Page 16 of All Foxed Up

The fox inside me fluffed up, pushed out his chest, then shifted restlessly. When she accepted our bond, we’d spend much time together in fur as well as skin, getting to know each other, performing the mating dance, right before we—

“What was I saying?” she said, her hand going to her forehead.

“You were wondering what kind of weird peen foxes have,” another woman said, but this one stunk of bear. The fox bared his fangs within me, while I maintained a cool expression.

“No I wasn’t.” Her frown grew deeper. “Anyway, it was nice meeting you…”

“Rye,” I said, putting a hand to my chest. “This is Wyatt.” I pointed to my other skulkmate.

“I’m Todd,” the last of us said with a grin and chin tilt.

Holly’s eyelids fluttered. “Of course you are. Well, Bri, Wayne, Terry, it’s been so much fun, but I think we’re going to have to call it quits—”

“No.” Wyatt was always the quieter one of the three of us, the one that hung back and watched, so the fact he stepped forward now said something. He crossed the gap between them and when he took her hand, she didn’t pull away, just stared down at where their bodies met. “And you don’t really want that.” He sucked in a long breath. “You’re frightened, confused and… surprised.” He glanced back at me. “She doesn’t like surprises.”

“And I don’t like people reading my goddamn mind for me either,” she snapped, yanking her hand free before turning to the other woman. “Is this how it works? They know whatever you’re thinking by what, scent?”

“Pretty much,” her friend replied with a shrug.

“So that’s how they know when to get chocolate right before your period hits… oh!” Holly stared wide eyed at us, then her lips twisted in a look of disgust. “Yeah, I don’t want that at all, so yeah, thanks for coming by—”

“We’ll be back tomorrow with more suitable gifts,” I promised, then shoved the necklace box back into my pocket. “Ones that you will enjoy more and when you are ready—”

“Nope, nope, not gonna happen. I’m leaving tonight.”

“Tonight?” the other woman said. “But you just got here.”

“And now I’m going home, far, far away from all of this.” Holly waved her hand around vaguely. “I’ll go back to my bookshop, my apartment, my herbal teas, and my shop boy with the resting bitch face…” We all tensed at that. “And get on with my life.”

She looked completely resolute in that moment and that couldn’t be right. We were fated to—

“You should do the same.”

Before I could get in another word, she turned and walked back inside this ridiculous house and slammed the door shut in our faces.

Which just left them.

“You heard the lady.”

Him, I knew. Lars Nelson, polar bear shifter and mean as a snake, he folded his arms, thinking that by standing between us and that door he was going to provide some kind of barrier between us and our mate. Todd started to mutter something, but I cut across him.

“We did,” I agreed.

“I dunno how you found her so fast, or what made you think it was a good idea coming here, but you need to back the hell off. The girl said no.”

“You didn’t take no for an answer,” the woman told him.

She was close to my Holly, I could tell by her scent and her manner. She was also Lars’ mate. She shot him a belligerent look, and I got a front row seat to the very amusing sight of a polar bear backing down, then shaking his head.

“That’s different.”

“How exactly?”

Of course my Holly chose a woman like this as a friend. She was strong, wouldn’t stand for crap, which was evident in the way her eyes bore into her mate’s.

“It’s just different, all right. They’re foxes.” Ahh, this, always this. “It’s bad enough that Holly—”

“It’s bad enough that Holly what?” Real steel throbbed in the woman’s voice. “It’s bad enough that Holly what, Lars?”

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