place, it only resulted in Burian’s knee hitting his stomach.
Yev was still catching his breath as a werewolf, who must have sneaked into the house from the back descended the stairs carrying Radek over his shoulder. The boy was kicking and screaming, but none of that was of any use against the mountain that was Fedir. Coal’s piercing shrieks made Yev stiffen with worry, but he was glad to see the tiny fox had enough sense of self-preservation to stay behind, screeching in anger and fear. If he’d have tried to bite or otherwise disturb Fedir, he’d have ended up dead.
Yev shook his head, frantically searching Olek’s gaze, but his younger brother wouldn’t look at him, flushed… with what exactly? Shame of what the pack was doing or shame of Yev and Radek smelling as if they’d just had sex?
“Leave him. Father. Please,” Yev begged, his gaze shooting to Radek, whose brave face slipped when he saw his abductor wasn’t alone.
Radek was wheezing by the time Fedir carried him outside and Father walked up to him with the face of a man who’d seen it all. “A fox shifter, you say.”
“Yes! So I know how to keep a secret. I have no reason to expose you,” Radek said, but he was only in his sweatpants, ghostly pale. Oh, how Yev wanted to tear him away from Fedir’s grip and carry him to Dybukowo, where the wolves would have surely left them be, for fear of getting exposed for what they were. Yev would have offered himself as sacrifice to the Moon-Eyed God if that ensured protection for Radek.
Burian snarled by Yev’s ear. “Outsiders can never be trusted.”
Father shushed him with a gesture, and when he grabbed Radek’s jaw, Yev exploded with a fury he’d never felt before. It pumped into his muscles with a force that allowed him to break the hold of three men and dash to Father’s side. He grabbed his forearm so hard it made a weird, dry noise, like a branch about to snap. Father flinched, but didn’t otherwise move. The scene froze in the ice of his gaze, only Coal whimpered inside the house, filling the air with the scent of raw terror.
“Don’t,” was the only thing Yev could produce with his throat tight. “No one dare touch him!”
“Why, son? Do tell me? Why should no one touch this outsider? And you better think through your next words,” Father said in a calm voice that had a painfully sharp edge.
Fedir glared at him, still holding Radek’s arms back, but Yev knew the answer the moment he caught a glimpse of the amber eyes filled with hope and trust.
Yev was in freefall. Radek’s warmth still clung to his cooling skin, a reminder that outside of the world of stern rules that guided the existence of the pack was someone who had never judged Yev and wouldn't demand more than he could give. Someone, who’d given him a glimpse of a future Yev had long given up on, someone who offered him understanding no one else in the world could.
They could live here, in the woods. Him. Radek. And Coal.
“I love him, Father,” Yev uttered, and while it should have been a difficult thing to say, it rolled off his tongue as smoothly as words of appreciation had earlier this morning.
Despite his dire position, Radek’s gaze softened as he looked at Yev as if he were the Moon-Eyed God himself.
Father huffed and stepped back, as if they were both covered in sewage. “And for that you forfeit a future with your pack? Your family?”
Yev shuddered, but let go of him too, itching to tear Radek out of Fedir’s grip, yet unwilling to try his luck when his boy’s life was at stake. He knew what Father meant, but while it hurt him to the core to make that choice, he couldn’t have lived with the alternative. “I see him as my mate. I want him as mine forever, and I owe him my loyalty like you owe yours to Mother.”
He could hear Burian spit on the ground not far behind him, but he wouldn’t acknowledge the bastard.
Father made a gesture ordering Fedir to let go of Radek, but even freed, the boy didn’t dare make any abrupt movements and stood like a statue.
“If that is your wish,” Father said, “then you’ll have to live with that choice. This is the last time we speak, and you are to never make contact with the pack again.”
Each word was