Fox Play (31 page)

"Oh hell!" I said. I began running, and Rory pounced at me.

I ducked under him and shifted while still dressed. He overshot but turned around immediately. I got tangled in my clothes, and he bowled me over before I could slip all the way out of them. He knocked me onto my back and pinned me to the floor, then went for my throat.

I snapped up at him, but a little fox is no challenge for a wolf, if the wolf catches her. His teeth met my throat, and I began bitching.

"No!" I was thinking. "I am not submitting to Rory!"

He began to tighten, slowly, growling, and I growled back, trying to squirm away from me. He settled more weight on me, and his teeth on my throat began to hurt.

I whimpered, and he immediately released me, but licked my face several times before walking away.

I struggled to free myself from the rest of my clothes, and then Karen was there, bowing to me. She pounced at me just before I got my hind quarters clear of the last of my clothes. I tripped when I tried to evade her, and she took me down.

I tried to scramble away from her, but she grabbed me by the scruff then rolled on top of me, my stomach in the air, and she pinned me there, her mouth over my throat.

Now I was pissed. This was Elisabeth's idea of fun? For her, maybe.

Karen didn't release me until I whined, then she licked me before she let me up.

Climbing to my feet, I growled at all four of them and was about to shift back to human when Wendy stepped forth and bowed.

I ran.

I gave Wendy a run for her money, but I was pissed, and getting away wasn't the only thought I had.

I led her through the gym, scrambling away every time she pounced at me. She caught me a glancing blow once, causing me to tumble and yip twice, but I dashed under a rack holding a collection of weights, and she slammed directly into it. It was a good thing it was bolted securely to the floor. She bounced off it and sat down, shaking her head.

I offered a fox laugh and ran.

Wendy almost caught me twice more, but she ran into a support pillar once, and I dropped a weight on her once, clobbering her pretty good with it. I ran back towards the entrance and almost ran right into Rory, his head down and tail up. He pounced, and I dashed underneath him. Suddenly I had two wolves chasing me around.

Oh, that was fair.

I managed to get them tangled up in each other once. Rory knocked Wendy off her feet, and she reached over and cuffed him a good one in return. I offered a fox laugh and ran off, Wendy in hot pursuit and Rory soon following.

I got Wendy to try to dash under a weight bench, but she got stuck, and I smacked her a good one on the nose, but then Rory came over the top and almost had me. But another minute later, they managed to herd me into a corner, finally coordinating their chase, and I was out of places to run. Wendy rushed me, and I smacked her a good one on the nose again, but then she had me on my back, pinned me, and I was forced to whine when her teeth closed over my throat.

Elisabeth and Karen had followed us around, not interfering, and after Wendy had washed my face and let me go, Elisabeth and Karen both bowed to me. They let me make a dash to the right before giving chase.

But if I had all four wolves at this end of the gym, no one was guarding the front door.

I managed to drop a weight on Elisabeth, which she shrugged off, and slashed across Karen's hamstrings. My claws weren't enough to bury themselves, but she yipped, so I felt good about that. And suddenly the doors were directly in front of me, twenty yards away. I ran for them, intending to shift at the last moment to open them, but Elisabeth got there first, actually leaping over me, then spinning around to guard the door. She and Karen herded me away from the entrance methodically, and after that there were always two wolves between me and the exit.

They caught me eventually. I mistimed a leap from Karen and ran smack dab into Elisabeth's jaws. She flipped me over.

I bit her.

She shoved me onto my back and settled her weight, and I bit her again, but she put her mouth on me and squeezed tightly, and I was forced to submit again.

When she let me up, I went after her. I couldn't win this game, and she'd made me angry. I clamped my teeth around her leg and began to savage it as badly as I could. Which wasn't much, but that didn't stop me from trying. And she would heal from any damage I could cause, anyway. But as angry as I was, that didn't matter.

I actually did quite a bit of damage while she tried to shake me off. She could have hit me, of course, and thinking back, I'm impressed she didn't. She eventually shook me off sending me flying several feet. I yipped when I tumbled, but I bounced to my feet and launched myself directly at her. She was expecting me to attempt to escape, but she still rose to meet me. I slammed into her and she wrapped her paws around me as she tumbled backwards onto the floor, bring me with her. She used her body to cushion my fall, but then continue the roll until I was under her again. Again I felt her teeth, and again I whimpered.

