Out Foxed, page 6
Her mouth fell open, partially because he said she had a natural gift, but mostly because he admitted to finding her by using her scent.
He knew her scent?
Trace is supposed to know my scent.
‘Get over it,’ her fox growled.
‘Shut up.’
She chewed her lower lip and nodded slowly.
“Fine.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans, that someone was kind enough to pack up for her. “But don’t you think humans are going to look at us pretty funny-like if I’m sniffing about?”
“No, they aren’t.” He smirked. “You don’t know very much about Kentucky, do you?”
“I’ve never been out of Foxley,” she admitted. It’s not like she was proud of it. “What are you getting at, Rane?”
He held his hand out to her and she stared at it as if it were a foreign object.
“Come with me.”
Pursing her lips together, she eyed him for a moment before hesitantly placing her hand in his.
“I hope you’re up for a run, Henley.”
They walked a decent distance away from the gas station before he finally spoke again. She frowned and turned her head to take in their surroundings.
“Here?” She questioned. “We can’t just run in a place like this, Rane. There are humans.”
“I know that.”
He gripped her hand a little tighter and pulled her behind an old building. And by old, she meant old. Most towns in Kentucky dated back to the 1800’s, if not earlier. This place seemed ancient.
Her heart stopped when his body crushed against hers and she stared up at him in silent curiosity.
What on earth was he thinking?
“We’ll have to be very fast,” he whispered. “Humans can’t see us if we’re fast. Do you feel well enough to run with me?”
“I...” She couldn’t get her brain to work.
Why wouldn’t it work?
‘Perhaps it has much to do with the cat’s body pressing against ours,’ her fox offered.
Maybe.
“I know this trip is going to take a toll on you, Henley. You can’t lie to me.” His steel blue eyes locked on hers. Her mouth went dry and she lost any and all ability to form thoughts. “You’re being incredibly brave, and I’m impressed with that, but,”—he sighed—“if it’s too much, you can tell me.”
“It is not,” she responded without hesitation. “I can do this just as well as anybody else, thank you very much. I haven’t come this far just to give up now.”
She hadn’t come that far. They weren’t even out of Kentucky yet, right? It was no telling how long it would be before she caught up to wherever her father was being kept.
It was a discouraging thought.
“Okay. Okay. Calm down.” He put a small amount of distance between their bodies—which wasn’t much at all—and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I ask you again, will you run with me?”
“Of course, but where to?” She frowned. “I don’t even know where we are.”
“Maybe if you paid attention to road signs every now and then.” A smile teased at the corners of his mouth as he squeezed her shoulder and stepped back. “We’re going up there.”
He pointed to the highest peak of a mountain and her mouth fell open.
“We’re running all the way to the top?”
“Yes. We have to. That’s Pine Mountain, Henley. We need to get to the top so you can catch a better scent. The air is thinner up there, so it shouldn’t be very hard to do.”
“Pine Mountain,” she echoed.
She honestly had no idea where they were, and she felt ashamed because of it. Her parents had sheltered her far too much.
Well, kinda-sorta. They really couldn’t afford to travel often.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” He held his hand out once again. “You better hold on tight. I’m not stopping until we’re to the top. Got it?”
“Got it.” She nodded and placed her hand in his.
It didn’t matter how prepared she thought she was for running with Rane, when he took off like a speeding bullet, the world around them blurred a thousand times faster than she was used to, and the food in her stomach threatened to escape.
She gripped his hand as tightly as possible and prayed her legs wouldn’t give out on her.
The tiny town they were in flew by in a flash as he led her up the base of the mountain. It was a miracle they avoided rocks and trees, but she had to remind herself panthropes were more perceptive than she could ever hope to be. He could probably detect a stream from twenty miles away if he wanted to.
Being a canidthrope sucks, she thought as the air in her lungs began to dissipate.
They were going too fast. She couldn’t keep up.
“I’m going to fall!” She screeched as she stumbled forward. “Rane!”
Powerful arms scooped her up from the ground and she gasped as he crushed her against his chest.
“I’ve got you.” He met her gaze briefly and smiled.
You’re a jerk.
They were at the top before she knew it, and he carefully steadied her on her feet. He wasn’t kidding when he said the air was thinner, but she was far too distracted with the view.
Miles and miles of nothing but mountains greeted her in all their majestic beauty. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anything so gorgeous in her life.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered.
“It is.”
He was closer. He was standing right behind her and the static electricity from his close proximity tingled straight to her core.
“There’s more to Kentucky than just Foxley, Henley.”
Swiping her tongue over her bottom lip, she blinked rapidly and promised herself she wouldn’t cry over something so stupid.
It was stupid to cry over scenery, wasn’t it?
“I know you’ve never been out of Foxley before,” he continued in a calm voice. It was a voice, she quickly realized, that could bring a woman to her knees if he wanted. “You haven’t experienced a lot, have you?”
