Page 70 of Outfoxed

“Disease must be rampant.”

“It can get bad during the storm season. There are a lot of bodies, and we can’t always get to them all.”

Dorothy pushed me down the hall. “Have you contracted any diseases?”

“I’m not rabid, if that’s what you mean. They put the rabid down in the Alley. Usually too late to treat them, and the ones who could be treated can’t afford the treatments.”

“That wasn’t quite what I meant, but I am rather alarmed that’s the first conclusion you came to. I meant more like the measles, cholera, typhoid, or diphtheria.”

“Oh. I’ve gotten sick a few times, but I got better without medical intervention. I couldn’t tell you what I had. I never went to a doctor. Let’s just say doctors were a little out of my budget. I had my childhood vaccinations here anyway, but I haven’t had any adult ones. Frankly, if I’d been shot while working only with my budget? I’d be on a pyre back in the Alley right now. Foxes are tough, but we’re not get shot in an alley and talk about it later tough. Not without help. Frankly? The only reason I went along with this is because I know they covered my medical bills.”

“You take your obligations seriously, then.”

“I didn’t ask them to pay my medical bills, and the individual I signed a contract with could have paid for them himself. I’ll admit, he’s had more fun than maybe reasonable getting whoever’s here to pay them. And I don’t know what he did, but it seems he guilted them out of medical supplies for Tulsa at the same time. I volunteered to play closer to dead for that cause. I was told it was not necessary.”

“Supplies were sent more because of our renewed awareness of the situation, when they—the auction operators and the interested buyer—realized what should have been a fairly routine gunshot wound had a high chance of being fatal due to insufficient medical equipment and treatments. The supplies sent over are somewhat close to expiration and will be used quickly in the Alley, plus they can be written off by our hospitals as a charitable donation to another quadrant during emergency relief. It’s good promotion for the hospitals here, and it does good for the Alley. But mostly, medical professionals really had no idea how bad it had gotten there.”

“Yeah. I’m lucky. Any other day of the week, and I would’ve been tossed on the pyre after they waited for me to bleed out. The treatments are too expensive for somebody like me. So, there’s that. I may have told the gentleman in the Alley, upon his concern the East would be better able to treat my gunshot wounds, that he could just use it as an opportunity to prove he’s better than the other buyer. Either way, I become disgustingly rich. I’ll evaluate who the better person to ally with is and make it clear if I’m forced out of the choice I make, I’m going to make their lives a living hell. Either way, one of them gets disgustingly rich paying the other one off, and I get to witness which one of these people actually values me more.”

Dorothy stumbled to a halt. “You’re planning on playing them against each other?”

“Well, why not? One approached me honestly, the other has spent a fortune sending bounty hunters after me. Why wouldn’t I do that? I mean, if they’re going to get into a bid war to have me, they best be making this good, because why shouldn’t I value myself? They’re certainly valuing me a ridiculous amount. I’m a fox, not the holy grail. There are other fox women with my color hair out there, I’m sure.”

“Well, yes. There are. Not as many first generation foxes, but there are some. You’re among the most beautiful of them, and once your color is closer to healthier, I expect you’ll be positively stunning.”

Careful not to jostle my right arm, I pointed at my chest. “Not without doing something about this.”

“Your body fat is too low for you to have breasts. You probably don’t have a balanced diet, and you work hard. Your body likely plundered your breast fat first, and as you gain some healthy weight, you’ll enjoy slightly larger breasts. And if you’re like some women, they’ll grow a shocking amount should you become pregnant.”

“They’re already bad enough when I run, and mine are small,” I muttered.

“I bet. It’s not like you can get properly fitted for a good bra in the Alley, and even if you were in one of the places with a good clothing selection, the boutiques were probably in places you couldn’t afford anyway. After your medical exam, you will be properly clothed. Since you’re our star auction at current, you’ll wear something more formal. A blouse and blazer with slacks or a nice skirt, depending on your general health and how much support your ribs need.”

“You don’t seem all too concerned with my health right now. Is that a good thing?”

“I’m a witch, and I started monitoring you when you came out of the elevator. You have at least one infection, but a minor delay won’t hurt you any. Once I start treatments, you’re going to be down and out for the count, so I want to get the important talking out of the way first. Is it safe to say you haven’t had a proper medical exam in a while?”

“That’s correct.”

“And you’re not on birth control?”

“Only in winter,” I admitted. “And even then, it’s usually not needed.”

If given her way, the fox in me would go on a kinky rampage and target every man to catch her attention, although once she fixated on a man, she disliked pursuing a different one until she got her way—if she got her way.

She usually didn’t get her way, as wise men ran when in the sights of an amorous vixen.

“Excellent. You’re a developed enough hybrid to be influenced by your fox. That’s going to crank your auction price through the roof—and it’ll make sure your contract reflects the additional attention you’ll require in the winter. Hybrid foxes tend to require a lot of attention during the winter, which is when regular foxes are breeding. How it manifests varies from individual to individual, but we’ve seen anything from an intense need to be in close proximity to other people to enhanced sex drives. I’m going to guess by your statement you’re probably someone who needs close proximity to others, although the fact you are taking precautions indicates you may also have an enhanced sex drive.”

I raised a brow at that. “A little, I guess.”

“It’ll make for a nice warning label on your contract, and it removes some of your personal liability. We’ve had enough experience with foxes to recognize your seasonal instincts can be overpowering.”

“And that’s just forgiven?”

“Frankly spoken, a vixen will become exceptionally surly and temperamental if she’s ready to have a child and her husband isn’t cooperating. It’s unlikely she’ll pursue another man, but her husband will be, frankly, stalked until he cooperates. Should he fail to cooperate, things get broken, usually dishes and property. If it escalates, she might run for the border and to hell with her husband, and at that point, the auction house won’t even listen to his complaints, even should she turn up pregnant in the spring. If he’d paid her the appropriate attention, the problem wouldn’t have been a problem, and that’s entirely his fault.”

“That’s a little harsh, isn’t it?”