Fox Chance in Hell (Misfit Shifters Book 3)

by Rae Foxx

  I wondered if anyone in Puritan Village knew what their Alpha was really up to.

  Speaking of witches, a piercing scream suddenly pierced through my ears. I whipped my head in the direction of the screeching lynx and wondered what he had found.

  At the end of the row of doors, he had found something and with his large paw, hit the ground next to him to show me.

  That whole mate-mental-speak thing would’ve come in handy more than once. Except I didn’t want anything to do with the thoughts running through Wulf’s mind.

  Fucking traitor.

  I rushed over to Travis and he tipped his nose toward the dumpster. The three of us pounced and bounced over things until we landed on the top of it and eased our way closer to the room nearest it.

  Through the dingy window, I could see a figure that looked like it was tied to a toilet of all things and struggling against its binds. I gulped when I saw blood everywhere. Too much blood. Like the fucking Kool-Aid man had exploded and gotten his juice all over the fucking place.

  I knew who that was. I scratched and scraped at the top of the dumpster, looking for a way to get into the window, when Travis bounced from the top onto the ground and took off like a shot of lightning toward something. I assumed toward his clothes and hopefully his fucking gun.

  ‘Cause my feline mates and I had just come upon one fucking hell of a crime scene, and my remaining mate was inside.

  Evan and I went to the edge of the dumpster and clawed at the window. I cursed mentally, wishing that I was able to shift into something with fucking opposable thumbs. Evan, just as frantic as me, finally got one of his little paws into the window and pushed it open so that we could get in.

  I almost sobbed at what we found inside.

  My Owen. Fuck. He was slumped against the seventies floral wallpaper of the bathroom, tied to the toilet and gagged with what looked like a sock. The blood, oh god, all of that blood, was from the hand that they’d severed. Even his perfect blonde hair was caked with red. There was a musty, filthy towel wrapped around his forearm stub, and it took everything in me not to charge into the room and start shredding the culprit.

  But first, we had to get Owen out.

  Evan must’ve been on the same wavelength as me. He began to chew and tug at the ropes until they came apart and Owen slumped to the floor. He pawed at Owen’s face, even resorting to hopping on Owen’s body to get him to wake up.

  While he did, I padded toward the slightly open door of the bathroom to listen to the voices coming in from the other side.

  I peeked through to see Lym sitting on the bed with Stacey in his lap. She was practically purring and dry humping him. Wulf stood in the corner, his arms folded over his damned chest, unbothered. They were talking about the next move.

  “Just let me go get the seer. She’s probably right there, unprotected. It wouldn’t take me five minutes,” Wulf barked out.

  Lym huffed out a breath but didn’t answer. Wulf continued, “This way you can have your prize, and you and I can finally be done with each other. Let’s not pretend that we have some kind of father-son bond here.”

  Lym glared up at Wulf and practically shoved Stacey off his lap. “I have no intention of giving up my son. I’ve spent too many years training you. Did you think I hid you in that zoo for fun? You are useful and well-trained. Plus, you will always fucking belong to me.”

  I looked between Wulf and Lym, deciding if I could take them both on my own. My fox could be quick as fuck, but I was also a lot smaller than I wished.

  I might have to change back into my human form to saw off Wulf’s cock like I wanted to. While I took my sweet time making my decision, a knock on the door broke me from my thought and made me mentally growl at whoever it was.

  Lym, Stacey, and Wulf all jumped at the sound, though afterward, Lym just chuckled. “Well, that took less time than I thought. Things are getting more efficient around here.”

  Stacey giggled like a fucking toddler and kissed Lym on the lips before shifting into a bat and flying up into the corner over the bathroom door.

  Well, that certainly made sense considering the library and all the creepiness.

  My fox licked her chops. Bats were like prime rib to a fox, and my girl was hungry for fresh meat.

  I heard Travis’ voice enter the room. I trusted him to distract the two in the next room.

