The Nine: An Urban Fantasy Reverse Harem Romance (Foxfire Burning Book 1)

by C. M. Stunich

  "Finley Wilde," Nadege turned to my ex ... was he still an ex? "Your complaint withdrawal has been noted. We, however, find it necessary to keep our binding in place."

  "You will not get your magic restored and your ninth tail bound until you officially breed with your intended mate—Finley Wilde." Trina addressed this to me and my blood ran cold. "You will swear an unbreakable oath of fidelity and monogamy, or your magic will never be restored to you. Do we make ourselves clear?"

  My jaw dropped open in shock, and I boiled with rage.

  "Let us be clear," Giselle continued. "We will not allow the first Nine in seven hundred years to turn her back on her own race and mate with a vampire."

  "Listen, you—" The furious tirade I was about to deliver barely began before they caught me in a web of magic. It crushed me to the floor, squeezing every last drop of breath from my body until I thought I might pass out.

  "Voice your objections if you have any." Nadege smirked. I might not be able to see her mouth behind that red and white mask, but I could hear the expression in her tone. "None? Good. Now, go. We’ll send a messenger once we’ve scheduled your oath-taking."

  The pressure released on me and I lay there sucking in huge lungfuls of air until Fin gently lifted me to my feet and carried me from the formal room.

  Once we were back in the antechamber with our clothes, he placed me down and I whirled on him with tears stinging my eyes.

  "Why didn't you say anything?" I screamed at him, "You could see they were silencing me! You could have objected!"

  Fin shook his head at me, his expression mournful. "I couldn't. They silenced me right after I first spoke. I just didn't notice until I tried to say something later ... that's why I squeezed your arm. I was trying to tell you."

  "Shit!" I screamed, collapsing onto the wooden bench seat and burying my head in my arms to sob for a moment. I had been so close to getting my magic restored, and now these old bitches were pulling the pure racecard? Like I was some sort of broodmare for the future of the kitsune race?

  Well, fuck them.

  "Thea, I can't tell you how sorry I am. This is all my fault, if I hadn't asked they block your binding in the first place..." Fin collapsed onto the bench beside me and scrubbed at his face with his hands.

  "If you hadn't, then they would have found another reason. This wasn't anything about you, Fin. This was about their own prejudices and antiquated views of the world." I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "I won't cave to their demands. I will find another way to regain my magic, without them."

  Fin gave me a lopsided smile and squeezed my fingers. "I know you will, Thea babe. I'll do anything I can to help you, too. Now, do you want to come see what Ry and I did to the house? We don't do too badly in the home reno department, I must say."

  Slowly, I stood up to change out of my kimono. The kitsune-tsukai might be trying to fuck me, but somehow, someway, I’d gotten Fin back, and I wasn’t about to take that for granted. Now, about Riot … "That sounds great, Fin. Take me home."

  The lights were already on in the home I once shared with Fin and Riot, and as we crossed the swing bridge to the front door I could smell the rich scent of spaghetti bolognese.

  "Riot's home," I whispered to Fin and we exchanged a grin. Riot was an incredible cook, and his speciality was anything Italian. A home cooked meal from Riot Langthorne was exactly what I needed after the shit that the Ancients just pulled on me.

  "Honey, we're home!" Fin called out jokingly as he opened the door and held it for me to enter.

  "Fin! Where have you been? Dinner was ready half an hour ago!" Riot's voice came through from the kitchen, sounding annoyed. "And who is 'we'?"

  "Hey, Ry." I gave him an awkward little wave as he came out of the kitchen and froze when he saw me. "Fin was at a council meeting with me. Did you make enough for me to join you?"

  Riot's jaw clenched, but his shoulders relaxed and he continued over to the dining table with the bowl of salad he was carrying. It was such a juxtaposition, this tattooed bad boy jaguar shifter with his gelled mohawk ... carrying salad. He always railed on Fin and me that we needed to eat more greens as we weren't justanimals.

  "Sure, take a seat," he ordered, but his tone was ... off. He wasn't happy to see me, that much was clear.

