by Robin Roseau
“Oh, my,” she said. “There’s a gap in your teeth. You’re gumming me!”
That resulted in wolf chuckles.
“All right. But Anna, if you tug, you could still break my arm. You could make me walk this way, but don’t make me run, and please be careful.”
I opened my mouth and released her. I wasn’t sure I’d hold her that way, if that was the variation we used, but I could be gentle when I wanted. I turned around and moved back to Monique.
“All right, those with a voice, preferences for which variation?”
“I like the leashes,” Carissa said with a small laugh. “But I’ll play whatever everyone else wants.”
“Nick?” Michaela prompted.
“Are you sure I should play?”
“Yes.”
“Then.” He paused. “I do not like the leashes. I prefer the first variation but could play the third.”
“Hmm,” said Michaela. “I could give each trio the choice of variation one or two, if we like. Anika, what do you think?”
“I’ve never played like this,” she said, “not since I was a young girl.” But she grinned. “I wouldn’t mind leashing my wolves, but I would let them pick for our vote.”
“I don’t want to leash anyone,” Joanna said.
Michaela looked around. “Wolves, let me hear with your voices. Variation three, or possibly one or two. Three?” About half the wolves yipped.
“One or two?” The other half yipped.
“You guys aren’t any help at all. Fine. Carissa, do you want to choose, or do you want to select someone to choose?”
“Anna,” she said. “Will you pick?”
I thought about it. I really was afraid I could hurt the little fox. And so I got up, walked to the table, and carefully collected the leash and collar. I dropped them closer to Michaela but then pressed against her leg.
“Is that because you’re afraid you’d hurt me?” she asked. I offered three little barks.
“All right. Variation one or two. I will let each wolf choose. Either you are leashed to your human, or you must remain in contact. Decide what you’re doing, and then I’m going to ask which team will be It first.”
“What about us?” someone called. I looked over and saw Angel and Scarlett together, both dressed, with two other wolves with them.
“The two of you will leash your wrists together,” Michaela said. “Your wolves will decide if they will take a leash or remain in contact with one of you. Everyone decide. Monique, come here.”
Monique stepped over, and Michaela leaned down. “We’ll be faster if we’re leashed. The two of you can run really fast, just like a roller coaster ride, as long as you’re careful. Anna, you would need to let Monique pick the direction and speed, but she can match your pace. If you take strides too big for her, she can take two instead. But I won’t make either of you take a leash if you can’t stand it.”
I was the outsider here. I wasn’t sure how I felt about letting Michaela wrap a leash around my neck. I would have let Carissa do it. But I considered and then looked over my shoulder. Some of the wolves were accepting leashes. Not many. But I saw Carissa with two leashes, and here and there, a few others. I looked back at Michaela and then glanced at Monique. They were both looking at me. So I reached over, grabbed the leash from the table beside Michaela, and dropped it in front of Monique.
Her choice.
“Well, Anna,” Michaela said. “I wasn’t expecting that. What is it to be, Monique? Hand that to me, and you’re each wearing one.”
Monique stared at the leash but then leaned over, picked it up, and dropped it and the collar in Michaela’s lap.
Two minutes later, I was a little embarrassed, but not as much as I could have been. But standing between Monique and me, Michaela was practically quivering in pleasure, and I thought perhaps this wasn’t bad at all.
“All right,” she called out a minute later. “It looks like everyone has decided. I’m going to ask for a volunteer team to be It first. If no one promptly volunteers, my team will, and you’ll find yourselves hunted by an enforcer wolf, the fox, and the biggest damned were I’ve ever seen. Humans should grab their phones, set them on vibrate, and prepare two timers, one for ten minutes, and one for thirty more. You must freeze, wherever you are, on the first alarm, and the game is over on the second.”
Everyone on two feet pulled out a phone and messed with it for a minute. Then Michaela looked up. “Does any team want to volunteer?”
Angel immediately said, “We will.”
