Vixen (The Fox and Hound Book 1)

by Catherine Labadie

  winding trail; the weather is so perfect I couldn’t have asked for better.

  “It’s all we have, so it’s better to take care of it so we can enjoy it,” I say with a shrug.

  “True,” he agrees. Now that I’m here, memories of sunlit spring and summer days resurface in my mind. Pretty much every memory I have here is pleasant.

  “I’ve been coming to this trail since I was young,” I

  reminisce aloud. “Harold brought me here after school when I was little, shortly after my mother died. He knew I was having a hard time, and since he was my new parent figure, he wanted to make sure I was going to be okay. It was spring then…the whole trail was lined with either honeysuckles or lilacs.”

  “Sounds like a good memory, in spite of the circumstances,” Duncan says, and looking at me long enough to make my stomach butterflies quiver.

  “Are you ever going to ask your question?” I query, a little nervous with him focused on me this much.

  “I suppose so,” he says, and I can smell that he’s a little nervous too. Funny, I’m more attuned to the variances of his scent than anyone else I’ve known besides my brothers. “Do you remember what I asked you last night?”

  “Is that your question?” I tease, allowing myself to bump his shoulder with mine. He smiles a little.

  “No, but I think you remember. So here’s my question, since it relates to that: I’ve known you almost a week, Sierra, which means I barely know you. So why do I feel like I’ve known you a lot longer than that?” His voice deepens again, and some intimate quality about it makes me check for observers; we’ve come a good

  way along the trail, and both of us would have scented the approach of another person. It feels deliciously forbidden to be alone, but also…right, somehow.

  “I…” I begin, unsure what’s going to come out of my mouth next. “I don’t know…but I feel the same way. It’s kind of silly, I guess, because it has in reality been such a short time.”

  We’ve stopped walking, and we stand a little

  closer than normal in the middle of the path. My heart speeds up as I look up at Duncan’s face; a wave of shyness washes over me, so I level my gaze with his shoulder. He nods, and suddenly I want to sense him more as a fox than as a human. As he speaks, I slowly allow my fox senses to mesh with my human ones.

  “I asked you that question last night…about half-breeds bonding to another person very quickly, almost before reason can catch up…because I think I came down with whatever is in my genes that causes that to happen,” he says. The scent of him is spicy and good and absolutely intoxicating; I hear his heart race as quickly as mine, and the hope I’ve been trying to crush with logic nearly bursts its bonds.

  “You feel this for me?” I ask quietly, my voice too soft. The vulnerability in my question is nearly too much to stand. I lift my gaze back to his face, analyzing his eyes for some proof of truth or emotion. The look he gives me is intense, hopeful as well as wary.

  “I strongly believe…hell, I don’t know. You just…you just showed up in my life and, regardless of whether or not it makes sense, I can’t get you out of my head. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to, and I don’t want to fight it.”

  “We’re different,” I make a last ditch effort to control what I can’t predict. “So different. You might be like me now, but you were raised a human, and I wasn’t. Our backgrounds may make our differences too much to cope with, and there are still so many questions…”

  “…I’m not sure if that matters, not when we feel this,” Duncan says gently, trying to persuade me

  without discrediting my words. “Do you have a name for this…whatever it is that caused what I feel for you?” he asks me. We’re closer now; I want to reach out and touch him so much that it’s hard to breathe normally, but I resist.

  “No…there’s no official name for this, since it’s not scientifically based, as I said before,” I explain; it’s a little difficult to think clearly. “I just know I felt this when I thought you were human, even though I tried to tell myself it was nonsense.”

  Duncan sighs, tilting his head a little to the left; the angle of his neck briefly snares my attention. “I don’t blame you. I gave up ignoring it sooner, though, because I knew I had to get closer to you before I could let you in on the whole canine DNA thing. And honestly, I’m really glad to be here with you right now. I’m glad it’s you.”