  "Yeah, I think you might have been wrong about him," I whispered to Fin as we sat down at the table, "He seems pretty pissed at me."

  "You know him better than that, Thea babe." Fin gave me a small smile and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. My human one, that was. "Let's just have a nice dinner and then I'll leave you guys alone to talk."

  "Mm-hm," I hummed, giving him my best yeah rightface, which he ignored when Riot came back out holding bowls full of spaghetti and meat sauce for us all.

  An awkward sort of silence fell over the three of us as we ate, but thankfully there was a bottle of wine on the table to soften things a little. Riot was always a great one for pairing his meals with appropriate wines, and this was no different.

  "This is really good," I commented, rolling the wine over my tongue and savoring the … well, the wine-tasting-wine. "What is it?"

  "Chianti," Riot replied curtly. "It's in the sauce too, which is probably why they pair so well."

  "Well, it's good," I murmured, making a mental note to remember this little slice of wine knowledge for my next dinner with Revel. Wait, next dinner? When had I decided that?

  Fin cleared his throat and pulled the attention away from me, thank the holy Fox Father.

  "I withdrew my complaint with the council," Fin told Riot and Riot raised his dark eyebrows in interest.

  "I take it that didn't go well, then?" He glanced at me, and I shook my head. Riot had never actually met the kitsune-tsukaibefore. He was a jaguar, not a kitsune, so wasn't permitted into things like the council chamber or any official meetings. As welcoming as the kitsune had been of him, he was still an outsider.

  He made a little growl in his throat and ate another huge bite of his pasta before replying.

  "I could have told you that would happen," he commented, not looking in the least bit surprised. "The second they caught wind that Thea had ascended to the Nine, all they would have been able to focus on was how to control her. I've said for years that they don't have the Eath’s best interest at heart. They're too power hungry."

  "Yeah yeah," I sighed, "we get it. You told us so. Doesn't really help us now, though."

  "So what are you going to do about it?" he challenged me, meeting my gaze with his steady green eyes. "The Thea I knew wouldn't just roll over and accept it."

  "I'm not," I growled, grinding my teeth. "I just haven't figured out my next step yet."

  He nodded thoughtfully, then broke my gaze to continue eating. "You'll think of something, T. You always do." The melancholy tone to his voice made me sigh and push the last of my food away.

  "Ry, can we talk? Please?" I pleaded to him with my eyes, and he nodded sharply.

  "I can go somewhere else," Fin offered, but Riot shut him down.

  "No," he said, pushing back his chair to stand. "we can go for a walk. Come on, T."

  Fin gave me a small smile of encouragement, and I followed my other ex out of the house and across the first swing bridge. I knew where we were going, so I hurried to catch up and walk with him, not behind him.

  "Summit branch?" I asked him, even though I knew full well that's the direction we were going.

  "Where else?" he replied, arching a dark brow at me. It was already nearing midnight, but foxes being nocturnal were all up and about so the lights from their tree houses lit up our way and twinkled through the branches.

  We wandered together through the maze of swing bridges and tree platforms, climbing higher with each turn until we reached the tallest tree in the Earth's village. We'd cut hand and foot holds into it a long time ago, so we could climb higher and eventually sit on the highest sittable branch for miles.

  "Need a hand?" Riot offered as I s
crambled up after him, but I just scowled in response. It had been a really long time since I'd visited the summit branch, so I'd lost the hang of it.

  "I love it up here," I sighed, once I was comfortably seated with my back resting against the huge tree trunk. While the branch was wide enough for us to sit side by side, Riot had chosen to sit further along, with his feet dangling over the edge.

  "Thea..." He started, then broke off with a frustrated sigh. I stayed quiet though, and let him take the lead in whatever he needed to say to me. "Thea, I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer me with total honesty."

  I raised my brows and nodded slowly. "I never lie to you, Ry. Ask me anything."

  "Okay," he sucked in a deep breath like he was preparing to rip off a band-aid. "This thing you have going with your boss. The vampire. Is it ... serious?"

  Pursing my lips, I considered his question. Was it? One minute I'm little more than food, and the next I'm his only chance of forever love? So, in all honesty I had no damn clue.

