Of Fur and Ice

by Andrea Marie Brokaw

  At the door, Tod and Aliah pass by Lyly on her way out of the shop. There's a slightly panicked look on Tod's face when he first sees her – first realizes he's completely trapped into, at minimum, acknowledging her existence. They're too far away for me to hear what's said, but it's a very brief exchange that leaves a lost confusion hovering over Tod's features.

  His face is scrunched as he continues into the building toward the barista. Before he gets to the counter, he notices me and alters his course to come stand behind Amber. Aliah trails him quietly, sadly. In animal form, her tail would be drooping right now.

  “She said her dress is lavender,” Tod tells me, absolutely bewildered.

  “Yes,” says Amber. “So you can obtain for her a suitable corsage.”

  He looks as clueless as ever.

  The leopard shakes her head with amusement. “It is certain you know what corsages are, Tod. You've taken her to dances before.”

  “But not this one.” A hand runs through hair already mussed by the helmet now grasped in his other hand. “There has been zero discussion about going to this dance.”

  “But you did get back together?” Amber gives him a sideways look. “And you usually go to these dances. So it's a reasonable assumption you're going to this one.”

  “I guess,” he admits. Behind him, Aliah slides towards the counter. “But...” Tod draws the thought out. “I'm not sure back together is really what we are.”

  Amber makes a sharp sound of surprise.

  I sigh. “But you haven't told her you aren't either, have you?”

  The abashed way he starts to study his helmet is sufficient answer to the question.

  “Well, you'd best hurry,” Amber tells him. “The dance is the night after next. You've already waited long enough for not taking her to be somewhat morally ambiguous.”

  “Morally ambiguous?” he repeats with disbelief, looking up to gawk at her.

  “Yes.” Amber turns to kneel backwards in her chair, wrapping her arms around the back of it. “If you ignore her thinking you're going together until Saturday, then don't take her, then you have fundamentally stood her up. Even waiting until tomorrow would make you an ass because it's roughly the same thing as breaking up with her the day before a dance. The only reason you're not clearly one already is because you lacked understanding of what was occurring.” She pauses to look thoughtful. “Although that does seems a very high level of cluelessness for someone who got a perfect score on his SATs.”

  Tod stares at her like she grew a second head. “When did you start talking so much?” She starts to blush. “I think that's more than you've said to me in the whole three years we've known each other. And it was to tell me I'm an idiot and an asshole.”

  “I... I... I didn't mean...”

  “She was trying to help,” I say softly. Tod narrows his eyes at me, redirecting his disgruntlement. “Lyly thought the two of you were going to hook up again because you always have before. If this time is different, you have to tell her, or you're stringing her along. Which isn't nice.” Of course, I don't necessarily think being nice to Lyly is a high priority task.

  He glares balefully at me for a few seconds, angry and at least slightly hurt. “I'm going to get coffee.” Turning sharply, he takes a step away, but then stops. Scanning the room, he lets out a quiet sound of confusion. “Where did Aliah go?”

  “I don't know,” I tell him.

  He looks back at me, and I shrug. “I thought she was going to go get a drink, but she disappeared when I wasn't looking.”

  “I never saw her leave,” Amber seconds.

  Unhappy, Tod goes to the barista alone, returning with only one cup of coffee, but enough cookies for several people. He nudges the plate toward Amber with an air of silent apology, and she takes one with a small smile.

  It's about fifteen minutes later when Seth stalks past us in ski boots, issuing a command in passing. “Come here.”

  Tod and I raise our eyebrows at each other, but join Amber in following her brother to the windows.

  “There she goes again!” The long-haired leopard points at someone in the park.

  “There who goes?” Tod squints down at the figure starting in the half pipe. She gets a good amount of air, crosses her skies, and spins before nailing a perfect landing.

  “You don't recognize your girlfriend's sister?” Seth taunts without animosity.

  “Aliah?” Tod whispers, staring as the skier launches into the air again, doing a tail grab and another spin.

  “Since when does Aliah hit the park?” I ask, thinking of how she knew all the beginner slopes so well and never tried to get me onto anything harder, never acted even slightly bored with my choice of terrain. I always knew she was worlds better than I am, but it didn't occur to me she could hold her own competing against anyone on the mountain.

  “She's always liked it,” Seth tells us. “But I've only seen her there at weird times, like at opening or just before close on a deserted day when we were the only two people around. She's always had too much stage fright when the rest of the school was up.”

  Tod, mesmerized, doesn't take his eyes off of her, or even blink. “What changed?”

  Seth gives the fox a short look. “All I know for certain is she showed up with her jaw set and flames in her eyes to ask me if she could drop in before I did.” He looks back down at the show, which is attracting a fair amount of attention from other people. A group collected down on the snow applauds and cheers as she comes to a stop. “But whatever it is, this is as hot as I've ever seen her.”

