by Renee Rose
He studies me a moment. “What’s wrong, Foxfire?”
I take a deep breath, and bring out the big guns.
“When were you going to tell me you marked me as mate?”
~.~
Tank
Foxfire rubs her palms on her jeans but stands her ground. Her scent is off, somehow, and she isn’t looking me directly in the eyes.
Until now.
“Well? You marked me, Tank.”
Fuck. “Who told you that?”
“Jordy.” She pulls her hair to the side, baring the red weal. It’s healed up nicely. Shifters heal fast, but the serum in my fangs for claiming a mate makes sure it leaves a mark.
“Foxfire—”
“Why, Tank?” Her voice is hard. I’ve never heard this tone from her before. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say someone abducted my woman and put an actor in her place.
“I messed up,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “I didn’t mean to.”
She closes her eyes.
Fuck.
“Explain.”
“I can’t. My wolf wants you. He’s always wanted you. But it was wrong of me to do it. I should’ve had better control.”
“We don’t belong,” she says. “You’re a wolf, and I’m a fox.”
I start toward her, and she puts her hand out to keep space between us.
“Your dad called.”
I can’t keep up with the change of subject. I realize she’s holding out my cell phone.
“Garrett and the others are wondering where you are. Your pack has been in some trouble.”
“What are you talking about?”
“They need you, Tank.” She takes a deep breath. “I don’t need you. Not anymore.”
I search her face. Nothing of Foxfire in there, no light, no excitement. Stony and cold. I marked her without permission. She has a right to be upset.
As soon as I take my cell phone, she turns away. She’s right. My phone is blown up with texts and calls from the pack. My alpha. My dad.
“I took a call from your dad,” she says. “I shouldn’t have done it, but you left your phone, and I didn’t want them worrying. Anyway, he told me your pack needs you.”
Fuck. There’s a text from Garrett to the entire pack. A meeting, tonight. “I should go.”
“I think it’s for the best.” She doesn’t look back at me. “We can give you a ride—”
Dammit. Leaving her—especially now, when she’s pissed at me—goes against every cell in my body—shifter or human. But I can’t shirk my duties to the pack, and she clearly doesn’t want me here. Maybe she just needs some space. I’ll reconnect with her after the pack meeting and get her to talk to me.
“The car shop has a motorcycle I can buy and take back to Tucson. The repairs are all paid for, and the tires should be on before closing. I’ll call when I get to Tucson to make sure you and your mom are all set.”
“We’ll be fine,” she says tightly. “No need to check on us.”
Fuck a goddamn duck. I guess I’m getting a taste of my own goddamn medicine. She’s totally shut me out.
My instincts scream at me not to go, but staying doesn’t make sense. The long motorcycle ride will clear my head. So will reconnecting with my pack.
~.~
Foxfire
I wander through the market, stopping at my dad’s old booth. The scent of fox is fading. Something tells me Jordy won’t be back to run the booth. This is a dead end. This whole trip was.
I choke back a sob. The wind picks up. Old newspapers swirl in the flurries. A gust carries the scent of patchouli oil to me.
“Foxfire?” Sunny approaches. “I just saw Tank—he bought a used motorcycle from the repair shop and is heading back to Tucson. Is everything all right?”
I burst into tears.
~.~
Back in our hotel room, I tell her everything. Everything except about us being shifters, of course. She grimaces at my description of Johnny’s family but doesn’t seem surprised.
“He told me a little about them. Enough to make it clear I’d never want to meet them. Everyone worked in the family business, with no outside pursuits. The men were domineering, the women shut-ins. Very rigid society, very patriarchal. Your father wasn’t that way at all.”
I show her the wallet, and she smiles at the picture of Johnny.
“I found this.” I pull out the key. “I’m not sure what it opens, but he left it behind when he disappeared.” Or was taken. I don’t know much about shifter society, but if his clan thought he was abducted, I believed them. After all, he’d wandered off before, when he met my mother. This sounded different.
“This probably opens a safety deposit box,” Sunny muses. “Everything he sent me was from the post office here. I already went to visit—very nice people. They remember Johnny.”
“Have they seen him?”
“Not since early last year.”
As I take the key back, I can’t shake the feeling of dread. My father disappeared and left his wallet in a lockbox. Maybe he meant to return and put it there for safekeeping. Or maybe not.
“S-should we…” I stumble over the words because they feel like an acknowledgment Johnny is really gone. For good. “Should we go see what it opens?”
“I think your father left it for someone to find.”
~.~
Papers, papers, and more papers—everything from handwritten notes to photocopied newspaper clippings. My father wasn’t a fox, he was a packrat.
Hiding my disappointment from Sunny, I dump the contents into a box the nice post office people provide, and return to the hotel. We spread everything out on the bed, and I eat my leftovers from last night as Sunny sifts through it.
“Interesting,” she says. “This looks like... research. Some sort of project.”
A newspaper headline catches my eye. “Missing mother,” I read. “And here’s another. Missing local man.”
I open my father’s notebook and find a corresponding list. Name, date, and an animal name. I read a few before I realize what the animal means. Grizzly, lion, eagle, raven—they’re types of shifters.
