How to Hack a Hellhound (Hellhounds of Paradise Falls #2)

by Shannon Mae

Dex wasn’t the brightest flame in the house fire,

Quinton was a flame in the darkness, and I wanted to set him free and watch him burn. I would make sure no one ever again tried to put out his fire.

“Cassius wants to know what’s going on with Q and Aiden. He’s pissed. He did adopt them, and then you stole and rehomed them.”

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “Dex, they aren’t stray pets.” Dex looked offended. “I know that! They’re stray humans. Obviously. I still don’t think you can just steal and rehome them.”

Fucking hellhounds. You’d think they’d be halfway decent at dealing with humans.

“You are not a weak human. You are a hellcat, all claws and explosiveness. You would have made life miserable for your captors.”

“It wasn’t sex,” I said automatically. “No,” he answered quietly. “It was intimacy.”

“Of course, I would hunt you down in a very nice way and bring you back willingly,” I said, nodding. “Toby always says consent is important. And if you didn’t want to come back then we’d all just follow you around or something. Although we like it here, so we’d all prefer it if you'd stay.”

Aiden still didn’t answer me. I wasn’t sure where else to go with the conversation. Had I broken him? Could you break humans with bad news? Did they short circuit like computers? It did seem he was frozen. Was there a human reset button? Did he need a hard reboot?

“No, he seemed to accept that. Then he leaked a bit and hugged me. It was odd but nice,” Liam admitted. I stared at him. “Did you just say ‘he leaked a bit’?” I asked. “From his eyes,” Liam added helpfully. For fuck’s sake.

We had an asshole former-friend to torture, and then I needed some snuggle time with my hellhound. I had, after all, just been kidnapped. Again.