by Robin Roseau
"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."
There was laughter, but then everyone turned to stare at Elisabeth. She simply shrugged. "I liked the idea of shutting the fox up."
That was worth more laughter.
"And how did you know she would be playing?" I asked. "Was it the fox you wanted to silence, or me?" I put a hand on my hip.
"Oh please," Elisabeth said. "I knew what role Michaela would want to play in this game."
I paused, nodded, then turned back towards Michaela. "If we play again," I said, "How do we decide who is playing what role?"
"I made this game after I saw how much you enjoyed being run around, and then when they started doing it to me, well, I won't admit I liked it." More laughs. "It's designed to be human friendly, at least as a prisoner. But I don't know if either Nick or Michele would agree." She looked around.
Nick shrugged. "You know, I've never asked to be run around like that, but I see how much Zoe enjoys it, and I think I'll be talking to Tara about it."
"Angel and I will run you, Dad," Scarlett said. "You'll love it."
"I may take you up on it. I would try this game," Nick said, "Although I don't know if my fragile, male ego will survive being rescued and carried about by Tara."
There was more laughter, but I thought he was serious.
Michaela turned to Michele. She shook her head. "I could be a prisoner, but Donald would not enjoy chasing."
"You could pick a different partner, Michele," Donald said. "I might have fun helping to kidnap the alpha."
Michele smiled and caressed his face.
"I do not need to play these games," Michele said. "But if invited, I would play. However, there are others here who also wish to play, and I do not believe you would want more players, from the sound of it. I am happy to sit by the fire."
"Well then," Michaela said. "What we will do is this. Zoe, you will always be a prisoner. And then we will ask who wishes to be prisoners as well, and you will pick. You should vary it, with preference to the humans, as they play so few of our games."
I smiled. "All right."
"You may always pick me, at least until I'm bigger," Kaylee said. "It would give more choices for chasers."
"And then prisoners pick partners, and it doesn't have to be her mate," Michaela said, "although your mates may have something different to say."
"Damned right she will," said Portia into my ear.
"All right," said Michaela. We're going to play another human friendly game, and then those who want may go for a run. It's a school night, so we must not stay out all night. All homework due tomorrow or Tuesday gets an extension to Wednesday."
"That's true for my classes as well," Francesca called out.
The kids whooped, but a few look upset.
"Damn it," said Iris. "I did all of mine already."
"I am announcing a contest," Lara declared. "We play a lot of games here, but most are ill suited for the humans. That was fine when we had so few humans coming here, but we're up to four at times. I want more human-friendly games that also try us as wolves. This game was excellent, and I thank you, my mate."
Michaela took a little bow.
"So the contest runs for the next six months. I would make it shorter, but we're running into winter soon. You may enter as many times as you like. You will devise new games. I will assemble a group to judge which ones we want to try." She looked around. "Zoe, I want you on that group. Nick and Michele, you are also invited if you like."
I wondered why the different treatment, and so I asked Michaela about it later, and she said it was because I actively tried to play the games. Nick didn't play even when he could, and Michele was only marginally more likely to play.
"We'll play the games, perhaps with adjusted rules," Lara said. "At the end of the contest, I will pick a winner. I might pick more than one. Any game that becomes a pack regular will earn a prize of some sort. The grand prizewinner will win something significant. Not quite new car significant, but perhaps new computer significant."
There were whoops of joy and a few howls.
"Are they doing this for me?" I asked Portia.
"For us," she said. "Yes. And Benny, too."
I nodded and then raised my hand.
"Yes, Zoe?"
"If I'm on the committee, does that mean I can't submit games? I could use a new computer."
Lara laughed. "The committee decides which games are worthwhile. Everyone may submit. To be honest, I doubt anyone is going to beat my mate, but I encourage all of you to try."
There was laughter at that.
"May we practice these games?" Angel asked. "Before we submit."
"You may do whatever you want," Lara said.
"What if two people submit nearly identical games?"
"Then they would be stapled together and considered a group submission," Lara said. "And no, I haven't decided how I will divide a prize in that case. But you should submit the games because you want to, not because you expect to win."
There were nods at that.
"May we ask Zoe's opinion?" Monique asked.
"Yes. Anything you want. The goal is to come up with more games. They can be human games with a wolf twist, if you want, or a wolf game with a human twist. Now, not everyone is here, so I will post the rules on the compound resident's web page. And your families can submit too, students."
There were grins.
Over the months ahead, many of the wolves would propose new games for us to play. Some of them, adults and teenagers alike, sought my opinion before submitting their proposals. Many of the proposals were for twists on existing games, as Lara had suggested. I gave each proposal my best advice. When asked, if the game wasn't too rough, I played, and I helped revise the game.
Some of the games, of course, were better than others, at least as far as I was concerned. One proposal was to use the humans as a handicap during relay races. Said simply: carry us to slow the wolf down. For some reason, this was different than the kidnap game, which I adored, and it was a proposal that didn't proceed very far.
