them to set eyes on Barb in her fox form. The alpha was one of them, and two others Lexington hadn’t met yet.
One sported a nearly shaved head and a pair of aviator sunglasses, and had a long stem of grass hanging out the side of his mouth while he chewed the end.
The other was severely scarred on one entire side of his face. It looked like he’d been in a fight with one asshole of a fire and survived. His mouth twisted grotesquely at the corner and the mottled burn marks streaked down his neck and disappeared beneath the collar of his t-shirt. If you’d seen him only in profile, you wouldn’t know the other side was any different. But even with his stark brutal scars, something about his eyes told Lexington he was safe. Safe as a shifter could be anyway.
She cut a glance at Barb. The fox was low to the ground, head down, eyes averted, showing the alpha his proper respect. Barb knew she’d fucked up, but not a single vixen could blame her. Kit had given the code word, put them on alert. They’d done what anyone else would do to protect their young.
But it wasn’t another fox Kit had scented. It wasn’t their past coming for them. It wasn’t a threat at all. It was these three wolves.
“Well, what the higgity hell is this?” The one with the sunglasses said as they came to a stop. “We heard some bikes were showin’ up at the track, so we hop in the truck and get our asses down here for a look… and find this instead. I’m thinking there’s an explanation worthy of a campfire retelling, but I still ain’t sure how you’ll get it out after Drake here chews your asses up.”
There was an awkward moment where no one knew what to say, and then Aaron sighed, holstering his knife.
“We thought you were someone else.”
“Yeah, human. Got that much. The question is who?” The male talked with a hint of amusement even though he seemed serious as hell.
Aaron’s eyes flicked to Lexington, then to Barb the fox.
“Blister,” he nodded to the scarred one, ignoring the question, and then to the alpha who hadn’t taken his eyes off Barb. “Drake.”
“Why is she shifted?” Drake gritted out, vibrating with the dominance of his wolf. “And in front of a human?”
“Motherfucker,” Rider muttered under his breath as he paced a tight circle, hands planted on his hips. “What is happening here?”
He looked pissed, and like he planned on ignoring them all until he got a handle on this whole transforming thing. Which… he was obviously attempting to explain away in his head while his boots ate up the dirt behind the fence. Lexington wondered what possible explanations he was coming up with. A weird reaction to something he’d eaten and now he was hallucinating? A psychotic break? Stress and lack of sleep had made him crack?
Humans were resourceful when faced with justifying the paranormal.
Drake stared hard at Lexington like she had the answers to Barb’s predicament and he planned on digging them out of her brain one by one until the scene before him made sense.
“There’s an explanation,” she started, but before she could find words, Waldo came running across the field lugging a shotgun and waving his hands like he was going to battle with a bear.
“Outta the way!” he roared, twelve hairs flapping in the wind as he rushed forward, expertly maneuvering around the ruts in the track. That was the only warning before he planted his feet and lined up a shot.
BOOM .
The shot was a warning meant to get them all moving, and it did. Barb flinched, skittering left then right, looking for a place to hide. And that’s when the rest of them realized what Waldo was doing.
“Geet on outta here, ya mangy fox!”
But Barb had nowhere to go. She was surrounded by human legs that were shocked at the gunfire and trying to rally for a quick solution that wouldn’t end in a hit shifter.
A volley of NOs and WAITs and STOPs sounded off, but Waldo kept right on coming with his gun. In a panic, Rider
One sported a nearly shaved head and a pair of aviator sunglasses, and had a long stem of grass hanging out the side of his mouth while he chewed the end.
The other was severely scarred on one entire side of his face. It looked like he’d been in a fight with one asshole of a fire and survived. His mouth twisted grotesquely at the corner and the mottled burn marks streaked down his neck and disappeared beneath the collar of his t-shirt. If you’d seen him only in profile, you wouldn’t know the other side was any different. But even with his stark brutal scars, something about his eyes told Lexington he was safe. Safe as a shifter could be anyway.
She cut a glance at Barb. The fox was low to the ground, head down, eyes averted, showing the alpha his proper respect. Barb knew she’d fucked up, but not a single vixen could blame her. Kit had given the code word, put them on alert. They’d done what anyone else would do to protect their young.
But it wasn’t another fox Kit had scented. It wasn’t their past coming for them. It wasn’t a threat at all. It was these three wolves.
“Well, what the higgity hell is this?” The one with the sunglasses said as they came to a stop. “We heard some bikes were showin’ up at the track, so we hop in the truck and get our asses down here for a look… and find this instead. I’m thinking there’s an explanation worthy of a campfire retelling, but I still ain’t sure how you’ll get it out after Drake here chews your asses up.”
There was an awkward moment where no one knew what to say, and then Aaron sighed, holstering his knife.
“We thought you were someone else.”
“Yeah, human. Got that much. The question is who?” The male talked with a hint of amusement even though he seemed serious as hell.
Aaron’s eyes flicked to Lexington, then to Barb the fox.
“Blister,” he nodded to the scarred one, ignoring the question, and then to the alpha who hadn’t taken his eyes off Barb. “Drake.”
“Why is she shifted?” Drake gritted out, vibrating with the dominance of his wolf. “And in front of a human?”
“Motherfucker,” Rider muttered under his breath as he paced a tight circle, hands planted on his hips. “What is happening here?”
He looked pissed, and like he planned on ignoring them all until he got a handle on this whole transforming thing. Which… he was obviously attempting to explain away in his head while his boots ate up the dirt behind the fence. Lexington wondered what possible explanations he was coming up with. A weird reaction to something he’d eaten and now he was hallucinating? A psychotic break? Stress and lack of sleep had made him crack?
Humans were resourceful when faced with justifying the paranormal.
Drake stared hard at Lexington like she had the answers to Barb’s predicament and he planned on digging them out of her brain one by one until the scene before him made sense.
“There’s an explanation,” she started, but before she could find words, Waldo came running across the field lugging a shotgun and waving his hands like he was going to battle with a bear.
“Outta the way!” he roared, twelve hairs flapping in the wind as he rushed forward, expertly maneuvering around the ruts in the track. That was the only warning before he planted his feet and lined up a shot.
BOOM .
The shot was a warning meant to get them all moving, and it did. Barb flinched, skittering left then right, looking for a place to hide. And that’s when the rest of them realized what Waldo was doing.
“Geet on outta here, ya mangy fox!”
But Barb had nowhere to go. She was surrounded by human legs that were shocked at the gunfire and trying to rally for a quick solution that wouldn’t end in a hit shifter.
A volley of NOs and WAITs and STOPs sounded off, but Waldo kept right on coming with his gun. In a panic, Rider
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