The Hellhound's Un-Christmas Miracle - Zoe Chant Page 0,53

somewhere no one could do this to him again.

Parker laughed. *Not much of a one for self-preservation, are you? You know I gotta admit, I didn’t know if this was going to work. That’s why I targeted the other ladies. Just to test the waters, you know? Birds, sheep, nothing I couldn’t clean up easy if things didn’t work out as planned.*

Clean up? Sheena’s stomach dropped. Fleance had said Parker never killed, but that had been when he had Fleance to do his dirty work. Sheena couldn’t believe that Fleance had never fought his alpha’s command. And he might say now that he would murder Parker, but it was obvious how difficult he found the idea. She would bet that Parker had known he could only push Fleance so far. The whole alpha control thing couldn’t be unbreakable.

Which meant they might have a way out of this without her mate turning into a murderer.

*And isn’t that a tragedy,* Parker’s voice drawled in her head, like oil and nails. Sheena stomach went cold.

She was trapped. She knew that. And Parker was inside her head. The thoughts jolted around her mind, too frantic to come together and make any sort of conclusion. She was fire and rage and teeth and claws and a cringing, writhing fear that she’d never experienced when she had her sheep. A fear that made all the rest of it worthless. What was the use of all this strength if she was too afraid to use it against the one creature she wanted to take down?

Parker winked at her, and the sight of one burning eye closing and opening was somehow more horrifying than anything else. Maybe because it was so human, she thought, her mind bouncing off on a tangent that she really didn’t have time for.

Doing what I do best, Sheena thought to herself, not thinking about how she’d normally think it to her sheep and launched herself down the tangent. Hellhounds were the sort of overwhelmingly terrifying that ranked on a scale alongside earthquakes and tsunamis. Scary, but inevitable, and simple in their inevitability. Burny dog makes things burn. Scary magic makes things scared. But that wink was entirely human and human evil was far more complex than natural disasters.

Parker yawned. *All this and we haven’t said hello yet? You’ll give me a big head.*

And he could read her mind.

*Quick on the uptake, aren’t ya?*

She wasn’t even sure she could read her own mind, most of the time. Another tangent appeared. Sheena shot towards it like a dog towards its bowl. This was what she did best and right now, it might be her only chance, a thought she veered away from like it stung. Luckily, she always had another useless thought to grab onto, something only vaguely related to the topic at hand, like—What’s the time, Mr. Wolf…

*Enough.* Parker was losing patience. His emotions lashed through the writhing surface of his psychic presence in her mind. He stepped forward, all arrogant confidence, blocking Sheena’s half-view of the movement behind him she’d been so careful to ignore.

This whole exchange had taken less than the time it took her to catch her breath. Enough time to—

She stopped thinking about that, just in time for the maggots in her head to tighten. The thought-tangent slammed shut.

*There. Was that so hard?* Parker’s voice was layered over with greasy smoothness. *Pay attention. You might have been livestock before, but you’re mine now. One of the family. And the first step in our on-boarding process—*

Sheena was trying not to see, but her skin prickled with anticipation for the thing she was trying not to think about, either. Wriggling around in her mind, feeding off her thoughts, Parker didn’t need any more warning than that.

He spun around.

Fleance was standing on the wreck of the car. Parker had turned around just as he was preparing to attack, but when he saw he’d been spotted, Fleance stilled.

*Did you really think that would work?* Parker sounded scornful. *I would have thought you’d know better than to attack me now.*

Fleance glowered at him. If Sheena didn’t know they were both the same type of shifter, she would have thought Fleance was some sort of magical fire creature, and Parker was a demon. They were both black dogs the size of no fucking dog she’d ever seen, but while Fleance’s coat looked like someone had combed the night sky, Parker’s was ragged, with raw-looking skin showing through the gaps. Smoke curled from his skin like steam