“I’m guessing,” I answered while running my hand over the ancient bone. “Guessing that the kitsunes my sister defanged twelve years ago have something to do with this. One of them was my grandmother, so she wouldn’t have had a spare star ball inside her. But the other one never bore children. When she lost her magic, that unused star ball might have somehow ended up here.”

  “And in me also.” To my surprise, a whump of air preceded Dixie Lee landing beside me. She might detest kitsunes, but she was apparently willing to do whatever it took to get her daughter back. “That’s why you thought Ava smelled like fox.”

  I nodded. “It must have been a lucky break that someone with kitsune blood was young enough to capture that remnant magic.”

  “Not so lucky,” Dixie Lee answered. She reached out as if to touch the skull, then drew her hand away without making contact. “Ava had a terrible fever when she was around a year old. The doctors couldn’t diagnose or treat it. She almost died.”

  I winced. Yet another way kitsune magic had harmed Dixie Lee’s daughter. The question was, could the same magic save Ava from Kaito now?

  I considered the fox-skull artifact that had shocked me the first time I touched it months ago. After that, it had seemed quiescent. But as I stroked the smooth bone, I thought I felt a hum of pleasure at my touch.

  Pleasure...and a burst of images. A fox leaping from an upper-story window onto a gutter. A fox scampering across a porch roof, easily bridging the gap between house and tree then tree and ground.

  That wasn’t just any fox either. The animal was slightly gawky with youth, moving unevenly as if paws were a new addition to her body.

  “I think Ava just escaped.”

  I shouldn’t have spoken. Because the artifact provided no further information. And the hope in Dixie Lee’s eyes dimmed in slow, painful increments as we waited through the night for a child who didn’t come.

  MY OATH WAS BEGINNING to remind me that this wasn’t home, that I was due back in Reed territory not long after daybreak, when something scratched at the parking-lot-side door.

  In the interim, wolves had come and gone, reporting in about sectors patrolled and the complete absence of Ava. Jessie and Ito had united long enough to decide they and their kids should spend the night at Charlie’s house then had started bickering again before they’d even made it to their separate vehicles. And Dixie Lee had become so agitated that she’d stopped noticing the psychological tricks I’d unveiled to keep her from rushing out into the night to join the hunt for her daughter.

  Through everything, I made frequent pit stops of the literal sort, but the fox-skull artifact provided no further information or assistance. After the seventh attempt, I started wondering whether Dixie Lee wasn’t right. Perhaps we would be better served pounding pavement after all.

  Then that scratch, the scratch of an animal claw. I flung open the door and peered out into the darkness.

  Not pitch dark. There were enough nearby streetlights so I could make out who’d come calling. “Dixie Lee, you’ll want to get over here,” I said, unable to take my gaze off the kitsune who had indeed saved herself.

  Ava’s fox tail was darkened on the tip, as if she’d dragged it through something vile. And she winced with each step, suggesting she’d worn her pads raw running on cracked pavement.

  But she was whole and healthy. And as her mother approached, Ava rapidly shifted to join us on two feet.

  Rapidly, but not entirely efficiently. A paw turned into a hand then into a paw again. When Ava finally figured out full humanity, she slapped one arm across her buds of breasts and the other across her privates. First lesson I’d have to give her was how to turn her star ball into emergency clothing.

  But that wasn’t relevant now. Instead, I moved out of the way, waiting for Ava to run into Dixie Lee’s arms. To crow about having escaped all on her lonesome.

  Instead, Ava’s weight shifted from foot to foot, her gaze staying on her bare feet. “I know you didn’t want me to be a fox, Mom.”

  “Are you kidding?” Dixie Lee was the one who grabbed her daughter into a hug so tight I could hear the breath whooshing out of both of them. “I want you to be exactly what you are, Ava. I’m so grateful you’re home. I’m so proud of you.”

