by Robin Roseau
"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."
"If you tell us, maybe we can work them all out. Please."
"All right. First, you'll undoubtedly cut my hair. If this were real, if I were really being kidnapped, my hair would be the least of my concerns. But Lara loves my hair, and I am very vain about it, and I wouldn't want you to cut it for something like this. It's trading one form of pride for another."
"All right," Elisabeth said. "What else?"
"Even if you hadn't tricked me, there would be the financial issues we just discussed."
"All right," she said. "What else?"
"Lara already paid once for me. I couldn't ask her to pay again."
Elisabeth frowned. "Do you like it when she makes your important decisions for you?"
I returned her frown. "Elisabeth, you know I hate it when I lose an argument."
"If you wanted to pursue this, you would of course ask Lara how she felt."
"She might feel obligated to allow it for my pride, even when she doesn't want it."
"Well, marriage is about communication," Elisabeth said. "She should make use of it."
I looked between the two of them.
"I don't want my hair cut. You told me I had to resist as much as I could, and if I didn't, you would cut my hair. And then you threatened later to shave my head."
"Well," said Angel. "Then make sure you resist as much as you can. And we promise to offer you a favor on reasonable terms to keep your hair out of the punishments."
I lifted my wrists, allowing my sleeves to fall down my forearms and exposing the silvered daggers I keep there. "Angel, resisting as much as I can involves these. How about this? I would offer to allow you to remove any silver immediately available to me prior to the start of the kidnapping, and in exchange, if I do not otherwise fully resist, there be a punishment other than cutting hair?"
The two shared a look and Elisabeth said. "Agreed. But no shifting to fox, and the alternate punishment would be a tattoo of our choice, what we want, where we want. We promise it would be tasteful and in keeping with the sort of tattoo we would want to see our alpha wearing.
"Not the face, neck or hands."
"Agreed," she said immediately.
"And if I get free, I get to tattoo all of you."
"Yes," she said. "Consistent with what we would have done to you."
"What would you do?"
"I'm sorry," Elisabeth said. "I'm not answering that."
"All right," I said. "And later? I'm not paying to protect my hair."
"I've seen you use your knives," Elisabeth said. "If you give up your silver, we agree we won't intentionally damage your hair or threaten to damage your hair."
"All right. That's the easiest. My money?"
"What if we agree to treat your personal finances as that of a schoolteacher, not the alpha's mate?" Elisabeth asked.
"A schoolteacher with a hundred thousand dollars to give you?"
"A schoolteacher who shouldn't have to save for the next several years to replenish what she gives us," Elisabeth clarified.
I considered her offer. "That takes care of the financial considerations," I said finally. "Are you offering something as an apology for breaking the promise in the first place."
Elisabeth smiled. "All right," she said. "We were going to let you trade for food for twenty-four hours for reasonable terms. We weren't sure if we'd let you have a second day, but if we did, it would be hideously expensive. And certainly not a third day at all. We'll extend that by a day. Two days, the first reasonable, the second mostly reasonable, and the third up in the air and expensive."
I searched her face. "You think it's going to go that long?" I asked in a calm voice.
"I think as long as we are feeding you so you can heal, you can take more than any of us is willing to give. Lara will break before you do."
"Well, all this was hypothetical," I said. "I have to talk to Lara. If she agrees, I'll get back to you and you can let me know when and where."
Elisabeth pulled my phone from her pocket. "Here, talk to her now." She punched some buttons, listened to Lara answer, then said, "Michaela wants to ask you something." She handed me the phone.
"Hey, Love," I said.
"Hello, Little Fox. Where did they take you to lunch?"
I turned away from both of them. "My favorite, of course."
She laughed. She knew I loved this restaurant.
"It turns out, Angel and Elisabeth wanted to talk to me about something. A custom I didn't know about. I guess you might call it the bridal ransom rematch."
Lara made an intake of breath, paused, and then said, "Yes, that custom."
"It was an interesting conversation. I was going to turn them down flat, because I didn't think you should pay for me twice, but Elisabeth pointed out that was your decision, not mine, and I should ask you. She also said marriage is about communication, and I think that means if you think this is a bad idea, you should say so."
"I think if you want a rematch, I would be very proud of you."
"But you paid so much already."
I could hear the smile. "I paid less than I was prepared to pay. And they have ways of asking for ransoms that might be painful, but are reasonable at the same time. I presume I would be negotiating with Angel, and if I thought she was being unreasonable, I would place a call to Elisabeth. If you want a rematch, ask them for one. But honey, you know, they will treat you like a wolf, not a fox. And they will treat you like an alpha wolf, not an omega. Do you understand?"
