“Then run. Run with her,” Torren said, crossing his arms over his tattooed chest. He lifted his chin and looked down his nose at Nox. “Take her away from here, take her somewhere there are no foxes, hide so deep in a hole somewhere they have no chance of ever finding you. It’ll be a miserable life, and you’ll always be on the run. Trust me on this. Looking over your shoulder all the time? It’s going to fuck with both of your animals. They’ll become paranoid and unmanageable over time.”
“Is that what’s happening to you?” Nevada asked.
Vyr and Torren both dipped their chins once in unison.
“You won’t be just running from the foxes either,” Vyr said. “You’ll be running from my father too, because he will be pissed when you don’t follow through and bring me in.”
“Who says I’m not bringing you in?” Nox asked coolly.
Vyr gave him a venomous smile and tapped his temple twice.
“Dick,” Nox muttered. “Stay out of my head.”
“Wish I could. It’s pretty messed up in there.” The dragon gestured to Nevada. “You got lucky to find a girl who doesn’t mind damage. Too bad she’s a fox. Time to go, love-birds. I need less attention on me, and you two are a train wreck waiting to happen.”
Nox huffed an empty laugh and looked at Vyr, then Torren, and then back to Vyr.
“Just like always, right? Crew of two? Torren and Vyr versus the rest of the world.” Nox twitched his head and muttered, “Fuck. Everything’s fine.” He wrapped his big, strong hand around Nevada’s. “Come on. We’ll figure this out. You don’t have to worry,” he said gently, eyes trapping hers. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
She smiled sadly. “Truth.” Too bad keeping that promise would put him at great risk.
“See you around,” she murmured to Vyr and Torren as Nox led her toward the car. She didn’t even try to conceal the lie. She knew what this was. It was goodbye to two men who should’ve let Nox in. He deserved friendship, and these were perhaps the only two shifters strong enough to be that for him.
Sudden anger whipped through her, and she called out, “He would’ve been really good at a crew of three. You both should know that.”
“We aren’t a crew,” Vyr called.
But when she turned around to give him a dirty look, both Vyr and Torren stood in eerily similar stances—legs splayed in the snow, arms crossed, twin frowns tracking Nox.
“You should watch that video,” she called as Nox tugged her hand and urged her faster toward the car.
“Of what?” Torren asked.
“Of Vyr burning Covington. Watch right at the forty-five second mark. Watch who charged out of the woods right along with you two. Watch who risked himself to have your backs.”
Whoo, she got bold when she was mad, but they should know Nox’s value. If she didn’t say it now, she wouldn’t ever get the chance to.
“Nevada, it’s fine,” Nox murmured as he opened the passenger’s side of her car for her. “Everything’s fine.”
But as they coasted silently through the clearing and past Nox’s burning truck, everything did not seem fine.
Chapter Fourteen
A snarl rattled Nox’s throat just moments before he lurched up from sleep.
After feeling around in the dark, Nevada slid her hand up his tensed back. His skin was cold. “What’s wrong?” she murmured.
Nox sat on the edge of her bed, his back to her, skin blue with the moonlight that filtered through her bedroom window. He scrubbed his hands down his face a few times. In a sleep-soaked voice, he scratched out, “Bad dream, little fox. Nothing more.”
“You’ve been shut down all day. Since we saw Vyr and Torren. Talk to me.”
With a sigh, Nox rocked up off the bed and away from her touch. Another shut down. He walked into her bathroom and turned on the light. Another shut down. He went to close the door. Another shut down. He stopped and murmured a curse word then, “Nevada?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you shave my beard for me?”
She sat up and locked one arm under her. “Okay, mister.” The covers were tangled around her legs, so she kicked out of them and made her way across the cold wood floors to the bathroom. She was wearing an old T-shirt he’d given her that smelled like him. Like his bear and his cologne. It was one of his black Bone Ripper shirts, and it hung halfway down to her knees.
She leaned against the open doorway and watched him gather a trimmer, a shallow tub of warm water, and a razor and shaving cream. He’d been prepared for this.
“You’re tired of your beard?”
“For now. I’m tired of hiding, and I’m tired of scratching up your face when I kiss you. You don’t heal fast, and you turn red if I carry on too long with you.”
He sat on the floor, leaned up against her bathtub. “Come here.”
His eyes stayed locked on hers as she approached him slowly and straddled his legs. She sat in his lap and cupped his cheeks. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“I wanna know you. I wanna know what you’re giving up to be with me. I wanna know what you’re gaining. I wanna know what it was like when you were a kit, who your friends were in school, if you’re happy, what food you like, and what your favorite movie is. I want to know everything about you.”
“That’s a long conversation for one night,” she said through a smile.
Nox brushed his knuckles against her cheek. “Good thing we have a lifetime.”
Her smile deepened until her ears moved with it. Scary bear with everyone else. Gentle bear with her. “How did I get so lucky?”
Nox chuckled and scratched his bottom lip with his thumbnail, right over the thin scar she’d caused with her nip earlier. “If I’ve tricked you into thinking you’re lucky with me? It’s me who’s the lucky one.”
She giggled and picked up the trimmers, turned them on, and waggled her eyebrows at the buzzing sound. “You ready?”
His smile dipped and disappeared, then came back slowly. “I’m ready for it all.” Nox arched his neck back and exposed his throat for her. Brave man, trusting her like this, when she knew without a doubt, he trusted very few people in his life.
Nox rested his hands on her bare outer thighs as she ran the trimmer up his face and cut away the long beard that really had kept his face hidden. She took her time because this was their world. This was their moment, sitting here on the bathroom floor, touching, being affectionate, bonding, caring for each other.
“Favorite childhood memory,” he said low.