  I backed away from the opening to see Evan still trying to get Owen to wake up. I used the toilet as a jumping off base and leapt onto the towel rack, positioning myself to take down Stacey. She would be one bite. Two, tops. It would only take one well-targeted jump to get to her.

  Travis’ voice floated into my ears. Lym was taunting him since that seemed to be one of his tools.

  “I left them out there. Didn’t tell them where I was going. I just want to speak to my cousin. That’s all.”

  My chest constricted hearing him say that amidst the layers of betrayal we were already steeped in. Even though I knew better. Travis was loyal as fuck. Still, it stung to hear him express disinterest in myself and Evan.

  “You’re a liar. That fox has you pussy-whipped like no other. She snaps her fingers and I bet you run to do her bidding. You’re weak.”

  Wulf interjected, “Travis, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “Come on, Lym, let me in. You know more than anyone that family comes first, even before mates.”

  Damn, that one stabbed.

  I peeked through the open splice to see Travis trying to push past Lym, who held the door with a foot. He had underestimated Travis though, and with one more push, Travis was inside. My eyes flicked to Stacey who bristled at the intrusion of the cop.

  The next few seconds flew by in a blur. Stacey flapped her wings, moving from the corner to attack Travis. I heard one loud male yell, but couldn’t tell who it was coming from, followed by a gunshot. I took the distraction as an opportunity and leapt for Stacey. While I was in the air, she turned to me, shock apparent even in her widened bat eyes. My teeth clamped down around her tiny body and I tumbled to the ground, Stacey in my mouth as a second gun shot rang in my ears.

  17

  A rancid stickiness coated my teeth like a blanket of scum as my they into Stacey’s shifted body. The bat clawed and scratched at my face, and I felt it heat with drops of blood as they oozed out. I writhed with pain and anger, trying to shake the tiny black thing in my mouth, hoping it would die from either a brain hemorrhage or a severed artery. Either one would do. My fox ears picked up her heartbeat as it waned under the force of my bite...as she died in my mouth.

  “You!” Lym’s voice cut through my thoughts as his hand grabbed onto the back of my neck, digging into my scruff with so much force I screamed around the bat in my mouth. His fingernails ripped at my skin underneath the fur while he cupped my jaw so hard I thought it might crack in half. “Drop the bat!”

  Fat chance, motherfucker.

  I growled and shook the bat again, fighting against his hold on my jaw as best I could as he increased the pressure on my jaw, trying to use brute strength to make me bend to his will. Not on your life, asshole.

  Instead of being afraid of me, like he should be if he was smart, he shook me again and turned me so that I was facing Travis and Wulf.

  “It will only take one more shot to finish off your pathetic mate.”

  Travis was bent over, holding both hands to his stomach, his knees shaking while he groaned with the force of his pain. Indecision descended on me like a wave of heat. Lym had taken my choice from me. There was no choice. I almost dropped the bat, debating what was best. I caught Travis’s eyes, searching for the next steps in our ragtag plan. His dark brown eyes bore into me while the faintest of smiles tugged at one side of his face, revealing that sexy-as-hell dimple. I dangled from Lym’s hand and watched as it became a full-fledged grin. I whimpered against Lym’s hold, thinking that Travis was trying to be brave for me, to give me one last smile. I had every intention of letting the succubus go when Travis moved his
hands and returned to his full height, squaring off his shoulders to show me the wound—or the wound that had now closed up. He tugged at the opening of his shirt and pulled it wider, showing me that where there was once a gunshot wound, there was now nothing but a pink scar.

  Was my mate a fucking sorcerer?

  I’d expected him to move his hands and show me a gaping wound, pulsing with rivers of blood, considering the pool of it that was at his feet, but there was nothing. He’d already healed. How?

  My eyes met his and he simply beamed at me before winking. My heart throbbed once in relief and affection for him. Shifter power for the fucking win. Shit, that theory also applied to the bat shifter in my mouth, but thankfully also to Owen in the bathroom. I faintly heard Evan still trying to rouse him and chewing on what was left of the ropes that bound my mate.

  If Owen could just wake up and get free of his binds, he couldn’t fight, but he could at least run when we told him to.

