Fox’s Dawn: A Foxy Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Foxes of the Midnight Sun Book 1)

by K. R. Alexander

  I’d thought we were sitting quietly because we enjoyed being together, taking our time over roasting aromas and feeling sunlight and savoring meat. No … they weren’t happy with this silence. The backs of the dog-foxes were tense. The wolf looked tired.

  Ondrog hooked the steaks and removed them to a birch platter.

  I licked my lips, having to remind myself to help. Maybe they needed words to feel companionable. They were so used to skin. I’d never seen Demik or Mej or Komu put on their fur at all.

  “Ondrog?” I touched his knee and he looked at my hand. “You need a mate.”

  Demik sat up straighter. Mej coughed, choking on a mushroom.

  “Naturally,” Ondrog said in his flat but thunder-deep voice. “So I pray. Moon sends trials and wolf keeps hunting, running, singing. Suffering lies at the heart of paths worth following and worth remembering. Such are our toils.”

  I hesitated, deciding it probably didn’t matter if I didn’t know how what he said fit into what I’d said.

  “While you suffer,” I said, “we’ll be your pack and your mate. For as long as you need.”

  Ondrog regarded me silently.

  Demik sat very stiff and straight to my right. Mej was rubbing his eyes, watering after his coughing fit. Komu had his whole hand over his own face as if to block smoke or light.

  “Is that so?” Ondrog asked softly. “The tricksters and fungus-eaters now desire packing with a wolf?” He looked around and back to me. “Yes… They exude eagerness over your proposal from each fiber of their being.”

  Demik cleared his throat again.

  Ondrog met my eyes. “You mustn’t think me ungrateful. They took me in when they could have driven me out. They allow me here, on the verge of their territory. For this, I am not only grateful, I am alive. Without their charity I would be neither. Your offer comes from an honorable place. So I must extend my thanks for best intentions; yet decline your invitation.”

  I thought about that also. It seemed Ondrog liked to say something very small in a manner that was very large.

  He and I ate our second steaks. The others stopped at one each and the salad.

  “You must accompany us,” I said.

  They all looked at me, then away.

  Ondrog rubbed the bridge of his nose with his wrist—his hands being all bloody. “I beg your pardon, you were easier to understand when you could not speak. It would appear my meaning has likewise been unclear to you.” He looked at me directly. “What is it you want from me?”

  “We’ll go up the river tomorrow. You must come. We’ll be your pack.”

  The fire settled. My stomach felt round as a fat moon on a cool night. Something small darted in the brush but no one looked around. Only the raven flew away.

  Ondrog spoke slowly and carefully, like his nodding. “You … are … foxes.”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “You do not have packs.” Slow as the first snowfall.

  “Yes. But sometimes a skulk. We have each other.”

  “I’ll come with you tomorrow,” Komu said suddenly. “You and Demik can’t go off alone. It wouldn’t be safe.” He swallowed.

  I smiled at him and back to Ondrog. “See? We have mates and kits and friends. That’s our skulk. We have the clan and neighbor clans.” I also had to speak slowly, careful with my lips. “We’re going upriver to find … something. Demik knows. He’ll get us there. And you must come. Then we’ll be five and you’ll have a pack again.”

  Ondrog looked around at the dog-foxes.

  “I’ll bring licorice and bonbons from town tonight if the shop’s still open,” Komu said. He was the only one besides me who smiled. “Care for licorice for the trail? Or a toffee?”

  When Ondrog did not answer, only staring, Mej said, “Well … I suppose pressing business can wait. We’ll get in a few games tonight, then … why not? I’ll come up the river with you. Need rounds for that old rifle?”

  Ondrog shifted his stare to Mej. “I’d be obliged for extra. What can I offer in trade?”

  “Some of your venison?” Mej said. “We’ll cook up strips overnight and bring it with smoked salmon. Day of grub on the trail.”

  Ondrog nodded. Slow, slow, slow. He offered around the last steaks on the platter, then started on one himself when none were claimed.

  “When should we be ready?” I asked Demik.

  “What? Oh … we don’t all need to—”

  “Safer to go together,” Komu said happily.

