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Intruder alert! Giorgio was jerked out of his sleep, sitting upright as the yell from Lamont rang through his brain. We have people coming in on three sides of the estate. Lamont seemed panicked. We’re under attack, get your ass down here .

Giorgio didn’t stop to think. He just jumped out of bed, and with a click of his fingers, he was already dressed. Boots and pants. It’s not like he’d need anything else.

“Where are you going?” Enda stirred, his voice heavy with sleep. “Did I just hear Lamont in my head, or was that a dream?”

“We’ve got intruders, babe. Nothing for you to worry about,” Giorgio insisted, his need to get downstairs battling with the knowledge Enda needed reassurance. “Just stay in this room. I’m gonna ward it so no one can get in. You’ll be fine. Just stay here.”

He dashed from the room, barely stopping at the door to make sure he sent a huge ward that would encompass all four walls of the room. Great. Enda’s safe. Now to make sure the rest of his property was.

Giorgio crashed down the stairs, his heavy boots ringing on the steps as he hurried to find his packmates. Lamont was on the left side of the estate. Giorgio could see him through the French doors leading out of from the living area. Damon must be on the other side. He sprinted through the living area, bursting out of the French doors, as he saw Lamont engaged in fighting with three large men who were all dressed in black with balaclavas over their faces so their features couldn’t be seen.

“What the hell is going on?” Giorgio demanded as he grabbed the nearest intruder and smashed his head into the ground. “Who the… where the…where the fuck did this lot come from?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Lamont sounded puffed. “Move faster. I can’t find Damon, he must’ve gone around the other side.”

Giorgio looked up as he heard shouting coming from the other side of the garden. “For fuck’s sake, what is this? Have they sent a whole fucking platoon to take us out?” He grabbed another man who was about to stick a knife in Lamont’s ribs, throwing him and using the body to take out two more who were getting closer.

This shit is personal. Giorgio kept moving. If there was one thing a hellhound did know how to do, it was to fight, and when it came to protecting a mate, they fought ten times harder. Need to keep Enda safe.

/~/~/~/~/

Back in the bedroom, Enda fumed. He knew what was happening. He had heard Lamont in his head as clearly as Giorgio had, and while he would have appreciated being able to go out and help his mate with the intruders, his presence wasn’t going to make any difference except to agitate Giorgio.

Attacking the estate on only three sides was a diversion. Enda knew that. To him, it made sense. Three hellhounds, three sides of the house. If someone was after a specific goal, they would draw away any guards or people who might come between them and their goal by causing a distraction.

Which means my father is coming, just as I predicted. Enda sighed as he climbed out of bed, hurrying to the bathroom. He still smelled of the sex he and Giorgio had enjoyed, although Giorgio had apparently cleaned the obvious messes. Doubting that his father was going to give him time for a shower, Enda still wanted to pee. He could hardly have the showdown of his life if his bladder was full.

Giorgio had said he’d ward the bedroom walls, and Enda could feel them. But nothing in Enda’s experience suggested his father had ever played by any rules before, and Enda doubted that the man had changed. Pulling on a pair of comfortable sweatpants, Enda reached in the closet to grab a sweater, but he grabbed one of Giorgio’s by mistake. It was big on him, but it made Enda feel good in it, so he kept that on and found his boots. Once they were firmly laced, he went and sat in the chair by the window, hooking his feet on the seat and hugging his knees.

He couldn’t see much going on outside. He could hear yells, thuds, and screaming, and every now and then, a body appeared to be flung, briefly showing above the bushes hiding most of Enda’s view before disappearing. Through their bond, he could feel Giorgio’s determination to stop people from coming into the building and his frustration as more people appeared in the distance, running across the wide and immaculate gardens.

It’s going to take a bit of work to clean that lot up , he thought grimly, as he sat and waited. Enda was past being scared, over being manipulated, and sick and tired of having his whole life, or even his ability to keep breathing, controlled by someone who’d never given a shit about him. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.

