by Robin Roseau
"Did she really earn that?" David asked.
"Technically I owe her at least five hundred, too," Elisabeth said. She slipped me two hundred. I thanked her.
"You were telling them both how to play?" David asked.
"Only against Janice. What a bitch."
* * * *
That night, Lara shared her bed with me, but we still weren't sharing bodies. "Lara, am I hurting you politically by playing games with them?"
"No. I will tell you if you're meeting anyone who I need you to impress."
I snuggled in against her back.
"Was that true what you said about your hearing?"
"No."
We lay quietly for a while. "How good is your hearing?" She asked it quietly, but loud enough a wolf would have heard."
"What did you say?" I asked her.
"Nothing," she said.
I slept well.
* * * *
Lara had to travel over the weekend, so we didn't see each other, but she sent June for me for poker night the next week. I asked Lara not to play, and only stayed for ninety minutes. Janice was winning when we left. Elisabeth was sad to see us go.
* * * *
The replacement measuring station arrived the following Monday. I called Lara immediately. "I need you," I told her.
She laughed. "It's about time."
"The measuring station arrived. You made me promise to call you. I will happily take guards when I replace it, but I think they should be subtle. Make it look like we have a date, and you and your enforcers rode along just to see what I did for a living."
"We can come tomorrow morning," Lara offered.
"I was hoping you'd let me play cards on Wednesday."
"Have we created a monster?"
I laughed. "Maybe. Who is afraid of the big bad fox?"
"You know, even the best players have bad luck nights. You could lose your money."
"I know. But I figure I'd be playing with Janice's money, anyway."
She laughed. "Try not to give it back to her. So we should fly up Wednesday morning?"
"Tuesday night?"
"Can you handle us overnight?"
"Sure. Bring people I know. But the spare bedroom only had a pullout couch, and it would be cozy for two wolves."
"We'll make do," she said. "See you about eight."
"I'll have food if someone else can grill it."
* * * *
I met them at the airport, taking my car. By now I recognized the planes, but when three planes landed, one after another, I was puzzled. I was only expecting one, or at most, two.
Lara, David and Elisabeth climbed out of the first plane. June, Eric, and a female I didn't recognize got out of the second. Rory and two males I didn't know got out of the third. I stared at all the wolves. Too many wolves.
Lara left taking care of the planes to everyone else and walked over to where I was standing. Instead of looking at her, I stared at all the wolves. She didn't say anything but pulled me into her arms and pulled my head against her chest. "Breath. Safe, Michaela. I'm here."
I breathed in her scent and felt better.
"I don't have room for that many," I said. "And it's way too far to run. I only have one car. It might be a little obvious if they climb on top."
She chuckled. "We'll need to borrow your car. There are rental cars waiting for us in Ashland. We'll send people to get them."
"This is a little obvious, Alpha. I didn't agree to this many. It doesn't look like a date."
"They wouldn't let me come with less."
"More incursions," Lara explained. "These are here for my protection more than yours. Please will you stay in the compound until this is over?"
"We've been over that, Lara."
She sighed and pulled me to her again.
I checked the time. "The ferry is in ten minutes."
"Do you mind walking?" Lara asked me.
"No."
"David, take three more and go get our rental cars," Lara yelled. "Ferry in ten minutes."
David grabbed Eric plus the female and one of the males I didn't know. I handed him my keys. They tossed a large cooler and all the backpacks into the back of my car and drove away. The other wolves finished securing the airplanes. I checked my watch. We had missed the ferry. We walked casually towards the docks, the wolves all fanning out around Lara and me.
It was a nice evening for a walk.
I hadn't bought food for this many wolves, but Lara assured me we were covered. We fired the grill and used the food I'd bought as appetizers. David returned with three SUVs following behind him, and the wolves got serious about their food.
I got picked on for the size of my grill. It took forever to cook all that food. "I'm not upgrading everything I own to serve your retinue, Alpha," I told Lara.
"I don't expect you to." She hugged me. "Are you upset?"
"Intimidated. Where are we going to put them?"
"We have tents and sleeping bags with us."
"Who will be in the house?"
"The females."
"I should stop worrying about the arrangements," I said.
"Yes. It's handled."
* * * *
In the morning, we piled into the cars. I actually gave Lara a good view of what I did. We took some water and soil samples, I serviced one monitoring station that had been having issues for months, and then we headed towards the one that had been smashed.
Every time we came to a stop, David directed security. Half the wolves fanned out into the surrounding area. The rest stayed with Lara and me. We saw absolutely no signs of trouble.
When we arrived at the lake with the broken station, I pulled out a topographical map and showed everyone where the station was on the other side of the lake. "I usually run there furry," I said. "But it's not a bad walk on two feet." David looked over the map and sent his guards out.
We got three quarters of the way to the station. Elisabeth was carrying the replacement for me. Suddenly I stopped, listening, pulling Lara to a stop next to me.
"What?"