  Oh, who was I kidding? This was Owen I was talking about. He wouldn’t run away just because of a severed hand. That wasn’t my mate at all.

  “I said let her go!” He shook me with double the force and I had no choice but to drop the nasty rodent or have my brains turned to Jell-O. Releasing Stacey, I turned my head to snap my teeth at him and try to bite his bulbous nose off. Or an eyelash—anything would do at this point.

  He had the balls to pat me on the top of my head, the impact rattled my skull.

  “Good girl. You can do something right.” As he said this, he dropped me on the ground and I Ianded with a hard thump against the stained and musty-smelling shag carpeting. I’d barely recovered, trying to get back on my feet, as his boot-clad foot connected with my ribs, sending me clear across the room until I smacked against the wall with a thud. The impact cracked my joints and felt far worse than a gunshot to my tiny body.

  I slid down the wall and landed with a bounce on the disgusting bed, my limbs in a jumble.

  That fucking hurt.

  I turned to see if he was going to come finish the job but instead, I saw him pick up Stacey and rub her head, stroking her wings, whispering all kinds of nice things to her. Didn’t think he had it in him.

  “You all were so foolish to come here. To think you could take us,” he said imperiously, having ensured the bat was not dead.

  The edges of my vision blurred and darkened as I listened to the ringing between my temples while trying to pay attention to what was going on. From what I knew of the bastard, anything was possible.

  I had to keep him away from my mates.

  All of them.

  I forced myself by sheer will alone to get up on all fours again, wobbly as Lym continued his whole evil villain thing. I thought I heard Lym coming closer, so I whirled as best I could, hoping my weak body would be able to fight. Or run.. Except when I tried to focus on him, there were fucking five of him, all connected like a string of evil paper dolls. Each of them had their own little bat in hand.

  He just sighed. I heard that much as I was trying to make the world stand still.

  “No matter. I will end you all easily enough. I should’ve done it at the bookstore, but I hadn’t expected you to find me so easily. My mistake. The thing about me and mistakes is, I never make them twice,” he turned, that wicked smile on his face again. I knew what that smile meant.

  “Frozen,” he murmured, thinking he was some kind of mage or wizard. He kind of was, but it pissed me off to no end.

  I begged my limbs and my body not to go stiff with that icy spell, but it was no use. In mere seconds, I was frozen in place, my fox body stuck in a half-step

  With a chuckle, Lym set the bat down on the bed gently, giving it one more stroke before strolling over to Wulf where he put his hand out. “Give me the gun, son.”

  “No,” Wulf’s voice shook as his chest heaved in and out with shallow breaths. He ran his fingers through his blonde hair as though he were questioning all his life choices. I was too. His and mine.

  Lym stepped back as though Wulf’s refusal had backhanded him, but then laughed it off, jutting his hand out once again in silent demand for the weapon.

  Wulf puffed his chest out. “I said no. This has gone on long enough. Too long. We’ve already killed too many, and for what?”

  Lym growled like he’d dealt with Wulf’s defiance before, and was tired of it. Hope began to niggle inside me. Maybe I didn’t need to saw off Wulf’s cock with a rusty, dull knife.

  I held my breath as he continued, “You’ve won the woman. You just need to run back, get her, and then take her back to wherever you have planned and be done with it. Leave all of these people alone.” I almost admired the resolve in his tone, but he hadn’t done enough to prove he was on our side yet, so I made myself tamper it down. Still, my mate was standing up to this tyrant.

  Lym began to shake with rage and the tips of his ears grew red as he balled his fists at his thighs. “You ungrateful bastard. After all I did for you! I made sure you were a powerful wolf, one that would be a leader, striking fear and respect into the hearts of all those you came in contact with. I went through all the work of hiding you in the zoo, molding and training you, and now you are what? Double-crossing me for a piece of ass? A nothing female?” He huffed out a laugh when Wulf said nothing, but darted his steely gaze in my direction, his jaw set in anger. Wulf patted his eyepatch, adjusting it as his father threatened him, or tried to.

