Page 10 of Foxin’ Around (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)

Chapter

Nine

S yrix peered over at Krystal, his head fur fluffing with pleasure at her obvious delight as they walked together alongside the lake. Although the cabin did not sit close to it, unlike the other cabin he could see shadows of at the other side of the lake, it was a pleasant walk to get there. This was preferable. The lake was far too open for him to feel comfortable denning there, especially since so many of the races passing through his woods tended to stop at the lake before continuing onward.

At his side, Krystal shaded her eyes with her hand and pointed at the distant cabin. “That is the Mallory Cabin. Looks like it’s vacant. Good. They were always unpleasant to deal with. They thought they owned the entire lake despite the fact that it sits on both properties. That didn’t stop them from trying to run us off. With the way things are now, I wouldn’t put it past that family to shoot at us.”

“Ahh,” he murmured, his eyes narrowing with satisfaction.

The pair of males he had discovered there had done exactly that. They had lifted their strange, elongated weapons at him and paid dearly for their unkindness. Dispatching them was a kindness toward his mate, then. Human or not, it seems that they would have threatened her harm, too. He wondered if he should mention their fate to Krystal but decided against it. He did not enjoy harming humans and while she might accept that he acted reasonably in self-defense, that it was his natural compulsion to eat his kills was another matter. It would be difficult to explain, and he did not wish for her to be afraid of him again. At least not until she understood without a doubt that he would never harm her.

The lamia hunting her was another matter. He would not tolerate that creature nesting in his territory and even if Krystal were not there, he would still hunt the lamia down and kill her if she didn’t flee first. Not only were foxes immune to the charms of the lamia, but her presence there was intolerable. Her foul scent stung his nose, stirring every predatory instinct within him to swiftly dispatch and consume her and every bit of her magic. Even now, there were times that he swore he caught her foul odor floating over to him as he walked with his mate, and it frustrated him that there was no way for him to pinpoint the location of whatever place she had temporarily claimed for her nest.

And it would be temporary.

His instinctive need to eliminate her aside, she would not choose to remain there long. His territory was too far from the inhabited areas she preferred to nest, where she could easily have her pick of prey. She would look for a community to settle near, where she might be able to comfortably feed for a few years before needing to find other hunting grounds. Human civilization had crumbled, leaving her few options for an extended period of glutting herself. He shook his head. She would have been better off staying in her familiar haunt that had fed her… unless that source had dried up or she had fled for safety.

He would not be surprised if it was the latter. The fae and monstrous races had keener senses than humans and would be quick to drive a predator from their midst. Even foxes have been driven away for seducing willing lovers and feeding from the raised sexual energies. But lamia were a completely different matter. It went far beyond even other snake spirits, as their prey of preference led them to hunt the young of other species. There was more than one orc tribe that had viciously taken their axes to a creature hunting among their clan.

And now it was lying in wait in his territory.

He frowned, puzzled. Lamia were normally not so bold. Serpentine creatures in general took note of and disliked foxes, and remained far from their abodes, unable to tolerate their scent any more than a fox tolerated that of the lamia. That it ignored his scent markings and magic to follow Krystal remained puzzling.

Ears pricking warily, he turned his head to glance over at Krystal. Her expression was not entirely at ease as she picked up a smooth, flat rock and skipped it across the still water. Fixi’s and Fata’s heads shot up to watch from where they lay in the tall grass with their kits playing around them. She shoved her hands into her pockets and continued to stare across the lake at the cabin, her eyebrows dipping with worry. Her small tongue stroked quickly over her bottom lip in an intriguing way. Despite the way it made desire curl at the pit of his belly, he watched her in fascination, waiting eagerly to hear what thoughts were brewing in her mind.

She glanced over at him with a half-hearted smile. “That place always creeped me out, even as a kid. I can see not much has changed. It makes me skin crawl,” she added on a hesitant note. “But what if?—"

“Yes?” he prompted.

“What if we go over there? There could be survivors for all we know. And while the Mallorys may have a lot of fancy electronics that would be useless to us, I bet that they kept their cabin stocked. We could quite possibly find dry and canned goods.”

