Wolf Women (The Madison Wolves Book 10) (4 page)

"But-"

She held up her hand. "I know. I do not think like a human, but I understand intellectually that this seems barbaric to you. And if we treated you like a wolf, it would be barbaric. Even we would feel it was barbaric, because you are not a wolf, and we would never treat a human that way. And so, with a human, it is symbolic."

"More or less," Michele said.

"Well, I'm not doing it," I stated firmly.

"Zoe, you need to listen to us," Michaela said. "That is your choice, but you need to listen to us first, and you need to avoid any decision until you have thought about it. And then we're going to talk to you again."

"You want me to do this? You said it was horrible, and you want me to do this?"

"For me, it was horrible because I didn't understand, and then because I was very, very stubborn," she said.

"But Zoe, it was very, very important to the pack," Hadley said. "It is very important for the alpha's mate to honor our traditions. Lara would have had a very difficult time elevating Michaela to alpha if Michaela hadn't honored a tradition she can never fully understand."

"I would not be the alpha's mate," I said.

"No, but you would be an enforcer's mate. Worse, this is an enforcer who did not grow up in this pack, and there are some who still eye her with distrust."

"She's entirely trustworthy!" I said.

"I know that," Hadley said. "Everyone here knows that."

"Zoe, we just taught her the instant shift," said Michaela.

I eyed her sharply then glanced at the other two.

"Don't worry about that," she said. "These two are privy to everything in the pack, although behind the scenes. We taught her the instant shift. We haven't taught anyone on the council, and I refuse to do it. There are members of the council that don't trust her."

I hung my head. "I have to do it."

"No," Hadley said. "You don't."

I turned to look at her.

"You don't," she repeated. "Portia will be accepted over time. You will be accepted over time. You don't have to do it."

"But if you accept this tradition," Michaela said, "You will make things easier. Politically for Lara and me. Socially for Portia and you. Professionally for Portia. And I think you will look back on it with pride at having honored the traditions."

"What-" I looked down. "What would they do to me?"

"There is a punishment, an inducement to beg Portia to buy your freedom," Hadley said. "The time between punishment varies, but an hour is typical, sometimes half that. Initial punishments are almost nothing. Even when it is a wolf, initial punishments are something you would call small. You are not supposed to beg at first."

"Like what?"

"My first punishment was a spanking," Michaela said. "I think it was designed to move me emotionally to feeling more vulnerable than anything else."

"It probably was," Hadley said. "Punishments can be amusing as well, the sort of pranks human teenagers play during Truth or Dare. There is a party, after all."

"All right. But later?"

Michele spoke. "Mine was difficult," she said. "Normally, it is a bride's sisters, cousins, and closest friends who do this. Never a mother or aunt. And no men of course. But other than Donald, I had no wolf friends. And so Donald's mother, a few weeks before the wedding, introduced me to friends of hers, and their daughters. They kidnapped me early, so to speak, and we spent a long weekend as a sort of bachelorette party, becoming friends. And then the daughters offered to hold my ransom. But they didn't know what to do or how to treat me. And so my punishments were very, very erratic. Some would be nothing to a wolf, but they were horrible for me."

"How did you handle it?"

"Stubbornly, and perhaps a little stupidly."

"That is not how it should be," Hadley said. "For a wolf, yes, the punishments become horrible. For a wolf, it is pride, and if the punishments were not horrible, she would feel very cheated. But the wolves should be able to control the punishments. They should grow slowly horrible. But for a human, we do not expect horrible. We expect you to honor the tradition." She paused. "If I were your maid of honor, and I spent enough time to understand you far more than I do, then eventually, I would make you beg, but it wouldn't be before you had fully honored the tradition."

"This is..."

"I know," she said. "You don't have to do it."

"I think I do," I said.

"Portia will try to block it," Michaela said. "She mustn't. She absolutely mustn't. If you don't do this, it must be because you are too afraid to allow it, Zoe. The pack could accept a human who appears timid. But you must not let Portia block it."

"If she blocks it, she will never gain the council's trust," Hadley said.

