Love Potion: A Valentine's Day Charity Anthology

by Graceley Knox

  On the paper, in messily scribbled handwriting, it read: 212 Kingstrot Street.

  That was where the foxes were holding up. From what he knew, Kingstrot Street was a fenced-in area of shacks. It was surrounded by junk and used to house families in poverty when the housing market was bad. It had no shortage of flammable materials, and if the wolves truly were successful in their assault, the foxes stood no chance.

  Jez had to make sure that didn’t happen.

  He wished to save the mystery woman. He had a strong feeling that she might be D, but it hurt to think about that. An unexplainable guilt threatened to eat him whole, and that kept him away from the truth.

  Kingstrot Street was on the other side of the city. Jez magicked into his wolf form, summoning his wolf essence. It swallowed his body and made his limbs buck. The pain that gripped his every muscle was excruciating, and it was only after years of conditioning and training that had he learned to deal with it. He made no sound despite the fire burning through his muscles.

  With enough pain came numbness, and he let that consume him.

  With quick paws, he ran through the city, sticking to the shadows. Many humans would question what a wolf was doing in the city, and often he and his men encouraged the pound to come after them, only to disappear once the officers with tranquilizer darts came running in.

  The moon formed a perfect white circle in the cloudless sky, watching over the city of the wolves. He felt one with the moon, similar to the rest of his brethren. When it was its fullest, it gave their kind strength. For the first time, he wished for the moon to wane, because strength for the wolves in this case meant death to too many innocent souls.

  He padded his way through the decrepit streets, past dumpsters, street lights, creaky stairs, and cracked pavements. He ignored the howling he heard behind him. It was still a distance away, but he knew his pack would close in on the foxes in a few hours. They didn’t want to waste this golden opportunity. Time ran short.

  He needed to save her.

  This time, he would.

  He huffed, a heavy breath leaving his chest. This time?

  He stopped in front a chain-link fence next to a brick wall. Graffiti had been painted over the red bricks in an artistic scrawl.

  DOWN WITH THE WOLVES

  He never understood why shifter clans had to fight, but maybe that was because he wasn’t wolf enough. The bestial drive was supposed to make him hunger for territory and power—especially so since he’d been born in wolf skin. But that lust for power never came. He’d always just wanted to find peace. To be with…

  Be with whom?

  The shacks inside Kingstrot were still brightly lit from the inside. Most shifters were nocturnal, and so Jez assumed they wouldn’t be turned off until daytime. Father wanted to strike them in the wee hours of the morning, when the foxes were about to go to bed. That would make them more vulnerable.

  That gave Jez about five hours.

  He felt a presence behind him.

  “Looking for something?” a woman with a smooth, husky voice said.

  Jez spun around as quickly as he could, haunches raised. A growl ripped from his chest but settled almost immediately when he realized that the question had come from the mystery woman. She stood, wearing a pair of leather boots, on a dumpster. Earlier, in the burning embers of the warehouse, Jez hadn’t managed to get a proper look at her. His eyes locked on to her now. A need to smooth his hands down the curves of her waist came over him.

  The wolf inside him growled.

  Mate.

  The word hit him like a whirlwind, slamming against his chest. His heartbeat quickened, and he tried to keep his animal at bay.

  A kiss would be required to confirm that. Even then, she was a fox. Interspecies mate bonds were not only uncommon, they were disallowed. Jez wondered why bodily needs were to be banned, but that was just how the shifter world worked.

  She hopped from the dumpster, her movements dripping with grace.

  “I’ve been looking for you,” he replied. The wolf tones of his voice were layered with his human one. He shifted back into a human, ignoring the cracking of his bones. His clothes stayed in place. No one knew how shifting actually worked, but most people reasoned it was magic. It made the unexplainable make more sense.

  “Me?” she said, eyes twinkling. “Have you finally decided to apologize for last night?”

  He cocked his head. “I don’t follow.”

  He thought he saw her cheeky grin falter, but he wasn’t sure.

  She sighed. “Guess you’ve really forgotten.”

  “That’s kind of been my biggest problem lately. Maybe you can enlighten me.”

  “About yesterday? Or everything else?”

  “What is there?”

  She circled him. Each footstep was so aligned that the casual indifference she treated her movements seemed nearly unnatural. Just her proximity toyed with his heart. She tempted him to circle his hand around her neck and tug her into a kiss, just to test whether she truly was his mate. Maybe then, he could be certain she wasn’t, and the confusion tormenting him would rest.

  “You know me, Jez,” she said, voice even huskier. A soft brush of her fingers swept down his forearm. He stifled a groan. “You just don’t want to. You only need to look into yourself.”

  “What did I do last night?” he asked. “You could just answer my questions. Are you D?”

  Her collar was low enough to reveal the curves of her neck. The neckline sliced downward into a V, ending in the middle of her chest. He knew it was wrong to stare, but he just couldn’t help it.

  “Accept the pain.” She stopped in front of him, mere inches away. She smelled of cinnamon—warm, like the autumn shades of her locks.

  “Why is nobody telling me anything?” The frustration shredded him from the inside.

  “Because you already know.”

