Sun Mote Copse and my whole earth shook

His ears press forward at the growls rolling from her chest like thunder. By the time she falls silent and Vermouth remembers to look Keshi’s way, she’s gone. If she’d said anything before slipping away, he hadn’t registered it. He hardly blinks, attention once more fixed on his dark companion.

“I like this side of you,” says Vermouth quite frankly, his pale eyes resting on her face for a long, speculative moment.

But she’s never spoken a word to him and, furthermore, she’s svart. His momentary titillation ebbs considerably, though it doesn’t flatline entirely. He can’t stop thinking about the way he’d felt her snarling at that other she-wolf, simply for standing too close to him.

“I was only playing with her. She thinks I—we—live here. She says we can live here together until the summer, though that was when she thought I was on my own,” Vermouth recounts with huff of laughter. “I’m not interested in her,” he continues, “or any of that.”

He’s still keen on finding a kvit woman, though that quest is suddenly less appealing. Vermouth continues eyeing Vixen, almost as if he’s really seeing her for the first time. She’s as svart as him, save for that splash of red on her face. In any case, there’s not a spot of white anywhere on her.

“Is that why you follow me? Because you’re interested in me?” he wonders.