"She's supposed to protect me though."

"She is also supposed to have faith in you," Hadley replied.

"So when it becomes time for you and Portia to discuss this," Michaela said, "You must already had made up your mind, and on this one thing, you must be firm. She must not block it."

I nodded understanding.

"Zoe," said Hadley, "If I were running your ransom night, then you would know when you had honored the tradition. You would know when you could beg without dishonor."

"How would I know?"

"Because until then, the punishments would grow unpleasant, but you can handle unpleasant. It is when they grow worse than unpleasant, and when my tone is harsh with you, and I do not apologize for making a mistake and going too far too soon. And maybe I would simply, quietly tell you. We are allowed to lie to the brides, but on this, I would not lie."

We sat quietly for a minute while I tried to absorb everything. Then Michaela said, "Zoe, I will be very angry if you elope. Do you understand me? I cannot disallow it, but if I could, I would. I would be very angry with you. You may say 'no' to this tradition, and if you do, I will support you, but do not elope to escape it."

"She might not ask me."

"She may not," Michaela said. "But if she does, you must not elope."

I nodded. "We won't elope."

"When the time comes, I will talk to your maid of honor, and I will insist on being involved," Michaela said. "And Michele will be there as well. And I will ask if Hadley may be there."

"If. When. The time comes, I will want all three of you," I said. "Thank you for explaining."

"You may talk to any of us," Michele said.

I nodded. "Thank you." I turned to Hadley. "I want to know what you would consider unpleasant and what might be horrible?"

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know you well enough yet." She paused. "You have perhaps noticed the number of tattoos amongst the wolves and our Alpha Fox."

"She has Lara's tattooed on her bun, and fox and wolf tracks on one leg."

"Yes," said Michaela. "The 'Lara's' was a punishment from the first ransom night. The fox and wolf tracks were during a redo, as I wasn't satisfied with my first performance. I kicked their asses during the second one."

"You got away?"

"Oh hell no," she said. "But they broke long before I would have."

"A tattoo doesn't seem so bad," I said. "I don't have any."

"Well, that would probably be one of your punishments a few hours into the night," Hadley said. "Not horrible. Perhaps unpleasant, but humans get tattoos all the time."

"And something horrible?"

"I don't know you well enough to say this, either, but I might try to break you emotionally before physically. I am not human, and do not have the sense of fear that you do. But I am a lawyer, and I could probably do it. But if Michaela is there, I am almost certain she could."

"Will you tell me how?"

"No," Michaela said. "But I will tell you, on my first, I begged because they beat me emotionally, not because they were hurting me physically. And as I said, I beat them on the second. Lara paid only with favors."

I laughed. "All right. Is there more?"

"Yes. I haven't decided about this yet. For my first, because Lara is also a woman, we did both her and me at the same time. That was too much, and so for Angel and Scarlett, we did Scarlett first and Angel another night."

I stared. "I'd have to ransom Portia? I don't have anything! And you said I'd have to pay for food and water. I don't have anything."

"It's worse," Michaela said. "My house? You know I lost it to the enforcers?" I nodded. "It was my price for Lara."

Again I stared. "I don't have anything. Except my car and my cameras. I can't trade those. Those are my livelihood, Michaela, and I don't have enough money to replace them. I couldn't come up with more than a couple of grand, and I don't have that much right now."

"I know," she said. "It would be the enforcers holding Portia, although I would be there as well. And after Elisabeth took my house and they saw how well that has worked, even these years later, they wouldn't dare try something like that again. But I don't know what happens in this case."

"We do this tradition even when the groom is dirt poor," Hadley said. "He pays with work. Zoe, you would pay with work. But Alpha, I do not believe the pack would require this. For you and Lara, yes, Lara needed to prove herself, and it was right for Angel and Scarlett. But I do not believe it is necessary for Portia. She is a deeply dominant wolf mated to a human. And so, perhaps she will ask or invite this tradition, but I do not believe she should feel pressured or obligated."

Then she looked at me. "If I were handling your mate's ransom night, you would pay me in work and perhaps with your hair as a sacrifice."