  “But I was dumb,” Ava said into her mother’s shoulder. Dixie Lee hadn’t let go of her and didn’t appear likely to in the near future, so the girl’s voice was muffled as she continued. “Kaito told me I could be special, so I left the funeral with him. It wasn’t until my star ball showed up that I realized he didn’t want me to be special for myself. He wanted me to be special for him.”

  “You were always special,” Dixie Lee promised into her daughter’s hair. “And you’re even more special now.”

  “You mean it?” Ava drew back so she could see her mother’s face.

  “I mean it,” Dixie Lee answered, every word encircled with the sweet scent of truth.

  After that, Dixie Lee drew her daughter into the Moon Room, murmuring endearments while gathering spare clothes out of the rolling wardrobe. I wanted to follow, but something was pulling me in the opposite direction. Out the door, which I closed quietly behind me. Through the nearly dark parking lot and around the corner of the next building until I’d entered the alley proper.

  Midweek, there would have been at least a few people around. But before dawn on a Sunday morning, I had the place all to myself.

  To myself, except for the alpha who loped toward me two-legged but with all the grace of his wolf form. “Kira,” Thom called, voice gritty with tiredness and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “We found Ava’s trail then lost it. I called the bar in case she’d turned up there but no one answered.”

  “It’s okay. She’s here.” My stomach fluttered, not quite in the way it usually did in Thom’s presence. Instead, my veins felt fiery. My feet refused to stay put.

  “She made it before he caught up then.” The dull thud of Thom’s steps on the pavement slowed. Relief was evident beneath the lack-of-sleep burr in his voice.

  “He?”

  Then, behind me, someone else spoke. Someone whose words turned flutter into shudder. “Mistress. Finally. Get rid of the wolf, then we’ll talk.”

  Chapter 40

  The voice tugged at my oath like the reins on a horse, momentarily quieting the countdown clock tugging me back toward Reed territory. Because this was Kaito and I’d sworn to make him happy. Expelling Thom would do just that.

  No. I shook my head. Kaito’s best interests were important, but I didn’t have to slavishly obey him. Not when he’d imprisoned a child for weeks on end. Not when, I could tell, he was hoping to do the same with me now.

  Instead, I surged star-ball magic into sword form and whirled, aiming for the dark alcove off the alley that the voice had emerged from. I didn’t intend to injure Kaito. Just to threaten him until he surrendered. Until Thom could draw the rest of the pack here to deal with this man who’d run rings around all of us.

  Only...none of that was in Kaito’s best interests, was it? My oath fought the momentum of my own sword stroke, twisting my blade so it struck the pavement with a cascade of sparks. Inside the darkness only feet from me, the shape that had to be Kaito murmured, “The wolf. Send him away.”

  “She can’t send me anywhere.” Behind me, Thom’s voice was rapidly approaching. “Not before the rest of the pack arrives. You might as well come out and face the music.”

  Ignoring Thom, Kaito spoke directly to me again. “Take his blood, mistress. Take his blood and use it to get rid of him and his pack.”

  I had absolutely no intention of stealing Thom’s will from him via blood magic. And then...my intentions changed. The closest streetlights flickered, something I’d begun to associate with the fox skull in the Full Moon Saloon’s crawl space. Then my sword arm was acting without my permission. Was rising with blade extended as my feet danced around in a circle. The tip would have sliced through Thom’s bicep if he hadn’t met my blow with his own sword.

  The clang of metal on metal knocked a little sense into my brain. Into my brain, but not into my fingers. They kept straining to push my sword forward even though I had no chance of succeeding in a brute-force contest against Thom’s greater strength.

  “Yes, just like that,” Kaito murmured. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the flicker of candlelight where he was standing. Candlelight combined with an overwhelming wave of fox scent. Whatever magic the honor guard member had used in the Reed forest, he was spinning a similar web now.

  A web that fogged my brain again until the only words I could think were: Take Thom’s blood.

  A hum of pleasure rose from beside me. Then: “A little faster, mistress. Faster and slyer. Remember, you’re a fox.”

  My feet and arms remembered. And even though I’d never sparred with Thom, I knew him. Knew he wouldn’t want to hurt me. Knew he’d expend only the barest modicum of energy defending himself while trying to draw me down the alley away from Kaito.

