by Robin Roseau
"I made the world safer for my babies, Serena," I told her.
"Yes, Michaela," she said, kneeling down in front of me and caressing Celeste's head. "You did."
I looked down at Celeste and over at Rebecca, then looked at Serena again. I looked her straight in the eye. "If there remains a price I am to pay so that I may continue to keep my babies safe, I will pay it."
Serena smiled. "I know you will, Michaela. Are you going to make me proud?"
"Yes."
Omega
I sat in the living room, watching the clock, watching the minutes tick down. I had fifteen minutes to go when Angel opened the door.
"Angel," she said, announcing herself. Because people come and go in my house at all hours, I had long ago required everyone entering the house to announce herself. Doing so kept me from worrying who was in the house.
She stepped across the threshold, then I heard Scarlett announce her name.
Angel stepped past Serena and Rory, my guards for the day, and stared at me.
"Michaela!" she said. "Shift to fox and give me your throat!"
"I am not allowed to shift to fox for another-" I glanced at the clock. "Fourteen minutes. If you wish to contest my understanding of my sentence, you may bring it to the attention to the alpha."
"Damn it," she said. "Come on, Michaela, no one here is going to tattle on you."
"No way," I said. "If Lara walks in here and sees me in fur even ten seconds early, she'll give me another month. No way. These two months have sucked!"
Serena chuckled but didn't interfere.
"Fine," Angel said. She stuck out a booted foot. "Kiss my foot."
I laughed and bent down and kissed the top of her boot. At least it was clean.
"Oh, knock it off," she said. "I'm here to run with you."
I stood up and looked into her face. "You've been sweet. Unlike some people-" I glared at Rory.
"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime," Rory said.
I had worked off my fifty hours of pack service as quickly as I was able, finishing all fifty hours even before my first month of house arrest was over. Lara told Francesca and all the enforcers to assign me any tasks they wanted as long as they didn't interfere with my teaching duties. I had cooked, cleaned, washed cars, read to two elderly pack members with failing eyesight, run errands for both of them and three other elderly pack members and produced public service announcements for the pack website.
The alphas had enjoyed that one immensely.
I thought it was ridiculous to send me running errands with my protection entourage, but I did what I was assigned.
But I had also been treated with a great deal of respect. Everyone knew what I had done and why I had done it. I received quiet comments praising me for what I had done as well as how well I was taking the resulting punishment for doing it. I thanked people for the support but also told them I'd been wrong to defy the alpha.
Other than that first day, the enforcers had been gentle, although some had made a game of it. However, I mouthed off to Serena one day after a difficult day at school, and she'd had me lying on my back faster than I would have expected. I was already saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," on the way down, but she had drawn blood, and my whimpers until she released me had been real.
Lara had noted the exact time we had returned to the house in Madison. "We arrived home at 4:46 PM," she had said. "I will credit you with one week of incarceration at the Lima compound." She had consulted a calendar and declared my sentence over at exactly 4:46 PM this afternoon.
At 4:40, I turned to Serena. "Please, find out where Lara is."
"She is on her way," Serena said.
"Please, Serena," I said. "I don't dare shift until she gets here."
"Honey," Serena said. "Do you really think she'd make you wait?"
"Michaela," Scarlett said. "I need your help."
I turned to her immediately. "What's wrong?"
"It's school," she said. "It's math. I just don't get it."
"You don't get math?"
"Well, just this one problem. Will you help me?"
I glanced at the clock. "Of course, honey," I said. "Did you bring it with you?"
"Yes," she said. She unslung her book bag. She and Angel had probably come straight from school. The three of us moved to the dining room table, Scarlett and I sitting down next to each other, and Scarlett spread her books out, finding her calculus book. "I know how to do it, but it doesn't make sense. You know what I mean?"
"All right," I said. "Show me."
She opened the book, found the proper page, and pointed at one of the problems in the problem set. "It's this stuff with E," she said. "I just can't envision the formula in my head, so I can't envision whether I'm doing the problem correctly. I think I am, but I need to see it."
"Oh," I said. "Sure. You'll want to get used to E. It gets used a lot." I paused. "Well, in some sciences. I don't know so much about engineering and architecture."
Scarlett and I began discussing the problem. She showed me how to solve it, and she did it perfectly. "But I don't see it," she said.
So we talked about that. And then there was a crunch of car tires on gravel, and twenty seconds later, Lara, Karen and Elisabeth entered the house, announcing themselves. Five seconds after that, Scarlett said, "Ohh, now I get it."
I kissed her on the cheek and whispered quietly, "Thank you for the distraction. I knew that's what it was, but it still helped."
"We can run now?" Scarlett asked.
I glanced at the clock while getting up. "Two minutes." I turned to Lara. "Cutting it close."
"Sorry," she said. "Traffic."
I crossed the room to her and let her pull me into her arms. I looked around, and we were missing enforcers. "What? The rest didn't want one last opportunity to order me around?"
"I'm thinking of making that rule permanent," Lara said.
"Yes, we all know how good an idea that would be," I replied.
"Where are the girls?" Lara asked.
