by Erin R Flynn
“Soraya, no!” Ikuyo shrieked.
But she was too late. I bound his tail with my magic. I turned around and smirked at her. “You should have done it when you had the chance. There is always a worse option, Ikuyo. You’ve lived long enough to know that. Do what’s right by your people and do not let your power blind you to it.”
She fisted her hands, knowing she couldn’t go up against me but desperate to try. “Your point has been made. Now leave my home.”
“I’m not done yet,” I purred, reaching behind me and undoing my yukata before turning to the man. “Haru, huh? Such a handsome name.”
“Thank you, Enchantress,” he whispered, his eyes wide as I eased the yukata off my shoulders a bit.
“Mmm, you want to see my breasts, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever seen a woman’s breasts, touched them?”
“Seen yes, touched no.”
“Come touch mine, Haru. Come play with me.” I opened my yukata, showing him I wasn’t wearing anything under it. He accepted my offer, and I felt Ikuyo’s magic ramping up. “Dog, shift and sit on her.”
“With pleasure,” Hunt replied.
I turned with Haru just in time to see him shift and dart to Ikuyo, snarling until she sat down and eased back on the magic. She might have magic and be a powerful ancient, but she was still a fox and standing before a pissed off wolf. “Do you see his neck, Ikuyo? He is mine. Should I take another young shifter as mine?” I kissed Haru’s neck. “Would you like to become mine, Haru?”
“Yes, Enchantress,” he whimpered, his lips kissing my neck as his hands played with my breasts.
“Soraya, don’t,” Ikuyo whispered, her voice shaky. “Please don’t. He’s the youngest kitsune with seven tails ever.”
“And yet you used him like a chess piece,” I sneered. “You forget, I know what it’s like to be powerful so young and what people do for that power. You were supposed to be different as you lived through the same. You were supposed to be better! Now take your punishment.”
I gently moved away from Haru and popped over to Ikuyo, grabbing seven of her tails. She screamed in agony as I pulled them from her, absorbing the magic. I didn’t just detach the tails as Haru’s had been, I’d taken them.
“You risked him and his seven tails, and the cost was seven tails,” I hissed as I fisted her hair and brought her face to mine. “Be thankful I didn’t take your life. I will however take him and protect him as you should have. I won’t make him my pet fox even if it would serve you right, as he deserves better than that. Never, never pull this shit again, Ikuyo, or you will be the next tribunal I call.”
“I understand,” she rasped, tears flowing freely. It would take her weeks to recover from what I’d done, and she might not ever get another new tail. I’d seen it go either way when a kitsune was attacked and tails taken.
Some died from the shock, but she was ancient and I figured she’d survive.
Right then, I wasn’t sure I cared that she did, I was so upset.
“Any more dirty secrets?” I nodded after hearing the answer from her mind. She was diddling one of her attendants that were supposed to be more like priests serving a goddess, but that wasn’t something I’d judge.
I was the last person to judge who had sex and when.
I let her go and went over to Hunt, petting his head. “Good dog. Shift back and I’ll make sure to give you a treat later.” I closed my yukata, thanking Haru when he tied it up and sliding my hand in his. “I’ll introduce you to some people who will keep you safe.”
“I do not wish to leave Japan,” he murmured, sounding afraid, probably that I would get mad or just scared to go somewhere else.
I waited to answer until we were a good distance from Ikuyo, knowing Hunt would catch up. “Just for a while. You’re special and need to be protected, Haru. You’ll visit for sure, and after I know no one will pull this crap again, you can come home if you want. Take it as a holiday, darling.”
“I’ve never had a holiday,” he muttered, his tone a bit more curious instead of only afraid.
Well, that was a good start.
“It’s a long story,” I said to Helen when she gave me a confused look at the kitsune following me. “And he apparently knows where the best soba is, so we’re adding one stop to the list. Are we ready to go?”
“Yes, but should we hurry things along?”
