by Robin Roseau
Until Michaela's phone went off.
More Head Games
She didn't announce a punishment. Instead she started a conversation with Angel. "We're going to have to treat her like a wolf."
"Probably," Angel agreed. "I didn't realize you were going to use ice the first time we put her in the box."
"I wasn't, but then she slimed Monique."
"I know you planned on using a return trip to the box to break her, but I don't think it's going to work."
"Oh, I can break her with the box," Michaela said. "But I'm not convinced the pack will be satisfied with that."
"Did you have other ideas?"
"Like I said: treat her like a wolf. We haven't taped her hand back up yet. It would be a shame to miss out on an opportunity like that."
"Break her fingers?"
"One at a time," Michaela said. "Not all at once like we did Scarlett's."
"What?" I screeched. I knew they were messing with me, but I thought she was telling the truth about that."
"That's when I begged," Scarlett said. "But they used a nut cracker on Angel's fingers." She paused. "It's her left hand that is free, so if she's laid up for a while, that's not so bad. She's right handed."
I knew they were trying to get to me. The thing is, it was working. I began to shudder in sympathy, if nothing else.
"Cuddle time is over, I suppose," Michaela said. "Just as I was getting comfortable. You have a good lap, Scarlett." She got up, and then one by one, the pile of wolves and two humans split apart. I found myself back on the sofa with Michaela sitting in front of me on the coffee table, now back in place in front of me.
"So," she said. "Break your hand or put you back in the box?" I considered the question rhetorical. "Breaking your hand is a little extreme. I think we should work up to that. Tape her hand back up, then she goes back into the box."
I didn't struggle, and soon my hand was all wrapped up again, squeezing around the stress ball. They picked me up and carried me to the utility room. The box was still there, still full of water, although the ice had melted. The floor was still damp in places, but it had mostly dried out. They set me on my feet and turned me to Michaela.
"Do you care to beg?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
She stepped closer and whispered, "You should beg now, Zoe. It's time."
"I don't think so. You're going to have to try harder than that."
"It's not wise to challenge me."
I lowered my eyes. "Perhaps you should negotiate my ransom with me."
"I don't think so," she replied. She still didn't move away. "Zoe, this is when it gets serious. I'm not bluffing. You should ask Portia to pay your ransom."
"You may not be bluffing about this, but we both know you were bluffing about my hand."
She sighed. "Put her in the box, but hold her head up for a minute."
They picked me up, and I nearly freaked out as they lowered me into the water. I began swearing a blue streak; it was cold, damned cold. They had to push me down into the water; I kept trying to pull body parts away from it. It took five of them to hold me, one holding my head up, the other four holding the rest of me down.
I splashed quite a lot of water.
"Oh good," Michaela said, "More room for ice." She pulled out her phone. "One word to your mate, and we will break your hands. I'm not bluffing, Zoe. Not one word." I nodded. She punched numbers on her phone. "Just texting her first." She waited a moment, then she held the phone to her ear.
"Hello, Portia. Were you wondering what was happening?" Pause. "I suppose that was obvious. Well, we're long done with that. Your mate is three quarters of the way in a box of ice water. She thinks she can beat me with this game, but she is wrong. Will you pay her ransom? I texted the amount." Pause. "Portia, I believe you should reconsider." Pause. "All right." She hung up and knelt down beside me. "You think you're safe from my games in the box, don't you?"
I didn't, although I had no idea what she had in mind.
"If you change your mind and want to beg, you should yell out 'surrender' into the breathing tube. If for some reason, you are unable to do so, then blink your eyes rapidly at me, and we will fish you out. I expect you to watch me the entire time, Zoe."
I nodded.
"Take a breath."
They shoved me under and put the lid on top, pressing me down into the box.
It was cold. Cold, cold, cold. The breathing tube descended towards me. I took it in my mouth and exhaled hard, sending water up the tube and splashing Michaela. She reared back, and I could see the wolves laughing.
What had she expected?
But then she leaned over me, and we stared into each other's eyes. Then she held a sign for me. "Blink once for no, twice for yes. Understand?" I blinked twice. She looked over her shoulder, and several of the kids were holding bags of ice. She opened the hatch over my chest, and Angel bent down and opened the one near my feet. They dumped two bags of ice in with me.
I protested into the tube. Michaela held up the "surrender?" sign, and I blinked once at her, shaking my head for emphasis.
They added four more bags of ice until water was sloshing out the holes. I squirmed around, trying to escape the cold, but entirely helpless.
But I refused to surrender.
The breathing tube was simple; it was a converted snorkel, the flexible portion closest to my mouth truncated short and reattached. Even with it in my mouth, it extended several inches out the top of the box. Michaela smiled at me, then she tapped the tube. I could feel it in my mouth, but by tapping it, she drew my attention to it. Then she wrapped her fingers around the tube right near the top.
And then she plugged the end of the tube with her thumb.
I immediately made a mistake. I yelled, "No," into the tube, long and clear. With the tube plugged, I blew bubbles around the mouthpiece, emptying my lungs of air. Then when I tried to draw in air, I couldn't get any.
I immediately began to panic. I was under water, and I couldn't breathe.
