by T. S. Joyce
She yelped in pain as her neck snapped back. A long snarl vibrated through her throat, and suddenly, it all made sense. She wasn’t dying. She was Changing. No, no, no, not now! She was alone and in the city. In a hotel room. She needed to do this in the woods, away from people, but it was much too late for that.
The echoing sound of her bones breaking was like gunfire against her oversensitive ears as a keening wail left her lips.
Tobias wouldn’t like her after this. He couldn’t.
She’d tried to warn him, but he hadn’t listened.
Vera’s animal was Monster.
Chapter Nine
Tobias’s hands were smeared with dried blood. He would have to wash them thoroughly before he hugged Vera. She would smell Jonathan on him. Her senses would be even stronger than his because of the animal she housed inside of her, and he wanted to explain before she jumped to conclusions based on the amount of blood.
He pushed open the door to room 1010 and froze immediately as the smell of fur hit his nose. Shit.
In the doorway, he rushed to close the door and squinted in the darkness as his eyes adjusted. A low growl sounded from the corner, long and low and filled with fury. He was definitely getting bit tonight. Again.
Tobias flipped on the light switch and laid eyes on his mate’s animal for the first time.
Damn, she was beautiful. Rich red fur with black tips and a cream-colored belly. Long legs and eyes that were an impossibly bright gold. Her lips were pulled back over a row of sharp teeth. His pretty fox. Too bad she didn’t recognize him. She charged so fast he could barely get his arm over his throat before she lunged. Her teeth latched around his forearm, and she held, snarling and shaking her head until her sharp teeth hit bone.
Tobias pulled the thick scruff of her neck and yanked her off. She was bigger than the wild foxes by twice the size and heavier than he’d imagined her. And she housed about thirty times the fury he’d expected. He held her at an arm’s length away. Her teeth were exposed as she snarled her death chant, eyes full of hate. This was what Clayton had seen. This is what his father had deemed a failure.
Tobias hated him all over again.
Of course her animal turned out like this. She was born from violence.
“Vera,” he murmured.
Her snarling grew louder, so he let off a growl of his own, filling the room with it. The noise died in her throat, but she still bore her teeth, her eyes still full of anger.
“It’s me. I’m yours, and you’re mine, and biting won’t help anything. It’ll only hurt me. You’ll hurt me, Vera.”
Her lips slid over her teeth in an uncertain look before she snarled again.
Tobias set her down, but she latched her jaws around his ankle immediately. With a sigh, he pulled her off, only to have her attack again. And again. This went on for an hour before she tired herself out and lay panting in the corner, eyes narrowed to suspicious slits.
Clayton had been right. She wasn’t safe in public. Yet. Vera was a fox shifter, one of the few animals that could actually Turn a human with her bite, and his mate was a ferocious little brawler who didn’t give a shit about dominance. Oh, she sensed what he was, but attacked anyway. Her instinct for self-preservation had been broken from the start by the way Jonathan had Turned and treated her.
No, she couldn’t be around humans until she learned to control it. And he hoped to God she would be able to come to some sort of compromise with her animal, but it wouldn’t happen here. Not in this hotel room where she felt caged.
She’d destroyed the room. New clothes lay in tatters across the floor, and she’d shredded the bedding and mattress until stuffing covered everything like snow. She’d left one pillow intact, but nothing else had survived. She’d even gnawed off the legs of the table and its chairs.
With a sigh, Tobias sat on the edge of the destroyed bed and put his face in his hands. How could he fix all the damage that had been done to her? Vera the woman was intelligent and intuitive. She compromised and reasoned. Her fox was wild and, from the way she was acting, about as mad as Link.
Link.
Tobias lifted his gaze to the panting fox as an idea began to take shape. He couldn’t do this alone. Not here. He needed a safe place to go with her. A place where she could roam and get ahold of herself and settle down. The only problem was, she couldn’t travel to Galena the way she was. Not feral and in such a destructive mood. She couldn’t destroy his plane. That was their income and the way he would be able to provide for her.
