I Regret Nothing - JB Trepagnier

Chapter 1

Rei

I

threw my keys on the counter and collapsed on the couch. I spent all day scouting security in the museum. I had it down pat. I could make my move any day now. This just went against every single ounce of training from my mentor—don’t steal anything you intend to keep. Don’t leave evidence lying around your house. Only steal for paying clients.

This had served me well so far. I didn’t even shoplift my clothing and food anymore. I paid for it with the money I earned stealing for other people. And I was fucking good at it. They even gave me a nickname on all the most-wanted lists I was on. I was called the Silver Fox by everyone who wanted to arrest me, but they didn’t have a single shred of evidence to connect me to anything except a stray fox hair I left behind by mistake.

That was against my training, but I was a little proud of that nickname and that little tidbit I left behind. It didn’t pull from the root, so they couldn’t DNA test it. All they could tell was that it came from a silver fox. The human police thought I had a pet fox, and the magical police thought I was a fox shifter.

Honestly, I didn’t know what the fuck I was, but I knew I wasn’t a shifter. My mentor was a wolf shifter who took me in when I tried to pick his pocket. Hauser could have snapped my neck for trying to steal his wallet, but he liked my spunk trying to steal from a master thief in the first place. I had no way of knowing that when I tried to take his wallet. I just saw a lot of cash in there when he was paying for coffee.

I didn’t need the cash. I was in college with a job and could pay for my rent and food. There was just something exciting about getting in trouble. I couldn’t act out in college, or I’d get expelled and lose my job. But stealing totally filled that hole, and the more I did it, the more I wanted to do it.

Until I tried to steal Hauser’s wallet, I never even fathomed it blowing up in my face. Hauser knocked me out and threw me into a van. I woke up tied to a chair in some remote cabin. I still remembered it. I woke up to an enormous man sitting in front of me, just studying me.

“Your technique is sloppy,” he said.

I was utterly shocked. Everything I had done to lead me to that point was flashing in front of my face. He kidnapped and could have easily killed me, but he brought up my technique instead? I was in danger, but I was still me. I tried to shrug with my hands tied behind my back.

“You’re the first to have caught me.”

He just leaned back in his chair.

“I won’t be the last either if you keep doing it like that. Stealing wallets is just so basic, and I can tell from your scent you aren’t even remotely basic,” he said, his eyes flashing amber.

I realized the deep shit I was in. I tried to keep my stealing limited to humans, so I didn’t piss off the supernatural community. At the time, I thought I was just a fox shifter, and there were plenty in that community who would see me as prey. The first time I fucked up, it had to be a wolf shifter who had no problem hunting foxes.

“Are you going to kill me?” I squeaked.

The wolf just studied me.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because of what I am and what you are?”

The wolf leaned forward on his elbows and studied me.

“And what do you think you are?”

“Just a fox shifter. Please, if you let me go, I’ll never steal from you again.”

The wolf let out this little growl.

“Sweetie, you don’t smell like any fox shifter I’ve ever met. You smell more like this demon I met once. But we can work with this. Hell keeps to themselves, and not many people have met a demon. If anyone asks, you’re just a fox shifter. How would you like a job?”

I glared at him. I thought he was lying to me. I was just a fox shifter.

“I have a job.”

“Then why did you try to steal my wallet, girl?”

I shut right up because I didn’t have a logical explanation for stealing from him. I just wanted to. I