"Quiet," I said. That earned me a dirty look, but she didn't say anything. I had heard something, and I didn't like it.
David turned around and was watching us. I gestured him to join us. "David, how far out are your scouts?"
"Two hundred yards."
"That's what I thought. Do you have radio communication? Silent radio communication?"
"Yes."
"Pull them in. Quietly."
"Why?" asked Lara.
"We're being watched, and your men aren't in fur, David."
Not being in fur wasn't a problem to me, but it took a long time for the wolves to shift. I heard at least two wolves in fur. One was five hundred yards off the lake on a hill with a clear view of the listening station. The other was past the listening station. Then I heard a third one.
I started walking again, acting as if nothing was happening, listening as best I could. It was difficult over all the other sounds, especially so many other wolves right next to me. And they weren't as quiet as I was.
I didn't share any of that with David and Lara, but I listened to David speak into his radio, and I listened as the scouts moved in closer to us. The wolves watching stayed where they were, but I heard one huff.
"Lara, what does this sound mean?" I asked. I huffed, as best I could with a human throat.
"Displeasure. Where did you hear that?"
I ignored her question.
We arrived at the monitoring station unhindered. I stopped everyone short of it and asked them to be quiet. I listened for further noises. I heard the three wolves, very faintly. The same one huffed again. I sniffed, but I didn't detect anything. I walked to the monitoring station, and nothing blew up.
I began working on it. Lara walked up to me, and I pulled her to me, breathing deeply of her scent.
"No one hears or smells anything," she said. "It's your imagination."
"There are three, six hundred to eight
hundred yards out. In fur."
"How can you tell?" she asked.
"I am fox," I said. "I know things."
Lara gestured, and David wandered over nonchalantly. "Michaela says there are three in fur."
"No way," David said.
"Have any of you learned, never doubt the fox?"
I kept working on replacing the measuring station.
"Where?" David asked.
I had a compass in my pack. I pulled it out, making it look like I was digging for a tool. I palmed the compass and found the wrench I needed. Then I checked the compass.
"First one, north, six hundred yards or so, lying down in tall grass. About..." I listened. "Six degrees magnetic from here. The second, east, heading of 84 degrees, seven hundred yards. The last, off our back trail, 150 degrees from here, twelve hundred yards. Give or take a bit."
"You're sure?" Lara asked.
"Headings and distances may not be perfect."
"Any humans around?" David sounded like he was patronizing me.
"Not that I can tell."
At that point, I got the old monitoring station unscrewed from its mounting plate and pulled it up. I set it aside, and Elisabeth gave me the new one. I began attaching it.
"If this were up to me, I would either ignore them or lead them to a trap. That's the fox way. I presume you will either ignore them or do something exceedingly direct."
David turned away. He directed the males and Elisabeth to go furry.
"Why?" Elisabeth asked.
"Do it," David said.
They began shedding clothes. There was really only one reason to do that.
"Nevermind," I said. "They all three just took off. They'll be long gone before you can finish shifting."
"Shift," David ordered to the men.
I finished with the monitoring station. By the time I was done, everyone was furry who was turning furry. David sent them out in pairs to check the locations I had indicated. Five minutes later, the reports came in. David looked grim. "She was partially right," he told Lara. "There were two, not three."
"Which two did you find?" I asked.
"North and east. No one on our back trail."
"Look harder."
Two wolves returned to the camp, bumping heads against Lara.
"Who are these?" I asked.
"Eric and Reggie," Lara said.
I bent down. "Eric?" One of the wolves turned to me and bumped against me. He was huge and beautiful. I ran my fingers through his scruff then whispered in his ear. He huffed at Reggie, and the two of them took off towards the south.
"Ordering my wolves around?" Lara asked. She looked a little pissed about it.
I stood up and looked at her. "Should I have asked?"
"Yes."
"I'm sorry. I won't do it again."
It took Eric and Reggie a good ten minutes to find the tracks left by the third one. They howled, and David swore. "How did you know, fox?"
"I told you. I have my fox ways. I'm done here. Let's go back."
* * * *
Nothing else happened on the way home. We loaded the furry wolves into the back of one of the SUVs, and they had shifted back by the time we arrived at my place. David send four wolves to return the three SUVs while the rest of us gathered in my kitchen.
"The fox was right," David told Lara. "Down to the smallest detail. I want to know how."
"Stop asking. I told you as much as I'm going to tell you."
He glared at me. "How do I know you aren't part of whatever this is? Maybe that's how you knew."
"Alpha, if that's what you believe," I said. "You can all leave. If I am part of it, clearly I am perfectly safe, but you shouldn't trust me. And if I don't deserve the suggestion, then I have a right to be offended and don't want you here."
Lara looked between the two of us. "I don't know what to believe," she said finally.
I stared at her. That hurt, and she knew it hurt.
"Michaela, look at it from my position."
"No," I said. "You came to me. I was minding my own business up here, six hours from your home. Do you really believe I'm some sort of mole set here to trick you?"
"You could have been turned," David said.
