A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6)

by Brandon Varnell

  Crawling off the bed, his feet pressed against the carpet as he followed Cassy onto the patio. The cool night air hit his face, bare chest, and legs. He wore nothing but boxers, which he noticed seemed to distract Cassy, as she’d not stopped staring at him since they stepped out.

  When the door slid closed, Kevin witnessed Cassy transforming from a cat into her hybrid form.

  He then promptly palmed his face.

  “Do you really have to be naked when you transform?” he asked.

  “Nya?” Cassy tilted her head, and then looked down. She blushed briefly before pulling her leather outfit from between her cleavage and putting it on. “Sorry. I would have transformed before seeing you, but I wouldn’t have been able to sneak inside, nya. And yes, I do. Yōkai can’t transform clothes when we change forms, nya.”

  Kevin did know that, but he didn’t say anything and instead focused on the task at hand. “Since you didn’t try to kill Lilian in her sleep, I’m guessing you want to talk to me about something?”

  Cassy flinched at the reminder of what she’d done. “I’m sorry about that, nya. I never wanted to hurt you.”

  “I know, and I forgive you for what happened.” Kevin sighed, even as he wondered if his bleeding heart would ever come back to bite him. It probably would, but he hoped it didn’t.

  “Thank you,” Cassy mumbled softly before getting down to business. “Anyway, I wanted to tell you that the assassination order on Lilian has been revoked, nya. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but my mistress has recalled me, stating that we’re no longer going after her, nya.”

  “Really?” Kevin couldn’t keep the relief out of his voice. He placed a hand over his heart and clutched his shirt. “That’s good. That’s really, really good news.”

  Cassy smiled. “I thought you might be pleased, nya. Though I would still be careful if I were you, nya. Our village might have decided to renege on our contract, but the person who put the hit on your mate may decide to take the request to someone else, or even take matters into their own hands, nya.”

  That did worry Kevin a bit, but it also reaffirmed his desire to become stronger and learn how to fight against yōkai. He would even suggest the idea that he and Lilian learn how to fight together as a team.

  Maybe I could even get Iris to join if I convince her that it’s for Lilian’s safety.

  The battle with Seth had shown him that, while they weren’t strong individually, together, he and Lilian and Iris could defeat yōkai that were many times stronger than them. If they combined their individual strengths, then he was sure they’d be able to defend against anyone who came after them.

  “Thank you for telling me this,” Kevin said, then paused as something else occurred to him. “Um, not to be rude, but why are you telling me this?”

  With her hands behind her back, Cassy rocked back and forth on her heels. “I suppose you can consider this my apology, nya. It’s also my way of thanking you for taking me in several years ago. I never forgot the kindness that you showed me. It was the first act of kindness I’d ever received.”

  Kevin hadn’t known that, but, thinking about it, he could see how that might have been the case. Perhaps the village that she lived in was like those really strict places where children were trained at a young age to kill or something. He didn’t know, but he didn’t ask either. It wasn’t any of his business.

  “You’re welcome.” There was another moment's hesitation. Kevin scratched at his left cheek and looked away. “Listen, since you’re no longer going to kill Lilian, so long as you don’t attack anyone I’m close to, if you ever want to come here you can… provided you stay in cat form.”

  While he was all for helping others, he didn’t want to open up the can of worms that would come from everyone learning that Cassy was one of the people who’d tried to assassinate Lilian.

  Cassy’s smile gained a melancholic quality. “Thank you for the offer, nya, but I think this will be the last time you’ll see me.”

  Kevin didn’t know what she meant by that, though he assumed it meant she wouldn’t be assigned missions to this state anymore. He didn’t want to admit that this didn’t bother him, but, well, it didn’t bother him. It sounded harsh, especially after he’d offered her a place to stay. However, Cassy not living in Arizona meant one less problem to deal with.

  Cassy left after that, transforming back into a cat and leaping off of the balcony. Kevin made his way to the edge and watched as she landed on the ground, pausing to look back up at him one last time, and then scampering off.