  “You thought you’d slink out of here with her alone to hunt the whole Aaqann River for her people?” Mej raised one eyebrow and one corner of his mouth. “Wouldn’t you be lucky?”

  Demik scowled, his lips working soundlessly for a moment. “Someone will have to go in fur. He looked at Ondrog. We’ll be hunting signs of other foxes. Perhaps mostly in fur? Yes … that would be best.” Looking to the others. “If you all came in fur—”

  Mej snorted. “You’re such a charmer, Demik.” He smiled at me. “You realize he’s trying to get rid of us?”

  “No—” Demik started.

  “He’s making a plan for us,” I said. “He’s helping me find my family and who I am. All of you are.”

  “Naturally he is—and that’s his only motivation.” Mej turned to Komu. “You go in fur. Sniff the trails for us.”

  “What?” Komu sat back. “If Demik wants someone in fur he can go.”

  “You’re youngest, we have seniority.”

  “Earth Mother, you’re a real bastard sometimes, Mej. First outside vixen to show up in the settlement in my whole life and what happens? ‘We don’t need you, Komu. Put on fur. Put your nose on. You’d just be in the way.’ I don’t have to do every damned thing you say. Not anymore.”

  Mej chuckled. “What would you do without me? Chew fleas that build up while you loaf all day? Fight the dogs for fish guts?”

  “You still think I’m a kit!” Komu sprang onto his knees, waving a finger at Mej, who smirked in return. “You four go without me. You’re plenty for a skulk. Maybe you can change and miss out for once.” Jumping to his feet.

  “I’d like to see you in fur.” I smiled up at Komu.

  About to stride away, he looked down at me, chest heaving. “You would?”

  “Very much. I should wear fur some of the time while we’re going to find my family because … that’s how I was. So … it could be…”

  “How you’ll know if something’s familiar? Or catch a scent?” Komu said. “In fur?”

  I nodded.

  His black hair was just long enough to fall in his face. He pushed it back, straightening and glancing around. “Right. So … we’ll start in the morning?”

  Chapter 24

  Ondrog gave us a leg of the buck to take home.

  Everyone seemed easier then, bidding good night and good hunting—or “Moon bless,” from Ondrog—and parting company. The three dog-foxes were quiet again. I turned my face into the breeze, sucking in sweet summer air, in love with our walk. I had to go backwards to face the breeze so I held onto Demik’s left hand and Mej’s right and leaned into them.

  Demik’s voice was once more strong and gentle at the same time, a comfort and kiss to my ears. “That’s the sap you’re smelling. The trees have thawed. Now through September we’ll get those forest breezes that only smell this way in summer.”

  “We should live in trees,” I said. “Den for winter, tree for summer. We should learn to change into feathers besides fur.” I laughed and saw Demik gazing at me as if he’d been taking me seriously.

  Mej, though, grinned and Komu chuckled as he also tried walking backwards so the wind hit his face.

  “Want more nougat?” He asked me. “Or only bonbons this time?”

  “I’ll sniff them with you.” Packed as my stomach was, the idea of choosing my own bonbons—and more—made my mouth water again. “I want to go up the stories … the top stories to see?” I looked a question to Mej, unsure I was getting my words right. We’d retur
ned to Vulpen as we left Ondrog.

  Mej’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “You’re coming back to Dawson with us?”

  “No.” In a flash, Demik’s voice had changed, from hug to snap. “We talked about this. You don’t need to go back there.”

  Had we? I remembered him saying he did not like Dawson City, and human beings were evil. I didn’t recall him saying I wasn’t to go back. Or me saying I would not.

  “I won’t stay, Demik.” I squeezed his hand. “I want to see through the stories.”

  “She means go up in the top floor at the hotel, see out the windows,” Mej said. “Easy. We’ll play a game there and I’ll take you up. They’ll have an empty room we can look in. Or onto the roof if we can? Want to see that?”

  “The roof? On top?” I lifted a hand over my head. “Like a mountain.”

  “Just like a mountain.” Mej grinned. “One or the other. I’ll take you up.”