She only kept her thumb in place for ten seconds or so, then she released it, and I gasped in the air, panting heavily.
She waved the 'surrender' sign at me. I shook my head. So, while I was still in a panic and panting through the tube, she covered it again.
I didn't scream out my air this time, although I didn't have an entire breath, either. She held it longer, perhaps twenty seconds, before she let me breath again.
She looked over her shoulder, talking. I couldn't make out the words. Then, nearly absentmindedly, she covered the tube again.
This time was shorter, only five seconds or so.
Michaela looked back at me, then she pointed to Scarlett, who was filming with her camera. Then someone handed her a note, and she held it for me to read.
You think I won't hurt you, but are you sure? I play to win.
I finished reading it, and then she was tapping the top of the tube. Thumb on, thumb off, thumb on, thumb off. I found myself staring at her thumb. I was staring at my life, air was life, and without it, I would die.
Then she held the 'surrender' sign again, but I wasn't going to surrender. I wasn't.
Then there was another sign.
Are you counting the seconds of no air?
I hadn't been, but I probably would now.
I watched her pull out her phone, and then she held it to her head.
She timed her thumb right at the end of an exhale, and while my lungs weren't empty, they were low.
I immediately began counting; I tried to count slowly, one-hippopotamus, two-hippopotamus.
At fifteen hippopotamuses, she held up the 'surrender' sign, but I shook my head.
Fifteen seconds of holding your breath is not a long time, when your lungs are full. But when they're empty, it's a different story. Try it. Let out all your air, and then clasp your hand over your nose and mouth and start counting hippopotamuses. Fifteen hippos of no air is hard.
/> At twenty, I truly began to panic. I began banging my feet against the box and shaking my head. But I still kept counting.
Michaela said something into the phone then held it over the box. I tried to still myself, but panic had hold of me. I banged and banged.
At thirty hippopotamuses, I began to wonder if she would win this easily.
And then she let me breathe. I took in great, gasping breaths.
Michaela held up a new sign.
If you promise to beg, this stops.
It took me a long time to calm down. She let me breath freely. I no longer noticed the cold. All I could think about was breathing. She waved the sign, and I shook my head.
She plugged it, just for a few seconds. And then she waited until I had a full breath, and she plugged it for sixty hippopotamuses. I didn't start to panic until forty-five.
I don't know how long she did that. I don't know how long I was in that box. I don't know how many times she covered the tube. I don't know how many times I banged against the sides of the box.
But I never surrendered.
Then she held up a new sign.
Big breath.
I took a deep breath and held it, and then they were unlocking the box.
* * * *
I was sobbing as soon as they pulled me from the box. I was still sobbing by the time Hadley carried me to the shower. This time, she was better prepared, and she was wearing a swimsuit. She continued to hold me in her arms for a long time, and I sobbed into her shoulder.
She made soothing noises. I would never have thought of Hadley as a soothing person, but she soothed me.
And slowly I calmed down. Even more slowly, I began to warm up. She set me on my feet, but it wasn't safe to leave me, so she stayed, helping me to stand.
Finally I said, "You're in a swim suit. I thought wolves didn't have a nudity taboo."
"I am not telling your mate I was naked in a shower with you," she explained.
"Well, for the record, you have a good figure."
She chuckled. "Thank you."
Her body was different from Portia's. She was still a werewolf, so she was very tall and clearly powerful, but she was softer at the same time.
"Why are you still single?"
"I don't suffer fools well," she said. "It would take a special person to accept the type of person I am, and most of the ones who can accept me are short on intelligence. Those who aren't get snatched up by someone else."
"You have a daughter."
"Conceived in a fashion not that dissimilar to Lara's daughters," she explained.
"So you've never..."
"Of course I have, and I've had boyfriends, some of them for a few years. But when we start to get too close, one or the other of us proves wanting, and the relationships end."
"Maybe you should try women."
"In my experience, women are smarter than men, smart enough not to put up with me."
I laughed.
"You're feeling better."
"I'm still so cold."
"We're going to get you thoroughly warmed up."
"In a good way or a bad way?"
"Perhaps both," she replied.
"Hadley, she could have beaten me. Why didn't she?"
"That was a significant step in the escalation," Hadley said. "I can't profess to know the mind of that woman, but I think she was impressed, Zoe. In spite of your clear panic, you didn't surrender."
"I would have. It was so close a few times."
"I think she knew that, too. She was watching you carefully. I believe our good alpha isn't done showing off your strengths both to your mate and to the entire pack."
"Everyone gets to see?"
She nodded. "Photos anyway, some of them. And maybe some of the video. Angel will edit them, and Michaela will decide. But you get raw copies of everything we take. You may do with them whatever you want. But would you like some advice?"
"Always."
"Keep them, but don't share them, not with anyone. Not Portia, certainly not Ember, and not the pack."
"Why that advice?"
"It's classier. Let everyone else extoll your virtues."
I thought about it and nodded.
"Hadley, I'm glad you're here."
She hugged me. "I am, too. You know, this is the first time for me."
"Really?"