  A heavy pause fell between them. Shaking her head, she took a step back. “You were on a moon tonic last night, but lucid for the most part. And then you met me, in front of a vending machine at Seven Riverline Street.”

  “That was where I was told the criminals would be.”

  “Well, yeah, I think the wolves should all be rounded up.”

  Jez frowned.

  “Except for you, sweetheart.” She winked.

  He pushed aside the way the pet name made his pulse skitter.

  The mystery woman leaned against the chain-link fence. She still hadn’t confirmed that she was D, but Jez was starting to believe that there could be no other option. “I knew you’d forget me because of the tonic,” she said. “But even then, I wanted you to remember. And then you did, and it wasn’t pretty.”

  “Remember what?”

  “What the wolves did to me.”

  He feared asking more. “What did I do after remembering?”

  She snorted. Looking away, she answered, “Fought a tree.”

  “Was that why?” He stared down at his hands, which had already completely healed.

  “You needed to take your anger out on something.” She looked at his pocket, which still had the hairpin. “You have something of mine.”

  “You’re D,” he said. Because the hairpin wouldn’t be hers unless she was that girl in his dreams.

  She tucked her lower lip beneath her teeth. To control himself from leaping at her, Jez had to force himself to meet her eyes, but that wasn’t any better, because they were so blue that she couldn’t help but suck him in.

  Her next words snapped him out of his daze. “It jogged your memory.”

  He took the accessory out of his pants. “This?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. But really, I need it, so if you could—”

  Right before he handed it over, she sniffed and raised her head. “What’s that?”

  He would have noticed them sooner, if not for the fox shifter being this distracting. “My brethren.”

  “Wolves?”

  “I wanted to find you to tell you about them. Thi
s is the worst place for the foxes to hole up. Makes you guys vulnerable. The wolves are preparing to launch an attack and wipe out the entirety of this clan.”

  Her eyes widened. “They want to kill everyone?”

  “Our alpha made sure they didn’t know any better. They think that the compound is only housing the men of the Slymoors.”

  “Still… Tell me their plans.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You can’t?” D paced back and forth, waving her hands about. “You’re going to let all my people die? I thought you were better than this, Jez.”

  “I don’t want war. If you know their plans, the foxes might retaliate, and unnecessary bloodshed will be rampant.”

  “You wolves already started war!”

  Jez slowed his breathing. “We’re about to, but maybe you can help me prevent it.”

  She swung her gaze toward him, and it was so sharp that it pierced his skin, straight to his heart. She didn’t seem convinced. Then, with a heavy sigh, she asked, “How?”

  “Bring all the foxes to the south entrance of the encampment. Get them out. Create a reason and don’t tell them about the wolves in case they want to retaliate. You’re not going to win this. Our alpha has called for the entire clan to put all their efforts into the extermination of the fox shifters.”

  “Why just the south?” She looked ready to sprint off at any moment. He wanted her close despite that, because it felt like she was the missing piece in the fractures of his soul.

  Damn, that sounded corny, even if he’d only thought it.

  “You not getting out from any other entrance,” Jez said.

  Not the south either. Unless Jez had something to do about that.

  He waved her off. “Go. There’s no time.”

  He pried his eyes from the curve of her waist as she traipsed away. He longed to peel away the layers of the mystery woman, to know all of D, but there would be time for that later.

  First, he had to prevent war.

  Chapter 6

  Jez stopped to pick a bunch of flowers. These were white, unlike the ruby ones that D had on her hairpin. They had little specks of yellow in them. White and yellow. Jez thought they’d match perfectly with D’s complexion and hair, and he wanted to put these behind her ear.

  He plucked out a bunch, smiling to himself, then clutched the flowers to his chest. He wondered if D would be late again today. He was often ten minutes earlier than her. Perhaps he was too eager.

  That was fine. He just had to tease her to make it perfectly clear that he didn’t like her that much. It was she who liked him more. He was only with her because he enjoyed her presence and nothing else… right?

  “Are those for me?”

  He jolted. Whipping around, he saw D in a flowery shirt and a pair of shorts. She hung from a tree branch, hooking her legs around it. Her hair flared out beneath her, and part of her shirt dropped down, revealing a portion of her belly.

  “D,” he said, flashing her a grin. He raised the flowers and offered them to her.

  She slid her legs from the branch and hugged the bark of the tree. Like a squirrel, she climbed down and halted in front of him. “I don’t really like those.”

  A sharp pain caught his chest. “You don’t?”

  “But I’ll take them, because they’re from you.” She took the flowers from his hands and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. It was so quick that he likened her to a woodpecker.

  He felt his skin turn warm. He tried to come up with some way to tease her, but D was so wonderful that all he managed was a blubbering compliment. “Y-you look pretty in that shirt.”

  D glanced down and played with the hem of it. “Oh, this? Momma forced me to wear this. I don’t really like it.”

  “Can I touch your hairpin now?”

  “It belongs in my hair. And to me. You’re not important enough to hold on to it.”

  Jez winced. He really wanted to be important to D. Maybe he was, because her actions made it seem like it. She probably had better things to do in her free time than join him.

  “Let’s go somewhere new today,” D said.

  “Like where?”

