Fox Mate (Madison Wolves) (39 page)

"All right, then this is what we are going to do. I will cover my eyes and promise to not peek. You will remove every bit of clothing and stretch out on top of the sheet. You may withdraw the blanket, but I keep the sheet. You may arrange yourself so that I can not see anything you do not yet wish me to see, but you will not grope me until I give permission."

"I may grope you any time I desire," she said.

"You may grope me any time you desire after we have had a short conversation."

"Agreed."

I immediately closed my eyes and threw an arm over them to boot. I rested my other arm across my breasts, hiding the piercings. I listened as Lara slipped out of her clothes. She pulled the blanket down then carefully lay down next to me, an arm draped over me, below my breasts.

"You may uncover your eyes,
Little Fox."

I lowered my arm and looked into her eyes. She was on an elbow looking down at me, and she was beautiful.

"Lara, I have two little modifications that were done to me during one of my punishments. I am told these modifications may please you."

She smiled. "
Little Fox, I only have one to share with you."

"Well then," I said. "I will make a promise to you if you will make the same promise to me. If either or both of my modifications please you, I will keep and maintain them."

"And if mine pleases you, I will keep and maintain it."

I smiled. "I have two more things to say."

"All right."

"I do not want to be on top tonight, and I want you to make me drown out that music out there."

She laughed.

"If you agree to my little terms, you may do anything you like to me or ask me to do anything you would like me to do to you."

"Well then," she said. "I would like you to kiss me."

And so I did.

* * * *

Of course, she found the piercings immediately. I could tell she thought two piercings meant the two modifications. She seemed perhaps disappointed, but when she discovered how much more sensitive my nipples were, she immediately asked me to keep them. Using only her tongue on my nipples, she soon had me squirming and telling her, quietly, that I was hers.

She became even more pleased when she found she could make me even more pliable by what she did to the piercings using her teeth.

For a long time, her hands didn't proceed below my waist, so amused was she by the reactions she was getting from her mouth on my nipples. I found myself begging for more, in between t
he declarations of, "I am yours; I am yours."

But finally her hand moved down to my center, and she froze.

"You have three modifications, Little Fox."

"I counted a pair as one."

"I will tell you already," she said. "I am very, very pleased to find what I consider a third modification, and I am asking you to keep it."

"Then I will
, but you know what is involved."

"Is it too much?"

"I was worried you might be jealous. I am not letting you do it for me."

She laughed. "Who did it this time?"

"I made a vow of secrecy, as the person in question is fearful of your jealousy."

She laughed. "I wanted to thank her."

"Then I will invite her to visit you, and she may decide."

Lara's fingers moved. "I don't think so." I squirmed. "Who was it?"

I opened my eyes. "Oh Lara, I vowed. You wouldn't want me to break a vow. It was the price for an appreciated kindness."

"You will send her to me," she said. And her hand moved, two fingers sliding inside me. "Won't you,
Little Fox?"

"Yes!" I said.

Then she lowered her mouth to my nipple, but before she teased me with her tongue again, she asked, "Whose are you?"

"Yours! I am yours!"

And then she was moving her fingers, her strong clever fingers stroking me, the ball of her hand pressed into my clitoris, her tongue teasing one hypersensitive nipple, then the other.

"Louder," she said.

And, between panting, I screamed I was hers.

And she continued to tease, demanding I scream louder if I wanted my orgasm, demanding I scream louder to please her, and I did, louder and louder until finally it came out as a gurgling sob of joy as an intense wave of pleasure filled me
.

As the waves shuddered through me, Lara began to howl her own pleasure, and outside our window, the pack expressed their joy in our union.

It was sometime later, after she had made me scream her name over and over again, and then made me beg her to take me, screaming over and over, that she finally let me see the modification they had given her.

My body was spent, and I had very little left, but Lara climbed on top of me and turned around, offering for the first time to let me taste her.

And I stared for a moment at her wet, dripping wet labia entirely void of any vestiges of hair. I laughed for a moment, but then I raised my mouth to her, and I pulled her into me, and I realized: she would be maintaining this modification for my pleasure.

It was late in July the following summer when the girls begged me to attend lunch with them at a restaurant in Madison. Present were Angel and Scarlett, still completely in love, Sophia, Ava, Abigail, Elisabeth, Gia and Karen. We took the limo, which was flashy, but we were making a party of it. I didn't know what we were celebrating, but Angel had hinted strongly there was something they wanted to tell me and to please go along.

I didn't pay much attention during the dr
ive; we were teasing each other mercilessly and having a fabulous time, so I was surprised when we pulled into the bank the pack used.

"Come on," Angel and Elisabeth said.

"What are we doing here?" I asked.

"I have to use the cash machine," said Angel. "It's kind of like going to the bathroom. You don't go alone."

I laughed. "All right." The three of us got out and we walked to the ATM located just inside the bank entrance. Angel used her card while Elisabeth and I chatted.