"My hair?"

"Yes. It is meaningful to you or you would not wear it like this. You see?"

"I would attend my wedding bald?"

"I would not make you bald, but instead very short. And I would allow you to negotiate to pay after the wedding but before your honeymoon. I might perhaps insist on cutting it before you are carried to your wedding bed."

"Should you be telling me this?" I asked.

She smiled. "I am telling you the things a wolf would know." She paused. "I would demand five years of your service, working in my law office, and I would pay the others involved their share of what your time is worth to me."

I stared. "Five years?"

"She means initially," Michaela said. "You aren't supposed to pay so fast. She comes down."

"What would I end up paying?"

"That I won't tell you," Hadley said. "It would be significant, more than a week. Portia is a fine catch, and I could make you pay whatever I demand if I want, even those five years."

"How?"

"I would tell you what I was doing to her, and I would make you watch video. You would pay anything."

I stared.

"She would be very hurt if you paid too early."

I shook my head.

I took a breath. "I think I understand. Thank you for explaining."

I thought it was very barbaric.

They used hugs to calm me down, and then when we got downstairs, Monique, Angel and Scarlett were waiting with more hugs. They all knew what the conversation had been about, but we didn't discuss it. Then Angel and Scarlett ran me to the fire, but we circled the compound twice first. I arrived laughing. I couldn't help it.

Portia and I didn't discuss the conversations we had, but she pulled me into her arms and held me tightly.

"All right," Michaela said. "It's time for games. These first few games are played on feet. Separate those two." She pointed to Portia and me, and we felt ourselves pulled apart. It was Karen and Elisabeth holding Portia; Iris and Lindsey had me.

"We are playing a game of keep-away," Michaela said. "Zoe, I'm not telling you the rules yet, but you should pick three other opponents from amongst the less dominant here."

"Do you count?" I ask.

She laughed. "Perhaps not by that definition, not exactly, but in relationship to my mate, yes. I count."

"You, Scarlett, and Cassie."

"Cassie is it?" she asked. "Interesting choice." She winked at me. "Do any of you wish to decline playing?"

"Oh, I'd love to play," Scarlett said.

"Me, too," Cassie said. "But I don't know this game."

"I'll explain. All right. Lara is my partner in this game, and Angel is Scarlett's, of course. Cassie, you must pick a partner, someone who you would trust to defend you."

"All right. Monique."

And then Michaela looked right at me, and she winked again.

"Excellent," Michaela said. "I need two -- or possibly more -- very strong wolves to restrain our partners."

Elisabeth and Karen grabbed Lara. Rory and Eric grabbed Angel. Serena whispered to Cornelius, and the two of them grabbed Monique.

"All right. Now we also need two wolves on Scarlett, Cassie, and me."

Various wolves grabbed each of them the way Iris and Lindsey had me.

"Now, this is a game of keep-away," Michaela said. "You are keeping us away from our partners."

I began to laugh, joined shortly by some of the others.

"You may take us anywhere on pack ground," she went on. "And you may pass us off to others. You get a three-minute head start. After that, our mates -- or partners -- are released, and they have to find us. Anyone who gets tagged by any of the searchers is frozen for two minutes, but anyone who is currently touching one of us and is tagged is permanently out. You should return here. You may use no more than two wolves at a time to move us, or up to four during a hand off. And the same rules as our other games. Be sensitive to the fragility of the fox and the human."

"And me!" said Cassie. "I'm very, very sensitive."

There were chuckles at that.

"What do we do, Michaela?" I asked.

"We enjoy getting carried all over the place," she said.

"Oh, I think I'm going to like this game."

She smiled. "So am I."

"Is there a winner?" I asked.

"Hmm. I suppose there should be a way to win. First wolf to return carrying her partner wins, but we play until we're all back, or an hour has elapsed."

"Can we steal a mate away again?" Elisabeth asked. "Or once the partner has her, is that really it?"

"Hmm. The rules reverse. If you can tag Lara while she's carrying me, then she is frozen for two minutes while you steal me again."

