Foxy Lady

Chapter Six

Ty entered the house after Julia, slipping through her opened window into her bedroom. They fell into bed together and slept the minute their heads hit the pillows.

Movement wakened him and he blinked up into the sun peering through the open window. Julia didn’t spare him a glance as she got up, pulled on her robe and headed to the bathroom.

He heard the shower start and sighed. Not that he wanted to talk, but he and Julia had a lot left needing to be said. He shoved his legs through his jeans and buttoned up seconds before Gabby burst through the door.

She stopped upon seeing him and her nostrils flared.

“Well it’s about time.”

When she continued to stand there staring at him, he sank back onto the bed. He’d had a long night. Having sex with Julia hadn’t sated him, though it should have. His animal spirit yapped at him to stop dicking around. He’d had Julia, naked, in bed, all night long, and he’d only come inside her while in the forest—once as a fox and twice as a man.

But he needed to slow down.

The idea he might have already impregnated her freaked him the hell out. On the one hand, he wasn’t ready for kits and family. Single-guy living suited him just fine. On the other hand, he’d made love to Julia. The only woman who’d ever wormed her way under his skin—and dammit, into his heart—didn’t want to mate with him.

He should have been happier about her not wanting any ties. Instead, her independence insulted him. She belonged to him. He could feel it, much as he almost wished he couldn’t. She’d been so tight around him, so new. Not a virgin, but not an experienced woman by any means. He’d never heard of her dating anyone in town, and his curiosity about her past consumed him.

“I’m so happy for you two. I’ve been waiting years for this.” Gabby stunned the hell out of Ty by jumping on top of him, knocking him flat on the bed. “She’s always had a thing for you, you know. Not that she would ever admit it.”

Ty stared at Gabby in fascination. Julia had a thing for him? “What are you talking about?”

“Come on, Ty. When’s the last time you saw Julia drinking at a party?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Gabby grinned. He’d never seen her so cheery before. It gave her already cute features a beauty all their own. Her golden skin flushed with pleasure as she rolled off him and sat next to him on the bed. “She’s so serious all the time. I didn’t even know what she’d done until she confessed it while drunk at the last celebration. You dropped her off and I found her slurring her sorrows a few minutes later.”

“Yeah? What’d she say?” He needed to know. Never had anything been more important than hearing Julia might have a thing for him.

Gabby tilted her head. “I don’t know how much I should tell you. I don’t think it’s wise for you alpha types to always have the upper hand.”

Ty smiled wide. “Gabby, honey, do I look alpha to you?”

“Yes.”

The woman wasn’t buying the dimple. “Come on. I’ve wanted her for years. Fool woman never even noticed me. Still wouldn’t have if I hadn’t hightailed it out here to help her.”

“Yes, why did you?”

Ty paused, not sure he wanted to admit any more to Julia’s sister. Then again, Gabby seemed in the mood to reveal her sister’s deep, dark secrets. If he played this right, he could find the information he needed.

“Sarah Duncan told me Julia might be dealing with Hunters.”

“Oh, man. No wonder you followed.”

“I couldn’t bear the thought of Julia in danger.” Truth.

Gabby softened. “So you rushed out here to save her. That is so sweet. No one ever saves Julia.”

“That’s because the stubborn woman is too busy always trying to save herself and others.”

“Julia’s had to be independent most of her life. It’s not like she could count on Uncle Harry or Aunt Lynn for help.”

“I get that.” He could. He’d never liked the social climbers.

“To be honest, Julia refuses to ask for help because of my mother.”

“Oh hell, was she as bad as Harry and Lynn?”

“She wasn’t cruel, no. But she was self-involved. A lot of drama in the Easton household,” Gabby said with a bitter twist to her lips. “She and my father were not on good terms.”

“I’m sorry. I know he died a little after Meghan was born.”

Gabby raised her brows. “You know what? I don’t care anymore.”

“Huh?”

“I need you to promise me something.”

Every instinct in his body warned him to pay very careful attention to Gabby. “What?”

“Promise me that no matter what, Julia and Meghan will always have a place in Cougar Falls.”

Ty didn’t like that Gabby didn’t include herself in that promise. “And you?”

“I can fend for myself. Meghan’s stubborn, but she’ll want to keep ties to the family even after she marries Jason. And she will marry him. Julia’s too dense to see it, but Meghan really loves him.”

“Shit.”

“Yep. Julia needs Cougar Falls, Ty. She always has to have a home there. And I want you to promise she’ll be okay.”

“Gabby, just tell me what you’re hinting at and stop dancing around it,” he growled.

“Sorry, Sheriff. I know you’re used to being in charge, but this is too important for rules and regulations. I need your promise. Consider it blind faith in my sister.”

“I won’t let anyone harm Julia, ever.” And he meant that with every breath in his body.