"Probably not the finer details, but yes, I think I do."
We talked for a couple more minutes. I
explained about my hair. "Good," she said. "I love your hair, and shaving it would be petty."
"Lara," I said. "I'm not sure it's a good idea though. The timing."
"The timing is fine," she said. "Don't worry about me. It sounds like you are really thinking about it?"
"Yes," I said. "I suppose they would need time to set it up."
"Probably. Maybe less than you think. You understand, Michaela, they won't go easy this time. They will try to get you to beg, and if I hear you begging, you know I won't say no."
"If I beg you, Lara, yes. But if I am begging them to stop, that's not begging you."
She was silent. "They'll use that to try to break me, you know. They'll be working both sides. Honey, it's not just about you, it's about both of us. If this were a real kidnapping, could I do what I must as Alpha, even knowing what was happening to you?"
"If I do this, then it is my decision when you pay."
"No, honey. If you do this, it is my decision. I will try very hard to give you honor, but I can't promise more than that."
"All right," I said. "I understand." Someone knocked at the door. "Oh, hey," I said. "We're hogging the bathroom, and it sounds like someone is getting desperate."
"Have you decided?" Lara asked.
"Yeah. I'm going to ask them to set it up."
Lara was quiet. "Are you sure?'
"Yes. I have to go. I love you. See you in a few hours."
"I love you too, Michaela. Always remember. I'll see you in a few days."
"Do you have a trip you didn't tell me about?"
"No, honey. Is Elisabeth guarding the door?"
"Yes, and Karen outside."
"And there's no window. The walls are concrete. No escape route, is there?"
I turned to Elisabeth and Angel. They were smiling broadly.
"I love you, Little Fox. Give the phone back to Elisabeth now and give your daggers to Angel."
Up until now, the conversation had felt hypothetical to me. Suddenly that changed. I considered everything. I could walk away from this. I think they would be disappointed if I did. I thought perhaps Lara would, too.
And I realized something. So would I. A year ago, I hadn't understood. Now I understood. I had become more and more wolf over the last year, but I still felt like an outsider in many ways.
"When this is over, if I have acquitted myself well, Lara should have paid a very modest price for me. A price I would consider modest, Elisabeth."
She searched my face and nodded.
I smiled at both of them. "I love you, Lara," I said and handed the phone back to Elisabeth.
"You have to ask," Angel said. "You haven't asked."
I looked back and forth between the two of them, still smiling, I knelt down and unbuckled the dagger sheaths on both ankles. I set them on the counter. I took the ones from my wrists and set them down. I set my purse on the counter; there were two daggers in it. I had two chopsticks stuck into my hair as an ornament, and I pulled them out and set them on the counter. They could be used the way they were or I could twist them and they came apart with a long, silvered spike embedded in them. I was wearing a dress, and there wasn't anything hidden in it, but it was belted, and the clasp of the belt could be twisted and a silvered cable pulled out. I took the belt off and put it on the counter. I stared at all of it.
"Please remove those from the room."
Elisabeth opened the door a crack. "Please give me a bag," she said. She stuck her hand out and someone stuck a reusable shopping bag in it. She gave the bag to Angel, and Angel swept everything into the bag. The bag with my things went out the door. "You'll get all that back, eventually. God, I didn't know you had all that. What's with the belt?"
"I'll show you sometime," I said. "I haven't asked yet," I said.
"No," said Angel. "You haven't."
"I have a question. Will we be doing the fun things, too? Games?"
"Of course," she said. "Party!"
I laughed. "May I request a particular game?"
"You may request," Elisabeth said.
"Poker. You would have to trust me for my buy in, I don't have much cash with me, and what I have just left the room."
She laughed. "Agreed."
I smiled sweetly. My heart began to pound madly in a mix of fear, excitement and anticipation. "Angel. Elisabeth. Please, would you arrange a rematch for me of the bridal ransom?"
They returned my smile. Elisabeth lifted the phone to her ear and said, "Alpha. We have your mate. The ransom is twenty million dollars. Will you pay it?" I listened to Lara laugh. "She declines," Elisabeth said. She opened the door, and our entire lunch party was in the hall. "Get her."
Of Dangers
Growing up, my parents taught my brother Tyler, my sister Jean, and me of the physical dangers of the world. They taught us to beware the wolf. They taught us to run from the wolf.
They also taught us to kill the wolf.
