by R. J. Blain
Jake cleared his throat, and I jumped at the sound. “What?”
“Do you want to go on a hunt?”
“On a hunt?”
“With part of the pack.”
“I want to go back to bed, Jake.”
Arching a brow at me, he leaned back in his seat. “Again?”
“I’m too tired to rip your intestines out through your big toe today, so I’m going to take a rain check.”
Gary grinned at me before directing his attention to Jake. “There’s no reason you can’t tag along after the pack and make us do most of the work. You both need to exercise, and you both could use a good meal or two. A hunt’s perfect.”
Jake huffed. “And it gets us out of the house so when my parents come poking around, all they pick up are old traces of our scent?”
“A few members of the pack will be swinging by my house with a few bottles of cleaner while a pot of cinnamon sticks and cloves boil. By the time they arrive, they won’t be able to smell anything. Oh, Karma. I did speak to your boss, and I suggested he could benefit from listening to a few friends of mine, attorneys with experience handling the sort of situation he’s gotten himself into. I also warned him you were working to reconcile your marriage, and that your permanent residence is here in Baltimore. I gave him a list of replacements he could interview. We then lamented over your accident for a while, as that added complexity. Anyway, since he isn’t doing any of the talking, he won’t violate the terms of his NDA with his client while being able to get to the heart of the matter. He’ll have a much better idea of what sort of evidence and material to ask for—and how to protect himself in the worst-case scenario.”
“Thanks, Gary.”
“Anytime. I didn’t think you’d be happy if your boss was left out to dry, and this sort of law work is beyond your depth, especially since you’ve been out of CARD for so long.”
“I was hardly ever in CARD to begin with.”
Jake grimaced. “We’ll fix—”
“No.” There was no fix for too many of my problems, not without a lot of time—time I wasn’t ready to invest yet. I’d keep my word and submit to return to the FBI, but I’d do it in a way he probably wouldn’t like. “I’m thinking I’ll go back to work solving violent crimes. That’s something I’m actually good at.” The idea of catching criminals that way also didn’t leave my gut cramping with dread whenever it crossed my mind. “During the first bad case, I’ll crack, Jake. I don’t need a shrink to tell me that. And I’m not joining a CARD team with your parents. It wouldn’t work.”
All they’d do was smother me all over again trying to place me in a mold I couldn’t fit into no matter how hard I tried. Worse, they’d find some new way of dividing Jake and I again. I already struggled with the idea we might be able to patch things up enough so we could live in the same state without one of us wanting to run for the hills.
“All right. I can live with that, under the assumption you’ll let me transfer with you.”
“Who else in the FBI is going to put up with my shit?”
Jake huffed while Gary laughed.
“What? It’s true.”
“A little unsolicited advice, Karma,” Gary began before falling quiet long enough to navigate through Baltimore suburbia traffic. I waited. Several minutes later, he sighed. “Don’t write CARD off completely—or even our Alphas. Yes, what they—what we—did was rotten. They probably deserve to be written off. What Jake did was also rotten. You can spend the rest of your life reminding him how much of an idiot he has been lately. But he’s been manipulated about as much as you have been, and he’s had a lot of soul searching to do. That said, Fenerec are overprotective about their children to begin with. Alphas are even more so. They get blinded by what they think is best rather than the reality of the situation. I contributed. We all did. We were all wrong, too, and you and Jake paid the price for it. In many ways, you paid far more than Jake. Maybe you’re right about not being ready to go back to CARD right now, but maybe that’ll change.”
“I’ve heard this before,” I muttered, thinking back on what Mason had told me.
Jake sighed. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Gary, but you may as well leave it be. I flushed four years of trust down the drain. At the end of the day, I was the one who fucked up. I went along with it. We can tell her day and night what it means to be a Fenerec or why my parents act as they do, but she’s only going to believe what she sees. The burden of proof is on me. How many years do you think you’ll make me work for it, Karma?”
