For Fox Sake (Misfit Shifters Book 2), page 1
For Fox Sake
Misfit Shifters, Book Two
Rae Foxx
Text Copyright ©2020 by Rae Foxx
The Series, characters, names, and related indicia are trademarks and © Rae Foxx.
All Rights Reserved.
Published by Market Street Books
No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For Information regarding permission, write to:
Rae Foxx at RaeFoxxBooks@gmail.com
Production Management by Market Street Books
Printed in USA
This Edition, March 2020
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
The Story Doesn’t End There…
Also by Rae Foxx
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About the Author
1
"I didn't know this town had more than one police officer," Owen hissed from my left, peering around to where Evan stood on my other side. All three of us were sequestered in front of the beaded curtain. Poetry had placed us here the second Travis had arrived back, in uniform, flanked by three other uniformed officers.
Now we were stuck, watching Travis and his cops ransack the place like the murderer was hiding behind the crystal displays and ancient erotic art. Wooden dildo sculptures were flying everywhere, crocheted vulva's bouncing off shelves and smacking against heads like an erotic game of dodge ball. Something made worse by the sweet scents of spilled lube and the pungent aroma of pot that always permeated the air in the Vagile Ajna.
There was something poetic about watching sculptured genitalia fly through the air... I couldn't put my finger on it, possibly because I was in danger of getting hit in the head by a ceramic statue of a garden gnome with a ridiculous erection.
Mushroom heads weren’t normally that flesh-colored. At least 'Death by Dildo' would look good on a gravestone.
"Agreed. I thought Fuckin’ was the only fuckin’ cop in town,” Evan returned, bouncing on his toes as the two snickered.
"No, Fuckin' can't be inside the Vagile Ajna alone, he needs protection," Owen chuckled and bumped his brother's fist.
Damn it, if I didn't stop them now there was going to be no end to the ‘fucking’ jokes.
"This is serious. Someone sent me a body part in a box, with a warning message written in blood," I reminded them, ignoring their request for a tandem fist bump and instead lodging my elbows in their sides.
"Does that mean that this is bloody serious?" Owen snickered, dodging my violent elbows while Evan chuckled. Wulf was giving them a one-eyed glare from where he had posted himself next to the window.
"Serious enough for Phoquin to duplicate himself. It's the only way they could find more cops in this one-horse town." Evan didn't necessarily deserve an elbow for that, but I gave him one anyway.
I rolled my eyes, "Of course they have more cops. I saw them..." After I had found the first body... the words died in my throat and I flinched. Though, the flinch might have been from the sound of an entire bookshelf on Christian Rituals hitting the ground as the cops continued their search.
"Please be more careful, this store is my livelihood!" Poetry nearly shouted, whisking over to them with hair and scarves in a tangle. "All of this activity really isn't necessary..."
The cop who had dropped the books gave her a side glare and dropped another book before walking over to the shelf of tiny glass dildos that the twins loved. He had been about to knock it off when he realized what they were and walked away awkwardly. Not that it mattered, with the way the cops had swarmed in after the bloody gift had been delivered you would think they expected the murderer to be hiding behind a bookshelf.
"If there's anything in here, we will find it," Travis said, watching over his overzealous employees as he pulled on rubber gloves with a bit too much flourish.
"Nice gloves," that trademark glimmer of mischief was in Owen's eyes. I shot him a look of warning, but he stoically ignored me. "You look like a doctor ready to give a rectal exam."
"No wonder Phoquin takes it up the—" I hit Evan in the gut so hard that he gasped, a few heads turning.
“Knock it off you two,” Wulf grunted from the front of the store. His arms were crossed over his ample pecs and his sleeves were practically begging for mercy, the fabric straining over his biceps. He had become particularly gruff after seeing the contents of the white box and had immediately gone outside to sniff the sidewalk and around the entrance. He’d come back aggravated as fuck that he didn’t pick anything up. Ever since then he’d been a statue of security by the front door, glancing over his shoulder at me every few seconds.
“Come on, Wulf, this shit is funny and you know it,” he said, which earned him another elbow.
Damn. My elbows were getting a workout today.
Wulf grumbled something indiscernible and went back to watching out the window. If the cops didn't find the murderer hidden behind a shelf, Wulf would.
"What exactly are you looking for?" I asked as Travis' groupies went back to destroying shelves, Poetry flitting behind them like a hummingbird drunk on too much nectar. More and more of her wispy, hippy-dippy exterior was melting away.
"There is nothing there..." She tried to shoo another cop away from her Taylor Lautner shrine, but the guy was not having it. Luckily, he didn't figure out the mechanism that would open the cabinet and add Taylor Lautner's nipples to this sausage fest.
"Clues, Scarlet. You were given the foot of a murder victim. I am looking for clues." Travis didn't even turn; he had now found the tiny glass dildos and was stacking them balls to shaft in his hand in order to move them. I watched Poetry’s face as she noticed what he was doing. Shit.
