I nodded, the cold within me turning to ice. I was starting to remember just a little about one of Mai’s adventures when I was a cossetted child who didn’t have to pay attention to unfolding disasters. There’d been something about kitsune power working in the opposite direction under very specific circumstances....

  “Did you know,” Chief Reed continued, “that freely given kitsune blood allows a werewolf to command a fox?”

  Ah, yes. That was the specific set of circumstances. Still.... “You stole that blood.”

  “Did I?” Chief Reed’s smile widened. “As I recall, you pretended to stumble in order to get close to me. You could have fought back before I sliced your cheek, but you chose not to. I consider this blood to be given, not taken.”

  The ice in my gut expanded, sending tendrils into my toes and fingers. If I had to flee now, I’d be slow as well as weaponless. I wiggled my extremities surreptitiously while I gave Chief Reed the question he likely expected.

  “And you intend to use the blood to force me to, what, stand up in front of your pack and promise to be your heir?”

  “That’s the tricky part, isn’t it?” Tap, tap, tap went the bottle against the cast iron. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle went my toes under the table. They were still blocks of ice.

  Chief Reed smiled as if he could see the chill dragging down my body, the way my brain was racing without finding any path out of his trap. “It would be easier all around if you gave me what I want willingly,” he murmured. “Then I’d have an incentive to release the young woman, wouldn’t I?”

  A frigid wind cut through the heat roiling off the propane fire and Chief Reed closed his eyes for one split second. When he reopened them, the scent of nearing wolves was carried on that wind.

  His pack was approaching, ready to hear our announcement.

  “We can do this the easy way,” Chief Reed said, “or the hard way. Your choice.”

  Chapter 30

  Without waiting to see if I’d follow, Chief Reed led me back the way I’d entered, around the corner of his villa and into view of those endless steps.

  Endless steps that were now covered by a sea of shifters. They stood in silent stillness, no feet shuffling, no curious whispers. A snap of Chief Reed’s fingers and the underling who’d caged my star ball stepped out of the crowd and onto the flat expanse where his alpha now stood.

  “Uncle.” The younger man’s head bowed the same way it had when he’d faced Thom. His scent was obsequious, his tendency toward bullying hidden beneath submissive body language. That too-wide smirk was clenched down once again into a firm line.

  Chief Reed ignored him, motioning me forward instead as he addressed the crowd at large. “You have gathered here today to meet my heir.”

  At this, the younger man’s head snapped up, the scent of fur roiling off him. “You’re not thinking clearly, Uncle. Perhaps you should sit down....”

  The pack appeared to hold their breath at this insolence. But Chief Reed merely smiled. “So you’re afraid to fight for your role?”

  “I’m not.” The current heir’s mouth turned down in a long slash of anger, his sword rasping as it exited its sheathe.

  He advanced toward me on feet lighter than his bulk would have suggested. In contrast, I was defenseless. One hand rose to finger the necklace that caged my star ball. The orb remained impenetrable and cold.

  Meanwhile, the crowd’s scent turned hungry. They were amused by this spectacle even if obedience to their alpha kept them silent. Whatever they thought of Big Mouth, they certainly weren’t going to help me out.

  Good thing I was adept at attacking with words.

  “I can understand striking down an unarmed woman,” I mused. “But don’t you think it’s rude to fight without being properly introduced first?”

  Chief Reed laughed, another extended bellow that seemed to give the crowd leave to titter alongside him. Unfortunately, my verbal blow slid off my enemy. Rather than answering, Big Mouth doled out his first attack.

  I had no weapon, which meant I couldn’t block a blow. So I shouldn’t have been surprised that my enemy went straight for the obvious. His sword jabbed toward my unprotected chest.

  I let him come. Stared down the blade until it was too late for him to change trajectory. Only then did I leap out of the way.

  As I’d known it would, his sword clanged against one of the marble pillars, providing an opportunity for me to try to wrest it out of his fingers. I didn’t take that opportunity however. I’d learned long ago that, in hand-to-hand combat against a stronger opponent, I had no chance of success.