“All right,” Michaela said. “Everyone ready.” She held up her phone. “Angel, count five down to zero. On zero we hit our timers, one of your wolves howls, and we run.”
Then she leaned down to us. “Start slow until we get a rhythm.”
“Five,” said Scarlett. “Four.”
At zero, everyone hit the button on their phone. A wolf howled, and then there was a mad scramble away from the shelter.
Monique, Michaela, and I began with a walk, three abreast, Monique pointing with her nose. We moved into a trot, and then a little faster, Monique watching me for my pace. Michaela dropped back, but I felt the leash tighten, and I knew we were pulling her.
“You can go faster,” Michaela said. “As long as you can stay side by side and don’t leap too wildly.”
So Monique stepped it up, and stepped it up again, and then we were going as fast as I could go and keep it up for more than a minute, so I offered a quiet growl.
“Hold this speed,” Michaela said. “Monique, circle us around to the lodge and take us across the deck, then head north.”
We ran, and it felt good, but then Michaela said, “Monique, cut hard right to that grove of evergreens.” Fifteen seconds later, the three of us were crouched under a thick, thick evergreen, Michaela between us, all of us panting.
“Anna, can you handle this for a half hour?” Michaela whispered.
I bobbed my head, not wanting to make more noise than that.
“I’m going to start to chill, so the two of you can press a little closer.”
I let Michaela move against me, and Monique against her, and then we waited.
Michaela talked quietly, a little of this and a little of that. From time to time, we heard a wolf bark, and Michaela would say something like, “That was Gia,” or “That was Elisabeth.” And then she said, “Shh. Someone’s coming.”
I didn’t hear anyone, not one single person. Two minutes later, Michaela whispered, “They’re moving away, but they’re going to double back. Nick, Tara, and Thomas are a hundred yards north of us, and the wolves have their scent.”
A minute later, there was another bark. “That was Lindsey,” Michaela whispered very quietly. “That group will find Nick in another thirty seconds, and then there’s only us and Lara.”
I heard when they found Nick and his group. Nick and the other human talked for a minute, and I heard a woman say, “There’s only five minutes left.”
“That was Serena,” Michaela whispered, very quietly. “They’re moving away.” She paused. “So is Nick. Oh, wait. Thomas thinks he has our scent, but he’s following his father.” A minute later. “We’re safe from them.” And a minute after that, “Three groups are on our trail, but they’re hampered.” Then she chuckled. “The center group froze. They broke contact.” Then, “Oh shit, we’re missing a heartbeat. I think Carissa is onto us. Shh.”
It wasn’t long after that the tree branches in front of us spread open, and I looked up at Carissa, dim even to my eyes. “Well, what have we here?”
And then I felt something against my side vibrating, and then I heard buzzing from Carissa.
“No,” said the vampire. “We found you.”
“Hold those open for us, would you, Carissa?” Michaela said with a laugh. The three of us crawled out. “The rules are you have to have touched us. Did any of you touch one of us?”
“We found you,” Carissa repeated.
“And yet,” Michaela
said, pocketing her phone. “My phone was vibrating, and I heard yours buzzing.”
Carissa sighed dramatically, but then she smiled. “Anna, that collar looks good on you. I would not have expected that.”
“Anna is amazing,” Michaela said. She leaned over and hugged me. “Truly amazing.” Then she hugged Monique. “And so are you.” Then she left a kiss on Monique’s forehead, and I felt cheated. I didn’t get a kiss.
“Well, I suppose we must return to the start. Mush, my sled dogs. Mush!” Carissa gave the collars a flick, and the two took off, yanking hard on Carissa’s arms. Carissa laughed and let them pull her behind them.
“Don’t do that to me,” Michaela said. “Shall we?”
* * * *
We played four games in all. I was surprised, but I had a really good time. That was the only time we avoided capture, and we were It for the third game, Michaela volunteering us. After the fourth game, Michaela said, “We’d play longer, but I think some of us are getting cold, and it’s time to go warm them up. Normally we call out for a grand winner, but I think tonight we’re going to say that everyone who had a good time is a winner. Let’s go warm up.”
