Komu panted and trembled. He gently bit my hands, his teeth clattering together.
The other three watched off the trail in fixed interest, ears forward, eyes narrowed.
“It’s all right,” I breathed. “It’s not broken.”
As one, they went on staring. Just as disbelieving, Komu licked his own limb.
“It’s not,” I repeated and kissed the top of Komu’s little head. “You can change and heal. I’m certain it’s not broken.” Still, I held and stroked the limb, again and again, soothing, as if to heal the flesh with my own touch. “The bone is whole.” I stroked, also shaking, heart hammering, and gently set him down beside me.
It took him a minute. Komu finally managed to change and feel incredulously over his own arm.
Then he hugged me, laughing, tears from the shock and pain on his face. “I never… Summit… It should have been broken. You saved me.” He held onto me, shaking violently, his arm only bruised now. “How…? What did you do…?”
I didn’t know how to answer, feeling the others just as riveted, just as stunned.
“Earth Mother was watching over you.” I kissed him. “We must get away from here.”
Demik’s head lifted, eyes gleaming in the new morning light. They all seemed to think I had done something special. Yet any of them who had been there first would have done the same. It didn’t matter now. It mattered that Komu was whole, could change, and could travel as if nothing had happened.
It made us, even Komu, more careful. For the rest of the trip north and east, heading up until we reached the Yukon River and followed it for fifty miles before it was so quiet we could safely swim across, we avoided trading posts and any other sign of humans.
After the crossing, we still had a few days going far out of our way to avoid mining wastelands.
We came up for home far to the east, right to the border of the Aaqann River, just as we’d returned last time. Only now we were hungry, footsore, and returning with no more for our troubles than our short voyage had accomplished: a few memories, no trails to hunt.
My paws ached. My brush and whiskers felt limp. I wanted the stray den and a few days of sleep. Then a few more days of eating all the fish I could hold. Then to tell Demik, and all of them, I was sorry. We’d tried. Now we still had the final weeks of summer to prepare for winter with our clan before the first frost. We had Ondrog to make welcome with us. Not on the verge of the clan, but as a real family member. And we had decisions to make about next year’s kits. I ached for one. But was I ready to give up fur for the next seasons? What about this clan needing me to find my own? Yet I had tried…
As long as Demik and the others also wanted a kit, I was ready. This had been its own sort of goodbye—last great run in fur. What more could we do? We’d found no other fox clan, silver or otherwise. No wolf pack. Not even a shifting bear. As long as Ondrog could be persuaded to stay—and now I felt sure he could, since he’d experienced how we could all be a pack together—we would be all right.
So I thought about these things and forgot my footsoreness as we came up to the settlement at the junction of two rivers.
Until my ears snapped up. I lifted my head, forgetting the future as I was brought into sharp focus in the present. Ahead, in the settlement, were many human voices.
Chapter 31
Day 59
Mej, Komu, and I wanted to slink in, hide and listen. Demik took us around to the south so we could come from the stray den. Here, the dog-foxes crept from the birch trees and into their den—where they could change and dress themselves for the first time in many weeks.
Ondrog tried to take me away, first nosing me back into the birches, then trying to bite my scruff. I twisted from him and sprang into the den with Mej and Komu—dazedly getting their boots on, clearing their throats, practicing talking to one another.
“You wait here for us,” Mej told me. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Summit?” Demik, upright and dressed, came to the back entrance. “Stay away from them.”
I squealed and lashed my brush at him.
“No. Just wait here.”
I clattered my jaws and trilled.
Demik blew out a breath—smelling of the sort of anxiety that made my fur stand on end. “All right. Slip around and go in at the back of Skeen’s den for your clothes. Komu, take her and get Ondrog’s things as well. Mej and I will see what’s wrong.”
Mej stood up, still unsteady, and the two hurried around to the front.
No one seemed to be arguing. We heard voices in English—many words I could catch and knew the meaning—but there were no raised tones or anger.
Komu tried to pick me up. I slipped outside, starting to follow Demik. Ondrog grabbed me in his jaws. I bit him sharply on the cheek, then bounded off for Skeen’s den when he dropped me.
Komu ran after. Ondrog kept out of sight in the forest.
There was fresh sawdust in the air, smells of men, chattering voices, tobacco, smoked fish, playing dogs. Something was wrong here. The men were simply about. Working on a cabin to judge by the wood smell. They were helping to build dens now?
Komu stopped to get a look at them.
I slipped to Skeen’s den, scenting, and still had not spotted one when a dog barked at sight or smell of me. I froze as a couple of clan Malamutes bore down on me, sniffing, then just as quickly lost interest.
Mej and Demik were out there now, asking in English what was going on. Foxes in skin, plus humans, came forward to meet them.
I was skirting around behind to go inside with Komu when there was a shout—English, but, again, I knew the words.
“Look at that! A fox!”
“A black fox!”
The voices were on the roof. The two men were finishing construction on the cabin beside Skeen’s, the roof now in place.
I dived around the corner just as the crack of a small firearm tore through the settlement.
A shouting man jumped to the ground, shooting again.
Demik yelled.
Komu ran past me.
Ondrog roared and burst from the trees as I sprinted that way. Something banged into my side, sending me tumbling—a force like a kick, only white hot and concentrated like a bee.
“No!” A scream in Vulpen.
A snarl. A man also screamed.
Another shot fired. Humans and foxes were yelling, dogs barking; the noise coming from Ondrog was terrible—as if he was set on ripping the world apart.
Hot tang of blood filled my nose. Komu shouted my name. Pain choked off my breath. Yet I was on my paws again. An image, clear and sharp, of a metal and wood cage, bars and terror, smells of rust and human beings—trapped, hurt, fighting, never free. So I ran.
I sped past Komu’s grabbing hands, Ondrog’s bound, into the birches, through the forest, and away with the smell of blood never leaving my nose, only building while this pain like death grew to a blaze through my body. Then, behind me, the last thing I heard was the world exploding.
Dear Reader
It’s time to follow these foxes home—if only they can escape new sorts of cages. Uncover the past and journey to the future with Summit and her skulk in the snowbound conclusion: Fox’s Night, out now!
If you are enjoying Foxes of the Midnight Sun please leave a quick review on Amazon. Reviewers like you are a huge help to independent authors! Then be the first in line for cover reveals, free bonus reads, and new releases by joining the Moonlight Mailing List at kralexander.com.
Thank you for reading, reviewing, and coming along on this adventure! Happy reading!
Until our next hunt,
K.R.
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Fox's Quest: A Foxy Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Foxes of the Midnight Sun Book 2) Page 15