"My sister didn't want me at hers. She was afraid of me, probably with cause. We didn't get along. And I haven't had close female friends around the time they were getting married. Angel, Michaela and Scarlett all have more experience with this than I do, but Michaela wanted my perspective, and she thought you would, too."
"I appreciate it."
"Michaela, Michele and I are also forgoing our share of the ransom. We don't need it, and we don't feel right taking it. I'm not sure about Angel and Scarlett. Michaela is handling that." Then she smiled. "But I get the next price for a favor."
I laughed. "Was that a hint you want me to ask for something? You could argue I owe you for helping me."
"This is part of the post-punishment recovery and doesn't involve a price."
I leaned against her briefly.
"Well, let's get you dried off."
* * * *
They dried me as best they could, using the blow driers again, and then I was wrapped back up in the plastic and carried to the sofa. They filled me with warm food and hot tea, and I sat between two warm wolves.
They even gave me a pair of slippers to wear.
The girls expressed amazement I hadn't surrendered. But when I glanced at Michaela, she was watching me with a small smile on her lips. We both knew she could have won. We nodded to each other.
I was pretty wiped out, and my emotions were rocky. I knew I wasn't going to last through many more of her punishments, even if she didn't step it up any further than she had. I think Michaela read it in the face. She declared we'd play a game of charades, but of course, I only had to sit on the sofa and guess.
She made everyone act out the most outrageous things, and she took a turn herself.
Then her phone went off.
I stared at it and sighed.
As things went, it wasn't that bad, but I ended the punishment sweating and wrung out. I didn't beg.
* * * *
We played a few more games, but my heart wasn't in it. When the timer went off, Michaela sent the girls upstairs, keeping just Hadley and Michele. They sat on either side of me while Michaela sat down in front.
"You're done in," she declared. I nodded. "I wouldn't have expected you to be this stubborn, Zoe."
"Are the cameras off?" She nodded. "I know I'm just a weak human, but I want Portia to be proud of me anyway."
"Oh honey," Michaela said. "She's already proud of you."
I looked down. "I don't think she is." I paused. "And you're still showing my strengths, aren't you?"
There was a ghost of a smile, but then she stilled her face. "You should beg now, Zoe."
"You haven't even told me what you're going to do."
"Michele, go upstairs," Michaela said. "I don't think you should watch this."
"I'll stay," Michele said.
"Suit yourself," Michaela said. "Untape her left hand." She handed Hadley the scissors. She couldn't quite reach my hand properly the way I was sitting, so I fell over onto Michele's lap, and that gave Hadley the leverage she needed.
While Hadley worked on freeing my hand, Michaela played with her phone. "I'm sending Portia the new ransom," she said. "It's quite reasonable. She'll pay if you ask her to."
"How much?"
"You know I won't tell you that, but if you ask again, I am shaving your hair."
I sighed.
"I should have made that rule earlier," she said. "Ah well."
Hadley finished freeing my hand, but Michele held me in place on her lap.
"She's going to make a mess," Michele said. "Even the wolves soil themselves when you break their fingers."
"The plastic wi
ll contain it, but if some leaks, it's an old sofa."
I looked up at Michele then over at Michaela. Then I smiled.
"You should beg, Zoe," Michaela said. "We don't want to do this, but I'm out of ideas."
"I think this is going too far, Alpha," Hadley said. "The pack doesn't require this."
"I don't care," Michaela said. "If she wants to play wolf games, we'll play wolf games with her. She should have begged two punishments ago."
She picked up the phone and made a call. "Portia, if you don't ransom your mate, we are breaking the bones in her left hand." She paused. "No. She thinks she's tougher than I am, but I am about to disabuse her of that belief." Another pause. "Portia, you really should pay this ransom." Another pause. "So be it." And she hung up.
She turned to me. "Hadley, start with one finger."
Hadley grabbed my ring finger and began to bend it backwards.
"Wait," Michaela said. "Take the ring off first."
I lay there patiently while Hadley worked the ring from my finger. My hands were a little swollen, so she had to bend down and wet my finger before she could pull the ring off. She held it up.
Michaela took it and set it aside. "We'll hang onto this for you. You should be able to wear it in a few months. Do it, Hadley."
"We both know you're bluffing," I said.
"Excuse me?"
"Does this feel like bluffing?" Hadley asked. She grabbed my finger and began to bend it. It hurt, but she didn't break it. I winced and whimpered a little.
"Agree to beg," Michaela said. "Don't make us do this, Zoe."
"Bluffing," I said.
Hadley flexed on my finger, but still didn't break it. I gasped.
"Beg for Portia to pay the ransom."
"Bluffing."
Hadley relaxed her grip but then trapped two fingers and bent them together. That hurt just as much, but if they were serious, they would have done it by now. I gasped and panted, but gritted my teeth.
"Beg, Zoe," Michaela ordered. "Look into either of the cameras and beg Portia to pay for you."
I shook my head.
Hadley relaxed her hold on my fingers, but not all the way.
"Zoe, it won't heal, not at our ages," Michele said. "You won't get full motion back. Hadley's a wolf; instinctively she doesn't understand. She would just shift once or twice and she'd be fine. Michaela doesn't even need to do that."