Jaguar (The Madison Wolves Book 12)

by Robin Roseau

  I thought that was odd. I knew Monique, Cassie, and Ember had been dating. I thought given the chance to partner, they’d form a trio. But they looked at each other and then waited.

  Finally Parker said, “This is silly. I like all of you. I’d partner with all of you, but we have to pick. Ember, will you be my partner? Or did you want to stick to Cassie and Monique?”

  “Actually,” said Cassie. “I was hoping you and I could partner.”

  “And I was thinking of asking Alexia,” Ember said.

  “But if you two want it the other way,” Cassie continued.

  “You want to be my partner, Ember?” Alexia asked uncertainly.

  “Yeah. You’re fun, Alexia,” Ember said. “If I partner with Cassie, she’ll want to get all kissy face, and we won’t get anything done.”

  Alexia laughed, crossed the short distance, and took Ember’s hand. She was smiling broadly.

  Parker stepped to Cassie and took her hand. “But don’t get any ideas. I’ve got my eye on someone else, but I don’t want to start anything unless I’m sure I’m going to be here full time in the fall.”

  I thought that was very wise.

  “Who?” Cassie asked, soon echoed by everyone else.

  “I’m not saying. This person might not even be interested in me.”

  “Oooh, this person,” Monique echoed. “That means it’s a girl, or you just would have said he.”

  “I will neither confirm nor deny that allegation,” Parker said. “If you want to find out, you’ll just have to convince the alpha to keep me this fall, and then see who I drool over.”

  “Well, you better not drool over me,” Kimber said, taking Monique’s hand. “That’s disgusting. But if you ask me out, I’d go.”

  “I thought you liked Conor.”

  “I’m flexible,” Kimber replied.

  “But that means it’s not Kimber,” Monique said. “And it’s probably not Cassie, Ember, or me.” And with that, every pair of eyes, except Parker’s, turned to Alexia. But then Monique said, speaking slowly, “But you said only if you’re here this fall. The way you said it, it sounded like you were already pretty sure whoever you like will be here.”

  And then they all looked around some more.

  “Maybe it’s Anna,” Alexia said. “She’s pretty hot.”

  “You girls know I can hear you,” I said.

  “You were supposed to,” Alexia said with a grin.

  “Don’t tease the old lady,” Monique said.

  “Hey!” I complained.

  “It’s not Anna,” Parker said. “But I’m not giving you any hints.”

  “If you girls have your partners,” Michaela called out, “You also now get to pick which car you’ll ride in today.”

  And all three groups immediately moved closer to me. I found that touching.

  Five minutes later we were on the road.

  * * * *

  Michaela saved the most fun for the last trip, nearly two weeks in Bayfield. She brought everything together into a mini fieldwork Olympics, and she even made the adults play. None of it was about speed; everything she had us do was about precision and accuracy. She gave us a compass and a list of directions. Travel 71 yards on a heading of 278 degrees. Travel 91 yards on a heading of 340 degrees. In the end, we finished the course near where we started, but not exactly, and we were to measure the distance from our beginning point to our ending point. She didn’t tell us this, but we weren’t actually supposed to end where we began, but a few teams didn’t realize that and fudged their last leg. We got points for how close we ended to where we were supposed to end.

  She had us collect rock samples. We were to record all the properties of the samples we collected, identify the samples as best we could, and then report how the rock formed.

  We took water samples, and one of the out buildings was set up as a mini lab for evaluating the samples.

  We identified no end of plants. We were handed cameras and given a list of things to photograph.

  We went out in the kayaks, and she had a series of exercises that judged our ability to ride well. She had maps, and we were told to plot the optimal route between various locations on the lake based on varying wind conditions.

  She made us catch mice without harming them.

