Page 21 of Hellhounds Never Lie

“Are you sure they didn’t hurt you?” Ash circled me again. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides.

“We should call Van.” I reached for his hand and held it gently in mine. He was calmer now, but he wasn’t settled yet.

“Answer me.”

“I’m sure,” I said. “I was lucky I woke when I did. I saw them as they were lifting their knives.”

“Fuck.” Ash’s eyes flashed with a weak crimson light that must be connected to his magic.

Then he swung his attention back to the intruder I had caught. He wrenched himself away from me, and I let him go. He stalked over to the unconscious wolf. He kicked him again. Once. Twice. Three more times.

This time he was shouting something different—something that warmed all those cold, lonely places in my heart. “He is mine. You do not touch him. You do not look at him. I will annihilate you if you try anything against him ever again.”

Ash probably would have kept at it, but I pulled him away when I heard the rush of heavy footsteps coming our way.

“Police!” came a shout from the door. “We’re coming in. Put your hands up.”

Then Van’s big body barreled into the room.

ChapterEight

ASH

To say I was livid was an understatement.

Two ass-wipes had broken into my home and tried to kill us in our sleep. I wanted to go over and kick the shit out of the one Dillon had caught all over again. The guy still hadn’t woken up, but no one seemed surprised by that when Dillon explained how he’d been in his hellhound form when he’d bitten him.

Was that normal? I really needed to find out more about hellhounds. Were their bites venomous? Why hadn’t the guy’s clothes burned off if he’d been exposed to the flames I’d seen dripping from Dillon’s fur? And that led to more questions—like why wasn’t my apartment burning down?

“So they were from the Red Hills pack?” Van asked.

Dillon nodded. “I’d never been introduced to them—Rob limited my exposure to most of the pack. Said I needed to prove myself first. But I recognized them. Even without being able to scent them.”

I gritted my teeth and scowled at the intruder whose leg was being tended to by a first responder. My meager magic had identified the paramedic as a shifter of some kind, maybe a large bird like an emu. He seemed keen to help the wolf, even if he was a murderous bastard.

“They must have followed my scent here.” Dillon grimaced. “I should have known they would keep coming after me. I put Ash at risk.”

“This isn’t your fault,” Van said.

“Van’s right.” I pointed my finger at the unconscious wolf. “It’s his fault and it’s that asshole Robbie or Rob or whatever his name is… It’s his fault too that any of this happened. He sent his minions here. If they’d followed your scent, they’d have known you’d already been to the police station. What did they hope to gain?”

Sparks exploded from the tips of my fingers at the thought of how close those bastards had come to killing Dillon. And me. But mostly I was pissed about the threat to Dillon’s life. In the back of my mind, I figured that was because I wasn’t ready to deal with the fact that yet another person had tried to kill me in my sleep. Like seriously. What the fuck? Did I have some kind of paranormal bullseye painted on me somewhere?

Van shook his head and glanced at the prisoner. “Maybe he’ll tell us.”

“I suspect they wanted revenge because I betrayed their alpha,” Dillon said.

More sparks shot out of my fingers, but neither Van nor Dillon commented on it. Dillon reached for one of my hands and threaded his fingers through mine. His touch had an unexpectedly calming effect on me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still wanted to kick the crap out of the wolf in my bedroom, but Dillon’s touch reminded me we were both safe.

“If Dillon hadn’t woken when he did…” This time, in addition to the sparks, the lights in the room flickered.

“Hey,” Dillon soothed as he rubbed the back of my hand. “You’re safe now. We both are.”

I growled at the implication we might not have been, but my anger wasn’t helping. I knew that. So I forced myself to take a deep breath.

“Did you get the other one?” Dillon asked.

“My deputies are out hunting for him now, but I don’t expect them to find much.”