by Robin Roseau
As the food settled in, I began to calm down.
“All right,” I said. “Maybe I was just a tiny bit over-protective.”
“Just a bit,” Angel said. “But we love you for it.”
I looked around. “Gia may I have my weapons now?”
“Alpha, if you insist, I will give them to you. But you are still a little wild around the eyes. Will you let your enforcers protect your mate?”
“If I finish calming down, may I have my weapons?”
“Yes. Maybe once you’ve napped a little more.”
I looked at Angel, and she nodded.
After a while, Lara came downstairs, Elisabeth at her side. She stepped into the kitchen, and I ran to her, making sure she was okay.
“You know,” Lara said. “This is kind of funny. Honey, now I understand how I make you feel.”
I kissed her quickly. “Are the babies okay?”
“Yes, honey,” she said.
“Maybe we shouldn’t let them take us. It sounded like a long drive. Away from the hospital.”
“Honey, that is insulting,” she said. “Do you think I am too weak for my body to protect our growing young?”
I stared into her eyes. “The pregnant one is supposed to be the unreasonable one.”
She laughed.
“I want some food,” Lara said. “Then I believe there is a kidnapping.”
“Yes,” said Elisabeth.
I hovered nervously while Lara ate. “I wasn’t this crazy before,” I said.
“Stress,” Lara said between bites. “It gets me, too. I am more used to dealing with the protective instincts, so I cover it better.”
I leaned against her back, then pulled away. “I didn’t hurt them, did I?”
No one was stupid enough to laugh.
I leaned against Lara, breathed in her scent. She smelled right. She looked right. My friends were here. I took deep breaths and analyzed my own body.
“Oh hell,” I said. “I have a month’s worth of adrenalin pumping through me. I need a beer and twenty minutes. Can we wait?”
“Yes,” said Elisabeth. “Clever solution.”
Francesca handed me a beer. I drank it straight down and asked for a second one. I chugged that. Then I asked, “I don’t ever drink that much. Will that make me go to the bathroom?”
“Takes four for me,” said Elisabeth. “But you’re smaller.”
“Give me one more,” I said. And I slammed that and hiccupped.
It didn’t take too long before I felt a need. I let it build. “Elisabeth, I am counting on you to defend my mate!”
“She is safe,” Elisabeth said. “I promise.”
“No one enters or leaves,” I said. “I will be listening. I can hear all your heartbeats.”
Then I went to the bathroom. I sat in place, then I started pushing the adrenalin through my system, and with it the alcohol that was in my bloodstream. I forced it all to join the urine I was producing, and then I released it all.
Ahh, that felt better.
When I was done, I took several deep breaths. Much better.
I got up, cleaned up, and headed for the kitchen. I checked on Lara with my eyes, verified all was safe, and said calmly. “So.” I held my arms out and closed my eyes.
I felt hands on me, hands on my arms first, and Angel’s voice. “Are you sure?”
“Lara walks, Elisabeth guards, and do not separate us. Yes, I am sane now or as sane as I am going to be for some time.”
And with that, they lifted a giggling fox into the air and carried me behind my mate to the car.
Surprise
We used the limousine. The extra enforcers took an SUV to follow us. I checked Lara carefully once we were in the car. I wanted to sit next to her, but I let them separate us to opposite seats.
“If you decide to nap, you can cuddle together,” Angel said. “But we have games to play if you want to stay awake.”
“She’ll sleep,” Lara said. “She’s on the edge of crashing.”
I nodded.
“All right,” Angel said. “But we’re blindfolding you.”
I let Scarlett wrap my hair in a scarf. Angel pulled a blindfold in place, and then they taped it there. From the sounds, Lara was treated similarly.
“Lara?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Relax, little fox.”
“You may go to her now,” Angel said. I crossed to Lara’s side of the limousine. We were in the middle with Elisabeth on the outside and Angel was beside me. Scarlett, Ava, Sophia and Abigail sat on the other side. Gia and Michele were up front, Gia driving.
I curled into Lara, one hand on her tummy. She leaned against Elisabeth, I leaned against Lara, and I curled my feet up, tucking them under Angel’s legs.
I dozed a little while they talked quietly around me. Lara was quiet too, and when I woke, I could tell she was sleeping soundly.
“Angel,” I said. “I know you want to sit with Scarlett.”
“We’re fine,” she said. “We’re playing footsie.”
“Footsie?”
“Yes. Scarlett has a blanket over her lap, and my toes are currently trying to unzip something.”
“Angel!” Scarlett said. “Don’t believe her, she’s lying.”
“So whose zipper did I hear a few minutes ago?”
“No way did you hear that,” she said.
Lara stirred. “Go back to sleep, fox,” she said.
I dozed, then slept. But when we came to a stop, I was awake instantly. My hands flew to my forearms, but there were no daggers strapped there.
“Shhh,” said Angel, clasping my hands. “Just swapping drivers.”
Soon we were moving again, and I slept.
I woke later, and there was quiet talking. Lara was awake and shifting uncomfortably.
“Lara needs a bathroom break,” I said.
“Coming up to one,” Elisabeth said. “Will you trust me to protect her?”
