Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) (28 page)

"Did you apologize to Serena?"

"We talked calmly. She apologized. I admitted she was right when she said I could have handled it better. She's almost as angry at me as you are."

"Go away," I told her. "I may consider accepting an apology in the morning. I may require it to be as public as the humiliation for which you are apologizing. I haven't decided yet. I may consider Elisabeth's advice before deciding."

She didn't move.

"If you aren't leaving, please tell me where I may sleep, Alpha."

She moved off the bed. "When you decide to go for a walk, please, Michaela, take your guards."

"I will consider your request," I said. "We are not sharing a room tonight. You may send anyone else in here you want. You will find somewhere else for one or the other of us."

"I'll switch with Angel tonight, if you don't mind. And Elisabeth will be in the other bed. If you don't mind."

"That's fine."

She got to the door.

"Lara."

"Little Fox?"

"Is this going to happen again?"

She didn't answer right away. "I wish I could promise it won't."

"I would never cheat on you, Lara. Telling me I make you jealous isn't helping."

"I'm sorry. I can't help it," she said. "I know you wouldn't cheat, honey."

"I am still hurt and angry, but I'll get over it. Good night."

I lay awake, staring at the wall, until Angel and Elisabeth came in together. They tried to be quiet, but I sat up. I was still dressed.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Shortly after midnight," Angel replied. "Are you all right?"

"I will be." I looked at Elisabeth. "Enforcer, if I stated I was going for a run, what would you do?"

"Ask you to please give Angel and me a chance to shift. And perhaps suggest we drive somewhere more appropriate first."

"I am hurt and angry at how she treated me," I said. "But I am livid that my liberty may be denied to me on a jealous whim. My tolerance has reached a limit. If something like this occurs again, I will not willingly disarm."

"Michaela," Elisabeth said gently. "There have been times in the past you have acted in an unreasonable, headstrong fashion. This was not one of them, but it has happened in the past, and I believe it will happen in the future."

I crossed the room to stand in front of her, glaring up at her. "Do you have a point, Enforcer?"

"You are the only alpha's mate I know of that is offered remotely the freedom you enjoy."

"Do they accept their incarceration willingly?"

"I have not talked to them," she replied. "You should perhaps talk to Brooke about her mother."

"I will not accept incarceration, Enforcer."

"I know that," she said. "So does Lara. No one is suggesting that. I am suggesting, however, that you should trust me."

Angel stepped over to me and wrapped an arm around me. "I think you can trust Elisabeth."

"I'll think about it," I finally decided. Which wasn't much of a decision, but it was the best I could do at the time. "I am going to bed."

"You didn't want a run?"

"I do," I admitted. "But I want to turn off my brain more, and I don't think a run will accomplish that."

I gathered a few things together and slipped into the bathroom. When I returned to the main room, Angel was holding my removed piercings and looking at them sadly. "I thought you liked them," she said in a small voice.

"I did."

"Please let me put them back in," she said.

"I healed the holes."

Angel looked up at me sadly.

"Angel," I said. "She can not continue to treat me like this. I will increase the pain to her until she stops. This was the biggest thing I could think of that didn't involve people getting hurt. And I know it won't be enough."

"Michaela," Elisabeth said. "This is going to happen again. She can remain so cool and in control about everything else, but about you, she loses her head. This is part of who she is, and you need to find a way to accept it, because she is not going to change."

"It's a wolf thing," Angel said. "I'm already getting like that with Scarlett. She thinks it's cute."

"
Lara is an exceedingly dominant, possessive wolf," Elisabeth said. "When she feels you pulling away, she overreacts. It isn't your fault, so don't take this as me telling you it is. But if you go with the flow instead of getting your back up, she won't overreact as badly. She'll still overreact, but not by as much."

"She's not telling you that you did anything wrong," Angel said. "She's telling you how to manage your mate's behavior."

"So tonight, for instance. This wasn't because of what I told Tim?"

"That started it," Elisabeth said. "And she was going to overreact. If you had become submissive, it would have been a small overreaction. But you went exceedingly dominant, and she lost it."

"So my fault."

"No. Her fault. Lara is very strong and quite amazing," Elisabeth said. "She is a far better alpha than I could be. But sometimes she needs help. She isn't perfect, Michaela. She can handle you being dominant to others, but not to her. And perhaps not
to others when she is feeling vulnerable."

"All right," I said. "Thank you. I'll give her a chance to talk me back into those. Well, to talk those back into me, I guess."

They both smiled at my word play.

"I am going to sleep now," I said. "You two are not obligated to stay with me."

"We are, actually," Angel said. "But I want to be here."

"You would rather be home with Scarlett."

"Actually," she said. "No, I wouldn't. I would rather Scarlett were here."

* * * *

I slept fretfully after that. Angel shared my bed, but my body knew it wasn't Lara. I found myself pressed against Angel's back at one point but woke up enough to move away.

I finally got up at six, pulled some clothes on, and slipped onto Elisabeth's bed. She was already awake, and she watched me. We lay on the bed together, facing each other.

"Pride says I should make her come to me. Pride says I deserve an exceedingly public groveling from her."

"We all bitched her out," Elisabeth said. "If you wait, she'll come to you. She'd be here now if she thought she was welcome."

"Do I deserve the groveling?"

"Deserve? Probably. Do I think you should make her? I don't think it would be good for the long term health of your relationship. She'll do it, but she'll remember you made her do it."