"Michele Lassiter took them," I said. "After I made them wolves."
Lara frowned.
"She was fox for a few seconds each only," Serena said. "She shifted back as quickly as we took a pup away."
"If it's any consolation, I outright refused Angel's order to turn fox early."
"Angel..." Lara said in a low voice.
"Hey!" Angel said. "She's not telling you everything!" She stuck her tongue out at me.
"Oh, that was mature," I said to her. Then I returned the gesture.
My phone went off, playing a portion of the William Tell Overture.
I ran to the front door and pulled it open, then stood at the threshold.
"Lara?" I asked.
"How long was she a fox, Serena?"
"Less than a minute total," Serena responded.
"Come on, Lara," I said. "Kaylee asked if they could be wolves, and Michele commented on how cute they were, and Serena said it was okay. And no way was it a full minute. It's not like I went anywhere."
"One extra minute per second she spent as fox without my permission," Lara said.
I turned around to see if she was serious. She was.
I didn't bother arguing with her. "How long, Serena?" I asked.
Serena actually went through the motions. "Maybe, I don't know. Fifteen seconds each."
It had probably been longer than that, but not egregiously longer.
"You know, Alpha, I wasn't trying to cheat. Thanks for accusing me of it. I'll be in my room." I slowly climbed the stairs, hoping the entire way Lara would tell me she was kidding.
She never said a word, and the room was quiet behind me. Serena followed me up the stairs.
I turned to face her. "Seriously?"
"Sorry," she said.
"Fine."
I stomped to my room. Serena stepped ahead of me at the last moment and did a quick scan before letting me enter.
Once I had closed the door I turned to her. "Was
she being petty?"
"I don't know," Serena replied.
"Please invite Angel and Scarlett and ask them to bring a deck of cards."
She pulled out her phone and hit a speed dial. A minute later, Angel knocked at the door then entered, Scarlett behind her.
"Lock it," I said. "A game of hearts okay?"
"Not poker?" Angel asked immediately.
I shook my head. Angel and Scarlett pulled up seats, and soon we were engrossed in the game.
"I still think we should play for something," Angel said.
"All right," I said. "The three losers have to tell an embarrassing story about themselves."
"Oh god," said Serena. "Fine."
We were all giggling upstairs for far longer than the extra thirty minutes Lara had tacked onto my sentence. I hugged everyone and thanked her for distracting me.
When we descended, the house was full. I'd been listening to people arrive, and I figured out that's why Lara had made me wait. I walked straight up to her. "You could have just said more people were coming."
"I know," she said. "I'm sorry. I was feeling playful."
Part of me wanted to remain angry, but I slipped into her arms and kissed her quickly, accepting her apology. "So, warden," I said to Lara, "have I paid my debt to society?"
"Yes, Little Fox, you have."
"Serena!" I yelled. "I am going for a ten minute run. When I get back, I expect someone to have fetched fresh tennis balls."
* * * *
I let Lara find my tennis ball. The hardest part was making it look like I had done my best to hide it.
* * * *
"Lara?" I said.
"Yes, Little Fox?"
"Do you think they heard me in Chicago?"
"You were kind of loud."
"I think I heard a picture fall off the wall downstairs."
"Are you sure that wasn't Angel snorting?"
"It may have been."
* * * *
"Lara?"
"Go to sleep, Little Fox."
"Alpha?"
Lara sat up. "Michaela?"
"Am I alpha again?"
"Yes."
I snuggled closer. "I hate to conduct business in bed, but I would like you to call a meeting of the pack council at the soonest convenience. It is not an emergency, but I do not care to wait until the next quarterly meeting."
"Is Saturday before the picnic okay?"
I smiled and kissed her neck. "Pack play night isn't for two more weeks."
"I moved it up," she said. "I hope you don't mind."
"Saturday is perfect. Please make sure Christopher West is here."
"Are you going to do anything I won't approve?"
"Not during the council meeting."
She pulled me tighter, but she didn't say anything further.
* * * *
"Lara?"
"Go to sleep!"
"I can't. Can we go for another run?"
"Is that what you really want, or are you negotiating?"
"You could let me be on top."
"What did you really want, Michaela?"
"Just hold me and tell me you'll always love me."
"Oh, Little Fox." She pulled me tighter. "I will certainly always love you."
* * * *
"Lara?"
"Oh for crying out loud."
"Do I snore?"
"No."
"Well, one of us was snoring, and if it wasn't me, it was someone other than me."
She chuckled. "Sorry."
"I like it. But if you spoon me instead, you don't snore."
"You woke me up because I was snoring?"
"No. I woke you because I wanted you to spoon me."
* * * *
I spent a significant amount of time before Saturday as fox. I'd spent two months on two feet, and I had really, really missed my fox.
I had no trouble finding people to run with me.
Saturday arrived. Lara asked me how long I needed for the council meeting. "Five minutes," I told her. "Unless there is discussion."
"We'll meet at three. If we finish early, we can start the party early."
"I will be throwing my weight around."
"All thirty pounds?"
"Yep. Will you back me up?"
"Yes."
