Of Fur and Ice

by Andrea Marie Brokaw

  He shrugs. “With any number of people.” Holding out the gun towards Aliah, he gives her smile. “You're a better shot than I am.”

  She mumbles something, accepting the gun while staring at the floor. His fingers linger on hers, and her lips curl almost imperceptibly, although her eyes don't lift.

  “I'm not going to let you take these weapons.” Lyly glares at her sister, a look more hostile than any I'd want to receive.

  Warren takes a step toward her. “Then I'll shoot you.”

  “What?” Her jaw drops in disbelief. She says nothing as Warren and I walk around her. When Tod and Aliah try to pass though, her hand lashes out to grab his arm. “Tod, you can't shoot this guy. He's a friend of Kim's. He's harmless.”

  Aliah keeps walking.

  Warren growls, turning to show his teeth to Lyly, who looses several shades of color when she takes in his expression.

  Tod gives his arm a sharp jerk and continues onward. “Kim can call him a friend all she wants to, but half the state is looking for him.”

  “There's no evidence he's the one they want!” She falls in with our group as we go up the stairs. I'm not sure where we're going, but everyone else seems to know. “All you know is some people smelled a similar creature.”

  My steps falter. She has a point. Just because Troy is up here and acting kind of weird doesn't mean he's the horrible beast that's been terrorizing the local livestock.

  “He'll have a trial,” Warren growls.

  “After you've shot him!” Lyly snaps.

  The wolf shrugs, not at all bothered. “Non-lethal injection.”

  “Still! You can't just inject people who haven't done anything!”

  “He's trespassing,” Tod points out. “And disturbing the peace.”

  Nearing the back of the building again, we can hear his voice belting out an incredibly off-key rendition of “Buffalo Girl”. “Buffalo Girl, won't you come out tonight, come out tonight...”

  It's almost enough to make me laugh despite everything.

  Warren makes a sound I can only call a huff. “Please tell me he is not referencing It's A Wonderful Life.”

  “Sorry, no can do.” I reach out for his hand, squeezing it lightly.

  “I used to like that movie.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Enough to force Troy to sit through it about a dozen times during December. Although it didn't occur to me that he was actually paying attention to the film while learning the intricacies of my bra clasp.

  “Uh, hello!” blurts Lyly. “Back to relevant conversation?” No one says anything else, which she takes as a cue to go on rather than as a sign she's being ignored. “You can't shoot someone, even non-lethally, over bad singing. You haven't even tried asking him to leave.”

  Dang it. Another point. We all stop walking.

  “You're acting like an idiot because she has you so brainwashed!”

  What? Who has who brainwashed?

  “Everything was fine before she showed up!”

  “Stop shrieking,” Aliah snaps. “Are you trying to give away our position?”

  “Give away our position? Do you think this is a spy movie or something?” Even in the present situation, Lyly finds time for a melodramatic stance, her hand gluing itself to her hip. “I know you're in league with her. I even know what your payoff was.” She looks directly at Tod.

  “We don't have time for this,” Warren grumbles, leading me down the hall.

  “Ly...” Tod's voice holds little sympathy. “You need to get over yourself.” His footsteps fall behind me, Aliah's beside them.

  Sputtering sounds are the only retort Lyly's able to come up with.

  We find Tod's siblings in the library, near the windows. Toni's looking down thoughtfully. “You know, he's pretty cute for a deranged lunatic.”

  “We don't know he's a deranged lunatic,” insists Lyly, coming into the room well behind the rest of us. I had sort of expected her to run off somewhere, but she's determined to inflict herself upon us for longer.

  Sam sneers at her. “Aliah recognized his picture.”

  His arm around Aliah's shoulders, Tod glares at Lyly as she speaks her next words. “She's just saying that because it's part of their plot.”

  Sam snorts. “And what plot would that be?”

  “I don't know exactly.” Lyly sits in the middle of a sofa and gives me an arched look. “But I'm going to find out.”

  “Good luck with that.” Sam's response is dismissive. Turning her gaze to her brother, she asks, “So, you're going to pick him off from up here?”

  “That's the plan.” He guides Aliah to the windows, and they look down.

  “He's too far,” Aliah proclaims sadly.

  Lyly makes an ugly sound highly reminiscent of a pig.

  Warren and I go to stand beside them.

  The lights under the library window should be blocking us from Troy's view, which I assume is why we're in this room. Below, Troy paces. He's stopped singing now and is just peering anxiously in the lower windows as passes by them.

  He's not nearly as close to us as the volume of his voice had led me to assume, and I gather the dart guns don't have very long range.

  “I can get him closer.”

  “No.” Warren doesn't even bother to think about the answer.

