Wolf Watch (The Madison Wolves Book 8) (8 page)

She pointed. "Futon."

"You sleep on the couch?"

"No. I sleep on the futon. Haven't you ever seen a futon before?"

"I'm sure I have," I replied.

She moved away from me and crossed to her couch -- futon. Then she bent down, grabbed the frame, and pulled. The entire structure unfolded and fell flat, and her couch turned into a bed. She turned to me. "Bed."

"Should I feel stupid?" I asked.

"You should feel privileged," she replied. She turned away and moved to an end table alongside the futon. She bent down and a moment later withdrew bedding. I watched as she finished turning the futon into a bed. Then she turned to me and smiled. "See?"

I nodded.

She cocked her head. "God, you're gorgeous."

I preened again. "Thank you."

"Stand up straight," she ordered. Then she moved towards me. She walked around me, running her fingers along my more defined muscles. She stopped behind me, both hands flat against my lower back. "You're astonishing. Have you always been this amazing?"

I laughed lightly. "I'm not sure I would put it that way, but I've been very athletic my entire life."

"You're stunning, you're rich, you're intelligent, and you’re kind. And you're single. That last fact leaves me very, very puzzled when compared against the others."

"I know lesbians move quickly, but I hope you weren't asking me to marry you."

She laughed lightly. "Expressing curiosity. But after what you just did to me, there's no way I'm letting you go without a fight."

I turned around to face her, pulling her against me. She laid her head against me, and we wrapped our arms around each other.

"And you're very casual with nudity," she added. "I could grow to enjoy that."

"Does my lack of clothing bother you?"

"No. Your lack of clothing excites me. Why are you single?"

"That's a good question. It's probably a combination of a variety of things. Business pressures, finding the right person who is available. I'm married to my job, and that gets in the way of a social life."

"You should find time for a life away from business."

"That's what Lara says, but it's a conversation for another day."

"Am I going to see you again?"

"I think you can count on it, Zoe."

"You know, you could stay." Her hands began to stray. "I could return a certain favor."

I chuckled and captured her hands. "I am well pleased with the evening, Zoe." I slipped out of her arms and then found my own clothes, pulling them on. She leaned against the wall and watched me get dressed.

She looked disappointed.

"Are you afraid of my futon?"

"I'm an early riser," I replied. I finished dressing and turned to her. "Do you have any rallies or events this weekend?"

"I have nothing in particular scheduled," she replied. "I have mailings I am always working on, and I need to schedule another photo outing sometime soon. I need fresh material for my web site."

I nodded to her. "I'll call you." Then I pulled her into my arms and kissed her one more time before heading for the door. She followed me, and then I waited outside her door until I heard the deadbolt.

I called Karen from my car. "I'll be home in thirty minutes."

"We'll meet you at the alphas'," she replied.

"I'm going to want a run."

"You're going to want to talk before you run," she replied.

"Damn it."

"Yeah."

We hung up.

I drove quickly but not so rapidly as to draw police attention, heading straight for Lara's instead of pulling up in front of my own house. I took the steps in one leap, coming to a stop with my hand on the doorknob.

"Elisabeth," I announced as I opened the door. That was a rule that Michaela had implemented the day of her wedding to Lara. People were constantly coming and going in their home, and so everyone who stepped into the house announced herself. It kept the little fox from freaking out about who was in her home.

Six pair of eyes turned to me: Lara, Michaela, Karen, Portia, Gia and Eric were waiting for me. Eric began grinning.

"Damn, Elisabeth!" he said. "Should we have put video in the shower the way I wanted?"

"Shut up, enforcer," I told him.

"She was almost as loud as the fox gets," Eric went on. He wasn't as bad as Rory, but he could be immature, too. Especially when he wasn't getting any of his own lately.

"I need a beer," I said, and I was surprised when Michaela bounced from her chair to fetch one for me. I had intended to get my own and wasn't expecting to be waited on.

By the time I crossed the room and sat down at an available chair, Michaela was back, holding out a bottle to me. She set several more bottles down on the table and resumed her seat next to Lara. I lifted the bottle to my lips, and when I next looked, Michaela was smiling sweetly at me.

"Whatever you did, tell Lara about
it sometime. Judging by the sounds, you were pretty good."

"Shut up, Michaela," Lara said as everyone else chuckled. She turned to her mate, who grinned at her.

"Did everyone listen?" I asked.