"You're not even going to ask me about it?"
"Are you playing politics?"
"Yes."
"You're not very good at it."
"I know."
"I'll back you up."
I kissed her.
At two-forty I told Serena, "I want a full security detail on me tonight until I tell you otherwise."
"Are you expecting trouble?"
"I am making a statement. I know it's an imposition, but I want Emanuel and you. I don't care who the other two are. Leave Elisabeth free."
"It's fine."
"I'm sorry, I should have told you yesterday."
"It's fine," she said. "Let me get Emanuel here."
"I need to change," I said. I paused. "You will not interfere in what I do tonight, and you will know when I need you to back off. That's part of the statement I am making."
"Will you tell me first?"
"No."
"Is Lara going to be angry?"
"No. I don't think so. Maybe. I don't know. I'm doing it anyway."
She sighed. "Is there going to be another hearing?"
"No."
At ten minutes to three I told her, "I am going to the meeting with whatever detail is assembled. You'll have a little time to collect the rest, but probably not much." I headed for the door without waiting for her, but she caught up to me and preceded me out the door. Emanuel and Rory were waiting. "I'll collect Angel-"
"No. She isn't experienced enough for this. Is Eric available?"
She nodded. "I'll get him while you're in the meeting."
We headed for the barracks via the school. From my office I collected a manila folder. Arriving at the barracks we found Gia and Karen guarding the door to the council chamber. The doors were open, allowing entrance. My security detail peeled off at the doorway. I turned to them. "I do not expect this meeting to last long unless someone else brings something up.
"Yes, Alpha," Serena said immediately.
I caressed her check and accepted touches from all the wolves there before I brushed past them and into the council chambers.
About half the council had already arrived. Lara and Elisabeth were quietly talking to a few council members. Elisabeth immediately detached herself and drew me to one side. "What's going on?"
"You'll see. Is there wagering?"
She laughed. "No. Should I be worried?"
"I may be doing something very foolish, but I think it's the right thing to do."
"Is Lara going to be angry?"
"Serena asked the same question. She's going to be surprised. She may object. If so, she'll convince everyone else to her side instead of mine, and that's fine. I expect you to vote with her when it gets to a vote, but if you agree with me, I hope you will argue for me."
"Michaela, I always vote my conscience, regardless of Lara's opinion."
"And yet, I have never seen you vote in council contrary to Lara's wishes."
"That's because she's always right."
I laughed. "I might be wrong this time, but even if I am, I will make a statement."
"Are you about to challenge Christopher West?"
"Why, Elisabeth, I am Omega. I am not allowed to challenge anyone."
"Except, apparently, members of other packs."
"Well, I'm not their Omega." I licked my lips. "Head enforcer, I will require fifteen seconds of your time with the alpha immediately after the meeting, and I mean immediately, prior to any of the council members leaving the building."
"Yes, Alpha," she said immediately.
At three, Lara called the meeting to order. We had a quorum, barely, and Mr. West was in attendance.
"Michaela asked for this meeting," Lara
said. "She promised to be brief."
I stood up, opened the manila folder, and slid a single sheet of paper to Lara. She read it and said, "No!" in a firm voice.
"Yes," I said. "I insist."
"No," Lara said again.
"Read it. Open it for discussion. I will accept the council's decision."
Lara looked at the paper and began reading. "As Michaela Burns, Omega Fox and Madison Alpha, has demonstrated her competence in single combat, her status as Omega is rescinded."
"I'm sorry if that's phrased poorly," I said. "If there is better phrasing, I am happy with that."
"This is foolish," Lara said immediately. "For all the reasons we offered you Omega two years ago."
"No one in the pack is going to mess with me," I said. "I play for keeps, so petty games aren't going to happen or someone will find silver between his ribs."
"You could be challenged when you don't have your knives."
"Frankly, Lara, no one would dare. They would have to kill me, because they would know the instant I got my hands on my knives, I'd turn around and kill them. And if they kill me, you'll kill them. Or Elisabeth will. I can handle anything else."
"This is foolish," Lara said again.
"Maybe," I said. "But I believe it is wrong for me to hide behind the shield of Omega when I am clearly capable of defending myself against virtually all challengers. Even you."
She sighed. "Discussion?"
"I think it's a great idea," Christopher said immediately. God, what an idiot.
"That's an argument for Lara's position," Vivien said too quietly for anyone but me to hear.
Discussion lasted about ten minutes, and Lara didn't raise any further objections. I leaned over to her and said, "If you ask, I'll withdraw my motion."
"I don't like it," she said. "But you're probably right. We'll let it go to a vote, if this is what you really want."
"It is," I said.
She reached down and clasped my hand.
In the end, Lara abstained. The motion passed unanimously.
"Is there other business?" Lara asked. There wasn't. "We are adjourned," she said.
"Alpha, head enforcer, I require a brief conference immediately. And I mean immediately."
I didn't wait. I grabbed Lara's hand and began pulling her towards the door, making sure we got there before anyone else did, Elisabeth on our heels. I led them out the chambers and down the stairs. "Serena, give us privacy," I said on my way past.