by Robin Roseau
The adoring look she gave Celeste warmed my heart. I thought back and realized she never played with the pups. She looked up at my inquiring look.
"The girls all want to play with them so much," she said. "I haven't had a chance to even change a diaper, much less hold a pup."
"Oh Karen," I said. "You should have said something." I handed her Celeste, then unbuttoned my blouse. I needed close skin to skin contact, but with the babies, I didn't necessarily need to be naked. Once I was ready, I took Celeste back from her, slipped her out of her clothes, and pulled her wolf to the forefront. After a moment, I had a squirming wolf pup licking my fox face. Karen reached forward and pulled Celeste into her arms.
Celeste didn't want to cuddle; she wanted to play. I shifted back to human and said, "They're both always rambunctious when I make them pups," I explained. "Maybe you want to play on the floor with them. They like to chase wolf tails."
Karen smiled and set Celeste onto the floor. I took an already naked Rebecca from Lara and pulled out her wolf, then Lara set her on the floor as well.
The two sisters immediately began to play together. Karen stripped out of her clothes and began her own shift. I curled into Lara and sighed happily while watching the girls play. A few minutes later, Karen finished her shift. The girls saw her and immediately hid from her.
"They like to play hide and seek," I told Karen. "You get a half a point each time you catch one; they get a point every time they pounce on your tail."
Karen chuffed and went sniffing around the room for the pups. She found Rebecca; they weren't very good at hiding after all. But rather than catching her, she turned her back and sat down, sniffing for Celeste. Rebecca paused a moment then leapt on Karen's tail, grabbing hold and hanging on. Karen turned around to catch her, but Rebecca held onto the tail and was dragged around on the floor, snarling fiercely. Three circles later, and Celeste burst from her hiding space, overshooting the tail but then having her sister dragged over her. She ran after the tail, and Karen let her catch it.
Elisabeth, Lara and I watched in amusement as Karen played with the puppies until finally they both fell over on their sides, exhausted. Karen nuzzled them for a moment, then pushed them together into a little pile and wrapped around them on the floor, sharing her warmth with them. She looked up at us as she laid her head on the floor.
"We'll need to feed them before they sleep," Lara said. "And I am not feeding them as wolf pups."
"Sharp teeth," I said.
"Yeah."
Karen huffed and wrapped around the pups for a moment longer, but then she pulled away, and I collected Celeste from her. I returned her into her human form and gave her to Lara, then repeated the process with Rebecca. Karen began shifting back into human as well while the babies ate their before bedtime meal.
Later, Lara let me pamper her in bed, giving her a thorough, although quiet orgasm. She kissed me afterwards, licking her own taste from my mouth, and we cuddled together, my head resting on her shoulder. We murmured softly at each other, and I thought Lara would sleep, but then she gathered my hands in one of hers, and I caught a smile in the dim light.
"Oh no," I said. "I feel really good right now, Lara."
She giggled. "You're going to feel even better very soon, Little Fox."
And I did.
* * * *
What do you get for a wolf who has everything?
I spent months agonizing over what to get Elisabeth and Lara. In the end, they ended up with similar presents.
I used the photo of Elisabeth's and Lara's mother as a young wolf and found a sculptor who could make a ceramic replica. I then used the same photo as well as one I got from Francesca of their mother when she was older, and I found a painter who did a painting of the human wolf with her hand on the furry wolf.
Then I agonized over which of them got which. In the end, I gave the painting to Lara and the sculpture to Elisabeth. I made the decision based upon one simple fact: my house with Lara had little room for sculptures but there was artwork on the walls I was willing to relocate.
I bought something for each enforcer, but Serena's was special. I went back to the jeweler who had done my fox earrings, carrying photos of Serena's children, Alan, Jeremy and Kaylee, in their wolf. I had gotten them all to pose for me and given the jeweler all the photos I had. Included were individual photos as well as a group shot so he could see relative sizes. The hardest part was getting photos that looked like natural wolves. He made a pendant necklace using the wolves as inspiration.
