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I’m trying to ask if the whole pack made it out alive.
Thorne shakes his head. “I’m under the impression that we will be housing the fifteen remaining shifters in the group.”
“Oh, okay. Gosh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” I murmur.
Ugh. That’s brutal. Losing your home is one thing, but losing the people you call home as well?
I can’t imagine.
Thorne nods. “Naturally, I agreed to take them in. They’ll become part of our pack, but I’m willing to give them some space for a while. The northwest corner of our land is pretty remote, and the elk herd on the other side won’t care about some foxes. I think there’s a pair of sisters, moose shifters, who live on that side as well, but I wouldn’t worry about them with the foxes either.”
I nod. Thorne has pretty carefully thought this through. The town of Oakwood has a significant human presence, and he manages our interactions carefully, but further to the south is Steamboat, which has even more humans. To the north there’s more big game shifters like elk and deer, and the moose in question are a very nice duo, sisters who run a glass blowing shop in the middle of nowhere. I have some of their vases, they really do make incredible stuff. “The northwest corner would be a nice place to settle in.”
“Yes. I was hoping that you could help them get settled in when they get here. Get the kids enrolled in school, follow up with them about getting positions in the pack. Maybe some of them could help with the Jeep tour business that we’re putting together.”
Will had been one of the people working on the Jeep tour idea. “Sure, I can help get the kids in school,” I say quietly.
Thorne grins. “That’s great. Evander here is the one in charge of getting them from the airport out in Aspen, and bringing them up here.”
“Airport?”
He shrugs. “I think the lions took a lot of stuff from them, including their vehicles.”
That’s even worse than I thought. “Okay…”
“So, Evander will be your primary contact, and he’s in charge of getting them here and settled and in your hands.”
Great.
That’s just… freaking….
Great.
A few days later, Evander pulls up with a van, and foxes filter out of it.
We haven’t talked much, unless it’s directly related to the case. But even then, he’s been a bossy asshole. I’ve done my best to set up the little group of cabins we built for the foxes in the northwest corner of the territory as a home that they can come to love, and Evander has annoyed me every step of the way.
Today, though, he looks like he might have met his match.
Of the fifteen foxes, seven are kids.
The kids tumble out of the bus, bright red hair flashing in the sun. I smile as some of them blink up at me, and others start to drift toward the houses.
“Welcome to your new homes,” I say with a smile.
A female fox gets off the van and sighs. She looks out at the passel of kids and shakes her head. “I swear, they usually have better manners than this.”
“It’s not a problem. They’re welcome to explore wherever they want. We marked the edges of the yards though, and you might want to warn them…”
“Kids!” she hollers.
Every one of the fox kits stills.
“This nice lady says the edges of the yards are marked with…” she looks over at me.
“With paint and sticks,” I clarify.
“With some paint lines and sticks! Don’t one of y’all run past that, or there will be consequences, you understand?”
