Finch was unbearable in the best way.
He followed Rose as if gravity had shifted and she was its new centre. He didn't hover in a way that seemed territorial; worse, it was enthusiasm. His chest stayed expanded, shoulders back, tail uncertain whether to stay still or betray him.
Though they had not sealed anything formally, though no blood or bite had marked it as permanent, his scent lingered on her. It clung to the air like a claim—half spoken, fully implied.
The other men noticed.
And they adjusted.
The remainder of the day was spent inside what had once been a microbrewery. The sign had been stripped down, the copper vats gutted. In their place rose barricades, welded scrap metal, and stacked crates that narrowed movement into controlled lanes. Secret passageways snaked through back walls and freezer units. It was less a bar now, more a warren.
Defensible.
Layered.
Alive.
Snow Team moved through it with familiarity. They knew which boards creaked. Which doors are stuck? Which blind corners needed mirrors angled just right?
Victor did not let Felicity move alone once.
He did not ask if she minded.
His shadow stayed one step behind. His hand found her waist without looking, fingers sometimes resting lightly, sometimes tightening as another male passed too close.
Felicity felt every shift.
The men compared scars openly, lifting shirts, rolling sleeves. Stories were traded in blunt fragments. Who shifted harder? Who blacked out? Who woke up bigger? Faster. Stronger.
"Speed amplified," one of them said, flexing claws that scraped faint sparks off steel. "Like my nerves got rewired."
"My hearing's different," another admitted. "Can track heartbeats through walls."
"Strength increase wasn't linear," Voss added calmly. "It spiked when challenged."
That drew a few glances toward Victor.
He did not react.
Yet Felicity noticed his body subtly shift beside her.
Possessive.
Ready.
They talked about it like soldiers dissecting equipment.
Mutation wasn't magic to them.
It was a new variable.
Something to test.
To refine.
"Some of us got elemental bleed," Sarge said, silver particles rolling between his fingers lazily. "Not sure if it's tied to original temperament or stress threshold."
"Or proximity," Rhys muttered. "The ones closest to impact zones changed harder."
No one knew.
That unsettled Felicity more than the violence ever had.
They were all stronger.
But they were guessing why.
Conversations would go quiet when she or Rose entered certain rooms. Not crude silence. Not mocking.
Assessing silence.
Measuring.
Felicity kept her gaze forward when she walked through the compound. Not down. Not timid. Just controlled. She did not let her eyes linger on any of them; she had already learned that attention was currency here.
Victor's hand would settle on her back when someone stared too long.
The reaction was immediate.
A low vibration in his chest.
Some of the men would look away instantly.
Others held their ground half a second longer.
Those were the ones he memorised.
Voss did not look away.
He met Victor's stare openly, fangs flashing in something that wasn't quite a smile.
Challenge.
Not immediate.
But acknowledged.
Felicity felt that tension like a wire strung between them.
For now, it stayed taut.
Unsnapped.
Finch, meanwhile, had entirely forgotten subtlety.
He carried crates twice as heavy just to pass Rose in narrow halls. Volunteered for her patrol routes. When she asked for a tool, he had it ready before she finished speaking.
Rose pretended not to notice.
Her tail betrayed her once.
A small flick.
Finch saw it.
His entire posture lit up.
The first night with Snow Team unfolded in rituals that felt ancient without anyone naming them.
Sleeping assignments were not random. Guards rotated in pairs based on temperament compatibility. Fire duty went to those with heat-based mutations or the patience to manage flame without wasting resources.
At some point, someone shoved a ledger into Felicity's hands.
"You're small," Rhys said bluntly. "Means you don't take up space we need on the perimeter."
Voss added, "And you've got sharp eyes."
She ended up crouched over crates, counting tins, marking tallies in charcoal. She fell into it easily. Order. Structure. Something concrete in a world that had tilted.
Finch tried to sneak an extra ration of sugar from a sealed box.
She caught him without looking up.
"Put it back."
The room went silent.
Finch froze.
Then grinned slowly and obeyed.
The men burst into rough laughter, banging on tables and walls.
"Magnificent Weasel," someone declared.
The nickname stuck immediately.
Even Rose smiled properly at that.
Victor watched from across the room.
He did not laugh.
But pride moved through him visibly.
At dusk, they gathered on the rooftop.
The old pizza oven was now a fire pit. The skyline was jagged, wrong; smoke drifted in lazy columns where the city still burned.
Voss handed around bottles of cheap liquor scavenged from somewhere intact.
"Don't get cocky," he said after one story about a patrol gone wrong. "Don't get soft. Never trust a priest or a kangaroo."
The men laughed.
Felicity hesitated when the bottle reached her.
She could feel eyes on her.
Testing.
Victor did not stop her.
He watched.
She tipped the bottle back and swallowed.
It burned viciously down her throat.
She coughed once.
The men roared approval, pounding metal tables with their fists.
Victor's hand slid down her spine, slow and deliberate, until she felt the weight of him behind her.
He pulled her into his lap without asking.
She went willingly.
His mouth brushed the shell of her ear.
"You're adapting," he murmured.
She didn't know whether that was praise or a warning.
Maybe both.
She relaxed against him anyway.
The rooftop hummed with low conversation as night deepened. Patrols rotated. Laughter rose and fell. Metal clanged faintly somewhere below.
Finch sat too close to Rose, pretending it was a coincidence. Rose allowed it for exactly five minutes before shifting just enough to remind him she had decided on proximity.
He grinned like he'd won a medal anyway.
Below them, the compound settled into night mode.
Watch shifts locked in.
Routes memorised.
New instincts layered over old training.
Victor's hand never left Felicity's waist.
Even when he appeared relaxed.
