Fane: Diaries of the Cwn Annwn, #3

By Katie Vincent, Jo Pilsworth and Bethan Thomas

Fane Anghelescu, Hellhound Alpha. Over-protective and paranoid, according to his sister. But he swore an oath to a Queen of Hell. He swore to serve body and soul if Lamashtu Anzillu would protect his sister, Roxana.

She's Hell-born Demon. She broke her oath before the blood was dry on the contract. What happens when Fane finds he has been played?

And if that is not enough, other Hellhound Packs are trying to kill him and annihilate his Pack. And the return of a mystery Pack female, Stefania. Life ain't simple, that's certain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jo Pilsworth
• Release date: Sep 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386157151

Katie Vincent

Katie Vincent is the name for a group of friends who met in online roleplay. Together, they have created stories inspired by Welsh, Sumerian and Egyptian legend.  Jo Pilsworth is the lead author of the name 'Katie Vincent', a group of friends from around the world who met through a mutual love of Sherrilyn McQueen's Dark Hunter series. The concept of the "Diaries of the Cwn Annwn" was born from the Welsh legend of the Cwn Annwn, spectral hounds in service to the Welsh Goddess of the Underworld, who are tasked with bringing her the souls of those who do evil. After two decades in the medical sales industry, Jo switched careers to retail management. Home continues to be a small village north of Cambridge, U.K

Book preview

Fane

CHAPTER 1:

I AM NOT NICE

How can I describe the thoughts running through my mind? The realisation that when, and it was when, rather than if, my sister returned to the Pack, having disappeared to parts unknown, I would have no choice but to issue a judgement against her for her blatant flaunting of my authority.

Roxana, my sister, you have always been the most important thing in my life, and that it unlikely to change. I have been a fool. I saw only the cub, the juvenile, whom I have wanted to protect from the moment you were born. You were a little fur ball of grey and white fluff, eyes screwed tightly shut, one of the last to be born to the Anghelescu Pack. You were only a year behind me in terms of our dam whelping you, but you would always be my baby sister. How many mistakes I made because I could not lose that image of you as a cub? But, the mistakes have been made, and now, I can try only to rectify the damage.

When Vladimir Lupei slaughtered our dam, my only thought was to protect you. So, I begged the only authority higher than Aurelija for protection. I made my plea to our Queen. Would things have been different if our dam had told us that she had lowered her status in the Pack because she knew that you and I had to the potential to lead? Our dam also tried to protect us, but she chose a different method and one which, ultimately, failed.

Regardless, she didn’t tell us. We didn’t realise that she had tried to protect us, in the hope that we would overthrow Aurelija when we reached maturity. Instead, I made my plea to the Queen, and she accepted the offer of my service in return for protecting you. Again, 20/20 vision is wonderful. Over the time I have served the Queen, I know that she changes the truth to suit herself. After all, she is, or was, the Queen of Hell. She is hardly going to be a ‘pleasant’ person. She needed me, though, and thus we had an agreement. Whether she has maintained her end of the deal is something, at the moment, I will not know. The Queen had realised that she needed a change in the way that the Anghelescu Pack was being led. My plea to her, along with the incipient powers that I had within me, were a gift at just the right time.

Training. Wonderful word. It covers a multitude of sins. Again, part of the way that the Queen decided to change the status quo was how she prepared her Alpha Designate for the inevitable battle. I needed to learn to fight in ways that my enemies would not expect. So she ‘recruited’ some specialists. Humans have a long history of fighting, considering how long their species has been around, it could be argued that this was their key life skill. Where there is fighting, there are those who will find ways of achieving their goal, regardless of what stands in their way. These were the humans that the Queen recruited to be my trainers.

Since I have become Alpha, the common term for the type that she would recruit were those involved in Black Ops, ‘missions’ which the human hierarchy would never admit to having authorised. But in times past, it was the sadists, the murderers, the serial killers, the ones who took pleasure in causing pain, and the ones who knew how to kill both efficiently, and with the maximum amount of blood energy released for the Queen’s gratification. It was the humans who glorified in slaughter that the Queen felt would provide the best grounding in how to fight in an unpredictable manner, and it was to these ‘trainers’ that I was given, with their brief being to make me a better fighter. And, learn I did. I would return topside bruised, bloody, not always victorious, but with the knowledge of how that would change the next time my trainer tried that particular stunt. Their advantage was, they believed, that they were already dead. What else could happen to them? Quite a lot as it transpired, such that we had a mutual hatred society. I knew that training was necessary, and let’s face it, their methods meant that I came up with a lot of unexpected ways to use my abilities, some direct and some indirect. All of them were intended to ensure that I won.