  “I should’ve known better. You’ve never been able to keep your cock in your pants.”

  Wulf chuckled. “I got that naturally. You can’t keep your dick in your pants either, father,” he spat the last word. “You taught me to take what I want and protect what’s important. Well, here I am. Protecting what is mine. What is important.”

  Lym leaned back with the force of his laughter at his son’s seriousness. My asshole meter had gone to ten and been blown away plenty of times, but this man took the trophy.

  “Protect? This is what you call protection? You practically delivered your own mate to me on a silver platter. Do you really think announcing your innocence is going to make it true? Standing up to the big, bad father is going to erase everything you’ve already done? She’ll never trust you again. Much less spread her legs for you.”

  As though my legs were aware of what he said, they tingled, and I knew from experience that it was the beginning of the spell wearing off. In his fighting with Wulf, Lym must’ve accidentally stopped focusing on the spell. I concentrated on my toes and realized I could wiggle them slightly.

  “I am telling the truth.” Wulf leaned forward as he spoke, and Lym lunged. He grabbed the gun from Wulf’s hand and before Wulf could attempt a defense, he struck his son across the jaw, knocking my mate to the floor.

  “Don’t lie, son, or I’ll remind you just how harsh of a teacher I can be. Do you really want to lose the other eye? You almost didn’t survive losing the first one. But if you need another lesson, I’ll be glad to deliver it to you. Just say the word. That will add a little entertainment to my trip.” He laughed that hideous laugh again, somehow finding the concept of hurting his own son to be hilarious.

  My eyes shifted to Travis who raised one finger at me, subtly telling me to wait. Okay, I wasn’t the only one whose spell had lifted, clearly. I looked to the bathroom next, but didn’t hear or sense anything about Evan or Owen. I wondered if he was awake yet. Hoped he was.

  Inch by inch, I forced my legs to move until I was so near the bat I could see her little chest pump up and down with shaky breaths. Recovering from my attack.

  Travis, with a loud growl, suddenly pounced on Lym, grabbing the gun from him and putting the large man into a grip that seemed right out of the fucking MMA. One arm choked him, while the other locked his arms behind him, trapping him.

  I took my opportunity and turned back to the bat, intending to pull an Ozzy and bite her fucking head off, but in the bat’s place was Stacey, standing tall, the smile on her face sinister. One of her hands glowed in t
he dimly lit motel room. As quickly as I could, I shifted back to a human.

  “She’s the fucking witch!” I screamed so loudly that my chest burned with the effort. I’d been screaming a lot since Owen had been taken.

  I turned to Travis to see if he’d heard me and gasped in horror at what I saw. Lym was laughing while he looked down at Travis from the barrel of his Glock. It was pointed right between his eyes now. Clearly, he had gotten out of Travis’ hold.

  “You people are so fucking pathetic. Especially you, little fox.”

  Oh, gods, he called me what Wulf always did. I shuddered as he turned from pointing the gun at Travis to face me directly.

  I shifted, intending to give Lym a big piece of my mind, but knew that he wouldn’t listen.

  But that was the least of my problems. As he spoke, Lym began to quiver and the animal inside me sensed what was about to happen. His wolf was only barely being kept beneath his skin. Lym’s laugh evolved from human to wolf-like, in an instant becoming more gravelly and bass as it reverberated around the room. I watched as the pulse on his neck grew more rapid and the veins in his face bulged with the shift.

  Fuck.

  His entire body gave one last shake and he exploded onto all fours, furry and growling in my face. Spittle foamed from his wolf mouth which was now just inches from me. Hell, he was inches from everyone in the room with how fucking gigantic his wolf was. His paws were bigger than my entire body.

  Still, I had no intention of letting this motherfucker leave this room alive, even if I was dead right next to him.

  18

  The wolf chomped the air, growling and making a show of how scary he was. I rolled my eyes, we get it, you’re the big, bad wolf.

  His dark brown hair and black, beady eyes made me think Wulf had taken after his mother since father and son looked nothing alike.