  “I’m glad too,” I say in a voice barely louder than a whisper; he inhales slowly, a reverse sigh of relief. “I’m happy that you’re the one to make me feel this way, if this is the way life works for us.” I look down at my shoes, suddenly more shy than I was when I met him. Duncan reaches forward and takes my hand, giving it a slight squeeze; I’m so relieved that we finally have physical contact that it’s like some sort of pain I’ve not noticed until now went away. He opens his mouth to speak, and for a second I don’t think he can; then the words come.

  “Sierra, I think I—”

  “Don’t,” I say, surprising him and myself. “Don’t say it yet.” My eyes close briefly, and I bite my lip as I savor this moment. Just for another excuse to touch him, I

  hold my finger up to his lips to stop him from changing my life too fast.

  “Too much?” he asks. The uncertainty in his voice endears him to me further.

  “I think I know what you’re going to say, but…wait. We have time, so let’s see where this goes first.” I don’t know how I can be the voice of reason, not with my heart caught in my throat and my hands trembling from an emotion I hardly know how to define, but somehow what I’m saying makes sense.

  Duncan’s eyes are still green, but the burnt umber tint of half-breed nature seeps into the iris, not drastically, but enough to hypnotize me. I wonder why he’s struggling to decide which set of senses to give control, but he speaks before I can ask him about it.

  “You’re right,” he says, taking the hand I held to his lips in his other hand and lightly kissing my knuckles. My heart simply can’t keep up with this scene; it keeps stopping or racing or turning my cheeks pink. “I can wait.”

  His closeness makes me want more, and I secretly wish he would kiss me; it’s not time for that yet, though, even if all it would take is a small movement forward for me or him. I try to concentrate on other things so I don’t

  act too fast either; my reactions are strengthened by my fox nature. My tail slowly sweeps back and forth, showing my alertness, and my fur feels sleek. My eyes must be burning gold; in a moment, I close the minimal distance between Duncan and me.

  “I—” I don’t know what to say as I look up into the rugged planes of his face; there’s no human way of explaining I want to memorize this boy, so I never forget

  anything in spite of the uncertain future before us. Worrisome thoughts form storm clouds at the front of my brain, but it’s easy to push them away. My elation that I finally have the boy I’ve wanted since I met him helps preserve this moment in my mind.

  “It’s okay,” he says, releasing one of my hands to push a few strands of my hair away from my face.

  I stand perfectly still, caught up in my human insecurities, but he acts when I can’t. Very slowly, he leans forward, his eyes warm brown. His cheek brushes against mine; his five o’clock shadow rasps pleasantly against my face. I breathe in the same time he does, both of us drawing in the other’s scent. His mouth hovers close to my neck, and I barely manage to recover from that thrill when his right arm snakes around my waist.

  “You smell like fresh laundry and some sort of floral-like spice I can’t describe,” he says, a laugh caught deep in his throat; the sound so close to me makes goose-bumps pattern my skin, and I wonder if he’ll notice. “It’s kind of light and sweet…and oddly edible. I knew your scent from earlier, but now that I can finally examine it, describing it is a lot harder.”

  “It’s the same for your scent, kind of,” I say,

  enjoying his amusement as he holds me; he nuzzles my hair and a
breathy laugh escapes me. “I got to know your human scent, but then you changed to a half-breed on me. Now I need to absorb your new smell, minus the cologne.”

  “What’s the difference?” he asks, distracted; his hand falls from caressing my face, but then he has both arms around me, so I don’t complain.

  “You should know this, since you’ve been a half-breed for a few months now,” I tease, hesitating before I slide my hands up to his shoulders so he can hold me with more ease. “Humans…their scents are more subdued, except for the unhygienic ones. Half-breed scents are more diverse because we have more variations than simply the human aspects of our DNA.”

  “Oh,” he says, huffing in a very dog-like way; he pulls back to look at my face and I regret the loss of closeness. My hands explore his shoulders; when they reach the back of his neck and I feel the ridge of fur on his spine under his collar, I remember more troubling reasons we should be concerned about our new relationship.

  “Duncan,” I say, beginning with a question. “Since you hide your animal aspects so well, everyone still thinks you’re a human?”

