Voices and the door of the pub in front opening and closing. Rowdy customers. Male voices that could be just one of Jak’s regulars or the owners of the duo’s. Didn’t matter. The risk of attention I didn’t wanted was obvious.

Using the backs of two dogs, Noxpaw and Scout, to pull myself upright, Drake’s tail smacked me in the face, and One tried to knock me down again. Stay.

“You’re not my protector.” I crisply informed her with as much dignity as I could as I stumbled under her weight and she showed me differently.

She made a noise in a muffled growling grumble, a doggy complaint. The beasty was no more intimidated by me than I was of her or her pack. But the men around the corner in front of Jaks place were another matter.

“I need to go. This won’t work. You know you have that magic collar, right?” Somehow a mage had collared the guardians of one of the most feared and mysterious ancients. The very one rumored to be in the Proctor’s control and trapped under one of his cities.

Magic was a strictly controlled and monitored resource by the government in power, this was a truth that every person in the world now understood. On penalties of seizure of property, family members and death- otherwise a mage that could openly use magic was a man controlled by the government.

The hounds sent me waves of comfort. The smallest male, Shade lay down on my feet as if to trap me. More of those warm blanket feelings and fur surged.

Male voices came closer. Bold and brave in the night because they never had to sneak around or worry about getting carted off to who knows where to do who knows what. There was no other exit to the alley then forward, unless climbed neighbor’s rotting boon-fruit trellis.

“Stahl said he would be here, he will be here.” One man said

“He’s void slime.” Another replied.

“Didn’t say he wasn’t, did I? He’s also a greedy, sneaking coward who’d sell his mother’s bed for profit.”

“Ah, that’s why I liked him. Now I remember.”

“He’s not here now. Which mean’s he’s wasting my time.” Said a third voice with a toxic, infectious rumble that went right through my entire body.

Oh my, that third voice. Time for me to go, now

They were just at the corner of the building. I did not want to meet these men. The alley was a dead end but a rotting trellis up the side of a building to the roof looked suddenly very useful.

The pack surrounded me. Stay. Pack. Ours. Mine. Pack. Stay. Obey. Obey. Obey. Smooth glossy fur, cold noses, nipping teeth that bit at my clothing but was so careful of my skin-the pack had me trapped. Heart in my throat, I stopped being careful. Must escape. I threw myself against one, using Noxpaw’s haunches as a foot hold to launch myself over the lead hound, away from their trap of loving welcome.

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I pushed up, over. The pack shifted as one, shifting with me. I landed on top of two of them, fur in my face, sturdy back bone in my chest. They made no noise, but a clumsy exclamation escaped me when I hit. The word loud in the alley.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

The male voice went right through me, right through my middle setting off sparklers. The lead bitch watched me with big innocent eys. I glared back at her “Look what you’ve done!”

One’s ears didn’t even have the shame to droop, but I felt surge of, “I did bad,” through all the others. At least they had some empathy for the waves of upset I was sending.

One’s eyes flicked to the male coming up on us. With the way my night was going, I knew it could only be the mage bold enough to collar a demon canine. The other hounds ducked their heads, tails tucked guiltily and turned to shadow. Glowing eyes blinked at me.

That dark voice spoke again. “I asked you a question, girl.”

He was right there, breathing down my neck. Waiting.

I was dressed as a boy. Plain and dirty, another poor motherless child struggling through life in Little Indio. My clothes were baggy patched men’s things, stollen from laundry lines, and hanging off of me in layers. Apparently, my attempt at androgyny failed yet again.

I was frozen. No escape.

With no answer from me the Hunter came closer step by menacing step. He was not pleased. And the hounds answered that, surging around me as I trembled in my shoes from the threat, protecting me like a pup of their own kind that they’d discovered in the wild. Their forms went to cold shadow and back to heated living flesh and back again, conflicted in their response. Up against my left side, I could feel Shade stiffen and thicken. And grow.

Doom hounds had three shapes. One for hunting, one for living, and one for killing. It would not be good for anyone if Longtail took his killing shape. The book said they couldn’t shift back from that without eating something.

With no idea what their master would do to them, I couldn’t let them defend me. The lead alpha was collared. Who knows what that kind of magic could do. Mages were devious, selfish, greedy dick-driven block heads. I’d never seen one of them worth the dirt they walked on.

I loved that Shade tried to protect me. It messed up my head, twisted the confusion of my reactions of panic and familiarity.

My heart swelled, feeling a little possessive. He may have collared them, but they loved me enough to stand against him.

“No,” I said to Shade. I couldn’t let him shift. That wouldn’t end well for anyone. “It’s okay. He’s not gonna hurt me. It’s okay. You’re not gonna hurt me, are you?. Shush now, babies, it’s all right.”

Heart pounding abnormally fast from the threat this man posed, I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself. “Don’t punish Shade, okay? I’m not doing anything.”

The light out here wasn’t good. I couldn’t see his expression, but he and his men, produced pure grump vibes in waves. I continued to talk, my back to them, my hands in the fur of the necks of the animals closest to me. “Don’t punish them. I like animals-saw them out here. I should have brought a treat. But I don’t think I could sneak enough from Jak for all of them.”

One of the other men laughed, “Ha. A treat, eh? No treats for these ‘uns. Cept maybe you. What do you think you are to them?”

The Hunter said something in a rolling language I didn’t recognize. It brought the itch back to my feet. A command to the hounds, I thought, as they moved away from me.

I hated that. I hated that he told them what to do, forced it with that collar on One. A greedy, stinking mage didn’t deserve to control these incredible beasts. It defied logic. They were pure magic, sentinels of a lost ancient, not toys for a male’s personal use.

He didn’t deserve them. Why hadn’t they eaten him?

The hunter’s hand curled around my upper arm. He shoved me toward his two pals. “Inside,” he said.

They forced me away. I tried to look behind me to figure out what he was doing to the hounds, but his men moved around the corner too fast, dragging me in through the front door.

Within Jak’s direct line of sight.

Oh, Damn. There went the job.