Christmas Hellhound (A Mate for Christmas Book 2)

  Christmas Hellhound

  Zoe Chant

  Contents

  1. Caine

  2. Meaghan

  3. Caine

  4. Meaghan

  5. Caine

  6. Meaghan

  7. Caine

  8. Meaghan

  9. Caine

  10. Meaghan

  11. Caine

  12. Meaghan

  13. Caine

  14. Meaghan

  15. Caine

  16. Meaghan

  17. Caine

  18. Meaghan

  19. Caine

  20. Meaghan

  21. Caine

  22. Meaghan

  23. Caine

  24. Meaghan

  25. Caine

  26. Meaghan

  Epilogue

  A note from Zoe Chant

  More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

  Special Sneak Preview

  1

  Caine

  DECEMBER 20

  (CHRISTMAS EVE EVE EVE EVE EVE)

  Caine was having the dream again.

  He ran as fast as he could, but there was no escaping the monster. Everywhere he fled, every alleyway he sprinted down, every dark corner he hid in, the creature found him.

  At last his strength gave out. He collapsed, bloodying his knees and hands on the rough ground, exhaustion roaring through him.

  Everything was dark. The only sound was the rush of blood in his ears and his gasping breaths. Nothing else.

  Nothing else.

  Hope flared inside him, pale and delicate like the first blossoms of spring, and then the monster opened its eyes.

  His eyes.

  Caine burst awake, a scream echoing in his ears. One leg kicked out, hitting something that fell over with a crash, and for a moment he couldn’t remember where he was. Nothing was familiar: not the bedsheets tangled around him, not the smell of the air, not the silence. There were no traffic noises filtering in from outside, no distant or not-so-distant sirens blaring. No sounds of people at all.

  One thing was still the same. Caine closed his eyes, turning his vision inwards to the deepest shadows of his soul. There it was. The dangerous monster that lived inside him.

  Caine sat up wearily, getting his bearings. His hearing still seemed strangely muffled, and as he blinked and looked out the French doors at the end of his bed, he realized why. The world outside was blanketed in a thick layer of snow.

  The last piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Caine remembered where he was.

  Exactly where I need to be. He let out a ragged breath.

  No wonder he couldn’t hear any sign of human life. He was in the middle of nowhere, or more accurately, in a rented vacation cottage nestled among snow-covered trees about an hour’s drive from the mountain town of Pine Valley.

  Pine Valley was one of those dinky tourist towns that came to life once a year when tourists poured in for a guaranteed white Christmas. But that wasn’t what had brought Caine here, five days before Christmas.

  Caine grimaced. Once, he’d looked forward to Christmas. The songs, the food, the bright lights and festivities in the middle of the dark, cold winter had made the holiday magical when he was a kid. Even as an adult, the holiday had been a chance for reflection.

  Now, it was a bitter reminder of the hell his life had become.

  Last Christmas, Caine had discovered that magic was real. And that real magic wasn’t flying reindeer and a fat man coming down the chimney to deliver presents. It was being attacked by a giant black wolf with burning eyes, and waking up the next morning with a monster living inside your soul.

  A hellhound.

  As though it had heard Caine’s thoughts, the monster opened its eyes.

  Caine tensed.

  It was always there, lurking inside him. He could see it when he closed his eyes, smoke pouring from its jaws, and eyes that burned like twin gates to Hell itself. But he never knew what might set it off and make it try to claw its way out. And when that happened…

  The nightmare was fresh enough in his mind that he couldn’t stop the memory from rushing up.

  His best friend Angus Parker’s face changing from shock to fear as Caine transformed and attacked him.

  As though it thought the memory was real, and Angus was there in the room with him, Caine’s hellhound snarled. Sparks flew from its eyes. Its anger was like thunder smashing against the inside of Caine’s skull.

  Caine barely had time to prepare before it surged forward, trying to take form. Smoke twisted at the edges of his vision. Pain lanced through his body as the hellhound tried to take over.

  No! Caine clutched his head in his hands, trying desperately to concentrate through the pain. He imagined a cage of unbreakable steel bars forming around the monster, shrinking, forcing it back to the deepest part of his soul.

  The hellhound fought back. It bit and scratched at the cage, hurling itself against it until lights burst behind Caine’s eyes.

  He swore, pouring all his energy and concentration into the cage, and at last the monster retreated. Caine watched it until it was so deep in the shadows that all he could see was the burning red of its eyes.

  “Good,” he muttered hoarsely. “And stay there. I won’t let you hurt anyone else.”

  At least I have something to show for the last year, he thought. Twelve-month progress review, Caine Guinness: subject has shown great improvement in controlling unacceptable outbursts. Key goals for the next period include...

  A sensation like fire crackling behind his eyes made him cut the thought off. The monster was chained, but it was still awake. And listening. He couldn’t risk letting it know the true reason he was here in Pine Valley.

  To destroy it.

  It’s been a year since I turned into a hellhound and lost everything good in my life. My job, my home, and my relationship with my best friend. But now I’ve got a chance at fixing things.