Even when he tilted his head back to watch the sky.
His thumb pressed lightly into her hip when another male's gaze lingered too long.
Claiming.
Marking.
Not letting anyone forget.
Late into the night, when most of the group peeled off to sleep or patrol, the rooftop quieted.
The fire burned low.
The city crackled faintly in the distance.
Victor's fingers traced idle circles at the base of her spine.
Below them, Snow Team's structure held.
Around them, the new world pressed in.
And for the first time since everything broke, Felicity felt less like prey moving through ruins.
It felt more like something at the centre of a storm. It was learning how to organise itself around her.
Victor led Felicity to the edge of the roof. As they stood in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows, Victor pointed out the distant electric glow. "That's the last working radio tower," he said. It might be the only sign that some part of the world still hoped.
She watched the stars, felt Victor's arm, and thought she could get used to this.
Even if she was the last real girl alive, even if tomorrow brought another horror, she would still have her group, her place, and the promise whispered into her hair as Victor kissed her head. "Mine, forever."
She let him hold her, and for the first time, she held him just as fiercely back.
From the shadows of the roof, Voss's amber eyes followed them.
Not with hunger. Not with a challenge. With patience.
The wolf in him watched Victor's arm around Felicity, the way she leaned into his chest without thinking, the quiet claim exchanged between them.
Voss watched the structure settling into place, the foundation being laid. First husband, he thought.
Not with resentment. With acceptance.
"Sooon, little fox," Voss murmured under his breath, the growl threading through his words softer now, almost reverent. "Soon." It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.
Victor felt the weight of that gaze even without turning. He was aware Voss had noticed.
Knew the wolf was measuring him still, testing the strength of what he'd built. But for now, Voss didn't move.
He would wait. And Victor, holding Felicity close, understood something he hadn't wanted to name yet.
That loving her didn't mean standing alone.
It meant standing first.
Victor's hand slid from Felicity's waist to her hip, anchoring her firmly in his lap.
Spinning her around so her back is leaning against him.
The room was theirs for tonight. The laughter below faded into a distant, muffled hum.
Felicity nestled beneath Victor's chin, inhaling sweat, leather, and the faint scorched trace of his magic.
She was his, and that meant something now, in a world where women were scarce, and safety was never promised.
"You're shivering," Victor murmured against her ear.
"I'm not," she lied.
He made a sound that was almost a laugh. His fingers slipped beneath the hem of her skirt, resting warm and possessive against her thigh.
Not rushing.
Just there.
Claiming space.
She didn't stop him.
The danger of it, the knowledge that someone could walk in, that eyes might already be on them, only made her pulse race faster.
Timidity had followed Felicity her whole life, fear and tears never far behind.
But here, in Victor's arms, something new took hold.
Something steadier. Stronger. Why retreat into old shadows when this confidence felt like heat under her skin?
He tilted her chin up, firm but careful. His thumb brushed her lower lip, sending a sharp thrill through her as his amber eyes locked onto hers, dark and intent, leaving no doubt about what he wanted.
He kissed her. Not softly. Not cautiously. It was a claiming kiss, deep and sure, leaving no room for hesitation.
She melted into it, responding without thinking, desire flaring bright and reckless. She wanted this.
Wanted him to be unapologetic about it.
She didn't notice the rooftop door shift.
Not until Victor broke the kiss.
The night air hung thick with unspoken promises as Felicity's gaze lingered on the shadows where Voss stood.
Something had changed, a boundary crossed, a door left deliberately ajar.
She turned back to Victor, her movements slow, deliberate, as if testing her newfound power.
Victor's fingers traced up her spine, each touch deliberate. "You understand now, don't you?" he murmured against her ear, voice rough like gravel.
"What's happening between us three?"
It wasn't a question. Felicity nodded, her fennec ears twitching slightly as she processed the implications.
The beast world had its own rules, primal, ancient things that bypassed logic and spoke directly to instinct.
"I should feel..." she began, then stopped, searching for words. "Confused. Afraid." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "But I don't."
Victor's smirk deepened, a glint of mischief in his golden eyes.
"Good. Because I want you to embrace it. To feel every moment."
With that, he slipped his fingers beneath her skirt, the heat of his touch igniting a fire low in her belly. She gasped softly, her body instinctively arching toward him, craving more.
Victor's fingers found their way between her thighs, teasing and exploring, igniting a need that pulsed through her.
Felicity's breath hitched, a sound escaping her lips that was both a plea and a promise.
She was aware of Voss watching, his presence a heavy weight in the air, but it only heightened her desire.
She spread her legs slightly, inviting attention, fully aware of the power she wielded in this moment.
Victor's fingers moved with purpose, hitting all the right spots, drawing out soft moans that echoed in the stillness.
Each stroke sent waves of pleasure coursing through her, and she could feel Voss's gaze burning into her skin, a reminder of the primal dance unfolding before him.
The tension in the air thickened, charged with the awareness of their shared desires.
Felicity leaned back into Victor, surrendering to the sensations, allowing herself to be seen, to be desired.
Voss's control was slipping, the wolf inside him restless and hungry, but he remained still, watching, waiting for the right moment to make his move.
Victor's lips brushed against her neck, his breath hot against her skin. "Let him watch, Felicity. Let him see what you want."
With each passing moment, Felicity felt herself unravelling, the heat pooling low in her belly, the pressure building as Victor continued to work his magic. She was no longer just a timid girl; she was a fennec fox woman embracing her desires, ready to explore the depths of her newfound power and the connections forming around her.
As the night deepened, the world outside faded away, leaving only the three of them in their own intoxicating bubble of heat and need, where boundaries blurred, and desires ignited like wildfire.