Gritting his teeth, Tobias packed up everything that was salvageable and snatched the pillow case off the remaining pillow. As soon as he approached her with it, her eyes went wide, and she backed as far into the corner as she could.
Bewildered, he looked down at the case in his hands, and it dawned on him. Jonathan had shoved her in a sack.
“Fuck,” he gritted out, throwing the case onto the bed.
He sat as near to her as she allowed and relaxed against the wall. This couldn’t be rushed, not if he wanted this to be easy on Vera.
She attacked again but had lost her fury. It was done out of fear this time, and she ducked back to the corner before she pierced his skin with her teeth. She did the same three more times, each one shorter than the last before she slunk back to the wall.
Tobias scooted closer. “I don’t know if you can understand me, but the man who did this to you won’t ever hurt you again. I found him.”
Vera’s head snapped up, ears erect, then down, then erect again. Recognition flashed across her pretty gold eyes. Ah, there she was.
“I wrote in the letter that I had an errand to run, and Jonathan Greene was that errand.”
Vera slunk closer, then lowered to her belly five feet away from him.
Tobias swallowed hard. “I counted the scars on your arms last night. Seventeen. Seventeen bites, and my bear demanded a fair trade from Jonathan Greene as retribution for the pain he caused you. He wasn’t as strong as you are.”
Vera slunk forward another few feet, just within reach. She shook now, as if she was afraid to be so close.
Tobias dipped his voice to a whisper. “He’ll never hurt you again, mate. He won’t hurt anyone. You’re safe.”
Vera pulled her lips over her teeth for just a moment before she belly-crawled closer and rested her chin on his open palm.
Tobias smiled at his brave Vera. “That’s right. I’m yours.”
When he patted his leg lightly, she flinched, but then crawled carefully into his lap where he ran his hand down the length of her spine, smoothing her raised hackles.
They sat like that for hours, cuddled against the wall, learning to trust each other, but still, she wasn’t able to Change back. Likely, she didn’t know how. She’d been out of control with every shift, and then before she’d gotten to know her animal, she’d started suppressing her. Vera was going to have to learn to be a shifter, and it would be a long, hard road, but he knew she could do it.
His mate was fearless.
****
When Tobias landed his plane on the runway outside of Galena, Link was waiting near his green SUV, arms crossed over his chest, looking impatient.
Tobias cut the engine and grabbed the luggage, then moved out of the way so Vera could jump out of the door and onto the ground beside his feet. That was a big mistake.
She took off at a dead sprint for Link, and he barely got his hands in the way to block a dick bite when she latched on.
“Don’t hurt her!” Tobias ordered, bolting for them.
Link flung her off, and she went at him again, but Tobias plucked her off the ground by the scruff of her neck.
“What the hell, man?” Link yelled, flinging red droplets from his bleeding hand to the ground.
Tobias shoved past the snarling werewolf to load the package and luggage into the back of Link’s ride, clutching Vera’s scruff as he worked. She kept up her snarling and whipped her legs around, but Tobias wasn’t letting go. “This is Vera
.”
“Fantastic, but your pet fox isn’t gettin’ in my Bronco. And thanks for calling me back, you dick.”
With an irritated sigh, Tobias turned to him and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. I suck at phones, you know this, and she isn’t a pet fox.” He pulled the neck of his thermal sweater aside, exposing the already healed bite-mark she’d given him. “Vera Masterson is my new mate.”
Link’s eyes went round, but he gave no other reaction. He could’ve been an ice sculpture if Tobias didn’t see him breathing and if his hand wasn’t streaming red onto the grass.
“Vera, this is Lincoln McCall.”
She snarled louder, teeth bared as she glared at Link.
“I think she’s ready to go,” Tobias said helpfully.
Link growled and shook his head hard. Crazy McCall.
“How…?” was all Link asked before Tobias sat in the passenger’s seat and shut the door.