  Instead, I danced away, toward the watchers, many of whom had swords belted at their hips. The question was, how to gain possession of one of those weapons? The complete lack of sympathy in their expressions suggested words weren’t going to work any better here than they had against my primary opponent.

  Instead, I brushed up against the closest armed shifter, letting my breasts rub against his shirt front while my hands fumbled lower. His eyes widened and Chief Reed bellowed out a laugh that almost, but not quite, covered up the din as the entire sword belt clattered to the ground.

  “Thanks bunches.” I swooped up the sword, testing its weight with a few quick swipes in the air. The weapon was longer than I preferred, unbalanced in my grip.

  Definitely much better than no weapon at all however. And just in time.

  Because Chief Reed’s former heir was upon me. He fought like he bullied—barreling his way into my personal space, doing his best to slam through my guard via brute force alone.

  I couldn’t out-brute him, so I stuck to my strong suit—finesse. Each time my opponent attacked, I evaded. Only when he started breathing heavily did I strike.

  Not at him. At his weapon. He’d reached a little further each time I retreated. Had stopped worrying about guarding his own weaknesses until....

  Ah, there. He’d overextended just far enough.

  All in one quick move, I locked our hilts. Flicked my opponent’s sword away with a twist of mine.

  The blade flew out of his hand, over a crowd who ducked to avoid its sharp, spinning surface. Out of the corner of one eye, I saw a particularly coordinated shifter reach up to catch the discarded weapon without cutting himself. Impressive.

  But monitoring the sword’s path only required a small portion of my attention. The rest was focused on beating back my opponent, step by step, until he ran into a column and could retreat no further. My sword settled into the hollow at the base of his throat. Pressed just the tiniest bit, not even breaking the skin.

  I expected to need to prove my point, but it wasn’t necessary. “I surrender,” Big Mouth gasped.

  “Do you?” I cocked my head, considering submissive body language that I knew my opponent could turn on and off at will.

  “I do.” His face twisted as if in pain, even though I knew I wasn’t causing him more than minor discomfort.

  And I understood why when Chief Reed’s command rolled over us. “Kill him.”

  I was a kitsune, so I didn’t have to obey alpha orders. But if I wanted to find Ava, I had to act as Chief Reed’s heir, which put me in a pretty pickle now.

  Keeping my sword arm straight, I turned my head until I could meet the older man’s gaze. “Alpha. I...”

  Words cut off as my opponent—my surrendered opponent—moved faster than I’d thought he was capable of. Something flashed. A dagger he’d hidden about his person?

  I’d let him within arm’s reach in order to subdue him, which meant the blade aimed at my gut wouldn’t even need to be thrown in order to strike its target. He could punch it in deep with the full force of his longer arms and I’d be unable to defend myself. I’d die slowly and painfully.

  All of this spun through my mind in a millisecond. The same millisecond in which Chief Reed repeated: “Kill him.”

  I struck without premeditation. My sword pierced the soft skin of my opponent’s throat as if his flesh was butter. Sharp steel caught on the hard jut of his spine, but I put my entire body weight behind the move as I hacked at the obstruction.

  My would-be-killer’s mouth gaped wider than I’d ever seen it. His eyes bugged out in surprise. Blood spurted across both of us, across the white marble, droplets splattering the closest onlookers.

  Above it all, Chief Reed’s laugh rolled long and merry. As his chuckles faded, he announced me with an expansive arm gesture. “Meet Kira Fairwood. My heir.”

  Chapter 31

  “I killed him.” The words gushed out like blood from a shifter whose name I’d never learned. A shifter who, yes, was a bit of a bully. But he hadn’t deserved to be put to death.

  Still, Big Mouth was very much dead. And I was very much the murderer.

  The contents of my stomach spewed across the marble, mixing with blood and splattering the shoes of the woman rushing out the front door and falling to cradle the man at my feet.

  “Quentin!”

  So I guessed I knew his name now. Knew his name and knew that the woman who’d served us on the patio was what, his mate?