But, I move ahead of myself. My human ghost-writer has given me a list of questions, which are supposed to help explain my origins, motives and the rationale that makes me what and who I am. I don’t seek the understanding or forgiveness of others for what I am, or who I am. I am a creature of the Dark. I am, as humans would say, evil through and through, and I don’t have a problem with it. But, I am also the Alpha of the Anghelescu Pack, a Hellhound Pack, and it will always remain that there are two things which are of importance to me: my sister, Roxana and my Pack.  The rest I will happily send to our Queen for our pleasure. I believe the human term is that they can go to Hell. Then again, why should they enjoy the pleasure of a visit to my homeland, when necessity keeps me topside?

I am what I am. I am spawned from what the human race calls Hell. I am born of the blood of the Huntsman. I am not some shape-shifter, living as a human, and occasionally letting myself indulge my animal side. I am Hellhound, and to make my life topside easier, I have chosen to adopt a human form.

My brethren and I were created when the Huntsman took our Queen as his bride. She bore him an heir, since there must always be an heir to the Huntsman. As a show of his gratitude to her for this, he created her own Pack of Hounds, who, like his own, would run with the Hunt, but we remained loyal to her, with our primary duty to protect her, whilst the Heir was protected by his own Lupei Pack.  What can I say? The Lupei Pack screwed the pooch big time, as humans would say. During the annual Hunt, somehow the Heir fell and died. Our Queen was distraught. Her child was lost to her. The Master was distraught, because now there was no Heir. When he found that our Queen could not provide him with a second Heir, he put her to one side, taking instead a human whom had caught his eye and thus began the cycle of replacing his Queen, constantly searching for one who would bear him a live heir. Our Queen was banished. We followed our Queen, and chose exile, but in order to continue to feed her the human scum that she needed, we were ordered to make our home topside, and to find ways to ensure that we would feed the souls to her that she needed, now that she could no longer take her pleasure from victims of the Hunt. Thus, the Anghelescu Wolves were born. We are not wolves, and we are not shape-shifters, as I have said. We are Hellhounds, and would enjoy nothing more than the thrill of running with the Hunt. But this is not to be. To run with the Hunt would mean that we would associate with the human who supplanted our Queen. Time has shown me that it is easier for humans to see a pack of wolves that it is for them to understand seeing me and mine in our true form. So, for the sake of efficiency, those are the forms I will use in the main. Don’t misunderstand me. My Pack and I enjoy running as wolves, since we are seen as the epitome of ‘wild’ and by and large, we are left to our own devices by humans. It is only in settled areas where we are seen as a problem. Explain to me why I would want to eat a domesticated animal instead of a wild animal who has provided me with the thrill of the chase. No? Well, don’t worry, as the majority of the anti-wolf lobby couldn’t understand that one either.

The Lupei Pack followed us topside, fleeing from the Master’s wrath, since, after all, they had been responsible for protecting the Heir. His fury was great, and, acting wisely as even they could, they fled in the face of that wrath.

They chose to a deserted part of the world, which in time would become known as Louisiana, since their primary goal was to hide from the Master. In the meantime, the Anghelescu Pack fled to what was called Europe, and specifically, the mountains. Europeans were such a wonderfully warlike race, mostly down to religious differences. The old Pagan religions of the Romans and the Germanic tribes had faded into the mists of time, and with them, the power of the Master and the Hunt faded in human minds. Christianity and the word of the Prophet were the dominant faiths. Perish the thought that they might actually agree. Perish the thought indeed, because it would have meant that the Anghelescu Pack, once I became Alpha, would have not had the success that it did.

We knew we had to fit in with the human world, so we taught ourselves to work the land, to grow food, to appear no different from our neighbours. We became the bread makers, we became wine makers, ensuring that our work was considered amongst the best. Ours were the foods that would form the wedding feasts of those humans living around us. We became the antithesis of Hellhounds. Who would think to look for creatures of the dark in a flour mill or tending vines on the hill side?

