VULPINE: Her Second Chance

The Peaceful Interlude

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The Peaceful Interlude

Thalia watched the two bicker, yet again, with a slight smile.

- - - - -

It made sense that there was a tell when it came to aurae and astral manipulation. No shifter ability was infallible, or even without drawbacks. And it was even more difficult to "pull one over" on a fellow 'fox.

'Fox-made scents, for instance, had an artificial quality to them; a very slight difference between the dupe and the original scent. To other shifters, the difference was as small as that between the same plant grown in different regions. Werewolves, -bears, and -cats alike fell for the ruse, especially if they hadn't experienced the original scent.

However, to other fox shifters there was also a subtle chemical undertone, and thus they were much more difficult to fool. No 'fox, from the teen newbies to the elderly old hats, could rid their faux scents of "the tinge", so they called it. As such, werefoxes tended to mask their scents amongst other 'foxes, instead.

With the ocular aura, apparently the werefoxes instinctively clocked other shifters' irises in order to get approximations of their ranks, which would make it harder to hide one's true aural standing. Thalia supposed this was the reason why they tended to avoid physical closeness with strangers in a way Helena and the 'wolves didn't.

Werefoxes also hid their aurae by meditatively pulling it in, avoiding the physical sensation of aurae meeting one another. Though she was low- ranked, Thalia had done well at masking, and even better after Scott had convinced her parents to up her training before she went off to college.

Another shifter couldn't feel Thalia's aura unless she wanted them to, one of the few points of pride shared by all involved. After all, the more completely a 'fox could suppress their own presence, the more respected as a skulk member they were.

It also made sense to Thalia that Scott had made sure she'd been a good trophy. What didn't make sense was his behaviour considering this gap in her knowledge. Why have Thalia display as an omega when she was surrounded by fox shifters?

Thalia answered that question for herself as soon as she asked it, since it was why Scott did most things: to shame her in front of the skulk. It was the only thing he was good at. He even forbade her from showing any sign of her Spirit, be it speed, strength, or shifted claws and teeth. And he must have known about the things her parents hadn't been able to teach Thalia, and decided to let her remain ignorant for the same reason.

Fox shifters took pride in being the most "properly" educated species on the continent. They began their schooling at the age of five, much earlier than most other humanoids, and sent their young adults to achieve higher learning a few years after their first shift.

Thalia had been homeschooled by her parents, as most kits were, and left for university much sooner after her first shift than her peers. Her parents, though, had been big shifters in a tiny skulk, before being absorbed into the Imperial skulk. This must have meant, unfortunately for Thalia, that their skulk was too small to afford the national tutelage, and had relied on whatever scriptures were available.

Her basic knowledge was incomplete because her parents' knowledge wasn't complete, Thalia concluded. And Helena, who had been raised as Thalia's sister, had learned the exact same curriculum growing up, until they went their seperate majors in college.

Thalia sighed under her breath as she shook her iced cocktail in a rainbow tinted metal shaker. That meant there were things she and Helena would need to learn, discreetly. And they didn't even know what they didn't know.

Thalia tuned back in as she poured the drink, glad that she at least enjoyed reading.

- - -

"So, Skulklord Kane is a gamma, then?" Helena was asking Beau, since he was the previous skulk Beta, as well as the more scholarly twin. Thalia took this time to reintroduce herself to her friends' eyes, which she'd last really paid attention to in kithood. Helena had bright buttercup eyes with radial slivers of lime green, which reflected well the emerald shine of her lesser beta aura. "He ranks under me?"

"How does that work?" Mirella added from the front.

"Yep to both questions, Hels. And, as long as Loki accepts the Skulklord as Alpha, it doesn't matter what their aura ranking is." Beau answered them both as he rose and gestured to Thalia to sit back down. Thad immediately took her place behind the bar, and Beau gave a near-silent huff as he also returned to his seat.

Once he was comfortable again, he continued his explanation: "Our god values cunning over might. The fox shifters that pledge their loyalty to the Skulk must obey most Lord's rules and Commands as though they are those of an alpha."