  No, his widow.

  For a long moment she clutched at the dead man, trying to force the wound in his neck back together. The effort was grisly and awful, blood coating her fingers, tears streaming from her eyes.

  Then she glared up at me. “You....” she started.

  “Now, now.” Chief Reed stepped between us. His hand dropped onto the woman’s shoulder and she flinched beneath his touch, seeming to shrink further as he continued speaking. “Don’t say something you’ll regret later. And clean up this mess before we return.”

  Then he turned to face me. “As for you, I’d expected a stronger stomach. We’ll work on that.”

  His words unfroze me sufficiently to remember that we had an audience. That I’d chosen to be a cold-blooded bastard’s heir to save Ava from being turned into a quivering heap like the woman who was already beginning to scrape her mate’s blood off the marble.

  It didn’t matter that I’d never before taken a life. That I’d thought murder was a hard line I wouldn’t cross, one I could always manage to avoid through words and humor.

  I hadn’t avoided. Hadn’t even tried to. The man splayed across the ground at my feet was proof of that.

  The emotional aftermath racked my body. But I couldn’t afford to look weak now. Not if I didn’t want to be forced to repeat this proof of my bloodthirstiness over and over again.

  So I turned to face the crowd...only to find the stairs empty. “I sent them away,” Chief Reed told me. “Before you ruined all of my hard work.”

  His hard work setting up a memorable transfer of power. His hard work removing a no longer effective heir.

  The alpha’s eyebrows rose at my silence, then he crooked his elbow as if he was a gentleman leading me to a ball. “Shall we find your young woman?”

  I didn’t want to go anywhere with this alpha. I certainly didn’t want to touch him.

  But Ava needed me. I settled my fingertips onto Chief Reed’s arm and walked beside him down the steps.

  THE RIDE AWAY FROM Chief Reed’s villa was nothing like the ride toward it. For one thing, the man I’d sat beside on the way up the mountain was dead. For another, Chief Reed dismissed his driver and took the wheel in his own two hands.

  “You will call me Uncle,” he ordered as we wound down a different steep hillside. We weren’t traveling back in the direction from which I’d come, giving me hope that we really were heading toward wherever Ava had been stashed.

  Which meant I needed a solid promise from the man beside me. After seeing how easily he’d turned on Quentin, I wasn’t willing to leave anything to chance.

  So I swallowed down residual bile and clarified the deal we’d struck. “You said that if I became your heir, you’d allow Ava to return to Gate City. I want her released into Thom’s hands today with no strings attached.”

  “You’re referring to the young woman your stray delivered?” Chief Reed’s eyes left the road, never mind the drop-off that, from my point of view, appeared to be inches from his wheels.

  Ignoring the potential for imminent death, I spoke between gritted teeth. “Yes.” When Chief Reed merely waited, I added a word that tasted like shit on my tongue: “Uncle.”

  The sweet scent of approval suffused the air between us. “Very good. And, of course, if the young woman wants to go, I will deliver her to Faris personally. Today.” This time, his pause smelled like a hardening. And, sure enough, when Chief Reed continued, his words bit deep. “In return, little fox, you will swear a binding oath to obey me as heir.”

  Obedience wasn’t my strong suit, especially not when I suspected all of Chief Reed’s commands would be as distasteful as his first one. Plus, as a kitsune, if I swore an oath, I’d be forced to abide by it.

  So I didn’t agree, not immediately. “You expect me to do whatever you say without argument.”

  Chief Reed’s booming laughter filled the car and he took both hands off the wheel to wipe tears of mirth out of his eyes. “I expect no such thing,” he admitted as the car veered toward the drop-off. Only at the last moment did he steady our trajectory and keep us on the road. “I expect you’ll argue with me in private until my ears bleed. But, in public, you will obey my commands.”

  It was better than I’d expected and, also, clearly the best I was going to get out of him. Ava’s thin shoulders filled my mind’s eye and I accepted the inevitable.