Since Fenerec had absolutely no problems with poking their noses where it didn’t belong, I decided I’d get back a little of my own. “Depends on how good the sex is.”
Gary snickered. “Are you sure you’re not going to regret issuing that sort of challenge?”
“If I’m going to have to put up with him, he may as well at least serve some use.”
Sighing, Jake hung his head and ran his hands through his hair. “I deserved that.”
“I was under the impression you liked it, too.”
“You can’t win this one, Jake. Just surrender.”
Grumbling a curse, Jake shook his head and replied, “All right. You win.”
Gary chuckled. “So, how about that hunt?”
With the feeling they wouldn’t leave it alone until they got their way, I wrinkled my nose and shrugged. “Fine. We’ll hunt. Just don’t you fucking wolves even think about slobbering on me.”
Next time, I would ask for details before agreeing to do anything involving Fenerec. I had wrongly assumed they would hunt nearby in the first respectable forest they found. Instead, I ended up crammed into an SUV with Jake, Gary, Mason, and two other Fenerec who had decided to endure the trip as wolves. One, a tawny male with black spots, insisted on using my feet as a bed. Jake ended up with the other one, and my instant dislike for the female bordered on the psychotic.
Within ten minutes, I wanted to show her my teeth and bite or kick her until she removed her white and red head off Jake’s feet. I didn’t mean to chitter, but one slipped out, and the sound captured the attention of every single Fenerec in the vehicle, including the bitch wrapped around Jake.
“What’s bothering you, Karma?”
Since Jake had asked, I pointed at the female too close to him for my comfort.
“She’s my mate,” Mason said, twisting around in his place as the front passenger. “Her name’s Lillian, we’ve been married for fifty-three years. She’s also a nurse and helped deliver your mate when he was born. Your property is safe, don’t worry.”
“Property?” Jake protested.
Lillian twisted around and sank her teeth into Jake’s leg.
“She’s also his godmother, and unlike his parents, she’ll light his ass on fire if he doesn’t get his act together, and she doesn’t care if he’s a grown man. Men who behave like boys are treated like boys.”
“Are you his godfather?”
“He’s on parole at the moment. If he behaves, perhaps.”
I glanced at Jake, who was bent over in his seat attempting to pry Lillian’s teeth off his leg with little success. “You don’t look nearly that old.”
“We’re among the older members of the pack. We’re like fine wines. We just get better with age.”
“She doesn’t need more ammunition,” Jake muttered.
“I’m pretty sure I do. So, who is this one on my feet?”
Mason laughed. “Our son, Zack. He’s mated to a lawyer, a Normal. They’ll be having their second child in a couple of months. His wife begged me to get him out of her hair for a while. Apparently, she wants to stay home, eat pickles, and watch movies with my granddaughter, who is eight turning forty.”
I nudged Zack. “You’re fat.”
He showed off his teeth.
“I may be a weakling compared to you, but if you bite me, I will do my best to beat the shit out of you.”
Jake laughed. “She will, too.”
My th
reats needed a great deal of work, as Zack nipped my leg hard enough I yelped. If he wanted a fight, I’d give it to him. Before anyone could stop me, I unclasped my seatbelt and pounced.
Shifting while dressed presented a lot of issues, especially when bras were involved. Being tangled in my own clothes didn’t help me wage war against Zack, who warbled, snapped his teeth in mock bites, and growled at me whenever I didn’t pay enough attention to him. Since I couldn’t escape my clothes without help, I ended up battling the wolf without the help of my hind paws, and my front paws weren’t much use, either.
Jake wouldn’t stop laughing, which earned him a few nips from me and his godmother. Unfortunately, our displays of displeasure did nothing to put an end to his mirth. By the time we reached our destination almost two hours outside of Baltimore, I lacked the energy to do more than pant and use Zack as an impromptu pillow.
The wolf didn’t seem to mind.
“This is going to be a slow hunt,” Jake muttered. “You can’t be tired already, Karma. We haven’t even started yet.”
