Fox Dish (Madison Wolves #6) (6 page)

BOOK: Fox Dish (Madison Wolves #6)
9.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

"All right," Lara said when the place was spick and span. "Bonfire and stories."

"Baby wolves!" insisted Lily. "Bring out the pups!"

* * * *

Three nights later, it was my night to make a game. We moved to pack territory after dinner and had several fires going before I explained the game.

"Okay, everyone partner up. If you're in a relationship, you have a partner."  We had an odd number of people, and
Gia was shy about picking a partner, finding herself odd woman out. I asked her if she would be the referee for the first game. "We'll rotate you in for the next game," I told her.

"Now, we need to make teams." I ran around counting one-two, one-two, assigning each couple to a team. Lara and I were on team one.

"All right, here's what we're going to do. One team is the kidnappers. Each pair of partners will pick one half of a couple from the other team and kidnap that person. You have ten minutes to hide. The remaining partner has thirty minutes to find his or her partner. You must not cluster together. If you can see or hear another of your teammates, you are too close together."

"This will be easy," Lara said.

"Now, to make it more difficult, once you have hidden your kidnap victim, you are allowed to tag searchers. But you may not tag the person searching for your victim. So, for instance, if Lily and Jeremy kidnap me, then they can tag any of the searchers on my team except Lara."

"Kidnap victims, you are not allowed to make any voluntary noises. You are not allowed to actively resist your kidnappers. However, you may passively resist."

"What does that mean?" Kaylee asked.

I whispered to Lara, "Try to drag me away, but let me resist." Lara immediately began pulling on my arm.

"Help, help!" I yelled, trying to tug away.

"That would be actively resisting," Serena said.

Then I went limp and sat on the ground. Lara picked me up and began to carry me away.

"And that is passive resistance," Serena said.

Lara set me back down.

"You must guard your prisoner," I said. "
Stay within ten yards. But if anyone comes close, you can capture them by touching them. At the end of the game, you get five points if you still have your kidnap victim and one point for any searchers you catch. The game is over when thirty minutes elapses, all kidnap victims are found, or any remaining searchers have been caught. If you tag a searcher, that searcher should howl briefly twice. Gia, you will keep track."

She nodded.

"The team captain for the kidnappers will howl the start. Gia will howl at nine minutes to give everyone one minute warning, and then at ten minutes. At ten minutes, you must put your prisoner down and not make that person move any further. Gia will howl one long howl when the game is over."

I looked around. "Any questions?"

"Stay on pack lands," Lara said immediately. "And do not mistreat your prisoners."

"Can we go in fur?" Scarlett asked.

"Yes," I said. "Anyone except prisoners may shift to fur once the game starts, if they wish. But you must wait until the game starts."

"Who picks who gets kidnapped?"

"Partners will hold hands up like this," I said, raising Lara's hand. "And kidnappers pick either partner."

"Who goes first?" Lara asked.

"Team Two, do you want to be kidnappers or prisoners first?"

They gathered together, huddled up,
then turned to us. "We'll kidnap first."

"We'll play one game and then see how it goes," I said. "Any more questions?"

I answered a few more questions, making up rules on the spot, and suddenly everyone was ready.

"Okay, Team O
ne," I said. I lifted Lara's hand into the air. As soon as it looked like all the team one partners were ready, I said, "Whenever you're ready, Team Two."

Team Two conferred for a momen
t. Emanuel gave a quick howl, starting the clock. Emanuel and Serena made a beeline for Lara and me. They pulled Lara and me away from everyone else, each of them clasping one of my arms. Serena asked, "Side wager?"

"What do you want?" Lara asked.

"If your searcher fails to free our prisoner, then we want summer jobs for Alan and Jeremy," Emanuel said. "If your searcher finds the prisoner, then we'll take the pups one night a week for a year."

Lara laughed and looked at me. I nodded, and she agreed to the wager.