* * * *
I stepped back into the main room, dressed again, but feeling pretty good. Prudence must have been watching for me, as I had barely appeared before she stepped up to my side. “Will you be mine?”
I smiled at her. “I’d like that. Will you answer a question?”
“I will answer any questions you have, as long as they don’t involve anyone’s secrets but mine. And I don’t have secrets.”
“What are you?”
“Mostly wolf,” she said. “But I don’t think that’s all. The wolves all say I smell entirely of wolf, but there may be some fae blood. Or maybe not.” She smiled and took my arm. “Where would you like to sit?”
I looked around. Carissa had claimed a sofa, both Iris and Lindsey cuddled against her sides. They looked quite comfortable together, and any nervousness from earlier appeared to have long disappeared.
Of course, Carissa was lavishing them with attention, and having been the recipient in the past, I knew she was literally impossible to resist. I imagined they would have a nice night.
“Prudence,” I said. “I do need to speak with the alphas for a few minutes, but then I am yours.”
“You keep slipping away from me. I will claim seating, and you will bring me a nice cognac, and you will give me every bit of your attention.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Can you tell me where to find them?”
She sniffed, turned, and then said, “Try the kitchen. Otherwise ask the teenagers. One will know.”
I slipped from her and headed for the kitchen. Sure enough, the alphas were there along with Elisabeth, Francesca, and several of the enforcers. Everyone turned to me when I stepped in.
“Alphas, I believe I should share a word with you.”
“Of course,” said Michaela. “Will it take long?”
“I don’t think so. A few minutes.”
“Our room then,” Michaela said. “We’ll join everyone in a few minutes.” She tugged Lara’s arm, and I followed them through the lodge, finally arriving in one of the rooms in the back.
It, like all the rooms, was rustic and beautiful, and I imagined it was very comfortable. Michaela gestured to a waiting chair, and the two sat down on a sofa. “We should take this back out with us for seating,” she said. Then she turned to me. “What can we do for you?”
“I’m not sure that’s how I’d ask,” I replied. “Carissa won’t be able to part with Iris and Lindsey before we leave unless she receives a replacement, and depending upon who it is, two replacements.”
“All right,” Lara said slowly. “Will she hurt them?”
“No. They’ll have an amazing weekend. But if they have duties next week, they’ll be worthless until they recover.”
“Recover? How much will she drink?”
“That’s only part of it. She’s very... intense when she gets this way.” I turned to Michaela. “It’s not quite like the thrall, but it probably isn’t all that different, either. It’s not binding, but...” I trailed off. “And, of course, they need to replenish the blood she takes, but that won’t take more than a day or two.”
The alphas exchanged looks.
“It’s not bad. Hell, it’s damned good. Iris and Lindsey won’t necessarily thank you if you interfere. But I think that’s more than they thought they were offering.”
“It is,” Lara said.
“My mistake,” Michaela said. “We should have kept you involved in the conversations. But I don’t know what we would have done differently. What do you think?”
“I think if you were telling her we’re friends, you couldn’t have done so in a more convincing manner without offering someone much, much closer, or even yourselves, and that would have been a very inappropriate message.”
“What do you recommend now?”
“Well, I see three choices. You can leave it alone. They’ll have an amazing weekend, but they’ll be completely out of it afterwards. It won’t be like a breakup, and it won’t be like breaking the thrall. But they’ll be complete space cases, and not very active, either. You’ll need to take care of them. At home, Carissa sets rules. No driving for a week. No operating heavy equipment for the same period. No going to work for at least three days, and longer if the work requires much thought. She won’t touch a surgeon. For the first day or two, they’ll be very complacent and do whatever one of you tells them, and anyone else they recognize as an authority figure. After that, they’ll begin to come back to Earth.”
