Stone-Cold Fox (Black Dog) Read online

“I have it on good authority that Ryuu agreed not to pursue you.” Mom’s eyes twinkled. It shouldn’t have hurt so much to hear confirmation. “However, your father, who likes to believe himself to be a traditionalist, did not think to extract a similar promise from you.”

  A tide of emotion swelled in me and sloshed over my common sense, soaking my good intentions to the bone and leaving me too soggy-brained to make the decision to hunt Ryuu down and confront him that had been floating into my mind. He had given up on us, but was that because he didn’t want me or because he thought I didn’t want him? Had he been giving me an easy out? He didn’t know the new Mai well enough to know how hard I would fight for what I wanted, and right now that thing was…him.

  “If you care for Ryuu, if you think you might one day love this boy…” Mom crossed to me, bent down and dropped a kiss on my head, “…then you will swallow your pride and take fate into your own hands. You will pursue him.”

  The urge to hop up and follow her advice was a twitch in my foot. “Dad will be furious that you’re counseling me.”

  “His pride has cost us all. You more than anyone.” She tipped back my chin. “Your sisters were older when they made the choice to place their father’s wishes above the desires of their hearts. None of them had met their soul mates before agreeing to his terms. They had only superficial understanding of what they were sacrificing.” Emotion clogged her throat. “I was wrong to allow Gorou to impress his will upon you after you had found and claimed your mate. I have regretted it every day since. When I heard what happened—that Ryuu had come for you—I thought that this must be the will of the gods. You have been granted a second chance, and I could not stand by and let it pass in good conscience. I cannot undo what has been done, but I want you to know that you have my blessing whatever you decide.” Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I only ever wanted your happiness.”

  “Mom,” I said, placing my hand on hers.

  “Do not squander this opportunity, Mai. In this, do not act as your father’s daughter, but as an independent woman, capable of making her own decisions and seeking her own fortune.” She reached into a pocket and placed a piece of paper in my hand. “This was always meant for you. Perhaps it is best I give it to you now so that such concerns will not influence your decision.”

  The sound of the door opening was eclipsed by the rustle of papers. I turned when it clicked shut, but Mom was already gone. I pored over the documents one by one and released a slow whistle. What I held in my hands was my dowry, and it was beyond generous. It was also all mine thanks to a few amendments signed by my mother and the skulk lawyer. I clutched the sheaves against my chest and stared at the ceiling, fighting back tears.

  My parents had bought a parcel of land for me and my future mate to inhabit the year I was born. In the twenty years since then, a six-building apartment complex had been erected there and their profits funneled into a savings fund for us to use to finance the building of our own empire. Fifty acres of field and forest sprawled behind those buildings, stretching past the town limit, and it was ripe for development…or the enjoyment of kitsunes running on four legs under the moon.

  I cradled my future in my hands and, without a mate to guide my decisions, I was master of my own fate in a way no female in my family ever had been. I was free of the Hayashi skulk if that was what I determined to be the best balm for my hurt. Mom had made me an independent woman of means, and I wish she hadn’t slipped out before I got the chance to thank her for committing an act my father would consider treason. Minor rebellions were breaking out all over the Hayashi household. Way to go, Mom.

  The only problem was, as great as independence sounded, the reality of it all rang hollow without anyone to share in the victory of Mom beating Dad at his own game. I was on my feet, car keys in hand, before my destination registered. I hit the hallway in bare feet, realized on the way down I was still wearing an oversized sweatshirt covered in melted chocolate and biking shorts smeared with peanut butter, and I didn’t care.

  This fixed everything. It got Ryuu out of my father’s debt and gave the Tanabe skulk means to begin anew. They could build real homes, actual houses, with genuine walls and decorated with furniture that didn’t fold flat. Gen could kennel Chiffon in a locked basement on nights the skulk hunted. They could have it all…and just maybe I could too.

  I slammed on the mental brakes and forced myself to inch toward my car and drive even slower. The Tanabes weren’t my skulk. At least not yet. I couldn’t adopt them like strays. They had been treated as rogues for long enough. They wouldn’t want my pity or my charity. They deserved better. They deserved a strong vixen who would stand by their reynard’s side, and I wasn’t sure that was me, but I was equally certain I wanted to find out.

