Fox Run (34 page)

I looked at Francesca. "She's good."

"She is. What do you think?"

I looked at Angel. "If your mother approves, and the alpha approves, and my boss approves, then I am willing to give it a trial go."

"Yes!" Angel said, jumping into the air and pumping her fist. "Mom, say yes. Say yes. Say yes!"

"Yes," said Francesca. Angel went nuts with glee, garnering significant attention from the other kids.

"I'll talk to the alpha at dinner," I said. "And my boss on, I suppose, Tuesday."

"She'll have a credit card," Francesca said. "She will pay all her own expenses with it and buy groceries for both of you. She is very responsible, and if she wants something that I may not approve, she will call me. It is not your responsibility to police her."

"What about, um. Social opportunities?" I asked.

"She can socialize with her pack," Francesca said. "Is that a problem, Angel?"

"No, Mom."

And, just like that, I had a minion. I liked the idea.

* * * *

Even though I was dressed casually, Jason drove me to dinner that night in the limousine. I thought it was silly, but I was touched when I climbed into the back and there were flowers waiting for me. I cradled them during the drive. We kept the divider open and talked during the drive.

Dinner was at another pack restaurant, a casual barbeque place. Lara was waiting on the sidewalk when we drove up. She offered a quick kiss on the sidewalk and drew me inside. We took a place in the corner, and she let me have my back to the wall again.

"Does it bother you having your back to the room?" I asked.

"Not particularly. You're doing so much better around the wolves, but I know we still make you nervous."

"I am getting better. I barely hesitated when we stepped in." I glanced down at the menus sitting between us. "Do you like ordering for me?"

"I love it. May I?" I nodded.

I decided right then that I enjoyed letting her take care of me, as long as it was on my terms. I told her that and she laughed. "I like it, too. Even when it's on your terms."

I asked about her day. "I am caught up," she said. "All emergencies averted. May I come to Bayfield with you on Sunday and spend a few days?"

"No. But you may ask again after I have had a few days of down time. It's all been very intense and I need to let it all settle, like digesting a heavy meal."

"So a heavy meal for you is three chicken wings instead of two?"

"Exactly."

We smiled at each other, and I set my hand on the table, waiting for her to take it. She did, and that felt nice.

"We have things to talk about," she said.

"We do. I have two that you probably don't know about."

Her face clouded. "Did I do something else wrong?"

"No, I think you'll like these. They are for the alpha. Let's do the personal stuff first."

"All right. Car. You lost yours due to pack business. Do we need to argue that?"

"No. There are fine points, but no."

"You can't report it for insurance. Please don't ask."

"All right."

"Pack policy is that we ensure our members. We do not allow anyone to take a loss of this nature without reimbursement. Will you accept that the pack must reimburse you for the loss of your car?"

"I'm losing this argument. I don't like losing arguments, Lara."

"It's not an argument. It's an explanation."

I nodded acquiescence.

"Now, you could argue that your car was getting on in years, and that the most we owe you is replacement cost. I am going to suggest that the pack owes you a whole lot more than a car due to what you did for us and what you went personally through to do it. So I am going to propose that you allow us to buy you a new, proper car, suitable for your needs, as well as some future favors as yet undetermined."

"That was vague."

"I may want to upgrade your house. Finish the basement. Put in an apartment over the garage. Add a security system."

"If I tell you no?"

"It's your house. We will discuss it."

"Does discuss mean ram it down my throat?"

"No. I will explain what I want and why. You will not say no because you are refusing the expense. If you say no, it's because you don't want whatever it is I want. Maybe you don't want the basement finished. Maybe you hate security systems."

I thought about it. "As long as you aren't going to just start doing stuff to my house."

"Whenever we come to visit, if there are things that are broken, I am going to ask someone to fix them."

"I can take care of my own house."

"I know you can, but it gives the guys something to do and it makes me feel good."

I laughed. "All right. But it's my house."

