Fox Run (29 page)

"You killed him. You killed him!"

Natalie was carrying a purse. I hadn't seen many purses amongst the wolves, but she was carrying one. She reached her hand in and pulled out a gun. She pointed it at Lara and began shooting.

Lara howled in pain.

I reacted instantly. I didn't even think. I took two steps, slipping between Jason and Elisabeth, moving too rapidly for Elisabeth to grab me. I leapt, shifted, and clamped my jaws on Natalie's hand, biting as hard as I could.

I was tangled in the clothing, and I wasn't able to react well, but I pulled her gun hand away from Lara, and that's what counted. Then with her free hand, screaming, Natalie hit me across the head.

I crumpled and knew no more.

Fox Hunt Revisited

It was daylight when I woke.

I was alone in Lara's bed. I groaned. My head hurt. "Not again," I said, clutching at my head.

Someone stood up. Over the pain, I recognized Angel's voice. She flew to the door. "She's awake! She's awake!"

I began to cry from the pain. "Please, Angel, not so loud. I'm begging you." I don't know if she heard me.

I remembered last night. I remembered Lara yelping from bullets plowing into her body.

My cries turned to sobs. But then I felt warm arms, and I was pulled against someone's chest, a familiar chest that smelt of safety.

"Don't cry, honey," Lara said. "I know it hurts, but you'll be okay."

"I thought she killed you."

"The stupid woman," Lara said. "They weren't even silver."

Then Elisabeth was in the room. "Fox! You follow orders for shit."

I began crying again, my head pounding. "Please don't let her yell at me, Lara."

"No one is going to yell at you, little fox. For a few days, anyway."

She rocked me slowly while I clung to her.

* * * *

"No," Elisabeth said. "We will bring lunch to you."

"It's been two days," I said. "I am fine."

"Get back in that bed, fox," she said. "That's an order."

"I don't take orders from you, Elisabeth. It's over. I'm a free fox again."

She smiled. "It is over when you are fully healed. Until then, you agreed to follow my orders and the alphas. She ordered you to stay in bed, and I ordered you to stay in bed. Get back in bed."

I sighed and slipped back into bed.

They treated me like an invalid for the better part of a week, slowly allowing me more activity. I would never have admitted it to them, but it felt good being taken care of.

* * * *

I almost lost my job. Apparently when one is gone from work as much as I had been, ones bosses become vexed. I called my boss Friday morning. I had been incommunicado from the office for the better part of two weeks. I told him I had a concussion. He told me to show up with a medical report or a box to clean out my desk, and to be remember to return any department property."

I told Lara.

"I'd rather you quit, anyway," she said.

"I like my job."

"What do you like about it?"

I thought about it. "It gets me outside nearly all the time."

"You collect water samples and other data."

"And analyze it. And report on it."

"And what happens with that analysis? With those reports."

"It gets used. To track trends."

She took a breath. "It should be your choice," she said. "Not a choice made for you." She made some calls. My boss received a phone call from my doctor and from a friendly detective at the Madison police department. I had never met either of them, but apparently they were each a real doctor and a real detective. Lara told me to call him back, and when I did, he told me to take all the time I needed. He didn't know any details, but he understood I had been very brave.

I thanked Lara. She told me to get back into bed. And then she wouldn't even join me.

The entire pack, it seemed, set it upon themselves to keep me company. The three boys and their parents became my most steadfast companions. Gia and Angel always seemed to be about as well. All of them tried to fatten me up, but all my food arrived in fox sized portions, and it was made very clear that they expected me to let them know my favorites.

On Saturday, Francesca stopped up and chased everyone else out. "Someone is here to see you."

"Someone is always here to see me."

"I thought perhaps for this one you might prefer not to be in bed. It's Janice."

"I don't want to see her."

"I think you should. So does the alpha."

"All right," I said. "Will you help me downstairs?"

She would. She settled me down in the living room downstairs, bundled up in a warm blanket with hot tea available before she allowed Janice in. Janice crossed the room, took my hands for a moment, then sat down opposite me.

