Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves - K.A. Merikan Page 0,115

can still look for clues. Maybe you’re not the only one?”

“Oh, yeah? You gonna help me find a fox boyfriend?” Radek snapped and walked around the room gathering things to wear like a machine that was suddenly put in motion. He was messy like that, always left his shit on chairs and tables.

“What are you doing?” Yev asked in a voice he couldn’t purge of dullness. He’d gotten used to having Radek around and didn’t want to wake up to an empty bed tomorrow.

“I’m going. I won’t be sitting around here like some… open yoghurt with a long overdue expiration date.” Radek’s movements were getting frantic as he struggled putting on the pants he’d just picked up.

“It’s not like that. Weren’t you the one to suggest we could have some fun together and move on?” Yev asked, though his heart knew they were both past that point now.

Radek looked back at him once he managed to pull up the jeans, red overtaking the amber in his eyes. “I’ve got a cuff with your phone number in my ear!”

“That’s for safety,” Yev said, despite this not being the whole truth. Whatever he was telling himself, it excited him to know Radek carried a tag with his name like a signifier of ownership. “It doesn’t need to mean anything.”

Radek pulled on a T-shirt and approached the sofa. “Take it off then.”

Yev froze. “No. I mean… you could shift again!”

Radek chewed on that for endless seconds but then turned on his heel to look for another layer of clothing. “This is so shit! So maybe we haven’t exactly established a relationship, but what did you think was happening?”

They’d been on the slippery slope to becoming way more than friends. And now everything was over.

Yev stood still, his heart on ice as he watched Radek pick up his things. Inside, he so desperately wanted to keep him, but what would be the point?

“Feelings have nothing to do with this. I never hid my plans from you.”

Radek stood with his back to Yev when he put on a sweater. “When? When do you go? No. I don’t wanna know. Sorry for misinterpreting all the sweet words no one’s ever said to me before!” he said with a tremble to his usually smooth voice.

“Radek, please… sometimes it’s worth it to have something good for a short time. The right memories will last you a lifetime,” he said, cracking his knuckles as he stared at the boy’s bare feet, which had to still be cold. He’d been ready to fight Burian to the death for Radek half an hour ago. Was he really about to let him go?

Radek shook his head and grabbed a pair of socks from the drying rack by the tiled oven. “I’ve had so much to deal with lately, and you were the one stable thing in my life. Why don’t you just cut my other arm off while we’re at it!”

Yev stood up, his heart heavy as if it were blocked and gathered all the blood flowing through his body. “Don’t say that. Please.”

Radek sniffed and rubbed his forehead, facing away. “What am I supposed to say? I’ve got all these feelings for you, and you’d like me to lie that I’m okay with being your convenient fuck?”

Yev swallowed, watching the thin threads of coppery hair slide over freckled skin as Radek trembled. It would have been easy to confirm what Radek was saying, and be done with this, but Yev rarely took the easy way out. “It’s not like that. My days are just… so much better when I’m with you. But I still need to go back home. My whole family’s there. And I need my pack.”

Radek rubbed his eyes once he put on the socks. “I guess I was going back to Cracow anyway, so might as well stop putting it off,” he said in a low voice meant to disguise the tears he was trying to keep in.

Yev’s heart was bleeding.

“What about Coal?” he asked, even though what he really wanted to know was why Radek didn’t want to make the most of the time they could have.

“I’ll… take him,” Radek said, but it was obvious he hadn’t thought it through.

Yev swallowed, longing to touch Radek’s skin almost too much. “Or you could stay. It’ll be another few months before I’ll have to go.”

Radek spread his arms wide and bit his trembling lip. “Can’t you see I’ve fallen in love with you? You can’t just swoop into my