"Your house. What kind of car are we buying tomorrow?"

"I hate saying this. An SUV."

"I thought so, but why do you hate it?"

"The crappy mileage. But my job requires me to be able to go off road. I need something that can haul my kayak and I sometimes have to haul a small boat trailer."

"So a small SUV with a rack for a kayak-"

"Two kayaks."

"And a trailer hitch. Best mileage, but good off road performance is important."

"I don't go hill climbing or intentionally looking for mud, but I hate getting stuck."

"Any other features?"

"I hate ABS brakes." She laughed. "I don't care about style, but not white. And I don't want something you're going to freak out if I scratch it up. Because I will. It's a working vehicle, not a show vehicle."

Lara smiled. "I thought this was going to be a fight."

"I have to keep you guessing."

"We have several pack members who are auto dealers. Do you mind if we use them?" I shook my head. "All right. What did you have for me?"

I told her first about Francesca's desire to monitor the environment in and around the compound. "That is a good idea. Will you submit a budget to me?"

"You mean tell Francesca you liked the idea and tell her you asked for a budget?"

She laughed. "Will you please run the program, Michaela?" She smiled. "It would be your tithe to the pack."

I stared at her, not believing she suggested I owed tithe to the pack. Finally I said, "I am not yet acknowledging that I owe tithe to the pack. I will prepare a proposal. If it is accepted, we will discuss tithe at that time."

"Agreed."

Then I relayed the conversation regarding Angel.

"Wow," she said. "I didn't see that coming. As alpha, I deeply approve. As your friend, I have to ask, are you sure?"

"No," I said, and we laughed together. "Is she a good kid?"

"The best."

"Do I have to watch her?"

"No. She will need guidance for good judgment like anyone her age, but when she knows the right thing, she will do it. When she doesn't know the right thing, she will ask for guidance or do the best she can. You can trust her."

"Then I'm willing to try it. But Lara, this makes me concerned. I don't like the implications that the alpha is involved in decisions like this over pack members' private lives, especially when combined with your attempt to get me to agree I owe tithe. I don't like the implications at all."

She laughed. "Francesca gave me the option to veto this idea in case it was going to interfere with my efforts to get into your bed. If we didn't have a budding romantic relationship, it wouldn't have been any of my business. It is customary to inform the alpha about these things, but not seek permission."

"And you don't think it's going to interfere, hmm?"

"I am alpha. If I tell Angel to cover her ears, she will cover her ears."

I stared at her. "Oh my god, I can't believe you said that."

"Are you a screamer, little fox?"

"No."

"I bet I can make you scream."

"Keep talking like that and you won't find out."

She leaned forward, her gaze smoldering.

"Lara, are you going to expect me to start asking permission for everything I want to do?"

"No. I am going to expect you to discuss them with me, because they also affect me. I am going to expect you to allow me to take care of you. I am going to expect you to continue to be a pain in the ass about your personal safety, but I also expect you to keep the promise you made. Even though I cheated."

I stared at her. "Cheated?"

"Twice."

"Did anyone help you?"

"Elisabeth, indirectly. She helped me talk you into it. That was the first cheat. The second one you know, making the first part last a whole lot longer than we agreed."

"You found me without anything I could consider cheating?"

"Yes."

"Then tell me about Elisabeth's help."

"If the wager hadn't been so important, I would have let Elisabeth teach you a little humility instead of trying to do it myself."

"So what she said was a lie?"

"No. Anyone else would have been hampered to not hurt you. Elisabeth has enough control she wouldn't accidentally kill you, but she wouldn't hold back out of fear of hurting you, not with a wager of that size. She would try not to hurt you, but she would play to win."

"You didn't think she could win?"

"If you let her shift first, yes. But she doesn't shift instantly. And there was a chance you'd last long enough to do exactly what you did, and she wouldn't have found you."

"I thought you would make me fight Jason or Rory."