I laughed. I was sure it was going to go the full hour.

"However," said Michaela, "when Lara is carrying me, I can tag people, and they are frozen for two minutes. More questions?"

"Do we cooperate?" I asked, "Or do they have to carry me?"

"Portia has to carry you."

"Zoe, you should run with them," Portia said. "Don't worry, I'll catch up."

I laughed. "All right."

"What about Scarlett and Cassie?" Angel asked. "If they run, I might be faster, but I'm not a lot faster, unless I shift to fur, and then I couldn't carry her back."

"They should get carried," Lara declared. "But the fox can run if she wants."

There were no more clarifications, and so Michaela said, "Who is timing?"

"I am," said Francesca.

"Play to win," Michaela said. "If all four of us are still prisoners an hour from now, then all of you win. Well, except for our partners. Call the start, Francesca."

"Ready... go!"

Immediately, Iris and Lindsey took off with me, running south, with a half dozen other wolves running along with us. We went south then soon began curving east, and I was entirely lost.

The trees went past in a blur, and I couldn't help but laugh. But they came to a stop.

"If you keep laughing so loudly, we get to gag you," Iris said. She grinned. "Part of this game is to make her find you."

"I'll try to be quiet," I said. "Honestly I will."

A wolf howled a minute or so later, and we were still rushing through the trees.

Then they passed me off, and it was Valeria and Layton pulling me along. And a while after that, Ember and Aidan.

And then we came to a stop. Iris stepped up to me. "Turn her around." They turned me the other direction, and then Iris reached over and said, "Open your mouth, Zoe."

I behaved, and she began filling my mouth with rags.

I thought that was funny, too. She tied it off, and then we were racing through the trees again.

I laughed into the gag.

I continued to get traded off. The wolves were breathing hard now, but still we ran.

And then I heard, "Oh shit, here she is! Go! Go! Go!"

Then I heard Lindsey call out. "She tagged me!"

I looked over my shoulder. Lindsey froze where she was, and Portia was dashing after us. She tagged Iris. And then Ember said, "Let Portia have her, but then tag her!"

She and Aiden set me down, and then all of them were trying to evade Portia. I stood where I was. Portia saw me and ran over, picking me up, and an instant later, she was swarmed by all of them.

"Damn it," she said.

Valeria and Ember grabbed me from her and we ran.

It was several minutes before Iris and Lindsey caught up to us, but Portia was only seconds behind them. Aiden and Layton set me down, but this time, Portia ran around, trying to tag everyone. She got Layton, but when her back was turned, Iris and Lindsey grabbed me, and they got me a hundred yards away before Portia realized and ran after us. It became another chase, but she was a lot faster than they were. Again they set me down, and again, it became a game of tag.

Every time Portia chased after someone else, two wolves stepped up to me and tried to rush me away, and so it became a traveling game.

But then she got them all tagged, spread out all over the forest, Ember and Valeria tagged last.

Portia grabbed me, picked me up, and began running. I wrapped my arms around her neck and held on.

I had no idea where we were, but it wasn't long before Iris and Lindsey were right behind us, and then Iris made a fast dash and tagged Portia. "Got ya!"

Portia came to a stop. The girls grabbed me and ran back the way we'd been coming.

And that was the nature of the game.

We met up with the group holding Michaela. They had gagged her, too, but her eyes were bright as she looked over at me. We all ran together for a while before we split up again.

A while later, I saw Cassiopeia through the trees, but I didn't think she saw me.

Then I saw Angel carrying Scarlett. I had all six of my guards by then, but two of them peeled off and surprised Angel. They were able to tag her, and then Serena and Karen arrived to take Scarlett away.

Elisabeth caught up to our group, and I ran with her on one side for a while.

But Portia surprised us, and she tagged Connor while he was still holding me, and she almost got Elisabeth. Well, she did get Elisabeth, but it was after she had released me, so she was only frozen.

Portia immediately picked me up and got tagged fifteen seconds later, and then I was spirited away again.

