For Fox Sake: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Chaos of Foxes Book 1) Read online

  For Fox Sake

  The Chaos of Foxes

  Emma Dean

  FOR FOX SAKE

  THE CHAOS OF FOXES

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Copyright © 2018 by Emma Dean

  ASIN: B07DYPD8Q9

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, locations, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This one’s for me.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Excerpt from Black Spells and Twisted Souls by Cece Rose

  Other Books by Emma Dean

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Kenzie

  Kenzie checked the perimeter one last time before jumping from the edge of the building and onto the next one’s roof. She rolled as she landed, letting the impact dissipate through her whole body before somersaulting to her feet and running as fast as she could to the building’s rooftop entrance.

  Pressing against the wall she checked her smartwatch. Kenzie tapped it and let the tech magic do its work. All alarms were disabled and would stay that way until she was safely away from the scene of the crime.

  Opening the door to the stairs slowly, she waited a moment before going in. The tech in her ears allowed her to hear better than a normal human, but it seemed everything was silent. Maybe this would all go off without a hitch.

  Yeah, right. Kenzie never had that kind of luck.

  She grabbed the stair railing and hopped over, dropping silently into a crouch on the next landing.

  Kenzie had been born into one of the most prestigious witch families on the West Coast, but she was a disappointment – an abomination to her kind. Kenzie was born without a lick of the power her sister possessed. For all intents and purposes, Kenzie was a normal human.

  But the potion she was about to steal – the one that gave anyone who consumed it powers – wasn’t for her.

  Two more jumps down and she was on the right floor. Kenzie pulled the lock pick set from her pack and managed to open the door in less than ten seconds – a new record. She tucked the set away and her watch scanned the door for any magic before she placed her gloved hand on the knob.

  She tossed a small, purple ball the size of a marble onto the floor and waited. Her watch pinged when it was safe.

  No magic and no tech thanks to her little witch ball of doom. Her sister had made Kenzie tons of useful things like that. Selene was the only one in her family who treated her like an actual person and not something to be sneered at.

  It was the only reason why she was willing to steal from Samuel, the Alpha of the West Coast Pride. Nothing else in the world would make her stupid enough to steal from him. But…Selene had been cursed and her powers stripped.

  Kenzie would make sure her sister got them back, no matter what the consequences were.

  She stuck to the wall and made her way to the white tiger shifter’s office. His vault was legendary. At first she’d thought what she needed would be at his mansion, but after some recon she’d found out he’d had it moved to his office building.

  Neither was easy to infiltrate.

  Only a white tiger could get access to this kind of potion. It technically wasn’t even legal, but he’d confiscated it from a dark witch – Circe? Kenzie wasn’t sure and she didn’t get all the details of what happened with Sacramento’s Golden Coven, but it hadn’t been good. The goddamn Council had to step in and everything.

  Kenzie checked her watch again and had it do another sweep. Nothing on this floor. She tapped it and her escape route displayed. Everything was clear. Now all she had to do was get in, get the potion, and get out. All without setting off any alarms or running into any security. Most guards were in the main security office, but there were a few roaming the floors.

  As long as she was silent nothing and no one would know she was there.

  Her gloved hands traced the wall as she crouched low, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the light from the city and other buildings. Kenzie passed his secretary’s desk and ducked underneath so she could scan one last time.

  Selene had been the one to enchant all her gear – before she’d been cursed. The charms ensured no trace of her scent, her essence, or anything that could be used to identify and track her would be left anywhere. If it wasn’t for her, Kenzie would be left with nothing but her human skills.

  Which were nothing to sneeze at, but when you lived in the paranormal world and stuck your nose into shifter business…you needed witch magic.

  Everything looked perfect.

  Kenzie needed to get inside the West Coast Alpha’s office and open the vault. But the office was tightly sealed.

  Her sister had given her a crystal which had been enchanted to unlock any door no matter the defenses. It wasn’t exactly legal, but since there was no record of its existence…thankfully Selene liked to experiment.

  But it was only good for one lock.

  It was a bit of luck that Kenzie had tried to prove she wasn’t a disappointment all those years ago. The things she could do with computers…Kenzie tucked the crystal back into the small pack on her waist and pulled out the mini tablet she’d brought.

  Kenzie slid out from under the desk, pressed one hand to the table and vaulted herself over the desk effortlessly before dropping to her knees and sliding across the tile to the Alpha’s door. She pressed her back up against it, keeping her breathing even as she pulled out the cable.

  So many weeks of recon and she’d been able to learn the door took a keycard and a thumbprint. She slipped the blank card and then tapped the program she’d created for just this purpose. A few minutes and she’d be in. This is where the magic would come in.