I decided to submit no proposals myself; I decided doing so would be a conflict of interest, and narcissistic besides. My decision made it easier to be forthcoming and honest with everyone who sought my opinion. Portia made the same decision, although from time to time, she helped test the games people proposed.
In the end, the pack adopted several new games, human friendly while challenging for the wolves. And there was a grand prizewinner, as well. I would say more, but the winner may have her own story to tell some day, and so I will leave the details to her.
"All right," Michaela said. "We're playing a new form of freeze tag. This is team freeze tag. Nick and Michele, are you playing?"
"Sure," they both said.
"All right," Michaela said. "Each human is a team captain, and she is the team's freezer. We will pick a home base for each, forming a triangle. Anyone tagged by the freezer sits down, but you may be unfrozen if you are picked up by at least two members of your team and carried back to your base. You are also frozen if you are tagged by any freezer who is sitting down and has been sitting for at least thirty seconds, but you may move out of range of any other opponents before sitting down." She paused. "However, I'm pretty sure we're all capable of avoiding the humans, so I'm not sure how to make it just a little easier for them."
"Nerf sticks!" Angel called out. "Give them each a couple of Nerf sticks. And limit the playing area so it's a little
crowded."
"And no intentional contact with another wolf," Serena suggested.
"So a team could corral members of the other team," Lara said. "That might skew it too much, but we can try it."
"If you do that," Angel said, "Make it a bigger area so there's probably a path to escape, but still not too big."
"Or," I said, "you have to touch each of the other team's bases periodically, but taggers shouldn't intentionally guard."
"Let's try Angel's initial suggestion and see how it goes for a few minutes," Michaela said. "Angel and Scarlett, please go collect six Nerf sticks."
They took off at a run. I stared after them. "So fast."
Portia chuckled.
"If this seems to be going on too long, we'll adjust," Michaela said. "If it's going too quickly, we'll take a Nerf stick away or something. I am intentionally splitting up couples. Portia, you are on Michele's team; Donald you're with Nick; Tara, you're with Zoe."
Portia kissed me then moved to stand with Michele. A moment later, Tara was standing next to me. "All right. Nick, pick."
"Lara."
"I'm with Zoe. Michele?"
"Elisabeth."
It took a few minutes to make teams. Angel and Scarlett returned carrying not only the Nerf sticks, but a bunch of other things as well. They began marking a large playing field, then some of the kids ran over to help them.
"How's this, Alpha?"
"Everyone into the field," she said. "We'll see."
We all moved onto the field. Michaela called for it to be a little larger, assigned our home bases, and then said, "Ready?"
"Ready!" everyone called out.
"Go!"
It was complete and utter chaos, but it only took twenty seconds before I was laughing as I swung my Nerf sticks around while trying to remember who was on my team.
I whacked Scarlett a couple of times, and she said, "Hey! I'm on your team."
The wolves were hard to catch, but then Michele and I found ourselves side by side and we began chasing after Nick's team members. We got about half of them before she and Nick turned on me and began chasing my members.
Everyone was laughing.
"If you do my whole team, then you'll never beat each other!" I called out.
And then I spun around and caught Lara as she tried to free one of her teammates, although others from her team would free her a few minutes later.
Michaela danced over to me. "I never said you couldn't help free people," she said. "Come on."
We freed Scarlett and Iris before Nick and Michele noticed what we were doing. And then I interfered, waving my Nerf sticks and whacking Nick and Michele while my teammates worked on freeing the rest of the team.
"That's cheating!" Michele said before whacking me across the ass.
Everyone laughed.
Eventually Michaela called a halt. "Everyone freeze. What do we do so this doesn't go on all night?"
Michele whacked me again. "Tell Zoe to stop hitting me."
We went after each other, both of us laughing.
"Knock it off, you two," Michaela said.
"Add a second freezer," Lara said. "The other two team captains to pick someone. So Nick and Michele would pick someone on Zoe's team, etc."
"But freezers can't help unfreeze," Angel said.
We played that way for a while, and that worked better. Soon, most people were frozen. All four opposing freezers tried to catch Michaela, and I was sure it was a matter of time, but so far, she'd been avoiding them. Ember was my co-freezer, and we kept chasing Lara and Valeria from Nick's team and Dawson from Michele's. We hadn't caught any of them yet, but we kept Lara from freeing anyone.
But then we managed to chase Lara into Serena, and she was frozen. We focused on Dawson, and he got tagged by Lara.
"Michele's team is all captured!" we called out. "Michele and Cornelius, you have to sit down."
Nick and Kimbriella couldn't catch Michaela, and finally Ember and I caught Valeria.
Everyone enjoyed the game.
* * * *
We collapsed into a big pile of people for a while. My head was in Portia's lap, but I had Monique's in mine, and I was surprised when Ember curled up and laid her head on my shoulder. There were more wolves touching my feet, and when I looked around, everyone was casually touching several other people.
