Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves (Folk Lore 2)

Radek bit his lip with a smile. “I like it oversized.” He definitely loved that Yev was oversized. If Radek were a birch tree, then Yev was a freaking sequoia, and wearing his clothes reminded Radek of the breadth of Yev’s chest even when they were apart.

“Whatever happened to that nice khaki one? With the fox-trimmed hood?”

Radek shrugged, shifting his weight, and avoided her gaze, because thinking about that jacket was making him uneasy. “I don’t know.”

Mom frowned, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses as her shoulders tensed. “What do you mean by you don’t know? What have you done to it?”

“Nothing. I just don’t know where it is.” Which was so much easier to say than explaining why he’d given the hood a proper burial.

“It was that forest ranger’s idea, wasn’t it? He’s turned you against me because he has a pet fox and hates the farm.”

Radek massaged his forehead. Conversations with Mom so often ended with arguments. Why did she have to be so aggressive and proddy all the freaking time?

Resigned, he sat in an armchair next to her, because this would be a long one.

“I have a pet fox now too.”

If she kept tensing like this, the facelift she sometimes mentioned wanting might not be needed. “You need to stop wasting money on those large enclosures. It’s a fur farm, not a petting zoo. This has been going on long enough.”

Radek rolled his eyes, but he could only remain on the fence for so long. Even if Jessika and her Dad decided they didn’t want to deal with the farm anymore, Radek might end up with a bigger headache on his hands if they sold their part of the business to the wrong person. “If you’re so interested in the farm, you should come see it. Two new enclosures have been built to give the foxes space to run and play.” But that didn’t solve the problem and thinking about the elephant in the room made him want to throw up.

She slammed her frail hand on the coffee table so hard the porcelain cup clattered on the saucer and spilled tea on the biscuit. “They’re livestock, and the business brings profit because it doesn’t need to eat up so many resources. Grow up and deal with it today! Some of the vixens aren’t pregnant yet, and the rut only lasts so long. Another month, and we'll be in a terrible situation in the furring season.”

Radek had to take a few deep breaths, but remembered Yev’s stern advice to not get into screaming matches with her. “I don’t think we need any more pups right now. The farm has to meet certain criteria first.” It was a lie for himself as well, because he could tell himself that, but deep down, he knew he couldn’t reopen the farm at all, and it terrified him. He could get rid of the problem by selling the death factory, but that would leave all the blood and suffering on his hands. His mom couldn’t be left without care, and what job was he qualified for? Would it earn enough to support them both?

He’d studied tourism of all things. What the hell was he to do with that degree? Start a small travel company when he had little to no experience and didn’t even know how to handle taxes, because Mom’s accountant had always done it for him?

“What criteria are those?” she asked in a snarky tone.

And just like that, he started losing patience. “I don’t know. You tell me. But you’d have to actually go there and see for yourself how those animals are treated. Why do you never visit, Mom? Did something… happen there? Something unusual?”

“Unbelievable,” she hummed, getting up from the sofa, with discomfort passing through her features. “You get everything handed to you, and you still choose to run your father’s and mine life’s work into the ground!”

He reached over to the side of the sofa and handed her the cane. The last thing they needed now was her breaking a limb. “I’m just trying to understand why you hate the foxes so much. Do they… speak to you?”

Her breath quickened, but just as Radek’s heart skipped a beat, and he could have sworn he saw a glimpse of understanding in her eyes, her delicate features twisted. “You're trying to make me look crazy, so you can lock me up somewhere and forget I exist? That won’t be happening,” she said and grabbed his jacket, opening it as if she were looking for something.

Radek’s body hair bristled when he recognized the sheer paranoia of her behavior, but he stayed still.

She shook her head and tapped the cane against the floor, swallowing over and over. “It’s you who neglects your own disabled mother. You chose to live in the woods with some stranger and left me on my own!”