Link got slowly behind the wheel, wolf-bright gray eyes on the brush in front of them. He closed the door softly and said over Vera’s snarling, “The witch is your mate?”
“She’s not a witch,” Tobias said, holding her tight so she wouldn’t bleed Link again.
“Then what is she?”
“A scientist. And before you even ask, Link, she can’t fix your wolf. She tried on Eustice McCall, and it didn’t work for him. Not even close.”
“If she can’t help us, then why did you let her bite you?” Link asked through gritted teeth. He scrunched up his face at Vera. “Or was it an accident?”
Because she can fix me. But that wasn’t it. Not anymore. “Because I care about her. My bear wants her, and so do I.”
Link scratched the back of his head and rattled off another feral sound. “Why the fuck is she a fox? She has my instincts blaring right now. What’s wrong with her?”
“Vera doesn’t have control over her Changes yet. But she will.”
“How?”
“With your help.”
“Chhh, you’ve lost your damned mind. I can’t even help myself. Asking a crazy wolf to help a crazy fox says you’ve lost your mind right along with us.”
“Look, I’m supposed to pick up Lena from Silver Summit tomorrow morning, and I have deliveries I can’t get out of. Medicine and supply runs to the bush for people who need them now. And I have no idea how long it’ll take Vera to Change back, so I need her to crash at your place until we figure something out.”
“I’m not taking care of your mate, Tobias! I thought you would go up to Perl and find a solution, not bring back a rabid fox for me to babysit.”
“Link, I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.”
Link slammed his open palm against the steering wheel and let off another long growl. “Dammit, Silver. Can’t you see this sucks for me? I thought she could cure me. Fuck! There it is, Tobias. I thought she could cure me, and now I’m watching over your mate. Your duty. Your responsibly. You’re flaunting something in front of me I’ll never have!”
“I didn’t know you wanted a mate!”
“Of course I do!” Link’s voice dipped to a whisper as he repeated, “Of course I do. Who wouldn’t? I see what Elyse and Ian have. I have no shot at that bond. No shot at a family. And I fucking want that. I’m dying, Tobias. Vera fixing my wolf was my last hope, so excuse me if I’m not excited about doing her any favors right now.”
Tobias slammed his head back on the headrest and sighed. Shit. Holding the snarling, writhing Vera tighter, Tobias admitted, “She can’t fix you, but she can fix Ian, Jenner, and me.”
Link’s blazing eyes arched to Tobias. “What?”
“She says she can suppress our bears and the instincts along with them in the winter. She says she can stop our hibernations.”
Link’s hands slid from the steering wheel and landed heavily in his lap as he stared at Tobias. “Well, that’s great.”
“No, man, it’s shitty. I shouldn’t be asking you favors.”
Link swallowed hard. “No, no, I wanted that. I wanted Elyse to be safe through the winters when I die. I have maybe one more winter to watch over her, and then…” Link nodded, over and over as he got a faraway look in his eyes. “This is good. Better than we thought it would be, right?”
“Link,” Tobias drawled, feeling like grit.
“No, it’s fine. I’m a McCall. My fate was always the same, but now I can go knowing Elyse is protected by the one who is supposed to keep her safe—her mate. It’s good. It’s really good. I’ll do it. I’ll take care of Vera.”
“I don’t want to tell Ian and Jenner yet. This has to stay between us.”
“Why?” Link asked as he pulled out of the dirt parking area and onto the road that led to Galena.
“Because if it doesn’t work, I don’t want their hopes up. I can’t even imagine how devastating that would be to Elyse to think her mate could stick around, and then something go wrong. No, we do this quietly while I test it on myself. If I can stay awake a month, we’ll tell them.”
Link’s dark eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you want to let your brothers go into hibernation?”
“Yeah. If I’m still awake by November twentieth, we’ll give them the injections and wake them up. Until then, not a word. Swear it.”
Link looked at him, back at the road, then back again and nodded once. “Okay, Silver. I swear.”
Chapter Ten
Vera was happy—or as happy as she could be laying territory right alongside a wolf’s.
