The flush of satisfaction at his words left me unsettled. Stockholm syndrome required time to develop, right? I had only been his prisoner for forty-eight hours. Anger. That was what I needed to cut through the confusion.
“Don’t act like you know me,” I snapped. “The only person I know here is Katsuo, and he’s avoiding me like the plague.” I scowled in the direction of the tent where he had vanished. “He was my best friend.” His fresh betrayal stung almost as much as his disappearance once had.
“Would you like him to visit you?” Ryuu’s hand formed a fist on the other side of his body.
“Jealous?” I couldn’t help myself. “Scared I’ll prefer your brother to you?”
Instead of the blast of fury I expected, he faced me full on, a fraction of a smirk lifting his lips. “You made your choice a long time ago, and it wasn’t him.”
“It wasn’t you either.” His smugness rankled, and I spat, “I haven’t chosen a mate, and I’m not stupid enough to get caught by one.”
One of his eyebrows rose.
“This doesn’t count.” I hoisted our joined hands. “You cheated.”
“I bent a few rules to get you here. I’ll own up to that.” Ryuu leaned closer. His breath hit my lips, and I almost tasted his magic. “Now that I have you back, I would break all of them to keep you.”
I took the warning for what it was worth and turned away from him to gaze out at the darkening sky.
* * *
The meal arrived in a puff of steam and in the hands of Katsuo, who appeared to be the resident chef. One of them anyway. It must have taken many sets of hands to feed so many people at once. The guy with rice in his hair made rounds lower in the valley. Katsuo offered me a wooden bowl I could tell was hand-turned by the slight imperfections in the thickness of its lip. The spoon was heavy silverware, and mine didn’t match the one he passed Ryuu. Dinner was gyūdon, stewed beef and onions served over rice.
I inhaled the rich scent and let it awaken my hunger. The food Katsuo had served me thus far had been shoveled in as a source of energy to fuel Escape Attempt #2. Surrounded by the skulk, I surrendered to the simple pleasure of enjoying a hot meal, secure in the unpleasant knowledge I couldn’t break free of these ranks without capture even if I tried.
“There’s more where that came from if you’re still hungry afterward.” Katsuo watched me with intensity as I took the first bite. “Give me a half hour to feed everyone else, and we’ll start divvying the leftovers.”
That he mentioned it at all told me he remembered how much I loved to eat. He must have been wondering if I was being fed enough when he ought to know I hadn’t been fed regularly at all since arriving.
“I’ll let you know.” I shuttered my expression to rob him of any satisfaction he might have experienced at how much I enjoyed the robust taste.
After he headed down the hill and I was alone with Ryuu again, I asked the question pinging through my head. “You said these are your people. If you’re reynard, then this skulk is Tanabe, and there are no Tanabe skulks on the charter in Texas.”
I knew because my dad had fingers in a whole lot of pies, including most skulks in the state of Texas.
“That’s because our skulk isn’t formally recognized.” The admission sounded ripped from him.
I paused with the spoon halfway to my mouth. “Are you insane?” I dropped the utensil and gazed out at the blankets dotted with kitsune families. There must have been at least a hundred. “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for these people to be united under a rogue leader?”
“Ask your father about it sometime.” He tucked into his meal. “He gets the final decision on appointments, after all.”
“Release me, and I’ll be more than happy to question him.” If for no other reason than to rid myself of the tightness coiling in my gut.
Without recognition, these people had no home. They had no leader any other reynard would recognize. They had no allies, no supply allotment and no rights under kitsune law. They were rogues, and they could be chased off this land, their property seized and their children taken and absorbed into another skulk to spare them the stigma should this encampment be discovered and another skulk decide to do something about the squatters.
Ryuu scooped a perfect rice-to-beef ratio. “You’ll see him soon enough.”
A spark of hope lit my chest followed by the realization if I was seeing Dad soon, then it was only because I was either already bound to Ryuu or about to be. And yet… If Ryuu was a rogue, nothing short of me choosing him as a mate would bring honor to our union, and that wasn’t going to happen.