Scarlett and Angel were just as hard. They would have been perfectly happy with clothes or electronics, but I wanted something more unique than that. I considered artwork and jewelry. In the end, I bought Scarlett a set of fountain pens in different sizes. Angel received two gifts. The first was a book titled, "The Architect's Companion," which was designed to help her learn a little more about Scarlett's job. And then I bought her a high quality paddle to replace the inexpensive one she had purchased when she bought her kayak.
For the babies, I bought a Christmas ornament each, clothes, and a few toys for them to play with.
We started out Christmas morning. Lara wanted to exchange presents in the bedroom, but I told her I wanted to include Elisabeth when we exchanged. "Unless that's something naughty," I said, gesturing with my nose to the package she was holding.
She smiled and assured me Elisabeth already knew what it was.
I texted Angel. "Awake?" I sent a similar message to Serena. They were both awake, so I asked Serena to call Angel and arrange a time at their earliest convenience to come to our cabin. "Bring Francesca and Gia as well, please."
She called back ten minutes later and said, "We're on the way."
Lara had just finished feeding the babies when there was a knock. Everyone trooped in and exchanged greetings. I hadn't told Lara I was doing this, but she smiled when she saw everyone come in.
Karen was the head of Lara's security team, and Lara had a gift for her. I then gave Serena her gift. She loved it, and I got a hug and a kiss from her. "Thank you so much for looking out for me," I told her.
Angel was puzzled by the book, but Scarlett took one look through it and whispered into her ear an explanation. Angel beamed, but I think she liked the paddle more. Scarlett loved her pens.
We finished passing out gifts to Francesca and Gia and accepted a few for ourselves. The babies received far more, not having a clue what the fuss was about, but when asked to make them into pups, I readily obliged.
I handed Lara and Elisabeth their presents at the same time. Elisabeth opened hers first. The older wolves grew quiet as she pulled it out. Serena and Francesca recognized the wolf, of course.
"It's a wolf," Angel said.
"Not just any wolf," Francesca said quietly. "Elisabeth, that's your mother."
"I know," she said quietly. She stared at it, and I saw tears slide down her cheeks. I'd never seen Elisabeth cry before. Francesca started to tear up as well, and Lara had grown very quiet. Elisabeth looked at me and said, "It's amazing, Michaela. Thank you so much." She pulled me into her arms and held me for a while.
Lara didn't open her present until Elisabeth had released me. I had boxed it carefully and told her, "Be gentle with this." She opened the box and unwrapped it carefully.
"Mom," she said quietly when she saw what it was. I watched as she brushed the painting with her fingers. She turned to me, not able to speak.
"I hope it's okay," I said.
"It's wonderful, Little Fox," Lara replied. She pulled me into a hug, holding the painting by the frame while hugging me.
Other gifts were exchanged. Lara gave me my present last. Nestled inside was a hand written book titled, "Traditions and Customs of the Madison Weres". I pulled it out, giggling, and began paging through it. It was written in Lara's careful hand, and there were illustrations on many of the pages.
"Everyone helped by reminding me of different traditions," Lara explained. "Scarlett did the illustrations
."
"We'll still let you know about any that are coming up," Angel said. "But there are little customs and traditions that we may not normally think about because they're so automatic to us."
"I love it," I said. "Thank you, Lara!" I pulled her into a hug and kissed her.
"I wanted to give you something you couldn't get anywhere else," she whispered into my ear.
"It's perfect," I told her. "I love you so much."
It was a wonderful Christmas.
"What are we doing now?" Angel asked.
"Well," said Lara. "We-" she stressed the word. "Are doing whatever the fox wants to do. You," she gestured at everyone else, "and your families are free to celebrate with your normal traditions or join us as you most prefer."
* * * *
Lara and I made dinner. We kept it simple but ample, accepting help only at the end when it was time to serve. It probably all would have been better if Francesca had made it, but it was important to Lara and me that we do it. I think everyone appreciated our efforts, and everyone ate with a hearty appetite.
