by Emma Dean
Despite being ‘just a fox,’ Hunter was the perfect predator.
She glanced over at Ash.
Then it was probably safe to assume Ash was similar in his own way. Finnick was already on the edge of crazy after his feral years. He barely fit in, but always cracked a joke to deflect attention.
Ash on the other hand, he blended perfectly like Hunter did but without setting off the same warning alarms. Ash could walk right up to his prey and they would never even realize he was what hunted them.
With Hunter…the prey knew something was looking for them, even if they couldn’t figure out who or what before it was too late.
Her foxes were twisted.
And Kenzie kind of loved it.
“I’ve only ever been in one relationship,” Ash confessed. “And it was before Hunter, before…everything.”
“How did that go?” Kenzie tried to keep her voice light, but she desperately wanted to know who he’d been with. It had only been a few weeks and already she felt possessive. It was weird as shit. Kenzie never had jealousy issues before.
“She was human,” Ash said wryly. “So it wasn’t great. I hurt her.”
Kenzie winced, trying not to imagine the worst. “Did she survive?”
“No. She didn’t.”
So much pain in those words.
Risking looking away from the road, she studied Ash’s shadowed profile. His shoulders were hunched and he looked haunted. Kenzie took one of his hands in hers and waited for him to continue as the rented car ate up the miles.
There wasn’t much more she could do for him other than remind him he wasn’t alone.
“Shifting wasn’t something I used to be able to control,” Ash told her. His voice was soft and regretful, a bit distant as he remembered. “If I became emotional then I turned into a rabid animal, and when I caught her cheating on me I lost it. My fox scared the shit out of her and she fell down the stairs trying to get away from me.”
The pause at that confession. Kenzie’s hands shook as she kept her eyes on the road. She couldn’t imagine that kind of situation – the fear, the not knowing what had happened during a shift. It happened to enough of them though she knew it wasn’t exactly uncommon. It was why being part of a pack was so important. The alpha would handle it one way or another before it affected the normals.
“When I was human again I realized what had happened and I…I tried to give her the bite, hoping her body would accept the magic, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”
A human had cheated on him and then managed to kill herself after seeing his fox. No wonder he hated them so much.
“And then what happened?” Kenzie was almost afraid to ask.
“I ran away,” Ash told her. “So as you can see, I’m not a great judge of what works in a relationship and what doesn’t.”
Kenzie didn’t know how to comfort Ash. She didn’t know the right words to say, so she squeezed his hand and hated herself for how inadequate it was. If they weren’t in the car she could at least hug him. But Kenzie had never been great at being kind, not even with Selene.
She’d protected Selene, raised her to survive, and taught her not to buy into all that witch nonsense. Kenzie would die for her sister, but she hadn’t been able to make her feel better after what had happened with Brad. So she’d taken a contract to bring him down until he groveled on his knees. That’s how she handled things.
It wasn’t the same thing as comforting someone – not like normal people did.
And her upbringing hadn’t really taught her how to be normal.
Then the GPS told her to take a right. Kenzie cursed and swerved for the exit. Ash gripped the handle and gritted his teeth but didn’t say a word about her driving.
“What about after Hunter? You never dated anyone then?” God, she was so annoyed that she was jealous. Kenzie hated the idea of Ash with anyone else. Finnick had never had a girlfriend so she’d satisfactorily taken first.
But Ash had.
Had Hunter?
She kept those thoughts to herself. Even though she wasn’t normal she did have some sense of propriety.
“Not in the same way,” Ash told her. “There were a few people I saw more than others, but I always kept my distance.”
“Shocker.” Kenzie couldn’t help her smile. Ash was just as good as Hunter was at keeping people at arm’s length when he wanted to. But as he opened up to her she could clearly see the difference between the alpha and the second.
Even Ash chuckled. “Yeah, it’s hard to want to get close to people when you know they don’t really like you.”
“I like you,” she admitted.
Ash squeezed her hand in response. “And I like you, but that’s not always enough is it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. We’re supposed to be mates. A lot of the hard shit is already taken care of.”
“Kenzie, I’ve no fucking idea what I want. And that’s the problem. Since I first smelled you in that clearing I knew this was going to be a shitshow for me. I don’t like getting close to people. But with you, I can’t help myself. All I want is to be close to you. It’s conflicting.”
Ash sighed and she knew exactly what he was feeling because she felt it too.
It was terrifying to know your heart and body wanted one thing so desperately, but your mind kept saying ‘hold up,’ ‘fucking hold on while I figure this out’ because nothing about dating your mate could ever be compared to a normal relationship.
That’s not how it worked in the shifter world.
The mate bond didn’t care if they were mentally compatible, or if they had shit to figure out first, or if it maybe wasn’t the best time. It demanded attention right now and for someone like Kenzie – like Ash, they wanted the time to think about things, to consider how this affected their life and if they would need to adjust.