  “Then I can stall him. Get him to stay longer so the pack has time to get over here. Although, I'd rather we put him to sleep before they show up. I don't want to see any of them hurt.”

  “No.” Warren didn't think about that one either.

  No one contradicts him.

  “I'm not wanting to go outside,” I tell the others in exasperation. “Just talk to him from a window. Give him just enough hope he doesn't give up and leave.”

  “No.” My wolf's jaw is set firm.

  I give him an inpatient look. “Warren, you're being unreasonable.”

  His eyes narrow, flashing like silver. “It isn't unreasonable to protect my mate.”

  My mouth gapes open.

  Warren's mouth snaps shut.

  His body stills, and his eyes swell into huge orbs.

  I smile gently, laying a hand on his arm. “It's okay, mate. I'm not going to endanger myself. I'm just going to go yell out a window at some idiot I used to know.”

  He's still not saying anything, and everyone else is looking at us in silence, most of them shocked, but Tod and Aliah with knowing little half smiles. I pry the gun from Warren's fingers and hand it over to Tod. “We'll go next room over.”

  The foxes nod, and I pull Warren after me.

  “Michaela...” he whispers as I lead him down the hallway.

  “Yes, mate?”

  “You're... I... I mean...”

  “We'll talk about it later, mate.”

  “Okay.”

  His grip is tight on my hand as we go into the room. We go up to one of the windows, and Warren slides down to sit beneath it, his fingers still clutching mine and making it harder to open the window. Not that I'm complaining. If he never lets go, that's just fine by me.

  I call down to get my stalker's attention.

  “Mike!” Troy leaps into the air in his excitement when I stick myself halfway out the window. “There you are!”

  He looks so normal grinning up at me that I almost wonder if Lyly is right about him being innocent. Maybe what happened with Aliah was just a big misunderstanding. Maybe he didn't realize she was a were and thought she was just a fox lost from her den. Maybe the other creature attacked her, and he was trying to help her. Maybe he only tied her up by the fire to make sure she stayed warm.

  He bounces along the building, getting closer to me, but not quite close enough to Aliah for her to have a shot. “God, I've missed you.” Too far away for me to see them, I nevertheless can vividly picture the way his deep hazel eyes must be sparkling.

  “Hey, Troy,” I chat. “What brings you up here?”

  His arms spread wide as he grins at me. “You, babe! Surprised?”

 
“You could say that.”

  “Really?” His arms fall, and he takes an eager step forward. “So you didn't give your perfume to those disgusting wolves that are trying to murder me?”

  “Of course not.” They aren't trying to murder him, nor are they are disgusting. I try to smile in a beguiling, trustworthy way.

  “Thank God. I couldn't stand the thought of you doing that to me.”

  There's a lot of anguish in the statement. Enough to make me want to feel bad, even though I don't.

  “So, you're like me?” I try to sound excited. “You're the one I've been smelling?”

  “Yes!” He grins, proud of himself. “I'm the one who turned you. So we could be together.”

  “With Kim?” I can't help but ask.

  “Oh, baby!” His head shakes. “I never cared about Kim. She was a mistake. I'd never have touched her if I'd known it had worked on you. I thought you must be immune. It never occurred to me there's just a delay.”

  “Why should it have mattered?”

  His posture angles in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  I sigh. “Why should it have mattered so much? So what if I stayed human?”

  Warren's thumb rubs against mine, comforting me. There's more hurt behind my question than I'd like to admit, and I guess he senses that.

  “I'm a were.” Troy's declaration is made with a noticeable implication that he thinks I'm an idiot for asking.

  Not much point in continuing with that, is there?

  “How long have you been here?” I ask, trying to verify he is, in fact, behind the missing animals without having to ask him outright and risk offending him.

  “I don't know. A while. I've been trying to get up the courage to come talk to you. You were so mad at me on the phone. I came up here right after that. It was like I couldn't stay away anymore when I realized how upset you were. But then I got here and, I don't know... You were never alone and... Could you come out here, I don't like shouting all of this.”

  I shake my head. “Sorry, I'm grounded.”

  “Grounded?”

  “Yeah.” I'm not sure if I should say what for, so I hold off on that. “I'm not allowed outside of the building at all.”

  “Well, can I come in?”

  “I don't think that's a good idea. We're not supposed to have visitors.”

  He curses. “Mike! Why are you being like this?”

  “Like what?”

  His hands flail about in the air. “Aren't you at least a little bit happy to see me?”

  “Of course I am.” Seeing him means he'll be in custody soon. “But you can't expect too much from me. I mean, I did break up with you. You remember that, right?”

  “Yes, I remember,” he snaps. “That's why I'm up here trying to beg you to forgive me. Mike, I spent all my money getting to Anchorage. I walked – walked – here from there. I've been living in a cave! You do not even want to know what I've been eating.”