  “I swear,” I told him, feeling the tug of an oath kindling inside me. “If you uphold your end of the bargain, I will obey you as heir.”

  After that, we rode in silence. Down into a valley that looked vaguely familiar, especially when we turned onto a road I’d traveled not much more than a week before.

  “She’s here?” I demanded when the car rolled to a halt just at the edge of Reed territory. The gravel in front of us continued for another tenth of a mile, but I could see what sat at the end of the line.

  A three-story farmhouse turned woman’s shelter. One located on Gate City land.

  “I never said she was in my territory.” Chief Reed’s smugness filled the air between us. “Or that I had her under lock and key. I’m afraid you’ll have to cross alone, however. I respect boundaries.”

  Unlike some people. His unspoken words hurried me forward. I’d been tricked into an oath, I now realized, that bound me even though it would have been possible to save Ava without it.

  In fact, the girl should have been able to figure out her own way home. That puzzle tugged at me as I tapped on the farmhouse door. As the door was opened by the same old woman who’d greeted me a week ago.

  “Oh dear. Back again?” The few short words somehow managed to convey both her sympathy and her kindness. She couldn’t be complicit in a kidnapping attempt. Could she?

  “Not for myself,” I told her. “I’m here to pick up Ava.”

  “Ava?”

  The old woman looked befuddled, so I clarified. “The girl who arrived this morning.” I was already toeing off my shoes, pulling out my pockets to show they were empty. “Can I see her?” I continued.

  “She’s in your old room. Go on up if you wish.”

  I wished. I wished my way up the stairs so quickly I almost knocked over a priceless antique. Catching it just in time, I propped the ceramic pig back on its shelf and tapped on yet another closed door.

  Whatever was going on, Ava would be scared and upset. I was ready to console her. To promise library books by the dozen. Her mother’s sheltering arms in short order and mine until we reached safety.

  But the door didn’t open to reveal Ava. Instead, I blinked for one long moment at someone who both was and wasn’t familiar. Then I spoke the only name I had for her.

  “Kid?”

  Chapter 32

  “It’s Lily,” the young woman admitted after a long pause. The bangs of her silky blond hair tipped forward to cover eyes that, I now noticed, were rather well lashed for a boy. “Lily Randolph.”

  “The missing pack princess.” The one Mai’s neighbor wanted to search for within Fairwood territory. From what I knew of Lily’s situation, she would definitely be desperate enough to kidnap Ava. But—“Why didn’t you just slip across the closest border and ask my sister for help?”

  “As if that would have been so easy.” Lily’s slender hands landed on slim but rounded hips, making me wonder how I’d ever mistaken her for a boy. Perhaps because I’d only run into her when she wore baggy clothes that clearly belonged to someone else? Or because I’d seen what I expected to see.

  Now, though, Lily was all young woman...just as Chief Faris had said, the wily old dog.

  “Your pack has one goal,” she continued, “protecting kitsunes. If Hank and I had asked for help, your alpha would have tossed us back.”

  “They’re not my pack and Gunner’s not my alpha.” The words slipped out before I could stop them, leaving a foul taste behind. A taste that wasn’t relevant at the present moment. “What about Thom?” I continued. “He would have taken in a mated pair even if they were running from another pack leader.”

  Because Hank wasn’t this woman’s brother. He’d fought against my compulsion with all the desperation of a devoted lover.

  Plus, the Randolph heir wasn’t named Hank and he wouldn’t have helped his sister wiggle out from under their father’s thumb. More like offered to help, tripped Lily up, then laughed about it. The one time I’d met Randolph Junior, it’d been clear he was a dick.

  For the first time, Lily’s eyes evaded mine. “Hank’s not my mate,” she mumbled. “He said it wouldn’t be fair to pin me down when I’m young and desperate.”

  That did change things. An unmated pack princess was seldom allowed outside her guarded compound for very good reason. Her scent alone turned some males so crazy they tended to take whatever they wanted by force. Among lone wolves like those in Gate City—yes, I could imagine Lily had felt it necessary to hide her sex.