When she let me up, I bit her and ran. She chased after me. Alone she wasn't able to catch me, but then she chuffed twice, and Rory and Karen started herding me around. They didn't try to catch me, but they cut down on my choices.

I ducked under a weight bench. Elisabeth went over the top. I shifted directions, dashed out the head of the bench, then shifted to human and picked up the empty weight bar I found waiting for me. I swung it at Elisabeth, narrowly missing her. I'd have seriously hurt her if I'd connected.

"Oh fuck," I said. "I could have really hurt you." I put the barbell back but glared at Elisabeth.

She huffed and stood back. She barked twice, and Karen peeled off while the other three watched me.

"I don't know what you're trying to prove, Elisabeth. Is this punishment for being in a mood? This is fucking ridiculous. I can get away from any single one of you working alone, but I am no match for all of you, and eventually it only takes two of you to catch me. I hate getting licked! And I'm not supposed to have to submit to anyone but you and Lara. Why are you pissing me off?"

Karen came back and she was carrying some sort of padded stick about the same length as the barbell I had swung at Elisabeth. She dropped it at my feet and backed away.

Elisabeth looked pointedly at the weird stick. Then she lunged at me and backed off bowing to me.

"If I hit you with that, will I hurt you?"

She chuffed.

Watching her the entire time, I picked it up slowly. Karen turned away, heading to the back of the gym, and she came out with another of the padded sticks. She dropped it off to the side, then I watched as she did it four more times, dropping them all around the gym.

I looked around the room quickly, then Elisabeth growled playfully, tensed, and launched herself at me.

I used the stick to fend her off, or tried to, but as a wolf, she still weighed a lot more than I did, and I went down backwards. But I was able to use the stick to send her to the side, shifting to fox on my way down. I landed on my back but bounced to my feet and fled from Elisabeth.

I almost ran directly into Wendy, who took a playful swat at me and pounced, but I ran underneath her and shifted human in time to pick up one of the sticks. This time I used it to deflect Elisabeth's leap after me instead of holding her off directly. She went flying past my left side, and I continued the spin and used the stick to smack Wendy hard across the head. She shook her head for a moment while I watched, then she turned to me and grinned before leaping at me.

That's what I get for waiting to make sure she wasn't hurt. I barely fended off Wendy, but Elisabeth got me from behind and down I went, Elisabeth hugging me in a wolfy hug and spinning us both around so I landed on her. That had to hurt, but she flipped us over and then the two of them together pinned me to the floor. Elisabeth let Wendy take my throat while Elisabeth bathed my face with her tongue.

"Damn it! Stop it!" I said. Then I whimpered for Wendy and the two of them went to town on my face with their tongues. "Stop it!"

They let me up, and Rory growled from behind me. "Sure, give a girl a chance to breath, Rory." I shifted to fox and ran.

In twos, they chased me around the gym for another half hour. With the sticks and shifting back and forth between human and fox, I actually held my own against one, but against two, they eventually caught me. Still, I was laughing. These were some of the best fighters in the pack, and it took two of them to catch me. I was giving them some pretty good smacks with the sticks, and I didn't think it was because they were letting me do it.

Then I made a real mistake. It was a misstep really. I was human and had just used one of the sticks to knock Karen a really good one then shifted to fox just as Wendy leapt at me. She missed, mostly, but she smacked into me with her body badly enough I went flying, deflected into one of the racks holding the weights. I yipped from the contact with her body and was offering a second yip as I smashed into the rack. It knocked a very loud yip out of me along with my wind.

Immediately Elisabeth was standing over me, concerned as I lay gasping, trying to bring air back into my lungs. I shifted to human hoping that would help, but it didn't. But as I lay gasping for air, the gym door slammed open and Lara yelled, "What the hell did you do to her?"

I tried to gasp out that I was fine, but was still struggling for air. Lara ran into the gym, shifting wolf on the way, and the growl that came from her throat echoed off the walls and ceiling. She leapt on Elisabeth, bashing her away from me, then stood over me, growling at the four of them. Immediately all four rolled over onto their backs. Lara continued to growl threateningly, and I finally took my first breath, then my second.