“I might have started some trouble that might upset some people even if it was valid.”
“It always is.” Most would have said it with sarcasm or upset there were problems, but not Helen. Actually, not anyone in my coven as most of them had once been problems I’d gotten involved in and helped. They always wanted to jump in and pay it forward like that.
As people should.
We rounded everyone up, and people made sure to change their clothes back into regular ones. I took care of Hunt, Haru, and I as Tommy and one of his teams went ahead to get us situated. One came back to tell us the coast was clear, and we started popping over to Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, as it opened super early for breakfast and sales to restaurants and whatnot.
I nodded to the Alpha whose pack we’d hired for security for the outing. We tried to keep security internal as much as possible, but it was smarter to hire extra when we were outside and at bigger risk, as they also knew the lay of the land.
“Who remembers the rules?” I asked our group, talking more to the kids.
Little Matthew threw up his hand first. “The gods have been generous with us, and we are always generous with others especially since we’re guests.”
“Good,” I praised. “What else?”
“Try something scary,” one said, which was true and a good rule to have. Life was about living and trying new things.
“Don’t be selfish and share!” another munchkin called out.
“And we don’t waste food,” I added. “If you order something, you order an extra to send back for those who couldn’t come. If you don’t like it, someone will eat it, and we do not insult people by wasting the food they worked hard to cook, right?” I smiled when they called out “no.” “What’s our last rule?”
“Never take off our charms, and no one will get mad if we’re scared or think there was trouble when there wasn’t,” a kid about ten said firmly. “It could be a mistake, and that’s okay, as being safe is most important.”
“Perfect. Everyone understand?” I waited until they nodded. “Four minimum to a group. Two munchkins, one adult from our coven, and one extra security. If there are more munchkins, you need more adults. No exceptions. If we need to get more adults, we will. No one wanders off, and we all have lots of fun. Remember this is their breakfast and we’ll go for dessert once those shops open.”
We started with a shop that had all kinds of tamagoyaki that were vastly different than getting a meat and cheese omelet that’s popular in the US. The kids had a ton of fun trying different things and were all very, very polite when they didn’t like something, simply handing it to their parent or adult in the group saying they were full. Little fibbers, but white lies to be polite were okay.
“You should maybe tell the kid you’re not actually going to pop his cherry after this,” Hunt warned me. “He’s one big hormone, and that’s distracting to the wolves you hired to guard everyone.”
“Is that the only reason?” I asked, knowing the answer. He didn’t answer besides to bump into me and let me feel his reaction to seeing me naked not even ten minutes ago. It was actually impressive he was still hard, but then again…
Still, I told the kitsune we weren’t having sex and I didn’t corrupt virgins. He was disappointed, but then understanding filled his eyes that I had done it to screw with Ikuyo. I couldn’t even pick on him for being late on that one given his whole world was just turned up on its head and here he was walking with us at a fish market in Japan as part of our coven now. Yeah, that sounded a bit traumatic.
“Boss! Boss!”
one of the kids called out as she hopped and waved her arms. She smiled brightly when I headed towards her. “Boss, this is the best. We have to share more than one.”
“Of course we will,” I assured her, taking what she offered. I moaned as I bit into a red bean paste-filled cake. “Oh yeah, this is one of my favorites.” I leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Good call. We always share.” I handed over the last bite to Hunt to make my point.
“Got it, boss,” she practically squealed as they moved on.
“Shit, that’s really good,” Hunt muttered as he balled up the wrapper. “I still can’t believe we’re just in Tokyo eating at a market thing.”
I glanced at him and blinked in shock when I saw the excitement dancing in his eyes. “You’re so dark sometimes I forget how young you are. Have you never traveled?”
He looked away. “Only with the military and not very much off base. I wasn’t stationed anywhere safe.”
I let it go as I ordered several boxes of cakes. There were times it was fun to poke at Hunt, but I wasn’t a total bitch no matter how he deserved any pain I could cause him after what he’d done. But I found myself heading to a stall I loved but the kids wouldn’t.