Interesting. He could feel and smell her fear, but she wanted to go there? He regarded the cabin with some misgivings and shook his head.

“It lies outside of my territory.”

Her nose wrinkling, she turned to peer over at him. “What do you mean? Their property joins my family’s land. There is literally a trail that completely circles the lake, in fact.”

His jaw worked as he struggled to find a way to explain it to her. “When I settled here, I walked the boundary of my territory, setting my magic. It is a system of power that revolves in a spin, accumulating strength and sustaining itself even as it deters people from stumbling onto my land unwanted.”

Her head tipped, her lips quirking with amusement. “And yet I arrived.”

That was another matter that he would rather avoid explaining.

“You did,” he agreed and latched onto the first plausible reasoning he could come up with. “But you are also already connected closely to this land. It is natural that my vortex would fail to keep you out while it is still young.”

Her lips pursed thoughtfully, and she nodded. “I see. It is basically a barrier that turns attention away. Like an invisibility spell that functions because it deters attention from it, encouraging anyone who encounters it to go in a different direction. I don’t recall feeling that, but what you say makes sense since I was focused on looking for very specific landmarks.”

Syrix nodded, though he privately winced with guilt over the small deception. The truth was that if he had not summoned her, she would not have found her way in except by the slimmest chance of accident—such as if she was actively fleeing from the lamia.

“It also protects me and lends me additional strength,” he explained. “As it grows stronger, I can draw from it when needed.”

“And it keeps you here,” she concluded.

He grimaced. “It does not keep me here, but it is more advantageous for me to remain within the confines of my territory. I may occasionally hunt outside of its boundaries, but I truly have no interest in exploring far outside of my borders when I have everything I need and want here. There is a town not far that many have claimed as their own that I may trade with for things I cannot acquire from my own territory, but even so, I certainly have no interest in that dwelling.”

She sighed heavily and squinted at it. “I could just go by myself,” she quietly pointed out, and he stiffened with an objection he didn’t get a chance to voice before she shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself as a chilly wind drifted from the lake. “But it honestly has always looked a bit creepy. I don’t think I’m desperate enough to go over there alone just yet.”

Relief rushed through him, and he tried not to show how pleased he was with this as he took her hand in his. She glanced at their joined hands in surprise but did not pull away when he gently tucked her back toward the woods and away from the side of the lake.

“Come, let us continue our walk,” he murmured. “I am having such a good time that I would not wish for it to end because you caught a chill standing for too long close to the water.”

A shy smile reluctantly curled her lips, and she nodded. “I would like that. And you’re right. It is a bit chilly so close to the water this time of the year. Let’s go find a sunbeam somewhere that we can enjoy.”

“I know just the place. On the other side of the grove there is a small meadow. We can lie there amid the grass and soak in the sun. And perhaps even return one evening when the weather warms so that you can enjoy the true pleasure that comes with moon bathing.”

She laughed at that, the corners of her eyes crinkling with amusement as her nose wrinkled with delight. “I didn’t realize that moon bathing was actually a thing.”

He scoffed. “Certainly. Moon bathing is far superior in my opinion. There is not a fox alive who would not prefer to recline in its light.”

Her eyes trailed over to Fixi and Fata as they walked past the sprawled pair. “I did not realize that you put such weight on the pleasure of foxes,” she teased as she glanced back up at him. “But I would love to. Just… not until it’s warmer,” she added with an emphatic shiver that brought a laugh of genuine amusement to his lips.

“Naturally,” he rumbled and watched with pleasure as pink creeped back into his mate’s face. He loved how responsive she was to him without even fully realizing it. “Now, onward to enjoy the sun’s embrace.”

“To the meadow,” she agreed with a little laugh.

He gave a low whistle, alerting Fixi that they were leaving, and the male sprung up from the grass with his mate to race off ahead, their kits trailing just behind them. Syrix and Krystal followed at a more sedate pace back into the woods, and his hearted lightened with every step. Things finally seemed to be moving in the right direction.