“No!” The fox vibrated, his tails quivering as he bared his teeth in a foxy grin. If a fox could laugh, this was it.
“Hilarious that your mate thinks you’re capable of such carnage. If only. At least then I’d have something to brag about at the next kitsune convention.” He huffed loudly. “Instead, I’ll have to lie and make shit up.”
My eyebrows shot up as I got caught up in the fox’s nonsense.“Wait, you guys have conventions? Like, where?”
“Vegas, baby. We go all out. Hit the slot machines. Book hookers and everything.”
“Gross.”
“You have no idea, my poor sweet summer witch.”
Truthfully, I didn’t. Nor did I want to.
“So, um…” My bear folded his arms across his chest while he waited for me to explain the inexplicable. Stars above, the male had fine biceps. Was arm candy a thing? I felt like it ought to be.
“Focus, Raven!” The smirk on Maverick’s face told me I wasn’t good at hiding my admiration for his body. Not that he seemed bothered. From the status of things below the waist, he’d caught my interest rather well.
“Oh my eyes! I need a bleach eyewash!” The fox gasped in scandalized horror and clapped a paw over his eyes while clutching his nonexistent pearls.
Did the goddess hate me? She must truly hate me to inflict such a drama queen of a familiar on me. I’d only known him five minutes, and I was already exhausted.
Resisting the urge to drop the fox, I gritted my teeth, knowing full well my bear would not be amused to hear the incubus had played a part in this shitshow.
“Okay, so the now-dead wolf shifter tried to attack me…” The bear clenched his fists as fur sprouted down his arms. I swallowed. “But before he could touch me,” I continued in a rush, hoping to stall any more drama, “the incubus appeared and cut his hand off.”
Maverick froze. “The incubus?”
“Yeah. The wolf cried, spouted more stuff, and then the incubus tore his head off.” I pointed down. “Which leaves me with a problem, seeing as how I’m responsible and the wolf’s friends will tell everyone it was my fault…” My lip wobbled and I bit back a sob. How had this evening gone so wrong?
Maverick’s expression softened. “Little witch, don’t panic. I will fix this.”
“How?”
He smiled so sweetly that the moon wept. “By getting rid of the evidence and also the witnesses.”
“Holy fuckballs. I like the way this bear thinks.” The fox swooned. “You may be pathetic, but you chose savage-as-fuck mates. You got game. Maybe the goddess isn’t punishing me after all.”
I ignored his comment about mates, plural, my brain too exhausted to process any more revelations.
“Why would she punish you?”
“So I may have done a thing, and another thing, and also that thing where I stole a…”
Oh my stars. The goddess had gifted me with a criminally inclined familiar. I was so wrong. Thingscouldget worse.
23
Raven
“Did you hear what happened?” Glynda whispered as we sat down at a table in the corner of the dining hall. Outside, rain spattered against the windows. The ones not boarded up, at least.
I tried not to stare at the scorched circle on the polished wood floor while eating my oatmeal. Every mouthful tasted like ash as my brain replayed a highlights reel of the awful crime scene in the forest.
Maverick had taken me back to my dorm and then left to get rid of the evidence. He’d seemed surprisingly nonchalant about the whole affair. In fact, I’d go as far as to say mentioning the incubus’s part in what happened riled him up a lot more than me being an accessory to a murder.
“No,” I mumbled while doing my best not to choke on oatmeal. I’d left the kitsune asleep in my bed. The little shit had stolen my covers and seemed way too comfortable for my liking.
Why hadn’t the goddess gifted me with a nice familiar? Something cool, like an eagle or a panther. Hell, even a rat would have been a better choice.
