Page 148 of Shifter Situations

The hellhounds had bonded with her, and so had Pete. That meant they would be with her until she died, so they would live forever too.

Being bonded with Sloane also meant that they had none of the major animalistic qualities that they had when they were seeking mates or wanted to carry on their bloodline.

The chapters on the actual animals were simultaneously fascinating and alarming.

What was truly terrifying was just how much of an oddity the pedmar was.

Pete wasn’t simply the hellish version of an elephant.

He was insanely intelligent, intuitive, and resilient. Sloane was worried about how the magic was affecting him, but I didn’t think she knew exactly how much magic was in him.

As I continued reading about pedmars, I realized that they used to be more than animals. Maybe they were only animals now, but in the beginning—just like dragons—the Pedmars were the animal form of shifters.

One book mentioned that the pedmar had once shifted to a huge human-ish form, but when they did, they had been giants.

Another book speculated that they lost the ability to shift because of a curse. But there was nothing conclusive about what the curse was or who placed it on the entire species of Pedmar.

Both options were believable, aligning together to show me a picture I wasn’t ready to imagine.

I couldn’t stop myself.

I began to wonder if Pete was a giant underneath all of that black, leathery skin. I couldn’t help but think he could be a man, and he might be trapped in his animal form.

If he was a person under the animal skin, did that mean his bond with Sloane was a mate bond? Or… Just a connection like she had with Jack? It couldn’t be the same thing she had with the hounds.

All of the information rattled around in my brain, driving me crazy with questions that popped up.

I’d been teaching folklore and mythology at the local University for three years, and I’d studied it throughout my life. There were many speculations about giants, but out of the folklore that we had, no one ever mentioned them possibly turning into something else.

Giants had been presumed extinct for several millennia, but maybe they weren’t dead at all. The Underworld’s latest sighting of giants had been a few hundred years ago.

I moved away from my chair, heading toward a study table in the center of the library. Stacking the books atop the tower, I sought out the books on hellhounds.

Once I located them, I leafed through the first one, scanning the passages in hopes that something would jump off the page at me.

They were the top predators in the Underworld. Nothing preyed on them, not even the demons. Sloane had mentioned that they were often captured by power-hungry demons who were then unsuccessful in their attempts to tame them.

On average, the hellhound population killed twenty-seven demons per year.

The emphasis on the deaths made me scoff.

Sharks killed around six humans per year.

My mate had killed at least two hundred people in the last seven days…

Alone.

I couldn't find anything about the extra traits or powers that the boys had. That made me wonder if they too shared some of the mimicry power with her. Except, instead of being able to mimic her powers, they had developed their own over time.

I needed to ask Sloane if they had always had those powers or if it was something they had learned with age.

I had never thought about how close they must be to Sloane for them to run in such a small pack.

The books stated that hellhounds needed interaction with each other or they would go mad. A small pack was twenty, and there were citations of larger packs nearing one hundred members.

It said that in bigger packs the adults would often fight

We didn’t see the whole of Lira’s pack, but the way her pups followed her lead had me believing that she had her unit under control.