He must have sounded convincing, because Gabby sighed with relief. “Good. Fact is, our dad didn’t die right after Meghan’s birth. The fox everyone thinks fathered us never existed. My real dad and mom married in secret. He was never good enough for the family. Aunt Lynn hated him, and Uncle Harry made his life miserable whenever Dad would see Mom. Eventually he stopped coming around.”

Ty blinked in astonishment. Of all the things Gabby might have told him, he hadn’t expected this. “A secret mating? How did they keep that quiet?”

“According to Julia, they would meet outside of town. That way no one could track Dad by scent.”

“That’s crazy, not to mention dangerous.” Anger on Julia’s behalf struck him. “If something had happened to your mother, with your dad outcast, who would have been left to raise you three? Lynn and Harry,” he answered with disgust. Then what she’d said made a sick kind of sense. “Hell. Is that why your mother died? She’d gone to meet your father?”

Gabby nodded, her eyes sad. “Julia refuses to talk about it, but I once heard Aunt Lynn talking to Uncle Harry. After Dad left, Mom was really depressed. It was hard on all of us, but especially on Julia. Dad loved her a lot, and Mom needed someone to talk to about her misery.”

“So she shared her concerns with her what, ten-year-old daughter?”

“Yep. Good old Mom cried herself to sleep after every one of Dad’s visits. Mom wouldn’t move from Cougar Falls. I like to think she wouldn’t leave us, but who knows? Dad got sick of having to hide all the time and just left. Mom followed him and…”

“That explains a lot.” Like why Julia had such an aversion to dating. Why she had looked horrified at thoughts of mating. Relieved it wasn’t because of him, he had a sudden urge to shake her, to tell her that not everyone was like her parents.

“Gabby, tell me something. Why didn’t your father just claim your mother in public? Why did he agree to so much secrecy?”

“Because Dad wasn’t a silver fox.”

“What?”

“And he wasn’t an outsider.”

Ty didn’t understand. “Then what was he?”

“Cat.”

“But, that… Clans intermarry, it happens. But they don’t breed.”

“Normally, I’d agree with you. But Julia, Meghan and I are proof they sometimes do.”

Ty whistled, shocked and somehow not surprised. “If word got out you three were part cat, some in the clan might strike to have you removed. Wouldn’t want to taint our pure lines, now would we?” he asked with sarcasm.

“Tainted lines, hmm?” Trust Julia to return to the room and interpret his words in the worst possible way. She stared in shocked dismay from him to Gabby.

Gabby shook her head. “Oh, Julia. It’s not what you think. Ty wasn’t saying—”

“He’s just like the others. I told you that. But you just had to push it. You and your silly notions that love conquers all. You know better, Gabby.” Julia whipped her gaze to his and tilted her chin at a stubborn angle.

The heartbreak in her soulful eyes tore at him. “Julia, you don’t understand. I wasn’t—”

“I knew you’d react this way. The high-and-mighty sheriff who enforces all the rules.”

“Now hold on—”

“And you,” she said to Gabby, who now looked shamefaced. “You just had to tell him. Now you’ve compromised not just yourself, but Meghan too. Where’s she going to go when she realizes her infatuation with Jason won’t last?”

“Julia, Ty won’t tell anyone.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re going home. Or at least, we’re going to the place we used to call home.” She stormed out of the room, but not before Ty saw a tear slide down her cheek.

In the state she appeared, nothing Ty said would get through to her. Tension, fury and fear radiated in her brown eyes, a storm brewing and ready to rain all over their tentative relationship. But it was her hurt that knotted him from the inside out.

“Gabby, go help her. Fuck,” he swore and left the room, wishing Gabby had never opened her mouth. How the hell was he supposed to work around this huge revelation?

Earlier, when he’d teased Julia about marrying him, he’d wanted to see her reaction. He’d been hoping for a surprised yes, not a horrified no. Burying the ache when she’d rejected him, he’d pretended not to care. But the fox inside him demanded he strengthen his ties to the vixen.

Ty had an uneasy feeling he’d scent-marked her as more than just his latest girlfriend, but as something much more permanent. She had a right to her worry. Though his parents weren’t purists by any means, he knew they expected him to mate with a silver fox. As town sheriff, his position relied on his ability to keep the peace, as well as the respect afforded him by the Ac-taw he protected. A fierce fighter and strong Shifter, he’d never before had a problem with support. Would he now?

Thoroughly disgusted with himself for even thinking of distancing himself from Julia’s plight, he reminded himself that the woman he still burned for was Julia. Bear, fox, raptor or cat, she commanded his affections because of who not what she was.

He’d have a hard enough time convincing her to put aside her prejudices and take a chance on him. In the meantime, he’d have to work his way around the clan council.