“Johnny was looking into missing people,” Sunny says, and starts stacking the newspaper clippings to one side. In the end there are over thirty, with a few more marked on the list in the notebook.
Not just missing people. Missing shifters.
The foxes were right. Shifters are disappearing. And my father was compiling evidence to prove it.
“What’s this?” Sunny lifts a piece of paper, copied from some sort of map. Johnny sketched a few boxes on it, some large, some small, with labels in his neat handwriting.
“Main warehouse, cage area, lab one, lab two,” Sunny reads.
“A compound,” I say, matching the map to my father’s notes. “It’s near the Arizona border, just outside the Ute Mountain Reservation. Looks like total wilderness.” I get my phone out and look up the coordinates, but Google Earth doesn’t show any buildings. “It’s a secret facility.” I raise my head, and meet my mother’s wide eyes. “That’s where the missing people end up. See?” I flip to the end of the notebook, where Johnny has dates and notes of trucks moving in and out of the compound. He even noted license plates. “Delivery, October 26th. He found this place and spied on it for over a year.” I point to the last date. April 24th of last year. “He thought that something fishy was going on, and the compound was ground zero.”
“What does this mean?”
“Johnny didn’t just wander off. Neither did these missing people. If his notes are correct, they’re not just vanishing into thin air.
“They’re being taken.”
Chapter Fifteen
Tank
The bike had half a tank of gas, so I ride a few hours before I take a pit stop. Before I hit the road, I texted Garrett and a few others. Apparently, they had an adventure in Mexico, but everyone’s safe home now. They’ll debrief everyone at the pack meeting, and I let them know I’d b
e back in time for that. I’ll ride all day without stopping except for gas. Let the road and fresh air shake the memory of the last few days, trippy hippie humans and foxy ladies with Looney Tunes hair.
Foxfire. Fuck.
Dad was right. Women are crazy.
I don’t even know what happened back there, but I feel like a freight train just ripped through the center of my chest.
When I stop for gas, I turn on my phone. A few missed calls, the newest from an unknown number, and my dad. I call him back.
“Son?” My dad’s voice is strained. Of course, my pack has been through the wringer, and though I’ve been out of it, he hasn’t gotten hold of me.
“Yeah, Dad. It’s me. I’m on my way back to Tucson.”
“Everything all right?”
“Yeah.” I rub my face, feeling about one hundred years old. My wolf is silent, like he’s sick. I wonder if my dad felt this way when my mom took off. A loss like missing a limb. “I’m alone.”
He hesitates.
“I made a mistake,” I tell him. “But it’s for the best. I’ll be with my pack soon.”
“Son.” He clears his throat. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out. I spoke to your female earlier.”
“Yeah?” Foxfire did mention she talked to him.
“I might have been harsher than I needed to be. I was just trying to protect you.”
“What did you say? No, it doesn’t matter. The mating instinct—you were right. It comes on strong.”
“You… was she your mate?”
“Yeah.” It’s messed up, but there’s no denying how my wolf feels for Foxfire. How I feel.
“I didn’t know that,” my dad mutters.
“What does it matter? Mating instincts mess a wolf up. You always told me that.” My bike tank is full. If I hit the road, now, I can reach Tucson and not be too late for the meeting. “Anyway, I gotta go—”
“Son, there’s something you should know. Your mother—”
“She betrayed the pack. She betrayed you.”
“She wasn’t my mate.”
“What?”
“We were stupid, and in love. She wanted me to mark her. But my wolf… he knew. I tried to make it work.”
“My mom wasn’t your mate?” My head is spinning. “But I thought—”
“I told you beware the mating instinct. But, looking back, I realized, I never had it with your mother. The mistake I made—that’s on me.”
I don’t know what to say.
“I did my best to raise you right,” my dad goes on. “I did what I could. But, you’re a man now. You can make your own decisions. And if your wolf decides it’s time to take a mate, even if she is a fox…”
“Shifters don’t mix. You always told me that.”
“I don’t know. Times are changing. Your own alpha just took a human mate—”
“What?” My cellphone beeps with a missed message, and I can’t handle hearing anything else. “Dad, I’ve got to go.”
“All right, son. Be safe.”
The last few days have been crazy, and I’m right back in the twilight zone. My dad just called and told me it’s okay to take a mate. I may not have his blessing, but at least he’s not going to disown me.
At least not until he sees Foxfire’s hairdo, and meets her mother.
My cellphone beeps again, impatiently, and I hit the button to listen to my messages.
A soft voice starts talking, and I have to punch up the sound. “Is Jordy. Thought you’d want to know… Foxfire and her mom came by.” I tense. “They had a bunch of evidence about the missing shifters and a location—”
A bunch of bikers pull in, their Harleys drowning out Jordy’s near whisper. I stride to the edge of the parking lot to get a little quiet. “The elders refused to help. We’re packing up. This place isn’t safe for us.” A pause. “Don’t try to reach me on this number. We’ll be gone before Foxfire goes to the compound where the missing shifters might be held. She said you’d left, and I know she’s your mate. I just thought you’d want to know.”
I listen to the message twice more then hit redial. Sure enough, the number is disconnected.
