by Connor Crowe
This time, I saw forests. I saw waterfalls. And I saw us.
Through the spray of the falls and the rainbows it threw onto every available surface, two bodies lay together on the rocks.
Hand in hand, unfettered by clothing or a care in the world.
Happy. At peace.
But wait.
I looked closer.
Something didn’t seem right in this image. Like an illusory luster painted over at the last second.
Like a mirage.
My eyes unfocused and the vision changed, the light and colors of the waterfall winked out into darkness. Stone, dirt, and stalagmites stretched toward the ceiling. A faint light, too far ahead to judge the distance, filtered its last weak rays into the cavern. And that’s when I saw it.
The very thing my senses had been calling to me so strongly before.
Treasure.
The stalagmites weren’t just pure stone, after all. Well, most of them were. But in the crystal clear reflection of the seeing pool, I saw another, somehow still glistening in the darkness of the cave.
A glowing, blue-purple geode, brought to light by a fallen stone. A beacon.
Mine.
I snapped back to reality as the vision dissipated, and I nearly plunged headfirst into the pool. I’d been leaning over it so closely, watching it so intently, that I’d lost my balance.
I stumbled with a surprised yelp. My hands and knees hit the mud and I slid. Only when my heart stopped hammering like a fierce battle drum did I manage to regain my feet.
The images I saw in the pool stayed with me. I’d never seen any cave like that before, much less the geode calling out to me. If the progression of images were any indication, it looked like it had something to do with a waterfall? Or perhaps Markus’s favorite overlook?
I rubbed my forehead in thought—before I remembered my hands were covered with mud, that is.
Great.
I growled and swiped the dirt away, slurping in a calming breath. My eyelids fluttered closed and I looked within myself, no longer resisting that pull of energy, but leaning into it.
Whatever this was, I knew my next clue had something to do with that cave. Would I find Markus there? I had no idea. But I’d been at the game long enough to know not to plan too far ahead.
One step at a time.
One mission at a time.
This time, I leaned into the spirit of the fox as well, letting it overtake me. Energy flowed outward from my center and into my arms and legs, all the way up to my brain. Fingers became paws. Whiskers sprouted. My ears moved up and outward, able to pick up the slightest sounds.
In mere moments, I saw the world through the eyes of my fox. Attuned to nature and the senses around me, the pull of the geode was stronger than ever. My whiskered twitched and I lifted my snout to the sky, catching a whiff of it on the wind.
That way.
I took one last glance at the discarded vial next to the seeing pool, and bounded off, my furry tail wagging along behind me.
It didn’t take long to reach Markus’s favorite place. It was a stony outcropping overlooking the pack lands and up a steep enough incline that not many dared ascend.
But when I reached the top of the hill, panting and out of breath, the view rewarded me handsomely. Acres of land stretched out across my vision all the way to the horizon line—trees, buildings, even the little dots of people and animals at play. The sun had continued to rise in the sky, full and warm on my back. Nox Bay glittered in the sunlight. Ripples spread out in all directions where the breeze touched the water.
I remembered what Arric had said back at the Alpha chamber. Something to do with the sun.
At first, I thought he had been talking about the vial I used in the seeing pool. The golden liquid was enough like a portable sun, after all. But as I followed the sun’s rays across the bay and toward the lands beyond, I realized he had meant something else entirely.
During this exact time of day, when the sun was nearly at its peak, but not quite, I saw something I had overlooked before—just beyond the bay. Usually blending into the landscape around it, in this particular angle a path came into view, shielded by trees on either side and leading into darkness.
My instincts flared again. The geode called to me once more. And it was there, wherever the end of that path led. If the vision I’d seen in the pool was any indication, I knew what I was about to face.
Unnoticed by the rest of the pack, I’d find a small underground room there. And within it, if I was lucky—my prize.
I wasted no time getting off the hill and back onto flat land. My fox was so excited I just about wanted to jump off the cliff and save time. Thankfully, I thought better of that. I needed to use all four of my limbs if I was going to make it to the end of this little scavenger hunt.
Oh, I hadn’t had this much fun in ages.
I yipped to the empty air and bounded toward my target. Air rushed around me and through my fur as grass and pebbles scattered beneath my paws. It felt so good to run as a fox again. To be free. To leap and run and feel the wind in my fur. Perhaps Markus had noticed that. Perhaps he’d had a change of heart from wanting to protect me from everyone and everything.
A field of daisies and dandelions brushed past me in a blur of white and yellow. Petals and little wisps of dandelion seed flew into the air around me, creating a little cloud of motion as I ran.
I’m coming. I’ll find you.
The words echoed off my skull and came out as only high pitched yips, but it didn’t matter. I knew Markus would hear me. He always did.
And thank you, I added as I ran. For believing in me.
The opening to the small cavern was almost completely obscured by a trick of the light. The sun during most of the day reflected off the water and sand, forming a sort of mirage that led the eye away from the opening. But at the proper time...