  We played a game. She had several of us sit in chairs in a field then gave us a nose plug, the sort that some swimmers wear to avoid getting water up their noses. Then we were blindfolded. The other people playing were told to sneak up on us, being as quiet as they could. If they could tag one of the people in the chair, they took that person’s place and earned points. But if the people in the chair pointed to someone sneaking, that person was reset to the back of the line, and the people who pointed got a point. I wasn’t any better than anyone else at pointing, but I was really quite good at sneaking, although all of us would have been better in fur.

  Through all of it, the kids had fun. The adults had fun. Everyone had fun. The competition was spirited but friendly. And we got to practice everything we’d spent the summer learning.

  And then things changed.

  Dark Of The Night

  Angel didn’t even knock but stepped right into my room. It was late, but I was catching up on email.

  “Anna. Come with me, and be quiet about it.”

  “Let me finish-“

  “Now!”

  She didn’t wait, and I hurried after her. She led me to the basement stairs, and I wasn’t the only one heading that way, although she led me one way, and most of the others headed another way. She led me to a wine rack, which left me puzzled. Then there was a buzz. Angel clasped the rack and pulled, and it swung open.

  “Pack secret,” she said over her shoulder. “We’re trusting you, Anna.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  She held the door open for me then pulled it closed behind her. I found myself facing another set of stairs, dimly lit in an eerie red light.

  “Grip the handrail, but we need to hurry.” She moved ahead, and we practically plummeted down the stairs. And if I hadn’t figured it out already, I certainly knew something bad was happening.

  I’m not sure how deep we went. It wasn’t nuclear fallout shelter deep, but it deep. We reached a landing and faced a steel door. There was another buzz, and Angel pushed it open. As I stepped through, I saw the door was six inches thick, with large rods that pushed into the walls to hold it closed.

  I wasn’t sure if Carissa had anyplace like this, but if she did, I’d never seen it.

  Angel closed the door and gestured. We walked a short distance to a similar door. We had arrived.

  It was clearly a command center. The far wall had four large computer screens, and there were smaller workstations set up at desks along the left wall. Eric was seated at one of the desks, watching the screen.

  The center of the room held a long conference table. The right wall was a long white board.

  Standing in a clump at the far end of the room was Michaela, Lara, Elisabeth, Deirdre, and about half the enforcers.

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

  “Panic room,” Lara answered.

  “Fuck. Airborne?”

  “No. They’re coming in on foot. We’re giving the rest two minutes to get everyone into the panic room.”

  “What about the kids?”

  “Underground passage from each barracks. If it was just the lodge, we’d be done by now.”

  I moved to the end of the room with everyone else. As a group, we turned to the screens. We had multiple views of what appeared to be two distinct forces moving through the woods. Each screen held one camera view, and in an overlay in the corner, a map of the pack property with an indicator of where each camera was and which direction it faced.

  “They’re still...”

  “Forty away at this rate,” Elisabeth said. “We have time.”

  I moved closer to one screen and looked closely. The image wasn’t perfect. It was full night, after all
, and the resolution of the low light camera wasn’t that great.

  “They’re armed.”

  “Yep.”

  “And... God, they’re humans. Those are humans, aren’t they?” I moved from screen to screen. “I don’t see anyone who looks like wolf.” I turned to Elisabeth. “Bad cameras?”

  She shook her head. “Eric, put up a recording. Let Anna see what a wolf would look like.”

  One of the screens flickered, and then I saw familiar faces -- Elisabeth, several enforcers, and the enforcer students. Oh, out of context I might not have recognized anyone, but expecting familiar wolves, it was obvious.

  “Earlier this summer,” Elisabeth said.

  I looked back and forth.

  “Just. No way,” I said. “What idiot raids a werewolf compound with humans? There must be more. Air cover. Something. Shit, I don’t know.” I spun and spotted Karen and Portia standing together. “You two. You were special forces or something. Right?”

  “Rangers,” Karen said. “She was special forces.” She hooked a finger at Portia.

  “They have that Rambo shit, right? They’re setting up to call in an air strike or something.”

