Fox Mate (Madison Wolves) (23 page)

She sat back down. "It's okay, Michaela. You can spin me."

"Would you rather we spin you instead of owing me a favor?" I asked.

"Well, no," she said. "But we want you to have fun."

"The game is fun," I said. "And being owed favors is fun, too. I'll take the favor. But please write it out before the next person goes."

They had note card
s. Ava wrote out her favor and showed it to me. I thanked her, and she slipped it into an envelope. "We'll keep these for you," Angel said. "Who is next?"

"Sophia."

Sophia's truths were outrageous, and I had a hard time believing them. By comparison her lie was tame. She tried to get me to believe that she was lying when she told me her mother had introduced her to pot "to get past the mystique". That was actually true. Her lie was about her mother's middle name. I didn't know what it was, but it wasn't Sophia.

She sighed when I guessed. "You may spin me if you want," she told me when I guessed.

"May I have the favor instead?"

She smiled and nodded and wrote it out.

Next was Scarlett. All her statements were racy, very racy, and I wouldn't have been able to single one out if I hadn't been watching her very carefully. I was surprised to find out she'd recently let Angel tie her up, and that she had enjoyed it. I was ready to pick that one, but I noticed Angel's pleased reaction. In the end, her lie was that she'd slept with Derek last year, and thus wasn't a virgin when she and Angel had hooked up.

Angel was shocked when I picked that one as the lie.
"She got you!" Angel said to me.

Then Scarlett turned the pad of paper for Angel to see.

"Holy shit!" she said. She looked at Scarlett. "Really?"

"Yes, honey," she said. "You were my first."

Scarlett looked at me. "Spin or favor?"

I pursed my lips. "Medium favor or spin, your choice."

"Medium favor!" she said immediately and wrote it out.

"You're up, Angel." When she sat down I told her, "You are going to spin."

"Oh god," she said. "We'll see." Then in a deadpan face, she delivered her six statements, all of them self-deprecating or embarrassing. I had hoped to shake her by threatening to spin her, but it hadn't worked. Instead she had accepted embarrassment, hoping her reaction to telling an embarrassing story would override any reaction she had to lying.

"Wow," I said when she was done. "You might have skunked me, Angel." I searched her face. "I think it's between the car accident and the bed wetting." She grimaced. "Care to raise the
stakes?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"If I guess right," I said. "You agree to never again willingly help Lara cheat me during a wager."

She laughed. "And if you don't, you owe me five get out of trouble cards to be used in the future."

"I can get you out of trouble with me," I said. "But they aren't binding on Lara."

She nodded and
I smiled. I wouldn't have guessed except that Scarlett gave it away for her. "You know, I was shocked when Scarlett admitted she liked when you tied her up. But that was nothing compared to finding out you let her tie you up first."

"Damn it!" she said, laughing.

"Carry me to the other chair," I said, smiling. "And hook her up."

"Oh god," she said. "You sure you won't take a favor instead?"

"Oh Angel," I said. "Misery loves company."

She helped them carry me to the chair, and she gave me a kiss on the cheek before stepping into the next room.

"Oh god," she said. "It stinks in here." She looked at me. "A major favor?"

I looked at her like I was considering it. Then shrugged. "No thank you."

They taped her arms, Scarlett taking extra care with it, then taped and tied her legs. Scarlett was grinning. "I like seeing you helpless, Angel," she said. "If I talk her into letting you pay favors, will you let me do this to you whenever I want?"

Angel laughed. "Limit once a month."

"Twice," Scarlett counter-offered.

"Only if my price to her is a medium favor," Angel counter-counter-offered.

Scarlett grinned, turned to me in my chair, then picked me up and carried me back to the sofa. It wasn't even difficult for her. She spoke into my ear.

"Please."

I turned to her. "Is this because you don't want me to spin her?"

"No, it's because she's always dominant, but I'm not a submissive wolf. I'm just not as strong or dominant as she is. I really had fun that night."

"You girls are a little young for this type of play," I replied.

"Women," she said, looking into my eyes. I returned her gaze, undecided. "Michaela," Scarlett went on. "She liked it. It's just hard for her to let me be in control."

"What are you offering me?"

"Her medium favor and a major favor from me."

I smiled. "Plus your support on any other proposals I make today."

She frowned. "Only on the fun games," she said. "Not the punishments."

I nodded. "Deal."

Scarlett smiled. "Thank you." She turned to the other girls - women, I guess - and said, "Carry her in here so she can learn her fate!"

Angel dropped into their arms, and they picked her up, setting her on her feet in front of Scarlett and me. Scarlett stood up and crossed to her lover. She caressed Angel's face. "There will be a few changes in our relationship," she said, smiling. She pulled Angel into a kiss, clasping her ass while doing it. When she was done with the kiss, she asked a dazed Angel, "Got a problem with that?"