  “Why would you go back?” Anger and fear in Demik’s voice. “There’s nothing for us there.”

  Only bonbons and boots and stories.

  “She’ll be with us,” Komu said.

  “So I should trust you two now?” With a harsh laugh.

  Softness between them was gone. They went on arguing, Komu reasoning, quiet, the other two growing angrier as we reached the settlement.

  “I’m not letting her go back there alone—”

  “Not alone! The two of us with her!”

  “In some ways that’s even worse!”

  “Last I sniffed you weren’t in charge of her life,” Mej snapped.

  “And last I sniffed you weren’t responsible enough to be trusted with the safety of a tent peg,” Demik growled.

  Komu took the meat to elders for cooking and sharing. I took myself to the outhouse, then the basin to wash in Demik’s den before town. I dried with a hemp towel, smoothed my dress, and presented myself to join Mej and Komu on the long walk to Dawson City.

  Komu was also ready, waiting fifty strides down the open, sunny path toward the river. Mej and Demik shouted at each other out front.

  “Are you going to pause one damn minute and listen to yourself? When did this vixen become your property?”

  “What about yours? You making decisions for her is different than me?”

  “I’m not trying! I’m only saying it’s fine for her to do what she wants to do and I’ll look after her. You’re the one who’s raving!”

  “If she insists on going back, I’ll have to accompany her.”

  “For what? So you can panic and drag her out by her nose like the place is on fire? She wants to get a sweet and look out a window, for Mother’s sake! Not sign herself into the crib or drink a case of whiskey!”

  Komu’s smile stretched across his face to see me coming. I took his hand and his breaths quickened. He grinned sheepishly at me, pushed his hair back, said, “You look… You always look beautiful. I’m glad you want to come with us. Demik’s a young fox on the outside, but a hundred-year-old traditionalist on the inside. Don’t worry about him. If we hurry, I bet Frank’s place will still be open. This is when the miners are in town.”

  He talked on happily about showing me through the chemist’s shop while we walked, hand in hand. I hadn’t heard him talk much before and I enjoyed his fast, breathless voice—like he was racing down a slope, spinning his brush and still never slowing down.

  “That was nice of you to want to … you know,” he said, changing subjects mid-breath. “About the wolf. I guess he is lonely. It’s not our fault he stays here. But it wouldn’t be easy for him to go elsewhere. I’d be in a skulk with anyone—or pack—if it also meant being with you.” He glanced at me, away, licking his lips and trying to catch his breath.

  “You would?”

  “You bet I would.” A quick, dazzling grin. “Not just because there aren’t other vixens around. I know you like Mej, not me. Everyone besides Demik likes Mej. He’s the charisma and I’m just the … kit. But I’m not. I came of age last winter. I’ve had my change three winters now.”

  “Your change?”

  “You know. When we go through transition into changing, learn to put on fur for the first time? From kit to fox?”

  I nodded. How long had I been in fur? How long had I been lost?

  To learn to change there had been training, teaching from … parents? A grand thing, this transition into adulthood. A wonder to become a grown vixen or dog-fox, equally at home in either skin or fur, neither human nor total fox, but a shifter, a blessed offspring of Earth Mother.

  “Wait!” Their footsteps drummed after us. Demik caught my arm. “Please don’t go back there.”

  “I’m sorry.” I kept walking as I looked into his black eyes. Truly sorry, my full stomach suddenly achy with the bite of regret. I wanted so badly to make him happy, make him smile—which he seldom seemed to do, his usual look being anxious or thoughtful. I wanted him to want to come with us, to laugh, to turn three into four. Yet I had no power, nor right, to make anyone but myself feel or be a certain way.

  So I clasped his hand in mine, leaned my head to his shoulder for a moment as we walked, and said I was sorry.

  “I’ll stay with you if you have to go to that place,” Demik said.

  “I don’t have to,” I said. “I don’t even have to breathe. I want to.”

  “Please—”

  “Why don’t you follow the other scent, pal?” Mej’s voice had changed. Something sharp into something deadly. It made my pulse quicken for expected danger and I slowed, looking around at him on Komu’s other side. “You’re not looking after her. You’re paranoid and hysterical. Who she needs protecting from right now is you.”

