"Girl, you're going to want to look away before I decide to teach you a lesson in submission," the alpha growled quietly, having approached close enough to touch.
"Aren't you going to kill me anyway?" I whispered, trying desperately to hold firm and not tremble with adrenaline; I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. "So why should I submit? Does your food not taste as good when it's defiant?"
While my mom had warned me about wolves, she'd also died before she could teach me to hold my tongue or my temper.
"Kill you?" The alpha's eyes held a wicked gleam with a hint of a smile. I didn't dare break his gaze to see if that same smile had reached his lips. "Now, why would I want to kill the youngest white kitsune in history? We simply wanted to meet you. Didn't we, boys?"
The wolves surrounding us panted and yipped in unmistakable laughter, and a chill of dread raced down my spine.
"Your boys just tried to tear my throat out," I snapped, steeling myself for whatever was about to come. Kitsune became white when they received their ninth tail, something that had only just happened to me, and about seventy years too soon. According to the kitsune elders, a white fox held the magic of foresight and prophecy, but mine must be taking a while to kick in or I never would have taken this damn shortcut.
"That little scrape?" the alpha mocked, reaching a hand out to my neck and brushing a rough thumb pad over my still healing throat. "That was just a friendly hello."
His thumb stroked across the tender flesh, then stopped on my pulse point, his golden eyes flashing with something as I held his gaze, defiant and determined.
"You're terrified. I can feel your heart racing like a little bunny being chased by a hungry predator." His analogy was too specific to my current situation not to elicit yet another ice-cold shiver of fear from me, and his eyes sparkled in response. Wolves could smell fear. Everyone knew that. He was just playing with me now, and I wasn't okay with it.
"I will give you one last chance, little fox," he whispered, as though his pack couldn't clearly hear him. "Look away, and submit."
It was said as a command, not a suggestion, and a threatening growl underscored the order. There was no doubt in my mind: regardless of whether I submitted to him or not, I wouldn't be making it off pack land in one piece.
Now or never, Thea.
Without blinking, I unfurled my tails and drew hard on the magic of the earth. My palms both snapped out to the sides, flinging the magic in a net to ensnare the entire pack and hold them immobile. It was a desperate, dangerous move which, five days ago, would’ve been way beyond the scope of my ability, but what did I have to lose by trying?
The alpha made a surprised grunt, his thumb freezing against my throat where he’d been stroking my skin in a threatening sort of way. A way that, oddly enough, my body seemed to like. Seriously, I was a total perv.
"Score one for the little fox," I gloated, then shifted back into my vulpine form and tore out of there like my tails were on fire.
I wasn't stupid. There was no way my magic was going to hold the entire damn Vail Valley Pack for more than a few moments, but a few moments was all I needed for my enhanced speed to carry me over the border into Vail Valley Earth territory. Not that I was totally safe there, either.
The second I smelled the change in ownership, from wolf to fox, I slowed and risked a glance over my shoulder. Dozens of enraged, overgrown dogs snapped and growled at me, but not one of them dared step paw over that invisible line.
"Stupid move, kitsune bitch," the alpha snarled, still in human form as he approached on foot. "You’re going to regret that move later, I promise you. And I always keep my promises." The smile he gave me with those full lips turned my blood to ice. No way was I sticking around to see if he might be brave enough to cross the border and come after me.
As I tore through the snow and brush, his words echoed through me with the unmistakable taste of prophecy, and I cursed the elusive magic for waiting so long to kick in. Or had it? Was there a higher purpose to me meeting the Vail Valley Pack? It was a question for the kitsune-tsukai—the sorceresses—of the Vail Valley Earth.
After I convinced one of them to bind my ninth tail for me, that was.
Padding through the wet dirt and what was left of last week's snow, I followed the strong vulpine scents through the forest, pausing at the edge of a thin, cold stream. The smells stopped here, cut off completely.
They knew I was coming and didn't want me here.
With a sigh, I shifted back to human form and scooped some water into my palms, rinsing the blood from my neck. The wound might be healed, but the copper smell clinging to my skin wouldn't do me any favors when it came to predators.
Like that alpha wolf dickhead, I thought as I sat back on my haunches and looked up. The trees parted at the edges of the stream, leaving a ribbon of gray-blue sky open above me. As I watched, a single fat snowflake began to drift down, twirling and spinning until it met the surface of the stream and disappeared.
"They’re waiting," a voice said from the other side of the stream. I heard him before I saw him, swinging around the trunk of a tree and putting his back against the rough, brown surface. "You had a run-in with the wolves?" Finley Wilde didn't sound like he particularly cared either way. Whether I lived or died, his day would've remained the same.
Fucker.
"There are only two ways to get to this part of the forest," I said snippily, rising to my feet and feeling my own tails flick in response to his. Three orange tails curled around Finley's legs as he stood there with a pointed ear swiveled in my direction. He didn't bother to turn his face. "The first is through wolf territory, and the second involves me driving hours through winding mountain roads. I don't have time for that shit."
"Too busy killing people to make the trip?" Finley said, lifting up his palm and bringing a ball of foxfire to life on it. He bounced the magic up into the air and caught it again. "Must be why you wear all that leather—so much easier to wipe the blood off."
"Must be," I said, crossing my arms over my chest and staring across the water at the man who was supposed to be my mate. Let's just say, things had gone south and we were barely on speaking terms now. "I hate it when I get entrails on my best sweaters."
"Oh for fox sake," Finley said, and I couldn't tell if he was joking or being serious. I wasn't much of a fan of puns. He stood up and looked across the stream at me, rusty-brown hair falling over his brow as he sucked in a sharp breath. "I don't have time to stand here and play games with you—unmated adults are stuck on guard duty, remember? Let's go."
He turned away from me and shifted, melting into his orange and white fox form as easily as I hopped over the stream and followed after. I shifted, too, just to keep pace, and chased after Fin through the trees, winding through dense brush and skirting ponds half-frozen with thin sheets of ice.
I expected us to head north, toward the head of the Vail Valley Earth property and the large cabin that was used for group business. Checking in with the admin side of things before addressing the kitsune-tsukai was what proper etiquette generally called for. Besides, that cabin was the closest thing we kitsune had to a White House.
Heh.
At least when our president was orange, it was because she'd shifted into a fox, not lathered herself in spray tan. Fucking humans.
Finley took me to a burrow in the ground, a literal tunnel that I'd have to crawl on my belly just to slip through.
'What is this?" I asked him, projecting my voice into his mind. He pretended not to hear me, flicking his tails in irritation and abandoning me at the head of the tunnel with a rapidly beating heart and a mouth that suddenly felt like it was full of sand.
I sniffed around the edges of the hole and wondered what the hell I would find down there.
Being a fox shifter … well, it sort of sucked sometimes.
That's why for years, I'd been living around humans.