My paws scrabbled in the dirt, looking for an opening. The heat and intensity of the nearby gem grew stronger still, and with it, my breaths launched into double time.
There it was, unseen but all but the most eagle eyes at the right time of day.
An opening. A small, fox-sized opening.
I flattened myself against the ground and with my snout to the opening I could feel the cold, dank air rushing up to meet me. There must have been some other entrance too, but for now, this would do. My fur stood up on end and prickled through my paws.
Just excitement, I reminded myself, and shimmied my way underground.
If it weren’t for my heightened shifter senses, I wouldn’t have been able to see a thing. It was definitely the cave from my vision, though. The land sloped and curved in all the same places. A pale light shone from impossibly far ahead and lit up each particle of dust in the air.
The ground was wet here—even more so than outside. The bay was right above and around me, anyway, yet somehow this little enclave had survived.
A momentary spike of panic shot through me and I froze.
I remembered all too well the rushing torrents of water when The Eye of the Ocean had fallen into the wrong hands.
I remembered how helpless, how lost I’d felt. How I was sure I would die.
My fox quailed for only a moment, locking up my muscles in a tense fight-or-flight response. But I hadn’t been raised a thief to shrink away from danger. I gathered my wits, steeled my resolve, and pushed forward.
The geode was close now. Every pulse I felt from it felt like the beating of a second heart, so close I could nearly feel it pressing into my skin.
I rounded a corner and kept my hand to the damp, uneven wall. The chamber opened up around me into a large, circular room. Still dark and damp, yes, but with signs of use. Signs of life.
Someone had been here.
Those thoughts quickly faded into the background, however, when the center of the room caught my eye.
There it was. The geode.
Sparkling in the dim light like its own little star, the stone called to me
like a lover. My feet moved forward. With each step, the thrum grew louder. Stronger.
Just what was this thing, and why hadn’t I sensed it before?
The images from the pool came back to me. The waterfall. The cave. But there was one thing I hadn’t seen yet. One thing missing...
“Guess you really do have a nose for this stuff.”
I knew that voice. Markus’s voice.
Stepping out of the shadows right in front of me was a wolf. In my single-mindedness about the geode, I’d completely overlooked his presence.
My fox let out a little growl that came out as more of a whine. Guess maybe I was losing my touch after all.
“Markus,” I scolded him over our mental link. “What is this about? Why such fanfare? And what...” I pointed my snout upward at the shining stone. “What is that?”
“A better question would be: what is all of this? I found it, only a few days ago. I’ve had some of the workers clearing it out and I thought you’d like to see it, once we got it all ready.”
My mate padded forward and nudged me in the side with his snout. He moved and circled around me, sniffing.
“See something you like?” I teased.
“Multiple things,” Markus agreed. “But tell me. Did I do a good job?”
It took me a moment to figure out what he meant. “A good job of...oh, the hunt! You really made all that up for me?”
If wolves could blush, Markus would be the first. I felt his pride over our bond, but also a little shyness, which was unlike him.
“I wanted to do something special for you. I know I haven’t been the best mate recently, and I didn’t want you to think I was treating you differently just because you were pregnant.”
I grimaced. “You kind of were.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I just...we’re going to be fathers, Felix. Fathers. I know as the Pack Alpha I’ve had plenty of responsibility heaped onto me over the years, but this...” He shook his head, his wolf letting out a low whine.
“Mate of mine...” I started, then remembered the nickname Arric had given him. “Red.” I smiled. “Yeah, I know you got Arric in on it too. All this just to tell me you’re freaking out about having a baby?”
My stomach clenched at the word ‘baby’ as if the little one could hear us talking. Shifting was a little more delicate while pregnant—I couldn’t run as fast nor as long. Luckily, the pack doctors had all assured me that the baby would remain healthy should I need to take my fox form.
“I know how much you missed it,” Markus said finally, in a low voice. “I wanted you to have fun again. Seeing you all cooped up there in the quarters...it broke my heart, baby.”
His response caught me off guard. In a good way, though. I grinned, my heart swelling with hope. That didn’t answer the question, though.
“Are you...” I chose my words carefully. “Do you not want to be a parent, Markus? Are you having second thoughts?” It broke my heart to even think those questions, much less voice them, but that was the only thing that echoed through my mind. Underneath it all—I was scared. Fated mates though we may be, I still wanted to do everything I could to keep my alpha happy.
In reality, only a second or two of silence passed between us. But to my anxious brain? It felt like forever.
Finally, Markus’s face broke. “Do you...do you really think that?”
He nuzzled up against me, letting out that low whine again. I curled into and around him. My tail wrapped around his back flanks and we lay there, intertwined as the world moved on around us.
“Felix,” Markus said when I didn’t answer. “You have given me the greatest gift of my life. I would never, and I mean never take that for granted. What we’re embarking on is new and scary, sure. But with you? I would choose no better man to explore the unknown.”
His wolf form, nearly double my size, enveloped me. Soon, I could feel nothing else but the warmth and softness of his fur. Oh, and that delicious, uniquely-him scent that had made my head spin from the first moment I met him.