"No, Scarlett," she said. She smiled. Scarlett cut her loose, and the two of them wrote up my favors.
The other girls cleaned up the other room and sprayed air freshener around, eliminate the signs of Abigail's earlier experience spinning from the ceiling.

"All right," I said. "Where do you want me?"

Angel and Scarlett moved me until I was sitting on the coffee table. It was difficult to remain sitting that way, bound as I was. When I almost tipped over twice, they brought the easy chair back and put me in it.

"Are you having fun carrying me around?" I asked them.

They grinned. "Yes. Quite a lot, actually." Then Scarlett added. "You seem to have become comfortable with it, too."

Angel's phone buzzed. I stared at it and asked quietly, "
Would it be possible to have my turn first? In case the punishment is really bad?"

Angel nodded.
She picked up her phone and called Elisabeth. "We'd like a few more minutes here to finish a game. We'll call you back."

"Give me a minute," I
said. "I need to think about them all." I decided what I would say and then said, "Okay, how do we do this?"

"We trust you to be honest," Angel said. "We'll write down our guesses and go one after another."

"All right. One. I have decided to wait a year or two before staring a college degree." That was true. I paused so they could write their notes. "Two. I used to dye my hair black." That was true as well. "Three. I dated, very briefly, a couple of human guys shortly after moving to Wisconsin." That was also true. I had given in to pressure at work, trying to fit in, but my coworkers figured out I was gay and stopped trying to set me up with guys. "Four. I haven't dated any human women beyond one-night stands." That was the lie. I'd had a few relationships with human women since moving to Wisconsin and didn't do one-night stands. "Five. I am looking forward to my next punishment, although I am nervous at the same time." That was true. I couldn't have explained why. I waited for them to finish writing. "Six. Lara and I are planning a special school session over winter break for anyone who wants to do some winter camping." We were, and it was going to be out on the ice of Lake Superior, if the ice was sufficiently safe.

I was sure I hadn't given away any clues with my body language, but I wondered if my body scent would sway them in one direction or another. Then I wondered if they could smell any changes in my scent after all these hours taped up, the crying I had done, and as scared as I had been.

They all studied me for a while, then one by one, they wrote down their guesses on their paper. Scarlett collected everyone's pen and said, "Who wants to show hers first?"

"I do," said Ava. She turned her paper around. She had guessed I was lying about dying my hair. "You're way too proud of your hair," she said.

"Wrong," I said. "I used to dye my hair so I wouldn't stand out so much."

Angel turned her pad around. "No way have you ever dated a guy," she said. "You are totally into women."

"Wrong," I said. I explained about trying to fit in.

"Damn it," said Ava. She had guessed the same.

Scarlett and Sophia both guessed it was the upcoming punishment. "Sorry," I said. "I did say I was nervous about it, but I also want to prove your faith in me."

Angel smiled. "Really? That was my second choice."

I nodded. "The lie was about dating human women. I've had two relationships with human women that lasted more than a couple of months each, but it had been a few years by the time I met Lara."

"Were they good relationships?"
Ava asked. "I barely even know any humans, other than Abigail's mom and Scarlett's dad."

"Yes, but I felt like I was living a lie, not telling them about my fox. If it hadn't been for that, either of them could have turned serious." I smiled. "
I skunked all of you, and I guessed all of yours. Write that down. I am going to enjoy getting my car extra dirty for an entire year."

They laughed and wrote it down, then they turned somber. "I know," I said. "Punishment time."

Scarlett sat on the coffee table facing me.
"We're going to spin you," she said. "But we're going to tape your eyes open so you can't close them. And we're going to tape your hair so that when you're spinning you're twisting your hair. At the extreme ends, it will pull, hard, and you'll probably pull some out. Beg Lara to ransom you."

"It hurts," said Ava. "I cried when they did it to me. No one else has long enough hair to try it."

"Will it ruin my hair for tomorrow?" I asked in a quiet voice.

"Not too bad," Ava said.

I sighed. "I'm not asking Lara to ransom me."

Angel stood up and walked upstairs, walking behind me and squeezing my shoulder as she did so. She came back several minutes later. "Lara has declined to ransom you," she said. "Elisabeth wants to talk to you."

I listened to Elisabeth's offer and politely declined.

I was stoic while they prepared me. Scarlett perched over my lap and asked if I would cooperate. I nodded. She tipped my head back and told me to open my eyes widely. "You know this is going to hurt when we pull this off. It's not too late to change your mind."

"Do it, Scarlett," I said. And very carefully, she taped my eyes open.

"Try to blink," she said. I tried, but she had done a good job. "Michaela, if we see your eyes close, then we're going to take you down and pour lemon juice in them."

"Oh god," I said. "Please make sure I can't blink."