  “Like goats and sheep?” I guess.

  “What? I wish! Try hibernating rats.”

  “Rats don't hibernate,” I point out, my brain on autopilot.

  He growls. “God, Mike, I don't know what they are! They're little and furry and gross, and if I couldn't change into wild animals, there's no way I'd be able to make myself eat them.”

  “You've been living off rodents?” I ask very slowly, narrowing my eyes at him. Could he be telling the truth?

  “That and the occasional stuff stolen from town.”

  My head tilts to the side. “What kind of stuff?”

  There's some more cursing. “What's your obsession with my diet?”

  “It's important, Troy,” I tell him, trying to be calm. “What have you stolen?”

  “Christ, Mike! There was some beef jerky and candy bars from the general store. A bag of pretzels from someone's car. I did manage to get some ground beef out a truck at that bar. A couple other small things. Nothing much.”

  “Hold on one second!” I hold up an index finger before ducking back into the building. Sitting below the window, I look over to Warren.

  “There was a box of beef missing last weekend,” he admits in a low whisper, not looking happy about it. “We assumed it was lost during loading or something.”

  Expletive. “I don't think he's lying.”

  He looks even less happy than he did a second ago. “Are you sure?”

  I shrug. “No, but... He's a horrible actor.”

  “He managed to fool you into thinking he was human.”

  Alright, that's a valid argument.

  “Not to mention the whole second girlfriend thing.” I shrug. “Except he never lied about that. He just starting avoiding me.”

  Troy bellows up again. “What are you doing, Mike? Is someone in there with you? It's not the guy from the kitchen is it?”

  There's a shout and a long string of profanity. “What the hell? Did you just shoot me? You just shot me!”

  Quickly, I lean out the window again. “What happened?”

  He's not looking at me, he's looking at the dart sticking out of his arm. With a jerk, he yanks it out. “Someone shot me!”

  “That looks like a tranquilizer.” Not a lie. Not even an evasion, really. I have not claimed I don't know for sure what it is. “Hold on! I'll be right down!”

  “Michaela...” Warren follows me, tight on my heels since my hand is still in his.

  “You'd rather he ran into the woods? Give us the fun of tracking him?”

  Tod's in the doorway of the library. “What are you doing?”

  “I don't think he's lying,” I respond. “And if he isn't the nasty bad-thing everyone's looking for, then it would be rude to leave him outside to freeze to death after we knocked him unconscious.”

  “He's still stalking you,” my den father points out, not exactly charitably.

  I shrug. “Plenty of exes do that. Doesn't mean they deserve hypothermia.”

  Neither of the boys are pleased with me, but neither continues to argue. They do continue to follow me, though, making it obvious I'm not going to be allowed to go out on my own. Which isn't something I'd argue about anyway.

  With my hand on the doorknob, I pause to take a steadying breath. “Warren?”

  He finally drops my hand, looking down at his shoes. “I won't attack him.”

  Turning, I brush a finger along my wolf's jaw. “That's not what I was going to say.”

  “Oh?” One corner of his mouth sneaks up in a sardonic half-smile. I fight the urge to kiss it.

  “I was going to ask you if you thought you could stop growling now.”

  The rogue corner of his mouth juts further up. “Nope.”

  It's disconcerting to see someone smile and growl at the same time. I'm not quite sure how he's managing it.

  “Fair enough.” I open the door, shivering as soon as the air hits me.

  Damn, I should have taken the time to find a coat. It wasn't so bad when I was mostly in the building and yelling out, but walking outside has me instantly chilled to the core.

  “Mike!” Troy rushes forward, clearly thinking to make a grab at me. He finds himself standing within an inch of Tod instead. “Who are you?”

  “This is Tod Fox. He's my friend and my den father.”

  “Your what?”

  I smile sweetly, standing behind Tod, but to the side where Troy can see me. “He's the leader of the den I joined.”

  Troy scowls. He tries to edge around Tod, but the fox merely repositions himself. “Is that some sort of cult?”

  “No.”

  Troy's edging continues, but gets him closer to Warren than to me. He moves his eyes from Tod to me, urging me to do something to bring us together. Guess it doesn't occur to him I'm perfectly happy with Tod staying between us.

  “Come inside,” I invite, turning and pushing Warren through the door in front of me. “You're doing great,” I whisper to him. His growling falters for a full second. Until Troy speaks again.

  “Who's t
he other one. Is he a friend too?”

  “This is Warren. And he's my boyfriend.”

  The growling stops dead as Warren casts a disbelieving glance over his shoulder. I hiss quickly, “Don't argue,” and he raises his eyebrows at me, pivoting in order to better stare in my direction.