I lifted my head and leveled a glare at him.
“Then it’ll be a slow hunt.” Gary killed the engine and got out of the vehicle, opening the back door so I could get out if I could manage without tripping over my clothes. The pack’s Second sighed, shook his head, and began stripping me. When he finally had me peeled out of my shirt, Jake snarled and took over the job.
I found Jake’s reluctance to allow anyone to touch my underwear amusing.
After a few moments, I hopped out of the vehicle and waited for the Fenerec to shift to wolves. Jake sat beside me and licked my muzzle. After battling with Zack, I wanted to find somewhere dark and comfortable to take a nap.
The wolves wanted to hunt, and Jake nudged me with his shoulder until I got to my paws and cooperated, trailing behind the larger wolves who spread out and loped into the trees. In my head, wolves howled, calling to each other, and two distinct voices barked disapproval.
Jake opened his mouth in a canine grin and ran circles around me, wagging his tail as though he were a hyperactive dog. I flicked an ear back and showed him my teeth, which did nothing to discourage him.
Damned obnoxious wolves.
As they’d likely start with their slobbering and nipping and licking if I didn’t cooperate, I forced my paws into motion, trailing after the hunting pack while Jake bounced around me. If there were any prey in the area, his antics likely scared them off long before any of the other wolves could catch anything. I suspected they just wanted to run around and play, choosing to hunt the nearest fast food joint for supper rather than catch any prey.
After an hour, one of the wolves howled, and a rustle in the bushes alerted me to something ahead. A herd of deer bolted from the pack, and the assholes had flushed them in our direction.
Deer tasted good even as a human, and I licked my chops, going still as I picked a target, one of the slower, smaller does. Jake likewise went still and quiet, his ears twisting back.
I waited for the deer to crash through the underbrush and come closer, before gathering the last of my strength and charging my prey of choice. I jumped, slammed into her and buried my fangs into her throat, giving a hard shake to snap her neck.
She fell, and I rolled over her, scrambling to get back to my paws and make certain I’d finished her off in one strike. The other deer scattered, and I took another bite out of the soft flesh beneath her chin, giving another shake and jerking my body back. While the first strike had done the important work, I disliked making my dinner suffer.
Jake took down a buck, opting to go for the animal’s back, well out of the range of the antlers. The buck put up a fight, screaming before my mate finally silenced it. I chittered my disapproval of his lacking finesse, earning a glare from him.
The rest of the pack charged through the forest after a straggler, and they converged on the largest doe, one of them taking hold of her hind leg in his jaws and dragging her to the ground before the rest of the pack finished her off.
Then, behaving more like wild animals than dignified humans, the pack snapped their teeth at each other while establishing who’d get to eat first. I seized my doe by her neck and dragged her away from their posturing. A smart scavenger ate before other predators could take the food, and I wasted no time going for the doe’s legs and feasting on my favorite parts. Fresh meat worked wonders, and I gulped down my meal, pausing every now and then to lick the blood off my muzzle.
Sometime after I’d graduated from the forelegs to the haunches, Jake came over to visit, and I chittered threats and barked warnings at him to drive him away from my hard-earned dinner. Mocking me with a canine grin, he stole a bite and hopped out of my reach. I choked down another swallow and barked a warning at him again, drawing the attention of the other wolves.
Unfortunately, I also drew unwanted attention.
“What do you think you all are doing?” Pauline Thomas demanded.
There was no way in hell I’d share my doe with the bitch, and I whirled around and chittered threats of how I’d rip her fucking face off if she came anywhere near me and my meat.
Jake dared to approach, and he gently seized my scruff with his teeth. I took that as an invitation to test my luck and lunge for his mother, forcing him to hold me back or risk her face becoming part of my dinner.
He weighed a great deal more than me, serving as a convenient anchor so I could display my ferocity without making it more than a few inches.