  Kenzie pulled out the ashes from a picture that had the white tiger on it…any moment…her program unlocked the code and she blew the ashes on the door. They settled onto the surface and glowed while they created the perfect thumbprint of West Coast Pride Alpha Samuel Erikson.

  Calling that favor in hadn’t been great since Selene wasn’t able to do the spell for her without her powers. Fucking Peter and his disgusting little crush – well it came in handy when she needed it.

  The door unlocked and Kenzie barely breathed as she pushed it open just enough to slip through and then waited.

  Lights from the city outside shone through the windows and made patterns on the ground. She leaned back into the shadows, knowing her red hair would be a dead giveaway. Kenzie cursed internally. She should have worn a head covering or something, but the risk it would fall off and leave a trail right back to her was too high.

  The headband Selene had magicked worked to keep her hair from falling out and leaving DNA anywhere, but it didn’t cover the bright red at all.

  No noise
s in the office. Not even air whispered through the vents. There was nothing but the sound of computers whirring and humming.

  Kenzie put the tablet and cable away and grabbed the crystal. This was it. One more step and she’d have the potion. She checked her escape route again. The window was still unlocked and nothing and no one was in her way.

  She slid through the door, not touching anything, and stuck to the shadows on the walls. The lights from outside flickered with the ambience of the city. Most in the paranormal underground thought Samuel kept his vault behind his pride’s portrait, but it was actually hidden behind a bookcase.

  The amount of digging she had to do to find the key had been ridiculous, and no, it was nothing obvious like The Jungle Book. Kenzie reached out and pulled down on Pride and Prejudice. Apparently it was the white tiger’s favorite classic.

  Disgruntled employees always talked when they had too much to drink.

  The bookcase creaked open and Kenzie winced at the sound, too loud to her amplified hearing. But there it was – the massive vault door where the Alpha was entrusted with various different things by the Council of Paranormals. Only Samuel knew everything that was in there.

  Kenzie took a deep breath and then held it as she used the crystal to sketch the small, detailed, and complicated pentagram Selene had been very insistent she not mess up. After weeks of practice, she knew it better than she knew most coding languages.

  And…done.

  The pentagram glowed pink of all colors, and then a hiss and clink…the door unlocked and swung open slowly. Still Kenzie didn’t dare to breathe. She tried not to think about what would happen if she got caught as she opened the door farther and then stepped in.

  Her sister’s magic held up. No alarms went off and nothing turned on. Kenzie slipped the now blackened crystal in her pack and tapped the light on her smartwatch.

  “Holy shit,” she breathed. There were shelves from floor to ceiling absolutely stuffed with random objects and the Fates knew what else.

  Thank goodness the tiger was organized. She read the labels and went down in alphabetical order to ‘potions.’ Some were illegal and some not, but they were all clearly marked. Kenzie went through each of the potions on the illegal shelf until she found what she was looking for.

  Her heart pounded in her chest and she had to focus on her breathing to keep calm. Adrenaline flooded her system. She was so close, now all she had to do was get out without being detected – or at least with enough of a head start no one would be able to catch her.

  The potion was purple and glowed in the clear bottle. It could give anyone, even a human, the powers of a natural-born witch.

  For a brief moment Kenzie was tempted. She could take the potion and finally be normal – her family would accept her, maybe her parents wouldn’t give her that disappointed look all the time…but no, she was used to living like that.

  She had real-life skills and Selene would never be able to recover without her powers. Kenzie couldn’t subject her little sister to the life she had to live.

  Twenty-six years of wishing she could be like Selene and for the first time in her life she was grateful she hadn’t been born with powers. If she had she wouldn’t have been able to steal this potion in the first place.

  Before she could slip it into her pack it was snatched from her hand.

  Kenzie gasped and spun around. A tall, naked man stood before her with flaming red hair and her goddamn potion in his hands. She bared her teeth at him. Fucking shifters – and a fox if her nose was right.

  “Give that back and I won’t hurt you,” she murmured, keeping her voice low enough no one but this fox could hear her.

  He tilted his head at her and tossed the potion up in the air like it was a ball and then caught it. Kenzie flinched, terrified he might drop it. “I was paid a lot of money to acquire this. I’m not just going to give it back; though you’re hot enough I’d consider it.”

  Instantly she was furious. Kenzie lunged after him, faster than he expected. She faked the sloppy lunge and then dropped to a crouch, whipping her foot around to catch behind his ankles. He fell to the floor with a surprised ‘oof’ and she pounced on him, holding him down with a knee to his throat as she grabbed the potion.