But they didn't teach us of all the dangers of the world. For, you see, sometimes the worst dangers are our own memories, memories kept, memories lost, memories found. They did not teach us of these dangers; they did not teach us to confront these dangers. They did not teach us how to defeat these dangers.
It took my friends, the wolves, to do that.
Author's Afterword to the Reader
Dearest Reader, I am afraid I am not one to be brief, but I hope you will find these words to be enlightening.
As I write these words, it is late afternoon on a beautiful Friday in May of 2013. I am sitting on my deck listening to children playing in the back yard of one neighbor living behind me, and watching the kids in the neighborhood park visible a half a block away. The trees are finally budding after an excessively long winter, and I am chilled sitting on my deck, my mind thinking it is the middle of July in Wisconsin while my body is somewhere else in early May.
It was sometime last night that I wrote the words you read a few pages ago. Completing the first draft of this third novel of Michaela and Lara.
The story you have read is absolutely nothing like what I sat down to write; it is so amazingly different than what I intended to write, I find I need to explain.
I began writing Fox Mate earlier this week. I have made myself sick -- literally -- due to lack of sleep. The story you have read didn't exist even as a glimmer in my mind five days ago. The story I intended to write started the morning after the wedding, that is, the story I intended to write when I sat down begins with Lara and Michaela's honeymoon. I had intended to describe the wedding on page one of Fox Mate, basically, "Lara told me when and where to be. It was a beautiful ceremony, short and simple as I had requested. I wore a simple but elegant dress, and my lovely bride wore a flattering tuxedo. She had never been more handsome."
Yeah, that was going to be the first paragraph of Fox Mate. Clearly, something happened.
A woman I will call JS happened. JS is a fan who has become a penpal over the last several weeks. She asked me if there was another Michaela and Lara story in the works, and I told her "Yes, I just started typing. I have no idea what is going to happen, but it starts the day after their wedding". She wrote back, expressing disappointment. She wanted an invitation to the wedding. She wanted to go along on a bachelorette party.
That email exchange was this past Sunday afternoon. I wrote 93,000 words from Sunday afternoon until yesterday evening sometime. I have not gotten more than four hours of sleep any night this week, writing until late and being unable to sleep as this story has clawed its way out of my skull and into my computer. I didn't create this story, it created itself; I only provided the fingers used to type the keys. Now, it will be some time before the story is actually done. Those 93,000 words are going to be 80,000 bad words and 13,000 good ones. Hopefully I can turn those numbers around.
But if this story is a little unexpected, shall we say, please blame it on sleep deprivation. And perhaps JS.
Last night I got three hours of sleep. I wrote "get her" at a reasonable hour la
st night, and I knew that was the right place to end, but the story wasn't done. Oh, "get her" is a great place for you, the reader perhaps. But for me, the writer, the story was not satisfied. I needed to know what happened afterwards.
So, I kept writing. I went to bed at midnight, and my mind was awake at 3 AM, writing and writing and writing. I finally gave up and got out of bed. Since writing "get her", I have written another 20,000 words. And finally, the story is done, for me. I have questions I don't think I have answered, but I know what happened after "get her".
You will not see in this novel what happened. You can probably guess and get pretty close, but I needed the details. I still have them. I copied them to a document called "Fox Rematch". I don't know if you want to read them. I don't know if I will publish Fox Rematch. It's not pretty. Perhaps some of you will write me and ask me to publish. Time will tell.
I want to say, I did not plan Michaela's backstory as you read it here. I learned about all of these things when she told me, when she woke up and remembered everything she had suppressed.
As for the bride ransom night -- JS told me what she thought a bachelorette party might be: drinking and strippers. Well, I kept the strippers, but perhaps in a much different fashion than she suggested. I decided, probably in some sleep-deprived haze, that Michaela's friends would kidnap her. This is born from a mid-western U.S. pseudo-custom (not everyone does it) for the groomsmen to kidnap the bride, and the bridesmaids to kidnap the groom during the interval between the wedding and the reception.
I originally was going to kidnap them both, and I couldn't decide if they would be kept together or separated, and I actually started to write it that way, proceeding for a page or two on that path. But then I backed up and changed it to Michaela being kidnapped, and Lara to ransom her. Then I went back again and wrote it the way you read, with Elisabeth explaining to Lara there were two brides. I liked that version.
I didn't know what to do about it after that.
But these were werewolves, after all, and the closest human equivalent I could think of would be a bunch of military special forces guys: think of the Navy seal training team from the movie "G.I. Jane". And then the rest clicked into place.