Sure enough, it wasn’t five minutes later and Enda felt a surge of magic against the wards Giorgio had set. The door opened, and his father walked into the room as though he owned the place. He was alone, which Enda was secretly relieved about. He was determined to take on his father by himself, but having other people around could’ve made that more difficult. His phoenix fluttered under his skin, eager to show himself, but Enda held him back – for now.

“You’re not surprised to see me, I notice. It fascinates me that you’re still alive,” his father said with a sneer. He didn’t look any different from when Enda had seen him fifteen years before and he was speaking fluent Japanese. “You must have the luck of the gods on your side.”

Enda shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it luck, but whatever.”

“You’re not scared, either.” His father tilted his head, looking at him quizzically, like he was some curiosity his father didn’t understand. “What the hell made you dye your hair?”

“I like it.” Enda made sure to keep his voice in the same monotone. “I’ve learned life can be rather enjoyable when a grown person can make decisions for themselves. I happen to like blue hair.”

His father’s stare intensified. “What the hell changed? I made sure from when you were ten years old that you would be frightened, beaten down, and too afraid of your own shadow to even speak,” he said with a snarl. “How the hell did this happen?”

Enda shook his head. “My life is no concern of yours anymore,” he said firmly. “Come to think of it, it never was. But seeing as you’re here, maybe you can answer a question that has been plaguing my friends and me.”

His father jolted at the use of the word friends, but Enda didn’t elaborate. “Why didn’t you kill me at the same time as you killed my mother? You knew I was there. It wouldn’t have taken another two seconds to blast the wooden closet I was in with the flamethrower. So, why didn’t you?”

His father frowned. “Death happens for a reason. You were a kid, so insignificant in a lot of ways, but I needed you alive for a while longer.”

“Aha. Business reasons, I’m sure.” Enda nodded. “It makes me wonder why everything changed. I didn’t cause you any problems working on the boat I apparently owned. I was living my life. I never would have come after you for anything. I was simply trying to survive.

“And yet, one minute I’m serving drinks and the next I’m plucked off a boat, given a drink designed to kill me, and buried under a pile of bodies in an abandoned warehouse in a remote part of England. That all sounds a bit excessive, don’t you think?”

“See, this is why I knew you and I would never get along.” His father pointed his finger at him, talking as casually as if they were meeting over tea and cake. “You really have no concept of the thing known as the bigger picture. You were in that warehouse because you were a loose end, just like everyone else in there. Don’t ask me why... Actually, no. You know what? It doesn’t make any difference anymore because you won’t see morning.

“Yes, I know that you saw me kill your mother. That woman betrayed me by letting you live in the first place. That was never meant to happen, but when it did, and I found out you’d been born, I worked out ways to use that to my advantage. That’s what I do. But know this. The only reason you were still alive to see me take my vengeance against that woman is because she told me you were born with no shifter genetics, and I found out she lied.”

Enda frowned, thinking about the agreement signed between his mother, grandmother, and father. That was meant to remain in force until he shifted for the first time. If he believed I would never shift then why…? But there wasn’t time to ask because his father was on a roll.

“You were then used to keep your grandmother in check. I couldn’t kill her – that woman had some weird-ass magic. I wanted to, gods you have no idea how much I wanted to because she was one hell of a vindictive bitch, and she’d been out for me for years. Ever since I’d dallied with her precious daughter. But, by promising to leave you alone, she left me alone.”

Enda thought of all the papers that his grandmother had collected over the years, showing his ownership of the companies his father had apparently set up for him. “So, I was just a bargaining chip – believe it or not, that does make sense. But you took me away at eighteen. Why didn’t you just leave me there? I had a life. It wasn’t much of one, but I was happy enough.”

“Who said I ever gave a shit about your happiness? For fuck’s sake, this is what is wrong with people sometimes.” His father started to pace, and Enda watched him closely. He wasn’t that much taller than Enda was, definitely not as big as Giorgio, but he did carry a strength or a sort of power about him, something in his aura that Enda couldn’t place. It swirled around his father like a cloud, invisible, of course, but Enda could feel it, and he could feel that power growing as his father got more agitated. “People don’t understand that they have to have a purpose. There is no reason for them to be in my life if they don’t do the one thing they were retained to do. If they don’t do it, if they don’t work out, or they start to get ideas above the position I’ve assigned them…you know, it’s not like I wanted to kill all those people. I didn’t care one way or the other if I killed you, either. But some people just won’t leave well enough alone, and what else am I meant to do?”