  Mej walked faster as he spoke, Komu with him, so they turned together when Mej stopped in Demik’s path to face him.

  Demik also stopped.

  I paused to stand on my toes, kissing his cheek. “I won’t be away long. I’m sorry, Demik.”

  I went on past Komu and Mej. Demik’s grip tightened on my hand. For a second, he wouldn’t let go, nearly tugging me to a stop.

  Komu stiffened. Mej, fists clenched, made a sound like a growl at the back of his throat.

  Demik let go.

  I walked down the path, heading south.

  After a tight, stretched hush, Mej’s voice just reached me: “You know I’ll look after her. You and I don’t sniff the same trails, but you have to know that much.”

  More hush, then Mej and Komu jogged up to walk on either side of me.

  “I like how you handle disagreements,” Mej said, looking ahead.

  “I don’t want to hurt him.” My throat remained tight.

  “He knows you don’t.”

  “I just want to see the story, and smell the candy shop.”

  “Nothing wrong with that.” Mej touched my shoulder. “Hell, that’s what they’re there for. He’s just a hysterical old dog, certain some son of a mosquito is out to steal his bone and tan his hide.”

  “He’s only worried for me. He loves me.”

  “Right … that also.”

  Komu lit two cigarettes in his mouth while we talked. He held one past my nose to Mej. Mej held it to his lips and inhaled very hard, setting the end glowing and burning down.

  “Bastard,” Mej murmured when he lowered the cigarette, smoke bursting from his lips.

  I glanced at him.

  He caught my eye and looked away. “Sorry. He’s a … good fox. For … certain things. I only can’t think what they are right now.”

  “I can,” Komu jumped in. “Good hunter, good tracker, skin or fur, good with a rifle, good builder and worker. He’s helped with all the log dens in the settlement—even though he hates the idea of building homes like humans. He still loves his family. If they want one he helps. That’s what kind of fox he is.”

  While I smiled at Komu, Mej stared past me at him, smoke trickling from his nose.

  “Why don’t you lick a path in the dirt into Dawson for her?” Mej asked icily.
>
  “Should we try one of everything in the shop?” Komu asked me. “I’ll get them for you. Glad to. And a bag of the strawberry. Frank’s got dozens to choose from.”

  “More flavors? More even than what you brought?”

  “Sure there’s more. That wasn’t even half.”

  “Truly?” I clutched his arm.

  “Truly.” Komu grinned. “Frank doesn’t mind us having a sample either. He’s a good sort. One of the best humans.”

  I smiled at the funny sound of the name. It made me remember something else. “Does he speak English?”

  “Oh, yes. Maybe you don’t? I forgot about that.”

  “I’m not sure,” I said.

  “You’re not…?”

  “Maybe you could teach me.” I turned back to grab Mej’s arm also, hanging onto an elbow of each while we walked. “If I knew a little English, what would it be?”

  Mej said a word.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Hello.”

  “Oh … something else?”

  They each offered several words, greetings, introductions, words like morning, night, table, candle, fish, and supper.

  At first, it didn’t sound familiar. Nothing at all like Vulpen. Yet, by the time we’d gone a mile, I changed my mind. I’d heard this language before. Maybe even a great deal. I could pick out some words that might have been lucky guesses, or might have been memory.

  Mej relaxed with his second cigarette. Komu smiled, talking with Mej in English as they told me about the words they used.

  I listened closely all the way to Dawson, catching more and more in their words that seemed known, a part of me. Like stars on a cloudy night. I knew they were up there. I just couldn’t quite see…

  Chapter 25

  I was hungry enough by the time we reached Dawson City to try all the flavors I hadn’t already. The cobbler’s shop was shut but Frank was there at the chemist’s with my candies.

  Mej talked to him in English while Komu showed me around tall glass jars with lids, all in rows, all partway, or all the way, filled with tiny drops of joy.

  Tart smells, spicy smells, buttery, acidic, smooth, jagged, but mostly sweet smells. I drank them in with my flat nose at every jar, up and down.