  Chapter 11

  The return trip to Talpa blurred as my mind raced with possibilities. Finding the turnoff leading to the pastureland the Tanabes called home took the better part of an hour, and I ended up abandoning my car several yards in because the rough-cut road was scraping my undercarriage. I hiked the rest of the way, using my nose to guide me. A sense of urgency hastened my steps when the scent of gasoline and exhaust, both faint but plentiful, launched me into a sneezing fit.

  Each step tightened the vise around my heart. What if Mom was wrong? What if Ryuu spun me on my heel and sent me packing? I crested one hill and then another before spotting the ruins of the old barn. I scanned the horizon, gaze skating over flattened patches of grass, nose twitching at the reek of oil and grease. Drawn down into the valley, I stepped forward, and my foot dipped into a rabbit hole. My ankle turned, but I didn’t fight the fall. I hit the dirt hard, hands fisting grass to anchor me to the abandoned site as all those possibilities flitted right out of my head, scattered by the mocking wind.

  I was too late. History had repeated.

  The skulk was gone.

  Chapter 12

  “You didn’t have to do this.” I straightened Thierry’s glossy blue jacket. “You’ve suffered enough on my behalf.”

  “You got robbed last time.” Her nose wrinkled, and she blew wispy bangs out of her eyes. “After all the work you put into these costumes you never even made it on the stage.” She gave up and brushed a lock of hair from her wig away from her forehead. “I’m just sorry this is the last con of the season. It’s not even one of the big ones.”

  “I don’t care.” I twirled in the voluminous Sarah gown. “I was thrilled when you suggested a do-over.”

  “It’s the least I could do.” She lifted a shoulder. “You put your heart into sewing that dress.” She patted my teased hair, ribbons sliding through her fingers. “You deserve to walk across a stage wearing it.”

  “Or maybe…” I pinched the black spandex pants and let them snap against her thigh, “…you’ve got a thing for playing dress-up.” A chuckle rolled up the back of my throat. “Does Shaw know about this side of you?” Her cheeks turned a shade of red envied by tomatoes the world over. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “Incubus,” she said under her breath, like that explained everything. On second thought, maybe it did.

  “I feel like a princess,” I admitted, swinging my hips from side to side, listening to the fabric swish. “Or should that be the Goblin Queen?”

  After spending the past month grieving for the loss of something I never really had, I deserved to feel glittery and fabulous. The offer to dress up and hit one last con had motivated me to lose the five pounds of ice cream weight so I could avoid altering the bodice, which, now that I thought about it, might have been Thierry’s motivation all along. I had abandoned my spot on the couch for my running gear, and I was feeling more like myself than I had since Ryuu re-entered—and re-exited—my life.

  “You look fabulous.” Thierry adjusted her dickie collar and its cascading ruffles while wiggling her eyebrows at me. “I’m hot as a blonde, right?”

  I licked my finger and pressed it to her forehead. “Tsss.” I drew back and flung my hand from
side to side like her skin had burned me. “Smokin’ hot.”

  “The rules still apply.” She pointed a gloved hand at me. “No pictures.”

  I debated telling her about the video I had received in the mail of the previous con but…nah. “Sure.”

  Somewhere in our hotel room, an alarm chimed. Thierry rushed over to silence it and tucked her phone into the waistband of her pants, flipping her coattails as she readjusted. “That means it’s time to get this party started.”

  She hustled to clear a path to the door then held it open while I compressed the six-tier hoopskirt enough I could sidle through the frame into the hall. Once we hit the convention center attached to the side of the hotel, Thierry and I stopped to give each other last-minute inspections. Hair. Makeup. Costumes. Check, check and check.

  “Here we go.” We took our places in line and waited for our names to be called. I picked a stray hair off her shoulder and grinned at her wan complexion. “You’re not going to stand me up, are you?”

  She swallowed hard. “No?”

