Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves - K.A. Merikan Page 0,57

would go back to normal.”

Yev exhaled, cracking the eggs one after another in a well-practiced motion while he kept Radek at the edge of his vision. “You will get used to it. Humans are… surprisingly resilient. I suppose the same goes for fox changelings,” he said, trying to smile as he added salt, pepper, and started whisking the eggs. A good breakfast couldn’t fix Radek’s arm, but it would make him feel better in the moment.

And he still needed to think how to get rid of him tonight. The scent he carried, sweet yet almost meaty, would only sharpen once the full moon was up. Even the salty scent of tears was weirdly appetizing.

Radek rubbed his face again and again, shoulders trembling. Yev couldn’t help but reimagine him as Ember sulking in a corner. “We don’t need to talk about it. Tell me about the werewolf stuff, about the shifting. How do you control it?”

Yev hummed and dropped a large chunk of butter into the pan before starting the fire underneath. Once again, he was confronted with the fact that his urge to take care of the boy was in direct opposition with the interests of his people. They’d survived thanks to secrecy. What a damn conundrum.

“It’s hard to explain. For me, it was a normal thing. All the men in the village could turn, and now it’s as easy as snapping my fingers. Though it gets harder as the werewolves grow older.”

His younger brother, Olek, had once suggested it could be linked to lifestyle and dropping testosterone levels, but nobody had taken him seriously, and Yev himself wasn’t sure how he felt about problems with transformation being likened to erectile dysfunction but it was… well, a theory.

Olek could be such a weirdo sometimes.

He glanced at Radek while he cut thick slices of bread. “What about you? Do you want to learn how to shift at will or stay a human forever?”

Radek seemed restless, shifting his weight and stepping closer, then farther. “I want to learn. If I’ve got it, might as well use it, right?” he said as if his true self were a disease. “I could sneak into hen houses and steal people’s eggs, or leave cryptic messages in the grain to freak them out.”

“That’s your idea of living your life? What about the farm?” Yev asked, pouring the beaten eggs into the pan as soon as the butter started sizzling.

“I don’t know yet. Tell me more about the village. It’s all werewolves? Where is it?”

Yev stilled, his shoulders going tense, so he loosened them by vigorously moving the eggs around with a wooden spatula. “If you tell anyone, you’re dead. If they know you know, you’re dead. If they know you’re still around, you’re dead. Is that clear?” he asked with more aggression than he’d intended. But those were points he needed to communicate.

Anxiety oozed from Radek, but the boy nodded. “Are they the wolves you feed?”

Yev did not expect that question, so he pushed the scrambled eggs onto plates, next to the bread. “N-no. They’re just friends. I sometimes spend time with them as a wolf.” Which he felt oddly self-conscious about and never shared with anyone in his pack. Real wolves never judged him, and sometimes he felt as if they understood him better than his fellow weres. “My village is across the border.”

Radek followed Yev to the table where they sat opposite each other by the window. “And the witch? How did you know about the witch? You never told me!”

Radek had made attempts to ask with the letter cubes, but fox questions were much easier to ignore than human ones.

Yev shrugged, clearing his throat. “It’s just… that our ancestors were right. There’s more to the world and nature than meets the eye. Like you. Like me. Like magic. Like the old gods. You will understand it with time,” he said and pushed one of the plates at Radek.

“You’re so wise,” Radek teased with a growing smile, even though his eyes were still red. He poked his foot against Yev’s under the table but started eating like a bear that had just woken up from hibernation. “Are many werewolves gay?”

Aaaand that was it for pleasant topics.

“No. Only me.”

Radek bit his lip, squinting, which only made him look more vulpine. “And yet you’re not a virgin…” His toes climbed Yev’s foot.

Radek had asked him ‘VIRGN?’ with the wooden cubes in the past and then cackled his ass off, running in circles as if that was