"I know you did. You would have won easily, so easily it might have been embarrassing to him."

"I don't know if I would have made the wager thinking I'd fight Elisabeth, but I know I wouldn't have if I had known it would be you."

"I know. Did you have fun? It seemed like you were having fun, but then you turned sullen."

"I was fine until I realized the symbolic meaning. Then I realized it was my life that we were playing over. Fox hunt. That was sobering and stole every bit of fun."

"I'm sorry. I didn't even consider that until you said it."

"It was my idea," I said. "And I made the wager too big you couldn't let me win, even if it were your nature to do so. Which I know it isn't. It's not my nature to let you win, either."

"When young wolves tussle and fight, is it for real?"

"No, it's mock," I said. "They aren't trying to really hurt each other."

"But it still serves a real purpose, doesn't it?"

"I suppose it teaches the skills they would need in a real fight."

"So because they agree it's not to the death, it's fun for them."

I stared at her. She was as sneaky as a fox.

"You had a fun time. If it weren't for the wager and the symbolism, would losing have bothered you as badly as it did?"

"No."

"Even if I made you offer your throat in front of the entire pack?"

"I've done it before." I considered where she was going with this. "You want to do it again."

She smiled. "Yes. And again and again until you consistently win."

"My winning depends on you not knowing my tricks. The more you know my tricks, the worse I am going to be. I can't run any faster than I do. I can't hide my scent any better than I do. I can't lay a false trail any faster than I do. You will get better and better at catching me, but I won't get better at evading you."

"I like catching you," she said. "I had a blast chasing you, even when I wasn't catching you."

"So I am just smart prey."

"No. You are the fox I love. The thought of you offering your throat is intoxicating. The thought of what you make me go through before you offer it is equally intoxicating."

"We'll see."

"One rule. If I tree you in the future, you will come down and surrender."

"All right. And if you ever pick the wrong tree, and I come down another tree, then you offer your throat. I win."

"You win, but not my throat."

"This rule doesn't apply to situations where I can escape."

"Like what?"

"A tree next to a building when I can jump to the roof. For instance."

"No dangerous jumps."

"Who decides what is dangerous?"

"You do, but you are honest about it. No stupid risks to win what is a game. Save the stupid risks for when it's real. With us, it's not real, even if we wager about it."

"All right." I sighed. "I will never do better than I did on Tuesday, unless I get remarkably lucky. You've seen all my tricks."

"Honey, I don't have a clue of half the things you do so I would lose your track. I just know how to find it again. I know you went through small spaces, and sometimes you came right back out the other side, sometimes you didn't. And then I circled around until I found your scent again."

"You track by scent?"

"Or sight, of course."

"Sound?"

"Yes, but you're so quiet. I don't believe I've ever heard you when I couldn't smell you, unless you were purposely making noise."

"You heard me splashing in a couple of streams."

"No."

I smiled. I move more slowly than I could often because I am concerned about making noise, but if I can make more noise safely, perhaps I can be faster.

It was time to change the subject. "What are we doing after dinner?"

"An age old tradition," she said. "We're going shopping!"

"Shopping?" I said, a look of uncertainty on my face.

"Shopping."

And so we did.

* * * *

On Saturday, Lara bought me a nice little SUV. We got it outfitted exactly the way I wanted, even including a rack for two kayaks. It was my first brand new car, and I loved it. I felt marginally guilty, as I didn't think replacing my eight-year-old SUV with a brand new one was really right, but Lara told me to suck it up. It was helping her politically. My uncertain status in the pack was a complication.

"Why?"

"To the victor go the spoils," she said. "You are owed a portion of the spoils from David and Natalie, a fairly significant portion."

"You beat David on your own, and Natalie clubbed me senseless."

"I beat David only because you found the truth, and you slowed Natalie down enough that Elisabeth was able to kill her cleanly. You could argue for your share, but it is easier for me if you don't. The pack feels honor is handled without your uncertain status being a complication."