The pillows of snow were no challenge as he jumped from one to the other with ease. He didn’t have a goal. All he knew was that he needed to be as far away from the fox farm as possible.
Something gave a rusty screech, his paw hit metal hidden under the snow, and the world erupted with pain as if a lightning bolt had struck him.
He fell before he even realized he couldn’t escape the sharp teeth of snares trapping him in place. His foot lay at an awkward angle, and he screeched in panic and agony, trying to call for help, but all he could do was howl.
Chapter 6 – Yev
Yev wished he could have told Burian to go fuck himself, but pack law wasn’t on his side. As Dad’s right hand-man, Burian had the authority to tell him how to deal with any situation related to the smuggling business, and it wasn’t as if Yev could hide Radek’s presence forever. If the boy was a tourist, he could have let it go and lie about what happened to him, but a local? As much as it pained Yev, he needed to get that red-haired pawn off the chessboard.
He should have done the deed when the pest came over to tease him earlier, but things had gotten out of hand, and when the boy had been at his most vulnerable—kneeling at Yev’s feet—he couldn’t make himself grab his head and twist it. Not when Radek was pleasuring him, his copper hair like silk in Yev’s hand. So eager to hand himself over.
Prey should always be given a chance, even if a grown werewolf, superior to a human in every way, would never fail at such an uneven hunt. But since Yev had let Radek go, he needed to chase him down again, so he drove to the boy’s family home, stopped the old truck at the riduculously large gate, and rang the bell.
“There is a mailbox to the right, in the bushes,” said a female voice after a longer while.
Damn it. What happened to speaking face to face to one’s neighbor?
He cleared his throat. “Excuse me for coming so late. I’m Yevhen Vovk, the forest ranger. I was wondering if I could speak to Radek by any chance? It’s about last night’s incident,” he said, trying to look professional in the green camo jacket he wore for work.
“Oh? An incident? Of course there was an incident! I knew it,” the woman’s voice raised with each word. “Well, listen to me, Mr. Vovk, I am not responsible for my son’s behavior. As unbelievable as that is, he is a grown man. He’s off to Cracow, and isn’t even staying for Christmas. He probably won’t be back until Easter, but who knows if he’ll even respect that date. I don’t! Maybe he’ll be backpacking in Asia at that point, because who cares to spend time with their sick mother?”
Well, that was too much information.
Also, wow, clearly he wasn’t the only one on whose toes Radek had stepped on today.
But if Radek was gone and had no intention of coming back in the near future, then the pack wouldn’t find out Yev had let him go. The boy would live on, suck a lot of dick with those sweet lips, and never find out how close he’d been to death.
By the time Radek visited again, Yev’s banishment would hopefully be over. He’d be back in the fold, single forever but accepted by his brethren at least. Burian would rather see him dead than disgracing the family, but a tiny voice at the back of his mind wished he could find a temporary partner to satisfy all his cravings before that thirsty future. But how could he look for anyone in this tiny village?
“I am sorry for disturbing you, madam. Goodnight.”
“And if you do see him, tell him Mr. Gawron doesn’t appreciate his pranks!”
Yev was about to pull away, ignoring the last comment, because he doubted he’d be seeing Radek again, but then remembered something. “Mrs. Nowak, do you own any cats?”
“What? Why would I own a cat? And more than one at that.”
“Thank you, have a nice evening.”
So Radek had lied about the cats too, but what he’d wanted to do with the mouse would remain a mystery. It was likely something stupid anyway.
Yev sat back in the truck and drove to the village to pick up some things in the store before heading home along a narrow track reserved for forest service vehicles. The stink of the fur farm always got to him whenever he was on that side of the valley, but it was fainter than usual in this cold weather, so he ignored it, glad that those barbarians weren’t skinning wolves at least. Yet. Because fuck knew with humans, the most aggressively invasive species.