Page 118 of Hell’s Half Acre

She tried to tear open the door.

“Not going to work.”

Shrieking, she turned into a wolf and lunged for him.

Luke shifted into his true hellhound body…not the adorable German shepherd Sorcha cuddled with.

His true massive canine body was covered with hellfire. She bit at his throat. Luke dipped his head and used his strength to roll her over and hold her down with his front legs. She did her best to roll out or bite, but it was useless.

Hellhounds didn’t lose fights. They were psychopomps to the most vicious creatures ever born.

She finally switched back to her human body and did her best to shove at him.

Returning to his own human form, Luke stood and used his powers to hold her against the floor.

“You good?”

“Fuck you!” she snarled.

“Not today. I have other plans.” He moved to stand over her. “Look, I’m not going to arrest you. I’m willing to let you go. I just want to know one thing from you.”

She finally stopped fighting him. “What?”

“No trick. I will let you up. I just want you to answer a couple of questions. You do that, and I’ll leave you to your life.”

To prove it, he withdrew his hold and let her get up.

Brushing herself off, she glared her hatred at him. “What do you want to know?”

“Why did you kill Lawson?”

She shrugged. “He refused to step down.”

That only confused him. “What?”

She rubbed at her neck where he’d bitten her, but not broken the skin. “We were tired of being held down and ordered about.”

“We?”

Venom and fire darkened her gaze. “Have you any idea how hard it is to be a female werewolf? No. Of course you don’t. You’re a hellhound and you probably treat your women the same way they do. In fact, I know you do!”

Those accusations amused him, especially given the fact that they all bowed down before his mother.

“Even in Hollywood, we’re ignored. They make movies where all werewolves are men. Not a woman in sight. Like that would ever happen! God forbid they not have us to hump. Still, we don’t matter because they’re trying to erase us.”

They? Who were they? He had no idea.

And he didn’t think that was true about Hollywood. More likely, the writers were too lazy or just didn’t think about it. Had there ever been a werewolf movie without females? He couldn’t think of one.

They always seemed to be there. But who was he to interfere with a good rant?

“We knew they wouldn’t fight us. They would never take a challenge seriously from a female, so we took it into our own hands. If the Alpha died outside of a challenge, then they’d have to hold a rally for a new leader.”

Luke winced as he realized what she was saying. A rally was a series of contests that weren’t a fight. Rather, the winner was the best at a number of tallied challenges that didn’t involve an actual fight to the death.

There was only one problem with that.

“You do realize that Alphas chosen like that seldom survive for long.” Because they didn’t win it through a challenge, another would step in to fight them for their leadership. That werewolf almost always killed the new Alpha and claimed the pack.