Beau and Claire had a firsthand account of that. Their orangey amber eyes were almost identical, both shot through with thick streaks of brilliant blue. Thalia had thought their unique eyes were just a cosmetic gift from their mother, as their father seemed to have cloned all the twins' other features.

When she thought about their royal blue aurae, the same as the greater beta female's, she wondered how the two had felt about serving under a gamma-ranked 'fox masquerading as a Great Alpha.

"Ah, the capricious nature of shifters' gods never ceases to amaze me." Mirella quipped.

Beau bristled a bit. Her words rang true, especially with the werefoxes' god in particular, but no one liked for their religious figures to be mocked. Claire, in the interest of peace with her crush and always to her "little" brother's rescue, spoke before he could.

"Witches don't have gods or goddesses they worship?" She asked, then amended, "We don't know a lot about them, being so far away and all."

"None but the fabled Mother Earth, where our magic comes from," came Mirella's singsong reply. She then seemed to process the rest of Claire's words as those dark eyes landed on Helena in the rearview. "The Citrine Sands butt right up against the Eastern Coventry, though? Werecat lands actually come between witch and 'wolf lands in a lot of places..." She trailed off and refocused on the road, leaving her true question unspoken.

Thalia noticed the king relax minutely and figured he must've 'linked the witch to reel it in.

Helena didn't usually mind telling her story, mostly because there wasn't much of it, but Thalia appreciated King Daniel's intervention, nonetheless. Mirella seemed the type to dig until someone convinced her to stop, and while Thalia could understand that level of curiosity, she didn't have to like it. Thaddeus spoke into the silence, cutting down the slight awkward pause in conversation.

"So, Lord Beau, what's your poison?" He somehow managed to make the title sound intimate, and Thalia thought they'd been disagreeing, but the flirtatious look he sent Beau told her that perhaps they weren't. Beau ordered vaguely, much in the way of his fellow clone.

"Something with spiced rum, please." He'd replied somewhat loftily, but his ears were slightly reddened and his heart fluttered a touch.

"Wow," Claire looked back from her spot beside Mirella, where she'd continued to gravitate. She looked back and forth between Beau and Thaddeus before voicing her conclusion, "what a basic bitch."

- - -

Thalia woke to muffled voices sometime later, when the waning moon was high in the sky. The panel to the front seats had a previously hidden door that was now closed, and apparently was soundproofed, since she was the only one to awaken. The bar clock flashed 23:56. Still in the Union. They'd cross the national border in 97 minutes or so, give or take a lead foot.

Thalia took note of the room, and noticed that Mirella and Claire were seated across from her, leaning towards each other in sleep. The witch must have switched with Thaddeus, then. So about 48 minutes to the Moon Kingdom.

Helena was curled up in her seat beside Thalia, and she supposed the empty spot beside the 'cat was for Beau. And that explains who the other chatty Cathy is that woke me up, I guess.

She finally allowed her eyes to fall on King Daniel.

The king was sitting, slightly sprawled, in the seat closest to the bar, right across from Thalia, as he had been for the entirety of their four hour party. The party, while it had been more of a relaxed affair than she'd expected, had still resulted in her feeling tipsy enough to turn in early, and she'd felt his comforting gaze on her as she went to sleep.

Thalia was trying to decide how she felt about, well, how she'd felt about that, when the voices behind the panel started up again. Well. Thalia was never one to look a gift horse in its deflection-lined mouth. Hot Goss as White Noise it is. She recognised Thaddeus' low, cool tones and settled in to be lulled to sleep.

"How could you have 'cheated' when we've only just met, Beau? That doesn't make any sense." Thalia's eyes snapped open and her ears burned as she was mortified to realise that she could hear much more clearly now than she had while asleep.

Thalia quickly sent a little flutter of awareness to Beau, letting him know that she was awake, but he sighed and continued to speak with the king's beta.

"I had a chosen mate, Thaddeus. I have a child. I didn't wait, like you did. I feel like it's pretty clear to see."

They're true mates. Thalia's heart dropped as she realised what Beau was allowing her to hear and why. She already knew this story.

A majority of shifters found their mates - true or otherwise - by their mid-twenties, especially foxes, who were thought to be the most impatient species north of the Feywilds. Beau had been mated and widowed by the time he turned twenty-seven.