"Don't let anyone else tag you, Lara," I pointed out.

But they dropped my arms and immediately grabbed Lara. "We're taking you, Lara."

Lara's expression was priceless, but she started laughing. "Do me proud, Little Fox," she said.

I was pretty surprised. I was expecting Lara to search for me. Serena and Emanuel picked Lara up, one arm and one leg each, and began running away with her towards the north. As soon as they were gone, I threw my jacket off, loosened my clothing, and shifted straight to fox. I kept my ears tuned to them the entire time.

I had to admit, Team Two had been very clever. The entire team headed north along the same path, which would obscure scent tracks and was making it more difficult for me to track Serena and Emanuel.

I listened carefully, and they all ran north for four minutes before individual teams began peeling off to the left and right.
I completely lost track of which team was Emanuel and Serena. When Gia howled the nine minute warning, there was a scrambling for hiding places, and I had a fairly good idea where most of the teams were hiding. I heard two prisoners mutter: Donald Lassiter got slapped in the face with a tree branch, and Faith Simpson's kidnappers dropped her. I immediately told Michele where to find her husband and Brendon where to find his wife. "But be careful, they didn't split up as much as I thought they should."

I was actually a little unhappy with what they had done. They had traveled all on the same path, obscuring their separate tracks, and one team had set up right on the back trail of all the other teams.

I caught a few more voices, a few coughs, a few sneezes, but not a single sound from Lara, Emanuel or Serena. Still, every sound I picked up was one team I could eliminate.

Gia
howled the ten minute mark and said, "Go, Team One."

I ran to the left. I was going to do a big loop of each hiding group that I hadn't identified. I knew I could find each team just from the sounds of their breathing, if I got within forty yards, which was outside their range to capture me. And I thought I could identify Lara's breathing separate from anyone else's.

While there were a lot of us playing, the way things were broken up, there were only 11 teams on each side. The first group I found consisted of Scarlett as the prisoner, captured by Edward and Iris. Edward and Iris were talking to Scarlett and didn't seem to be shushing her, so I decided that was legal. It also made it easy to avoid them.

I discovered Elisabeth next. She and Karen had taken June. They were being very quiet, with June stuffed under a pine tree. I had to get very close; I heard Elisabeth's heartbeat and breathing, but needed to get close enough to verify it wasn't Lara. Elisabeth was in fur, crouched in the snow, and she was watching me approach. I only saw her ears and nose, not enough to have eliminated Lara, but I was pretty sure Lara wouldn't have shifted into fur, so I backed away. And that's when Elisabeth huffed her displeasure. If I had gotten any closer, she could have pounced on me. I soon as I heard the huff, I was sure it was Elisabeth.

Benny got caught by Lily and Jeremy. Michele found Donald, and Brendon found Faith. I heard wolves huffing severe displeasure and howling; the team that was camped out on everyone else's back trail was catching them, but I didn't hear any voices, so I couldn't identify the team in question.

I did a circle of all the other camps, and was halfway around before logic kicked
in.

Serena knew I tracked by sound. She knew all the wolves tracked by scent. When I track, I don't follow the trail left behind by my prey. I wouldn't follow the wolves' trail; I would make my own. In other words, I would do exactly what I was doing, following around the edges, looking for them.

The wolves, on the other hand, would all follow the scent trails, taking them directly into anyone on the back trail. And Serena and Emanuel could catch anyone except me.

I huffed my displeasure, weaved my way through the other hidden teams, and approached
the team set up in the middle. I got close enough to hear heartbeats, and there were a lot of them. I couldn't separate them out. I looked, but I couldn't find either Emanuel or Serena.

I let logic make my decision. I stepped right into the middle of all the wolves. I found Serena and Emanuel hunkered down in the snow next to each other; they both watched me.

I still didn't see Lara. I cocked my head, listening carefully, then chuffed. I walked up to both of them then nudged them aside. They were lying on top of Lara, hiding her from me. She sat up and hugged me then howled briefly.

