“Tails?” I glanced down to see the fox had two tails, not one. “Are you a mutant fox?”
“How rude!” The fox huffed in annoyance and nipped my arm with razor-sharp canines, drawing blood. I almost dropped the obnoxious creature but decided it would be gross if he ended up covered in blood, given he’d expressed a desire to share my bed.
The incubus kicked the severed head into the trees and wiped his bloody hands on his jeans before examining the fox through narrowed eyes.
“You may wish to use that fire magic of yours to destroy the evidence,” he remarked, pointing to the shifter’s corpse.
“Evidence?”
“Of a crime.” The way he said it implied I was the criminal in this scenario.
“Does that make me an accomplice?” the fox mused. “I don’t fancy the idea of prison. Orange isn’t my color.”
“Will you shut up for one second?” I snapped. “Not you,” I clarified when the incubus raised a sculpted eyebrow at me. “The fox is yapping at me in my head.”
“He’s bonded to you.”
“So he says.”
“Hey! Most witches would be thrilled to have a clever kitsune as their familiar!”
“What’s a kitsune?”
“Oh my fucking goddess. Fuck my life for being paired with the dumbest witch in the realm. Did your mother drop you on your head as a baby?”
“A kitsune is a supernatural fox creature,” the incubus told me while the kitsune/fox continued to rant in my head. “Older ones can shapeshift.”
“Can you do that?”
The kitsune grumbled but refused to answer my question. I sighed. It was late, and I needed my bed. This whole day had been a chore in so many ways. Maybe once I’d had a decent sleep, I would feel less like wringing the fox’s neck.
The incubus cocked his head to one side. “Your bear’s on his way. He’s extremely angry, which is my cue to leave.” He shot forward. Without asking for permission, the asshole kissed me. Hard. I swooned as heat flooded my veins and the tether in my chest thrummed with power.
The kitsune ended up squished between us, which, from his cute little growls, he didn’t appreciate.
“Hey! Not all kitsunes are creepyvoyeurs!”
By the time the incubus released me, my lips felt bruised and the horror of seeing him rip a shifter’s head off had lessened. An angry roar rattled the trees as my bear crashed through the undergrowth. The incubus winked and blinked out of existence.
“I’m not sure I’m going to like your other mate,” the kitsune grumbled.
My brain caught on the wordsother mate, but before I could process what the kitsune meant, my bear ran into the clearing, fur bristling in vicious spikes down his back.
He skidded to a halt, sniffing the air with an ominous rumble. Then he looked down and spotted the headless corpse and blood everywhere.
The bear shifted back to a male. A very naked male. But I wasn’t thinking about how deliciously naked he was, or how it made my body heat and purr. Only sick witches got turned on while ankle deep in a crime scene.
“What the fuck happened?” His eyes narrowed when he spotted the fox with two tails in my arms. “And why are you holding a male kitsune?”
The kitsune/fox chuffed with amusement. “Is the bear jealous?” he taunted, even though the bear couldn’t hear him.
“He’s my familiar. I saved him from a pack of wolves who wanted to eat him.”
“Oh purrleease. I had everything under control. No way were those assholes getting a bite of my hot ass.”
Ignoring the stupid and utterly delusional fox, I craned my neck to look up at my bear, whose mouth had dropped open in astonishment.
“You’reresponsible for the headless corpse?”