She
pressed the tape down tighter, and I tried very hard to close my eyes, but couldn't.

Then they picked me up and
hung me from my feet, dangling upside down with my head near the floor. Ava disappeared upstairs but came down a short while later holding a piece of lumber and a bucket. She set the bucket upside down underneath my head and the piece of wood on top of it. Then they taped my hair to the wood.

"We'll stop if you beg to be ransomed," Scarlett said. "Otherwise we're not stopping until you're sick again. And if we think you got sick intentionally, we're not stopping for a long, long time."

I tried to close my eyes but couldn't. They wound me up, and I felt my hair grow tight. The first time they released me, it wasn't bad. They held onto the ends of the piece of wood so it wouldn't turn. The bucket was just to hold it somewhat steady, close to my head.

The second time, they wound me up until my hair was tight, then they put on one more turn, letting the lumber turn with me.

"Do you know what's going to happen?" Scarlett asked.

"It's going to hurt."

"Yes." And they let go.

Not being able to close my eyes was tough. While I spun, the pressure wound out of my hair and then began winding up again. My hair grew tight, but I hadn't stopped spinning. My hair was
tugged firmly, yanking me to a stop and twisting my neck hard. I spun back and forth a few more times, then hung there, panting.

They put their hands on me to wind me up again, but I said, "Before you do that again, I have to tell you something."

Scarlett sat down on the floor in front of me.

"You could break my neck doing this," I said.

She caressed my cheek and stood up. "Do it," she said.

They wound me up the same way again. Watching the world spin was very hard, and the yanking on my head hurt. They did it that way again. Then they gave it an extra turn and a half instead of a
single turn, and I cried out at the end. By two extra turns I was crying at the end, but I wasn't sick yet.

Then they did three extra turns. "Scarlett," I said. "That will be too much."

"One more," Scarlett said. And they turned me around again. "Beg, Michaela."

I started sobbing and hyperventilating. "No," I said finally.

They released me, and I was filled with fear, thinking they had gone too far. But as I began to tighten my hair up on the other side, they released their hold on the board. It hurt, it hurt a lot, and it wrenched my neck badly, but then I was unwinding again, and I wrenched my neck, pulling some hairs out, and back and forth a few times.

Then I was still, but completely filled with fear.
I lost the rest of my self-control and began heaving.

They pulled me down immediately. They tipped the bucket over and held my head over it, my knees on the floor, my hair still attached to the board, now held over my head so my hair was out of the way. I emptied my stomach, then knelt there, continuing to heave and sob.

They were gentle when they released my hair. I had lost some, but not as much as I had feared. They untaped my eyes and helped me clean up in the bathroom while I continued to sob. They were very gentle when they carried me back to the sofa.

Scarlett sat down next to me, Angel on the other side. I looked at Scarlett, still sobbing, and choked out, "Please hold me."

She leaned into me, wrapping her arms around me, and laid her head on my shoulder. I faced Angel. "You're all going to be so disappointed in me."

"No," she said. "No, honey."

"Lara is going to be disappointed."

"No," she said.

"Call her," I said, and then I couldn't stop sobbing.

"It's time," Angel said. "But are you sure?" I nodded.

Angel picked up her phone. Her voice was subdued. "May I speak with Lara?"

I didn't hear anything, I was sobbing too much, but then Angel said, "Lara, Michaela wants to talk to you."

She held the phone to my ear and caressed my cheek with her hand. I sobbed into the phone for a while; Lara spoke soothingly to me. "You're going to be so ashamed of me," I told her.

"No, honey. No. I am so proud of you."

"Lara," I said, still sobbing. "Please pay my ransom." And then I could barely hear, I was crying so hard, half from leftover fear, and half because I was convinced I was disappointing her.

Angel took the phone back. "Lara?" she said. "Make an offer we can accept."

I couldn't hear Lara over my sobs.

"No," Angel said. "She thinks you're disappointed, Lara. And she thinks we are.
We'll calm her down."

Scarlett
pulled me firmly into her arms, turning my head into her as well. I cried messily onto her chest, and she held me.

"Lara," Angel said. "That's too much.
Let me talk to Elisabeth. No, Lara, let me talk to Elisabeth." There was a pause. "Elisabeth, what is fair?" Angel listened for a while. "All right," she said. "Yes. Escrow? Explain that."

While Elisabeth and Angel talked, Scarlett spoke soothingly. Ava leaned over the sofa and looked into my face. "Michaela, they stopped when I started crying. You kept going.
"

"We had her bound like you are," Scarlett said. "She cried like a baby, although we had to tighten it more than we did for you."

My sobs renewed.

"She's a wolf," Scarlett said. "
The tape would fail to hold before we could snap her neck that way. But we were afraid you were right, and we didn't want to find out. Michaela, you couldn't possibly have lasted much longer."

