Page 17 of All Foxed Up

His head jerked up and he stared her down.

“It’s bad enough that your best friend is now a fox shifter.”

We heard this over and over, caught the suspicion, the dark looks whenever our skulks came onto a work site. Men muttering insults to their friends, but never saying anything to our actual faces. But this bear was obviously as stupid as he was big, because every line in the woman’s body screamed of anger.

“They can’t be trusted,” he said finally, putting the last nail in his coffin, because she didn’t reply to her mate, but me.

“I’m Natalie, Holly’s best friend.”

When she thrust out her hand, I took it, squeezing it for a little longer than needed, just to watch the bear shifters seethe.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Natalie, friend of Holly’s,” I replied.

“I can’t help you in any way. This is Holly’s decision, not mine or yours.”

Todd started to say something about that, but I silenced him with a look.

“Of course. The woman always chooses whether or not to accept the bond, but…” I looked past her to the scowling bear shifters. “In fox circles, it runs a little differently. Now that Holly has found us, her fox will become harder and harder to control. The woman might choose to reject us, but the fox… By her reaction, I can tell she is relatively new to her dual nature. She will need us before too long.”

I pulled out my wallet and drew out a business card, but when I handed it over, the bears moved forward.

“Don’t take anything from the weaselly shit,” Lars growled. “They can’t be trusted.”

“In this case, no three people are more focussed on your best friend’s welfare than us,” I assured her. “We merely wish to ensure Holly is safe, happy and satisfied. We will be back with more gifts, better ones next time.”

When the fox realised what I was about to do, he started to shift restlessly, then pushed against the bond, growing more and more frantic as I headed towards the car. Wyatt followed me, though he kept looking back over his shoulder, and Todd just stood there, staring up at a window on the second floor, until I was forced to bark an order for him to follow us.

This hadn’t ended the way I’d hoped. Our clan had good standing within the fox community. The families knew us and knew our reputation. If Holly had been born amongst them, she would’ve already known who we were, and we’d be carrying her in our arms back to our car, ready to have every pleasure lavished upon her. Instead I was forced to endure my heart feeling like it was being torn in two, the fox’s claws raking across it over and over in a bid to get free. The lot of us would have the control of cubs until she came to her senses and claimed us, and when we got to our car, I closed my eyes for just a second.

“Well, that was a shit show,” Todd said, leaning against the car as he stared back at the house. “But damn if she didn’t smell good. Like honey on—”

“Shut up.” My fingers pinched the bridge of my nose, the breaths coming in long and slow because I forced them to do so. “Just shut up for a moment.”

My fox was strong, too damn strong and that’s why I led our skulk, navigating the complex world of shifters and the associated politics.

“You need to take fur, go for a run,” he insisted, when I had regained control enough to unlock the car.

“What I need is our mate.”

Each one of them stared at me wide eyed, but they both nodded slowly before looking back at the house.

“We’ll win her over,” Todd said. “It’s always hard, but the chase…?” When he grinned he flashed his fangs. “That just makes the surrender all the sweeter.”

As I wrenched the door open, I hoped like hell that was true.

Chapter9

“So you’re seriously going?” Nat said from the doorway of the guest bedroom.

I gathered up my bags, grabbing handle after handle until my puny arms started to shake. She let out a sigh and then moved to take some of the load, but the possessive way she was holding them made me think they were being held hostage, not to be carried to my car.

“Christmas dinner is over, and no one got drunk and said anything inappropriate, especially not me. Everyone seemed to like the food. The kids have more noisy toys than any small children should have access to.” I dimly heard the pew pew of the plastic guns I’d given them. “Everything went off without a hitch, so my job here is done.”

“That’s not why I invited you up for Christmas,” she said.

Fuck. Fuck. Nat had that soppy look in her eyes, the one where she was gonna make me pinky swear we’d be BFFs forever or something. And we would. That bond, I clung to it so damn tight in my mind, but I couldn’t put my shit on Nat. She was still studying, she had the boys, and her sleuth—

“And you.” She looked at me meaningfully. “You’re important to me too.”

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