Page 78 of License to Kill

“I still don’t know how the punk figured out how to bring her into the pack,” Pauline complained.

“You pushed his buttons, and he figured the only way to fix his marriage was to solve the core problem. I’ve told you once, and I’ve told you again; foxes are as social as wolves, and there was zero chance of her accepting anything other than equality. Maybe you enjoy being blindsided, but I figured he’d either figure out how to bring her into our pack, or he’d start requesting subjugation from other packs until he found one that’d take them both. There are packs out west with humans in them. Why not a fox?”

I flattened my ears. To show my displeasure at being treated like an outsider, I bit down on the doe’s leg bone as hard as I could to enjoy the way it crunched between my teeth.

“Well, we know she’s compatible with packs now. You’ll have to teach her the ropes, Jake,” Jake’s mother replied, her expression disapproving. “You’re supposed to be granted permission before doing such a thing, and you’re supposed to have the Third, Second, or Alphas initiate the pack bonds.”

Jake bared his fangs and voiced another low growl.

“Jake,” his mother warned.

“Send him to his room for a week with his wife. Then you get a son a little less pissy at you and a daughter-in-law who might be able to tolerate being in the same room with you,” Jake’s father suggested.

“Fine. Go to your room and take your fox with you.”

I would never understand the Thomas family.

Sixteen

Hasn’t the pack suffered enough?

The doe did me in, and I opted to take an extended nap rather than deal with my unwanted in-laws, leaving Jake to handle the details. At one point, someone offered me a fast food burger, which woke me up long enough for me to gulp it down before I returned to sleep. Jake woke me up to force me to shift so we could get into the house without anyone being wiser to our possession of fur coats.

Somehow, we’d spent all night hunting and most of the day, and I could only assume the fast food had been our lunch.

To my annoyance, the in-laws tailed us into the house. Muttering curses, I headed for the stairs only to have Jake snag me around the waist and pull me to him. In typical Jake fashion, he ignored my struggles to escape his hold, and I cursed his iron-strong muscles.

“I’m not sorry,” Jake announced.

“We’re aware,” his mother replied. “Still, we will have to discipline you over this, or the pack will suffer as a whole.”

“Hasn’t the pack suffered enough?”

I grabbed Jake’s arm with both hands and fought to pry free, unable to move him even an inch. Grunting, I went for my next tactic, dropping my entire weight against him so I could slide out from under his hold. Jake pinned me against him without taking his eyes off his parents.

Asshole.

“You disobeyed a direct order.”

“And I’ll do it again if you try to separate me from Karma. If you want to discipline me, then remove us from the pack, and we’ll go rogue until we find a pack willing to take both of us. The rest of the pack seems quite pleased about our newest member, so if you’re out to make the pack suffer as a whole, that is how you go about it.”

Months ago, I would have paid a great deal to watch the cage match between son and parents, but I recognized I was in the direct line of fire. “Could you wait until I’m not here to do this? If you three start fighting, the entire first floor of the house will be destroyed, and I don’t want to be one of the objects in this house to be trashed.”

“They might live to regret it if they touch you,” Jake growled.

“The house might not survive if you three start.”

“The house can be replaced. You can’t be.”

I debated biting him to win my freedom from his hold. Before I could reply, Mason and a handful of other Fenerec strolled in through the door, and they all gave my in-laws a dose of the silent treatment.

“You wanted better pack cohesion, babe,” Jake’s father commented, and he chuckled. “You just got it in a way you didn’t want. Sometimes, being Alpha means surrendering to the will of the pack, and I think they’ve done a fairly good job of making their position known. So, our pack has a fox in it. We may as well start integrating a few humans, too, to see how it settles out some of our more sensitive members. Had we accepted their wishes rather than our sense of smell, a lot would be different right now.”

Pauline scowled.

“You can’t put a fox in wolf culture and expect her to accept the rules of our culture when the price is her mental health and happiness. It’s our fault we were blind to the damage our culture did to her. It’s the fault of our culture things came to this. The west coast packs thrive with humans among them—and with witches among them, too. Stop being so hung up on tradition for the sake of tradition, especially when those traditions are toxic to our own family, although I think we’ll find she won’t consider us to be a part of her family unit—and Jake is going to be challenged convincing her he’s part of her family unit. And that, alone, should be enough of a reason for you to change your tune. I tried to tell you. I tried to tell you at the beginning of this. I had hoped when the consequences had begun, you would have changed your stance to mitigate them, but you’re as stubborn as you can be stupid at times.”

Ouch. I considered Jake’s father with a frown, maintaining a token struggle to escape Jake’s grip.