Fox Revenge (Madison Wolves #5) (4 page)

"If I scream, you can expect a groveling apology afterwards."

She laughed. "With good make-up sex?"

"Yes," I said. "With totally excellent make-up sex." I looked up at her. "Thank you so much, Lara."

"What did I do now?"

"Everything. But I was thinking of yesterday and today."

"Did you know the enforcers fought over who got to come
with us?" she asked.

"Literally?"
It was certainly a possibility.

"No," she laughed. "They played poker for the two open places. I understand there was a lot of grumbling that Elisabeth pulled rank."

"Serious grumbling?"

"No, no," Lara said. "Playful grumbling. Elisabeth hates when she has to decide which of us to guard, but when we're together, it's a simple decision for her."

The wolves cleaned the remaining kayaks and put everything away. Scarlett, Angel and Rory appeared in time to help haul their own kayaks up to the house. And soon we were on the ferry to Madeline Island where the airplanes waited for us.

* * * *

Pack play night had a good attendance that night. We had our normal group from the compound plus the parents of all my students. Vivian and Janice were also there. I hadn't seen Janice in a few weeks, so it was nice to get a chance to talk to her. We had become friends of a sort over the last two years.

Lara got pestered about the game to be played that night. "I don't know," she replied repeatedly. "Ask the fox. It's her game tonight." I refused to answer. Then I noticed Elisabeth taking wagers and I laughed.

"They're betting on what the game is?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "And don't tell me, because I am making a wager as well." She handed me an envelope. "That is my guess. I wrote it before accepting anyone else's. You'll have to judge."

"Is there time for my wager, sister?" Lara asked.

I laughed. I had never seen either of them wager on the big pack wagers, just on the various games we played.

"I will be the final judge," I said. "But the two of you need to narrow it down," I said.

They agreed to that stipulation.

The fish was a hit. There was enough no one had to be shy, and we had fresh venison as well. The enforcers who had been left behind had organized a hunt.

Once dinner was over, we assembled in the courtyard outside the house I shared with Lara and a revolving, endless supply of other wolves. "All right," I said. "Has everyone made their wagers?"

Elisabeth hurriedly collected two more.

"All right," I said. "This is a team game. We're playing a twist on the tennis ball game."

We had been playing this game quite a bit. I didn't think anyone was tired of it yet, but by itself it wouldn't have been worth the build up the night had received. I could tell who thought they had won the wager, but I could also tell they were disappointed I didn't have something more clever.

"The teams will be myself as captain of team one and Lara as captain of team two. My team will be the humans here plus anyone twenty years old or younger. Lara gets everyone else.
My team will hide our tennis balls."

I explained the basic rules for the benefit of those who didn't know. My team
members would have ten minutes to each hide a tennis ball somewhere in the woods. Lara's team would have a half hour to find them. With smaller numbers we used half that time, but I wanted more time for a reason.

"Now, here are a few twists. We are hiding two tennis balls each, not just one. However,
because there are a few more members on your team, Lara, I will hide four, and mine are medium favors, not minor favors. Each of the adults thus may find up to two tennis balls each, but you are obligated to come back here and record the first one before searching for the second one."

I finished the rules then turned to Lara. "Do you accept my game, Alpha?"

She looked around to the other adults. "We do."

"Now, to make it extra juicy, if either team is completely skunked, each member owes a major favor as passed out by the
opposing team captain."

Lara laughed and agreed immediately.

"Lara, I have a personal wager with you. If your team finds fewer than half our tennis balls, you owe me a major favor. If you find more than half, I owe you a major favor."

She eyed me dubiously. "What do you have up your sleeve, little fox?"

I lifted my sleeves from my wrists, exposing my sheathed knives. That earned me chuckles.

She continued to study me. "I retract my last agreement," she said quietly.

The wolves drew immediately silent.

"If you skunk us, we owe medium favors, not major favors," Lara counter-proposed.

"All right," I agreed.

"As for this personal wager, did you have something in particular in mind you wanted for your favor?"

"Not a thing," I said. "I am just trying to sweeten the pot."

"All right." She closed the distance and spoke quietly in my ear. "If we find more than half, then I want your complete obedience on a future issue of my choice, and if
three or four of your tennis balls are found, I want five completely accepted apologies." Sometimes it was hard to forgive Lara, but if she used one of the apology notes, I was obligated to forgive her on the spot, to the best of my ability. It was basically a get out of jail free card. From past experience, I knew Lara would end up using them.

"All right," I said. "But I don't know what I want that compares. You already give me anything I ask you for, but I almost never ask."

She smiled. "Will you let me surprise you with something?"

"You have something in mind?"

She nodded.

"All right," I said. "Whatever you have in mind to balance the obedience, and ten backrubs to balance the apologies."

She laughed. "Ten?"

"Apologies are worth more than a backrub," I said.

She laughed. "Agreed."

We kissed quickly then broke our huddle.

"Last two rules," I announced. "We will give the three humans a head start. And the finders will wait in the barracks while my team plans our strategy."

Lara laughed. "All right."

"We'll only need a few minutes," I said. I gave Angel the keys to my car and told her to retrieve the large gym bag from the back. She ran over, grabbed it and brought it back. I opened it up. It was filled with fresh cans of tennis balls. I passed them out complete with markers, telling everyone on my team to write down their names carefully. "Show them to the alpha when you're done," I said.