  Who knows. Maybe, once all this is over, I’ll get up the nerve to call Angus again.

  Caine stretched. He’d arrived in Pine Valley mid-morning after driving overnight, and by the look of the light streaming into the bedroom it was now late afternoon. Time to head into town and make some inquiries. Follow up on the rumors he’d traced back to this remote mountain town: that Pine Valley was home to a family of dragon shifters, all of whom had almost lost their dragons.

  If he could find out their secret, and jump that “almost” hurdle… he’d be free.

  He’d managed to get undressed before falling into bed for once. He grabbed his pants from the end of the bed and looked for his boots. They were under the bedside table he’d knocked over as he woke from his nightmare. He pulled them on, picked up his jacket and was about to look for a shirt when a chill breeze whispered across his bare shoulders.

  He tensed, scanning the room for its source. He couldn’t hear an AC unit. All the doors and windows should have been shut tight, so there shouldn’t be any drafts, unless—

  The ice that crackled up Caine’s spine when he saw that the balcony door was open had nothing to do with the breeze.

  His mouth went dry. I never opened that door.

  When I woke up just now, I didn’t know if it was the monster’s screams that woke me, or...

  Or someone else.

  The balcony door swung further open. Just an inch. But this time, the sliver of wind brought something else with it: the sound of dogs barking.

  All the hairs on the back of Caine’s neck stood on end. Inside him, the monster pricked up its ears.

  Think sensibly, Caine ordered himself, reinforcing the psychic cage around the monster before it co
uld try to escape. You’re half a continent away from where the hellhounds attacked you. It can’t be them.

  His pulse thundered in his ears. It’s probably just dogs. This is a rural area. Rural places have dogs, ordinary dogs—

  Then a woman’s shriek cut through the air.

  Caine’s feet hit snow before he even realized he’d jumped out the French doors and off the balcony. Where had the scream come from? He had to—

  The woman shouted again and Caine started to run.

  His mind was screaming. Wild dogs. Wolves.

  Or worse.

  Snow crunched under his boots. Icy wind whipped the heat from his skin. He ran without seeing where he was going, every atom of his body straining towards the woman’s voice.

  The barking was getting louder. He was close. But, God, he didn’t know what he was going to do if this was what he feared it was.

  His nightmare, come to life. Again.

  The woman shouted again. Caine’s blood was pounding too hard in his ears for him to make out the words as he ran into a stand of pine trees. The trees were frozen, their boughs heavy with snow, but Caine moved between them like a ghost.

  The scent of pine filled his nose, and the clean frozen smell of the snow and ice, and then the texture of the wind changed and his senses were full of dog.

  Heart thundering, Caine burst out from under the trees.

  “I’m trying to save you, you little bastards! Stop licking me! Argh! Get off!”

  Caine froze. Whatever he’d expected, it wasn’t this.

  The pines opened out into a clearing piled high with drifts of snow. On the other side, a brightly-painted sleigh was upended in one of the drifts. For a moment, Caine’s head spun. It looked for all the world like Santa’s sleigh had crash-landed in the forest.

  No reindeer, though, flying or otherwise. Instead, a half-dozen fluffy grey-and-white dogs clustered around the bottom of the sleigh, their leads disappearing into the snow drift.

  And the shouting woman was in the middle of it all, laughing and yelling.

  Relief washed over Caine like sunrise lighting up the horizon. She wasn’t hurt. She wasn’t in any danger. The barking dogs were just ordinary dogs, not...

  He wrenched his mind away from the memory and sighed, his breath pluming out in front of him in the chill air.

  It was just the nightmare getting its claws into me again. Not real. Not this time.

  The woman was bundled up against the cold in a heavy, hooded jacket and dark glasses to protect against the late-afternoon sun bouncing off the snow. All that was visible of her face was a flash of brown skin and a smile as wide as the sky.

  The dogs were falling over each other in their attempts to jump up on her, but her shouts weren’t afraid, just annoyed. And relieved. And…

  Caine breathed in. There was another scent on the air, almost hidden under the thick smell of dog. Something fresh and green and delicate but with a punch like hard liquor. His head spun.

  “Yes, yes, I’m happy to see you too,” the woman shouted, and Caine’s heart leapt. “No, that’s enough. Sit! All of you!”

  Caine's legs gave out. He collapsed into a low-hanging branch. The branch cracked, sending snow sheeting down onto him, and the woman looked up.

  The sky-wide grin dropped off her face. She pushed her sunglasses and hood off her face with one gloved hand, and Caine went completely still.

  She was gorgeous. Her cheeks were covered in a wild explosion of freckles a few shades darker than her skin, and a curl of dark hair sprang out from under the woolen hat she had on under the hood. Her eyes were like rich honey, huge and intelligent and fiercely alive.

  She was...

  She was taking off her sunglasses because she didn’t need them anymore. The snow was turning orange and red, reflecting a sunset that burned across the sky behind her like hellfire.

  One of the sled dogs began to howl. One by one, the others joined in.

  And deep in the darkest part of Caine’s soul, his demon opened its burning eyes and looked at her.

  Yes! it cried, smoke pouring from its jaws.