“I tried to do the whole ‘let’s figure it out as we go’ thing,” she told him. “And even though I’m still fumbling around for how to handle all of this, I’ve decided I need the three of you to be honest with me. I need you to be committed to figuring this out so don’t go off cavorting with anyone else. And let’s just try to get to know each other, yeah? We’re stuck in the same house for six months anyway.”
Ash laughed at that. “Yeah, due to the irritating nature of our proximity, we must figure this out.”
Kenzie glared at him. “You know what I mean.”
The GPS told her to take another right. They were almost there.
“Heaven help me, Kenzie are you trying to kill us?”
She glanced over at him and chuckled at the way he gripped the handle and the dashboard, skin slightly paler than normal. “My driving is just fine. Stop being a little baby.”
“What is it with women and driving?” Ash muttered. “You all act like you don’t care if everyone in the car dies when you take a turn without slowing down.”
“You’re supposed to brake before the turn,” she reminded him, peering for the street signs. “You know, I’ve been thinking. Witches can make memory spells…if that’s something you want.”
Ash was quiet for a bit while she turned down the next road. The house should be the fourth down.
“To help me remember what happened before the foster system?” he clarified. She could see him watching her in her peripheral.
Kenzie slowed down and parked. “Yeah, maybe it would help? But you don’t have to either. I just wanted to give you the option. I’m all about burying your past if that’s what gets you through the day.”
Too many emotions made her uncomfortable. Kenzie wasn’t used to being there for anyone other than her sister, and Selene understood her limitations.
She turned off the car and went to open her door but Ash pulled her back. Before she could say anything else he kissed her, slow and sweet and gentle – a contrast to everything Hunter had been and it was exactly what she needed somehow.
Ash’s soft lips settled the weird anxiety she had left over from men
tioning the memory spell. His hand brushed her cheek and for just a moment she leaned into it, taking comfort from his touch in the dark, outside a stranger’s house. It helped clear her head from the fog Hunter had left and Kenzie felt grounded.
“Thank you,” he murmured. “No one’s offered me the choice before. I’ll definitely think about it.”
His sincerity flustered her and she shrugged. “No big deal, just wanted to help if I could.”
For someone who didn’t like to feel things or rather he preferred to bury them, Ash was the most romantic out of them all.
“Ready to convince another girl to follow us into the night?” Ash asked as he got out of the car.
Kenzie checked her charms and then pulled the gun out of the glove compartment. She wasn’t making the same mistake she had the first time. “As much as I always am. Do you think she’ll believe us?”
“That video of what happened to the first one is always convincing,” Ash reminded her. “Let’s get this done so we can maybe get some sleep tonight.”
As Kenzie watched those wide, muscular shoulders turn away from her she licked her lips. “Sure, sleep.” She cleared her throat and slid the gun into her shoulder holster before slipping on her pink leather jacket. “Let’s hope this one doesn’t have a dog.”
“I’ll protect you,” Ash teased, wrapping an arm around her shoulders like he always did when they went to fetch someone new.
The way he looked down at her…
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, a slight frown appearing between his brows.
Kenzie slid her hand into his back pocket and squeezed. “Better than ever.”
That shocked, yet pleased look on his face was something she would never forget.
Chapter Nine
Kenzie
“Fuck, why do they always cry?” she muttered, sliding into the driver’s seat.
“Normal people cry,” Ash told her as he got in the front seat. “It’s just something they do.”
She glanced at Ash and started the car. He wasn’t teasing her. The statement was nothing more than fact and Ash didn’t get it either, he’d just accepted it as a fact.
After the video showing what had happened to the first girl, this one had agreed to come with them to the safe house until everything got sorted. She’d even agreed to testify and do what she could to build the case.
But they always cried. It was always at the same time too. Right when they stood up to pack, looked around at their stuff…Kenzie never really understood it. Yes, she had packed everything she owned to take to the foxes’ den, but she could live without all of it if she had to cut and run. It wasn’t like she could haul around fancy computers and action figures while she’d been overseas.
Kenzie just resigned herself to never understanding materialistic sentimentality.
“Ready to go home?” she asked, signaling as she pulled out of the garage of one of their safe houses.
He gave her an indiscernible look. “Yeah, home.”
“Don’t you guys have another place?” she asked. “In Six Rivers territory?”
“We have a few places,” Ash admitted. “I personally like San Francisco the best, but Six Rivers is gorgeous.”
Kenzie wondered… “So after you ran away, what happened? When did you meet Hunter?”
Ash chuckled and pulled out his phone, tapping out a message to the alpha fox. “Just letting Finnick and Hunter know we’re heading back into the city. I’m surprised you held out asking me for as long as you did.”
If she was going to live with three crazy as fork foxes she wanted to know why they were so messed up. Finnick…she knew why Finnick was the way he was and the image of him crouched over dying children to give them a bit of peace from the pain before they crossed over would never leave her.
Ash as a broken teenager mourning his girlfriend while simultaneously hating her for what she’d done…then running away. What happened after that may or may not help her get closer to him like she had with Finnick.
