Silver Fox (Silver Shifters 2)

Mikhail agreed. That would be perceived as an insult.

“Then I met a young shifter who needed a change of scene, so I arranged for him to come here as an exchange student. Speaking of whom, I ought to see that he’s settled in.”

Bird returned before Mikhail could reply. She smiled as she said, “There! I’d call that a successful day, wouldn’t you?”

“Very,” Joey said, under his breath.

Almost, his fox yipped. We should be sniffing out our mate. Then everything will be perfect. Let me out, so I can test the air for her wonderful scent—

Joey firmly squashed his fox down as Mikhail said, “I think we ought to have Joey over. For a meal. Lunch, or dinner. Maybe both. Since he’s back. And, ah, bring your friends, Bird.”

Bird looked a little surprised, but she was too sweet-natured to do anything but agree. Ruefully, Joey thought that Mikhail Tadeusz Kosciusko Tian-Long, Dragon Knight, Sentinel of the Imperial Peace, Defender of the Celestial Realm, was a most formidable mythic warrior, but outside of his area of expertise, he was as subtle as a blowtorch.

Joey said firmly, “I won’t trouble you. I’m certain you both could use a rest after the labor of making this wedding so successful. However, Mikhail, perhaps we can meet to discuss whatever you’ve learned about Cang since I left.”

At the mention of the traitor red dragon, whom he’d once regarded as a friend, Mikhail looked like the formidable dragon knight again.

Bird’s brow puckered. “Cang was very dangerous. I hope neither of you has to confront him.” She had been there when Cang had collapsed that cave with no concern for anyone who might be inside.

“My orders are merely to sniff him out.” Joey tapped his nose and smiled to reassure her. “The Empress will bring in the heavy hitters to actually deal with him.”

She looked relieved. “I’m going to walk up to the house and get this frosting out of my hair. Flies were buzzing around my head as I said goodbye to Jen and Godiva.”

Mikhail kissed her. Joey looked away, not because there was anything wrong with the kiss—the very opposite—but because his heart began to thrum, and Doris’s image appeared before his mind’s eye.

Mate! yipped his fox.

As Bird walked away, Mikhail looked at him with concern in his usually austere face. He was a formidable man who didn’t flinch when attacked by a two-hundred foot kraken with teeth as tall as he was. But now he was actually . . . shuffling.

Joey was tempted to make an excuse and leave, except he could see how troubled his old friend was. “Everything is good. That is, it’s good that at last I’ve found my mate. I’ve spent a lifetime helping others, and I always hoped there’d be one for me. And there she is.”

Mikhail’s gaze swung his way. “Is it possible that only you felt it?”

Clearly he had observed Doris shut down before her fast exit. Joey wondered if all of them had seen it, and he’d been fooling himself that they’d missed it. “No. It doesn’t work like that.”

Mikhail was the expert in knightly deeds, but Joey’s experience helping shifters find and court their mates made him the expert in the area of love.

He closed his eyes and let his fox rise just far enough for him to perceive the foxfire meridians glowing in the air around them. Mystic shifters sensed the world in different ways than humans. Many were aware of the mystic energy called qi connecting earth, air, water, and fire with living things. Joey saw that, too, but he also perceived each living being with thin glowing threads of foxfire pulsing along their meridians.

As he’d expected, an entirely new set had opened up, glimmering gold, belonging exclusively to his mate. He sent his mind outward and saw where she was and where she had been. But he only let himself see it long enough to recognize what it was, and then suppressed that glowing, beckoning trail in the mythic plane.

He opened his eyes. “She felt it. I saw it. I can sense her now, but I won’t go there again until she gives me permission. I can’t deny the bond. We can try, but it messes us up. Humans . . . can choose to deny it.”

Mikhail gave a soft sigh. “I don’t know Doris well. She’s very quiet. Practical. Trustworthy. Bird likes her quite a bit.”

Joey knew an encouraging tone when he heard it. He had to smile at Mikhail’s diffident attempt to be supportive. Joey had dated women before, and he’d genuinely liked every one. Many had stunning features, but none of them were beautiful in the way Doris was beautiful—much more than the sum of her lovely, entrancing parts.

He had instantly recognized that she had the kind of beauty that comes of being a genuinely good person. Foxes—so good at disguises—were very, very good at sniffing out falsity. The lines around Doris’s dark eyes were shaped by intelligence, caring, and laughter. There was secret sorrow there, too. Joey wondered if that was a part of why she had met his gaze with simmering heat to match his own—and then had shuttered it all away, masked herself completely, and turned her back.

“It’s going to be a challenge,” Joey said on an exhaled breath. “But the best things in life often are, eh?”

“True.” Mikhail still looked troubled. “You must let me know if there’s anything

I can do to help.

“Thank you, old friend. I’ll let you get back to your wife now. It’s been a very long day for us both.”

Joey walked to his car below Mikhail and Bird’s house, the stars twinkling peacefully overhead. How strange that the world was so quiet and peaceful, the air perfumed from the roses in the garden, the sea breeze carrying the tang of brine. How everything seemed exactly as it had before.