Fuck.
I dial Foxfire’s number. It goes to voicemail.
“Foxfire. Call me.” I text her, too, and call again, chanting, “Pick up, pick up, pick up.”
“Hello?” At the sound her voice, my wolf raises his head.
“Where are you?” I growl.
She doesn’t say anything.
“I just got a call from Jordy. She said you found more about missing shifters, including a location where they might be held. So I’ll ask again, where are you?”
“What do you care?”
I ignore this. “Don’t tell me you’re at the compound.”
Silence.
“Foxfire.” My phone crackles under the strength of my grip. “Your father disappeared. If he was kidnapped, then these people are dangerous.”
“I know that. I’m not stupid.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Silence.
“Foxfire—”
“I’m going to wait until dark and sneak in.” I hear a slight crunch. My cellphone case. I loosen my grip. “What if there are guards?”
“I’m going to set a fire and pull the fire alarm.”
“Set a fire?”
“Yeah, just a small one.”
“Arson is not a plan.” My voice is such a deep growl it’s almost unrecognizable. I will myself to calm down before I shift and go on a rampage. “Baby, just stay where you are. I’ll be there soon.”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not your baby. And I definitely don’t want to be your responsibility. I can take care of myself—I always have.”
Responsibility? I don’t know what the fuck Foxfire is talking about, but we don’t have time to discuss it now.
“Give me the address, Foxfire. Don’t put yourself in danger. Or your mom. I’m coming for you.” I straddle my bike, ready to ride out. “Tell me where you are.”
“Go to Tucson. Where you’re needed. I don’t want you to follow your compulsion to take care of me.” She hangs up.
I throw my head back and howl. When I’m done, the Harley riders are all staring at me. I snarl at them, and pocket my phone. My bike leaves marks on the pavement as I tear off.
A few miles down the road, I start to think clearly. She had time to visit the foxes, and then get to the compound, wherever it is, in the past few hours. If I ever meet those elders again, I’m going to tear them a new one for leaving her unprotected.
You left her first, my wolf reminds me. And he’s right. And now Foxfire doesn’t even want me to come. Not that I’ll let that stop me. I’ll never make that mistake again.
I pull off the highway again and make a call. Jackson answers on the first ring.
“Tank?”
I tell him my news in a rush. Jackson is a werewolf, and owns a systems security company worth over a billion. Oh, and his wife’s one of the world’s best hackers. I already asked him and Kylie to help me track down Foxfire’s dad. Explaining doesn’t take long.
“What do you need?” Jackson asks. “I have Kylie here.”
“Hey, Tank.” A bright voice comes on the line. Kylie is a young for such a brilliant hacker, a beautiful nerd Jackson mated almost as soon as he laid eyes on her. According to Trey, she’s a nerd with a bangin’ body. We told Trey never to say that to Jackson’s face, unless he wanted an early grave. Jackson may not be our alpha, but he’s alpha material, for sure.
“Thanks for all the work you’re doing on this,” I say quickly, putting as much respect into my tone as I can. “You have no idea what this means to me and my mate.”
“No problem.” Her warmth comes through the phone. “Glad to help. But there’s something you should know. I did a little digging—not too much, Jackson doesn’t want the feds after me again.”
Jackson mutters something I don’t hear.
“I got p
retty deep into some… illegal channels. A sort of job board for criminal types.”
“Okay,” I say, as if I’m following. Which I’m not.
“Foxfire’s name was there. Specifically, a low paying job to capture and carry—a kidnapping order.”
Chills run up and down my spine.
“There was a bounty for her. A thousand dollars, if she was brought in alive.”
“What did you say?”
Kylie repeats it, but I’m barely listening. The thug at her door. The mafia men shaking down her mother. It wasn’t about Sunny. They were after Foxfire.
“Tank? Are you still there?”
“Yeah. Give me a moment.”
There are people snatching shifters. Johnny looked into it, and he was taken. And now they’re after Foxfire. Why?
My phone vibrates with a text. I stare at it for a second before I realize what I’m seeing.
“Thought you might need this. —Sunny.” Followed by an address. Not a road address, just degrees of longitude and latitude. For better or worse, Foxfire’s mother is on my side. Thank fuck for the Queen of La La Land.
“Hang on,” I say, “I’ve got an address.” I read Jackson the coordinates.
“There’s nothing there,” Kylie says after some ferocious typing. “Oh wait. There was something—a building, or a few of them. But it looks like it was updated to show nothing there.”
“What does that mean?”
“Something’s fishy. Very, very fishy,” Kylie says. “I’m on it.”
“I’m heading out,” I tell them. “I think Foxfire’s in danger.”
“We’ll work on this and be in touch,” Jackson promises before they sign off.
I’m itching to get on the road, but there’s one more call I need to make. I dial my alpha.
“Hey, Tank, what’s—”
“I need backup,” I interrupt, and rush to fill the shocked silence that follows. Garrett knows I wouldn’t interrupt him without good reason. “Foxfire’s a fox shifter. Her father was one too, and he’s missing. Her kin won’t look for him. They say he was snatched by shifters. They’ve tracked his scent to a warehouse, and Foxfire is about to rush in.”