  “Yes…oh,” he says, his distracted expression focusing and his irises settling on pale green; I want to count the cinnamon freckles on his perfect skin. “I see. That could be…problematic,” he concludes, and I’m glad he knows where my thoughts are headed.

  “I don’t mean to be all melodramatic, but we might need to keep…whatever this is a secret,” I point

  out, already sad about how the people in our life won’t let us live as free as we would wish to. He frowns too, a pensive expression troubling his face.

  “I’d rather...not,” he says, making me rally my arguments to explain why it would be dangerous not to; however, he continues so I don’t need to speak. “I understand why, and for the time being, we can be more subtle instead of putting it all out there too soon. I

  just want you to know…I don’t like it, and it’s not what I would choose if I had a better option.”

  “You’re sweet,” I tell him, trying to muster the motivation to pull away from him. “If it’s any consolation, we might get wildly lucky…if this whole vote goes in our favor, we might be able to publicize our…value to each other soon enough.”

  He concedes with a nod, but I can tell he’s not thrilled with the arrangement. I’m not either, and I probably make it worse when I extricate myself from his arms and step back.

  “We should probably go soon,” I say, smoothing out the creases of my shirt and self-consciously straightening the fur on my ears. “Just to be safe…”

  “If you say so,” Duncan sighs. “However, since I’m a half-breed in a half-breed neighborhood with a half-breed girl, it doesn’t seem like there’s much risk here.” He smiles and takes my hand again, drawing another shy smile onto my lips.

  “I guess we can take our time on the rest of the trail,” I yield, wanting to spend as much time as possible with him. For now, we have a whole trail before us, and I want to take my time before reality returns.

  22

  Duncan slowly pulls into my driveway around eight in the evening. We’ve spent hours together learning everything we can about each other. It’s easy to agree on the fact that, strong feelings or not, learning the other person’s personality quirks and related subjects has to be a priority.

  We finished our walk on the trail, and then went for dinner at the retro diner Cygnet’s, the primary fast food carrier in downtown Thymes Ridge. He enjoyed that, mostly because half-breed food is—whenever possible—prepared better and with more healthy materials than human food.

  Now that I’m home, staring at the cheerfully glowing windows which prove that all of my brothers have returned home by now, I’m glad I have today’s

  happy memories to keep me stable. Basking in Duncan’s interest has been the highlight of the year already.

  Harold did text me earlier, which is why I know that once I go in the house, this includes returning to the reality that life won’t continue as normal once the vote is passed.

  HAROLD MAURELL: Wade will not be re-hired in the same position, but we bullied the boss into hiring him for a different department. Wade could spit poison, fair warning. I’m assuming by now you’ve heard about the mockery set to take place Wednesday, so if you could, you should go to a friend’s house or to Mrs. Chirza’s so you won’t be alone.

  Well, I kind of went to a friend, I thought at the time, ignoring a faint guilty twinge before returning to my conversation about music. Now that I’m home, Duncan senses my anxiety and takes my hand again. I’m normally not so affectionate, but I’m thrilled that he’s barely stopped touching me in some way since our fateful discussion on the trail in Thymes Ridge.

  “Will you be okay?” Duncan asks me. I shrug, unwilling to get out of the car.

  “I will be, and I need to talk things out with my brothers anyway,” I say. “Wade might need more calming down, Harold will definitely assume I need calming down, and Eisen…” I frown.

  “Eisen?” Duncan prompts carefully. I sigh.

  “Eisen is already suspicious of my activities, and in a very short time I have to figure out what to tell him. Plus, he’s already seen me with you in Omnium Beanery…and he knows you’re a human, so I can’t exactly lie,” I say. “He wouldn’t be fooled.”

  “What’s wrong with telling him the truth?” Duncan asks, studying me.

  “What?”

  “I mean it…what’s the harm in telling him the truth? You told me he’s the cool brother, less conservative

  than Harold and more reliable than Wade…it might not hurt to have another person on our side,” he says reasonably. I pause, picturing Eisen’s pissed-off face once I finish telling him what I’ve been up to lately.