In more recent years, since the last of the great wars fought on European soil, I have moved my Pack from Europe to the Northern American continent. Again we chose to settle in the mountains, but this time, in upstate New York. This time our business endeavours took a different turn, and we turned our mechanical skills, learned over the war as we endeavoured to keep our businesses running, to motorbikes, that symbol of the disenfranchised and the modern outlaw, just the sort whose anger and rage would feed us as Hellhounds. We also developed a focus on another little weakness of the humans of this country in which we found ourselves: their declared right to bear arms. No problem. We established one of the largest gun dealerships in the area, catering for everything from the paranoid who had to carry a gun always, to the leisure hunter. Whether you wanted a rifle to take part in winter biathlon competitions, or whether you wanted something to go duck hunting: Anghelescu Enterprises would supply you with your requirements.

But all this did not provide her with the souls that she needed. For that, my Pack and I had to hunt further afield, but find those souls we did. Thus, ironically, even as the Master’s power waned, our Queen retained her strength, and through her, as her Alpha, I grew in my own abilities.

In my human form, those around me will look at me and describe me as handsome. In human terms I stand over 6ft 5in tall, with shoulder-length black hair, the mark of the Anghelescu Pack. My build is lean. I believe the term is ‘whipcord’, as a result of constantly training myself in the various fighting disciplines which I favour. Generally, I hide my build, but equally, when I relax with my Pack, I don’t hide. I have seen females react often enough in our bar of an evening to know that my form is appealing. I may not be bulky, but I have what they want. I swim regularly, unsurprising when one considers the importance of water in what I am and can do with it. Humans look at me, at the large motorbikes which I favour as my mode of transport, and they can’t understand why a ‘skinny pretty boy’ can manage that size of machine. Maybe they should believe what they see before their own eyes. The bike means that I tend to wear leather a lot. The comfort of well-fitted leathers can’t be denied when riding, and I see no reason why I should not take pleasure in what I wear.

Similarly, I choose to wear natural fabrics. Again, why should I not enjoy the pleasurable feel of silk or fine cotton on my skin? Humans, with their ridiculous moral qualms may struggle with this, but I am what I am.

Without a doubt, humans would look at the relatively young appearance of the CEO of Anghelescu Enterprises and see a handsome and physically fit individual, who knew his business, having learned from his father, and his father before him. Yes, I feel like yawning each time I hear that. These humans take a pathetic delight in being able to trace themselves back more than a paltry hundred years. Perhaps it is because this land of America is still so young, relatively speaking, and certainly in comparison to the civilisations of Europe. So, being able to say that the Anghelescu family could trace their origins to the Middle Ages and before, it added to the credence of our story, and the reason for our extensive skills in what we did.

I take pleasure in a lot of things: exercising my powers over water and air. Using the ability over fire which is only natural to a creature of Hell, also brings pleasure. Hearing the screams of humans as they perish in the flames of explosions that are an unfortunate, for them, side-effect of my powers is another thing to bring me pleasure. This world has too many of the pond scum. I could kill hundreds each day, and it would still be no different to what they do to their own species over concepts such as ‘politics’ and ‘religion’. I take pleasure, as I have said, in riding a motorbike.

I take pleasure in the fact that my sister, Roxana, has grown into a strong and healthy Hound, with her own set of powers which compliment my own. I enjoy the thrill of the hunt and the flash of fear from my prey at the moment of the kill, when they realise what is that will be killing them.

I enjoy screwing with the fragile psyche that so many humans have, which they try to hide behind bravado, but yet, somehow, they fail, enabling me to read them like an open book. I know that the businesses that I run topside have elements that are considered to be against human law, but for me, I service a need. Humans, the weak creatures that they are, become addicted to artificial means of achieving their pleasures. I am catering to their requirements, be it alcohol, or other substances. That my method of supply means that they become addicted that much faster is simply good business practice on my part.

As time has progressed, other Hellhound Packs have moved topside, realising that this was the only way they could continue to feed their deposed Queens, and the ‘competition’ increased. Some would like to claim that they would like to take the moral high ground, and say that they don’t regard humans as disposable in the way that I do. But, I would respond that at least I am honest about how I feel about this far too numerous species.

