Authors: Robin Roseau
"She'll just worry."
"Lara, if I were the one driving home like this, and Elisabeth kept it from you-"
"Someone should tell Francesca," Lara said immediately.
"I'll send Rory to retrieve her once he gets back," Elisabeth said. "You two should sleep."
"I'll doze here," Lara said from the sofa. I lay down next to her, curling into her, and she put an arm around me. I actually fell asleep, because the next thing I knew, Lara was struggling out from underneath me, and there was a blanket over me. I sat up and saw Francesca and Gia talking to Elisabeth. Lara joined them. Eric was at the front door, and I could hear Rory in the kitchen. I used my ears, and everything was as it should be. Angel and Scarlett were talking calmly to each other, comparing various Hollywood stars. I smiled.
I climbed off the sofa and joined the adults. "Francesca, I'm so sorry," I told her. "I put your daughter in danger."
"Hush," she said. "You did no such thing. My daughter is fine, and this isn't your fault." She pulled me into a hug. "I'm going to talk to Angel for a few minutes, but I think she'd rather talk to Scarlett than her mother."
"Are you all right with that?" I asked.
"They would be good for each other," Francesca said. Then she stepped away and knelt down in front of Scarlett. She had a brief conversation with Angel before giving the phone back to Scarlett.
I turned to Lara. "Alpha. They. Will. Die."
"Yes, they will," she said. "But we have to be smart about it. I want three dead Chicago wolves and no dead Madison pack members."
"Two dead from Chicago," I said. "Unless you know things about Jared I don't."
She cocked her head. "Maybe you are right."
After that it was a long night. Lara pulled me back to the sofa, and when I woke later, we were both wrapped in blankets. Gia was talking to Angel. Elisabeth was napping, and Francesca was standing near a window, looking outside. The next time I woke up, Gia was on the floor leaning against Scarlett's legs and Scarlett was back on the phone. She and Angel were exchanging what could best be described as sweet nothings. Scarlett caught me looking at her.
"I suppose no kayaking next weekend."
"Do not cancel that," I said. Lara stirred when I talked. "I think it'll just be a bigger party than originally planned."
Scarlett smiled. Lara looked down at me kindly, caressed me, and I fell asleep.
It was full daylight when I woke next. I heard the crunch of car tires in the gravel outside, and I sat bolt upright, waking Lara.
"Angel," I said, and Scarlett nodded at me. She looked tired, but she was smiling.
I climbed for the couch and headed for the front door, but Elisabeth beat me to it, and suddenly I was surrounded by the wolves I most trusted.
"It's Angel."
"Yes," said Elisabeth. "But this is what you asked for, and this is what you're going to get."
And then Angel was standing in the doorway. "Honey! I'm home! What's for dinner?"
I was so happy to see her, but she only had eyes for Scarlett.
At least at that moment, all was right with the world.
* * * *
A few minutes later, I pulled Elisabeth aside. "Do we have anyone in fur?"
"Yes. June, and John are out there."
"I want four wolves in fur in the courtyard in a few minutes. Can we do that? Not you or Lara."
She nodded. "Gia, Eric, I need you to shift please."
"Gia isn't an enforcer," I said very quietly.
"She's here. You manage you, I'll manage my forces." I nodded.
They took a few minutes, but then we stepped outside. Lara yipped twice, calling June and John to us. I told Lara, "Keep everyone quiet for a minute."
I stepped away, but suddenly had several enforcers around me. "Give me a little space." They backed off a little. I turned slowly in a circle, listening to the sounds of the forest. I heard nothing I shouldn't. I turned to Elisabeth and gestured her closer.
"I want the ones in fur to go stir up the forest. Anyone skulking won't be able to stay still with wolves running around."
"How far out?"
"A thousand yards."
She nodded and gave them their directions. For the next fifteen minutes I listened as four wolves raced through the forest around our compound, stirring up birds, rabbits, squirrels, and countless insects. I heard nothing larger, and I was listening for all I had.
Finally I told Elisabeth, "If they're out there, they're much further than a thousand yards or buried in a hole and very, very still. I don't think they're here."