“That’s really none of your business,” she replied as her eyes drank in the serene beauty of their state.
Who knew such a view could exist? What else was in Kentucky that she didn’t know about?
“Henley, it’s a fact.”
His fingertips brushed against her wrist and every nerve ending hummed in recognition. Maybe her body liked that a little too much.
“Your kind has never had much luck when it comes to financial gain. The boring vacations my parents took me on as a child...you’ve never had that.”
“So?”
“I’m not saying anything bad about it. I’m just saying I want you to enjoy it.”
She turned around to stare at him as she narrowed her eyes.
“You really believe right now is a suitable time to ‘enjoy it’?” She frowned. “I can’t enjoy anything, Rane. Not until my father is home and I know he’s safe.”
“No, Henley. You misunderstood—”
“Forget it.” She wasn’t meaning to be so harsh about it. Sometimes a fox just didn’t have control over its emotions. “Just let me pick up on his scent.”
He sighed heavily behind her.
“You’ll probably have better luck on Chained Rock.”
“Chained Rock? What’s that?”
She followed his gaze and felt her eyes nearly bulge out of her head.
Chained Rock. He meant that literally. A humungous rock wasn’t far away from them, and it was literally chained to the rocks surrounding it.
“What in the...?”
She took careful steps towards the rock and tilted her head slightly. She’d definitely never seen anything like it.
“The residents of Pineville used to be frightened at the thought of this rock falling down on their town and smashing it to pieces. In the thirties, a small group of men gave them peace of mind by hauling these chains up here and securing it. The children rest easier at night, at least.”
“They carried these all the way up here?” She asked, crouching down by one of the chains. The links were huge. She reached out to grab one and lifted it with ease. “It doesn’t feel very heavy.”
“It wouldn’t feel heavy to you, would it?” He crouched down beside her and grinned. “Mules carried the chains. The links alone are seven pounds apiece. Sort of magnificent, huh?”
“It seems like something straight out of folklore,” she murmured as she put the chain back on the ground. “How did this rock even get here? Like this, I mean? It seems like it was picked up from one place and strategically placed here. Seems a little weird, doesn’t it?”
“There are a lot of things in nature that no one can explain.” His knees rested against the cool ground beneath them as he ran his fingers through his hair and glanced at her. “Like us.”
“Humans don’t know about us. They’re not supposed to. How can they question what they don’t know about?”
“You’re right.” He seemed amused, “But the lycanthropes have never been as cautious as us. Humans know about them.”
“They’re just fairytales to humans.” She rolled her eyes. “You haven’t seen any articles in the newspapers about a human interacting with a werewolf, have you?”
“No, but there are a lot of eccentric people in the world who would give anything to have photographic evidence of our existence. The lycanthropes are careless creatures, Henley. They’re terrible beings and I don’t like them.”
So you don’t like me.
Her heart sank. It wasn’t like she was proud to be cousin to those animals. Lycanthropes gave her kind a very bad name.
“Hey, what’s that look for?” His fingers hooked beneath her chin and their gazes locked. “I wasn’t talking about you, you know. You’re nothing like your kin, Henley. I respect the canidthropes. I respect your father. Why the long face?”
“It’s stupid.” She pulled her face away from his grasp and stood.
Why did she care if he liked her or not, anyway?
“We should catch the scent and get out of here. I feel a little weirded out right now.”
“Because of me?”
His question made her squirm, and she put a few paces between them as she walked out onto the flat surface of the large rock overlooking Pineville.
She inhaled as much air into her lungs as possible and waited for her mind to catch up. Her father’s scent wouldn’t be hard to decipher if what Rane said was true.
‘Tell him the truth,’ her fox encouraged. ‘He deserves to know that we are attracted to him.’
‘Oh my god. I am not attracted to him!’ She groaned. ‘Trace is my mate-to-be, remember?’
‘Was,’ her fox corrected.
‘Is, was, what’s the difference? It doesn’t matter now. I’m not marrying anybody, so drop it. I’m here to do a job.’
“Any luck?” He asked after a two-minute argument with her fox.
“Not yet. Just give me a second.”
She closed her eyes and willed her mind to cooperate. If she could just pick up on it...
“Henley,” he said in a low voice of warning. “Can you be a little faster?”
“You can’t rush this, Rane. Give me another minute. Please.”
She sucked in another deep breath and tried to ignore the stench of a decaying animal that was about a mile away from them.
Raccoon? She wondered briefly. Maybe an opossum.
It was a little difficult to push past all the scents of various wildlife living on the mountain, and even harder to ignore the humans who lived in the small town, but she finally caught a whiff of what could only be her father.
“I’ve got him.” Her eyes snapped open and she turned around to face him. “Look out!”
He didn’t have time to react as two large men grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground.
What was she supposed to do? Who were they, and what did they want?
“No!” She cried, rushing towards them. “Stop!”
