Chapter 22 Raven
Raven
The fox and I tumbled to the ground. Plants tore at my legs, but I kept hold of the trembling creature. He licked my face and snuggled closer, rubbing his furry head against my chin. I wasn’t sure why I knew it was a male fox, but my gut told me he was.
The biggest wolf shifted back into a naked male, and I grimaced while trying not to stare at his dick. Wow…it was…ugly. Rather like him. Sure, he had muscles, but sadly, the face didn’t match the fur coat.
“Let the fox go; it’s ours, witch.” The smoky yellow aura around him curdled into an unpleasant orange color. His eyes glowed pure gold, gleaming at me in the darkness.
I smiled brightly to defuse the tension. “And if I say no?”
The two wolves standing behind the male growled threateningly while the naked male smirked.
“Then we’ll have no choice but to attack you as well.”
“You can’t do that. It’s against the rules,” I pointed out, cursing inwardly at the slight tremor in my voice when I realized how much shit I was in.
Maverick might not be around to save me this time.
Stars above, I wasn’t even sure where his cabin was from here.
Following the forest trails in the dark had disoriented me.
“Rules mean fuck-all during a full moon, witch. You should know this. We can’t kill anyone, but the headmaster turns a blind eye to everything else.” He grinned at me. “It’s in our nature to act out when it’s a full moon. Can’t fight nature, bitch.”
I cocked one eyebrow. “Great. So when I blast you with my fire magic, I can claim it was in my nature and the full moon made me do it?”
The male took a step back, no longer so enthusiastic about the idea of attacking me now that he knew I had fire magic.
“Look, let the fox go. We’re just having fun,” he huffed.
“No.” I held the fox tighter in my arms while knowing the leaves I’d spent the last hour harvesting were likely crushed beyond saving. Oh well. I could always head out again tomorrow. It would take me less time now that I knew where the flowers grew. “The fox stays with me.”
“I bet your bed is a lot more comfortable than the thorn bush I slept in last night.”
The strange voice in my head nearly made me drop the fox.
“Huh?”
“Cosmic. The goddess paired me with a dumb witch.” I looked down to see the fox rolling his eyes at me.
Is this fox my familiar?
“Goddess save both of us from the ignominy of such a ridiculous pairing.”
“Can you hear me?”
“Duh. I’m talking to you, aren’t I? Now can we please get the fuck out of here before one of the dumb-fuck shifters tries to eat me? I swear if they try biting my cute butt, I will curse them to the demon realm and back.”
“Wow, you swear a lot.”
“Fuck you, witch.”
I gritted my teeth, caught between excitement at having found my familiar and consternation that it had turned out to be a foul-mouthed fox with an attitude problem.
Unfortunately, while I’d zoned out, the three wolves had edged closer. Before I could react, the male who’d shifted attempted to snatch the little fox. I screamed while the fox sank his teeth into the male’s hand.
A furious roar nearly popped my eardrums. The male partially shifted, revealing a set of fangs I knew were more than capable of tearing chunks from me.
Only he never got to act on his anger issues.
The incubus who’d behaved highly inappropriately the last time we met blinked into existence and ripped the male away from me.
I heard a horrible shriek as something bloody launched over my head.
“I hope that lunatic is your mate,” the fox said. “A dumb witch like you needs a brave and violent mate to keep her stupid-ass safe from ugly shifters with small cocks.”
“He’s not my mate,” I muttered before I peeked over my shoulder. A bloody hand lay on the floor, no longer attached to a sobbing male.
The two other wolves yelped and ran, their tails tucked between their legs. I gulped, feeling sick, while the incubus stood grinning at me, not caring one bit about the mess he’d caused. It occurred to me I ought to thank him for intervening in what could have been a sticky situation.
“Um, thanks?”
“You’re welcome.” He looked down at the male frantically trying to crawl away while clutching his severed hand. “If you go to the healers, they can probably reattach it.”
“You’re insane!” the wolf shifter cried, his pupils blown with shock and pain. “Just like your father!”
The incubus’s smile turned into something dark and feral. White-hot rage burned in his pale eyes, sending his aura black as midnight.
“You’re comparing me to my father?”
“Oops, something tells me the lunatic has daddy issues,” the fox chuckled in my head.
Before the wolf shifter could say another word, the incubus gripped his head and twisted. The male’s scream cut off abruptly as his head detached from his body. I choked in horror.
“Holy shit. I’m fanboying like crazy in case you’re wondering why my tails are flapping like flags in a strong wind.”
“Tails?” I glanced down to see the fox had two tails, not one. “Are you a mutant fox?”
“How rude!” The fox huffed in annoyance and nipped my arm with razor-sharp canines, drawing blood. I almost dropped the obnoxious creature but decided it would be gross if he ended up covered in blood, given he’d expressed a desire to share my bed.
The incubus kicked the severed head into the trees and wiped his bloody hands on his jeans before examining the fox through narrowed eyes.
“You may wish to use that fire magic of yours to destroy the evidence,” he remarked, pointing to the shifter’s corpse.
“Evidence?”
“Of a crime.” The way he said it implied I was the criminal in this scenario.
“Does that make me an accomplice?” the fox mused. “I don’t fancy the idea of prison. Orange isn’t my color.”