“Or?”
“Or you can offer her another choice. If you give her only one, she might be a little upset, but she won’t let it interfere. And she won’t fight you, even if she’d prefer keeping these two. Or you can ask me to offer myself.” I smiled. “As you can imagine, I won’t mind, but then I won’t have any attention for anything else.”
“You don’t suggest her own humans?”
“She already owns them, and she would feel like you were taking away your gift. Intellectually she would be fine, but emotionally, it would be hard for her, and vampires are ruled by their emotions even more than werewolves. The only difference is that their emotions tend to be quite crisp.”
“But she wouldn’t be offended if you offered yourself?”
“No. I’m a friend, and she would know what I was doing. I’m not hers the same way Anika and Joanna are.”
Lara and Michaela looked at each other for a while then turned to me again. “You offered choices, but you didn’t make a recommendation.”
“I can’t,” I said. “I don’t know the two wolves. I don’t know their responsibilities.”
“School,” Michaela said. “I can adjust for that. If you were one of them, what would you want us to do?”
I laughed. “I’d want you to leave it alone.”
Michaela sighed. “Yeah, I can see that.” She turned to Lara. “Who could we use to replace them?”
“We could bring someone up,” Lara replied. Then she laughed. “Although Zoe looked half ready to volunteer herself and Portia.”
“It would kill Portia,” Michaela said. “She’s still working on her confidence, and I don’t think Zoe needs more stress right now.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
They communed for a moment, and then Michaela nodded. “We owe Iris and Lindsey something large.”
“Alpha,” I said. “No, actually, you don’t.”
“Of course we do,” Lara said.
“Wait two weeks and then ask them about it. And they’ll probably tell you they’ll be happy if their names are first on the list next time Carissa comes.”
“Is that dangerous?”
“Only to expectations. If Carissa is a frequent guest, she may feel if you are going to make this offer, she could expect a little more variety. And the pack may come to take Iris and Lindsey for granted. And maybe that w
on’t be so bad until it’s another vampire. They aren’t all like Carissa.”
“I can vouch for that,” said Michaela. “We wouldn’t have made that offer to Kristian, or even if he were here instead of you.”
“He’s a hard one, but he’s loyal to Carissa,” I said.
“She’s not hurting them.”
“No. They’re having a very good time, but I don’t know how their families feel about this.”
“A little worried, but we can assure them,” Lara said. She turned back to Michaela. “We can handle this.”
“Yes,” Michaela said. They turned back to me. “Thank you, Anna. Unless you think it’s a mistake, we’re going to let this continue.”
“It’s what I’d want you to do, if I were either of them. But I couldn’t make that decision for your pack.”
We all stood, and then I said, “I promised Prudence a cognac.”
“Of course,” Lara said. “I’ll show you.”
* * * *
I handed the glass to Prudence, sitting down beside her with my own drink. She had a love seat for us, and as soon as I was seated, she moved against me and tucked her feet under herself. I slipped an arm around her, and she smiled at me. “You feel nice,” she said. Then she laid her head against my chest, under my chin, and snuggled in a little more tightly.
I looked around. Joanna was with Eric. Carissa had her wolves. Here and there, some of the wolves were cuddled with their mates. I searched for Anika. She was sitting with the other kids, but she didn’t seem upset about it.
Then Lara stepped in front of us and smiled as she looked around. “It’s been a good day. We had a beautiful ceremony this morning, an amazing meal this afternoon, and a good game this evening. And now we’re here, together and comfortable. Michaela and I have decided tonight is to be story time. But contrary to a popular type of story, it is not embarrass the alpha night.”
There were chuckles at that, and then Francesca called out, “But there are so many more stories to tell!”
“They’ll have to wait,” Lara insisted. “Tonight we’re going to tell stories of thanks. Maybe happy stories, or maybe sad stories that end well.” She adjusted her gaze. “Carissa, I hope you won’t mind when I call on you.”