Why did I go to the trouble of making myself appealing to the humans? Had I allowed my human form to be unappealing, it would have been far more difficult to achieve anything in this world of pond-scum humans. So, to do what I must for my Pack, I have shaped my human form into something that they see as normal, and appealing. Then they wonder why I hold them in such low regard?

There are some who seem to have a perspective that if something is too good to be true, it probably is. They treat me with perhaps more caution, but when it matters, my lean, tall figure, which hides the whipcord muscle, coupled with my looks means that they eventually agree with what I want them to do. If they don’t, it is not a problem. I will kill them. See, not a problem anymore.

So, why do I feel qualified to make such a judgement over humans? I have been walking this world of humans for a long time. They measure their all too short lives in decades, and seem to think that reaching their seventh or eighth decade and maintaining their health is a good thing. I suppose when that is all the time you have, it seems like a reasonable achievement.

However, when you are a species which will continue to outlive them on this world, a mere eighty years is nothing. In the time I have walked this world, I have seen what the species of human have done to themselves and to each other. The bad? That outweighs the good by a considerable margin. I use their definitions of bad and good in that. Our species has walked this world when humans first worked out written and printed communication, and the power that the written word could have on those who could not understand it. We have seen religions rise and fall. We have seen humans live their lives out grubbing in the soil for their pathetic existence, and the use of religion to convince themselves that there must be something better after they die, and their pathetic corpses rot. We have seen empires rise and fall. I have seen wars and levels of aggression that make my heart sing, for the souls that such violence generates for my Queen.

Occasionally, I have seen purity. I have seen humans who try to make the lives of others better for no reason and certainly for no reward. Yet, their deeds are outweighed by the deeds of those who claim to be trying to make the lives of ‘benighted’ souls better.

Only it is better by their definitions. Did that native in the jungle really need to know about the world outside? I doubt he needed to know about the diseases that these strangers brought to them; diseases which they had no chance of fighting, and thus, caused them to die in their hundreds, if not thousands. Without a doubt, greed is one of the driving factors of this human species. Wanting what others have. Doesn’t matter if that is land, possessions, a husband or a wife or all of the above things. In the time I have been walking this world of humans, it strikes me as that is the thing that makes them stand out. Well, that and aggression.

Wars. Let’s face it, the humans have had a lot of them also. Each time they go to war, whether it is a city state of Ancient Greece fighting with another city state, or countries or empires, the result is the same. Death stalks their world, and is more than happy to indulge their wishes.

If one were to watch them over the centuries, I doubt this species will ever change, and thus, they leave me with plenty of opportunity to serve both my own desires and those of my Queen.

There is a special kind of despair that permeates a warzone. There are aggressors on both sides, and it is not impossible for a Hound to give a slight push of encouragement should they falter.

Before your human morals kick in, let me remind you, one of the reasons I am topside is to ensure that my Queen has a steady supply of souls. Souls are dead people. For souls to be available to her, their human bodies have to die and the most efficient way to ensure this happens is through things like wars, like genocides, like massacres. I and the rest of my pack were created to serve my Queen, and serve her I will. Of course, my task is made easier when humans just choose to kill. This is where the psychopaths and the serial killers come into the equation. The sadists produce the most delightful waves of fear, pain and terror from their victims, particularly if those attentions are unwelcome. Fair enough, I have had to endure their attentions in the course of my training, but it has made me stronger, and thus I cannot say that I regret the situation completely.

Strength is necessary for an Alpha. I protect not just myself, but my Pack, a difference which stands between me and my predecessor, and a difference I am proud to maintain. A word about my enemies. They are the enemies of my Queen.  Like us, they were spawned from the blood of the Huntsman. They are creatures of Hell, but they chose their Pack name as Lupei. Who are they trying to convince? Certainly not me, and certainly not my Queen.

There was a time when she was the beloved of the Huntsman. He created us, after he had created our enemies, so that his, at the time, beloved Queen and mother of his heir, might have her own protectors. Then, his heir perished during a winter hunt, and our Queen could not give him another. So, he put her aside, and choose another female to be his new Queen. Where do you think the phrase, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. came from? Our Queen’s fury has not abated in the centuries since she was put aside. She lost her Lord, her child and her position in one move, leaving another to reign over her, and no, she did not like it in the slightest. I can’t say that I blame her.