"I was supposed to be strong," I said. "I was supposed to be strong. But I was so scared. If you had held onto the board, I think you'd have killed me." I began to wail. "Lara is so disappointed!"

"No, honey," Angel said from behind me. "She's not. She's agreed to pay your ransom. Let's get you free, all right?"

I let Angel pull me from Scarlett's arms into hers, and the girls huddled around, all of them touching me gently. I hadn't realized before, but I should have. The wolves were touchers, all of them, and I found it soothing. They touched me gently, leaned against me, some of them kneeling in front of me, Sophia's head in my lap, and slowly they cut the tape binding my legs and arms.

"She's so ashamed of me," I muttered.

"No," said Angel. "You were going to give in eventually, and soon. That's not what matters. What matters is that you honored the tradition. That's what was important, Michaela, and you honored it."

They kept telling me they were proud of me and thanking me for understanding, thanking me for accepting their tradition.

S
lowly, I calmed down.

"How much?"
I finally asked Angel.

"Full tuition, fees, room, board and books for a
ll of us through our doctorates. Plus a major favor from Lara. Not from the Alpha. Thank you, Michaela."

I started crying again
. "I gave up so early you had to ask for a lower price."

"Oh honey," Angel said. "None of us has done this before. We didn't know how to ask for what we really wanted. That's all. That's not your fault. We're all proud of you, and when we go to college, we're going to be successful because of your teaching, and because you and Lara are continuing to help us." She pulled me
into her arms and kissed my forehead.

I still felt so scared and so vulnerable, and I didn't believe any of them were proud of me.

"Listen to me," Angel said into my ear. "This was always about you accepting our tradition, and you did, honey. Please, that's all we wanted."

"Lara's getting a crappy wife," I wailed.

"She is not!" Angel said.

And then I heard Lara's voice. It was
Elisabeth's recording of Lara explaining what she loved about me.

"How could I not love her?" Lara said.

Scarlett played the entire recording twice, then I reached for the phone and cradled it, playing the recording several times.

"Honey," Angel said. "She meant every word, and if Elisabeth asked her now, she would have even more things to say about you."

I threw my arms around her, hugging her, still crying, but listening to Lara's voice. The rest all continued to touch me gently and slowly I calmed down again.

"She loves me?" I asked.

"Yes, honey," Angel said. "And so do all of us."

I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Hush," Scarlett said, rubbing my back.

"Please I need to walk around." They helped me stand up and steadied me as I stretched, working muscles that had been in one position for too long, then Angel pulled me into a crushing hug. She kissed my cheek and said, "We're so proud of you."

I stumbled around the room a little with them supporting me, then I pushed away and looked at them.

"You barely touched me."

"You don't heal after you shift, Michaela. We heal. A broken bone is two days, three at the worst."

"Oh god," I said. "Are they really breaking her bones?"

"Not yet," she said. "Elisabeth will make you pay before it goes that far. Did she sound upset?"

"No, she sounded happy."

"She is. She never though
t she'd get to prove herself this way."

"I can be a smart ass now, right?"

"Yes," Scarlett said, laughing.

"You people are so fucked up."

"True," said Ava. "But it's who we are."

"I won't be able to hurt any of you like that
."

"No," Angel said. "You'll do worse. You'll do your own mind games, and I bet they're a lot worse, at least for us."

I laughed. I was starting to feel better. "Maybe. What do we do about all this tape?"

"This," she said. "This is Lara's fault, not ours." And all of them began ripping the tape from me.

It hurt.

"May I please have some clothes?" I said when they were done. Ava provided a robe
and a camisole. I put them both on. "Should we call Elisabeth?"

"Not quite yet," Angel said. They pulled me back to the sofa, clustering around me, continuing to soothe me. Abigail ran upstairs and returned after a few minutes with warm food and fresh cider and lemonade. They fed me slowly, small bites, and held my glass for me while I drank.
I accepted more hugs.

"Ready now?" Angel asked.

I nodded and she handed me the phone. I used the recent calls list and got Elisabeth.

"She's very proud of you," Elisabeth said. "So am I."

"I have a hard time believing that," I said softly. "May I have my fiancé back, Elisabeth?"

"If you give us your house and your throat to four out of the five of us. You pick which four."

"I could exclude you?"

She was silent for a moment. "I thought you'd pick Gia."

"I could exclude you?"

"Yes," she said.

I thought about it. I really did. "Will you consider a counter offer, Elisabeth?"

"Yes."

"My house and my throat to one of you, my choice who."

She laughed. "Clever. I'm sorry, no." She hung up.

"If it was getting bad, would she have accepted?" I asked the girls.

"How much did you come down?" Scarlett asked.

"She asked for my house in Bayfield plus offering my throat, forever, to four of them. I will point out those were my two sticking points, and she knows it."