For Fox's Sake (#3, Completed)

16. Curve ball

JAMES

The bottle dropped into the bin, causing the sound of clinking glass to echo throughout the room. The mountain of empty bottles piling up in there served as a testament to the hellish days that I had been going through ever since that night in the club.

Just think about it, that's what she asked me and, goddess, I'd been driving myself crazy thinking about Natalia's offer.

I probably dug my own grave when I told her I was too much darkness for her because I should have known that she wouldn't have given up easily. My little wolf was a lot stronger and ballsier than she looked. She just needed to believe more in herself.

The only problem now was that she thought all I meant was my sexual preferences. Which was part of it, of course. But that's because she didn't know the secret I was hiding, how being with me, being my mate, was going to endanger her.

And yet, I was tempted to give in. So fucking tempted.

Aron paced anxiously in my head, neither of us able to find peace lately, albeit for different reasons. He wanted his mate, while I was trying to keep her at a distance.

I don't get why you are being so pig-headed. He glowered in my head. She offered us a solution, the perfect solution. We can control things better like this, and still deliver on the deal, finally getting rid of it.

You don't know that. Last time we thought we can beat Kerrin at their own game, and look how it turned out.

I know. But if we can give that yako what they want, while making sure Natalia and Ciara are safe, isn't that a win-win? What can the demon possibly do with that, anyway?

That was a good question, indeed. I had never really spent time thinking about the terms of the deal and why that was the price Kerrin had named for saving my life all those years ago. Yet, I had no clue where I could look for an answer. Not like I had any demon experts in the skulk, and what was I going to say, in any case?

The howls that echoed across the skulk snapped my attention back to the present. Those were no ordinary howls. They were the sounds of male foxes on the prowl, which made no fucking sense because that only happened when there was an unmarked vixen in heat out and about, something that was extremely rare. Shifters usually mated pretty quickly after meeting each other, avoiding this exact situation.

It only took me seconds to get out of the house, in time to see a huge black wolf sprinting through the skulk, five-six foxes chasing it. They stood no chance as the black wolf was bigger, more powerful, pulling ahead of them with every move.

Mate, Aron pushed to shift, but it was not necessary. Those were our skulk mates, and my Alpha command was going to stop them from ever harming my little wolf.

It was only when she got closer to my place that I smelt it, the potent alluring scent coming from her. She was in heat, causing some of my unmated foxes to fall under the seductive spell of her pheromones.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. That was not good, not only due to the fact that it was my fault, seeing as I was the reason why we had not completed the mating process, but also because my mate was probably losing her mind due to what she was going through.

The heat lust was notoriously strong, aiming to push the mates to mate and breed. It only came on when the mates had been away from each other for too long without embracing the mate bond, and I could only imagine how strong it was for Natalia after the three years that had passed since our mate marks appeared. The only thing that had likely kept it at bay until now was the fact that we had not recognised each other until recently. And now that we had, the mate bond had its work cut out for it.