"How much do you have in there?" Elisabeth asked playfully.

Angel eyed her dubiously. "I'll show you mine if both of you show me yours."

"All right," Elisabeth said. "But I can only show you a fraction of my net worth. Banking and checking accounts, but I have a lot of assets in other places."

"All right. How about you, Michaela?" Angel said. "It's all of us or none of us."

"All right," I agreed. Per their request, I had dressed up, so I was carrying a small purse. I opened it and found my cash card.

Angel showed us her balance. She had a few thousand dollars.

"Not bad for your age," Elisabeth said.

"Angel, what happened to your ransom money?"

"From Lara?" s
he asked. I nodded. "It's in escrow. The agreement was to pay for my degree through a doctorate, and Lara escrowed the expected amount plus twenty percent. If I stop short of a doctorate, I get half of what is left and the rest reverts to Lara. Most of this we got from you plus birthday and baby-sitting money."

I nodded.

Elisabeth went next. She showed us her balance across three accounts, and it worked out to a little over a quarter million dollars.

I went last. I wasn't being invited to poker games very often, so my favorite source of making significant money had dried up. I had, indeed, spent quite a bit of the money from the Chicago wolves on silver. I was able to show them just over a hundred th
ousand. That was more money than I ever had thought I would have.

"You don't have any money anywhere else?" Elisabeth said.

"No, and you have my house. That represents my total personal net worth, plus the possessions you've seen already. I do have a tidy amount of cash tied up in silver, though. I should probably liquidate some of it. It's a little excessive."

They laughed, and we headed back to the car, Angel tapping her cash into her purse.

They hadn't told me where we were going, but they took me to my favorite pack restaurant, the sushi restaurant. We had a lovely time, and as we were wrapping up, Angel said, "Come on, Michaela. I need to use the restroom."

I laughed. "I suppose this is a group thing again."

"Of course."

"I'll be the enforcer then," said Elisabeth. "Karen, you should wait in the hallway." The four of us headed to the ladies' room with Karen taking a position guarding the hallway outside. The ladies'
room was actually quite lovely, with a lounge, an area for touching up makeup, and was rather attractive and comfortable. All the comforts of home. The three of us did what you do, and then Elisabeth guarded the door.

"Michaela," said Angel.

"Yes?"

"Remember how I promised to tell you about wolf customs you may not know?"

I laughed. "Yes. And you also promised to make sure I knew with sufficient advance warning to deal appropriately."

"Right. So, there is one coming up, and I thought I'd tell you today."

I raised an eyebrow. "Now? In the ladies'?"

"Sure, why not," she said.

Elisabeth was frowning at her phone. "Michaela, I need to make a call. May I use your phone?"

"Sure." I pulled it out of my purse and handed it to her. I didn't know who
m she dialed, but she spoke briefly, and I turned back to Angel.

"All right, go ahead."

She smiled.

"Okay, you need to understand. This custom is completely optional. It would be something you could, if you wanted, initiate, and it can coincide approximately with a major anniversary. Your first is coming up, and a one-year anniversary is a big deal."

"All right. Is this something Lara is expecting me to do?"

"No. No one is expecting anything. It's fully optional, and it is completely, entirely up to you. No pressure."

"Okay. I guess I understand."

She took a breath. "So, remember your ransom night?"

"Yes, I don't think I'm likely to forget."

Angel bit her lip nervously.
"Sometimes, a bride feels she perhaps under-performed during her bridal ransom night. It can happen for a lot of reasons."

"Like, perhaps, she is a fox who didn't understand the tradition."

Angel smiled. "Exactly. Or perhaps the kidnappers didn't completely understand the fox's capabilities and went easy on her."

I laughed. "I could see that happening."

"So, if a bride feels she under-performed, she may want a rematch."

"Oh god," I said
, backing away from her. "You want to do it again."

"No." She straightened up. "
We are telling you the custom. If a bride wants a rematch, she may ask for one. She would talk to the person or people who she is inviting to lead it. Normally that would be her maid of honor or perhaps the pack's lead enforcer, or even the alpha herself." She paused, cocking her head. "It is possible that you may be approached to lead a rematch down the road."

I laughed again. "So, hypothetically speaking, if I wanted a rematch, I would ask one of you. Or both of you together."

"Right, any of those choices," Angel said.

"And the rules would be the same as last time?"

"By and large. Favors we grant may have a time limit, for instance. We might let you have all the food you want for twelve hours, for instance, or until a particular time, but then after that, we might deny your request or ask for another payment."

"Water?"

"Water is never withheld," Elisabeth said. "The bride is always given the ability to ask for water at an easily-paid price, and it has no time limit. Other liquids may or may not be granted with the same terms."

"So, hypothetically speaking, of course, there would be a kidnapping. You would pull me from my bed."

"Actually, no," Angel said. "You are now sharing your bed with a very, very fierce fighter. Traditionally you would not have been the first time. So there would be a kidnapping, but it would be while you were away from Lara."