Eat, sleep, hunt. This was the cadence of her life during the day, but at nights, Tobias returned home. It had been fourteen sunrises since she’d finally become herself again. Since she’d finally become the fox she was meant to be. She was perfectly happy except for one thing.
Tobias looked at her differently now, as if he was waiting for her fragile human body to come back. And with each passing day, the worry in his eyes grew deeper. He even smelled sad. She didn’t want him to be sad. She loved Tobias. He was her mate, and she wanted to please him.
She trotted through the mud along a creek bank in Wolfland. She knew she was still in his territory because his smell coated this place. She didn’t understand a word he said—Link—but Tobias’s words were clear. He had told her she was to stay in Wolfland or be locked in the shed behind the big cabin where Tobias slept at night. She hated cages so she minded the rules.
Splaying her legs, she lapped water from a wave on the bank. Her hackles rose when she smelled him. Link. Dominance and fur. If her sense of smell didn’t pick him up, her sense of hearing sure did. Crazy growler.
With the soft slap of his paws against the mud, he loped along the bank on the other side of the creek and took a drink right across from her, his bright gray eyes on her. He did this a lot. Checked on her. She used to attack, but it did no good and only exhausted her. Nothing seemed to hurt Link. Head lowered, he gave her one last look, then trotted back the way he’d come.
It was late in the day and the sun was setting on the horizon, so Vera made her way through the trails she’d been creating back toward Link’s cabin, and more importantly, to the shed beyond. That was home. Oh, sure, the woods should’ve been home for a wild thing like her, but Tobias slept in the shed, and he was really the meaning of home.
Winding around the lush greenery, she inhaled deeply and was rewarded with the faint scent of her mate. A sharp human smell collided with fur and dominance, and while the human in him had scared her at first, now she adored it. That human part of him had hunted Jonathan. The thought of the evil man curled her lips over her teeth. Tobias had avenged her and punished that monster for what he’d done. Tobias was a good mate.
She froze when she saw him. Tobias was sitting in the old chair in front of the shed, removing his muddy boots as if he wanted to keep the inside of his den free of dirt. Silly human. The dirt smell was the best part of a den. But when she lifted her gaze to his face, she flattened her ears back and hunched low to the ground. His eyes looked sad again. H
is brown hair was mussed on top, as if he’d been running his hands through it like he did when he was stressed, and the vibrant green in his eyes had dulled. He was a big, brawny human, but he kicked his second muddy boot off, rested his elbows on his knees, and hunched forward, looking utterly exhausted. He didn’t look at her, though he had to have known she was there. He had big senses for a human. Instead, he stared off into the woods beside the shed with a troubled look.
She slunk forward, tail and ears low. Poor human mate. If he pet her, he would feel better, and so would she.
But when she rubbed her back under his limp fingertips, he flinched away and leaned back in his chair instead. He dragged his gaze to hers, but where they usually sparked with greeting, they were hard and cold.
“Vera, I’ve been patient. I have. But you’re hurting me.”
Hurting him? No, no, no, she didn’t want to hurt him. Not Tobias. Not the man who kept her safe from Jonathan.
She tried to rub her back under his fingertips again, but he crossed his arms over his chest.
“It’s been two weeks, and you haven’t Changed back. You haven’t shared your body with your human side, and I get it. You were on that medicine for a long time, and your fox needed time out in the open after being suppressed for so long.” Tobias lifted a dark eyebrow. “But we have work to do.”
She cowered on her belly. Work?
“You have to make medicine for me and my brothers.”
Oh. Disappointment slashed through her chest and drew a small whimper of pain from her lips.
Tobias leaned forward, elbows on his knees again. “But more than that, you have work to do with me. I just got you, and I need more than your animal. Do you understand?”
No, she didn’t understand. This was all she had to give. She was a fox. What else could he possibly want from her?
“Change back, Vera.”
She skittered back a few steps and perked her ears. Perhaps she’d heard wrong or misunderstood.