“You’re risking their lives by bringing me here.” The food no longer held any appeal. “You’re practically begging my father to retaliate, and they’re the ones who will pay the price for following you.”
“We can’t keep living like this, and the people know it.” He balanced his bowl on his thigh. “Every year more kits are born into this skulk, and more elders die without treatment that would have saved them, because of the stigma. They have no future until we are recognized and afforded the same rights and privileges due to us.”
“I don’t understand.” At some point our hands had come unclasped, and I almost reached for his again. “Our fathers were close. Your family was part of the Hayashi skulk.” I thought back on all the tears I had shed the day Katsuo vanished from his house without a word. “Your family chose to split from mine. Why? For this? For a chance to strike out on your own?”
His bark of bitter laughter rankled. “Is that what he told you? That we chose this?”
Framed that way it did seem unlikely anyone would trade the comforts of the Hayashi den for a drifter’s life by choice. Accepting that meant acknowledging the discrepancy, allowing doubt to root in my conscience and embracing the idea that maybe there was more to their claims than what my father had told me.
“I came home from school and Katsuo was gone.” I’d missed him in homeroom, and I ran straight to their house after the bell rang. “His room was empty.” The whole house had been vacant. “I cried for weeks.”
A shadow crawled over his expression. “You remember that, but do you have any memories of me?” The force of his stare made me swallow hard. “Even if you were just my little brother’s best friend, wouldn’t you remember he had an older brother? We’re only four years apart. I still lived at home then. I was still in school. That means we attended the same school, spent time in the same house, ate meals at the same table, and you had no idea who I was when I arrived at that Expo. You don’t find that strange?”
I massaged my forehead and the tension headache stirring there. “I must not have been paying attention.”
Because the perfect specimen of reynardhood that was Ryuu Tanabe was so easily ignored. Yeah. Right.
“Come now.” He scraped his spoon with his thumbnail. “You’re smarter than that.”
Tempted as I was to shoot down his woe-is-meing, he had a point. I remembered Katsuo. He and I had been in all the same classes together up until middle school. We had been inseparable, dressing up as superheroes and villains, generally wreaking havoc on unsuspecting classmates. We even cosplayed together for a couple of years in junior divisions until he left without saying goodbye. As close as we had been, Ryuu was right. I would have at least registered the fact Katsuo had an older brother. Knowing me and my poor taste in men, I probably would have stalked Ryuu until parental intervention was required.
So why didn’t I remember any of that?
“Ry.” The frantic shout rang across the lawn.
He was on his feet, tensed and waiting, when Katsuo crested the hill. “What’s wrong?”
“Gen’s gone.” He pulled a hand through his hair. “I left her in the kitchen with Shinji. By the time the skulk had been fed and I went to fix myself a bowl, she had vanished.”
Ryuu stepped forward. “What about Shinji?”
“He fell for one of Gen’s tricks.” Katsuo sighed. “She left her MP3 player in a bush b
ehind the mess tent. She must have recorded the kits playing earlier. When Shinji went to corral them, Gen left.” He waited for Ryuu to absorb that before adding, “She took Chiffon with her.”
“That godsdamn dog.”
“I told you not to let her keep it.”
“It kept following me home from the job.”
I stood and positioned myself between them. “Guys, cast blame later. I’ll even help you point fingers. Right now, we have to find Gen.” Both men homed in on me. “It’s my fault she ran in the first place. I’m the one who asked her to sneak me out so I could see the dog. If I hadn’t done that—and shifted while she had him off leash without telling her—none of this would have happened.”
Katsuo glanced at Ryuu, who shook his head. “I want to believe your offer to help is genuine, but I can’t risk losing you in the dark.” He gripped my arm and passed me over to Katsuo. “Put her back in her room and then come find me. Gen couldn’t have gone far, and that dog reeks. They won’t be hard to locate.”
