Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves - K.A. Merikan Page 0,69

see the foxes.” Radek took a deep breath and stopped talking for a moment, teeth digging into his bottom lip. “It’s terrible. They’re trapped and hurting, and then I heard them. I could understand them. When they started screaming all at once, something in me broke, my whole body lost its shape, and there I was. A fox.

“I ran out of the farm before I got caught, and I just wouldn’t stop running. I was so fast, and I knew I’d be safer in the forest. Or at least that was what I thought before I got caught in the snares.” He looked up at Yev. “And then you found me.”

The story kept Yev on edge, because it was crystal clear to him that had he not driven close to the spot where Radek had been entrapped, the boy wouldn’t have survived the night. He’d have died from infection, been murdered by the poachers, or killed by other predators. Either way—a horrific way to die. Alone. In a body that surely hadn’t even felt like his own at the time.

His chest constricted, his throat ached, and his eyes stung, so he faced the egg basket and removed two from the bed of hay. “Yeah. That’s—what do you want to do about the farm?”

The silence was expected. Radek had so far proved himself to be an avoider of issues that didn’t sit well with him.

“I don’t know yet. I can’t keep it, but if I shut it down… it’s not an easy process. Those poor foxes are suffering there. As Ember, I could pretend there’s nothing I could do, but that excuse has gone out the window. I need to act. And I hate it.”

Yev separated the yolks from whites. He added sugar and cinnamon, and switched on the old mixer, which had been in the kitchen when he first arrived here. Making the dessert was so much simpler than dealing with Radek’s emotional issues.

The noise of the mixer was the perfect excuse for neither of them to speak, but it only took a few minutes for the yolks to froth.

“Would you come with me? In case the manager reacts badly? Or if I shift again?”

Yev swallowed, watching his shadow on the tiles above the counter. Wasn’t this the exact spot where they’d fucked last night? He could almost sense the heat of their bodies working together. “You’re the owner, so he shouldn’t ‘react badly’, but yes, I will go with you as moral support,” he said and turned toward Radek with a small smile and a little bowl filled with kogel-mogel.

“I’m a co-owner. This other guy, Mr. Golonko, owns the other half of the business. I’m not… stupid, okay? I’m just not experienced with any of this business stuff.” He did smile when Yev handed him a spoon.

Yev snorted and pulled the other chair closer, so his knees touched Radek’s, and grabbed an apple from the bowl in the middle of the table. “Ember was a smart fox. I’m sure Radek is a human who can work things out.”

The orgasmic expression on Radek’s face when he had a heaped spoonful of the dessert brought memories of last night. “Can we have more sex before we go?”

Yev leaned back, his ego burning bright. “We can always have more sex, Radek. Always.”

Chapter 14 – Radek

The clouds hung low over the valley as Yev’s truck left the woodland behind and drove through the fields of snow, past the church, and into the village. Yev tried to humor Radek at first, but the prospect of showing himself to Mom, of enduring her questions about the stump kept Radek on edge throughout the journey there.

“Are you sure she won’t tell me to leave?” Yev asked as he stopped in front of the closed gate.

In comparison to the house Yev lived in, Radek’s really did seem like a palace. “Why would she? It’s my home too, and I’ve had friends over lots of times.” In truth, he kind of wanted someone else to be around when he broke the news, because Mom bit her tongue more in the company of strangers. Too bad Mrs. Irena no longer counted as such.

Radek gave Yev the access code, and the gate soon opened, letting them in. The snow had been removed from the driveway, so they arrived at the doors within moments. Yev’s silence made Radek weirdly self-conscious.

“Oh. You’re thinking of the spat you had with her at the store? She’s harmless, really. All bark.” Radek stroked Yev’s hand