A Fox's Mate

by Brandon Varnell

  “What should I do then?” Lilian asked, frustrated.

  “Don’t worry.” Iris reassured her sister. “I’ve got an idea that’s sure to get the stud to open up to you.” Everyone stared at Iris, who stood up and smirked down at them. “You need to render him incapable of doing anything other than answering you. Don’t give him a chance to run and don’t let him put up a front. You need to hit him fast and hard.”

  “I hope you’re not suggesting I use enchantments,” Lilian deadpanned. “Because if you are…”

  “No, no.” Iris waved a hand in the air as a warding gesture. “I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that you use enchantments on your mate.”

  “You used an enchantment on him before.”

  “She what?!” the shout came from both Christine and Lindsay.

  “And it didn’t work,” Iris said. “He broke my enchantment, my strongest enchantment. Even if you were willing to use one on him, it wouldn’t work. No offense, Lily, but I’m better at enchantments than you are.”

  Lilian conceded her sister’s point, not really caring one way or the other. It was true anyway. While she excelled at illusions and they were both talented in their respective specialized power, Iris was better than her with enchantments. It made sense as, before they were sent to live in the United States, the matriarch had hired tutors for her twin to become a seductress.

  Seductress wasn’t really a title, of course, but it was what the matriarch had called it. Basically, a seductress was a person who went undercover and used her feminine wiles to become a member of high-society in the human world. They used sex appeal and enchantments to enslave humans and gather valuable information.

  Lilian believed that the matriarch had wanted to train Iris as a means of alienating her from the family. As a Void Kitsune, Iris was feared by most of their family members and a good deal of the people that the matriarch ruled over.

  It was stupid. They were allowing their base fears of the Void to rule over them, ostracizing her sister because she was a Void Kitsune. Lilian hated how her sister had been treated by the people who served her clan.

  “What’s your idea?” Lilian asked Iris.

  “Kukuku…” Letting out an extremely creepy chuckle that caused the hair on Lilian’s arms to rise, Iris leaned over and whispered in her ear. Curious as to what was being said, Christine and Lindsay also leaned over in order to hear her words.

  It wasn’t long before bright blushes lit their faces.

  “That’s a good idea,” Lilian admitted.

  “No, it isn’t!” The other two girls shouted.

  “I know.” Iris looked quite proud of herself. “My ideas are always great.”

  “No, they aren’t!”

  Christine and Lindsay made a wonderful tsukkomi duet.

  ***

  Kevin was beginning to wonder if he was really cut out to be Lilian’s mate. He’d been so sure of himself, so confident that he had made the right decision. Even after Jiāoào had abducted Lilian, Kevin had still been positive in his choice to become her mate.

  Now he wasn’t so sure.

  It was after school. The weekend was almost upon him. This would have normally been cause for celebration, but right then, Kevin did not think he had anything to celebrate.

  A week had passed since the comic convention that had changed his outlook on life, himself, and his decision. Looking at himself in the mirror, Kevin couldn’t help but notice the physical changes that he’d undergone. His face was paler and more gaunt. His eyes had sunken in and dark bags hung underneath them. They were not truly noticeable unless one was looking, but they were visible if anyone looked closely enough.

  He sighed and finished getting ready for bed.

  Stepping into the hallway, Kevin immediately noticed the disquieting silence. Where was Kirihime as she hummed her gentle lullaby to Camellia so the woman would fall asleep? Where was Iris’s laughter as she teased her sister about something? Where were Lilian’s shouts as she chased after Iris for said teasing? It was like the apartment had been cast into another dimension, one in which noise didn’t exist.

  He crept into the bedroom, feeling unusually wary of his surroundings. Shutting the door behind him, listening as it softly clicked closed, Kevin turned around to walk further into the room.

  He froze.

  Lilian stood before him, her beauty enhanced to awe-inspiring levels as moonbeams broke through the window and shone on her figure. Silvery light caught her hair, turning the silken strands into ardent flames that captured and released moonlight in a manner that reminded him of a halo. She wore a sheer nightgown and nothing else. With the moon shining through the window causing the incredibly thin fabric of her gown to become semi-translucent, Kevin was able to see all of her.