  Caine choked out a curse and threw himself backwards. The demon had spoken. It had never done that before, just growled and snapped. And now its voice rang like a bell in his head.

  Yes, yes! it howled. Her! There!

  Caine's heart stopped. The monster’s excitement was like fire in his veins. It had never reacted like this to anyone.

  I have to get out of here. Ice crackled down his spine, fighting the demon’s fiery energy. What have I done? I ran out here to help but the only danger out here is me.

  He stood up.

  I have to run. I can’t let it—

  “Hey! Stop right there!”

  Caine's legs locked in place. The woman wasn’t staring at him with wide-eyed confusion anymore—she was frowning. Glaring. If looks could kill, he’d be a smoking hole in the ground.

  The woman jabbed one gloved finger at him. “I’ve got you now, asshole! Don't even think about trying to run away!”

  Her voice cut through him like a red-hot knife. She was struggling through the snow and tangled-up dog team. Caine hoped for a moment that they would hold her in place, but there was no stopping her. She strode forward like an avenging angel.

  She must know what I am. Caine’s blood ran cold. Nothing else could explain the expression of pure, undiluted anger in her eyes.

  “Wait!” he called out. The woman’s eyes snapped up to meet his. “Don’t come any—”

  His voice broke off as darkness crackled through his veins. His demon rose up inside him, fire and shadow and smoke and danger, its sheer glee sending alarms blaring in Caine’s mind.

  She was ten feet away. Eight. Six. And his feet still wouldn’t move. He was frozen in place, helpless to stop this strange, angry woman from storming into his demon’s path.

  I should never have come here. This was a mistake.

  He could barely hear himself think over the creature’s excited cries.

  She's here! She sees us!

  I have to stop this somehow. Please, God, don’t let it hurt her.

  Hurt her?

  The demon turned its full attention on Caine. His breath stuttered. He’d fought his demon before, shown it his anger, his fury and rage at having his life ripped away from him—but he’d never let it feel his fear.

  The woman grabbed his arm. Inside him, his demon twisted in on itself, its knife-like fangs bared. Pain and confusion poured from it, as thick and choking as the smoke it breathed. Then it leapt forward, and Caine’s eyes burned as it looked out of them.

  “Got you!” the woman cried triumphantly.

  Caine’s vision cleared. He stared into the woman’s wide, honey-brown eyes.

  And his demon disappeared.

  2

  Meaghan

  Meaghan swayed on her feet. The man’s eyes were on fire. And there was something behind them, something that pulsed through her like a wave of heat off a bonfire.

  It felt… happy.

  I’m losing it, she decided. But there’s one thing I’m damned sure of.

  I’ve spent all day driving around the mountain looking for those poor dogs and that ridiculous Santa sleigh. I’m tired, and hungry, and sore.

  But the dogs are okay. The Santa sleigh isn’t in pieces.

  And not only is this guy the only person I’ve seen in miles, he turns up right next to the stolen sleigh and dog team?

  He must be one of the assholes who took them.

  “This is my lucky day,” she muttered, tightening her grip on the man’s arm.

  “Mine too,” he breathed, in a voice like caramel sauce.

  Meaghan’s eyebrows snapped together. “What?” she burst out, and a guilty expression flitted across his face. She took a step closer to him “Don’t even think about running away! And—argh!”

  Meaghan yelled as a crust of snow collapsed under her feet.

  She struggled to catch her balance with
out letting go of the man. His foot slipped, too, and they half-stumbled together. Panting, Meaghan straightened up.

  And found herself glaring straight at the man’s... collarbones?

  She shook her head. That couldn’t be right. No one was that much taller than her. And hadn’t she been looking straight into his eyes before?

  His burning bonfire eyes with that wild surge of joy behind them.

  She shook herself. They were wallowing in a snow-drift, that was the problem. She needed to get them both onto solid ground, so she could look into his eyes again.

  No, so you can make sure he doesn’t get away. What are you thinking?

  The snow wasn’t as deep beneath the trees. Meaghan tightened her grip on the man’s arm—his bare, muscular arm—and clambered up the slight slope until she and the man were eye to...

  …lips.

  Really nice lips. Really, unacceptably nice and soft-looking lips, surrounded by a scruff of dark stubble.

  Meaghan gritted her teeth and looked up—up!—into the man’s eyes. They weren’t burning, of course, because she’d been imagining that. Instead, they were a startling blue, like the evening sky just after sunset.

  He stared back, his eyebrows furrowing sexily, and her heart sank.

  Trust this to happen to you. You spend two months chasing down the assholes who’ve been terrorizing Pine Valley, and as soon as you manage to hunt one down, you get a freaking crush on him? Wow. Congrats, girl, this is officially the stupidest thing you have ever done.

  She’d arrived at work at the Puppy Express that morning to find her coworker Olive Lockey—Olly—in tears. A couple of assholes had turned up before opening, broken into the kennels and stolen six of the sled dogs that the Puppy Express used for their Christmas Wonderland sleigh rides, as well as the Santa sleigh they’d been fixing up for the Christmas parade.