Page 55 of How to Hack a Hellhound
I took stock. I felt… really fucking good. My ass was a little bit sore, but in that I-had-great-sex way. I didn’t feel sticky either, so Liam must have cleaned us up when I dozed off. I almost had a vague memory of that happening. My body felt warm and cozy, and I snuggled in, ready to go back to sleep.
Then my eyes popped open. Liam loved me. He had said it. And I was like 99.99% sure that I had said it back in a cum-induced haze.
Liam sniffed and then growled against my back. “Why are you worrying?”
I turned around to face him and smacked him gently on the chest. “Hey, no sniffing my feelings, you weirdo.”
Oddly, he smiled at that.
Fucking weirdo.
He kissed my lips, and I didn’t even have time to yell at him about morning breath. Not that he had morning breath, because apparently hellhounds were fucking perfect like that.
“You told me you loved me,” I blurted out.
“I do love you,” he answered, snuggling me tighter and kissing my head.
I batted him away, leaning back to stare at him.
“Why the fuck would you do that? I’m fucking grouchy. I’m prickly. I don’t like morning snuggles. I’m an asshole,” I muttered.
“I love your claws, hellcat. And I love your asshole,” he said, smiling at me. “And I don’t want you changing even the tiniest bit, and I don’t care if you can’t say it back, but I’ll still tell you.”
I sighed. I felt like I needed to explain. “I’m not using this as an excuse, because I’ve always been kind of an asshole. My parents used to joke that I had mastered sarcasm by the age of three. But I had a good childhood, and I had friends, and my parents loved me and told me all the time, and I told them too. And then they died.”
Liam just lay there watching me patiently. I didn’t see pity in his gaze, and I was glad, because that might have sent me straight into attitude mode.
“It was a car crash. I was an only child, and we didn’t have any other close family. So after the funeral, I moved away. I worked, I took college classes here and there, and I partied and didn’t let anyone close, because people you love sometimes died,and I didn’t want to deal with that ever again.” I looked at Liam, and he was still calmly staring at me.
“I won’t ever die on you, Quinton,” he said calmly. “I’m a hellhound.”
I snorted. “Leave it to you to focus on that.”
“If I told you I was sorry for your loss, or that I understand you have trauma, and that I love you just the way you are, you would claw my eyes out.”
I smacked him in the chest and then burrowed into him when he chuckled. Yeah, I might have even been a little teary. Liam was so fucking perfect.
So of course I got snarky. “What about you, weirdo? What’s your tragic past? Do you even have parents, or were you spawned from fire or some other weird shit?”
Liam chuckled again, and he started rubbing my back. “We all have parents. Well, except for Wilder, who raised us. He’s first generation and left hell, but the rest of us were born on Earth.”
I leaned back and looked at him. Yup, he was serious.
“My upbringing before Wilder was… fine. My hellhound father raised me—I didn’t know my mother. He was first generation as well, and they tend to be loners, I think. It seems like most packs are made up of second gen hellhounds. He taught me how to hunt and how to pass for a well-mannered human. When he heard there was a first gen hellhound who was taking in kids to “train” them, he dropped me off with Wilder.” Liam seemed totally calm as he talked about it.
“So your dad just, like, fucking left you with some stranger?” I asked, pissed as hell for him.
“Wilder was a hellhound. He knew I wouldn’t be hurt,” Liam answered.
“Fuck that. He was yourdad. He shouldn’t have just fucking… abandoned you. Jesus, did he even check in on you? Come back to see how you were doing?” I demanded.
“Why would he?” Liam asked, and he seemed genuinely confused.
“Oh, fuck that,” I grumbled. “What a fucking asshole. Who just leaves their kid with a stranger and doesn’t even check on them? No wonder you’re more comfortable interacting with computers than people. Your father sounds like a fucking heartless robot.”
Liam hugged me tighter, and I let him, running my nails gently across his back. I think he actually started purring at the sensations.
Finally, he answered, “My father wasn’t cut out to raise a child. He didn’t have much emotion, you’re right. He gave me to Wilder, and I got a real father and brothers and a pack. It was the best gift he could have given me.”