Over dinner, I passed out the rest of the presents I had, receiving a few myself. The enforcers gave me a DVD of "The Fox and The Hound," which was worth quite a few laughs. And my students had a carefully constructed white board eraser with a long handle that I could use to reach the top of the board at school.
"It comes with a guarantee we won't ever hide it," Derek promised.
"But that doesn't mean we won't put it out of your reach," Lily added.
Dinner wrapped up, and everyone helped to make quick work of cleanup. Francesca tsked at the state of the kitchen, but it didn't take long to clean everything up.
"All right," Lara said when the place was spick and span. "Bonfire and stories."
"Baby wolves!" insisted Lily. "Bring out the pups!"
* * * *
Three nights later, it was my night to make a game. We moved to pack territory after dinner and had several fires going before I explained the game.
"Okay, everyone partner up. If you're in a relationship, you have a partner." We had an odd number of people, and Gia was shy about picking a partner, finding herself odd woman out. I asked her if she would be the referee for the first game. "We'll rotate you in for the next game," I told her.
"Now, we need to make teams." I ran around counting one-two, one-two, assigning each couple to a team. Lara and I were on team one.
"All right, here's what we're going to do. One team is the kidnappers. Each pair of partners will pick one half of a couple from the other team and kidnap that person. You have ten minutes to hide. The remaining partner has thirty minutes to find his or her partner. You must not cluster together. If you can see or hear another of your teammates, you are too close together."
"This will be easy," Lara said.
"Now, to make it more difficult, once you have hidden your kidnap victim, you are allowed to tag searchers. But you may not tag the person searching for your victim. So, for instance, if Lily and Jeremy kidnap me, then they can tag any of the searchers on my team except Lara."
"Kidnap victims, you are not allowed to make any voluntary noises. You are not allowed to actively resist your kidnappers. However, you may passively resist."
"What does that mean?" Kaylee asked.
I whispered to Lara, "Try to drag me away, but let me resist." Lara immediately began pulling on my arm.
"Help, help!" I yelled, trying to tug away.
"That would be actively resisting," Serena said.
Then I went limp and sat on the ground. Lara picked me up and began to carry me away.
"And that is passive resistance," Serena said.
Lara set me back down.
"You must guard your prisoner," I said. "Stay within ten yards. But if anyone comes close, you can capture them by touching them. At the end of the game, you get five points if you still have your kidnap victim and one point for any searchers you catch. The game is over when thirty minutes elapses, all kidnap victims are found, or any remaining searchers have been caught. If you tag a searcher, that searcher should howl briefly twice. Gia, you will keep track."
She nodded.
"The team captain for the kidnappers will howl the start. Gia will howl at nine minutes to give everyone one minute warning, and then at ten minutes. At ten minutes, you must put your prisoner down and not make that person move any further. Gia will howl one long howl when the game is over."
I looked around. "Any questions?"
"Stay on pack lands," Lara said immediately. "And do not mistreat your prisoners."
"Can we go in fur?" Scarlett asked.
"Yes," I said. "Anyone except prisoners may shift to fur once the game starts, if they wish. But you must wait until the game starts."
"Who picks who gets kidnapped?"
"Partners will hold hands up like this," I said, raising Lara's hand. "And kidnappers pick either partner."
"Who goes first?" Lara asked.
"Team Two, do you want to be kidnappers or prisoners first?"
They gathered together, huddled up, then turned to us. "We'll kidnap first."
"We'll play one game and then see how it goes," I said. "Any more questions?"
I answered a few more questions, making up rules on the spot, and suddenly everyone was ready.
"Okay, Team One," I said. I lifted Lara's hand into the air. As soon as it looked like all the team one partners were ready, I said, "Whenever you're ready, Team Two."
Team Two conferred for a moment. Emanuel gave a quick howl, starting the clock. Emanuel and Serena made a beeline for Lara and me. They pulled Lara and me away from everyone else, each of them clasping one of my arms. Serena asked, "Side wager?"
"What do you want?" Lara asked.