"Not
everyone
," Michaela said, drawing out the word. "Just the six of us."

I turned to Karen. "I smelled you at my car. We missed catching you by minutes."

"That was my fault," Gia said. "I'm sorry. I couldn't get past the security on her computer. But her phone was child's play. We're going to need help from Lima if we want to see what's on her computer."

"What did you find?"

"Pictures," Karen said. "She has a collection of SD cards for her camera, and we found the ones she took outside the office park. She took photos of every car that pulled in, and notes to go with."

"You grabbed copies?"

Karen nodded. "From the photos, it looks like we noticed her immediately."

Zoe hadn't been subtle. She could have just walked into our offices and asked us who we were. She might have taken less notice than photographing us coming and going from the office.

No one thought we were stupid, did they? Or that meeting her was an accident?

I nodded understanding. "All right."

"Here's the thing. She printed some of the photos. They were in a drawer in that little desk of hers. The only ones she printed are of you."

"No one else?"

"Just you," Karen said.

"She's stalking you, Sister," Lara said. "Why is that? I can't believe it was in anticipation of that orgasm you gave her. What was with that, anyway? Undercover doesn't mean under the covers."

"I like her," I replied. "And it's been a while. She went through a lot of work to arrange a date. The least I could do was give her one."

"You gave her one, all right," Eric said, grinning again.

"Enough, Eric," I said. I shook my head. "Why me?"

"We don't know," Karen said.

"Her phone was easy," Gia said. "She doesn't even have a password on it. We enhanced it, so now I can tell whatever she does. If she makes a call, we'll know, and we'll record the audio as well."

"Good."

"But there wasn't anything we found on it that was helpful. I'm sorry. We really need to see her computer."

I shook my head. "She acted weird. She sort of freaked out at the park, but she calmed down and turned down my offer to take her somewhere with more people. Then later, she really, really freaked out. She looked at me like she was afraid I was going to eat her."

"You did eat her," Eric pointed out.

"Enough!" I screamed, and he immediately cringed.

"I'm sorry," he said.

I took a breath. "I'm sorry, Eric. Long day."

He nodded. All was forgiven. Neither of us was the sort to hold a grudge.

"Could she know?" Michaela asked.

"She went to a secluded park on the night of the full moon," Lara said. "If she knew, then she also knows a lot more about werewolves than hardly anyone. Why would she possibly believe it was safe? Every human on the planet believes werewolves turn into insane beasts under the full moon."

Lara turned back to me. "What caused her to freak out the second time?"

"Um. It's private."

"No, Enforcer, it is not."

I sighed. "I licked her neck and told her I was seeing if she tasted good." I blushed as I said it, which annoyed me to no end.

Eric didn't say a word.

Michaela shook her head. "I'm telling you, she knows."

"She's not acting like she knows," I said. "She was fascinated by me."

"Yeah," Karen said. "We saw that part. Alpha, I'm sorry, but I've dealt with humans who discover us. They don't ask us on dates. They don't go off into the woods with us. What they do is try to gather proof. They run to the cops or the press. They post pictures on websites. They don't
date
us."

"Karen is right," Portia added. "I've had to clean up a few of those. Something else is going on."

"You guys aren't thinking about this correctly," Michaela said. "Who have you had to deal with before? A camper? Pah-lease. She's a professional environmentalist. If she saw you as wolf, Elisabeth, I can almost promise you the first thing she said was 'Holy shit'. And the second thing was, 'What am amazing wolf'. And that's exactly how she's acting, like a scientist, and you're a new species she just discovered. She's studying you."

"It's something else," Karen said. "There's no evidence."

"You want evidence? Bite her."

"What?" I asked. "Michaela, you can't be serious."

"Bite her," she said. "I promise she will completely freak out. She'll be convinced you just infected her with lycanthropy."

"It doesn't work that way," I said.

"So? That's what absolutely everyone believes. Everyone thinks lycanthropy is a disease you catch when you get bitten by a werewolf. She'll assume at the next full moon, she's going to turn into a mindless beast."

Lara listened to all this then turned to Gia. "How much time do you need to break into her computer?"

"I don't think I can. I hope Greg's people can. But they might need more than an evening." She turned to me. She smiled sweetly. "Cousin, you might have to keep her overnight. I know it's rough duty."

I expected comments like that from Eric, but like her sister,
Gia had been picking up bad habits from Michaela. She remained respectful, but she was more likely to be a little bold than she used to be. "Not you, too, Gia." I offered a quick glare at Michaela.