  Tod frowns and when she gets to the end of her run, he turns sharply and leaves without saying anything to us.

  Seth smiles as he leaves. “She'd kill me if she knew I sent him down there.”

  “You didn't send him down there,” his sister dismisses.

  Seth laughs, the sound rolling easily off of him. “Didn't I?”

  “No.” The response is automatic though, she doesn't seem to have much faith in it.

  The most perfect eyes in the world look over to me. “Good work,” I tell him, accompanying the praise with a quick hug. Over his shoulder, I catch a glimpse of someone walking quickly away.

  “I'll be back,” I tell the leopards. Then I sprint to the door before my prey can fully escape.

  “Warren!” I run up behind the wolf.

  Cautiously, he looks down at me as he stops. He's not dressed for boarding, unless he's hit himself really hard in the head and decided jeans are appropriate apparel. “Michaela.”

  “Why are you here?” I ask.

  For several seconds, I think he's not going to tell me.

  “I was looking for you.”

  The admission is quiet and pained.

  “Why?”

  He shrugs. “There are a lot of rumors going around about you. About what happened to you last night.” His eyes flit around my face, never catching my gaze directly. “About why it is a girl who's been in town less than a month is calling a joint meeting of the pack and the den.”

  “And you wanted to ask me about them?” I hazard.

  “No.” The denial is swift, but heartfelt. His hand reaches to capture some of the hair being ripped in the wind back behind my ear. “I just wanted to make sure you're alright.”

  His hand, bare despite the weather, sends little slivers of warmth down my whole body. “Now who's forgotten how to use a telephone?” I joke, trying to distract myself.

  “I called the school.” He smiles faintly. “They said you were here.”

  “Which did imply I wasn't dead.”

  “Implied it, yes.” His remaining hand reaches out to cup my free cheek. His eyes softly roam over my face. “I wanted to be sure.”

  Heart fluttering, lungs trying to figure out how to obtain oxygen, and thoughts scattered to the far corners of the world, I look back up at him. “Do you want to know what I am?” I whisper.

  An eyebrow cocks. “Isn't it a secret?”

  “Yes,” I conf
irm, my voice scarcely audible. “But I'll tell you.”

  He shakes his head. “No, Michaela. My father would order me to tell him, and I would have to either do it or leave the pack.” One hand moves to brush through my hair. “I'll be there tonight, though.”

  With a sad smile, he steps backwards, turns, and leaves me standing there staring at his back.

  Part of me runs after him.

  My body stays put.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “I think Aliah's mad at me.”

  Tod seems to be incredibly, adorably one might even say, confused by this. On a normal day, I would probably say something along the lines of, “Well, duh,” and proceed to tease him about it, but the poor guy is starting to look seriously battered.

  “She's just having a rough moon.” The were-equivalent of the PMS excuse.

  “Who isn't?” He watches her closely, even though she isn't doing anything more interesting than sitting on a bench with her phone's music app set to a volume too high for a normal human, let alone someone with enhanced hearing. After she put in her earbuds while Tod was trying to talk to her, she hasn't so much as glanced toward him. Which is pretty much the opposite of the way she usually reacts to his presence.

  “Why are you at the bus stop?” Sam wonders, leading her other siblings up to Tod. “Did our car get stolen?”

  “No.” Tod doesn't elaborate on the humorless mutter.

  Shrugging at Sam's glance to me, I tell her, “He's hoping to see Lyly.”

  “Why?” The question is cautious. Sam's eyes drift towards Aliah, narrow in concern, and then switch to her brother. “Why are you hoping to see Lyly?”

  “Need to talk to her.”

  “Need to talk to her,” Toni repeats the statement as a mocking grunt. “Tod so articulate. Like talk a lot.”

  Her brother glares at her and the rest of us roll our eyes.

  “She already left.” Sam looks for a reaction. “She rode down with the lions.”

  The bus pulls up, its brakes letting out a faint whoosh.

  “Oh.” Tod takes his keys from his pocket.

  “We don't have to go, do we?” Scot whines.

  “No.” Sam holds her hand out for the keys. “I can drive us back later.”

  Tod hesitates, but hands over the keys and permission to drive his car. “Be careful.”

  Sam snorts. “Yeah, whatever.” She gives me a grin and a wink, then herds the younger Foxes away.

  The others started filing onto the bus the second it stopped moving, so it's already nearing full by the time I make it up the stairs. I slide into the seat next to Seth, and Tod flings himself onto the empty bench in front of us, sitting with his back to the window and looking across the aisle at Aliah.

  Aliah doesn't look back.

  Seth and I trade raised eyebrows over that, but don't say anything on the subject as we wind our way to the school.

  The bus pulls down the road by the parking garage and my eyes gravitate toward a familiar truck sitting in its usual spot. Warren stands beside it, looking up as the bus passes by him, meeting my eyes for the split second we're level.

