Sly as a Fox {Book One}

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

A/N: The image above is of Monroe, Blithe's father and the current Alpha of his pack.

Rejection

noun

-to refuse to recognize the existence of

-to refuse to accept (someone or something); rebuff

With an elaborate procession of profanities stringing through my mind, I looked to the man who I just learned was my mate's father and current Alpha of his pack. I pushed through my feelings of embarrassment and hesitation to put on a happy and excited face, my voice raising an octave higher than usual to come across as more approachable to my future in-law, "Oh...you're Blithe's father, then?" I put my hands behind my back nervously as I strained to hold eye contact under his scrutinizing gaze.

Letting my question linger for a few seconds as his eyes narrowed, he answered solemnly, "Yes, I am. And you are...?" He held the same blended French and Native accent to his tongue that Blithe did, though it was much stronger. He kept taking very deep breaths through his nose, his nostrils flaring with recognition as he did, and I could tell he wasn't very pleased that I was a Volpe who was somehow "friends" with his Lupo son.

My mind was reeling with his question. I had to hold back the urge to let my jaw go slack and drop to the floor when he asked that, but I also wasn't sure if he was asking it to be a smart-ass or out of honest curiosity. He wasn't present the day Blithe had paraded me around the kitchen, but he surely must have heard about that fiasco by now. "Um, well, I'm Blithe's...mate." I uncharacteristically stumbled over my words as I felt Lisa's hard stare at my back, baring holes into me as she waited to see how this would play out.

I had been preparing myself for a harsh reaction out of my mate's father, even without his child being in jail on my behalf, but I never expected it would go over as poorly as it did. 

Blithe's father's eyes instantly became a neon yellow, just a shade darker than Blithe's. His strikingly yellow irises leaked out into the whites of his eyes to the point where he held the exact gaze of his wolf form. My muscles tensed more than they already were as he boomed out, "What?!" His body bolted right up out of his chair, faster than if the chair had suddenly electrocuted him, and stood up to his full height that would have dwarfed Blithe, had he been present. Blithe must have taken after his mother's height because his father could have easily been mistaken for an Orso in human form.

The police chief's eyes grew into saucers at the reaction of his counterpart. Even though I obviously wasn't a member of his pack, the Alpha was still an active member of my community and it had always been said that he was a very mellow, even-tempered man. The police chief probably knew that and was just as perplexed as I was that the Alpha had such an adverse reaction to an eighteen year old Volpe. The chief seemed to be so taken aback by Monroe's action that he even jumped cartoonishly into the air out of his seat when Monroe slammed his fist down on his thick wooden desk; the triangular edge nearest the Alpha chipped right off as cracks branched off through the rest of the desk like broken glass.

Growls rang out through the cramped room that were so low and intimidating, they caused all the pores on my body to stick up with air pockets and put my hair on end. The sound became gruffer and more animalistic by the moment, and caused my permanently pointed ears, which could move on their own or by my will even in human form, to point backwards out of fright. If I had been in my actual fox form, I was certain that my ears would have been flat against my skull and my tail would have been between my legs.