by Rae Foxx
“Stop giving us that shit! Goddamnit, woman! Everyone in this god forsaken town has some huge sin that sent them here. Come on. Tell us. What is Dawn’s big fucking sin? Tell me!” I sounded hysterical, even to me.
Poetry’s gaze never met mine. She pulled out the braids in her hair and hummed while redoing them. I wanted to rip those fuckers right out of her scalp. “She told me no such thing.”
“Bull-fucking-shit! She was your best friend,” I tried to mimic Poetry’s airy, woo-woo voice. “She had to have told you something.”
I coughed and sputtered out the words, my throat completely raw from crying, and now screaming, all goddamn night.
Finally she squinted and whipped her head toward me, apparently I had gotten under her skin. “Well, maybe she said something about the bank that she robbed. I’m not sure. Nothing in comparison to my sin, of course. We all have our sins, don’t we, Scarlet? Mine was fornicating in public with the man that I thought was my mate.”
I blinked. Learning Poetry’s sin was not what I had expected.
Travis let out a pathetic gasp, but I didn’t get a chance to look at him because Poetry, with her confession out in the open, stood up and wiped her palms on her nightgown before her cheeks turned red, followed by the tips of her ears.
“It was your mother who got me sent here, you know. Reporting me for things that she should’ve kept her mouth shut about. Reporting me to the Alpha of all things. If I’d known you were a little snitch like your mother, I would’ve never consented to taking you in. You and your fucking harem.”
“Poetry, let’s all calm down,” he said as I jerked on my fucking handcuff like a dog on a chain. The fox within me yipped and snarled, wanting to get at her and shut her mouth once and for all.
Evan wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me against his chest, whispering reassuring things in my ear that I barely registered over the rage whipping around inside of my head.
I faintly heard Wulf chuckling while saying something like, “And they call me a wild animal. Look at the lot of you, acting like you’ve just been released from the zoo.”
Struggling to refocus, I allowed Evan’s words to course through me. I was sure my wrist was already broken, and I’d all but ripped the skin off trying to get at my Aunt to no avail.
“It’s okay. Let’s just calm down. We will find him. We will find him,” he murmured the sentences in my head like a prayer, trying to make himself believe them too.
“Poetry, do you know anything about the feet in the boxes? Where they are coming from? Who is doing this? If you know anything, you have to tell us,” my other mate demanded, his booming voice growing louder as he spoke to her.
Finally, he was on my side.
Her head snapped toward him so fast I thought she might hurt herself, and I smiled at the prospect. “I’m assuming they came from the rabbit that was murdered. I’m just hoping to the universe that none of his other body parts show up.”
Everyone except me gasped. I doubted that anything would surprise me around this place anymore.
As everyone recovered from her answer, something washed over her and her eyes became glassy and far away. Time for her bullshit again. I just knew it. “The past is nothing more than the sins inside us repeating themselves.”
That’s it. I’m gonna snap this bitch in half. I lunged forward but again, got nowhere fast. Evan held me tighter, flushing my back against his hard chest, threatening to take the breath from me at the same time.
Travis seemed unfazed by her muttering and stepped toward her. “Are you sure you didn’t hear or see anything?”
Wulf grunted and turned toward the Rising Sun Bakery across the street.
“You can see the goddamned place from here. You should've been able to see something even if you and your shrine were having your private time. Your store and the bakery are lined with windows. You had to have…” He trailed off, allowing her time to do something decent for once in her fucking life.
While he questioned Poetry, my rage switched gears and reverted to him. I turned my head slowly and targeted him with what I’d hoped was a murderous gaze.
“What about you, huh? You were on watch. It was your fucking job to be on the roof and the fucking lookout. What the fuck good is a look out if he doesn’t see a goddamned thing? Answer me, Wulf boy.”
He scoffed and turned to me, even going so far as to crouch down to get level with my stare. “I was prowling. Being a lookout means seeing things from all angles.” He pointed outside and I followed where he was pointing, but didn’t get his fucking point. He was evading me again, and all of a sudden he was next on my fucking list. Apparently all my mates were delusional today.
Travis went back to questioning Poetry, all staunch and proper-like, and I noticed something where Wulf had pointed. There was a man standing under one of the street lights, his arms folded over his chest, but with the shadows I couldn’t make out his face. However, I’d recognize that stance anywhere.
That was a fucking Puritan Village stance if I’d ever seen one. Legs spread apart, hip jutted forward. What the fuck?
“I fucking killed you!” I screamed toward the figure I was sure was the Alpha I’d stabbed with his own sword. Lym. He was here. But he couldn’t be, right? He was dead. What the fuck was going on?
Travis jumped at my outburst, and the color drained from his face like dishwater from a sink.
“No, Travis, not here. I didn’t murder anyone here. I’m talking about before…” I was rambling, not making any sense.
I scanned the street again, but this time saw nothing. He was there. I knew he had been there. Everyone was looking at me now, like I was the crazy person.
“I killed Lym, the Alpha of Puritan Village. Evan and Owen were there.” Saying Owen’s name made my heart clench and my throat grow tighter.