“If you take all the enforcers with you,” I said.
“Karen stays with you,” she said. “Five of us will be enough.”
“All right.”
We pulled off the highway we were on, crunched on some gravel, and then sat in the car for a while. “Serena is getting the key,” Elisabeth explained. Then, “All right. We have all the enforcers surrounding the car. I will get out first. Ava, you will help the alpha step out. Everyone else stays here until Lara is back. Then if anyone else needs to go, you may.”
No one else did, so the break was short. I clutched at Lara and verified she was fine, which brought a chuckle from her.
“Just remember this, Michaela,” she said. “Just remember.”
“Yeah, but I’ll calm down,” I said. “You never will.”
A minute later, we were on the road. “What time is it?” I asked.
“Not telling,” said Angel. “You have no idea how long you slept, which means you don’t know how far we’ve driven.”
“Brat.”
“True.”
“All right, how about this? How much longer?”
“Ninety minutes,” Elisabeth said after a pause. “Or so.”
“Lara, did you want to sleep?”
“They said something about games,” Lara said.
We played a word game. We were all given two small objects, a six-sided die and a marble, both made from wood. Then the game was simple. Someone would say a word and offer the definition. We would each move one of the objects into our hand, hiding it. No object meant it was a made up word. The die meant it was a real word but the wrong definition. The marble meant the right definition. The person who picked the word then said which it was, and then we displayed which item we were holding. Disputes involved looking them up.
Sophia kept score.
It was a silly game. People knew the craziest words, and most of the time I didn’t have a clue if they were lying or not. I guessed randomly. When my turn came around, I used biology terms, and I made sure I used terms I had
n’t taught the kids. I named a type of scum that grows on ponds, then I named a type of seaweed. I gave scientific and common names on each. Both were true. After that, when my turn came around, I lied or told the truth haphazardly. Only once or twice did people absolutely know whether I was making up words or not, and the rest of the time, they were guessing.
Lara was the winner with Scarlett a close second. I was a distant last. It made me feel ignorant. “You guys know all these words,” I said eventually. “I don’t know any of them. I just know scientific words.”
Angel giggled. “You’ve never played this game before, I bet. We have. All of us have gone out of the way to learn weird words no one ever uses.”
I laughed. “All right, I won’t feel too bad.”
The game ended when Elisabeth declared, “Time for the headphones.”
Angel fitted me. Elisabeth did Lara. Before they turned on the music, Angel said, “We have another game. It’s really silly. One of us will touch you, somewhere on your bare skin. You will say who it is. If you get it right, we’ll caress your cheek. We’ll alternate between the two of you. Did you two want to wager on which of you wins?”
“A backrub,” Lara offered.
“All right. Whoever wins will get a backrub from one of us,” Angel said.
“I meant I’d give her one,” Lara said.
“Too bad, this is my game, my rules.”
Lara laughed. “All right.”
The music turned on. As soon as it started, they all scrambled around from their seats. I could tell by smell that Ava had moved to my left, but I didn’t know where anyone else was. Not once did I know who touched me, and I resorted to guessing. I lost the game badly, but I knew Lara needed the backrub.
It was clear when we entered a town. The car drove more slowly and made turns and stops. Eventually we came to a stop and didn’t start moving right away.
After a few minutes, the door opened. I could feel it. I felt as people began to exit the car, then Lara pulled away from me slowly. I clutched at her, but she patted my hands and stepped out. I followed her immediately, someone guiding me. Then they put my hand in Lara’s. Someone clutched my other arm, and I leaned over to smell Scarlett. Then we were pulled forward.
We walked up some stairs and into a house. We navigated through the house, and then we were back outside.
Someone moved in front of me, and then my face was caressed before I felt familiar scissors cutting the tape over the blindfold. The tape was removed first, a hand holding the blindfold in place. Then I was hugged, Angel first, then Elisabeth, then each of the other women. After the hugs, Lara and I were urged slowly forward a little further, and my hand was placed on a wooden railing. We stepped forward until we were leaning against the railing.
Then, at the same time, the music was turned off, the ear buds pulled out of my ears, and the blindfold raised from my eyes.
I blinked in the bright morning light.
We were standing on a wooden deck. Out in front of us, but below, were the tops of trees. I realized we were near the top of a hill. And beyond the trees, I saw the Apostle Islands.
I glanced at Lara. She looked confused. “We’re in Bayfield,” I said. “Well, just north of it. That’s Lake Superior.”
I turned around. We were at someone’s house, a large, beautiful house. The women were watching us carefully while smiling broadly. I looked around, and I recognized my outdoor furniture from my house in Bayfield. I’d left everything there when I’d given the house to the enforcers last year. It all looked cheap compared to the grand house.
I looked at Elisabeth, then Angel, and they couldn’t have looked more pleased with themselves.
I started to cry.
Lara didn’t understand yet.
“You rented a house for the week?” she asked.
“No, Lara. They didn’t rent it. They bought it. And I think they’re giving it to us.”
“Technically,” Elisabeth said. “It belongs to the pack and is held for the alphas. But yes.”
“Everyone in the pack chipped in. Some more than others,” Angel said.
