Grinning, Raith curls an arm around me, squeezing my waist. “The mating call of a vixen,” he chuckles. “A female foxret. She’s tryin’ to attract a mate.”
“Oh. Right,” I reply.
The haunting scream is followed by barking noises, growling, and howls that sound like they’re coming from multiple locations in the forest. I’m guessing more than one foxret went to join the party. Not much time passes, and there’s a sharp whimper before another howl rings out.
“Once a male foxret has claimed a vixen, he will take her to his burrow where they will mate for days to ensure he leaves kits in her belly,” Thane explains, turning his attention to the forest.
“Okay, but what if she doesn’t like him?” I question.
Knox blinks at me, looking irritated. “What?”
“Well, what if he fights and kills for her, but she doesn’t even want him,” I answer. “Maybe he’s got a small dick or something, I don’t know.”
There’s silence for a moment as my mates stare at me, and then Raith bursts out laughing.
“What?” I defend innocently. “It’s a valid question. Or is this like a fated mates situation where they don’t get to choose? But if that’s the case, then why even fight in the first place?”
Galen’s lips quirk up at the sides. “As far as we know, the foxrets don’t have fated mates. They fight for the right to claim. As for the matter of what happens if she doesn’t want him…well, there are cases of rejection. The vixens are just as feisty as the males.”
That makes me feel a little better. “Okay, good.”
“Half the time you can’t tell if they’re fightin’ or fuckin’,” Raith adds. “But tonight, the vixens will want to breed as much as the males. I don’t think they’ll be saying ‘no’ too often.”
My cheeks flush as Raith draws circles on my waist with his thumb, and I shuffle on my feet. He’s looking at me like I’m a vixen he’s hunted down, and suddenly I’m finding it hard to breathe.
I clear my throat. “So, we’re just going to stand here and wait for some male foxret to come to us?” I ask. “That seems kind of silly.”
Raith winks at me, and he squeezes my waist before releasing me and taking a step away. “No point huntin’ when we can get the foxrets to come to us,” he replies, grinning.
I’m about to ask him what he means, when a high-pitched scream explodes out of his mouth, exactly mimicking the call of a vixen.
Clapping my hands over my ears, I gape at him, and I don’t pull my hands away until he finishes. “You can speak to them?” I say in disbelief.
Raith gives the others a look before answering me. “There’s still a lot we can do that you don’t know about, sunshine, but no, I can’t speak to them. Not in the way you spoke to the nemins. But I can mimic some of their sounds. At least, enough to trick a few foxrets into thinkin’ I’m a vixen.”
The air stirs around me as Thane manipulates his shadows, making them spin around me faster and faster. Black shadow claws tug lightly at my hair and clothes, and then he sends the shadows into the forest and out of sight.
“That should do the trick,” Thane growls. “With Raith’s call and Shade’s scent out there, we’ll have company in no time.”
I smooth my hair just to give my hands something to do. I’m not sure why, but I have a really bad feeling about this. “So, what’s their deal?” I ask Raith. Considering he’s the one who teaches creatures, critters & tracking, it seems logical that he would know the most about the foxrets.
He frowns. “Their deal?”
“Yeah, you know, considering what the nemins can do, I’m guessing the foxrets can do something equally as horrifying.”
Raith’s answering smile makes my stomach churn, and it does nothing to ease my nerves. “So you know how the nemins have a toxin they inject you with?”
I nod, wishing that was something I absolutelydidn’tknow.
“When a foxret bites you, their saliva is like acid,” Raith replies. “It’ll burn through a limb in no time.”
I wait for the laughter, convinced Raith must be joking, but my stomach plummets when my mates simply stare at me. “Oh, you’re serious?”
“They’re also incredibly strong. It can be a gruesome sight encountering the prey of a foxret,” Galen eventually says, solidifying the terrifying image that has now popped into my head. “But it’s nothing compared to what Thane—” Before Galen can finish, one of Thane’s shadows flicks out, moving across Galen’s mouth and muffling his words so I can’t hear them.
“Compared to what?” I ask, curious about what Galen was going to say.
“Galen,” Thane growls in warning.
