Star-crossed Royals

Chapter Three

Jamie and Leif moved through the campus, both looking for any sign of the kitsune that had disappeared. Still, they couldn’t hear, see, nor smell anything around them out of the ordinary. The overall tension was palpable as the two headed towards their dorms.

“Have you calmed down enough to talk?” Jamie said mentally looking quizzically at Leif.

Without looking at Jamie, Leif continued sullenly projecting his thoughts in mind. “I’m not sure calm is the right word.”

Jamie could tell that his intervention had upset his friend. He also knew that if he hadn’t stopped him, they could have been exposed in public. Worse, innocent humans could have died. If Leif had gone any further and shifted, the damage could have been catastrophic. Jamie also was fairly certain he didn’t want to hurt the Kitsune either. They had done nothing wrong to him, and the girl seemed terrified of him even though he’d done nothing to her. He didn’t know she even existed until an hour ago.

They arrived at their dorm and headed inside. Once the door was closed, Jamie turned and looked at Leif. He was pacing indignantly while looking at the door then out the window and he looked like he was straining to hear anything out of the ordinary around them.

“Leif, stop. They’re not here. I know it’s your job to protect me, but I need you to talk to me right now,” Jamie said aloud this time.

“This isn’t supposed to be happening!” Leif said clearly agitated.

“What isn’t supposed to be happening?” Jamie asked quickly, clearly feeling like he was missing something.

“We researched this school. My father scouted the campus and the surrounding area. We made contact with the local packs to make sure they knew we’d be here and that they were considered on standby if anything was needed for you. There is no local knowledge of any legitimate threat to you, and there damn sure were no Kitsune when we came here,” Leif continued breathlessly. “HOW IS THERE A WHOLE PACK OF THEM JUST OUT OF NOWHERE? I’m supposed to protect you. How can I do that if they can just appear and disappear at will? I didn’t even smell, hear, or see them coming when that group of them came for that girl.”

“Are we just going to gloss over you knowing Kitsune exist and not talking to me about it?” Jamie asked, starting to get angry with his friend.

“Jamie, you’re my best friend, my brother, but you know that we both have our place. We both have responsibilities that we have prepared for since birth. During those times that you were trained in what it would mean to take over as Rìgh, I was taken away and trained in what it meant to be the one to protect you. There are things that we were both taught that we aren’t allowed to share, even with each other. This is one of those things,” Leif said as he sat down looking contemplatively away from Jamie out the window, finally seeming to calm down. “I have to know how to protect you from threats of all kinds. Kitsune are one of them, and they are a pretty scary bunch. We’ve always hoped we’d never have to deal with them, because their powers and physiology are similar to ours, but they have abilities you couldn’t imagine,” he continued.

“Like invisibility? Can you even call it invisibility? I lost their scent too…” Jamie asked trailing off into thought.

“That’s the thing,” Leif answered. “Invisibility isn’t a common ability. The same way our powers are tied to our status in the overall hierarchy of Lycans, so are theirs. That is a royal trait. We’re not dealing with normal Kitsune. I think that girl is like you. That’s why those guys appeared out of nowhere to protect her.” Leif was seemingly thinking out loud as he tried to figure it out himself.

“There are others… like me?” Jamie felt like he’d been hit with a truck. The realization that Kitsune even existed was one thing. Now there were other royals? There was someone who might know what it’s like to be in the position he’s in? No matter how much he explained, or what other wolves thought they knew, being the royal heir was something he thought no one else would understand. Even Leif never truly seemed to grasp the gravity of the pressure he felt.

“I need some air,” Jamie said, standing up suddenly and walking towards the door.

“I’m coming with…” Leif started but suddenly stopped as Jamie turned around to face him.

“NO!” growled Jamie. His tone deepened, and his eyes flashed purple. Given a formal command, Leif had no choice but to sit down, albeit with protest.

As Jamie walked into the hallway of their building, Leif called out to his thoughts. “Please don’t leave right now without me. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but it’s dangerous out there!” Jamie shut off their mental link to keep his voice out of his head. He hated ever taking anyone’s will away from them, especially Leif, but he was furious, confused, and he didn’t know what to do. He needed time in his own head away from everyone.

He started making his way towards the wrestling room. At this time of day, he figured the guys that came in to train during lunch wouldn’t be there, and he could probably just sit on the mat and think. The wrestling mat was the only place he felt like he was in control of his life, although he always felt bad, because wrestling was a bit unfair now that he had shifted for the first time. A regular wolf would be stronger than most collegiate wrestlers. As a royal, he was basically a God in comparison.

As Jamie was walking across campus, her scent hit him again. It was faint, but the fire he felt when he smelled her started welling up in his chest like a dam about to burst. It felt ready to spill flames through his body. All thoughts of hiding in the mat room disappeared, and he found himself walking, as if in a cartoon floating on her scent, as it got stronger. His ears perked up, and he immediately began to do everything he’d ever been taught to mask his presence from other Lycans. His footsteps became silent, he moved downwind so his scent would be less noticeable, and he masked the aura that radiated from him marking him as royalty. He wasn’t sure if Kitsune could sense it, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

The scent led him to a sorority house that he thought was abandoned. He could see a low hanging roof in the back of the house, so he silently made his way to it. Reaching up with one hand, he easily pulled himself up and into the air to land deftly on the roof. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who could be silent, because he came face to face with a Kitsune. He looked like a standing guard that probably was their equivalent to a Beta. He surprised the Kitsune because his face went white with terror and he opened his mouth to scream. Without thinking, Jamie grabbed him by the throat, cutting off the sound he was trying to make immediately. Pulling him close, Jamie whispered, “I’m sorry, this isn’t personal.” He simultaneously let go of his throat while open hand slapping him in the jaw. The nameless Kitsune slumped into Jamie’s arms, and he dragged him under a window to hopefully avoid being seen too soon.

Jamie looked around and didn’t see anyone else, so he continued towards the window the scent seemed to be coming from. Carefully bringing himself to the edge of the window, he peered in, and he saw her again. Like an angel, she was wreathed in light from the lamp behind her on the office desk. Her scent hit him fully, and this time he closed his eyes and let it wash over him. Giving in to this strange warm feeling sent a wave of pleasure through him, and this time he noticed his shorts beginning to tent as he was awakened in a way he hadn’t expected. He wasn’t even looking at her, and he felt his blood rushing south.

“Who the hell is this girl?” he silently screamed to himself, not understanding this feeling any more than he understood why her existence had been kept a secret from him.

Jamie looked in the window again, and he saw her once more. She no longer looked scared like she did when she saw him. She was fiercely looking into the faces of each of the men that had appeared earlier, clearly as confused and frustrated as he had been with Leif. She was talking to them, seemingly a bit aggressively, but Jamie realized he couldn’t hear them. Jamie could hear through several stories of concrete, so this didn’t make any sense. Still, he couldn’t help but begin to admire her as he took in everything from her long black hair, her pale skin, and plump lips going down to her clearly defined shoulders. He could see the beginning of a beautiful, traditional Japanese style tattoo that seemed to cover her whole upper body. Now that he knew what he was looking at, it was a kitsune. He counted one, two, three, …nine tails?

“That has to mean something,” he thought. As he looked at her through the window, Jamie fought with himself over how to approach her. Should he leave and try later? Should he go knock on the door? “No, that’s stupid,” he thought to himself.

The man who had started toward him earlier, suddenly turned and immediately opened the window. The girl looked at him, eyes alight and said very clearly, “Please come in. You’re hiding from no one out there.”