"I don't either," she said. "But I like including you in this. Can you really hear that well?"
"Can you hear our wolves running around?"
"No."
I pointed. "Gia. John. Eric. June. June just stopped, she's sniffing something." I turned to Elisabeth in alarm. "I can't tell what."
"Alpha!"
"Screw this," I said. I shifted to a fox and didn't even bother climbing out of my clothes. I swiveled my ears. June came in more clearly. She was sniffing. I whined quietly.
I shifted back, almost strangling myself in my clothes. "Call her back. I don't know what it is. Call her back."
Lara immediately began howling. June paused, then turned around and began running for the clearing, along with the other wolves. More wolves appeared from the houses around us. But June was safe.
Two minutes later, all four furry wolves were back with us.
"June," I said to her. "I don't know what you were sniffing. I got scared."
She chuffed and offered a wolfy smile, then lay down and yawned.
"Patrols are in twos," Elisabeth said. "Anything unusual you report back and we send larger groups to investigate. No one investigates alone." She turned to me. "You are stressed and over tired. Alpha, make her sleep a little longer. John and Rory, escort the alpha and the fox to their bedroom, search it, then stand watch in the hallway."
* * * *
They let me sleep until midmorning, most of it in Lara's arms. Then we cleaned up and I apologized repeatedly for being a scardy-fox. Lara told me to be quiet about it. "It's about time I saw you take security seriously."
"They want a fox hunt and they want you dead, Lara."
"I know. We'll deal with it. Let's get some breakfast then go meet with the council."
* * * *
I was invited to the council meeting from the beginning, and I was given a chair at the head of the table with Lara. Lara pulled Vivian to the side and spoke quietly to her, but I heard every word. She told Vivian about my hearing but explained why we wanted her to go along with a slightly distorted version of events. Vivian was very understanding, then looked at me and smiled.
"Thank you," I mouthed to her.
Lara called the meeting to order, and Mr. Berg immediately asked, "What was the commotion this morning?"
"We have a credible kidnap threat on our fox and a credible death threat against me."
That brought a general hubbub of conversation. I let them talk until Vivian said, "You know, we set historical precedent so as to have access to our little spy. Perhaps we should ask for her analysis from last night."
I stood up.
"The Chicago pack is run by assholes."
I sat back down.
They all stared at me.
"I think, young lady, we may need more than that," said Mr. Berg. His eyes were twinkling.
"I'm sorry. That was my sense of humor. I shouldn't do that."
"It's a reasonable coping mechanism," Vivian said. "And I must say that is as accurate a statement as can be made."
I stood back up. "I am going to provide an overview of my beliefs. Some of these are guesses. Then I will relay everything as verbatim as I can. Then, if my conclusions are not obviously derived from events, I can describe how I came to them. Is that acceptable?"
"Perfect," Lara assured me. I reached down to hold her hand for a moment.
"We met Durian, the Chicago alpha, and his sons Avery and Jared. Durian and Avery are thugs, plain and simple. Jared is much more thoughtful and intelligent and could be a powerful ally or fearsome enemy. Avery is particularly crude and ruled by his testosterone first, foremost and always."
"I agree completely with that assessment," Vivian said.
"The Chicago pack finances are a mess. Durian and Avery are doing particularly poorly financially and live as leeches off the other wolves. I have no evidence of Jared's standing. I believe that they are under pressure from the other wolves, and only their fearsome fighting skill is keeping them alive."
"That doesn't last forever," Dominick said. "If you have enough challengers, they eventually wear you down."
"But it takes enough wolves early on to risk themselves," Mr. Berg said. "They won't do that unless it gets bad enough or Durian is deemed sufficiently weakened somehow. Then they'll come out of the woodwork."
"The worst thing that could happen for us," I went on. "Would be if Durian started listening to Jared enough to set intelligent plans but not enough to make sane plans."
I thought about it. "Their plan was to lure the Alpha to Chicago, where Durian was going to challenge her. We have temporarily thwarted that. They also wish to hold a fox hunt."