How in the hell was a man strong enough to take a panthrope down?
Her heart plummeted into her churning stomach when she finally realized a crucial possibility.
They weren’t human at all.
Chapter Nine
“Don’t hurt her!” He demanded through clenched teeth as a knee slammed into his back. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Silence.”
He didn’t like being told what to do. He especially didn’t like being ambushed, but he really didn’t like it when one of those bastards put his hands on Henley.
“Don’t touch her!” He growled.
“I told you to be quiet.”
He grunted as the side of his face hit the ground and a bare foot pressed against his cheek.
“Bind his hands.”
“What? No! You aren’t going to bind me.”
He glared and struggled to see the men surrounding him. They weren’t human—he knew that much. Their scent was strangely familiar, yet incredibly new at the same time.
“Calm down, panthrope. We are not going to hurt you. Do not fight us.”
“Easy for you to say, pal.”
He heard Henley struggling nearby, but he couldn’t see her anymore. She was the one putting up a fight.
“Stop, canidthrope!”
“Fuck you!” She shrieked.
It was only a few seconds before one of their captors released a shout of pain and he couldn’t help but feel a little proud.
His fox was a fighter.
Mine? He thought, wincing as his arms were twisted into an uncomfortable position.
“Enough.”
The commotion stopped suddenly, and it became too quiet. Even he felt compelled to cease his thoughts as the echo of the voice lingered in the air.
That was the voice of a powerful elder.
“Release them. They are no threat to us.”
He sat up immediately when the foot was removed from his head, and he sought her out. His beautiful fox.
She was only a few feet away from him, red hair wild and eyes even wilder. Blood was smeared on her chin and glistened on her pointed teeth.
She’s a biter, he thought, mildly aroused.
“Welcome, my friends. I apologize for the behavior of my men. We do not get many shifter visitors here, and we recently experienced a visit we were not fond of.”
His eyes settled on an aged man with dark skin and more wrinkles than a bulldog. His long grey hair was braided, resting against his back. The deerskin attire he sported told him exactly who he was.
“You’re a dyadthrope,” he said in disbelief.
He’d heard the legends all his life, but they were just that: legends. How was it possible that dyadthropes, shifters capable of transforming into more than one animal, were still alive?
The last of them died in the early 1800’s—or at least that’s what everyone thought.
“I am.” The man nodded his head.
His eyes were warm and kind, but the scars covering his face and arms told him he had experienced something unpleasant in the past, maybe more than once.
“You are a very perceptive cat, aren’t you?”
“I am,” he affirmed.
His eyes moved back to Henley. She’d calmed down a little, but the anger was still in her eyes. She didn’t trust the dyadthropes.
“We meant no harm to you or your people. We were trying to catch a scent.”
“I know what you were trying to do,” the man replied as he motioned to one of the young men standing by Henley.
The younger male immediately bowed his head and walked away.
“You are from Foxley.”
“How did you know that?” Henley asked in a trembling voice.
He could sense her panic and he didn’t like that very much. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and reassure her about the situation, but he knew it wouldn’t be wise to move yet.
Besides, he couldn’t. Not until the dyadthropes untied him. This man, the dyadthrope leader, was indeed a civil being, but if he felt threatened in any way, their chances of leaving this place alive would diminish greatly.
“I know many things.” The man chuckled. “The Mother tells us what she sees, and it my duty to ensure it happens accordingly. She saw you approaching and asked me to meet you. We weren’t sure if you were here to attack us or not.”
“Attack you?” Henley laughed in disgust. “Please. Rane already told you why we were here. If this is supposed to be a meeting, then I’d hate to see what war is like. Who goes around tackling people to the ground and tying them up? A simple hello would have been nice.”
Feisty.
He stifled a small chuckle and maintained a straight face as he glanced to the elder shifter again.
“Hello,” the man replied with a small smile. “I am certain if my people were to visit your town, you would be cautious too, young fox-shifter. One can never be too careful these days, can they?”
“You were attacked by the wolves, weren’t you?”
He watched the old man’s smile fade.
“Yes,” he replied. “They killed two of our young warriors and took one of my daughters. I want her back.”
“I’m sorry.” He frowned. “Why would they take one of your daughters?”
“Because the werewolves are envious of our...abilities.” The elderly man beckoned him with one hand. “Come, please. Let us feed you and your comrades. I will explain everything to you back in the safety of our den.”
“We’re alone—” Henley began, but quickly fell quiet when Decker and Trace appeared in the clearing.
They stumbled forward and Deck cursed at the men behind them.
“Watch it!” He snapped. “What’s with the rough-housing?”
The old man’s eyes twinkled as he glanced at Henley again.
“There is no need to lie to protect your friends, little fox. We mean you no harm. Untie the strong cat-shifter. Come, and let us feed you to make up for it.”
***
“I don’t trust them,” she whispered to Rane once they were in the ‘safety’ of the den.