  D dug around her pockets. She plucked out two pieces of crumpled paper—money. “I stole this from Momma.”

  Jez’s eyes bulged. “You stole it? That’s wrong.”

  “What else do you want me to do? This is what I do. I’m a fox. Let’s get ice cream.”

  Jez liked ice cream. “Sounds good. Where do you find ice cream?”

  “Downtown, of course.”

  He gaped. “Father always says I shouldn’t stray too far from the compound. He doesn’t approve of it.”

  “You shouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.”

  “And why not?”

  “Because we don’t have to come back.”

  Jez shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

  “We have money now, see. Which means we can take care of ourselves.”

  “How much is that?”

  “A hundred?”

  “Is that enough?” Jez asked.

  “It seems like a lot. I always see Momma using it to get stuff.”

  “I don’t think we should do this…”

  D took his hand. “Of course we should. Don’t be silly.”

  Jez laughed. He trusted D. She would take care of him, and together, spending all the time they wanted in each other’s company, they could be happy. There’d be nothing holding them back, and that thought made Jez giddy with joy.

  “I don’t think this is the right way,” D said, looking around.

  They’d ended up in a dark alley, losing their way. The city grew darker the more they traveled. Graffiti painted the walls behind the chain-link fences, most of it not suitable for the eyes of children like them. A rat squeaked and scurried right past Jez. His wolf didn’t like the way this place smelled.

  “Let’s go home,” Jez suggested. He wasn’t sure which option was worse: staying out in the dark with Dee, or facing Father again.

  His heartbeat quickened when they walked past a painting of a snake symbol. It curled around an orb and had daggers sticking out from it. “Viper shifters,” Jez said. “My tutor said they tend to get angry easily and like to kidnap little kids.”

  D led him by the hand. “We’re grownups now.”

  “Sure.” He’d always looked up to D, but she still looked little compared to the adults.

  “If we stick to the shadows, they won’t notice us.”

  “Um, D? I don’t think this is such a good idea.”

  “Oh, don’t be a scaredy—” She halted, and Jez bumped into her back.

  “What is it?” he asked. She stared wide-eyed at something, so Jez followed her gaze. He spotted a flickering store, with a large neon ice cream glowing in front of it.

  “See,” D said, “Told you I knew the wa—”

  A sharp yelp and a dark shadow blinded Jez. D’s screaming was all he could hear. Shock exploded in his vision and numbed him momentarily.

  “D!” he shouted as soon as he came to his senses.

  Just a split second, and he was alone in the alleyway. He turned around, trying to figure out where she’d gone. He spotted her at the end of the alley, being grabbed around the waist by… Father?

  Father was a burly man. His forearms were covered with hair that looked like fur. He kept his head shaved bald and had one yellow eye. The other was a dark green. Father wore tank tops that revealed his oversized arms, and dressed in black pants that hung loosely from his waist.

  He looked like a giant next to D.

  “Dahlia Slymoor. Heir to the Slymoor gang.” Father glared at Jez. “I thought I smelled fox on you.”

  Jez blinked. Was that why she hadn’t wanted to tell him her true identity? Because she was the heir to the enemy clan? He supposed that, deep down, he’d always known. Why else would Dahlia seem that important and have to go through all the same things he did?

  “Let me go!” she shrieked. She ki
cked her legs and tried to escape Father’s grip.

  Jez’s stomach went cold. He stared, frozen on the spot. He should be doing something, but Father was the most threatening person he’d faced in his short life. How could Jez stand up to him?

  Jez couldn’t.

  He was helpless.

  “P-please,” he whispered. He looked down at his hands. They were shaking. He steadied his right fingers over his left, hoping to stop them from moving so terribly.

  Dahlia looked terrified. She quivered and tears watered her eyes. Her stare was tough, and she tried to put on a brave front despite their situation.

  “What did I tell you about begging, boy?” Father replied.

  “Don’t,” Jez replied. “It’s for the weak.” The answer came from him because Father had ingrained it in his mind. It left his lips out of habit. But all he wanted was to beg Father to let Dahlia go.

  “You found him, sir?” one of Father’s henchmen asked, coming from behind. He had tattoos all over his arms.

  “No thanks to you,” Father answered. “Get the others to gather.”

  “Yes, sir.” The henchman paused. “What are you going to do with the child?”

  “Kill her.”

  Jez didn’t know how to react. The words rang in his mind like the sound of a dropping axe.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  Thud.

  Adrenaline surged through Jez. Dahlia was supposed to grow up, and they were meant to be mates. Jez had been sure of it. There wouldn’t be any growing up left to do if Dahlia got murdered now.

  “No!” His limbs jolted forward, not of his own volition. Every drop of wolf instinct and the overwhelming need to protect his loved one flooded his senses. He lunged toward his father. “Let Dahlia go!”

  Father drew his claws and slashed Jez, sending him straight against the chipped walls of the alleyway. The smacking ache forced a groan out of him. Father had clawed him, slicing through his shirt. A deep gash formed across his chest and over his stomach. But Father’s actions didn’t stop Jez.

  “Oh?” Father asked. “You’re getting up?”

  “Let her go, or I’ll—”