So, in addition to harvesting the souls that she desires, my Pack is also tasked with causing hurt to our former Master in a way that will matter: by causing pain and suffering to his Lupei Pack. Whilst they had originally fled the wrath of the Master and chose to hide topside in what was then a deserted part of the world, it is now anything but deserted. Like us, they have chosen to make a home for themselves topside. In this modern era, they chose to exploit the physical side of the human character, by opening a club catering for those wishing to purchase sex, and other physical pleasures. My Pack, on the other hand, partially stayed true to the traditions of our origins.

In the ‘old country’, we had been farmers and wine-makers, but we have also diversified, as the humans say. When one has years of experience in the use of weapons, one finds that humans will pay good money to own the products of our knowledge and the skills we have acquired over time. As a result, our Pack lives in undeniable luxury and comfort ... now. That had not been the case when I was a juvenile, and it is something that I can say I did well on becoming Alpha.

So, you humans reading this, have I put you off from wanting to read further? I doubt it. As scathing as I may be about your race, your prurient curiosity will drive you to read further. Can I really be that bad? Surely, I must have some redeeming factors? Maybe I will undergo some major epiphany, which will change me into a better ... creature.

I doubt it.

Do not try to find something good in me. I would not want to disappoint you, after all. But, if you wish to continue reading, then know this. You will see what makes me tick. You will see what is important to me. You will see violence, and you will see death.

CHAPTER 2:

THE MAKING OF AN ALPHA AND BETA PAIR

Fane Anghelescu

There was a time when the lives of my sister Roxana and I were considerably different from now. We were younger members of a Hellhound Pack. We lived to serve our Queen, and were more than happy to die for her. Our loyalty to her has never been questioned, and we would never give reason for it to be questioned.

We had a dam. After all, even Hellhounds have to be spawned by some means. Our dam bore us a year apart, and from the moment, Roxana was whelped, I felt a strong sense of protectiveness towards her. I would not have called it being an Alpha at the time, but my dam knew it to be the first sign that her male cub was a potential Alpha. Quite rightfully, she knew that she should fear for us, because a potential Alpha could only be seen as a threat by the incumbent Alpha. In a Hellhound Pack, this threat was even more so. The Pack lives to serve the will of the Queen. If the Queen is not happy with our work and our efforts, it falls to the Alpha to satisfy her anger.

In order to protect us, our dam chose to lower her status in the Pack, knowing it would keep her, and thus us, out of the Alpha’s constant regard. She did not understand fully the abilities and powers of the Alpha, or perhaps she would have chosen a different path. Unfortunately for her, it was a path which would lead to her death, although not, as it transpired, at the hands of the Anghelescu Pack Alpha. That potential fate was reserved for the two cubs whom the Alpha would perceive as a threat, Fane and Roxana.

Considering that the Anghelescu Pack existed to serve the Queen, and the Queen wished the Lupei Pack, servants of the Master, to be eliminated, it was inevitable that the two packs would clash. The Lupei Pack would boast that they were the originals. The Anghelescu Pack, they claimed, were mere carbon copies, and imperfect copies at that. We were spawned of the Master’s blood, and whilst yes, we came after them, it should not have meant that we were inferior.

However, this appeared to be a sentiment that I shared with my sister only. Given our low status in the pack, we could not risk finding out if anyone else felt this way. Dog eat dog takes on a whole new meaning when applied to a Hellhound Pack. Dog will eat dog, is more to the point, particularly if the Alpha sanctions it.

Our relatively low status in the Pack would have meant that we went hungry more often than not, but our dam had not always been low status, and thus had one or two ideas to ensure that her two cubs were properly nourished. She taught us to hunt small game. Not the large game that the Hunters would identify for Pack hunts, but rabbits, and other game too small to feed a Pack.

Certainly, when we were permitted to scavenge from the remains of a Pack kill, we did so, because otherwise the fact that we remained healthy would have been noted.