“Will you shut up for one second?” I snapped. “Not you,” I clarified when the incubus raised a sculpted eyebrow at me. “The fox is yapping at me in my head.”
“He’s bonded to you.”
“So he says.”
“Hey! Most witches would be thrilled to have a clever kitsune as their familiar!”
“What’s a kitsune?”
“Oh my fucking goddess. Fuck my life for being paired with the dumbest witch in the realm. Did your mother drop you on your head as a baby?”
“A kitsune is a supernatural fox creature,” the incubus told me while the kitsune/fox continued to rant in my head. “Older ones can shapeshift.”
“Can you do that?”
The kitsune grumbled but refused to answer my question. I sighed. It was late, and I needed my bed. This whole day had been a chore in so many ways. Maybe once I’d had a decent sleep, I would feel less like wringing the fox’s neck.
The incubus cocked his head to one side. “Your bear’s on his way. He’s extremely angry, which is my cue to leave.” He shot forward. Without asking for permission, the asshole kissed me. Hard. I swooned as heat flooded my veins and the tether in my chest thrummed with power.
The kitsune ended up squished between us, which, from his cute little growls, he didn’t appreciate.
“Hey! Not all kitsunes are creepy voyeurs!”
By the time the incubus released me, my lips felt bruised and the horror of seeing him rip a shifter’s head off had lessened. An angry roar rattled the trees as my bear crashed through the undergrowth. The incubus winked and blinked out of existence.
“I’m not sure I’m going to like your other mate,” the kitsune grumbled.
My brain caught on the words other mate, but before I could process what the kitsune meant, my bear ran into the clearing, fur bristling in vicious spikes down his back.
He skidded to a halt, sniffing the air with an ominous rumble. Then he looked down and spotted the headless corpse and blood everywhere.
The bear shifted back to a male. A very naked male. But I wasn’t thinking about how deliciously naked he was, or how it made my body heat and purr. Only sick witches got turned on while ankle deep in a crime scene.
“What the fuck happened?” His eyes narrowed when he spotted the fox with two tails in my arms. “And why are you holding a male kitsune?”
The kitsune/fox chuffed with amusement. “Is the bear jealous?” he taunted, even though the bear couldn’t hear him.
“He’s my familiar. I saved him from a pack of wolves who wanted to eat him.”
“Oh purrleease. I had everything under control. No way were those assholes getting a bite of my hot ass.”
Ignoring the stupid and utterly delusional fox, I craned my neck to look up at my bear, whose mouth had dropped open in astonishment.
“You’re responsible for the headless corpse?”
“No!” The fox vibrated, his tails quivering as he bared his teeth in a foxy grin. If a fox could laugh, this was it.
“Hilarious that your mate thinks you’re capable of such carnage. If only. At least then I’d have something to brag about at the next kitsune convention.” He huffed loudly. “Instead, I’ll have to lie and make shit up.”
My eyebrows shot up as I got caught up in the fox’s nonsense. “Wait, you guys have conventions? Like, where?”
“Vegas, baby. We go all out. Hit the slot machines. Book hookers and everything.”
“Gross.”
“You have no idea, my poor sweet summer witch.”
Truthfully, I didn’t. Nor did I want to.
“So, um…” My bear folded his arms across his chest while he waited for me to explain the inexplicable. Stars above, the male had fine biceps. Was arm candy a thing? I felt like it ought to be.
“Focus, Raven!” The smirk on Maverick’s face told me I wasn’t good at hiding my admiration for his body. Not that he seemed bothered. From the status of things below the waist, he’d caught my interest rather well.
“Oh my eyes! I need a bleach eyewash!” The fox gasped in scandalized horror and clapped a paw over his eyes while clutching his nonexistent pearls.
Did the goddess hate me? She must truly hate me to inflict such a drama queen of a familiar on me. I’d only known him five minutes, and I was already exhausted.
Resisting the urge to drop the fox, I gritted my teeth, knowing full well my bear would not be amused to hear the incubus had played a part in this shitshow.
“Okay, so the now-dead wolf shifter tried to attack me…” The bear clenched his fists as fur sprouted down his arms. I swallowed. “But before he could touch me,” I continued in a rush, hoping to stall any more drama, “the incubus appeared and cut his hand off.”
Maverick froze. “The incubus?”
“Yeah. The wolf cried, spouted more stuff, and then the incubus tore his head off.” I pointed down. “Which leaves me with a problem, seeing as how I’m responsible and the wolf’s friends will tell everyone it was my fault…” My lip wobbled and I bit back a sob. How had this evening gone so wrong?
Maverick’s expression softened. “Little witch, don’t panic. I will fix this.”
“How?”
He smiled so sweetly that the moon wept. “By getting rid of the evidence and also the witnesses.”
“Holy fuckballs. I like the way this bear thinks.” The fox swooned. “You may be pathetic, but you chose savage-as-fuck mates. You got game. Maybe the goddess isn’t punishing me after all.”
I ignored his comment about mates, plural, my brain too exhausted to process any more revelations.
“Why would she punish you?”
“So I may have done a thing, and another thing, and also that thing where I stole a…”
Oh my stars. The goddess had gifted me with a criminally inclined familiar. I was so wrong. Things could get worse.