“The council bought the land across the road,” Elisabeth explained. “It connects all the way to the rest of our property out of town. As long as you cross the roads carefully, you can run from here all the way there, the whole way on pack land.”
“It is fairly isolated,” Karen said. “There are no immediate neighbors, and we’ve been doing everything we can to buy all the immediate land.”
“Vivian bought the parcel to the north,” Elisabeth said. “Dominick has the piece south of us. All told, pack owns almost three quarters of a mile of lake front.”
“Michaela,” said Angel. “We know you miss the water. Even being at the lands Lara bought, while good, wasn’t the same.”
“We wouldn’t have done this without the connection to the land Lara bought.”
Lara turned to her sister. “You’ve been snatching up the land I’ve been trying to buy!”
Elisabeth grinned. “Yes.”
“No way did you have this kind of money,” Lara said.
“I was tired of running the grocery stores,” she said. “I sold them. And I am about to sell the shares I just won from you when she cried.”
“Have the enforcers searched the house?” I asked.
“Before we let you out of the car,” Elisabeth said.
“Then I want a tour. But first.” I grabbed Angel into a hug, then Elisabeth and all the rest. “Thank you.” I started crying again. “Is there access to the water?”
“Yes,” Elisabeth said. “Over the hill, but you need to ask the owner.”
“Who?”
“Me, as soon as I sell the rest of the grocery stores. But today we’ll drive to Bayfield to go kayaking.”
“Angel, may I have a tour?”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me away. Elisabeth took Lara. They went in one direction; we went in another, Scarlett following behind.
The house was rustic, in keeping with its environment, and huge. The kitchen was amazing. “Mom designed it,” Angel said. The living room had an amazing view of the lake. Also on the main floor was a generous bathroom and two offices, side by side, one clearly for me, one for Lara.
“We gave her the lake view, because when she sits in there, she’ll see the lake you love and think of you. We gave you the side facing the woods so you’ll see the woods and think of her.”
Downstairs was a recreation room and two bedrooms plus utility room, laundry, and storage. “This area belongs primarily to the enforcers,” Angel explained. “Which isn’t to say you can’t come down, but we wanted a place they would be comfortable. We let them design as a group what they wanted and how to decorate it.”
I started to cry again, and got pulled into a three-way hug.
Finally they pulled me upstairs. There was a loft over the living room with a place to sit and talk or read. Beside it was a large closet. “Those of us who will be here a lot may keep things here,” Angel explained. “We’ll put names on the space we’re claiming. Scarlett and I have claimed this space.” They had a section of built in dressers and an area for clothes to be hung up. I recognized Angel’s clothes from my house and more clothes I decided belonged to Scarlett.
“There is a large garage with our outdoor gear,” she said. “The kayaks are there with the wet suits, fishing gear, etc. We bought more gear, too. It’s kind of full.”
They pulled me out of the room. “When we’re here, this is my room and Scarlett’s,” Angel said. We stepped into a bedroom, and I recognized some of the decorations. “When we’re not here, it belongs to whomever needs it. That’s why are clothes are in the communal area, so you can have other guests, and they don’t think they’re taking someone’s personal space.”
Elisabeth had a room the same way.
There were two more bedrooms, not necessarily assigned to anyone in particular.
Back in the hallway we encountered Elisabeth with Lara
. We were pointed to the door at the end of the hall. “Go on,” Angel said. “You know what that is.”
We stepped forward together and opened the doors.
It wasn’t as big as our room at the compound, but it was beautiful, with a lovely view of the lake and another of the woods. The furniture was new, and there were two closets and a bathroom.
Lara wasn’t saying anything, but she was clearly stunned. “You hate it,” I told her.
“Oh god, no,” she said. “I can’t believe they did this. The entire pack did this. Those three organized it, you can see from their expressions. I don’t know how they did it behind our backs. But the entire pack helped. I recognize the architect they used, and the designer. I recognize some of the furniture. The entire pack did this, honey.”
“I know.”
Angel, Scarlett and Elisabeth gave us a moment then followed us in.
“Yes,” Elisabeth said. “The entire pack did this.”
“Whose closet is whose?” I asked.
Angel looked confused, but Scarlett smiled. She stepped to one of the closets. “This one is the alpha’s.”
She opened the door, and some of my clothes were there along with some of Lara’s.
Angel smiled and walked to the other closet. “And this isn’t a closet.” She opened the door, and the room inside was equipped as a large nursery.
I stepped forward, dragging Lara behind me. We stepped into the nursery. It was already well equipped with two cribs, a changing table, a place for a mother to sit and nurse her babies, and the other things a new mother might need.
“Did you know?” I asked.
“No,” said Elisabeth. “But it was only a matter of time.”
We stepped back into our bedroom, and I pulled Lara to the view. She was still very quiet, and I didn’t understand. “What’s wrong?” I asked her. “You don’t like it, but now you don’t know what to do.”
“No, honey,” she said. “I wanted to do this for you, but I couldn’t afford it without liquidating some of my businesses, and they’re how I pay for all the things an alpha has to pay for.”
“Is that because you put the pack first, when you bought all that other land?”