Our dam was smarter than that. She knew that she was raising a potential Alpha, and I suspect that she hoped that she was raising a potential Beta in her female cub. It would stand to reason that her two offspring might, one day, rule the Pack, but she had to be careful if that was ever to happen. Certainly, she could not seek assistance from the incumbent Beta, with a view to her female cub being made a Delta.

So, instead, our dam used all her own knowledge to instill the skills and character that would enable her female cub to serve as her brother’s Beta, should that time ever come.

The lack of success of the Anghelescu Pack against the Lupei Pack changed the Alpha of our youth, Aurelija Anghelescu. Now, I understand what that failure would entail, and how the Alpha was required to face the Queen with each failure. Then, all that we saw was that our Alpha became sharper, more aggressive towards the others in the Pack, more driven to fight the Lupei Pack, yet not necessarily planning those attacks to best effect. She became paranoid. Even as the wrath of the Queen took its toll, the Alpha feared that she would lose her status in the Pack, and watched assiduously for any Pack member who might seek to take her place. Thus, inevitably, she noticed that Roxana and I were not as weak or undernourished as our low status should have meant. Our dam was not as scrawny as a lower status member of a Pack, self-destructing as the rot set in, would be expected to be. As I was to find out, she had us followed, and the watchers reported our ease of hunting small game. They reported that the games played by two low ranking cubs were geared towards one aim. And, they reported, the male cub had the distinct smell of a potential Alpha.

So, when the Lupei Pack attacked us again, our dam was sent, as one of the lower ranking Pack members, to the front line of the fight. I swore, in the name of the Queen, and my identity as a Hellhound, no matter how long it took, Vladimir Lupei would pay for killing our dam.

To him, she was just another Anghelescu Hellhound. To us, she was our dam. She had kept us alive, and taught us to be the Hellhounds we are today.

I remember, as the Pack regrouped after that battle, the hatred that had surged in me. The sudden storm had protected the retreat of the Anghelescu Pack from that bruising encounter, and had unexpected results for both Roxana and me. I was not quite mature, and had not reached my adult size, but thanks to our dam, I was aware of my potential. The Pack regrouped to our Cave, and Roxana and I had hidden ourselves, unsure of what was likely to happen now that our dam was dead.  We both knew, as Anghelescu Hellhounds that we served the Queen, and it was to her that I sought guidance, promising her my service and loyalty if she would keep my sister safe. I did not expect what happened.

One moment, I was with Roxana. The next moment, I found myself in another darkened cave, the smell of sulphur making me realise that I was not in our Pack’s Cave any more.

Dropping to my knees, I kept my head bowed, and I waited. I felt the talons on my shoulder, as the Queen laid her hand to rest. I did not raise my eyes, and continued to wait. The talons came round to the side of my face, and my head was raised by a hand under my chin.

For the first time, I beheld the beauty and majesty that was our Queen, Lamashtu. And, for the first time, I became aware of what she wanted, and more importantly, how she intended to achieve it.

For Roxana and me, Aurelija Anghelescu had another fate in mind. We were her prey, plain and simple, and she intended to kill us. As a potential Alpha, I had to die, and she intended that she would be my killer. It mattered not that she had decades of experience in fighting over me. What she did not realise was that we had a protector whom she could not hope to overcome. Roxana and I were slated to die during a Pack hunt.

The Hunters had identified prey, because, after all, the Pack had to eat, but the Alpha had identified her own prey: two recently matured adults, whom Aurelija Anghelescu saw as a threat to her rule. Had I not received the training that I had since our dam had been killed, had Roxana and I not had the protector that we did, then there was every chance that Aurelija Anghelescu would have succeeded? As it was, she failed. As it was, she was the one who was to die. The Pack saw the fight.

The Pack realised that a change had come about, and it was not only that Aurelija Anghelescu was dead. Our Queen had realised that her Pack, the Anghelescu Pack, was not succeeding in the task assigned to it, and she wanted that to change. Change is never easy.

Evolution is necessary if a species is to be successful, and our Queen is determined that her Hellhounds will be that successful species. I am her tool. I am her loyal servant, and I will take all steps necessary, with my sister and Beta at my side, to ensure that our Queen’s will comes to pass.