"How are you feeling?"

"Better," I said.

"You aren't the airhead you portrayed."

"I guess no one will play poker with me now."

She laughed lightly. "Probably not. Did we really teach you to play that night?"

"Yes. The first time I touched a deck of cards was after you left. I knew the poker hands, and I knew the odds for five card stud, but I got those from the internet the day before."

We sat quietly for a minute.

"You didn't come to talk about poker. And I don't think you came to sit with me."

"I came to thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything you did."

"I didn't do any of it for you. You don't like me. You really don't like Lara."

"That isn't true, not entirely. What my husband tried to do was deeply wrong. If he wanted to issue a challenge, then he should have issued a challenge, not a coup de ta'. I spent ten years ostracized from the pack after that. That has left me at some times bitter and jealous, and at some times, that comes out in a bitchy fashion. I am not happy about that, as I was once a very pleasant person, and I have tried to suppress it, but it has been difficult. Even fifteen years later, I am distrusted and rarely invited to social events."

"Why were you invited to the poker nights?"

"I am not sure. I attended hoping that over time, my position in the pack would settle into something palatable."

"Has it?"

"Yes. Thank you."

I didn't understand.

"Do you know why, when those pictures started showing up on everyone's phone, I was the one who started asking those questions?"

"No, actually. I would have expected Lara to control the conversation."

Janice smiled. "She did. I received my own text from Elisabeth asking me to ask the questions that needed to be asked. I was seen as someone who would be the most likely of everyone in the pack to take a hard stance against Lara, and thus I was the best to ask those questions. But I asked them fairly."

"You're back in."

"Yes. Thank you. Lara and Elisabeth have both made a big deal of including me, which means others are starting to as well."

"So fast?"

"Yes. So fast."

I thought about it. "I hope this helps the pack to heal."

She smiled. "That was very diplomatic of you."

I took a breath. "I suppose you are hoping I will treat you like a friend as well."

"I wouldn't at all mind," she said.

"But you still won't let me come to the poker nights."

"I can hardly stop you."

"It won't be as much fun to take your money if we're friends."

She laughed. "I will make sure you have invitations when there are at least two people there I would most particularly like to see you fleece."

"Deal."

"Your airhead routine was over the top."

"You bought it."

"Yeah," she said. "I did. But it won't work in the future."

"Never underestimate the power of the airhead routine."

* * * *

Lara cleaned house. There wasn't really any to do. Some of the enforcers such as Reggie had been more loyal to David than to Lara, but none of them approved of what he had tried to do. None of them knew any details, and Lara assured me she was absolutely convinced they were guilty of no worse than misplaced loyalty towards someone who was deemed to be a loyal pack member. A few people lost status, but no one was evicted from the pack or suffered significant loss. I was assured we wouldn't see much of Reggie, but even he still had a place in the pack.

* * * *

A week to the day after Natalie clubbed me senseless, Lara and Elisabeth admitted I was fully recovered.

"And now we're going to talk about what obeying orders means," Elisabeth told me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "The next time Natalie is shooting bullets into Lara's body, I promise to let someone else handle it."

No one thought I was funny.

"I followed every other order I was given."

"Just not the one that mattered," Lara said. "And you promised."

She was right, but I was fox, and I wasn't going to admit it. At least not directly. "Lara, if someone was shooting me, and even if you absolutely knew you were going to get hurt, would you stop the shooting?"

"Of course."

"Is there anyone in the pack who would answer differently?"

"No."

"Then do not ask any less of me."

Neither of them was happy about that. The score was now one to one.

I sighed. "I would apologize, but I'm not sorry, Lara. She was shooting you. Do you really think I should have let her?"

"I would have handled it," Elisabeth said.

"You didn't! I was behind several enforcers, and I still got to her first, by several seconds. Seconds. Not a half second. Multiple seconds. I don't know what I should have done instead. I didn't know they weren't silver. I didn't know she was a crappy shot. You tell me what should have happened and I'll admit I was wrong."