Well, he did love a challenge. Time to put his intelligence to the test. So thinking, he made a phone call to Gerald. If anyone could weasel Julia out of possible trouble, it was his friend, Mr. Lawyer extraordinaire.

After an eye-opening conversation and a shower, Ty changed into the clothes he’d brought with him and sat at the kitchen table across from Gabby, hoping someone in this cabin could cook. Julia glared at him from her position at the stove but didn’t speak. Gabby refused to meet his gaze, chastised and looking depressed. Gabby didn’t wear a frown well. The expression didn’t fit with her sunny disposition.

Julia looked tense and angry. He didn’t like it.

“Question number two, Julia.”

She flinched but didn’t turn around to face him. She slammed a skillet on the stove and tossed some strips of bacon down. His stomach rumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.

Gabby smothered a smile.

One down, one to go.

“Did you hear me?”

“I heard you,” she growled at him. Growled.

Not cool, not aloof. She sounded mad. Her passion he could handle, but not her wounded, distanced behavior. The way she’d treated him this past month had driven him insane.

“Question number two, and this has several parts. When was the last time you saw your father?”

“As a cat or a man?” she asked nastily.

“Either. I’m not picky.”

She stabbed into the bacon with a fork and muttered under her breath. Grease spattered, the heavenly sound of frying pork mingling with a woman’s anger. “I saw him the day before he left us all for good.”

“Do you miss him?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Meghan and Jason,” he reminded her in a sing-song voice.

He winked at Gabby and waited for Julia to yell at him.

To his relief, she did. “You mangy, arrogant, flea-ridden cur. Who the hell do you think you are threatening my family?”

“Ah, Julia? You’re burning the bacon.”

“Fuck the bacon, and fuck you too!”

Gabby and he stared at Julia, shocked. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her say the F-word aloud before. “Nice language. Now, about the bacon?”

She whirled around and snatched the strips from the pan, putting them on a plate Gabby hurriedly retrieved and brought to the table. When Julia turned to confront him, he asked for coffee.

Her eyes turned molten gold, and he wanted her all over again. More, he wanted to soothe the hurt he could feel in her soul. “If you think for one minute I’m going to wait on you hand and foot while you order me around, you can go straight to—”

“Julia! If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like a cup too.” Gabby shrugged and gave her sister a pretty smile.

When Julia grumbled and turned around again, he and Gabby shared a conspiratorial smile. Keeping Julia off balance put her mind off her worries and on him. Anger he could deal with.

“I’m still waiting,” Ty said again.

“Yes, I miss him. He was actually very nice, unlike my mother, who lived in a constant state of depression.”

He wanted to see her face, but he didn’t want her to stop talking.

Bitterly, she continued. “He loved her, for all the good it did him. Her family wouldn’t let him stay with us, and Dad didn’t want Mom to suffer because of the clan council. They were even worse back then than they are now.”

“So Dad just left,” Gabby said.

“Yeah, one day he just left. He never came back. Then Mom left. She never came back either.” Silence weighed heavily on the room. “Happy now?”

He didn’t want to think about her tough childhood, but he needed to know. “Is that why you don’t want to mate? Because you’re afraid what happened to your mother will happen to you?”

Julia turned and watched him with a frown. “I’m not my mother. I want to mate. One day I’d like to have a child. But I’m afraid…”

“She’s afraid her child might be like me,” Gabby answered in a soft voice.

“That’s not true,” Julia denied.

“What does that mean?” Ty asked. Gabby seemed fine to him.

“That is true. Otherwise you and Ty would admit to the bond between you right now.”

Ty choked on the piece of bacon he’d been eating. Oh hell. Was that why he couldn’t think of anything besides Julia lately? Had he truly mated her, even accidentally?

Julia glared at her sister. “We had sex. So what?”

Obviously the vixen was worried. She’d mentioned sex in front of her sister.

Gabby shook her head. “If it was just sex, then why do you still smell like him? And he smells like you. Even under all that bacon, I can scent your bond.”

Ty should have been more worried about the thought of mating, but oddly enough, he wasn’t. A part of him had recognized Julia from the very beginning. He didn’t want to acknowledge the truth, but he couldn’t help himself. His animal spirit longed for her. He only wished she liked him half as much. Waiting for her to deny their connection, he watched her every expression.

Except Julia didn’t refute her sister. The emotions crossing her face didn’t look like out-and-out rejection. Worry, fear and longing flashed in her eyes before she shuttered her emotions and glanced away.

“Ty and I aren’t mated. You don’t want a wife, remember?” she said to him.

He hadn’t thought he’d wanted a wife, but an existence without Julia didn’t bear thinking about.

“Ty? God, we’re talking about my life here. Could you please pay attention?” she snapped.

“What was the question?” He liked triggering her temper. An angry Julia cared, and she turned him on like nothing could.