My father’s got a screw loose , Enda thought, but he kept that to himself. “I still don’t understand why you took me away from my grandmother when I was eighteen.”

“Because you were eighteen,” his father said. “A legal adult in most places when it comes to contract signing and running a business. Besides” - the man’s grin was evil - “Your grandmother was absolutely terrified when I had you taken, but she had no choice. My son had the right to grow and learn alongside me to take over his heritage one day. It was so fucking hilarious.”

His father laughed. “I even wrote her a note and told her I’d seen the error of my ways and that I was going to ensure that you had the future that she could never even dream of for you. A future of wealth and power. That woman’s greed was her downfall, and in the end, my magic proved far stronger than hers.”

Enda quickly closed his eyes, taking a moment to acknowledge his grandmother’s death wouldn’t have been an easy one. “Yes, so your vision for my future involved me serving drinks on a boat. Fine. Whatever. Past history. But why didn’t you leave me there?”

“I have always kept my eye on the bigger picture. It’s the only way to guarantee success and recognize when things need to change. Deals were falling through. Exports and imports were getting held up, loans were harder to come by, and the global political climate was shifting. People don’t want the same things they did when my companies were started. That’s inevitable. History has shown us that everything works in cycles, and to stay successful, you have to change with it.

“But to affect that change and live off the benefits of everything I’ve done, I had to get rid of loose ends. Those people in the warehouse that you were buried under? Loose ends! People who tried to blackmail me, people who let me down, people who just knew too much. How the hell was I going to have a safe and happy future if I didn’t get rid of those loose ends?”

Enda couldn’t believe what his father was saying – well, he did, but what had the man been drinking? It was honestly as though his father believed the entire world was there for his benefit. “And I was a loose end, too?”

“Obviously.” His father snorted. “It was sound business sense to put all my companies and money into your name. If there’d been any issues, they couldn’t touch me. You’d take the fall for it. But then, see, this is what I mean about changes. There’s a Paranormal Council now, did you know that?

“If you got arrested, and the powers that be realized you could shift into your little bird, then they’d question you, and they can smell lies. I mean, it’s like they have this added advantage that is so unfair, but anyway. If you told them you didn’t know anything, they would know you weren’t lying, and they’d come looking for me. Far too messy. I hope you realize it’s nothing personal. I just couldn’t take the risk, don’t you see, boy? The one rule I have lived by my whole life is that there can absolutely be no loose ends.”

As if by magic, a large, long, rifle-shaped object appeared in his hands. Enda remembered it from when he was ten. “I do realize now that it probably would have been a lot easier if I had just killed you and your grandmother at the same time as I killed your duplicitous mother,” his father said, pointing the flamethrower at him. “But I have learned from that mistake, I won’t do it again. And as for you, well, I hear hell can be nice this time of year.”

“I don’t believe in hell,” Enda said calmly as he let go of his knees and stood up. He remembered his grandmother’s words written at the end of her notebook. It’s time to shine, he told his phoenix who stood ready. Then he remembered how it felt to be claimed by Giorgio, and he’d felt all the congratulations in his head. Praying to whatever god would listen, Enda sent out a mental distress call.

“What the hell are you smiling at?” his father demanded as he prepared to fire his weapon. “You already know what this can do – I incinerated your mother.”

“Yes, you did. Something I will never forgive you for.” Enda’s smile widened. “But while you were busy trying to stop the sale of the companies I owned, some important changes were happening to me. Pull the damn trigger,” he said grimly. “Pull the damn trigger, I dare you.”

Three things happened at once. His father pulled the trigger. The bedroom door was blasted off its hinges, and a dozen hellhounds came through it. And finally, Enda opened his arms and embraced the flames, knowing they would never hurt him as his phoenix came through. The same phoenix his grandmother had cursed his father with all those years ago.