  Kevin tried to speak, but no words came out. His mind froze, leaving him incapable of muttering even monosyllables. He could do nothing, say nothing, as this vision of ephemeral loveliness slowly walked toward him with short, feminine steps. She stopped directly in front of him, seemingly basking in how she had rendered him all but speechless.

  “Beloved…” Her lips parted to whisper that single word.

  And then a hand went under his armpit while another grabbed his arm. Kevin had just enough time to realize that this was not how Lilian usually greeted him when she was dressed in sexy lingerie before the redhead lifted him up with monumental strength and tossed him over her shoulder.

  Kevin screamed in shock as his back hit the bed. He scarcely had time to regain his bearings before Lilian was straddling his waist, holding his hands above his head, keeping him pinned.

  “Lilian, what are you doing?” Kevin tried to get out from underneath her, but she must have been using reinforcement. He remained stuck.

  “You’ve been avoiding me,” she stated.

  Kevin looked away. “N-no, I haven’t.”

  “Maybe not physically,” Lilian countered, “but you’ve been avoiding me in other ways. You’re not talking to me like you used to. You always seem reluctant to hug me and kiss me. I even had to drag you into bed on Wednesday when you tried to sleep on the couch.”

  With each point that Lilian made to support her words, Kevin flinched. Had he really been that obvious? He supposed that, in hindsight, anyone who knew him would have been able to see through him. He should have tried to hide his feelings harder.

  “Kevin, look at me, please.” Lilian’s pleading tone forced him to turn his head. With her eyes so close to his, they looked like two large emeralds sparkling as they reflected the light of the phantasmagoric night. “What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to me? Why won’t you let me help you?”

  “I… I can’t.”

  “Why not?” Lilian demanded, suddenly looking incredibly frustrated. “I’ve always been upfront and honest with you! I’ve never once hid anything from you! When I was sad or hurt or confused, I’d tell you! Why can’t you do the same with me?”

  “Because I’m afraid you’ll hate me!” Kevin shouted. Lilian recoiled as if physically struck.

  He used her surprise to slip out from underneath her and attempt to make a getaway. He didn’t get far, however, as Lilian was swift to recover, and she would not let him escape. Her two red tails shot out from behind her and wrapped around Kevin’s body, one going around his waist and the other tightly constricting his legs. The twin appendages then grew to incredible lengths, slithering over his entire body and trapping him in what looked like furry bondage.

  Kevin struggled against this new hold, despite knowing how pointless it was. A kitsune’s power came from their tails; they were the strongest part of a kitsune’s body. Their tails could be enhanced to strengths beyond what a human would ever be capable of producing. Still, he put up an admirable, if futile, struggle.

  “Let go of me, Lilian!” Kevin demanded.

  “How could you think I would ever hate you?” Lilian asked, her shoulders shaking. Within the sprinkling of moonlight, her canines glinted as she gritted her teeth. T
hey looked longer than normal. “What makes you possibly think I could hate you? You’re my mate!”

  “I’m a monster!”

  Once again, Lilian recoiled. However, this time, she prepared for it and didn’t give Kevin room to escape. “You’re not a monster. Do you think I would be mates with a monster? That I would love a monster? I wouldn’t. You’re not, nor will you ever be a monster. Why would you even think that? Is it because of what happened at Comic-Con? Because you killed that six-tails? Because if that’s what this is about, then what about me? I’ve killed. Are you saying that I’m a monster, too?”

  Kevin stopped struggling to stare at the girl holding him suspended in midair with her tails. His dishpan-sized eyes and gaping mouth revealed his surprise.

  “N-no, of course not,” he stuttered.

  “Then what is it? If you’re a monster for killing that woman, then I must also be a monster for killing that girl who worked as a maid for Jiāoào!”

  “At least you regret killing her!” Kevin renewed his pointless struggling even as he shouted. “I remember how broken up you were about killing that girl, how much it hurt you! I remember holding you in my arms as you cried yourself to sleep, and I remember holding you even more when you’d wake up from a nightmare! You regret what you did! You never wanted to kill her!”