She threw a spatula at him he easily dodged. “I asked if you wanted a wife!”

“A wife?”

“To mate.”

“Why yes, I think we should. Thank you, Julia. I accept. Gabby, witness?”

“Witness,” Gabby repeated with a large grin.

“Tell me again, Ned.” Ned Williams Senior did his best to control his excitement. His son couldn’t possibly have seen what he’d thought. He sat with his boys and his brother, Gil, away from the house around a campfire. The distance was enough to soothe his need for space. He understood why Gil moved out whenever Tilda had guests. Christ, he couldn’t wait until her family left. The damn reunion was giving him an ulcer.

Ned Junior answered in a gruff voice, trying to convince him of what should have been the impossible. “I’m telling you, Dad, her eyes weren’t right. The pupils grew all weird, like a cat’s. And I’d swear her nose started to grow, like a snout on a dog or something.”

“Or a fox,” Bob said. “Seen a lot of foxes around here lately. Right, Dave?”

Dave agreed. “Yeah, and we normally don’t see many of them this early in the spring. Think we should tell Mama?”

Ned Sr. smacked Dave on the back of the head, hard enough to hurt.

“Shit.”

“Tell Mama. Idiot. Tell her what, Dave? That your oldest brother is so lovesick over that piece of ass he’ll make up any story to get her back? That her eyes went all animal-like? What a load of crap. Julia Easton told him no. And big, bad Junior was scared by a fucking girl.” Ned Sr. sneered.

Junior flushed, looking sorry he’d mentioned anything. Exactly what Ned Sr. wanted.

“Forget it. I don’t know what the hell I saw. But I don’t like that asshole Roderick. Why was he sniffing around you, Dad? You making friends with out-of-towners, now?”

Ned Sr. shrugged. “He might be a dick, but he knows who to root for when the game is on.” He went on the attack and changed the subject. “Not like you pussies, too busy hanging on to your momma’s tit, like those dickhead brothers of hers. Hell, you’re good for nothing but the garage and the mill. Why don’t you go back inside and bother your real family, ’cause it sure the hell ain’t me.”

He turned his back on them, waiting for his sons to leave. The younger two grumbled but left quickly.

Junior stayed behind. “You know something you ain’t saying.”

“Get on, boy. Your uncle Gil and I got things to talk about. Manly things.” He insulted Junior where it hurt most, pleased when his son turned red-faced and glared down at him. Still, Junior knew better than to confront the man of the house.

He turned on his heel and stomped away from the small campfire, back into the house.

Gil stirred. His brother didn’t say much, but when he did, Ned Sr. listened.

“She’s one of them Shifters. I sensed it earlier, felt it in the younger girl too, Jason’s gal. Cute, but abnormal. What do you want to do about it?”

“You know.” Hell, Ned Sr. hadn’t been on a Hunting trip since one of those god-awful Shifters had killed his daddy before he could skin it alive. Those fucking predatory skinwalkers. Demons on four legs. “Time to go Huntin’.”

Gil nodded. “Thought you’d say that. I’ll do some scouting. Make sure your boys keep quiet. Tilda won’t like it if she thinks we’re Hunting again.”

“I know.” Ned Sr. loved the woman, but she had the damnedest ideas. Ever since Jason had been born, things just hadn’t set right between them. Tilda belonged to him. Normally, she shut her mouth, made his supper and kept the house the way he liked it. And she still did whatever he wanted in bed whenever he wanted it. The perfect woman, except when she’d get those odd notions in her head, notions her fucking father had put there too many years back.

An animal lover, of all things. And her brothers were just like her. He couldn’t wait ’til the lot of them left.

Gil pulled a long blade from his boot. It glittered in the firelight. “Suppose it’s in all of them, then.”

It took Ned Sr. a moment before he understood. “Yep. Julia, Gabby and Meghan, I expect. Once it’s in the blood, well, there’s no working around that. Not that we have to kill them right away. Maybe some sport to be had first.” Some bed sport. Ned Sr. understood why his sons lusted after those Easton women. Beautiful and wild. He bet they’d fuck like animals.

Gil drawled, “We could make do with some fun first. Wouldn’t mind that a bit. We’ll need more than knives then. Guns too, a few rifles, some good strong rope.” Gil smiled. “You know, I just might break out my bow again.”

“Good thinking, brother.” Ned Sr. nodded. “We’ll take the time to plan, then use the youngest to bait the rest. I have an idea that just might work.” He paused. “One thing bothers me though. That Roderick. He’ll have friends. Might need some backup on this one.”

Gil seemed to consider the idea. “Want me to call in the fellas?”

“I think so. Never hurts to be careful.”

Gil ran his knife along his thumb and droplets of blood welled where he’d cut it. “You got that right.”