"What would be the point of today?" I asked.
"To get us to trust you."
"Lara already trusts me. Or used to."
She looked at me with pleading eyes. "I know you didn't hear them. And I don't think you could smell them, not that accurately. You may have caught a glimpse of one, but not all three. Please, Michaela, how did you know?"
"I am not telling you. Does that mean you revoke your promise of my safety?"
"No! Of course not. But you have to tell me. How can we trust you if you won't explain?"
"I never asked you to trust me. Well, except when we were fleecing Janice."
"Yes," David said. "We saw how duplicitous you can be."
"I risked my life for you, David. And for Rory."
"Part of a greater plan against the alpha," he retorted. "Do not make me hurt you, Michaela. Tell me how you knew, and tell me now."
I had been paying so much attention to the conversation, I hadn't really registered. My house was full of wolves. When I looked around, I realized all the exits from the house were covered.
I looked at Lara. Her eyes were filled with pain, but she was backing David.
"I see," I said. "Lara, do you remember the story I told you?"
"Yes. Was it true?"
"Decide for yourself," I said. "If it were true, then do you think perhaps I may have reasons to keep some of my skills to myself?"
"Whatever you say will go no further than David and me," she promised.
"You promise that?"
She nodded.
"You've also promised me I was safe, but your enforcer just threatened to hurt me, and you didn't say a word. I'm not sure your promises carry much weight."
My words were more effective than a slap. Lara actually rocked back away from me. David made a fist and was about to hit me when Lara said, "No. You'll kill her. We'll take her with. She'll talk eventually."
I stared at her.
"Would we be having this conversation if I had told you how I knew?"
"No," said Lara.
"It would depend," David replied tersely.
"Fine," I said. "Set up a test. See if I can reproduce it under circumstances you control."
"Fine," David said. "Back at the compound."
"Do it here. We're in town, a lot of distractions. I won't be good past about four hundred yards, maybe not quite that, depending on the direction."
"Tell us how, Michaela," said Lara. "Please."
"It's too late, Lara. I know I can't trust you now. You turned on me, like wolves always do."
I turned around, my back to both of them.
"Test her," Lara said. "Then we'll decide."
"How good is her hearing?" David asked Lara.
"On two feet? Worse than mine."
She was wrong, but I wasn't going to tell her that.
David left me with Lara and Reggie to guard me. He took everyone else into the front room and spoke very quietly to them. I heard every word. He told them to head away from the house in random directions, assigning distances to each from one hundred yards to five hundred.
"They'll need to shift around," I told Lara. "As if they'd been still for too long and are stiff or bored and not very disciplined. If they are absolutely still, it doesn't work except when much closer, almost close enough to smell."
Lara turned to Reggie. "Pass that on to David." Reggie left, told David, and was immediately back guarding the back door.
"You know we're through, Lara. When you leave, I never want to see you again. Stay out of Bayfield and keep your wolves away from me as well."
"Please, Michaela, just tell us how you knew."
"I was falling in love, Lara. What a fool I am."
I wanted to hurt her. From her body language, I had. Either
I had betrayed her, or she had betrayed me. Either way, there was betrayal.
David came back and loomed over me. I tried to ignore him. It wasn't easy.
David, Lara and I waited in the house for ten minutes while the other wolves dispersed. Finally David said, "Outside. Let's see this trick of yours, fox." He led the way and never took his eyes off of me. We moved out into the grass and came to a stop. I started listening, slowly turning in a circle. I closed my eyes and pointed. "Hawk, roosting in a tree, seventy yards." I turned again, listening. "Dog, three blocks. The ferry just arrived. This won't work well until that ruckus settles down."
With my eyes still closed, I pointed straight at Lara. "She just shifted weight."
The noise from the ferry settled down, and I got a fix. I pointed. "Two hundred, maybe two hundred twenty yards. Pacing in the street. Wait, now in the grass. Just sat down. I lost it, but I assume still sitting."
I turned, cocked my head, listening, pointed. "Someone huffed. I didn't get the distance."
Then I heard Eric say clearly, "I am sorry, little fox." I pointed. "Eric, four hundred yards, maybe a little less."
I opened my eyes and looked at Lara.
"I think it was June in the street. I don't know where Reggie went."
"Find him," David said.
"Fine, but if he's not moving around, I won't be able to. If he's down in town, I won't, either."
"He's moving, and he's not in town," David said.
I listened then turned to David. "He's sitting on my front steps as still as he possibly can be."
"How, Michaela?" Lara asked. "I know you can't hear them."
"Does it matter, wolf?" I asked. "I don't see as how it's any of your business. I showed you a great deal of trust, an amazing amount of trust. And what did you show me? Please leave. If I never see another wolf, that would be perfect."
"Your car is almost back," David said. "We'll be out of here in five minutes." He spoke quietly. "You know I had to be sure."
"If this is how you treat your friends, Lara, you don't deserve to have any." And then I stepped past both of them and went into my house, slamming the door.