I turned to Elisabeth. "If Lara gave you an order, but something happened that turned into an emergency, would you override her order?"

"I don't know."

"In the situation I was in?"

She sighed. "Yes."

The score was two to one for the fox.

"Are you here to yell at me for last week, or are you getting ready for future concessions?"

Elisabeth smiled, which annoyed Lara.

"Michaela," said Lara. "In the future, there may, from rare to very rare time, be instances where there is no time for debate. During those times, I usually cannot afford to worry about whether the people around me will obey my orders. And I equally cannot always afford to assign a pair of babysitters to you to make sure you remain safe. In times such as those, I expect you to follow any orders that Elisabeth or I give you."

"Perhaps you should assume I wouldn't follow your orders. That way you don't have to worry about it."

"If I can't trust you to follow orders, then I am forced to assign babysitters, which I would rather not do."

"Why can't you trust my judgment?"

"Because there can only be one general," Elisabeth said kindly. "I'm sorry, Michaela, but that's Lara."

Point to the wolves. Tie match.

I looked between them. "Lara, did you assign Elisabeth to guard me?"

"Yes."

"And when Natalie began shooting, if she had gotten to her instead of me, would you be having this conversation with her?"

"No," said Lara.

"Why not?"

"Because Elisabeth can handle herself in a fight and you-" she clamped her mouth shut.

"And I can't?" I asked.

"No," Lara said after a moment. "You can't."

I smiled. "So I just have to prove you wrong, and this conversation is over?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Lara said.

"Who do I have to fight?"

"Honey, now you're just being absolutely ridiculous."

"If I win, then you start trusting my judgment. If whoever I fight wins, then I will agree that in those no time to debate situations, I will follow your orders to the absolute best of my ability. Who am I fighting?"

"You can't possibly win, little fox. It's not even conceivable."

"Who am I fighting, Alpha?"

Elisabeth sighed. "Me, Michaela. You'd have to fight me."

"Fine. Outside, let's do this."

"No," said Lara. "You would have to fight me."

Lara and Elisabeth shared a look, then Elisabeth said, "Yes, of course."

"Stacking the deck, Lara?" I asked. "The alpha, the one wolf that seems to be able to neutralize one of my biggest advantages?"

"Michaela, it has to be her because if anyone else hurts you, she'd have to kill him."

"All right," I said. "Outside. We're fighting to first blood?"

"No. Submission."

"That's not fair," I said. "In a fight, I don't have to make the wolf submit. I only have to survive long enough for someone else to step in. Or until I can escape."

Elisabeth smiled. "She's right, Alpha. You're not asking her to win, you're asking her not to get killed. So her terms are reasonable."

"All right," Lara said. "Survive two minutes with me on your tail, then escape. If you submit in less than an hour, I win."

"Fine. We're agreed no one else interferes."

"Of course."

I didn't say anything else, but headed downstairs. "Let's go then." They hurried to follow after me.

"This is foolish, Michaela," Lara said.

"You can always just agree to trust my judgment."

"If this is a sign of your judgment, I think I'm right to question it."

I laughed. "If you are sure I am that completely helpless, then you shouldn't have the slightest problem forcing me to submit."

"I seem to recall you were awfully easy to catch the last time I tried."

I reached the front door and turned around. "Everyone gets lucky." Then I raised my voice. "Gia! Angel! Want to see the alpha get owned? Get outside!"

Then I slipped out the door, pulling it back closed behind me and giving me a desperate two or three seconds. Elisabeth had been ever so slightly in Lara's way, and the two fumbled at the door.

"Catch me, Alpha!" I yelled. Then I took two steps and leapt into the grass, shifting as I did so. I lost a desperate second shedding my clothes, and then Lara, still on two feet, was after me.

On two feet, I could easily outrun her, but I interpreted "two minutes with Lara on my tail" as meaning I had to stay in close proximity to the courtyard, evading her rather than escaping from her.