Wulf, still crouched, reached out to me, but I wrenched my hands back. He was still on my list. “She’s just tired and upset, everyone. A tired mind can make you imagine things. Travis, uncuff her. I need to get this female to bed so she can rest.” Wulf was all protector-mode, despite the daggers I was shooting at him.
Everything in me protested, but I agreed since they were going to uncuff me. Travis got out his keys and in seconds I was free, rubbing my wrist.
“Come on, mate. To bed with you.”
3
I inhaled deeply though my nose, coming out of the fog of sleep. My eyes burned and my entire body felt wrecked and sore as though I’d run a marathon the night before and I slept the entire fucking time. My fox senses picked up Evan and I realized my body was plastered to his with some kind of night sweats glue between us. Rolling over, I expected to feel Owen against my back, his ever-prevalent hard-on poking me, until realization crashed down on me like an avalanche. I blinked and ran my hand over the empty spot, trying not to cry. Or scream. Covering up my yawn with my fist, I pulled my body away from Evan’s and sat up, wondering if my other mates were in the room.
Travis was laying on the plum-colored futon looking as uncomfortable as possible. His head was cocked one way while his arms were crossed over his chest like he’d been manipulated to look like he was in a coffin. One leg was bent at an awkward angle while the other leaned on the arm rest, and he still had one shoe on.
I breathed in and out for a second, simply taking in the morning, letting the events of the past few days wash over me. I waited, listening to the only sounds around me: my own breaths, the soft snore from Evan, and the deep huffs from Travis. Despite the relative calm, I knew there was something missing. Realizing that my throat was still raw and angry at me, I got up and got a glass of water from the sink. The cool water burned at first and then numbed what I’d done to myself in my Owen-missing hysteria.
My bare feet padded against the equally cold floor until I reached the window, hoping that Wulf was out there. Crickets chirped a little song outside and the wind whipped against my hair through the open window, but the sound I was searching for was
missing.
Wulf’s howl didn’t splice through the air, cutting the morning in half. In fact, there wasn’t a sign of him at all.
I stepped closer to the open window, scanning the surroundings for something. No, not something at all. Someone. My stupid heart still held some hope that he would just step out and say, ‘Hey, got you’.
But my brain knew better.
That was probably where Wulf was, searching and sniffing out Owen. There had to be a scent trail or a clue that we had missed. No one just disappears without a trace.
I refused to believe it.
While drinking the rest of the water, my gaze pierced the morning, hoping that Wulf had found something.
Wait a goddamn minute. As I swallowed the icy cold water, I realized I should be out there looking. Relying on other people to find my mate was complete and utter bullshit, and I berated myself mentally for letting any time at all slip through my fingers while I threw a fit and accused Poetry.
Owen was my mate.
And I was just the fox to find him. No more of this screaming, mourning, crying fucking garbage.
Since when did I wait around for anyone else to do shit for me?
Not a goddamned second more. I had to get my ass in gear, like now.
After putting the glass in the sink, I let my fox take over. She was eager and ready to get going. Almost like she had known what to do all along. I turned toward the open window and used the armrest of the futon as a jumping off place. My paws landed on the little balcony outside our apartment. A gust of wind surged and I barely caught the window with my tail before it slammed and I was caught. No way Travis or Evan would let me scope out the town by myself. They could kiss my ass. I was a fox and a fucking damned good hunter. I had to do this. Owen would do it for me in a heartbeat.
You know I love the fuck out of you, right? Owen’s words thrummed in my head as I peeked over the window sill to make sure that Travis hadn’t woken up. I held my breath as he stirred, muttering something about me before turning to his side and readjusting his long legs to fit on the tiny futon. Evan was out cold. He didn’t move or even twitch when I shut the window with my tail.
Losing your twin must’ve been a fucked-up place to be.
I decided to go right back to the scene of the crime. Not the murder, no, that wasn’t the crime on my mind. I went across the street to the Rising Sun bakery, the last place anyone had seen Owen. I sniffed at the door, even going so far as to claw at the sidewalk and rustle up the dust around it, and sniffed again, hoping to catch even the tiniest hint of something that would lead me somewhere. Instead, I came up empty. The only other place I could think of was the butcher’s, so I traipsed over there, hoping that no one was awake yet since the sun had barely shown herself. I sniffed both the back and the front doors again, scratching at them and the surrounding concrete to make sure we hadn’t missed anything.
We hadn’t. There was fucking nothing. Like they’d never even existed.
I leaned against the brick wall, letting the peaks of the rough bricks dig into my fur and the skin underneath, hoping it would wake me from this nightmare or at least prick me enough to figure something out.
Having no other notion but to return to the Vagile Ajna to sniff around some more, I paused to check out the empty lot next to the store. I rounded the area, thinking about what Charles the Bountier had told me in the bar. About the family that had been blown up there. The only sound was my claws gently tapping against the rough concrete as I made circles, replaying what Charles had said along with Quinton’s words. I had paid attention to the dragon while the others shook in their boots. He had told me that I was following the wrong clues. While I didn’t like the idea of bothering Quinton again, and my fox even less than me, I knew that maybe Charles would have some more information for me. Maybe without Travis he would tell me more about the family that had died, since talking about it obviously bothered my cop mate.