  “You mean just tell him I’m kind of in a relationship with a human boy who’s turned into one of us?” I query incredulously.

  Duncan considers before he shakes his head. “That might be a little too much truth. But he might be accepting of the human part, eventually at least. I’ll leave it up to you though…I trusted you enough to tell you about me, so I’ll trust you to decide who to tell. You’ll be able to win him over.”

  I snort. “Sure I will…if I can get him to stop yelling and persuade him to wait and listen before telling Harold. Eisen isn’t a snitch, but having three older brothers can give the whole house a…protective instinct when it comes to me.” I mentally wince at what Eisen’s going to say about my latest adventures, even if by some miracle he keeps his voice at an indoor level.

  “You won’t know until you try,” Duncan says, reassuring me. I notice I’ve been taking shallow breaths, so I take one deep breath and release it slowly.

  “You’re right. I’ll try it…but you should go. If we linger any more, one of the musketeers might come out and investigate—”

  “Gotcha. I’ll leave,” Duncan agrees, sitting up and subconsciously leaning closer to me. “I…I had a really good day, Sierra,” he says in a quieter voice that makes my tail want to wag again. I clutch it tightly in my lap before pushing myself to exit the vehicle.

  “Me too,” I say in a near whisper. “One of the best, actually, once you showed up.”

  Duncan smiles, and I love how his smile crinkles his eyes and makes his entire face light up. “See you Monday,” he says as I close my door.

  Definitely, I think, ridiculously wishing I could go back to school tomorrow just so I could see my half-breed boy sooner. In spite of what might happen next, I have a silly grin on my face as he drives away.

  I try to slip into the house quietly, but not so quietly that it looks like I’m sneaking around. Everyone lounges carelessly in the living room with the SMARTvision humming in the background. I know it’s been a bad day, because all three of my brothers have an empty beer bottle sitting beside them. At this point, I’m not sure if the booze will mellow them out or make them touchier.

  “I’m home,” I announce needlessly, clutching my phone tightly in my hand as I walk to
my lavender suede chair and perch on the arm. A brief memory of all the phone calls I have to make soon—Shelby, Hayley, and probably Lyle as well if I want to keep the new developments in my life concealed from the general public—flits across my mind, but I push it away.

  No one has contacted me since the news report, so I assume everyone is in shock and trying to cope with their families. The calls can wait until tomorrow.

  “Who dropped you off?” Harold asks me, peering anxiously at my face from his peripheral vision in an attempt to be subtle.

  “A friend from school…we went out for a while,” I say, grateful that this is the truth. Wade snorts from the

  far end of the couch, obviously ready to rip into an available target.

  “Since when do you have friends?” he asks nastily, a growl lodged in his throat.

  “Apparently since you have a girlfriend,” I retort, although my heart isn’t in the snappiness. Wade’s going through a hard time, and the last thing I want to do is fight with him.

  “Shut up, Wade, don’t be a dick,” Eisen says, unexpectedly defending me. “It’s not her fault humans are total morons.” He’s got a snarl stuck in his throat too, but he’s more under control. Wade huffs, absently tracing his finger around the mouth of the empty bottle beside him.

  “Sorry, S,” he grunts, and I lean over to pat his arm in a silent reassurance that we’re okay.

  “So aside from all of that, how was your afternoon?” Eisen asks, giving me a shrewd look. I try not to wince at the subtle judgmental tone to his voice, but even Harold notices the tension between the two of us. He tears his focus away from the SMARTvision—which merrily continues to broadcast the scene of a riot in a city one or two counties over—and flips his gaze between the three of us in the living room.

  “What?” Wade asks, throwing his hands up in the air. Harold nods his head towards the door, gesturing for him to leave, and Wade rises to his bare, furry feet with a hostile sigh.

  “Damn kids,” I hear him grumble on his way out, nearly making me laugh. Harold’s stern expression stops me, however.