Page 19 of All Foxed Up

“You’ll call me anyway.” Her lips thinned. “I should come with you, make sure you get home in one piece. You could take fur and have a damn accident.”

“Nope, not gonna happen.” I had shown Foxy all the pictures of car accidents we were forced to look at by a particularly tough driver’s ed teacher at school. “You left Langston and we both promised you’d never come back.”

She nodded slowly, coming forward and wrapping her arms around me, and that’s when I let out a sigh. I fucking missed Nat. I was glad she’d left and got the hell away from Fuckface, but bugger it, couldn’t she have found dudes who owned a posh house somewhere closer? I didn’t dare mention that because she’d have the guys looking around for somewhere within the week. Instead I just held her tighter, before forcing myself to let her go.

“I’ll see you in a month or two,” I said.

“You better.”

By the time she pulled away I saw the tears in her eyes, but I couldn’t focus on them, because my own were blurring my field of vision. Everyone had come into the foyer now, the grandmothers and grandfathers, a whole bear shifter community clustered around Nat. She didn’t need me anymore, that’s what she didn’t realise. There was a time when I was her family, but she had a whole new one now to rely on, if she just let them in.

Speaking of family, I showed the fox a mental image of Nanna Madden, wondering how she’d respond. The fox sniffed the air warily, then jerked back, going to her little hidey hole inside me.

My grandmother had taught me about crystals, about herbology and how to use different teas to help people. She’d shown me how to repot plants or grow them from seeds, how to set a snare and dispatch the rabbit we caught, then gut and skin it. She’d taken me into the pine forests around Langston, telling me stories of her grandmother and her ancestors’ grandmothers before them, in the quiet hush. Nanna Madden knew more than how to make a killer Christmas cake, and so she might be the person best placed to help me with this situation. I got in the car and turned the ignition on as the kids pressed their faces to the glass, waving madly, so I waved back.

Christmas was over and now there was only the new year to look forward to. I pulled out of the driveway and went on my way.

Chapter10

Wyatt

The next day we returned to the bears’ den with a car full of gifts. The others had spent the evening and most of the morning trying to find just the right thing to gift our mate, but somehow I knew it wouldn’t work. I looked at the gold chains, and the pretty shoes, and the lovely pieces of glasswork and none of them seemed to fit the feel of Holly. They’d held each item up for my input, then grown frustrated when I just shook my head, rejecting each one. I didn’t know much about courting, gifts for women or anything for that matter, but… Each piece was beautiful, valuable, and any vixen would’ve been pleased to receive them, but not Holly. I stayed silent on the drive over, willing, wanting to be wrong, right up until we pulled into the driveway.

“She’s not here.”

This was Koda Henley, not Lars and while he was nowhere near as snarly as the polar bear, his quiet tone allowed for no argument.

Which would never stop Todd.

“Where did she go?” My skulkmate peered over the bear’s shoulder. “What did you do with her? If you hurt—”

“Hurt Holly?” Those dark eyes bored into Todd’s green ones. “She’s my mate’s best friend. We consider her family, and up until yesterday I would’ve said she was happy.” His arms crossed his chest. “She’s not now. Holly left.”

“Where?” Rye stepped forward, getting in the bear shifter’s face. “Where did she go?”

“She asked us not to say anything,” was all he would say in return.

“But… she needs us.”

I was as surprised as my skulkmates when I blurted that out, but I knew just how Holly must be feeling. Restless, unable to settle at the best of times and at the worst? Like my skin was on fire. I wanted to rake my claws down my arms, much like I had in the days before my first shift. But the fox could come and go as needed now, so there was no need for this discomfort. I’d be forced to endure it anyway, the mating urge growing and growing until…

Koda scowled at me, making clear any input I might have was not needed. Normally I’d take that social cue and honour it, but not now.

“She’s going to go through a tough time—” I said.

“Already happening,” he said in a flat tone.

“One that will only get worse the longer we spend time apart,” I added.

He snorted. “Sounds like a convenient way to pressure me into telling you where she is, but it’s not gonna happen.” His focus shifted to Rye. “She has your card. If she wants to talk, she’ll talk.”

“But—” I started to say.

“There’s no point arguing with bears,” Rye said in his deadliest voice. “They will never understand. Their women don’t take fur. They will never know what it’s like to share a soul with a woman who has her own animal.”

He turned to face Koda.

“But know this. The woman you call friend is a brand new shifter, and I assume none of her family take fur. She is alone, forced to find her way without support, a fox without a skulk to keep her safe. You must remember your own first shift, the bewildering feelings that came with it, the instability and lack of control, and you did so with a whole community to support you. She has no one.”

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