The room broke into conversation. No one was happy about either of those pieces of information. I finally got them to settle down enough to finish my report. I concluded with, "They may or may not have been temporarily mollified by taking some cash from us last night, but even if they are, I do not believe it will last long. Avery in particular is a brute and will eventually attempt to kidnap me. They may believe they can still lure us to Chicago, or they may already be coming up with plan B. But if they aren't, I believe they believe their only option is to challenge the alpha and begin draining the financial resources of the Madison pack."
They had questions. Finally Violet asked, "How did you learn all this?"
"Foxy ways," I said. "I believe I have been clear between what I feel is conjecture and what is based directly on things they stated flat out."
"Foxy ways?" Violet said. "That is not good enough."
"It will have to be," Lara said. "Michaela has discussed her foxy ways with me, Elisabeth and Vivian. We are satisfied."
After that, I sat down. I told them everything I could. Vivian had a few more observations about the various personalities but stated I had gotten more than she had, but everything I said fit with what she saw.
They went around and around for a while, but they finally decided my analysis was as accurate as they could get. They tried to get rid of me, but Lara and Elisabeth vetoed that. "She's part of it, and she doesn't leave my side," Lara said.
They went around and around multiple times. I kept my mouth shut but finally said, "Might I make some suggestions?"
Fourteen pair of eyes turned to me.
"I don't have any great revelations, but I thought perhaps we could expressly rule out certain courses of action."
"Excellent suggestion," said Mr. Berg. "Did you have any in mind?"
"We do not ignore it and hope it goes away." That was met with a chorus of agreement. "The alpha doesn't go to Chicago to be ambushed far from home." That was also met by agreement.
"We do not give up our fox," Lara said. "She is ours!" The chorus of agreement brought tears to my eyes.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
"Nor do we use her for bait," Lara said.
"Wait." I said.
"No!"
"Do not rule that out. It's not a first choice, but at least it has the merits of a plan."
Lara tried to dominate me into shutting up. I let her stare me down, then just said, "Elisabeth?"
"She's right. Leave it on the table. For now."
"No!" Lara said.
"Lara, I just asked for you to put four enforcers on my ass around the clock. Did you ever think I would ask for that?"
"No, but-"
"I'm not offering to walk into a trap."
"I won't ever agree."
"Then find other plans."
She grumbled.
"I would like to add one more item to the list of actions we will not consider," Vivian said. "I will not have a Chicago wolf as alpha over the Madison wolves. We do whatever it takes to prevent that."
That was met with one resounding voice. "Agreed."
After that, they went around and around again and again. Elisabeth pointed out we couldn't stay at high alert indefinitely. They agreed we didn't have enough information, but didn't know how to obtain it.
I sighed and raised my hand. It took a while, but soon they were all staring at me again.
"Isn't she annoying?" Lara asked, a twinkle in her eye.
"Quite," said Dominick.
"Just some suggestions. These aren't complete solutions. First, hire humans."
"What? That's ridiculous. A human can't survive against a wolf," said Elisabeth.
"Of course he can't. However, humans are exceedingly good at gathering information. And they are plentiful and unnoticed. I presume we have or can get photos of the gentlemen in question?"
Once I threw that out there, they were very good with running it. The ideas came a mile a minute.
"Throw money at it," I said in a lull. "Hire a LOT of very smart humans. Computer experts to crack into their computers. Investigators to begin identifying and tracking every member of the Chicago wolves, with a goal to identify the ones we need to watch. Heck, maybe we can get tracking devices on their cars. Maybe we can bug their houses. Gather information."
They were in danger of breaking for the day when I said, "Then, go after their money."
Lara immediately began smiling gleefully. I let my words settle in and set, "Go after their money. Identify their best businessmen, the ones who are paying 30 percent tithe. Point out Madison only charges 10 percent and is a significantly nicer place to live. For the ones who don't jump ship to us, go after their businesses. Prop up human businesses that compete, for instance. Or just buy them out and close them down. Hire off anyone you can. Go after their money supply."
Violet was all over that idea, and it quickly became apparent who the business people were in the room.