  Despite me getting off the bus almost as quickly as the sprinting Aliah does, both Warren and his truck are gone by the time I step off.

  Once I realize Warren was going rather than coming, I slow down and give a sympathetic look to Tod, who looks as bewildered and cast adrift as he has all day. Putting my arm around his waist in a friendly half-hug as we walk through the rec room, I try to be optimistic. “You're going to be alright.”

  He sighs. “I don't know. Maybe not. This could be your last chance to make a frantic pass at me.” His eyebrows do a funny wiggle, and I laugh. His smile is sad though. “I think I'm going to go lie down.”

  Nodding, I step away from him. “See you later?”

  Miserably, he starts up the stairs as I debate whether I want to go to lunch before or after changing out of my ski things.

  A loud howl, followed by a great crash, comes from one of the side study rooms. Tod spins and dashes back down the stairs, pushing past me to run through the doorway the noises came from.

  “What the hell did you do to her?” he bellows.

  I sprint the distance between me and the room, coming to a dead halt when I see Tod bending over Aliah. He partially blocks my view, but even so I can tell she's bleeding from multiple places as she leans reclined on her elbows. Lyly glares at both of them, her arms crossed. “She started it,” she insists, sounding sulky and not at all upset.

  “Aliah?” With the lightest of touches, Tod brushes back Aliah's hair, which, though still shockingly white, may currently be darker than her skin. “What happened?”

  She shakes her head. “Nothing.”

  Nothing? Tod growls, thinking about as much of the answer as I do. “What did she do?” he asks, the syllables grinding their way through clinched teeth.

  “She attacked me!” Lyly yells in a shrill pitch that makes me yearn to smack her. “I was just defending myself!”

  Tod doesn't even glance at her. “I wasn't talking to you. I want the truth. What happened, Aliah?”

  While her sister sputters, Aliah tries to sit completely upright while attempting to scoot away from Tod. Her balance is off, causing her to waver and him to put his arms around her. “What happened?” His voice is soft as he cradles her.

  “I attacked her,” she whispers.

  Tod's start of surprise is very visible. “Why?”

  With a shake of her head, Aliah looks down and refuses to answer.

  Sighing, Tod looks up. “What did you do, Lyly?”

  “I didn't do anything!” Lyly waves her hands in frustration. “She admitted she attacked me!”

  “Yes, but I know she had a reason.” His voice is firm as he goes on, “And I want to know what it was.”

  The idea that Aliah physically attacked her sister without provocation is preposterous. Of course, it's pretty incredible that our shy little pink-eyed introvert threw the first punch even given cause. Even more incredible than her secret identity as a park rat.

  “She's psychotic!” Lyly waves her arms dramatically. “There's your reason.”

  “So neither of you are going to tell me?” Tod sighs as he helps Aliah to sit on her own and then moves away from her with a deep frown.

  Eyes on the carpet she's leaking blood onto, Aliah shakes her head, her hand pressed against the scratches across her stomach.

  “You going to be alright?” Tod asks her. His annoyance is clearly etched on the lines of his face, but there's concern underneath it.

  Weakly, Aliah nods.

  Lyly makes an annoyed tsk, plants a hand on her hip, and looks considerably irked. “You're not just going to let her get away with it, are you?”

  “You drew blood, Alysia.”

  I'm unclear if he's meaning to say Aliah is already punished because she's in a lot of pain or if there's some sort of rule he's alluding to. I do know that the use of Lyly's real name rather than her nickname has to mean something.

  “But she started it!” Lyly protests. “All I did was tell her-”

  “Shut up!” Aliah screams, the shriek echoing from the walls.

  “Tell her...” Tod prompts after a glance at Aliah.

  On the floor, Aliah starts to shake, looking like she's going to go into shock. Noticing, Tod redirects his gaze to her, eyes sharp with worry. “Aliah?” Panic lurks behind the name.

  Going pale, Lyly takes a deep breath. “Nothing. I just said something stupid, and she jumped at me.”

  “And forced to you to grow claws and ram them into her?” Still looking at Aliah, Tod pulls himself taller and assumes a mien of responsibility. I can't say exactly how he does it, but in the space of a breath, he goes from being a confused boy to being a power to be listened to – to being our den father. “You have a choice Alysia, you can either refrain from attendance at any school social events between now and the end of the year or you can be tried by the parent den.”


  “Tried by the parent den?” Her eyes are huge as she stares at Tod.

  “Yes.” He turns his head back toward her, his eyes cold. “You performed a partial shift to aide yourself in a physical confrontation outside of an official challenge. And you did it not only to harm a den member, but to hurt your blood sister.”

  Shaking slightly, Lyly draws a long breath. “What about her? She admits she started the fight.”