Page 25 of How to Hack a Hellhound
No doubt about it, hellhounds were fucking weird. And apparently we were living with them now.
Chapter 10
Liam
Iwatched Aiden and Quinton eat breakfast through the cameras, but I had turned the sound off at Aiden’s request. I was nothing if not respectful of privacy.
“They’re pack now?” Corbin asked as he walked into my office and saw the guys on my screen. He sat next to me at the second chair I’d brought in for Quinton to use when he came over. A crow perched on Corbin’s shoulder, but at my look, it flew off and… I don’t really know where it went. Probably Corbin’s room, where he left a window open for them. Hopefully it hadn’t gone to shit on my stuff. I hadn’t offended the crows that I knew of, and I really wanted to keep it that way.
They were vengeful fuckers, which is why I respected them.
“Quinton and Aiden?” I asked, although that was obviously who he was talking about.
“Yes. Quinton is yours, I think, but Aiden isn’t,” he stated. “But they both feel like pack. I can sense the bonds there, ready to form.”
Corbin was the very unique mixture of being part witch along with being a hellhound. He often knew strange shit, and we knew to trust him on it. He was connected to things that the rest of us weren’t.
“If they feel like pack, then we’ll treat them like pack. It’s good they’ve agreed to move in here with us,” I answered. I thought for a moment, then I added, “My hellhound thinks Quinton is mine.”
Corbin just nodded his head, as if that was perfectly normal. After a pause he said, “Atlas is around. He dealt with some difficult humans, and he’ll be in hellhound form for a while. He’ll join us if necessary.”
I looked at him, wondering if Atlas needed assistance from us. I doubt he had spoken to Corbin, but sometimes he would speak to the crows, and they would tell Corbin. If he was staying in hellhound form, he was feeling a bit feral. I raised my eyebrows in question.
“He’ll be ok, I think. Just wanted to let you know,” Corbin said. “Also, we’ll need to build another structure—a cabin I think. Jude, Dexter, and I will get started on it. Back behind one of the houses, but a decent distance away.”
“Now?” I asked. It was a good idea, but there were some logistical issues associated with it. Technically, each house sat on a few acres, and there was plenty of space behind them and next to them to build more. The pool house was evidence of that. Still, getting more property would be a good idea, but most of it was tied up in an open space preserve.
“Jude is good with people. He can find out about acquiring more land, and we can pick a spot and build,” he said, almost like he knew exactly what I was thinking. He probably did.
“Ok. Let me know if I need to fix some things. I might be able to change the acreage and property lines in the human computer systems, but they tend to have a lot of paper documents for that sort of stuff as well, and if we can acquire it the old-fashioned way that would be best,” I said.
With that, Corbin got up and left.
I looked back at my computer screens, but my eyes were continuously drawn away from my research and towards Aiden and Quinton. They had finished eating breakfast. Perhaps now was a good time to go and introduce myself to Aiden. I couldn’t seem to concentrate on work, anyway. Plus, I had already spent some time following the money trail and was delving into individuals now, and I thought Quinton might like to be a part of that.
With that, I got up and headed into the bathroom to check myself. I wanted to make a good impression, after all. Satisfied that every hair was in place and my outfit was unwrinkled from sitting at the computer, I headed over to the pool house.
I was about to walk in when I hesitated. Perhaps I should knock? Quinton had seemed surprised to find me in his living room when he came out of the shower, and I didn’t want to upset Aiden. He was the timid mouse to Quinton’s little hellcat, and I didn’t want to get off to a bad start with him.
This whole thing with humans and privacy was all a little ridiculous. We’d never had to worry about such things before.
Of course, we’d never actually kept any humans before, either. We were used to just appearing in a human’s house whenever we wanted. Although those were all humans we were planning to kill, so maybe the rules were a little different when it came to ones you were going to keep.
I should’ve asked Jude. Or even Toby, although he was always saying he was “quirky,” so I wasn’t sure if he was an accurate indicator for human actions either.
I was about to pull out my phone to text Jude when the door opened. Quinton was standing in front of it, smirking.
“You know we can see you lurking out here behind the curtain. You gonna knock or just stand there being a creepy stalker?” he snarked.
I heard Aiden gasp a bit from behind him. The open floor plan did allow them to see the door from the living room and kitchen area. I wondered if we ought to have the door replaced with something that didn’t have windows. It was good for them to be able to see out, but windows were breakable.
“Well?” he snapped, raising an eyebrow. Oh, my little hellcat’s claws were out. I smiled at him, which only seemed to confuse him.
“I wasn’t sure if I should knock or just enter,” I admitted. “Also, I was wondering if you should have a solid front door with no windows.”
He looked at me, then looked back at Aiden, who I could see sitting on a stool in the kitchen, looking surprised at Quinton’s snarky attitude. I wasn’t sure why that would be the case, though, since he lived and worked with Quinton, so surely he was used to it by now.
Aiden sighed at him, then came over and pushed him gently out of the way. “Come on in. Don’t mind crankypants, here. It’s still technically morning, and apparently mornings are only for caffeine and sass.”