He and Thaddeus were true mates, but the two males had met much later in life, at 33 and 32, and werewolves had a reputation for being extremely territorial, especially when it came to true mates and family.

Thaddeus was silent, but his emotions didn't seem to be negative to Thalia. Beau continued after a beat, uncomfortable but determined to be truthful. His words came out in a rush, tripping and uncertain, with no real order to his statements.

"My parents chose her, but I accepted. Her name was Annabel Sarque. She was older, but she was Yves' best friend and had helped us a lot after she died, so it wasn't that hard a decision. We needed an heir from the Imperial Skulk within the year, to 'combat' any heirs the reigning Skulk might have had. We were successful, but we didn't know that she was sick, and she died in childbirth."

The reigning Skulk in question being Scott's Sardonyx 'foxes. Thalia wished she could shift and press her ears to her skull. She already knew this story, but to hear it rehashed as a reason for her brother to miss out on his soul bond was another thing. Beau had given up everything because of Thalia and Scott, and he'd been left with nothing of his best friend but a newborn kit and her bastard of a brother.

"You have to understand, I was 26 at the time, and almost everyone I knew had found their true mates within the Union. Annabelle had no love for her original true mate, and we had spent the last eight years becoming such close friends..." She heard the rustle of Beau shaking his head.

When he spoke again, his voice was quietly morose. It always took a lot out of him to relive that loss and the years that followed.

"I guess you don't have to understand anything. I'm a different person, and this is a different time.. But I'll always love Annabelle and the way we were each other's strength. And I'll never regret Sasha's birth, despite the tense circumstances that lead to it. If I could have her, I'd choose the same life, even right now." Even if you won't, Beau didn't say. Even if it's without you.

There was a long silence, long enough that Thalia had almost dozed off to sleep again, before Thaddeus spoke once more, his voice deep and calm.

"My parents were chosen mates. They were best friends, growing up, and turned 25 before they could find their true mates. When Daniel's mother, the Queen Luna, became pregnant, my father was pressured to provide an heir, as well. They loved each other, but were never in love. So of course, when my mum met her true mate 3 years later, they parted amicably and remained on good terms until their deaths."

"My step-mother, who'd found her true mate in my father after many years of waiting, was never the same again after he died. She followed him into the skies soon after my half-brother was born. I was only twenty-four, and Teddy was barely on the bottle. Danny's mom offered to take him for me, but it was too late. I already knew he was mine."

"All that to say: I have a kid, too, Beau. We've both made big choices to protect our family. And I don't mind. I don't mind at all, and I hope Sasha is happy with her new brother." Thalia felt so deeply uncomfortable to hear Thaddeus' story while he was unaware. Beau interrupted her squirmy thoughts before she could mentally nudge Thad.

"We're just going to gloss over the fact that I chose a mate before you? If she were still alive, we wouldn't have ever known!"

Gods spare her, Thalia was so flustered she'd forgotten she couldn't mind-link with Thaddeus until they reached the packlands and their bond was anchored.

The king stirred in his seat across from Thalia, and she considered 'linking Beau to tell him that he could be heard through the divider by the others. Their conversation was too precious to interrupt, she rationalised, and unfortunately she couldn't unhear Thad's story, so she just tried to focus on calming her frazzled nerves.

Luckily, Thaddeus' reply was in that same low and measured baritone. Thalia relaxed and the king remained asleep.

"We don't have to "gloss over" anything, unless you want to. We can talk about the people you love or hate, or anything in between. Or, if what you need is silence, I can give you that as well. I value you as a person, and as my true mate as well. It was my prerogative and my pleasure to wait until I met you. But I will not shame you for finding happiness. It was before we ever even knew of each other's existence, and I don't feel cheated nor cheated on."

Thalia was starting to really like Thaddeus. He was the quintessential big brother type. For her, at least. For Beau, it seemed he was the perfect future partner.

"Oh... Really?" Beau sounded like she'd never heard him before, small and hopeful. She found her heart swelling for him, her breath held in anticipation with his.

"Really, really."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"...Okay, then"

And Thalia finally drifted off in the comfortable silence that followed.