  “That’s possible,” Karen said. She didn’t sound like she believed it.

  “They’re still dangerous,” Portia said. She moved closer and pointed. “Night vision. And they’ve got some serious ordinance. Eric, can you put this screen back?”

  The screen flickered and showed an empty section of forest, but then the image shifted and we got another look at one of the groups. Portia leaned closer then pointed. “These look like flash bangs. The resolution isn’t good enough to be sure, but it looks like a mix of short and medium distance weaponry.” Then she tapped another screen. “I think that’s a sniper rifle.”

  “Everyone is here,” Elisabeth said. I looked away, and I saw most of the remaining enforcers. Emanuel and the enforcer students were missing, but we had everyone else. “Everyone take a seat.”

  We all got settled. Elisabeth stayed near the screens.

  “As you can see, we’re under invasion,” she said. “Eric, expand a map.”

  The upper right screen shifted, and we had a large map of the pack property. “Yellow areas are the active cameras that show activity,” he said.

  Elisabeth tapped the screen in two places.

  “Two groups of humans, 18 in all. They’re two miles out and moving cautiously,” she said. “If nothing changes, they’ll engage in a half hour or so, but we cannot assume nothing will change. Karen, Portia. Analysis.”

  They both stood and moved to the front.

  “Well equipped,” Karen said. “And they’re moving professionally.”

  “I don’t see any heavy weapons,” Portia said. “But we don’t know what they might have in their backpacks. But I think we should assume they can breach our defenses, possibly even our safe rooms, if they know where they are. We should also assume they could level the house, if we let them.”

  “Or worse, if they can call in an air strike?” I threw out.

  “It would take one hell of an air strike to penetrate this deeply,” Karen said. “And there is no sign they have set up near our exits.”

  “And no sign they have the sort of equipment to detect them,” Portia added.

  Portia and Karen talked a little about the sort of equipment we could expect, and the tactics to expect. Then they sat down.

  “Alpha?”

  Lara didn’t stand up. “We’re handling this ourselves. There isn’t time for a proper response to this level of firepower. If we call local law enforcement, they’ll either scare these people off, and they’ll come at us later, or it will be a law enforcement blood bath. We’ll decide if we notify human authorities later. Head Enforcer, I want prisoners, and I do not want us to use deadly force first.”

  “Alpha,” said Elisabeth. “If we’re going to give them to the human authorities, do you want stories about werewolves getting around?” She gestured. “If this is what it seems, these people have no idea what they’re walking into.”

  “They could be loaded with silver,” I pointed out. “Karen and Portia admitted they can’t identify all the ordinance. What if those flash bangs are filled with silver nitrate or something?”

  “Head Enforcer,” Lara said clearly. “I will amend my orders. I do not want any members of our pack,” then she looked pointedly at me, “or any of our friends to die. I do not want any of those people,” and she gestured to the screen, “leaving. I would prefer prisoners, because I am quite sure we aren’t looking at whoever ordered this. We will decide later if we’re giving them back to the humans.” She paused. “Fuck. I’ve never killed a human before. Just fuck.”

  “Could they be vampires?” Serena asked. “That changes it entirely. I wouldn’t want us to face that many vampires.”

  Deirdre and I both looked at the screen for several seconds. “I can’t tell,” Deirdre said. “They aren’t moving like it, and vampires don’t work that way. But I’d have to see them with my own eyes to be sure.”

  “From how close?”

  “Close enough to see the whites of their eyes,” Deirdre said. “Unless they began acting vampy.”

  “That’s a technical term,” I added. “For the reasons Deirdre said, I don’t think they’re vampires. I suppose it could be a mix, but I don’t buy it.” I paused. “Lara, have you notified Carissa?”

  “No,” she said. “We went radio silent as soon as we saw them.”

  “We can use Skype,” Angel said.

  “Only if she’s at her computer,” Elisabeth said.

