20

Jerk claimed I was sticking my nose where

it didn’t belong. Believes we’re a part of his war.

Warned me he’d attack, so I attacked first.

Great. This was all I needed. Afanasiy and I already had a rough relationship; I had to dirty my hands so I could get on his good side. So many Terrans had been sacrificed to him so he would trust me enough to let me into his den without turning me. It was at Suma’s request to act as a double-agent, and it was one of the worst requests I’d filled.

With a quick shake of my camouflage sheet, I vanished from sight and pressed myself up against the closest earthen wall. Afanasiy had a nearly telepathic link with his ‘flock’, and it had nothing to do with the marwolaeth Bond and more to do with his ‘mad scientist’ streak. Point being, if he was going to come after me his foxes wouldn’t be too far behind. And I didn’t want to be caught off-guard.

It’s moments like these when you’ve got multiple copies of yourself running around with time-traveling hats that you kind of want to kill yourself and one of them handle it. The clone responsible for keeping tabs on the fox had been diverted to intercept a message from Jamie one of my other clones picked up. It was up to me and me alone to keep up the charade.

The surge of black bodies accompanied with the rapid barking and screaming echoing off the raw, underground corridors told me Afanasiy was back. The twisting, almost ferret-like bodies of the fox marwolaeths wound their way past me, thankfully not responding to my invisible presence. I shifted, observing his entrance to the den from my position between a huge rock and a gnarled, twisted root.

Coat billowing out behind like a movie villain, Afanasiy finally entered the den. The foxes screamed at his arrival, going mad with excitement. A silver chain burned in his hand, and a quick yank revealed who was on the other end of said chain.

My breath caught in my throat as a lanky female stumbled behind him, hands bound in silver cuffs creating intense burn marks on her wrists. Her military boots thudded as she struggled to stand, leaning completely on one leg and letting the other drag. Dark eyes glared from underneath an actively-bleeding cut, several bruises peppering her cheeks and neck, her dark braid ratty and pulled.

Stumbling along directly behind her was the kid, in a very similar state. Afanasiy had managed to capture both of them, binding them in silver to make sure they couldn’t get away. Couldn’t transform. Couldn’t do anything.

Olyvia was as helpless as Layla, and she knew it. All of her snarling and kicking at the surrounding foxes was a bluff. I could see past it because I knew her incredibly well. She was scared.

Layla trailed along behind her, sniveling and crying out of fear and pain. Tears tracked down the dirt on her face, silver eyes darting around and taking in the hoards of foxes and the underground lair. She let out small frightened cries as they hissed at her and bit at her ankles.

This kind of response was expected; ever since Afanasiy declared himself the new fox alpha and began experimenting on his skulk, relations between the foxes and the wolves had plummeted. Their leader fed them lies and forced them on suicide missions to attack wolf compounds, crowing at them when he was ‘proven right’ and the wolves were out to kill them all. Once word got out Afanasiy had managed to kidnap the new wolf alpha, things would really explode.

He pulled the pair past me, dragging them further into the fox den. The hoards of black bodies parted only for him, surrounding his captives in waves of needle-teeth and unsettling, horrid screams. It took everything I had not to reach out and simply nab the pair of them out of the air, throwing my hat at their feet and transporting us all out of this underground hell-hole.

But the silver would interfere with my hat. Not to mention all the surrounding foxes that would undoubtedly fall into the hole along with us. If I was going to rescue the girls, I was going to have to be smart about it.

As for my ‘relationship’ with Afanasiy, it was now over. Our agreement allowed me to come and go in his skulk so long as I supplied test subjects for him and, in return, he’d leave me and mine alone. Whether he knew it or not, he broke those terms when he went after Olyvia; he put her in danger and therefore, he put my freedom at risk. If I had to break part of my deal with Suma in order to save Olyvia, then so be it.

I waited until the parade was gone, all the little black fox bodies disappearing down a tunnel, taking their unearthly shrieking with them. Soon enough, I was left alone in the dark underground tunnels. Leaving my sheet up and activated, I sat cross-legged on the ground and began to form my plans.