  “I was suspicious when you first suggested we enter from different ends of the stage.” I snagged the frilly cuff of her coat. “Now I’m getting a left-at-the-altar vibe from you.”

  “You know the choreography.” She peeled my fingers off her sleeve. “I enter at the far end, you the near end. We meet in the middle, do a little dance, and you collect your title as Foxiest Sarah Ever.”

  “I do like the sound of that,” I admitted. Half the points were for presentation. “Fine.” I shooed her toward the opposite end of the auditorium. “Go.”

  Alone in the gloom, sandwiched by costumes I was too nervous to examine in case they were more detailed than mine or had been sewn with a more careful hand, I ducked my head. I would admire them, compliment the competition and ask for tips later. But not now, while my toes brushed the first step leading up onto the stage. I craved distraction and started counting sequins to keep my focus narrowed.

  As many times as I had done this, I still got flutters in my stomach, still startled when they called my name, still forgot the steps until the music infiltrated my brain and my body moved on autopilot.

  Synthesized notes mimicking the tinkling melody of a music box filled the air, and I ascended the stairs, careful to trace each upper level with a toe before committing my weight to the step. I once saw a girl in full Sarah gear slip on her way to the stage, tumble backward and land on her rump. Her hoopskirt popped up, and we all saw what she hadn’t remembered to wear that day. I was mortified for her. I wore shorts over a pair of tights under my dress, but I hadn’t flounced in a hoop without thinking of that unfortunate incident since. Sucking in a deep breath, I stepped onto the dim stage. At the other end, in the shadows, Thierry waited for her cue.

  As I mimed the search through the crowded ballroom portrayed in the movie, I sneaked a glimpse at Thierry and almost lost my place in the routine. Whoever hovered at the edge of darkness was not Thierry. They were dressed in the same dark pants, the same shimmering blue jacket and wore an identical blond wig with blue highlights. I might not have noticed the switch from this distance…if not for the bulging codpiece that David Bowie had made synonymous with Jareth’s character. After dragging my gaze from this new Jareth’s crotch up to his face, I jolted as recognition zinged through me.

  “Ryuu,” I breathed.

  His eyes sparkled under the overhead lights as he approached. “May I have this dance?”

  My head bobbled on my neck, and I took his hand, falling into the steps while marveling at how well he matched me. “How did—?”

  “I reached out to Thierry.” He pulled me as close as the skirt allowed. “She coordinated with Katsuo to make the costume and teach me the dance.”

  “I don’t understand.” The room whirled around me, dizzying. “You left. I went to Talpa, and the skulk was gone.”

  “I swore to your father I wouldn’t contact you, and I am a man of my word.” He stared down at me with a burning intensity I felt to the tips of my toes. “I returned to the camp one last time to retrieve…” Dusky red spots darkened in his already flushed cheeks. “I wanted the pillow you slept on in the holding room.”

  Already in danger of melting, my heart puddled. Ryuu had kept a pillow because it smelled like me.

  “I watched you sitting on that hill with tears on your cheeks,” he said softly, “and I never wanted to see you hurt that way again.” His thumb caressed the top of my hand. “I screwed up, Mai.” Heat followed in the wake of his touch. “You’re my mate, and I used you.”

  I suppressed the tingles ignited by his touch. “Yes, you did.”

  “I drove a wedge between you and your family in order to save mine.”

  “Again, not arguing with you.” Even though we both knew he could have made his case that the wedge had already been there, I just hadn’t felt the pinch until he exposed me to it.

  His harsh sigh told me I wasn’t making reconciliation easy for him. Boo-hoo. Time to face the music, hot stuff. The number ended, and he spun me into a dip that trailed my hair across the polished floor. His lips whispered over mine, and my heart stuttered. I didn’t remember leaving the stage, but the next thing I knew he had pinned me against the wall in a darkened corner of the prop room.

  “I moved the skulk to a subdivision in Kermit.” He gazed down at me, a spark of excitement lighting his eyes. “We’re putting down roots. No more tents. No more living out of boxes. No more fighting other skulks for land or fleeing our homes in the middle of the night.”