“Thank you,” I said to the woman after I paid, knowing she would hear me in Japanese as I still had the translator spell going. It was on the charms the kids all had, but those would bring them to me if there was a problem, so there was no point in me wearing one. I handed an order to Hunt and some chopsticks as I sent a few others to the front desk, as everyone in the coven knew to send food there to share.
“Fried quail eggs?” he checked, trying one after I nodded. “That’s good. I don’t like to ever taste egg yolk, but that’s good.”
“Worth trying at least once,” I muttered, realizing I felt like this was a date or something when that was the last thing I should ever do with Hunt.
Next the kids found a Belgium waffle shop that had all sorts of flavors and won me over with the matcha one. Hunt muttered something about it being good to know that I liked everything matcha. I ignored it as that sounded like something a boyfriend would say.
We ordered a bunch of layered butter cakes, the extra security that we had promising to get it all from the shops so we could move on. We had limited time after all, and the job was well worth it for what I paid the wolves. The kids had a blast with a coconut pancake stall that had all sorts of flavors, but by then they were starting to get full and tired, all the excitement wearing them out.
The only hiccup was a girl popping over to me, which turned out to be a false alarm. Someone had bumped into her and made her drop her food and almost knocked her over and she got scared, activating her charm. We made sure everything was okay, and I assured her she’d done the right thing. I would rather have a dozen false alarms than have the kids be shy about trusting their instincts when every other supe moved faster than us.
Hell, humans would move faster than enchanter kids.
One of the younger munchkins came over to us and handed a piece of stuffed mochi with a strawberry to Hunt before taking a bite of her own. Her mom worked security and was back at the building, so the adult she was partnered with who didn’t have kids looked amused at her antics. After her bite, she handed it to me to finish, and I thanked her, moaning at the mango and cream filling exploding over my tongue.
I almost choked on it when she held her arms out to Hunt, asking for him to pick her up. He seemed to mentally shrug and lifted her up on his hip.
“Time for home?” I asked her, biting back a smile when she shook her head and tried to hide against Hunt’s shoulder. “What’s the rule?”
“We can always come back,” she answered, sounding half asleep. “But there’s cotton candy the size of my head.”
“Would your mom want you eating that right before bed?” I chuckled when she shook her head again.
“I promise we’ll get you some you can have tomorrow,” Hunt muttered. “Time to sleep, pup. Your mom will be sad if you get a tummy ache.”
“We have healers,” she argued and then let out a soft snore, falling asleep even with so many around. That was too funny.
“My sister was like her,” Hunt murmured as he protectively carried the munchkin. “She never whined about nap time or threw fits. She would just come over and ask to be picked up so she didn’t cause trouble because she was tired. After our parents died, she started to do it again even if she was too old. I didn’t care. She was eight and her grief made her collapse into herself, so even letting me hold her then was a gift.”
“How did your parents die?” I asked, flinching when his aura immediately went dark, almost reaching for the child he was holding, but he chilled out fast. It seemed to be a knee jerk reaction, which worried me as to the answer.
“Some humans didn’t like wolves in their neighborhood, and when Mina and I were visiting our uncle, they broke in and shot them.” He cleared his throat and turned to let a group pass by without bumping them and waking the munchkin. “You noted I had more problems with magics than that caster who tricked Mina. That was it. An enchanter lived next door to us and didn’t want to get involved when it happened.
“Didn’t even call the cops when he heard the gun shots. My parents were good people and had even defended that guy when there were problems, but he did nothing when humans came to get them. I’d seen him teleport hundreds of times when I was growing up, but he didn’t do it then to save them when people were breaking into my parents’ house. Didn’t even call the cops. Never even apologized to us or gave his condolences.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered, knowing it wasn’t my fault but somehow feeling bad. I wasn’t accountable for all enchanters or magics, but it might have been my knee jerk reaction.