  Kevin‘s eyes felt hot, as if they were burning.

  “But I don’t! I don’t regret killing that woman! I’m glad she’s dead! If you put her in front of me and gave me a gun, I’d pump her full of holes all over again! I’m glad she’s gone and I don’t regret killing her at all!” His struggling grew weaker as the tears began to pour from his eyes, staining Lilian’s fur coat. “What kind of person feels this way about someone they killed? How can I be anything but a monster when all I can think about is how I’m glad that she’s no longer alive? How I’m glad that I killed her? I have to be a monster, because there’s no way someone who doesn’t regret the lives he’s taken could possibly be anything else!”

  Lilian slowly lowered Kevin to the floor. As her tails were unwrapped from around his body, he sank to his knees. He looked down at the carpet, his bangs overshadowing his eyes, as if he was afraid of letting Lilian look at him.

  The sound of footsteps alerted him to Lilian’s approach. A pair of beautiful and delicate bare feet appeared in his field of vision. Lilian knelt down. He gazed at her lovely thighs. Normally, the sight of her bare thighs and crotch would have aroused him. Right now, he couldn’t feel anything, just a cold emptiness.

  He stiffened when Lilian pulled him into a hug.

  “Oh, Beloved,” she breathed softly into his hair. He felt her pull him closer. Heat suffused his entire being, as if Lilian’s love for him was entering his body through their contact. “There is a difference between what happened to me and what happened to you, I won’t deny that, but I think you’re misunderstanding something. I don’t regret killing that girl because I killed her, but because she was innocent, because she didn’t deserve to die. That girl was a victim of circumstances beyond her control. She had been twisted by Jiāoào and turned into a pitiful creature who tried to kill me. My regret isn’t that I killed, but that I killed someone who I feel like I should have helped.”

  Kevin said nothing. He didn’t know what to say.

  “Your circumstances were different,” Lilian said, pausing when Kevin shuddered as if a cold chill had spread through his body. She pressed her lips to his forehead. “That woman attacked us. She sent her clansmen after us. She would have killed Kotohime and Kiara, and I nearly died at her hands. Had you not killed her, we would have died. You saved me. You saved us.”

  “Then why do I feel this way? Why do I feel so tainted? Why do I feel like I’ve become a monster?” Kevin asked in a voice so soft and small that Lilian felt her heart nearly break.

  “Because you do regret what happened. You might not think you do, but I know that you do. You wouldn’t feel this way if you didn’t.” Lilian paused and tried to collect her thoughts. “I think… I think you’re just confused. That woman hurt Kotohime and Kiara. She hurt me. It’s only natural that you wouldn’t regret her death. At the same time, I think the idea of killing repulses you to the point that it makes you feel like some kind of monster. You hate that you killed someone, but not that it was her you killed.”

  Kevin lifted his head to stare at his mate. His eyes were so wide and vulnerable that Lilian almost cried for him. Had she ever seen him look so weak? No. Never. Kevin had never been weak—innocent, naive, and shy maybe, but never weak. Seeing this side of Kevin, seeing how much he was suffering, it made Lilian’s chest ache.

  “I’m not a monster?” he asked.

  “Of course not.” Lilian pressed her forehead to his, bringing comfort to them both. “You are the farthest thing from a monster. You’re a protector, Kevin. You saved me from that woman, you protected me from Chris. You are my protector and mate, just as I am yours.”

  Kevin stared at her for a moment longer before a tentative smile broke out on his face. It was tiny, but it was also genuine. Lilian felt a surge of relief at seeing it.

  “Do you feel better now?” she asked.

  “A little,” Kevin admitted softly. “Thank you.”

  Lilian pulled Kevin closer and moved back until she was sitting on her butt and her upper back was resting against the bed. Kevin ended up on her lap. It was an odd form of reversal as, normally, Kevin would have been the one on bottom and she’d be sitting on his lap.

  “You don’t need to thank me,” Lilian said, stroking his hair. “You’re my mate. I love you, and I would do anything for you.”

