sure of that.”
“I don’t mean the technicalities.”
“I know.” Fleance set his shoulders. “I have to do this. It’s not just my hellhound, it’s all of us. I meant it when I said Parker was a loose end.” He didn’t want to talk about this—years under Parker’s thumb had taught him never to admit to anything—but he didn’t want Rhys to suddenly decide to experiment with heroism. “You can’t still feel him in your mind, can you?”
“Of course not.” Rhys flicked through his notebook. “My current theory is the former pack bonds are severed entirely after an alpha takeover. I wonder if the same is true of other shifter bonds.