I crossed the street and made my way toward the bar. Suddenly voices perked up my ears and made me freeze in place, I probably looked like a stuffed fox. When I realized the voices were coming toward me, I hopped behind the nearest wall and flushed my body against the unforgiving roughness of the bricks.
The voices were saying something about not getting a job done. The voices were a male and a female, but I couldn’t quite place them from this distance.
Whoever was speaking stopped, their feet shuffling against the ground coming to a halt. The female said that ‘someone will lose more than his parents if he doesn’t comply’. The male answered, ‘Don’t give me that look’.
Not sure who or what was going on, I had to find out who this was. Whoever they were knew things...things I needed to know. My hackles rose and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end as I gathered up the courage to turn the corner and catch whoever was speaking.
I took one step before I was hoisted into the air by someone grabbing me by my scruff. I let out a loud yip of pain as whoever it was whirled me around to face him. I kicked against my assailant, taking out a trash can and sending shards of garbage everywhere.
Evan. I’d been so focused on the strangers that I hadn’t even noticed him walking up behind me. Damn, not a mistake I should be making right now.
“Shit, shit, fuck and shit, Scarlet. You scared the ever-loving fuck out of me.” His voice was shaking as he said it, and consequently shook my small form as well.
My fox winced at the pain in his voice, and the pain from being shaken like a rag doll.. Neither of us had ever heard Evan come down on us like that. He was pissed and hurt and the beginnings of tears shone in his eyes. His brown hair was sticking out in all directions as his chest heaved with shallow breaths.
He was naked, and smelled more of sand cat than human, meaning he had been looking for me in his cat form and had just seconds before shifted back to human so that, apparently, he could berate me. The odors of feline, fresh dirt, and sweat burned the inside of my sensitive nose.
“You can’t do that to me, Scarlet. Do you fucking hear me? I was so fucking scared when I woke up and you were gone. Just fucking gone. Like Owen. I lost him, and I can’t lose you too! I know you can hear me. Promise you won’t fucking do that again. Promise!” He shook me one last time as he brought me near to his face. His chin quivered in a mix of fear and rage.
I knew that mixture well.
Not willing to shift back yet, I gave him my best fox promise and wiggled forward to lick his face. He stopped himself from smiling, but barely. I saw it in his eyes.
“Okay then. We understand each other.” He dropped me gently to the ground and then I watched on as the shift overtook him, from human to sand cat in seconds.
He walked next to me and pushed at my backside with his own, then nipped at my ear playfully. I looked at him and he tipped his chin toward our apartment. I yipped back at him, but first took a step around the corner, my curiosity about who was speaking before getting the better of me.
I sighed and dipped my head. No one was there. I had been so close to finding out who they were and what the hell they were talking about, but now I was at square one. Again.
Still, I understood perfectly where Evan was coming from. I would’ve tracked his ass down too if I’d found him missing in the morning. Before I turned back to him, I noticed a few paw prints in the muddy lot that led to the bar, but turned and followed Evan home without inspecting them.
4
I probably should’ve done something about the pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room, but with my eyes closed and leaning on my sense of smell, I dug out some cutoff shorts and a purple tank top. I flipped the pile the middle finger as all the mundane things in life would be put off until I found Owen.
And that included clean clothes.
I left my mates, minus a twin and a wolf, sleeping in the bedroom while I traipsed out and stood at the top of the stairs that led into the store. My stomach was a hard pit within my abdomen, knowing that I’d have to face the s
hit that I’d done the day before.
Not that she didn’t deserve it, Poetry was acting shady as fuck.
Still, maybe shoving her into a wall of glass shelves maybe wasn’t the best way to handle myself. I started taking the stairs like a normal person, but my toe caught on one of the shag carpet pieces and before I knew or could stop what was happening, I was tripping asshole over elbows all the way down, landing flat on my ass on the last step. I pushed back the curtain of red hair that covered my face and looked into the face of my aunt, who, like always, wasn’t fazed by my mayhem one fucking bit.
She sat on one of her more worn chairs and looked down her nose at me. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face showed she was worse for wear just like me. Sorry wasn’t really in my vocabulary, but if it was, I owed her the biggest one.
“Coffee?” I asked, trying to make some sense of my splayed limbs, finally standing and brushing off my ass. In front of Poetry was the little table that Owen had played Tarot cards on that day before he disappeared, and while she usually served tea on the thing, today, the bold, roasted scent of coffee took over the entire store.
She shrugged, leaned back, and crossed her legs, finagling her scarfy skirts. I caught a hint of bruises and scrapes along her pale legs.
“Seems like we both might need some caffeine today.”
I swallowed against the sound of her fragile tone, but couldn’t determine whether or not she was pisssed off at me. I mean, if course she was pissed off at me, I just had to figure out the depth and the width of her anger.
“Poetry, I…” God, the tears welled in my eyes before I could even attempt to choke out the words. There weren’t words for what I’d done.
Fuck, she was probably going to kick me out. Me and my mates. But if she did and Owen came back, he might think that we had left him. Abandoned him and went somewhere else.
No, he would know better.
Wouldn’t he?