  "Why do you care?" I asked him instead, hoping to change the subject.

  He turned his head and met my gaze with sad green eyes. "Just answer the question, Thea. Is it serious?"

  "I honestly don't know how to answer that, Ry. It's new, and complicated." I shrugged. That was the best I could do to explain it.

  "But you don't see it ending any time soon," he translated, and I shook my head slightly.

  "I don't think so? He... uh—" how the hell did I explain the bond without making Riot want to kill Mik?! "—accidentally did something that means he'll be in my life in some capacity ... forever."

  "What the fuck does that mean?" Riot snapped and I shrugged again.

  "That's as much as I'm willing to say. So, to answer your question, yeah, I guess it is serious." I knew that wasn't the answer he was hoping to hear, but I couldn't lie to him. Fact of the matter was that no matter how complicated things were with Mik and Bennett, the actions of the past few days had irreversibly tied our fates for good.

  "And this wolf?" He ground out after a long silence, and I looked at him in surprise. How the hell had he known...? Ah. Mik must have told Fin more than he was letting on, and of course Fin tells Riot everything.

  I sighed heavily. "What does it matter, Ry? We were over a really long time ago. Are you saying you want me back?"

  "No," he replied so quietly it was hard to hear him. "No, I just ... I'm still in love with you, Thea. I never got past that, even when you ran away from us."

  "I didn't run away, Riot. You pushed me away." I bit the words out with a heavy amount of bitterness. Even after all this time, it still hurt.

  "Whatever," he sighed, giving me a sad smile. "My point is that I don't want things to be like this between us. So tense and angry. It's hurting you, and me. I'm smart enough to see that much."

  "So what are you saying? You want to forgive and forget? Give us another shot, even though I'm seeing other people?" I frowned because that didn'tfeel like what he was going to say. A girl could hope though, right?

  He scooted closer to me on the branch, moving so that his knees brushed mine and his tattooed hands rested on my outer thighs. "I'm sorry, T," he whispered. "I can't. I can't bear the thought of sharing you with anyone other than Fin. I can't stomach the idea that you'll be sharing that vampire’sbed and even worse ... a wolf’s. You know how I feel about the wolves, T."

  My fingers traced the twisted scars on his forearms, disguised with tattoos. "I know, Ry. But that wasn't these wolves. There's bad in every species, just like there's good."

  He laughed without humor. "Oh? And this alpha ... he's a good man?"

  I bit my lip, dropping my eyes from his intense gaze. There was no way I could confidently say Bennett was a good man. I didn't know him well enough, and what little I had seen...

  "Ry ... I don't know what to tell you." I looked back up at him with tears stinging the corners of my eyes. Somehow, I already knew this was going to be goodbye when we came up here. I just wasn't ready to hear it yet.

  "There's nothing to say, T. I love you too much to keep interfering in your life, but I just can't keep seeing you with them. It hurts me too damn much, and I am simply not as big a person as Fin to even try." His voice was thick with pain, and I cupped his cheeks, pulling him closer so I could rest my forehead on his. "If you love something, let it go and all that crap, right T?"

  "No, Ry. That's a bullshit saying and you know it."

  "I think it's time I went in search of my own kind. I've been living among the kitsune for so damn long, I sometimes forget what species I am." He chuckled, and my heart melted to see his smile. "Maybe one day I can get rid of my issues and we can be friends again."

  "You're leaving leaving?" I was stunned. I had fairly much expected him to tell me he was horrified and disgusted by my new choices in my sex life. But he was leaving Vail?!

  He leaned in closer, pressing a gentle kiss to my lips that tasted of wine and herbs.

  "I'll miss you, T. Please stay safe?" He kissed me again then, and it was full of sorrow. When I opened my eyes again, my face was slick with tears and he was gone.

  "Riot!" I yelled after him, seeing his sleek black jaguar form leaping through the branches. As fast as the Goddess allowed, I shifted forms and scrambled down from the branch to follow him, but a fox stood no chance against a jaguar when fleeing through a forest. He'd lost me within seconds and I collapsed onto the forest floor in a puddle of emotions.