The older brother blended into the night while the younger one stared after him, lips mashed into a hard line.
“I could help.” I was playing devil’s advocate, but what else was new? “It’s not like I have anything better to do than beat the bushes anyway.”
A slight hesitation made me think he was considering the offer, but he dismissed it just as quickly. “Ry would strangle me if I lost you.”
“Will you at least ask the others for help?” No use in being stubborn about it.
“If we can’t find her in the next half hour, yes. Until then…” He shook his head. “There’s been enough turmoil over the past few days. We’re trying to keep the town as drama-free as possible.”
“I am sorry she ran.” I was sorry a lot lately.
“This isn’t your fault.”
“It kind of is. She visited me after Chiffon was sentenced.” I should have told the guards and dealt with her wrath, but no. I had opted to watch my own six instead of hers. I had more than a dozen nieces and nephews. I would lose my mind if one of them vanished on my watch. “I should have mentioned it earlier.”
“No. This is my doing. I played up the mystery of your identity until I knew she would seek you out.” He exhaled. “I thought if you two talked, if you saw the town and the people, you might understand what’s at stake.”
I misstepped as it hit me. “You knew she broke me out of the room?”
“Her tricks are good, but they’re not jailbreak good.” A flash of white teeth in the dark. “The guards followed you at a safe distance.”
“What did you think I would see? People in need of rescuing?” I plucked at my shirt. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not wearing a cape, and I left my tights at home. Saving skulks who splinter—sticking my nose in my dad’s business—isn’t my job.”
“We’re running out of time.” He led me into the darkened barn, and the gloom beat at me. “You’re the only one who can save them, Mai. So yes, I wanted you to see their living conditions, look into their eyes and feel…something. I wanted you to want to help them.”
I snorted. “By accepting Ryuu as my mate?”
“If you formalize your union with Ryuu, then your father will have no choice but to recognize the Tanabe skulk.” He forced patience into his tone. “Males are forbidden to leave their homes and establish new skulks without a mate. Every reynard needs a vixen. That’s how it works. It keeps the rivalries down and allows for fair allotment of resources. It ensures no one in the community goes without.”
My conscience prickled. “Then maybe Ryuu should have thought of that before he left Wink.”
We reached the door to my room, and two guards in casual attire lounged on the floor reading books. Katsuo marched me over the threshold, cut his eyes toward the pair and lowered his voice. “Our parents didn’t leave. They were exiled. They didn’t choose to abandon their home of forty years, their friends, their jobs—their lives. They were forced out, and every member of our family was turned out with them. All those faces? They should be familiar. They used to be Hayashi skulk members. They used to be your family too.”
Shock glued my feet to the spot. “That’s not possible. My dad would never…”
“Your dad is a tyrant, Mai. I’m sorry, but he is.” Katsuo’s fingers tunneled through his hair. “He has plans for you, the same as he had plans for your sisters.”
“Leave my sisters out of this,” I growled.
“Your sisters are all mated to powerful, wealthy reynards.” His breathy laughter mocked me. “Do you really believe the gods so love your father that when fated mates were handed out, they earmarked all the best males, those living on property surrounding his own, those rich and influential, for Hayashi daughters?”
Rage vibrated through the soles of my feet, pushing me hard to change so I could rip at him with sharp teeth. Thierry had drawn the same conclusion before, but she wasn’t right then and he wasn’t right now. They couldn’t be. It would mean my sisters’ lives were all lies. It would mean my life was a lie. It would mean my father arranged their marriages and then lied about the matches. Had my sisters gone along with him? Had they been forced into it? Or, like me, were there hazy gaps in their memories too?
Answering him meant giving him the satisfaction of knowing he was unsettling me. “I hope you find your sister.”
Shaking his head, he backed out of the room and closed the door behind him. I drifted toward the window, wishing a tangle of black hair would cascade in front of the glass, that Gen’s pale face would glower at me and rebuke me for costing her Chiffon. But the only girl in the glass I saw was my reflection, and she looked small and lost enough to be Gen’s twin.
