I thought I would ask Fane to consider a question, and write something up. Character development, particularly if it means that they stray away from the norm, is a difficult process. I will be the first to admit that I had not envisaged how much Fane would change, but he remains himself, true to the clues in “Bound”. One other point, Fane has tried to control his language, but, let’s just say that it may be a work in progress ...

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So, that human wanted to do another interview with me, but for some reason, she finds me intimidating. Me? So, I am 6ft 5in in my socks. Add another couple of inches if I am wearing my bike boots, which I would be doing at the workshop, so 6ft 7in. I work out and I swim, so yeah, I am not a small person. She’s what? 5ft 3in in her tights. Does the extra 16 inches make that much difference? I suppose it must, because, instead of turning up in person, she sent me an e-mail.

“Describe how you have changed over time?”

She had to be fu …, err, joking? Describe how I had changed over time. “Make it funny.” Stefania said. Am I surrounded by

interfering females? Make it funny? From the time I was whelped to now, and she reckons I can make it funny? So I am ranting. Boo hoo! I am a Hellhound Alpha. I enjoy a good fight, and I win them. Given the sort of opponent I might face, if I didn’t aim to win, I would die. I prefer to live.

So, how has my life changed? Born in the mountains, I believed that I was sired by the Anghelescu Pack Beta. I wasn’t, but that comes later. My dam suspected that I had it in me to be an Alpha, and let’s face it, Aurelija, our Alpha at the time was making a pig’s ear of the whole leadership thing. We hadn’t won a battle against the Lupei Pack in years, so my dam told me. It was only a matter of time before the Queen’s wrath meant that she would lose to a challenger. My dam intended that I would be that challenger, but she didn’t now how to achieve that. Key thing was keeping me alive, and keeping her other pup, my sister, alive.

Now, the whole thing about my becoming Alpha has been told in “Bound”, but what did it feel like, all those changes? Well, let’s look at what Hellhounds are usually. They are normally sired by a demon, or from the Devil’s blood. Boring! With you humans, you are not all clones, so why should we as Hellhounds be any different? That is part of this whole character development gig. Did my human writer go for the same old, and admittedly tired, stereotype, or did she come up with something different.

Well, let’s see, my sire wasn’t the Pack Beta, and I wasn’t a full blood Hellhound either. Turned out that my dam was a little bit more frisky that many thought, and she had a dalliance with a local demigod. I was the result. I was the planned and quite deliberately conceived result, more to the point, because my sire had a damn good idea what might happen if you mixed Hellhound blood with that of a demigod of warfare, fertility and divination.

Next point, genetics. When you mix two species, have a think how that is going to work. Which species will predominate. In my case, the mix was interesting to say the least. The warfare from my sire mixed with my Hellhound dam’s ability to fight, amping up what I could do. My weapon of choice became a blade of pure energy which I could wield as easily as some might a dagger. The fertility side? Even better, because I am an incubus. Now whilst I was enslaved by my former Queen, she used that part. Sex magic, and I raised psychic energy like a damned generator. Like I said, genetics and how it affects a character can be fascinating.

What else affected me? Circumstances. I wanted to protect Roxana, so I became even better at fighting. I was going to become Alpha, so I put up with all the crap thrown at me by the Queen’s trainers, because it was all for a good reason, I told myself, to protect my pack. But it also changed me. Nothing motivates you more to change that wanting to protect others. Every single skill that I have learned, I have done so because others … not depended on me, but they looked to me. I was the Alpha. The protection gig is part of the job description. Another circumstance? The death of my dam at the hands of Vladimir Lupei. That changed me. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and by the time I caught up with that jerk, it was so damned cold, it was almost frozen.

So, in a few decades, a blink of an eye in the life of a Hellhound, I went from pup to a juvenile and Alpha-in-training, to Alpha, to Mated.

Yeah, that definitely changed me. I shan’t go into details, but I am sure most humans will agree. Committing yourself to another is a giant leap into the unknown. Would I have done it had I known what might happen? That’s why I delayed things, why I didn’t want to admit what was staring me in the face. Of all the things that changed me, that, mating Stefania, was the one thing that had a huge, life-changing effect. More to the point, it is an effect that is anything but over right now.

Having pups? Well, you will just have to wait and see, won’t you? You don’t expect me to give everything away, surely. Yeah, I have changed. The little caterpillar changed into a butterfly? Not bloody likely! But I did change and some might say that in doing so, I have betrayed my species. However, I would remind you. All species evolve if they wish to survive. Why should my own be any different, just to enable you to stay in your comfort zone?

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