"Michaela," I called out. "Good games tonight. Thank you."
"You are welcome, Zoe."
I looked down at Ember, then wrapped an arm around her and hugged her. She grabbed my arm and held on. I looked up at Portia, and she leaned to whisper into my ear, "She misses her mom."
"All right," Lara said. "Those who want can begin to shift for a run, or you can stay here and enjoy the shared comfort. But I have one more thing I wish to discuss first. Portia, where are you?"
"Here, Alpha."
"No, no," Lara said. "Don't get up yet. Everyone looks comfortable. When you joined our pack, you were single, and I believe you expected to remain that way."
"I did, Alpha."
"And you bought your house with that belief."
"I did."
"You are not single anymore, and while you have hardly had time to talk about any of this, I wonder if there will be pups in your future."
"Oh god," I said. "Already? It starts already?"
There was laughter.
"We haven't discussed it," Portia said. "Without discussing this with my mate, and only judging by her behavior with some of Michaela's students, I believe she wishes at the very least for our home to be an extended home to younger members of the pack."
I realized she was right.
"I also think, but we would need to discuss it, that she would like to foster some of Michaela's students."
I looked over my head and nodded. Portia caressed my face.
"That has been one of the limiting factors to the number of students we take," Lara said. "For now, I ask these questions to give you and your mate opportunities for discussion, and I will offer one more. Your house is too small for what we just discussed. What would you like to do?"
"In the spring," Portia said, "I would like to break ground on building a new home. Is there a place we may do this, Alpha?"
"Yes," Lara said.
"Scarlett, wherever you are," Portia said. "I wish to hire you to help us design the house."
"Really?" she said. I looked over in time to see her head pop up from another pile, and I realized Angel's head was in Michaela's lap and Scarlett's had been in Angel's. "I'd love to."
I was a little surprised she made these decisions without consulting me. She bent over and whispered, "We will design and build it together with our own hands."
"I will only support this plan," Michaela called out, "If I am allowed to help."
There was laughter.
"We would love any available help," Portia replied.
"Then we will discuss this option in the coming weeks," Lara said. "I will require a reasonable plan for the cost of this home, but so far, I fully endorse what you have decided, Portia."
"Thank you, Alpha," Portia said.
"All right. If you want to run, get shifting," Lara said. "There won't be a hunt tonight, just a nice run."
I looked up at Portia. "Running?"
"I'd like to blow out the fur a little, and I wouldn't mind a little attention later."
I smiled. "I'd love to. I'll wait here for a while, but if I'm not here, I'll be home, waiting for you. If I go, I'll take your clothes with me."
Neither Monique nor Ember had moved, and Portia could wait until it was time.
"What are you two doing?" I asked.
"I'll run," Monique said. "Zoe, my mom bought the camera. I know you and Portia have plans or something..."
"Work it out with Portia," I said.
"I don't know your homework load, Monique," Portia said. "What would you like to do?"
"Could I come over tomorrow after school?"
I looked up at Portia and n
odded, so she said, "Yes, but call us. We might be running errands and have to do it after dinner."
"Okay. Thanks."
"Ember, are you running?" I asked.
She looked over at me. "May I stay here with you, Zoe?"
"Of course you may, honey," I said.
So the four of us stayed that way for a while. Then as the wolves finished shifting, Monique and Portia got up. Portia whispered to Monique, who ran off and returned with some blankets. She slipped one under my head and then arranged another one on top of me.
"Thanks, Mom," I said, and she laughed.
They both undressed and shifted, then shook their fur out. Portia leaned over and licked me, and then they were running.
Ember hadn't released my arm the entire time. I was a little surprised. First Monique, and now Ember. Iris and Lindsey had sort of adopted me, too, and the boys had been sweet.
"Sleepy, Ember?" I asked.
"No. Do you mind?"
"No. This is nice. Thank you for helping me feel welcome."
We lay quietly. I wanted to know what was going on with Ember, but I wasn't sure how to ask.
"The stars are pretty," she said. "Did you know that some of them are entire galaxies?"
"I did," I said.
"Have you seen those pictures from the Hubble Deep Space Telescope? They pointed the camera at a seemingly empty place in the sky and took pictures, and it's full, full, full of galaxies, too many galaxies to count."
"Yes, I've seen those. They're beautiful pictures."
She lay quietly for a while before she said, "Monique's mom bought her a camera. That's what she was talking about."
"Yes."
"Like yours?"
"Kind of like mine. Not as expensive."
"Yours are expensive."
"To me, frightfully."
"Is Monique's expensive?"
"Not if she bought the one I recommended. Not cheap though, either."
"How much?"
"Maybe six or seven hundred."
"Oh." She grew still. "I guess I can't take your photography class."
"Your mom can't afford one, huh?"
"I don't have a mom."
My gut reaction was to pull her into my arms and hold her, but in a way, I was already doing that.
"You live with your dad?"
"He took off years ago. I don't remember him. Mom said he was a total asshole."