  So I followed Thom’s lead. Followed then used his own momentum to guide my blade toward his chest.

  It was an idiot’s move on my part. Such an overt attack turned me defenseless. Thom could have landed blows on three different parts of my body without breaking a sweat.

  He didn’t, though, just as I’d known he wouldn’t. Instead, he tried to block my offensives, even though doing so meant bringing his sword so close to his face it nicked his own chin.

  I laughed out of pure pleasure. Yes, this was what I’d wanted. The wound was the merest of scratches but sufficient for our purposes. Reaching out with the hand that didn’t clasp my sword hilt, I knew Thom wouldn’t bat away my finger. Knew he’d let me stroke his skin...and steal a single drop of precious blood.

  I held my finger up to the closest streetlight to consider the ruby semicircle. I had to drink it. I knew that. Had to drink the blood and force Thom and his pack mates out of Kaito’s proximity.

  But whatever magic Kaito had conjured in his alcove, it had been cast in haste and didn’t have the full force of the full moon behind it. So my thoughts, although muzzy, were increasingly my own.

  I didn’t want to send Thom away. Not now, not ever. He was the anchor who’d moored me during the past three months cast adrift from my family. He merged the best characteristics of an alpha werewolf with the chivalry of a southern gentleman. And when he’d finally dropped his guard and kissed me without reservation, we’d simply fit.

  All of this ran through my mind even as my finger rose toward my lips. I might want Thom by my side, but I couldn’t work against Kaito’s wishes.

  I could, however, twist as best I could beneath the web of his demands.

  So I forced myself into mental blinders. Reminded myself that Ito was his brother’s strongest ally. Sending for Ito now would only help the man I was oath-bound to. Would be in Kaito’s best interests.

  I held that thought close, forcing myself to forget the flip side of the coin. Forcing myself not to dwell on the fact that Ito, as the one who had pinned me down to putting Kaito’s welfare above my own, could also release me from that oath.

  Forgetting allowed me to whisper a request to Thom. “Send Ito here.”

  But I couldn’t resist the urge to draw my bloody finger between my lips. Couldn’t prevent myself from licking up salty fluid then demanding, “Go far away and take the entire pack.”

  “WELL DONE, MISTRESS.” Kaito emerged from the alcove and together we watched Thom struggle against the marionette movement of his own limbs. The hole in my stomach deepened as Thom rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, but Kaito’s voice just turned more seductive. “Now call for your apprentice.”

  “Apprentice?”

  “Ava. I smelled your magic on her. She’s yours and I’m yours and together we’ll be an unbeatable force.”

  “No.” Somehow, I found a way to raise my sword against Kaito a second time. Found a way to aim for his throat.

  Because Thom and I were adults able to deal with the repercussions of this night. Ava was just a child who had gone through enough already. I couldn’t draw her back into this madness. I wouldn’t. I might not have made an overt promise to that effect to Dixie Lee, but I made that promise now inside my own head.

  And it was enough. The countervailing oath allowed me to clench my lips shut then thrust cold steel into the space between me and Kaito.

  Unfortunately, Kaito had been a member of a kitsune’s honor guard just like his brother had. As such, his knowledge of swordcraft was so deeply ingrained I shouldn’t have been surprised when a blade I hadn’t noticed countered my blow so quickly I barely took in the flash of movement before metal connected.

  It was impossible to ignore the electricity spinning down the crossed weapons from his fingers to my fingers. And in the other direction also, I suspected, when Kaito’s scent became suffused with pleasure. “Yeeessss, mistress,” he groaned, his words forcing heat into my body. “Fight me this way, not the other. Surely you want something more than a useless alpha. Forget him and focus. What is it you crave? What is it you truly want?”

  As he spoke, Kaito’s sword slid along the length of my sword like fingers caressing from hip to ankle. Withdrew and feinted while tempting me forward in a dance of bodies and blades.