My mate’s warm, wet tongue shot out, lapping at my ears first, the back of my head, my neck. The alpha pheromones soothed me, grounded me.
You are important, I felt the words over our link. You are special. And you are so, so loved. His voice grew stronger and clearer in my mind, radiating through not only to my fox but my human half, as well. The truth in those words was staggering. “I cannot wait to form a family with you. I would never want you to have to give up your talents or take on a ‘traditional’ omega role—I knew from the start that would never work for us. You did try to escape, after all. More than once.”
I let out a yip of happiness, relief, and laughter. I remembered that part all too well.
“And besides,” Markus murmured against me, “I couldn’t let the famed Crimson Fox go totally into retirement, now could I?”
“I’m not a criminal anymore, baby. I left that life behind, remember?” Not that I’d ever asked for that kind of life in the first place. It was all I’d ever known.
“I think you and I both know that the lines of good and evil can be blurred sometimes. And without my foxy omega’s special gift, how would I unearth all of this?” His ears twitched as he glanced up at the shimmering geode. “I knew the moment that rock fell and smashed open that geode that we were on to something big. Something that could change the pack, Felix.” He nudged against me again with his wet nose. “Here, let’s shift.”
So shift we did. Returning to human form after a shift meant that we returned naked—animals didn’t wear clothes, after all—but I no longer had anything to hide in front of my mate. He’d seen it all by now...and then some, I thought with a wicked grin.
Now back at human height, I stepped closer to inspect the stone. It was just as beautiful as it had been in the vision—which, I reminded myself, I still needed to ask Markus about.
“Hey, what was that weird golden vial you gave Arric to give to me?” I slipped my hand into his. We just fit together, as naturally as two puzzle pieces.
“Ah,” Markus nodded, his eyes alight. “I’m so glad it worked! That was an experiment, you know. Sam’s the one to thank.” My mate grinned. “Turns out he’s good at more than just cooking. It’s supposed to enhance the psychic abilities of our pack members, and it looks like it did that nicely.”
I leaned my head against my alpha’s shoulder, enjoying this moment. I felt safe. Wanted. At peace. The way it should be.
“Is there anyone in Nox Bay that isn’t super-talented?” I wondered.
Markus squeezed my hand and planted a kiss on my cheek. “I think you know the answer to that one.” His voice was close, rumbly against my ear. His hot breath sent up goosebumps on my bare flesh as he said the next words. “Our pack,” he emphasized the word ‘our’, “takes only the best. Now let’s go about getting these gems free, shall we?”
He took my hand and together we touched the glowing stone in the center. The shock was like lightning, flaring up my vision and senses as it spread through the room. Shards of light shattered through the cavern. The pattern, I noticed with awe, was a spiderweb. An intricate, entangled point of orbs and lines and lights.
There were more. A lot more.
And they were here all along, resting in the ground, waiting for someone to find them.
Markus didn’t take his hand off mine. We stared around the cavern in awe, watching as the light spread to each new node, through the large center room and beyond, shooting off into innumerable extra tunnels and passageways.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then, finally, the words came out.
“We’re gonna need more hands down here. Like...a lot more hands.”
I got to my feet, my heart still alight with adrenaline and excitement and happiness. What a far cry it was from growing up enslaved. Unwanted. Unloved.
Here I had a family. Here I had love. A place to use my talents, an alpha who supported me, and a whole pack at my side. And now? We’d un
covered a network of resources that could lead our pack into a new age of prosperity.
“Well bless me,” Markus muttered. “I knew I kept you around for a reason.”
I pulled him close and kissed him once more. “The fates definitely got it right this time.”
“Definitely,” he agreed.
Turned out? The Crimson Fox still had some tricks up his sleeve, and now he was using them for the good of all.
From Connor Crowe:
Thank you, dear reader, for coming with me on this journey. I hope you enjoyed reading about the pack just as much as I enjoyed writing about them.
If you’re looking for something else to read, why don’t you try the Darkvale Dragons? It’s a three-book series with all the action, adventure, and romance you came to love in Nox Bay.
The first book is here: https://readerlinks.com/l/1339783
Or you can pick up the whole series for a great deal here: https://readerlinks.com/l/1339795
May all your fires burn bright, my friends. — Connor xoxo
Join my Facebook group Connor’s Coven for live streams, giveaways, and sneak peeks. It’s the most fun you can have without being arrested ;)
Connor’s Coven
Also by Connor Crowe
Darkvale Dragons
One Knotty Night (free prequel)
The Dragon’s Runaway Omega
The Dragon’s Second-Chance Omega
The Dragon’s Forbidden Omega
Dragon’s Feast (free short story)
Darkvale Dragons Books 1-3 Box Set
Dorvakian Legends (with Crista Crown)
Prince’s Gambit
Love in Diamond Falls
Summer Heat (free prequel)
Ruby Heat
Topaz Heat
Vale Valley (multi-author series)
Mated Under The Mistletoe
That Magical Moment