Gia
immediately howled the ending. We all returned to camp.

Those of us who could
shifted back to human. In the final score, all the searchers were caught except me, Brendon and Michele.

"All right," I said. "That didn't work very well. Does this game have promise?"

"Maybe," was the consensus.

"Who had any fun at all?" Everyone's hand went up. "Okay, that's higher than I was expecting. What part was fun?"

"It was fun kidnapping Lindsey," Kaylee said immediately.

"Okay, kidnappers," I said. "Did all of you enjoy kidnapping your victim?"

They all raised their hands.

"Kidnap victims, raise your hand if you enjoyed that part."

No hands went up.

"Oh," I said. "I'm sorry. I would have enjoyed that part. This is a bad game."

Scarlett raised her hand.

"Scarlett, you had a question?"

"No. I'm raising my hand. I had to think about it. I enjoyed being kidnapped. I didn't enjoy sitting in the snow waiting once I heard Angel got caught. Iris and Edward let me talk once Angel got caught, but still-"

The other kidnap victims agreed with that sentiment. Lara was quiet. I turned to her. "Alpha?"

She turned away from everyone else so only I could see her and she spoke quietly. "I was frustrated with Serena and Emanuel, but I couldn't say anything."

I turned to Serena. "Your strategy was brilliant."

"But awfully close to cheating," she said. "The game turned out almost exactly as we thought it would. We thought you would get to us last."

"I figured it out," I said.

"Well, I don't believe we used a fair strategy," Serena said. "We fit to your rules, but the rules need to change."

"I had expected every group to go in a different direction," I said. "I thought you might confuse your trails. But I hadn't expected you to all take the same trail,
and I really hadn't anticipated camping out on anyone's back trail. It's almost as if you have been learning fox tricks."

That earned me some chuckles.

"It would be an easy rule to abuse," Serena said. "But we can make it illegal to do it intentionally. Clearly what we did was intentional."

"Do we want to try it again?" I asked. "With the new rule?"

"Thirty minutes is too long," Scarlett said.

"Twenty?" I suggested.

"Yes," she said. "And only eight minutes to hide, not ten."

I looked at Team Two. "Would eight minutes be enough?"

They weren't sure. "Maybe if we can pick our victims and then start the timer," Elisabeth said.

"This game favors the wolves," I said. I looked at
Kaylee. "Alan, did you carry Lindsey?"

"I helped!"
Kaylee said.

"She did,"
Alan replied. "I don't think Kaylee could carry her half of one of the adult males, but she was fine with Lindsey."

I looked at Benny, but he held his hands up in surrender. "We get to play. If I were driven by my competitive side, I shouldn't even be here."

Michele spoke up. "I think human searchers should be offered a handicap."

"Human searchers can't be captured," Elisabeth offered immediately.

"And may use a flashlight," Michele added. "And if you take Donald again, then you have to leave a trail I could actually follow somehow."

I looked at Team Two. Nick, Scarlett's father was on Team Two.

"Let's think about that. We're going to play again with Team One being the kidnappers. "Whoever kidnaps Nick or Tara must kidnap Nick this time so he doesn't have to search until we figure out a fair handicap."

Everyone seemed ready to try it again.

"Okay, someone substitute for Gia. Gia do you care which team?"

"Team
Two," she said.

"I'll switch with her," Karen offered immediately.

"Monique, come with me," I said. Monique was partnered with Max, Lily's nine-year-old little brother. I put my arm around her and pulled her away. "Are you happy teamed with Max or should we split you up?"

BOOK: Fox Dish (Madison Wolves #6)
9.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
Daughter of Darkness by V.C. Andrews
Into the Storm by Anderson, Taylor
Old Magic by Marianne Curley
Appleby And Honeybath by Michael Innes
Dancing in the Dark by Maureen Lee
Crushed (Rushed #2) by Gina Robinson