  When he grinned up at her it took everything she had not to think about the fact that he was naked beneath her. Why did he have to be so damn cute?

  “You’re not a fox are you?” he asked, lacing his fingers behind his head and lounging back on the floor like he was relaxing on the beach and not in a vault with her knee still at his throat. “Because honestly, that red hair is to die for. Is it natural?”

  “I’m not a fucking fox,” she hissed. It was the most commonly asked question among the paranormals – and irritating as all hell. “Not every redhead is a damn shifter. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

  Kenzie stood and made for the door but another fox stood between her and the office. How the hell did they move without her being able to hear them? They didn’t leave a trace on her tech either after a glance at her watch.

  This one was naked as well. He wasn’t as built and broad as the one still laying on the floor, now lying on his side with his head propped up on his hand to watch. This new one was built more like a swimmer. His red hair was darker too, almost a burnt red, like burgundy.

  Why did shifters have to be so annoyingly gorgeous?

  “I’m going to need that potion,” the new one said, holding his hand out like she was going to just give it to him. The way he looked at her, eyes squinted slightly, head tilted, and a tiny smile playing at the corner of his lips…it made her shudder with anticipation.

  Kenzie pointedly ignored his massive swinging cock and kept her eyes on his blazing gold ones. “You’ll have to take it from me first.”

  “That can be arranged,” a third one whispered from behind. He wrapped his arm around her waist like a lover would and kissed her cheek before snatching it from her hand.

  Kenzie’s cheeks heated with embarrassment as she felt his dick against her ass. There were three of them. And they were all naked.

  On instinct she whipped her elbow back and connected with the third’s jaw. He grunted and she caught the bottle before it could shatter. Then she bolted right at the burgundy-haired fox. The one still lounging on the fucking ground like this was a vacation grabbed her foot when she leapt over him.

  Kenzie used the change of direction to roll and then kick back. The first fox cursed when she connected with his nose. Still rolling she popped up to her feet and kept going. The second fox grinned like he couldn’t wait to take her on, eyeing her up and down appreciatively.

  Gritting her teeth in annoyance she slid feet first, right between his legs. Kenzie got an eyeful of his cock in the process. All men stood like idiots, feet planted wide, giving her plenty of space to work with.

  She pushed up and used all her parkour training and practice to find the shortest route to her exit. It didn’t matter if desks were in the way. She launched herself up and ran, feet light and got the rhythm going from desk to desk, over each cubicle wall and on to the next. One more row and she’d get to that open window.

  Then suddenly there was a red fox the size of a large dog making weird fucking bird noises and trying to nip at her ankles. Kenzie yelped as her hand slipped from the top of the cubicle and she fell to the ground in a heap.

  Her first instinct was to check the potion. Somehow it was still intact despite the death grip she had on it. Kenzie breathed a sigh of relief.

  Then the first fox took it from her and swept her a very dick-swinging bow. “We really couldn’t have done this without you. Maybe we can do it again sometime and make a date of it?”

  The third fox was built like a damn husky and she backed away slowly as he closed in, mindful of the teeth. “I have better things to do,” she said, pressing back against the desk.

  A shout from the stairs. Someone had set off a damn alarm. Kenzie checked her watch and pulled up the exit. The
first one was blocked. As was the second.

  Two foxes bared their teeth at her while the first set the potion in a small bag one of them had around his neck. Kenzie gritted her teeth, knowing they’d won this round. She slid her hand into her pack and watched as the first straightened and gave her a heart-stopping grin.

  “Don’t worry; you’re not the first to be outfoxed by us.” He even snickered at his own terrible joke before shifting into a fox in the blink of an eye.

  Kenzie rolled her eyes, annoyed this was all going up shit’s creek so quickly. The three foxes turned away and she flicked the tech magic and watched it adhere to the red fur before the foxes just…disappeared.

  Another shout and she glanced over her shoulder. Kenzie checked her wingsuit. Being in a prestigious witch family had its benefits. She tossed a small marble onto the floor and watched it explode into a cloud of pink smoke that quickly covered the entire floor.

  Without hesitation she ran straight for the window and tossed the sonic bomb she’d made – nothing but human science. It found the right frequency and the glass shattered right as she reached the edge.

  Kenzie leapt out of the skyscraper and activated the wingsuit, gliding into the night to her second location. She only glanced back once.

  The foxes may have gotten the potion, but there was nowhere they could run that she wouldn’t find them. Her trackers were impossible to detect. Kenzie would get that potion back for Selene no matter what.

  Hottie foxes notwithstanding.