For years the desperation to find a mate had ridden me to rash acts of impulsiveness with guys. Thierry thought I was a flirt, and I was, but gods it hurt to know you had a missing piece out there you couldn’t find. I had lost count of the number of males I had tested and the dizzying tally of nice guys I pretended I could be happy with even after they failed.
I braced my forehead against the glass and tried to push thoughts of Ryuu from my mind. It didn’t work. His face was lodged like a splinter in my skull. The hunger in his gaze when he looked at me… It might have melted my knees had I been a free woman instead of his captive, able to choose to be the focus of his attention instead of having no choice but to withstand it.
He might think bending me to his will would get him everything he wanted, but hearts were fickle things, and mine had never cared much for being told what to do or who to love. He might find a way to force me into a union, but souls weren’t cards shuffled by the hands of fate. Mates had to play their cards with everything they had and win or lose honestly. Ryuu had stacked the deck, for now, but if he kept inciting my father to action, then his house of cards would soon fall.
Chapter 5
The rattling doorknob drew my eye. I bet it had seen more action in the past two days than in the past two years. Maybe even in the last twenty. I had taken a step toward it, figuring Katsuo had returned to report that Gen had been found, when it swung inward with a bang. The tall woman who stepped into the room glowed with emerald fury, her left fist a cascade of runes sliding over her skin, illuminating the floor and darkened hall behind her. Thierry’s murderous glare fastened on me, and the magic in her hand fizzled.
“Mai.” Two long strides later, she wrapped me in an oxygen-depriving hug. “You okay?”
“Fine.” I hugged her back, relief wet in my eyes. “Are you all right?”
“That freaking dart hurt coming out.” She rubbed her neck. “The sedative short-circuited my mojo for a few hours.” She lowered her left hand and flexed it, her voice going distant. “I had to feed to throw it off. Now I’m good as new.”
Knowing how much that private admission cost her, I lightened the mood by punching her in the arm. “What took you so long?”
“You’ve been missing for forty-eight hours.” With a snort, she shook off h
er somber mood. “I’ve been hunkered down in the woods for thirty-six of them, including during what I’ll generously call an escape attempt.” Her eyes sparkled. “The way you let that dog pounce on you and pin you down was inspired.”
“Shut up.” I shoved her. “I didn’t see you offer any assistance.”
“I wanted to see how far you got,” she admitted. “The less these people know about me being here, the better.”
Cold fingers of dread traced my spine. “Does the conclave know you’re here?”
A spark of magic lit her palm. “I figured it was best if they weren’t made aware of the situation. Yet.”
“Tee, these are innocent people.” I gazed out the window. “You can’t hurt them or let anyone else harm them either.”
Her lips pressed into a mulish line. “Let’s get moving. That kid can’t hide forever. We need to be gone before they find her.” She jerked her chin toward the hall. “We can talk on the way to the car.”
Nodding that I understood, I followed her out, past the same pair of guards. One had shifted into his fox form and curled into a soot-colored ball. The other slumped against the wall, snoring loud enough to be an alarm of its own. “What did you do to them?”
“Sleep enchantment.” She patted her hip pocket. “Don’t leave home without them.”
I checked the pulse of the nearest guard. “Are you sure…?”
Her eyebrows knitted together. “I’m not that bad with spellwork. Shaw says I’m improving more every day.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Shaw was her mate, a master spellworker and an incubus. He also wasn’t an idiot. Piss her off by critiquing her inspired spellwork, and he would be the one going hungry for a few days.
I threw up my hands, palms out. “I was just wondering how long the effect lasted.”
“Thirty minutes,” she grumbled. “Shaw mixed the herbs, if that’s what you’re worried about. He hasn’t cleared me to use my own enchantments on live subjects yet.”
Thank the gods.
Stone-Cold Fox (Black Dog) Page 4