CHAPTER 3:

MEETING MY QUEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME

Fane Anghelescu

When I made my plea to my Queen, to protect my sister, I was willing to do anything. If it was possible for me to name the emotion I felt, when our dam was killed, I would call it fear. Not fear for myself, but fear for my sister, Roxana. As feisty as she was, and as determined as I was, the fact remained that we were both still juveniles, with gaps in our training, and our understanding of our own potential.

As we huddled in the back of the Anghelescu Pack Cave, I did the only thing that I could. I begged my Queen for help. I begged her to protect my sister. I asked for nothing for myself, but I wanted Roxana to be safe.

I am not sure what happened. One moment, I was with Roxana, hiding in the back of the Pack Cave, and hoping we wouldn’t be noticed, and the next, I was ‘home’, in the Queen’s domain in Hell. I know as a Hellhound, that domain is my ‘home’, but that first time, I didn’t know what to expect. Clearly, our Queen had decided to take a personal interest in two juveniles, and had answered my plea to her.

Mind you, I think a lot of people don’t know what to expect. Yes, I have seen the humans’ idea of Hell, but what I saw was even more frightening. For me, as a Hellhound, instinctively, I knew what to expect. What I saw, the way that it resembled some of the places I have seen on the internet when topside, that was my idea of hell. That sort of pastoral, bucolic scene? Definitely not for me. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that was definitely the case, the first time I looked upon the person of our Queen Lamashtu, Queen and Ruler of the Anghelescu Pack. I dropped to my knees, my head bowed, certain that my life was over for daring to raise my eyes to her uninvited. I was but a juvenile. Of what use could I be to our Queen, so surely, I was here to die?

Au contraire, as some humans would say.

Our Queen had heard my plea, and it had intrigued her. It did not hurt that she was angered by the continued failure of the Pack to overcome the Lupei Pack, or for that matter, show any success against the Lupei Pack.

To receive a petition from an incipient Alpha, albeit a juvenile, was, in her mind, something worth investigating. To find that this cub also had other abilities, of which he seemed unaware, she had licked her lips in anticipation of what this might mean to her enemies.

I felt her hand on my head, and shivered in spite of the heat of the room around me. Still convinced I was to die, I thought there was no further harm to be done in speaking.

My Queen, do as you will to me, but I beg of your mercy for my sister, Roxana. My voice was low, as befitted a supplicant. Her voice enveloped me. I have heard your plea, young one. And I have chosen to answer. Raise your eyes.

I did as she ordered, and for the first time, beheld her beauty. I know that the Lupei Pack have named her various other things, but to me, she was the most beautiful creature I could ever hope to see, other than my sister, of course.

What do you offer me in exchange for granting your boon? Our Queen continued.

I have only myself to offer, my Queen. I can only hope that it is sufficient. I replied, transfixed by her gaze.

She appeared to study me further. I could feel her probing my mind, and could not help but shiver at the feeling. It felt like fingers running through the inside of my head, picking a memory, a thought, replacing it, very methodical, very neat, and all the more terrifying because I realised that she could have just run rampant through my head and left me a vegetable.

I like what I see, young one. I think there is a lot you can offer me, and in return, I will grant you more than you seek. This is what I propose. My Queen spoke after she completed her examination.

My eyes widened as she elaborated on her plan, both for me and for my sister. I had no idea that this was to be my fate. I had no idea of the possibilities that existed, although she had smiled, and pointed out that my dam had known of the potential of both of her cubs.

At that point, all that I knew, with certainty, was that, from that day, I would serve my Queen with my heart and soul.

From the day that I made my plea to our Queen, my training as a future Alpha of the Anghelescu Pack commenced. Our Queen was dissatisfied with the fact that the last three encounters between her chosen Pack and that of the Master had resulted in defeat, and she was determined to turn that around. She fully appreciated that it may be that our next encounter, or even the one after that, might not be successful, but she was thinking and planning for the longer term. She would win, but it may take time, and she had plenty of that.

When my training started, I was still a juvenile. In human terms, that would mean that I was in my late teenage years. This meant that our Queen had time, before I reached full physical maturity as a Hellhound, to train me in both the skills needed by an Alpha, and in the abilities that I had known about, but had not known how to use to the best of my ability. Ironically, some of those abilities I shared with my enemies, but that would prove useful. Our Queen did not believe that they would consider that, even as we were created from the blood of the Master, we might share their abilities. This was something she intended to use to her advantage.