"If your searcher fails to free our prisoner, then we want summer jobs for Alan and Jeremy," Emanuel said. "If your searcher finds the prisoner, then we'll take the pups one night a week for a year."
Lara laughed and looked at me. I nodded, and she agreed to the wager.
"Don't let anyone else tag you, Lara," I pointed out.
But they dropped my arms and immediately grabbed Lara. "We're taking you, Lara."
Lara's expression was priceless, but she started laughing. "Do me proud, Little Fox," she said.
I was pretty surprised. I was expecting Lara to search for me. Serena and Emanuel picked Lara up, one arm and one leg each, and began running away with her towards the north. As soon as they were gone, I threw my jacket off, loosened my clothing, and shifted straight to fox. I kept my ears tuned to them the entire time.
I had to admit, Team Two had been very clever. The entire team headed north along the same path, which would obscure scent tracks and was making it more difficult for me to track Serena and Emanuel.
I listened carefully, and they all ran north for four minutes before individual teams began peeling off to the left and right. I completely lost track of which team was Emanuel and Serena. When Gia howled the nine minute warning, there was a scrambling for hiding places, and I had a fairly good idea where most of the teams were hiding. I heard two prisoners mutter: Donald Lassiter got slapped in the face with a tree branch, and Faith Simpson's kidnappers dropped her. I immediately told Michele where to find her husband and Brendon where to find his wife. "But be careful, they didn't split up as much as I thought they should."
I was actually a little unhappy with what they had done. They had traveled all on the same path, obscuring their separate tracks, and one team had set up right on the back trail of all the other teams.
I caught a few more voices, a few coughs, a few sneezes, but not a single sound from Lara, Emanuel or Serena. Still, every sound I picked up was one team I could eliminate.
Gia howled the ten minute mark and said, "Go, Team One."
I ran to the left. I was going to do a big loop of each hiding group that I hadn't identified. I knew I could find each team just from the sounds of their breathing, if I got within forty yards, which was outsi
de their range to capture me. And I thought I could identify Lara's breathing separate from anyone else's.
While there were a lot of us playing, the way things were broken up, there were only 11 teams on each side. The first group I found consisted of Scarlett as the prisoner, captured by Edward and Iris. Edward and Iris were talking to Scarlett and didn't seem to be shushing her, so I decided that was legal. It also made it easy to avoid them.
I discovered Elisabeth next. She and Karen had taken June. They were being very quiet, with June stuffed under a pine tree. I had to get very close; I heard Elisabeth's heartbeat and breathing, but needed to get close enough to verify it wasn't Lara. Elisabeth was in fur, crouched in the snow, and she was watching me approach. I only saw her ears and nose, not enough to have eliminated Lara, but I was pretty sure Lara wouldn't have shifted into fur, so I backed away. And that's when Elisabeth huffed her displeasure. If I had gotten any closer, she could have pounced on me. I soon as I heard the huff, I was sure it was Elisabeth.
Benny got caught by Lily and Jeremy. Michele found Donald, and Brendon found Faith. I heard wolves huffing severe displeasure and howling; the team that was camped out on everyone else's back trail was catching them, but I didn't hear any voices, so I couldn't identify the team in question.
I did a circle of all the other camps, and was halfway around before logic kicked in.
Serena knew I tracked by sound. She knew all the wolves tracked by scent. When I track, I don't follow the trail left behind by my prey. I wouldn't follow the wolves' trail; I would make my own. In other words, I would do exactly what I was doing, following around the edges, looking for them.
The wolves, on the other hand, would all follow the scent trails, taking them directly into anyone on the back trail. And Serena and Emanuel could catch anyone except me.
I huffed my displeasure, weaved my way through the other hidden teams, and approached the team set up in the middle. I got close enough to hear heartbeats, and there were a lot of them. I couldn't separate them out. I looked, but I couldn't find either Emanuel or Serena.
I let logic make my decision. I stepped right into the middle of all the wolves. I found Serena and Emanuel hunkered down in the snow next to each other; they both watched me.