It took a minute or two.
Lara checked that everyone had signed in permanent marker. I signed four balls for myself. There were a bunch of extra tennis balls left over.

"All right," I said. "Lara, take your team into the barracks and no
peeking. We're going to discuss our strategy and then the kids will start to shift. I am sending the humans into the woods when the kids start shifting, and we will get you before they are done."

Lara collected her team and they all headed to the barracks. I clustered all the kids around me plus Michele Lassister, Benny, and Scarlett's father, Nick.

"All right," I said. "You guys can hide your own tennis balls however you want, or you can trust me."

"Trust you," they all said.

"All right. Here's what we're going to do..."

They were all laughing by the time I got done explaining. The kids all started shifting. I kept Angel and Scarlett in human form. I sent the humans into the woods carrying the remaining
, unlabeled tennis balls still in the gym bag. "Stay together, we'll catch up with you."

On
ce the humans were out of sight, I sent Angel to get the adults. "Don't answer any questions," I warned her. It was a good thing, because Lara and Elisabeth were after her to find out why she wasn't shifting.

As soon as the last child had shifted, I told them to each pick up their two tennis balls. That was a challenge for the younger kids, but they managed with a little help. I collected my four and told Lara, "Howl our start please."

She immediately howled, and the kids and I all tore into the woods, heading straight for the humans. It took a minute to catch up with them. They were waiting in a small clearing for us.

I hadn't shifted to fox yet; I couldn't have carried all my tennis balls if I had. I told the wolves
, "Everyone drop your tennis balls here then grab fresh, unmarked ones and go hide them. Hide them good." I kept Angel and Scarlett with me. In the gym bag were a couple of net sacks, and we shoved all the balls into them.

"All right," I told the humans. "Bring those
along. Come on." I shifted to fox and ran to the first hiding spot. Benny handed me a length of cord, then Angel and Scarlett picked me up and threw me straight up as hard as they could. I shifted to human as soon as I was out of their hands.

Two adult wolves can throw a thirty pound fox exceedingly high, and I carried every bit of that momentum with me when I shifted. Don't ask me to explain the physics; it doesn't work out. I climbed higher as a human then dropped the cord, holding onto one end. Benny tied one of the sacks of tennis balls to it and I pulled it up after me, hiding it high in the tree. I dropped out of the tree as quickly as I could, shifting to fox at the end. Scarlett and Angel caught me and set me down exactly where they had picked me up. We took a left turn and ran to the next tree I had picked out. We repeated everything, and suddenly all our tennis balls were hidden. "Michele with me," I said. "Bring however many balls you can carry. The rest of you hide the rest of these, I don't care how carefully, just spread them around."

We tore off in different directions.

I left a semi-obvious trail to a tree, accepting a tennis ball from Michele. I stashed it into a tree. I did that several more times, and then we were nearly out of time. Michele and I tossed the last couple of balls into the woods, not caring too much where they ended. We headed for the compound together.

Everyone made it back to the compound in the nick of time.

I shifted into human and wrapped a blanket around myself.
Michele had my clothes and laid them on the porch for me; I would dress later, after our games were over. Lara knew I had something fishy going on, and she continued to study me. I smiled sweetly at her.

Benny had rolled up the gym bag and shoved it
under his shirt. No one noticed. I sent Angel inside for paper and pen.

"All right," I said. "Is your team ready, Lara?"

"We are," she said. She, Elisabeth, Serena and Karen had remained human. I wasn't surprised to see Lara still on two feet, but I would have expected the rest to shift. They didn't do an immediate shift the way Lara and I could.

"Lil
y!" I said. "Howl the start for the searchers, please."

Lily raised her wolf nose to the sky and howled. The adults took off for the woods, four of them remaining human.

I set the kids to playing games around the courtyard. Scarlett and Angel organized it, each forming a team, and it sounded like they made some private wagers, but they spoke in shorthand with each other, and I didn't understand what they said. They both grinned at me when they caught me watching them.

It wasn't long before the adults began retur
ning to the courtyard carrying tennis balls. Eric was first. I took the ball, looked at it, then held it up. "Where did you get this?" I said, showing it to him. "There's no name. All our tennis balls have names." I tossed it into the grass.

Eric huffed at me.

That went on for several minutes, with wolves bringing me unmarked tennis balls. We had spread a lot of them around; I wondered if they would find all of them. I listened to Lara, Elisabeth, Karen and Serena; they were the only real threat.

The wolves stopped bringing me the unmarked balls. Instead, they started bringing them to Lara. After she'd received several, I heard her yell, "Michaela!"

I started chuckling.

"You cheat!" she yelled.

I didn't bother answering her.

They spent fifteen minutes finding only the unmarked tennis balls, and none of them the ones I had hid
den in trees. Finally I heard Lara shift into wolf. She called all the wolves to her, and I listened as she organized a search for wherever I had hidden the balls. The wolves in fur sniffed for my trail; the human wolves began climbing trees.

They eventually found the unmarked balls I had hidden. After each one, Lara barked her displeasure.

They never found the two caches of marked balls. Lara herded the now rather frustrated wolves to the compound and shifted to human. "What did you do, Little Fox?" she asked me before she even wrapped herself in a blanket.

I grinned at her. "I do believe you have been skunked, Alpha," I told her.

"Not until you come back with all those tennis balls, and they need to have been hidden where an adult wolf could find them. And that is not in a tree."