  “Ava mentioned your family,” Kaito murmured as we pirouetted away from the alcove and into the daylight beginning to creep up the length of the alley. “Family is the heart of all of us. Tell me and I can help you achieve your wish.”

  As he spoke, for the first time in over a decade, I was able to see Kaito’s face clearly. His dark eyes were squinched up with the same glee I’d seen in Grub when my nephew figured out how to stack a stool atop a counter to reach the cookies hidden nearly at ceiling level. Kaito’s black hair gleamed beneath the closest streetlight like Mai’s had after I brushed it with a hundred careful strokes.

  Love suffused me. “Yes,” I answered, dazed by the past layered atop the present. “I want my family. But I can’t have them. They’re not safe near me.”

  “But they could be.” Kaito dropped beneath the swirl of my blade, ignoring the easy opening I’d accidentally left for him. He didn’t want to end our match...and I found I didn’t want to either. This connection between us was so heady it rivaled the moon craze. Headier yet was the picture painted by his subsequent words.

  “Together, we’re a force to be reckoned with. No more hiding, no more scraping by. We can live wherever you wish to live. With your sister. With my brother. We’ll build an enclave safe from the world and there we will do as we wish.”

  An enclave where I could watch Aurora grow up the same way I’d watched her brother’s early childhood. An enclave where I wouldn’t have to worry about the overwhelming danger presented by angry werewolves if I dared to spend time with my sister.

  Something inside me niggled warning. This wasn’t right. I was forgetting a very important part of that rosy picture....

  Then Kaito’s sword guided mine into a spiraling display that left us both laughing from pleasure. What had I been thinking? Oh, yes. That Kaito was correct. That the solution wasn’t to fly beneath the radar the way I’d always thought it was. The solution was to appear powerful rather than weak.

  Our blades chimed together again and again. Then they met in an X and I found our faces sliding closer and closer through the gap above where the swords crossed.

  Something wasn’t adding up, but I didn’t know what that could be. Only knew that Kaito’s promise strummed through me like a plucked guitar string. Living with my sister without worrying about her safety was my top priority. I wanted what Kaito was offering.

  “Make me yours, mistress,” he murmured, twisting his chin upwards to bare his throat. He let my sword settle there, nestling against the soft skin that hid his jugular. Would taking Kaito’s blood grant me everything I wished?

  Chapter 41

  “Brother.”

  Someone stood behind Kaito, blocking the glow of the rising sun. I cocked my head, trying to make out who it was. But Kaito murmured, “No, mistress,” and I refocused on him instead.

  “Brother.” The familiar voice grew louder, more adamant. Then rapid footsteps preceded the addition of a female voice.

  “Is that Kaito? I thought he was dead.”

  “Not now, Jessie. Kaito needs a mistress badly. He’s losing himself to the craving.”

  I felt like I should be doing something. Saying something. But the heady surge of whatever-it-was rushing down the blade turned me sluggish.

  Instead, Kaito was the one who spoke for both of us. “I’ve found a mistress. I don’t need your help.”

  “You’ve found a kitsune,” Ito corrected. His voice was firmer than I’d ever heard it. Something about his words started clearing the fog in my head. “Two of them, actually. But neither wants an honor guard. You can force what you want in the moment, brother. But the connection won’t stick.”

  “And you have a better solution? Bind yourself to a human who will never understand you?”

  Jessie’s voice intervened again. “Ito, what is he talking about? What do you mean by a mistress? Is Kaito cheating? How could he have a wife I’d never heard of after being in a coma for so long?”

  A long-suffering sigh was followed by the repetition of a sentence I’d overheard half a dozen other times during the last twelve hours. “No one is cheating, Jessie.”

  Kaito’s breath caressed my cheek as he laughed. “Mistress, perhaps you could demonstrate what we are for the human’s sake.”

  Demonstrate? Sure, I could do that.

  I hated to pull my sword away from Kaito’s, so I merely withdrew a sliver out of the center. Turned the fraction of my star ball into a glow what coated my fingers and skittered up my shoulder to caress my own neck.