  “No. You can make phone calls with Skype,” Angel clarified. She moved to one of the computers and sat down. After a few seconds, she said, “Number?”

  Michaela rattled off a number, but Deirdre and I together said, “No. Not that one.” Deirdre provided a different number. A moment later we were listening to a phone ringing. It was picked up after three rings, and then there was silence.

  “Carissa,” I called out.

  “Anna?”

  “Carissa,” Lara said. “We’re being invaded. They appear human.” Elisabeth provided details. Then Lara finished with, “We can handle this, but do you have any advice?”

  “Are you killing them or taking prisoners?”

  “Prisoners if we can, but we’re not taking risks.”

  “Where is Deirdre?”

  “I’m here, Carissa.”

  “Alpha, I ask you to keep Deirdre safe. Anna can make her own choices. I will call a mutual friend for you, and then I will be wheels up in thirty minutes. Can I call you back at this number?”

  “It’s my Skype account,” Angel answered. “I can’t take incoming calls with it.”

  “If you get a chance, call me back if you learn anything else,” Carissa said. “But handle things there. There’s little I can do from here. Expect me in three hours. Lara, with your permission, I’m bringing friends. In case.”

  “Would you involve the humans?” Lara asked.

  “Only if you find law enforcement identification, and I don’t expect that. Anything else?”

  “No. We’ll try to keep you posted.”

  She clicked off.

  “Deirdre,” Lara said, “As soon as we can, I would like to move you with the others. If it comes to it, will you help to move everyone to safety?”

  “Of course, Alpha.”

  “Anna, are you going with Deirdre?”

  “Unless you order it, I think you could use me here.”

  “Thank you. Head Enforcer?”

  “I wouldn’t suppose we can talk the two of you into helping get everyone else away.”

  “Yeah, try again, Elisabeth,” Michaela said.

  Lara didn’t even respond.

  “All right. Karen, Portia. Comments?”

  “We need to know if they have air support.”

  “I’d like to know where those Black Hawks are,” Portia added. “They could circle overhead and try to
pin us down.”

  “Try,” Karen said.

  “I’d prefer to avoid lucky shots,” Portia replied. “But yeah. I just want to know if we have to worry about it. Otherwise, we can either wait for them and take them close, or we can go take them out where they are.” She turned to the screen the looked around the room. Her eyes settled on me. “You prefer ambush tactics. What would you do?”

  “Those goggles. What are they?”

  “Night vision,” she replied.

  “Right. So infrared?”

  “Oh. No. Light magnification, that’s all.”

  “So we could blind them with spotlights?”

  “No. The movies get that wrong. It doesn’t work that way. They only get so bright.”

  “But no infrared, so they won’t see a heat signature.”

  “Probably not.”

  “I’d flank them. They’d never see me. I could have three down before they could even begin to react.”

  “Dead?” Lara asked.

  I sighed. “Do you mind if I rough them up?”

  “No. Are they going to bleed out?”

  “So you want me to go easy on them. Fine. I don’t think I can take out one group alone. Not if I’m taking prisoners. But yes, I’d prefer to ambush.”

  “Could you take one silently?” Portia asked.

  I smiled. “I’d be silent. I can’t promise he would be. You want to wear them down?”

  “The damage to morale of having one of your men just disappear is quite high,” Karen said. “I think it’s getting too fancy.” She stood back up and moved to the screen. “This group is probably coming here.” She drew a line. “Personally, I’d rather stay under cover, but you can’t approach from the west without crossing 150 yards of open field.”

  “The back though,” Portia said. “The woods are only forty yards. But they might be heading to the bunkhouses.” Karen pointed at possible routes for the group approaching from the northeast.

  Then Portia got up. “I wouldn’t do it this way. I’d have come in from the air and dropped right on the top of the house. Even knowing whom I was going against, I could breach the house before a defense could be mounted. Maybe they didn’t get their Black Hawks after all.”