“Me too,” Hunt whispered, staring out at the crowd like he was keeping watch for trouble. “I didn’t realize how my anger at that one enchanter snowballed into hate of magics until that caster hurt Mina. I was fifteen when it happened and just angry at the world, blaming our neighbor instead of only the humans. I became a cop to save the next family from living that fate. Apparently all I did was grow into a fucking useless bigot.”
My mouth fell open as he turned and went over to a shop across the way. I glanced over and saw Helen and Jerome with the same expression, clearly having heard what he’d said. Yeah, I thought that was a pretty appropriate reaction to that.
12
Most of the kids went home—the younger ones mainly—and some of the adults with them so we ended up having a ton more security than needed. I didn’t let them go though, instead passing over a few million yen to the Alpha.
“This is like thirty grand, you get that, right?” he asked, glancing from me to it.
“Yes, darling, we do this often,” I chuckled, giving him a wink. “If you could have the extra security please purchase their favorites, as I have a whole coven still at home that didn’t get normal cafeteria service and it’s their Friday night. Oh, and sake and tempura everything. I hope you all know what’s the best. Eat as much as you like as well.”
“Thank you, Enchantress,” he accepted, dipping his head before turning to his people and giving instructions.
“They have their act together,” Tommy told me of the security. “I would add them to the list of who we might hire for events or anything in Japan like this.”
I nodded. “If they pass your critical inspection, then I agree. I saw several make sure to block even people taking pictures and camera footage, as we want no part of that.” I turned to find Hunt standing there with a few huge oysters. “Really?”
He just shrugged, not meeting my gaze. “I’ve never had huge ones like this. I mean, these are gigantic.”
I took it, and we both ate. I handed off the shells to Helen. “We’ll be right back.” I had to warn her because the charms would send anyone to her if I left the vicinity, and since I popped us to the top of Tokyo Tower, that wasn’t exactly near them anymore.
“Oh fuck,” Hunt gaspe
d, his eyes going wide.
“You are not my date or my boyfriend or my lover or my husband or my mate,” I reminded him, my tone frosty. “You are my dog. I own you. You are my slave because you owe a debt and I didn’t fucking obliterate you or give you a coffin grave, as others have suggested that as your punishment.”
He swallowed loudly as his whole aura lit up with even more fear. “I know. Even a dog can bring his master slippers.”
“Fine, but cut the shit, Hunt. You like fucking me and the games we play. I’m not a ‘miracle’ or any of that crap. No one as dark as me can be something blessed.” I leaned in closer as I licked my lips. “You hate heights, and I brought you up here because I enjoy fucking with you. I did it because I like sex in crazy places and you wanted to be my dog who gives sex. So that’s what you are.
“You’re the big dick I’m going to enjoy for as long as I want, and then I’ll toss you aside. I don’t keep anyone, and I really won’t keep a fucking traitor. So I will use you and abuse you because it’s fun for me. There’s no getting away from me if you’re extra good or rock my world. No, I’ll keep you around longer until I tire of you. Misbehave and you won’t get sex but licking my boots.”
“I get it,” he whispered as he turned me so I was against the metal, his arms surrounding me as he held on to keep us both safe. He pressed his lips against my ear since I didn’t have his hearing and it was crazy loud way up there with the wind. “I’m your dog, and I want to be your dog. That doesn’t mean I’ll stop also being a man and respecting women. Of all my many, many faults, that was not one of them.
“You might be the first I’ve ever satisfied in bed and wanted more from me, but my mom would beat me dead from the afterlife if I was anything but a gentleman to the woman I’m intimate with. No matter what I am to her, my behavior is on me. Yes, I got oysters that are an aphrodisiac or maybe not really, but it was more a joke because I don’t think we need any help to want sex. You yell at me like that, and I’m hard as fucking nails and dying to have you even if I’m terrified to be up here.”