I closed my eyes for a few minutes. When I opened them, Elisabeth was still watching me.

"I want her to talk me back into the piercings," I said. "Maybe not the ears. But the others. I don't want to admit it to her."

Elisabeth smiled. "You won't have to admit it."

"Do you have a key to the room she is in?"

Elisabeth glanced at the nightstand. I picked up the card key. "I'll be going to the coffee shop in a few minutes. I do not know if Lara is going along or not. If she goes, I do not know if she will want additional company. If I am going alone, I will give you a chance to decide if you want to come."

"May I have enough time to shower?"

I nodded. "I won't run off."

"Thank you. This will be a lot easier for all of us if we can all trust each other, Michaela."

"I know."

I slipped out of the room, hearing Elisabeth climb out of bed behind me. I slipped into the room next door containing Lara, Karen, Serena and Wendy. Four pairs of eyes watched me as I entered the room. Lara sat up and I walked straight to her, stopping two feet away.

We looked at each other. I didn't know what I wanted to say. She opened her mouth to speak, but I shook my head slightly, and she stopped.

"How long did you wait to see me last night, once you had calmed down enough to know you should?"

"I knew I was wrong the entire time I was being a bitch," she said.

"Next time," I said, "Give me fifteen minutes, then apologize, even if I'm not ready for it. I won't accept right away, but we won't have to spend the night apart."

She nodded.

"If you apologize, you better mean it! If I am in the wrong, then you let me stew until I figure it out."

"All right." She smiled hesitantly.

"I am going down to the coffee shop," I said. "Would you like to join me?"

"We don't need-"

"I want a walk with a comfortable destination," I explained.

"Oh, of course. Yes, I will join you."

"Elisabeth is showering. I didn't know if I was safe with
only you or if you want more enforcers. We can make it a party if you want."

In the end, we all went, ambling slowly to the waterfront. Lara and I held hands.
Our fight wasn't forgotten, but we had moved past it.

The other wolves gave us a little distance during the walk. La
ra and I didn't talk, and I remained physically reserved.

We ordered our drinks and treats to go. The waitress wanted to know where all the dogs were today. "They were naughty last night, so they're in the doghouse this morning," I replied.

We took our treats and walked to the park. There was a jetty we could walk out, and we all took seats on the ground. I sat near Lara, but not quite touching.

"Are we going to find Virginia?" I asked.

"Yes," said Lara immediately.

"It has to be before Monday," I said. "I don't think she'll live to see Tuesday
afternoon. Robert will ask his proof of life question on Tuesday morning. They'll get the answer from her, and ten minutes later, she's dead."

No one said anything.

"Lara, if we do not have her by Monday night, then I am going after Harvey Block myself."

"No you aren't," she said quietly.

"If you think-"

"We'll go after him as a team," said Elisabeth. "You aren't alone, Michaela."

"That's what pack means," Serena said. "We know sometimes it's hard for you. But we are more than friends."

I couldn't look at them. "Thank you," I said.

We ate our muffins and bagels. I ate half my bagel and gave the remainder to Lara. It was a cool morning, promising to be a pleasant day, and I enjoyed my coffee. Lara had a blueberry muffin, and when she got down near the end of it, I whimpered lightly. She smiled and fed me a piece. I kissed her fingers after she popped the piece in my mouth. I moved marginally closer to her until I was leaning lightly against her.

* * * *

Back at the motel, Greg gave us a status update. He had full financials on Harvey Block as well as the brother, James Block. "We are being very careful with James. The FBI might notice if we poke too deeply into him, and that wouldn't be good." We had photos of both brothers, their spouses, and the people closest to brother Harvey.

We had a list of assets, including real estate, along with photos of the places in town. We had a complete understanding of the zoning variance Harvey wanted.

What we didn't have was any solid evidence linking Virginia's disappearance to Harvey; everything we had was circumstantial. Furthermore, virtually all the evidence we did have was collected illegally, and what was collected legally was hearsay.

"In short," Greg said. "We could bring this to the FBI and tap into their greater resources, but we can't give them most of the information we have. James Block would almost certainly be made aware of the investigation. Even if he isn't involved, I don't trust he wouldn't call his brother. And if I were Harvey Block, the first thing I would do upon finding out I was the subject of a kidnapping investigation would be to eliminate the evidence. We have a large body of water that would do just fine for that."

"You need to trace the proof of life chain," I said.

"Yes. We also have eyes on Harvey. I sent someone to check on his brother. His brother seems to be busy doing his job in Madison. We're not the only ones watching Harvey, so that is leaving an additional challenge. We don't know if the others watching him are his own people or someone else. But we have to avoid them."

"Greg," said Lara. "If we do not have Virginia back by Monday night, we need a plan for bringing in Tim Anderson and Harvey Block."

"I'll have a team arrive on Monday to handle it," he said. "We'll need a safe house; we can't bring them here."

"How big?" I asked.

"It doesn't need to be big," he said. "Just isolated."

"When do you anticipate needing my services?"

"What are you getting at?" Lara asked.

"Give me two SUVs, a few enforcers, and my checkbook. I'll build a bunk house on the pack lands."

"By Monday?" Lara asked.

"It won't be finished," I said. "And the county might not appreciate my lack of a building permit. It won't be big. I am thinking twenty-four by forty. Or if it would be better, I could build two large sheds. I'd make a garage, but I can't get the concrete poured and cured in the time we want."