I leaned up and wrapped my arms around her. "Lara," I said. I held her tightly. I worked on breathing. "I'm okay." Breath, breath. "We were playing. I got the wind knocked out of me, that's all. They've been very gentle." I made soothing noises and kept telling her, "I'm fine, I'm fine."

Lara slowly calmed down, then shifted back to human and pulled me into her arms, glaring at the four wolves. "What the hell was going on?"

"I was in a mood. I bitched to Elisabeth." I told a very brief version of the rest of the story.

"You three," she said, indicating Rory, Wendy, and Karen. "Guard the building. From outside. Elisabeth, shift human, NOW!"

Lara began checking my body. "You have bruises!" She glared at Elisabeth, growling.

"They're just bruises, honey."

"They could have hurt you."

"They didn't."

I clutched at her, trying to calm her down. "Get dressed," she finally said. I found her clothes and mine, and we dressed while Elisabeth finished her shift. I gave Elisabeth her clothes, and she dressed while Lara glared at her.

"This is the game I wouldn't let Michaela play with the pack, so you brought her here to play behind my back, Elisabeth?" Lara said, not quite yelling. "You could have gotten her killed, or at the least, badly hurt. She shouldn't be playing rough and tumble with one wolf, much less four."

"Alpha," Elisabeth said. "May I explain?"

"You damned well better explain," Lara replied.

"Michaela was trying to ditch her security. She was upset she couldn't get any privacy. She misses her home. She hasn't had any proper exercise since she got here."

"She and I went running the other night."

"Days ago, and a run doesn't give her the exercise she is used to. She's small, but you've seen her shoulders better than I have. I can only imagine how much kayak paddling it takes to build an upper body like that on such a small frame."

"So you decided to play rough with her for exercise?"

"I decided that if she stayed in her room and sulked, she was clever enough to find a way to ditch her guards. And I decided the mood she was in, she might do just that. Or maybe she would decide to join the entire pack, and I wouldn't want her playing rough with just anyone."

Lara turned to me. I said in a small voice. "I was trying to get her to leave me alone. If I could ditch them, I was going to go for a drive."

"God damn it!" Lara bellowed. "Where would you have driven?"

"I don't know," I said, looking down.

"She'd have turned north," Elisabeth said. "Everyone here knows it."

The room was quiet for a minute.

"We were just playing," I said finally. "Having fun. Well, not at first. They really pissed me off at first. I almost hit Elisabeth with one of those steel poles." I pointed at one of the barbells. "That was when I calmed down, and it's when Karen pulled all these sticks out."

"Bo sticks," Lara said. "How'd she do, Elisabeth?"

"She gave me bruises. Smacked Wendy hard enough to stun her once. She did pretty good for someone untrained."

"Don't let her fool you. I got my ass kicked," I said. "But I feel better. Thank you, Elisabeth."

Lara turned to her sister. "This is the game I specifically forbid her to play. You knew that."

"You forbid her to play with the pack. I picked a team I knew would watch out for her. If we took her off her feet, we made sure she landed safely."

"Then explain those yips loud enough I could hear them."

"She got some bruises," Elisabeth said. "But she's not thinking of ditching her security now. And she got some much needed exercise. She may even have learned a little more self defense."

"Don't play games with me, Elisabeth," Lara spat. "What did you think my reaction would be if I caught you like I did?"

"About what it is," Elisabeth said. "But unless you intend to kill me over it, I'll take my lumps, Alpha." She spat the last word. "I kept her safe. She's safe, and on the path we were on earlier, she wasn't going to be. I was doing your job, Alpha. It is your responsibility to see to your mate's needs, all of her needs, a responsibility you've abdicated since we left Bayfield."

"Stop it, both of you," I said before Lara could respond. "Lara, Elisabeth is right. I was going to ditch them. You know I could have done it, once I set my mind to it. I'm here, I'm not ditching anyone, and while I have a few bruises, I feel pretty good. And Elisabeth, Lara isn't responsible for my mood tonight."