“Oh! Please, please don’t...” Poetry exclaimed and reached out like she could really stop Travis and his cronies from ransacking the place. She screwed up her face as she finally realized it was no use and plopped back onto her barstool behind the counter and sighed.
"Clues?" I nearly shrieked, exasperated. Everyone turned to look at my outcry, which gave Poetry a moment to check the lock on her Lautner shrine. "There was a foot delivered in a box at my door. I don't think whoever did it turned into a mouse and is hiding on a shelf."
Okay, now even Poetry was looking at me. "What?"
"You currently live in a town full of non-predator shifters. Trust me when I say we have had smaller animals do worse."
"Oh." Well, I can't say it was my finest moment, but at least my cop mate was kind and gentle as he reminded me how much of a dumb ass I was being. "So, sue me. When I think about murderers, I don't think tiny little mice. I think of... bigger creatures..."
"Like bears," Evan whispered behind me. At least I wasn't the only person thinking that.
"I understand that," Travis went back to his own search, leaving his dildo tower behind as he tried to peer through the curtain behind me. I didn't move. I wasn't sure if dominatrixes and grass were illegal here, but I wasn't going to risk it.
"Either way, we need to be absolutely sure we have covered every possibility. Turned over every stone." Oh, God, Travis had his cop voice in full effect and pointed at me, just like his eyes that were all dark and mysterious.
"I'll let you turn over my stone," I shook my hips at him, the twins chuckling at my poor attempt at a come-on. Embarrassed laughter was better than the look that Travis was giving me.
He was in full cop mode, and boy was it hot.
Damn it! Focus!
"Scarlet," he began, leaning in and pulling out that same elongated notebook he had in the truck the first time I had met him. "Can you tell me what you were doing last night?" I was surprised he didn’t tack on a ‘little lady’ in a John Wayne drawl to the end of his question. He stood in front of me and bent a little to level his stare with mine.
Okay, maybe my bad pickup line hadn't been as bad as I thought.
"Fucking you," I whispered, shaking my hips as I took a half step toward him.
He froze, pen hovering above his notepad as he lifted his eyes to mine, there wasn't a hint of playfulness there.
"Scarlet, I'm serious."
I snorted, thinking Travis was joking, but his eyebrows remained bunched and that dimple was in full force. The seriousness in his tone made the dread of finding a bloody foot on my doorstep all come back.
“Travis, give me a fucking break. You know where I was," I leaned in, "I was literally being fucked by you, you had your junk hanging out when I opened the door. Now get real and stop asking me stupid questions."
He huffed out a breath through his nose and scribbled something down. “I’m just following protocol. I need to know where everyone was when the crime was committed."
"Okay, I was in bed," I began, folding my arms as I slowly began to lift my voice, pulling the attention of all the officers one by one. "Owen's fingers were on my clit, Evan was fucking my breasts while I laid on your lap and—"
"Thank you!" Phoquin snapped, nearly dropping his notebook as his cop-ass snapped back to reality. He shook his head and squared off his shoulders. “Thank you for your help."
He swallowed once, turned as if he was going to ask Evan the same question before he scuttled off toward Poetry who was now trying to stick the gnome’s erection back on upside down.
“You know, I think this might be Travis’ first real rodeo,” Owen whispered to all of us. He was staring at the guy who was now trying to fumble his way through questions with my aunt.
“Couldn't be. Isn't this the town's third murder?" My voice might have caught when I said that.
"Second murder, first body part," Evan corrected me, flinging his arm around my shoulder like he was a scarf. "You can't murder a body part twice."
I couldn't really argue over that, or the guess about Travis’ level of experience, despite being the chief of police. The more I watched him, the more flustered he became.
"Maybe bloody rabbit feet in boxes just do that to the guy," I shrugged, Evans arm falling away. "He is one of the few predators, maybe the pack here doesn't fight. He wouldn't know what to do when he smelled fresh blood if he had to get all his food from the butcher’s."
"Okay, I'll accept that," Owen folded his arms, chuckling as Travis went from his bumbling questions to taking about three-million pictures of the cake box and then twice as many of the foot inside. The box now had stains where the blood had seeped through the cardboard and made a pinkish splotch on the outside.
I could smell it from here. No wonder Travis was struggling.
"Put that down or I'll be the end of you!" Poetry roared having finally lost her cool as one of the cops picked up a giant bowl of crystals and shook it. Hard. "Do not try me!"
"Damn!" Evan and Owen said together as the cop set down the vase and backed up as though Poetry had a gun and not a broken off gnome penis.
"Remind me not to awaken whatever woman Poetry was before she became Poetry."
"Agreed." The twins nodded. Poetry was now going from one cop to another, herding them toward the door. Guess the mouse-hunt was over.
"Okay, one last question," Travis said, sniffing every two seconds as he came over with his long notebook in his hands.
“Oh, fuck no. You were with me remember, or do I need to say it louder?" I was clearly teasing him, but the guy shifted his weight and moved his pants in a not-so-subtle way. Note to self, Travis likes a little push-back.