  There she goes. Well, I guess it’s fine if we leave things like this.

  Running a hand through his tousled hair, Kevin was about to return to his bedroom.

  The door slid open, and Kevin stiffened as he realized that someone had seen him talking to the nekomata. He turned around, an excuse on his lips.

  “Listen, I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not… Camellia?”

  The excuse died when he saw who stood before him. Dressed in a simple nightgown of pure white that ended near her feet, Camellia gazed at him with a smile that Kevin had never seen before. It was kind, compassion, and full of a tenderness that Camellia was—should have been—incapable of expressing. Also…

  Were her eyes always that sharp?

  “Um, is something the matter?” he asked tentatively.

  Camellia shook her head. “No, nothing’s wrong, Kevin-kyun.”

  Kevin made a face at the added “kyun” suffix. He would never grow used to the way she addressed him.

  I suppose I should be lucky she’s not calling me “-tan.”

  He was then given a jolt when Camellia gave him a fierce hug that was surprisingly not unpleasant. There was no boob smothering, no threat of death by symmetrical docking. His head gently rested against her bosoms, and her hands massaged his scalp. It was actually rather pleasant.

  Kevin was disturbed by this, more so than if she had tripped and fallen boobs-first into his face.

  “Thank you,” Camellia said simply before letting go of the hug and blinking at him. Kevin watched as her face slowly morphed into one of confusion. She tilted her head cutely and stared at him with big, doe-like eyes. “Hawa? Kevin-kyun?”

  Kevin frowned. Was something wrong with Camellia? He couldn’t be sure. Still, he decided to keep an eye on her in the future, just in case.

  After putting Camellia to bed—and finding out that Camellia slept with Kirihime—Kevin returned to his room. Iris and Lilian were still asleep. In his absence, Iris had snuck her hand down Lilian’s panties, which caused his mate’s thighs to squirm as if suffering from pleasurable agony.

  Kevin sighed before he crawled under the covers on Lilian’s other side, took Iris’s hand out of his mate’s panties, and pulled Lilian close. Iris clicked her tongue as if she subconsciously knew what he had done. She scooted closer to Lilian and wrapped her arms around the redhead’s waist.

  As he closed his eyes, one last thought occurred to him.

  I wonder how Lilian will react to finding out she’s become a Lilian sandwich?

  It would be a truly amusing reaction indeed.

  Afterword

  It's book six of the American Kitsune series. If you had asked me four years ago when I started publishing if I knew this series was going to keep getting more volumes, I probably would have laughed at you. The American Kitsune series as always been a parody of the harem genre at heart—or so I thought.

  I guess the one laughing is no longer me.

  As the sixth book comes to a close, I've been looking at my recent volumes and realized that each one has been getting progressively darker. I don't think this is a bad thing. That said, I do worry about the future of this series. I still want my harem romcom because harem romcoms are my guilty pleasure and what I enjoy writing the most. However, I don't want a typical harem romcom, which I guess is why my series is getting so intense.

  I've been putting a lot of thought into how I develop my characters, how
I make my story progress, while still keeping the same level of fan service filled humor. It's been tough. Randomly inserting the infamous boob fall, which turned into a Rito Yuuki style crotch in face fall. I'm really happy that Kevin and Lilian are at the point where they can do naughty things together or I'd never get my fix.

  Out of all the characters in my series, I think Kevin Swift has definitely changed the most. Of course, he's the main character, so change is expected, but going from “pass out when a girl approaches” to “hot and heavy make out session” is a pretty big step—although it did take him a few volumes to reach that point.

  This afterward isn't very big, so I'd like to take this moment to give some last minute thank yous.

  Thank you, Mom, Dad, Donna, and Chuck for always supporting my writing.

  Thank you, Amber and Tyler for giving me a niece to dote on.

  Thank you, Kirsten for your awesome artwork. You rock!

  Thank you, Crystal for helping edit my stories.

  And thank you, readers. Without you, American Kitsune would have never been possible.