She referred to it as hiding in plain sight, and as she explained her plans to me, I could not help but understand just how much she had changed in her approach.

One of the things that she felt was important was that we had to establish a reason for being in the human world, and one that would appear completely innocuous to outsiders. Motorcycles, customized bikes, Hell’s Angel Gangs, were all relatively new to the human world, but they fitted in perfectly with her plans. The idea of Chain & Sprocket Custom Motorcycles was born.

Roxana and I were encouraged to develop an interest in this form of transport, so beloved by the outsiders of the human world. There was an irony in that, not least that my sister and I were outsiders within the Anghelescu Pack. In an attempt to ensure that we did not meet a premature end, our Queen encouraged me to ensure that both of us stayed well below the Alpha’s radar.

Accordingly, I turned myself into what the humans would call a geek. I developed an interest in computers and electronics, as well as motorbikes, ignoring the mockery from my fellow pack mates that a juvenile as skinny as I was could possibly dream of handling a large motorbike. To this day, it causes me to smile that they never realised that I was skinny because I had no spare body fat, only muscle. And yes, I was more than capable of handling a large bike. My interest in these fads of the modern world, as some members of the pack chose to see them, only served to isolate Roxana and me more from the main Pack. We were not the established Omega pair of the pack, but we were low status, without a doubt. Roxana hid her burgeoning beauty behind baggy clothing, better suited to working on motorbikes, her hair pinned back or in a sedate braid, again to better work on motorbikes.

What threat could two underfed juveniles pose to the established Pack hierarchy? Perhaps the games which we had played, which caused the Alpha to order our dam to the front line of fighting, were just coincidental? Since our dam’s death, we had done nothing to bring attention to ourselves, so perhaps it had just been a mistake? Yes, their mistake had been ordering our dam’s death. Then, when the Pack slept, I would answer my Queen’s summons, and she would train me further. Her strongest demon allies trained me to fight, the terrain used varying according to what it was felt I needed to learn: the horror of a bucolic vista, with no cover to a warren of caves; on land, on water; with weapons and without; in Hellhound form, wolf form or as a human.

All scenarios were covered, and a variety of weapons. Then, we started to work on the skills that I had not realised that I possessed. I had a double ability: to manipulate anything born of the earth, which humans termed geokinesis, as well as the ability to manipulate air and gases, known to humans as aetherkinesis. In its crudest form, geokinesis could be used to forge weapons from the ores ripped from the ground. In its more refined form, it enabled me to manipulate anything containing metal, and that included the circuits within the tech gadgets mocked by my fellow Pack members.

When the Queen was satisfied that I could control my abilities, she had me put through my paces to learn speed. Thus, to manipulate a lump of raw iron ore into a basic blade was a matter of a second’s thought. Manipulating a combination of metals to form the inlaid filigrees that Roxana and I used to decorate the customized motorbikes produced by Chain & Sprocket require more control, but with the level of training I was receiving, it did not cost me in terms of energy should I need to work faster.

Roxana’s skills lay with the remaining elements: Water and Fire. I sought the permission of our Alpha that my sister be permitted to earn funds for the Pack, so that we might contribute to the Pack’s wellbeing, through an apprenticeship of sorts to a local bike shop. It gave her access to Fire, as she learned to work on the bikes. We may have had to turn over the bulk of her earnings to the Pack Alpha, but it was better than the Alpha even contemplating that we might become a threat.

There was a further aspect to my own training, which was introduced once I had reached physical maturity. It had always been known that the Alpha was granted power by the Queen, power which was supposed to be shared with the Pack, and thus ensure that we were able to protect ourselves. However, what was not a well-known fact was how that power transfer occurred. As the Queen’s choice for the next Alpha, on reaching physical maturity, I found out.

Prior to that moment, the Queen had ordered me to be present, albeit hidden, when she summoned the Alpha to her presence. I was able to both see and hear what was being said and done. Our Queen is, after all, a demon and resident of Hell. Should I have been shocked? No, I doubt it. I repeat, she was a demon and a resident of Hell as well as our Queen. She could do what she damn well pleased, and at least this way, I had an idea of what was likely to happen to me when I became Alpha.