  We had ended our relationship some eight years ago, but it truly felt like it wasn't over until now.

  I lay there, sobbing, for what felt like an eternity before finally gathering the shattered pieces of my heart and heading home.

  It was almost morning by the time I finally made it back to my house. I'd taken the scenic route home to give myself some time to decompress. Sometimes a nice drive through the night can really help to clear the head.

  Sadly, this wasn't one of those times. I arrived home feeling even crappier than I had when I left the Earth. The last thing I wanted to deal with was more aggressive propositions from one of my seemingly many love interests right now. Since when did I start becoming attracted to such alpha assholes? I wasn't exactly a blushing submissive myself, so how the hell did I keep winding up with these guys? Girls too, I guess. Revel was definitely an alpha asshole in her own right.

  No, I needed a break. Something to just clear my head.

  Before I even pulled into my driveway, I'd called and left a voicemail for both Chris and Bex, telling them we were going out that night. On a whim, I also called the Vail Valley Pack house—their number was listed online—and left a message for Shelbi to join us. I had no idea whether she'd get it or not, and I didn't leave my name just in case Bennett listened to the messages or something. But it would kind of be nice to see that little wolf again.

  Mercy was smiling down on me, and when I opened my front door I was greeted by silence. Thank Inari and her nine lovers. I hadn't realized how much I appreciated my solitude until I constantly had people waiting on my doorstep.

  "Ziff?" I called out, and he came skittering around the corner on excited paws, yapping to be picked up and cuddled. Obliging, I tucked him into my chest and made my way up to my bedroom.

  The sheets were still messed up, but that was no great shocker. I sucked at making my bed and my cleaner only came once a week.

  "Did you have a nice night without me, buddy?" I asked my fennec fox, placing him gently down on the bed so I could get changed. He chirped and trilled away at me, like he really was telling me about all the fun he got up to in my absence. I nodded and murmured noises of response when he paused, and he seemed to appreciate the effort I made at a fake conversation with him.

  Crawling into my massive bed in just some soft granny panties and a random oversized men's t-shirt that I'd grabbed off my floor, I tucked Ziff onto the spare pillow and yawned heavily.

  "Sleep time, Ziff," I told him, patting his oversized ears and clo
sing my eyes. It felt like I hadn't slept properly in weeks, and I seriously doubted this would be any different. It would give me a small reprieve from the pain of Riot leaving for good, though. Not to mention it would let me avoid Fin a little longer. I'd missed about twenty calls from him after leaving Vail, so no doubt he knew about Riot leaving and wanted to bitch me out for it. Either that, or he was going to feel sorry for me. If he got too tender or emotional about it, I’d break. I wasn’t sure which was worse: him being an ass, or him trying to comfort me.

  I wasn't in the mood for it either way though. Even though we'd been over for years, the hurt was fresh.

  On that melancholy note, I drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  The scent of musk and man wrapped around me like a hug, and I snuggled happily into it.

  "Bennett," I sighed, rolling over into his warmth.

  "Girl, you better not put your hand on my dick or there will be problems all up in here," Chris's sleepy voice warned me and I sat up with a small scream.

  "Fae-Bitch?" I asked, rubbing at my crusty eyes. "What the hell?"

  "Well, I was sleeping, til you started talking in your sleep about someone called Bennett." My sparkly best friend blinked up at me from my pillows with a sassy look on his face. "Who exactly is Bennett, hmm? And is that his shirt you're wearing?"

  "What—" I glanced down at what I'd fallen asleep in, and cursed. It was Bennett's shirt, which explained why I had been able to smell him just before. "Uh, technically yes? But only because it was the first thing I grabbed when I got home."

  "Mm-hmm," he hummed, giving me that sassy face he did so damn well.

  "What the hell are you doing in my bed anyway? I gave you your own guest room down the hall." I scowled at him and whistled for Ziff to check he wasn't squashed under Chris' fat ass. I joke, of course. He had a smaller ass than me, and mine was pretty tiny.

  "I know," he yawned. "But I came straight here from the club when I got your message and you were like having a nightmare or something, so I came in to wake you up."