Acting all weird and squirrely around each other for the next six months sounded exhausting. Kenzie just wanted to get over the awkwardness already.
“I was barely eighteen when I ran away,” Ash admitted. “I’d graduated early with honors, but left my job and my apartment…I essentially disappeared.” He stared out the window as the streetlights passed. “No one came looking for me.”
That quiet sentence hurt her heart. It made her wish she’d known him back then so she could go after him, so Ash would know he wasn’t alone in the world. “Where did you go?” she asked, trying to keep her voice light so he wouldn’t hear the strain.
“I went west. When I stopped in Colorado I met a few raccoon shifters and joined up with them for a while. We stole pretty much anything you could think of to survive until we all got really good at it. I think I was in Colorado for a year?”
“Raccoons?” Kenzie couldn’t hide the disbelief in her voice. Sometimes even she forgot how many shifters were out there. Most of them kept to themselves and they were easy to miss unless you knew what to look for.
Ash laughed. “Yeah, raccoons. We actually still see them a few times a year. Well, one job went really bad and we got separated. I’d been shot and as we were running, hunters came after us. The others got away, but I ended up trapped in the nearby woods, bleeding and dying. Could you believe that’s when it started raining?”
“Of course it did,” she snorted.
“Well Hunter found me, and he didn’t ask questions. He just got me out of there and to the rendezvous point. We stayed with the raccoons for a little while longer until both of us got antsy. Sometimes I wonder if it was the universe pushing us so we could find Finnick before they killed him,” Ash mused.
“I still can’t believe you ran with raccoons,” Kenzie snorted. “Thieving too, how typical. Steal anything good?”
“We stole a shark once.”
“What?” Kenzie parked behind the foxes’ house and turned to stare at Ash. “You stole a fucking shark?”
Ash laughed at the tone in her voice. “Yeah, this dude owned a shark. We stole it and sold it for nearly ten grand.”
“Some guy had a pet shark?” Kenzie asked in disbelief. There was no fucking way that was real. “In Colorado?”
“Vail has a lot of weird rich people. You’d be surprised.” Ash got out of the passenger seat and gave her a wink.
“How did you even transport it!” she yelled after him right as his door slammed closed. Goddammit. Kenzie got out of the car and scrambled after Ash.
She stopped for a second and glanced up at the moon. One more day and it would be completely full. It must be something in her witch genetics because she was always aware of the phases of the moon, like it was some weird sixth sense.
“Where did you keep it?” she asked, running to catch up with him. The back of the house in the dark always freaked her out. Maybe they could change the light from orange to something else less...eerie.
Ash pressed his hand to the fancy lock and it scanned before requesting his entry code. “We kept it in one of those backyard pools. The really big ones.”
“What kind of shark was it?”
“Why do you want to know so bad?” Ash laughed as she tried to squeeze past him when the door opened.
The back area of the house creeped her out for some reason she couldn’t figure out.
“You stole a fucking shark. I have so many questions,” she told him, laughing when he went through the door at the same time she did.
“In a rush?” he asked, pushing his shoulder against hers playfully.
“It makes me uncomfortable to be back here at night,” she muttered, shoving back until she popped into the kitchen. “You guys need to get it cleansed or something.”
Ash closed the door and locked it, peering out into the thick nothingness. “Well, someone died there so I’m not really surprised.”
“What?” Kenzie froze with the refrigerator door still open, fo
od completely forgotten. “Are you serious?”
“How do you think we got this place? No one wanted it. Do you know how much an entire house this close to Golden Gate Park costs?”
Kenzie slammed the door closed. “Why haven’t you guys done anything?”
Ash turned around and frowned at the fridge. “I can make you something if you’re hungry.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
The fox grinned at her and somehow it was…feral. “Maybe you’re just a different kind of hungry,” he said, his steps suddenly turning into a prowl as he came toward her.
Stepping back her spine hit the counter, Kenzie’s eyes widened.
“What kind of hungry do you think I am?” she asked. Those blue eyes of his…fuck. She definitely wanted him. Slowly Kenzie slid off her pink jacket. “There are so many different kinds of hungry.”
Ash stopped about a foot away from her and watched her put the jacket on the counter. “You need someone to ease that ache,” he whispered.
The words made her heart skip a beat and Kenzie hid her nervousness by removing the shoulder holster. Pulling out the gun she placed the holster on top of her jacket. “I could be hungry for success.” Checking the weapon she removed the magazine and checked the chamber to make sure it was clear. Safety on, she set both the gun and the magazine on the counter, still easily reachable.
“You’re hungry for a lot of things,” Ash agreed, taking another step forward. He hooked his fingers in the belt loops of her pants. “You’re a lot like a fox in that respect. I think there’s a reason you ended up mated to us.”
Kenzie had to agree. There were too many parallels, too many things that let them fit together like they were made for each other – like perfect little puzzle pieces. What picture would they create together?
Looking up into Ash’s eyes she could see so much of herself reflected there and her smile dropped.