  I pressed my back flat against a mural to earn myself room to breathe. “How could you afford all that?” I had seen the way they lived. Moving so many bodies from tent town into brick-and-mortar homes would have cost a fortune.

  “Your father didn’t fund the move, if that’s what’s worrying you.” He captured one of my hair ribbons and rubbed it between his fingers. “My father was a shrewd man. He saved most of his income and made smart investments. Exile made working among fae difficult, so we turned to the human world for employment. The skulk paid me tithes, and I invested that too.”

  “You lived in tents,” I argued. “They were very nice tents, but why? When you had means to live better?”

  “My father moved us from the Hayashi territory into apartments while he decided what was best for our family.” He released the ribbon. “Another skulk had noticed us moving into their territory and forced us out within the week. We had no sentries, no one to protect us. So we ran.” He shrugged. “After it happened a second time, my parents decided to travel light and live sparsely on the fringes of society. It made the constant moving easier, and it allowed us all to save the majority of our incomes for the past eight years.”

  I tried envisioning him laboring alongside humans and failed. “What do you do for a living?”

  “I’m a welder,” he said with no small amount of pride. “It’s a skill I learned from my mother’s people.”

  And the type of job he could pick up and drop as he moved from city to city with relative ease.

  “I know you’re interning at the conclave’s youth center.” He studied me through dark lashes. “The question is why?”

  “For Thierry,” I answered. “Well, not Tee exactly, but for other fae kids like her. Ones who come into their powers and hurt others while learning to control them.”

  “You have a big heart. I’ve always known that.” He stroked my cheek. “I worried you would grow jaded by time and privilege, but you’re still Mai, still the little girl who wore princess dresses and carried a cardboard sword.”

  My head fell back against the wall, and I laughed. That ensemble I recalled with perfect clarity. It had driven my parents crazy. “I rode my white horse—” or should that be drove my green coupe? “—all the way to Talpa to save you.”

  “Still the warrior princess,” he said under his breath.

  “Mom entrusted my dowry to me.” I tugged absently at one of the ruffles covering his chest. The shoc
k still hadn’t worn thin. “I own land and have control of my trust. I thought—I don’t know what I thought. I just wanted to see you. I wanted to help your family.”

  Ryuu’s thick arms banded around me, and he hauled me closer, despite resistance from my skirt. His cheek rubbed against mine, the smell of his skin intoxicating. “I don’t deserve you.”

  I fisted the lapels of his coat and jerked until he drew back. “I want a do-over.”

  A flicker of undefinable emotion crossed his face. “You want to test me?”

  I had thought about it. A lot. One of the defining moments of my life had been stolen from me, and I regretted that, but I had all the proof I required that what he claimed was the truth. Even if I didn’t feel that magnetic pull in my gut that made me yearn to be near him, and I did, I knew my father. He wouldn’t have acted so decisively, losing a valuable resource and a friend in Saburo Tanabe, if it weren’t.

  “No.” I couldn’t deny that which I felt to my bones. “You’re mine.”

  A pleased rumble vibrated through his chest. “You’re accepting me as your mate.”

  “On a trial basis,” I warned before the wig popped off his head as his ego inflated. “There’s fate and then there’s forever. I want us both to be sure.”

  He dropped a quick kiss on my lips that left my knees wobbling. “I will win your heart,” he vowed with such heated intensity that I couldn’t look away, let alone doubt him. “You will love me as much as you love Labyrinth fanfiction.”

  “How did you—?” A furious blush sizzled my cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Please, you’ve always wanted Jareth and Sarah to end up together,” he said on a snort. “You might not remember all the late-night Labyrinth marathons, but I do.”

  Shocked, I tipped my head back to stare up at him. “You’re telling me you’ve actually seen the movie?”

  “Only fifty or sixty thousand times.” He laughed at my surprise. “How else do you think I passed the shiren?” Magic was on the tip of my tongue, but his answer was more practical. “You were a persistent kid, and you carried that VHS with you everywhere. You always said at the end that Sarah was crazy for wanting her crybaby brother back. You said you’d trade any one of your sisters to be the Goblin Queen.”