"No, no, I just need to know if you saw anything unusual?"
I lifted a brow, "Really? Does the color of your pubes count? Because I saw a ton of them."
"So did I," Evan leaned in, his voice a phone-sex-line away from making us all ready to drop trou. "I even came in them."
Travis physically jumped and that time he did drop his notebook. I couldn't even say it was first case nerves, I think I would have dropped my notebook too if I had been holding it when Evan dropped that line.
"Okay, fine. Do you have any enemies?"
I froze, eyes locked on that pen as it prepared to jot down the list of names that was going through my head. Starting with the pack whose Alpha I had accidentally killed and ending with a certain bear who hated my guts.
"No."
He raised an eyebrow; guess I wasn't very believable.
"For fuck's sake, Travis, stop asking me stupid questions and follow the clues!"
"I am following the clues," he snapped, closing his notebook with just as much force.
"Like the cake box that the foot came in?"
"I—" He froze, finger in the air as his brain seemed to snap into place, his hand falling to his side. Guess the smell of blood had addled his case-solving abilities. "Yes, that's why I’m going to the Rising Sun to ask Dawn some questions. No doubt that cake box came from there.”
He turned on his heel, all sure and defiant as if he had the idea all along. I rolled my eyes and hightailed after him, leaving the twins behind. They were now having a contest to see who could stack more glass dildos like Travis had..
Twenty-one dick pickup.
"Good. Glad you've got your head back on," I beamed, catching up to him just as he opened the door to leave. Wulf glared at us on the way out as if we were suspects as much as the imaginary mouse under the dildo pile. Broody wolf. "Let's go ask Dawn some questions."
"This is police business, Scarlet, I need you to stay here where it's safe." I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was serious. So did Wulf who puffed out his chest as if he alone was needed to protect me.
"Yes, safe with the foot in a box," I teased him, but he ignored me, flinging the door open to make an escape. "You’ve lost your fucking mind if you think I’m just gonna stay here while you go and interrogate. I’m coming with you.”
“No way. If Dawn’s got something to do with this, I don’t want you anywhere around her... or those cake boxes... or that bakery!”
"Kiss my fox ass," I said, stepping past him and moving out the door with a quick sidestep, wagging aforementioned ass at him. "Or better yet, fuck it later. You mated me; you’re stuck with me. I’m coming with you and I really don’t give two shits if you like it or not.”
"Scarlet—" Travis began, but Wulf growled that time, holding the door open even as Travis tried to close it. The two of them stared at each other, but there was no way that Travis was going to win the stare down with the wolf practically rolling with power.
God, they were hot when they looked at each other like that.
I gave Wulf a kiss and sped through the door, giving both mates an ass wiggle that time.
"Now let's go find these cake boxes that you’re so worried are going to harm me. I hope they have teeth with how much you’re shaking."
"It's another set of teeth I'm worried about." He gave me a look as he strode passed me, clearly needing to be in the lead. Looked like someone had some alpha in him.
"Worried, or excited?" I chomped my teeth at him and he jumped, shimmying a bit as a chill ran over his spine.
"Both.”
2
"It's really hard to keep you safe when you insist on coming with me to interview murderers," Travis grumbled. His hand wrapped around mine as we exited the Vagile Ajna, making our way to the bakery across the street.
"So she is a murderer then?" I bubbled, bouncing on my toes. I had been so sure about Eddie...
"No, she is a suspect, and don't say anything otherwise," Travis shook his head, trying to pull me to a stop as I tried to go full speed towards the baker’s. I had never been to a real interrogation before, and I was excited. Probably a little bit too excited considering we were going to interrogate a murderer, or I guess a suspect.
"Okay, a suspect," I gave him a wink, going into Ninja Scarlet mode. He was not amused.
"Either way you shouldn't be coming. I need to keep you safe..."
"And I need you to not put me in a glass case." This time it was me who pulled him to a stop, my hand tight around his as I faced him. “I’m not the type to sit at home and wait for my man to bring home the bacon. Or in this case, the murderer.”
He stared at me, jaw tight, hand flexing around mine like he was contemplating throwing me back into the Vagile Ajna and taking off to the bakery Han Solo-style. He seemed to decide against it, although he ended up looking like he was about to vomit.
“I’m learning that.” Apparently not fast enough.
“Good, now let’s go interrogate a baker.” And I was off, towing Travis behind me as I tried to mimic how I had seen cops walk on TV.
Not that it mattered. When we arrived, I swung the door open and that sweet yeasty smell swirled through the air, the scent of honey and vanilla and cinnamon making my mouth water. The place was all pastel pink walls with gray and white checkered flooring, shined to perfection. The glass cases held cakes and pies and every kind of pastry a person could ever want as the soft glow of a light inside highlighted them all. I no longer wanted to interrogate the baker. I needed to question the cinnamon rolls, cakes, and pastries that were lined up in candy hues behind the stretches of glass cases.