A minute later, Lara was behind us, but they said, "Don't worry; it's Lara," and they kept running with me.

Lara tagged Valeria and Ember. "You two are out," she said.

"Oh hell," they said, setting me down. Lara let the rest of them drive her off, and then we were running again. Of my original six kidnappers, I was down to three, but others would join us shortly.

In the end, the game lasted the full hour, although by the end, at least half the wolves were out, and Portia was running with me for the compound when the howl went up announcing the end.

Laughing, she continued to carry me to the compound. I held on tightly.

Our mates carried each of us into the compound, slowing down so that we all arrived together. I looked around and realized all four of us had been gagged. We were set down, and then our mates ungagged us. I could have done it myself, but I thought that was against the spirit of the game.

And then I received a deep, deep, hungry kiss before she pulled me tightly against her.

"God, I love you," I whispered to her.

She tightened her hold, but finally she released me enough I could turn around, and she held me from behind. I looked around.

Michaela's eyes were bright, and she was smiling. I was still full of laughter.

"Michaela, please tell me we're playing that again sometime!"

"You liked it, did you?"

"Oh yeah," I said. I looked up at Portia. "How about you?"

"Hold that question," Michaela said. "Lara, howl again. We have stragglers out there. We should talk about it together."

So Lara howled, and then we waited.

Monique and Cassie were talking, and there were a lot of smiles. That was cool. Then some of the kids joined them, and they were all quite casual. Ember stepped up and put an arm around Monique and another around Cassie.

I knew everything would be okay there. A moment later, Monique turned and saw me watching her. She grinned and blew me a kiss. That was sweet.

Finally Michaela said, "Okay, I think everyone is here. Who had fun?"

They all began to howl, and she covered her ears. Lara held up a hand, but it was a minute before they quieted.

"All right," Michaela said. "Keep it down. Zoe, what was it you asked me a few minutes ago?"

"Please, Michaela, are we playing this game again?"

The wolves laughed.

"And what did you ask Portia?"

"Darling, what did you think?" I asked, looking over my shoulder.

"Oh, I'd play again," she said. "It was very hard to watch you be carried away."

"Tell me about it," Lara said. "The urge to shift was nearly overwhelming."

"You, too?" Monique said. "I wanted to shift so badly."

"Chasers?" said Michaela. "Good game?"

"Great game," Portia said. The rest agreed.

"Do we need to adjust the rules?"

No one made suggestions.

"I actually thought the chasers would win," Michaela said.

"We didn't have time to devise a strategy," Lara said. "Now we'll all be thinking about it, so I think next time it will be a good game, but perhaps some of us would return with our mates." Then she looked over at Monique and Cassie. "Or partners."

"Let's talk about that," Michaela said. "You two first. Did you enjoy being partners in this game?"

"I did," Cassie said immediately.

"Me too," agreed Monique.

"If we're going to be carried, choice of partners is critical," Cassie said. "I wouldn't want someone less capable than Monique. She was great."

Monique stood up straighter. Good girl, Cassie.

"All right," said Michaela. "Who would want to be one of the prisoners for this game?" She raised her hand, and immediately I shot mine in the air. Perhaps a third of the wolves raised hands.

"Who would want to be a chaser?"

All the wolves raised their hands, but then Scarlett, her hand in the air, said, "But I don't think I can carry Angel as easily as she carries me."

"I couldn't carry anyone," Cassie said. "Chasing would be fun though, but I'd happily be a prisoner or one of the... What are we calling everyone else?"

"Kidnappers," Michaela said. "Unless someone has another words." No one said anything.

"Well, I'd be a prisoner or a kidnapper," Cassie said. "Or a chaser if we can figure out how I'm supposed to carry my partner."

"Cassie," Kaylee said. "You could carry me. And I'd have fun as a prisoner."

"And the pups," Lara said, "although I'm not sure how insane Michaela and I would go if anyone tried to kidnap one of them."

There was laughter at that.

"All right," Michaela said. "I shared the rules of this game with a few people, but not that many. And yet, you were prepared to gag us. I want to know whose idea that was."