  “I know.” The smile on Kevin’s face grew just a bit brighter. “Thank you. I love you, too.”

  Lilian’s smile shifted. No longer merely happy, it now contained a hint of lust. “I’d much rather you show me how much you love me instead of just telling me.”

  Kevin bit his lip in a moment’s indecision, but he quickly regained his bearings and smiled. “I can do that,” he said, his voice a bare whisper.

  Perhaps it was due to his own insecurities, but the kiss that Kevin initiated started off slow and tentative, almost like the first one they’d ever shared as a couple. Lilian’s arms slid around Kevin’s neck and sought to pull him close. As he felt the fullness of her body against his, Kevin became bolder.

  He flipped them around, so that Lilian was on top and he was underneath. This position was more comfortable for him, and Lilian enjoyed it because she could grind against his thighs. Kevin then slipped his hands underneath Lilian’s clothes—well, he tried to. He cursed when he remembered that she was wearing a nightgown, which was longer and harder to slip his hands underneath, but he settled for letting them roam across her back. Lilian’s stifled gasp as his finger glided along her spine allowed him to deepen their kiss. The moans that she released reverberating inside of him and causing his body to become a furnace.

  A pair of small, delicate hands slipped underneath Kevin’s shirt. Lilian’s hands were warm and felt like the softest silk. He’d always loved her hands, and remembering all of the things that Lilian had done to him with her hands caused more blood to rush to his lower regions. His dick could have probably cut adamantium.

  Their kiss broke, but only for a second in order to take in some much needed air. Then they were at it again.

  Lilian stuck her tongue inside of Kevin’s mouth and, in response, Kevin closed his mouth around her tongue and sucked on it. The lyrical moan that Lilian produced caressed his ears and drove him on.

  Despite his disappointment at her nightgown being in the way, Kevin placed his hands on her chest. The nightgown was thin. Even though he’d placed his hands over her clothing, the fabric was so fine that he could feel her nipples harden beneath his fingers.

  Lilian’s breasts were large. They overflowed from his hands when cupped, and, like an oversized marshmallow, her boobs were softer than anything he’d ever felt. What’s more, they were really sensitive
. The slightest of touches seemed to elicit a response. Yet even though they were sensitive, Kevin had found multiple other places on his mate’s body that gave him an even greater reaction. Some of those places were quite bizarre.

  Kevin had every intention of taking their passion to the bed, and indeed, he was even prepared to pick Lilian up, lay her against the mattress, and straddle her to continue what they were doing.

  “Hnnn!”

  A loud moan interrupted them.

  Kevin and Lilian both froze.

  “That wasn’t you, was it?” Kevin asked. Lilian shook her head. “Thought not.”

  Slowly, as if they were machines that needed a good oiling, Kevin and Lilian turned their heads to look at Iris.

  Lilian’s sexy twin sister sat against the wall. Her feet were planted firmly on the ground, her legs were spread lewdly and a hand rested between her thighs. Neither of them needed to be geniuses to know what she was doing. Iris blinked several times, as if she was only now realizing the disquieting silence that surrounded her.

  She looked at Kevin and Lilian.

  “Why’d you two stop?” she moaned out in complaint, her left hand still busying itself between her legs. “It was just getting to the good part.”

  Iris’s head was suddenly and swiftly implanted into the wall when Lilian smacked her right in the face with a youki-reinforced tail.

  “Ouch,” the raven-haired fox-girl muttered, her voice muffled by the wall that her head had become embedded in.

  Chapter 5

  The Date

  The next day was the start of their weekend. Saturday had arrived, and with it, Kevin Swift found himself preparing for his date with Lilian. They hadn’t really planned on what they would do for their date, but he would be with Lilian, so whatever they decided to do was bound to be fun.

  He still had a lot on his mind: His conflicted feelings over what had happened at the Comic-Con and Kiara’s refusal to train him until he showed his “resolve” being at the forefront of them, but he did everything conceivably possible to push them to the back of his mind. Today wasn’t about him. It was about Lilian.