Page 30 of Foxin’ Around (Mated to the Monster: Season 3)
MANY YEARS LATER
K rystal watched with amusement as Syrix sat between his foxes in the clearing, his head bent attentively toward them. The kits were long since grown and had taken off to explore and have adventures of their own, but Fixi and Fata had more litters over the years, ever expanding their family. And now she and Syrix were ready to do the same. She ran a hand over her swollen belly, her smile widening when her mate finally stood and prowled toward her with a peeved look.
“Why are you looking so cross?” she teased. “Weren’t you just saying the other day how much better they were becoming these last couple of years in their communication with you? Advanced beyond any mere mortal fox, I believe were your words.”
He grimaced and shook his head. “They are excellent guards, which is also why I used my magic to expand their lives, but that is not the problem.”
“Oh?” Her eyebrows raised playfully. “And what is the problem? It had better not be anything that is going to suddenly come with demands that we abandon our trip to the village. I’m not having this baby without a few more things.”
His lips twisted with amusement, momentarily distracted by her complaint, and he ran a hand along her distended belly. “I do not believe you are capable of controlling when you whelp,” he teased, “but no, I would not so deprive you of your simple pleasures in shopping. Though you have squeezed quite a lot in our little cabin.”
She shrugged. “Mere necessities and with so many skilled craftsmen among those monsters and fae that have settled there, why not take advantage of it to update a few things?”
He hummed in agreement but didn’t say anything else, so she elbowed him in the gut, drawing a startled laugh from her mate.
“Come on, out with it. What is going on?”
Sighing, Syrix rubbed his jaw, his ears shifting uneasily. “It is not so much a problem as of yet, but more a situation that will require keeping watch of. You recall that you spoke of the other cabin near here?”
She nodded. “The Jenson cabin. What of it?”
“It seems that a satyr has recently come across it and established his territory there, bordering our own.”
She lit up with excitement and she turned slightly in the direction of said cabin. “Really? Our neighbor is a real satyr? Like straight from myth?”
“More like straight from some kind of hell,” he said grimly as he caught ahold of her. “Fixi says that there is a noticeable taint around him. He is quite mad.”
“Pfft,” she chortled, “aren’t we all a little mad around here?”
“No, sweetheart,” he stated seriously. “He is not like us or any that you have met down in the village. He is potentially dangerous. Fixi and Fata will keep an eye on him to make sure that he does not cross into our territory. They have been watching him for a few days now and do not believe he will. All the same, I want you to promise me that you will stay near our cabin and not explore too close to the edges of our territory.”
Krystal replied with a disgruntled sound but muttered her agreement. “But I’m going to expect compensation for not indulging my curiosity.”
He chuckled, the tension observably draining from him. “As admirable as I find that quality in you, I am glad to hear it. I will be very indulgent to your every other desire, I promise,” he murmured, tapping his finger lovingly to the tip of her nose.
She smiled wickedly in response to his offer. He had become so careful with her since her pregnancy that she had more than one idea of how he could repay her. “Anything?”
A wary look crossed his face. “Within reason,” he said slowly, but she laughed with delight.
“Oh no, not getting out of it now,” she teased, drawing him back toward their cabin. “Come, my big strong mate, love me and make me scream because I’m never letting you go now!”
And she didn’t. And if they happened to have quite a few kits of their own over the years as they stretched on, then it was for good reason, because true to her word, even as they played and explored, she held him forever within her heart and welcomed him eagerly at every opportunity within her arms.
To continue with the story of the story of the satyr, start with Blooded Labyrinth and read through to Satyr’s Wood.
To see where it all began, read Havoc of Souls.