Where Foxes Hunt with Wolves (Folk Lore 2)

“I want to belong with Yev forever,” Radek whispered.

Mother blinked faster and her eyebrows rode up. Yev was proud to see his boy catch her off guard like this. She stood there without a word, but after a moment, she smiled at Radek with tenderness in her eyes and stepped away, inviting them toward the cauldron with a gesture.

“Can’t make any promises,” the witch grumbled, stirring the boiling contents of the cauldron. Shadows hid most of her face, but they had a greenish tint, as if the substance she was preparing emitted a grassy illumination.

Their eyes met, and in the warm glow of the fire, Radek’s hair came alive, as if flames intertwined with the soft strands. “I want that too,” Yev said and looked at his mother as soon as he found Radek’s hand. His heart came alive with pounding so loud he could hear it resonating through his skull. Radek could be his as a mate in the way of primal laws, and they were a step away from that.

“Come here,” the witch said and opened her hand above the vat of fluid, releasing a cloud of red dust, which melted into the mixture and changed the glow illuminating her oddly youthful face. “Don’t you waste my time.”

“Me?” Radek asked, pulling out of Yev’s grasp, and Yev didn’t miss the way his mother followed the boy with a pensive expression.

“Is this… safe?” he asked, trembling at the thought of what the process might involve.

“It’s an ancient ritual of purification. The witch says this will purge his body so it's open to the mating,” she said, clearly not understanding it herself, but the fact that she’d made the effort to come made Yev love her even more.

He relaxed somewhat, but pulled her into a quick hug, unable to find the words to express all of his gratitude. Deep down, he still worried it might be something that only worked on widows, that the witch would shrug and tell them she’d been mistaken, but he would still try, even if the night were to end up in bitter tears.

Father approached, stern and quiet, and while Yev trusted him not to hurt Radek in any way, he was still on high alert whenever any other werewolf neared his lover.

But Radek didn’t see the encounter as a threat and met Father’s gaze. “I’m really serious about this.”

“Are you?” Father rasped, raising his chin as he shifted his weight, standing even taller.

“Yes. My fox mother is gone. I want a community that understands me. I will always be loyal to Yev.”

Yev swallowed hard, his chest tight as he watched his lover, his mate, stand proudly in the face of a man who could have killed him with a single movement. But Radek was not afraid. His eyes glinted like jewels in the lively flames, and the waves of his hair trembled with the swirls of smoke.

Father nodded, slowly resting his massive palm on Radek’s shoulder, and they watched one another as if a whole conversation went on telepathically, beyond Yev’s comprehension.

“Too much talking, too little help” the witch said, nodding at the cauldron.

Father frowned, and Yev could laugh out loud in satisfaction. His father wasn’t used to taking orders from anyone, but he pulled on the iron contraption keeping the cauldron above the fire. There was a wheel on one side, which allowed him to remove it from the flames, and a few presses on a lever rested the huge pot on the ground.

The thing was as big as a small bathtub and filled with a green mixture that would have been very much at home in an 80s movie about witches.

But Radek focused on Father, his voice faint, as if he wasn’t sure how to communicate with the pack alpha without breaking implicit rules. “And… if this succeeds, will we be accepted?”

Father’s face tensed, but he spoke before Yev could have gone rigid with worry. A hum left his throat as he glanced at the fire to gather his thoughts. “It is still hard to understand for me, this kind of love you have, but Yev had been so persistent in this. Maybe the Moon-Eyed God really made him this way?”

A fat rock grew in Yev’s throat when their eyes met, but he didn’t dare speak, so Father continued. “You will face prejudice, but if you two become mates, nobody will be able to deny that fact, even if they disagree with it in their minds. It’ll take time.”

Radek bit his lip and pointed to the sky. “I think it will work. It’s the new moon, so the God isn’t watching?”

Father cocked his head. “Spoken like a fox indeed…”

Yev had the overwhelming urge to step closer and hug Father, but they hadn’t been close that way since Yev had grown up, so he pulled his mother against him instead and met Radek’s gaze while his heart beat faster. This was the most important night of his life.