They both shrugged
before Gia said, "I was able to bug her computer network. We'll get transcripts of everything she does, but if it's a secure connection from her computer to a remote computer, I don't have the skills to crack it."

Lara sighed and pulled out her phone. A moment later she said her name and a series of numbers, then hung up.

"What's the weather look like this weekend?"

Michaela answered immediately. "It's supposed to be nice. If it weren't for all this, I was going to ask to go to Bayfield."

Lara's phone rang. "Hello, Greg." She didn't bother with niceties but brought him up to date. She talked for a few minutes then hung up.

"He'll have a couple of experts here by Thursday. Gia, expect email. Work with them." She turned to me. "Do you think she would like to go kayaking?"

"She already hinted."

Michaela began smiling.

"We're not bringing the kids," Lara said. "Warn Nora."

"We should keep this small," I said.

"Angel and Scarlett are already in it," Michaela said. "And we need security anyway."

"They're discrete," Karen said.

"And they pout if we go to Bayfield without them," Lara said with a chuckle. "As does my mate."

"What can I say?" the fox said. "It's Angel's patented fist pump. I just can't make it through a weekend without one."

Lara turned to me. "Invite her. If she declines, then we might need to be more insistent. If that happens, there's no going back."

"Karen and I can handle that," Portia said. "If it comes to it."

I sighed. "I don't want her hurt if we don't have to."

"At the very least," Karen said, "She's stalking you, Elisabeth. She may seem sweet and well-meaning, but she's not squeaky clean."

I nodded.

* * * *

"The flowers are lovely!" Zoe said by way of greeting. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," I replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"The sleep of the well-satiated." She laughed. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about what you did to me. I have to say, I've never had an orgasm while hanging halfway upside down, six feet off the floor."

"So, you remember when you said you had nothing planned this weekend?"

"I seem to remember saying something about that," Zoe replied.

"And remember when you said you needed more photographs for your web site?"

"I remember that, too."

"And do you remember when you expressed an appreciation for kayaking?"

"You know, I even remember that."

"And do you even remember expressing appreciation for my body, and the things I am able to do to you?"

She laughed. "I remember all of that."

"How would you like to satisfy all those needs, all at once?"

"I think I might like that a great deal."

"We're heading to Bayfield this weekend. Would you care to join us?"

"I would love to. What are the arrangements?"

"How do you feel about flying in a small aircraft?"

"Who is piloting this small aircraft?"

"Quite possibly my sister-in-law."

"Only quite possibly?"

"Or my sister. Or my cousin. It all depends upon where Michaela makes us all ride."

"Oh my. So flying acumen runs in the family."

"Yes."

"And it is Michaela that determines the arrangements?"

"My sister allows Michaela to win the small fights while Lara wins the big ones."

"Why do I suspect Michaela wins the big ones, too?"

I laughed. "Maybe because she wins at least half of them."

"Are we camping?"

"We own land," I explained. "You'll have a roof over your head and a bed underneath you."

"I don't own a kayak." She paused. "And Elisabeth, I-"

"Zoe," I said, interrupting. "I don't ever want to limit our choices together based on your finances. If I invite you to something, I presume I am covering everything. You need only bring your driver's license and apartment key."

"And perhaps a swim suit."

"And in this case, a swim suit and a change of clothes or two. Chances are we'll go out for dinner one night, so you should bring a dress or skirt, too."

I could hear her smile. "It sounds like fun."

"We fish."

"I don't."

"We're carnivores."

She paused. "I'm not," she said.

"I know. I was just warning you."

"Should I bring groceries?"

I paused. I didn't normally handle the cooking.

"Elisabeth, I can't afford to rent a kayak, but I can afford groceries. And if none of you knows how to cook vegan, I'd rather handle my own food."

"All right," I said. "How soon could you leave tomorrow?"

"Any time," she replied.

"All right. I'll pick you up about three." We handled a few more of the arrangements then chatted about other things for a few more minutes.

"Good," said Lara after I hung up. "I'm sorry, Elisabeth. I think you like her."

"I do." I shook my head. "I'm dating a human vegan. I'm never going to hear the end of it."

Lara chuckled.

* * * *

I had pulled Karen from Lara's detail to manage the investigation. She and Gia reported to me twice on Wednesday and again Thursday morning and then moments before I left to pick up Zoe. They had little to report.