Jake’s father laughed and stepped out from behind a tree. “You should be grateful our son isn’t angry enough with us to let his fox pick another fight with you. Mason, did the pack bring the doe down for her?”
I yipped at the implication I couldn’t hunt on my own.
One of the wolves shook his head.
“Good. Finish your kills, then one of you idiots can explain what is going on here. I mean, it’s obvious one of you decided on a rather simple solution to a certain problem plaguing us. It seems foxes are, indeed, compatible with packs. You’ll need to teach her how to control herself and teach her to stop yipping through the pack bonds, Jake. While you’re at it, if you could remember the pack bonds aren’t your personal romping grounds, we would appreciate it.”
I chittered at the implication I was a problem plaguing them, struggling to break free of Jake’s hold on my scruff to tear a few bites out of Sebastian’s leg. Using every muscle in my body won me a few inches, and Jake grunted, reared up, and wrapped his paws around my throat so he could secure a better hold on my neck.
“Vicious little thing today, aren’t you?” With no sign of fear, Sebastian approached, crouched in front of me, and rested his hand on the top of my nose, taking a firm but gentle enough hold of me and checking my ears with his other hand. “All right, Jake. Let her go. If she tears into me, I deserve it, but I’d rather look her over without you scruffing her. And if she gets by me and takes a few chunks out of your mother, I’m sure she can cope with having a few bruises in the morning.”
Jake released me, and I plowed into his father with a startled yip. Sebastian grunted, fell back, and snatched a handful of my fur to keep me from falling off his lap. “There’s a girl. Settle down, and you can go back to your dinner after I have a look over you.”
I cast an uncertain gaze in Jake’s direction, and he licked my nose.
Asshole wolf.
Jake’s father took that as permission, and he ran his fingers through my fur, prodding at my chest, sides, and spine before checking my ears again. He also checked my teeth, and I chittered a warning at him.
“You’re going to need a lot of physical therapy to get back into shape,” Jake’s father announced. “You’re severely underweight, your fur is patchy, and your teeth need work. Hopefully, you’re like a Fenerec and they’ll recover with a better diet, but we’ll see.”
I flattened my ears.
Jake’s father shoved me off his lap and pointed at my doe. “Eat that, and you may as well try to
eat another one if you can stomach it, and that’ll be a good start. The rest of the mutts can hunt McDonald’s. Jake, get your ass shifted so you can explain what’s going on.”
Jake shook his head and sat next to my doe with his ears turned back and showing his teeth in a silent warning.
With the choice of staying near Jake’s father or retreating to my doe, I snapped my teeth and chittered another warning before tearing a strip of meat from my kill and gulping it down before it could be taken from me.
“Jake,” his father warned.
Jake growled, lower in tone than usual, and his body language implied he’d make a violent point if pushed.
While he postured, I ate, contributing a chitter now and then if one of the wolves came too close. I finished as much of my doe as I could before my stomach complained, and I tossed a scrap to Jake to indicate he could have a share and stepped to the other side of the carcass. Jake didn’t take his eyes off his parents and ate my leftovers, stripping the doe of anything of use and leaving the rest before resuming his standoff.
I settled beside the doe and gnawed on her foreleg to get at the marrow, flicking an ear back while waiting for them to figure out what they wanted to do. One by one, the other wolves departed, returning human and dressing. Mason carried our clothes. “He convinced her to come home, and they destroyed their living room. She went a little crazy after she was brought into the pack and shredded their couch. They broke a lot of their furniture during the dominance contest, so they’ll be kept busy at home. Since she lost, she has to move back to Baltimore, enroll in therapy, and potentially return to the FBI, although not in CARD. She’ll crack. Maybe in a few years. That means Jake heads back to the violent crimes division, too. Without two certain individuals interfering with either of them.”
“Interfering?”
Mason raised a brow. “He ditched you when she was sent to the hospital, followed her to her apartment, ditched his Inquisition-tracked phone, and lured her home. Would that have been necessary without interference?”