"But it would be otherwise similar?"

"Michaela, it would be more similar to what Lara went through than what you did," Elisabeth said. "We would make certain adjustments because you are still a fox, but we know how you heal now. We would be careful with you, but the punishments would be real punishments."

"We would do fun ones," Angel said. "Like we did last time. But we would ramp up. We would be trying very hard to break you, and we would start the unpleasantness sooner. We might, for instance, bind your arms behind your back and not offer to move them later."

I looked back and forth between them. "You're telling me this because you want to do it."

"No."

"Because Lara wants this?"

"If so, she hasn't
said so," Elisabeth said.

"We're telling you because it's a custom you don't know and you should have the option," Angel said. "And because we know you think you got off lightly and aren't proud of how you did. There is no particular expectation or desire on anyone's part."

"You're not after another tuition?"

She laughed. "Oh, we will be trying to break you. We will be trying very hard to get you to beg her to pay for you, and I will most definitely enjoy whatever we get from her."

I thought about it for a while, not saying anything, then shrugged. "You know, you're right. I felt I, shall we say, under-performed, once I really understood. But it is moot." I started to get angry, narrowed my eyes at both of them, then said tersely, "I respectfully decline your offer." I stomped towards Elisabeth, glaring at her. "Please step out of my way, enforcer."

My tone surprised her. "Michaela," she said gently. "You were considering it, and now you're angry. What happened?"

"I presume that everyone here today knows what we're talking about."

"Yes," Elisabeth said. "I don't understand why that makes you angry."

"It doesn't," I said. "But I remember the day before my wedding, each and every one of you promising to advise me of any customs like this before I needed to know."

"But we are," Angel said. "You aren't under any obligation today. You can tell us 'no'. You can tell us, 'you want to think about it'. You can tell us, 'maybe next year'.
"

"I see," I said. "So I haven't made any irrevocable decisions that I may have made differently if I had known about this tradition."

"No," she said.

I arched my eyebrow. "Really?" I crossed my arms and continued to stand in front of Elisabeth, waiting for her to step out of my way.

Elisabeth looked down into my eyes, searching for something. And then her expression change from bewilderment to realization. "Oh damn it," she said. "Michaela, I'm sorry."

"We didn't do anything wrong," Angel protested.

"Yes, Angel," Elisabeth said. "We did."

"We didn't," Angel said again.

"So, Angel," I said. "The little trip to the bank wasn't carefully timed to occur before I knew the tradition? It is coincidence I showed you my bank account two hours before we had this conversation?"

"Oh shit," she said. "We thought we were being clever."

"You were being clever," I said. "Unfortunately, wolves who try to outfox the fox usually make mistakes. I don't respond well when you break the rules, rules that I very carefully don't break myself. Oftentimes those rules involved promises. By all rights, I should have known the tradition beforehand, at least before I showed you my balance. Or even better, with enough time I could have moved half of it to another bank."

"You're right," Elisabeth said. "Were you considering
the idea before you figured that out?"

"Yes," I said. "I was. But there are other concerns as well."

"Will you tell us?" she asked.

"Why? It's moot. You know how much money I have, which means I have no defense from you taking every penny I have. You already got my house last year, Elisabeth. How much more do you want from me? I already feel like a kept woman, but at least I have a little money. You're going to take that, too. Is that what you want? For me to be entirely dependent on Lara for everything?"

I was fuming and well on the way to livid.

"That's not what we want," Angel said softly
, concern in her voice. "Michaela, we're making an offer. You don't have to take it."

I looked at her. "The point is, now I can't. Thank you for telling me about the tradition. I'll think about it for next year. I'm sure my bank balance will be lower by then."

"Why would it be lower?" Angel asked.

"Because I don't make enough to offset the cost of being the alpha's mate," I said. "And I refuse to let Lara pay my credit card bills."

"I don't understand," Angel said. "You don't have any expenses."

I sighed. "Every time there is some formal event, I am expected to come in a new, expensive dress. I am expected to donate to every fundraiser involving anyone in the pack. I send gifts for every bridal shower, whether it's someone I know or not, and every baby shower. Every child under age eighteen gets a birthday and Christmas gift from me. I also send adult birthday presents for major birthdays. If I am out to eat with anyone other than Lara or a council member, I pick up the bill." I looked over at her. "Do I need to go on?"

She looked glum and shook her head.

"Michaela," Elisabeth said. "That's not how your expenses are supposed to work. Those are expenses of the alpha pair, not the alpha's mate alone, and you are supposed to let Lara pay for them. She has the income to support it. You don't."

"I do my duty, Elisabeth," I said. "And I will eventually solve this. But if you clean out my bank account, then I have to solve this immediately rather than having a few more years to figure it out."

"All right," Elisabeth said. "If we hadn't tricked you this morning, would you be saying 'yes' right now?"

I took a few breaths, trying to calm down so I could consider her question. "I don't know," I said. "There are other issues."