Wolf Ways (The Madison Wolves Book 9) (26 page)

“Everyone is watching me,” I whispered.

“Yep,” Michaela agreed. “Welcome to my world.” She rubbed my back for a while, speaking soothingly as I continued to calm down. “Ready to be yelled at?”

Inside, I was still in turmoil, frightened, embarrassed, and upset. But I sighed and nodded. Michaela took my hand and pulled me from the wall, leading me towards the assembled wolves. I followed docilely. “Normally we would make you stand for this, but I think it’s best if you sit.” She lifted her voice. “Portia, pull out a chair for her.”

Portia grabbed a chair and spun it towards me. At Michaela’s urging, I sat in it, but I couldn’t help but look over my shoulder at the wolf.

“Stay calm,” Michaela said. That was easy for her to say.

Portia turned the chair until I was facing Lara and then stepped away. Michaela moved to stand next to her mate. She took a deep breath.

“Head Enforcer,” she said, “Say whatever you’re going to say, then get out.”

Elisabeth began moving towards me, and I looked up at her. She leaned over, resting her hands on the arms of the chair, deep into my personal space as she loomed over me. “If you were a wolf, running from the enforcers is a beating offense. To further complicate your offense, you nearly ran Monique over.”

“That was her own fault!” I blurted. “She jumped in front of my car. I’m sorry if human reactions weren’t fast enough to stop sooner.” I said the last part sarcastically.

“She wouldn’t have had to jump in front of your car if you hadn’t been trying to run. She wouldn’t have had to jump in front of your car if you had obeyed her when she told you to stop.”

“She didn’t have to jump in front of my car at all!” I spat. “She could have let me leave. That was her choice. You can yell at me for running if you want to, but I don’t take responsibility for the choices others make.”

“When an enforcer tells you to do something,” Elisabeth said in a low voice, “you do it.”

“I don’t take orders from 15-year-olds,” I said back.

“Would you have behaved any differently if it had been Eric yelling at you to stop?”

I looked down.

“That’s what I thought,” Elisabeth said. “I should put you over my knee and paddle your bottom red.”

I snapped my eyes back up to her. “Just you try it,” I said. “I’ll-” I trailed off.

“You’ll… what?” Elisabeth said, her eyes narrowed.

I tried a different tack. “We don’t have that kind of relationship anymore,” I said. “But is that how you get off? Treating your former lovers like a wayward child? Does the thought excite you? Is that what the big, strong wolf needs? Is that why you were dating down in the first place?”

She loomed closer. “No.”

“Maybe you just like scaring me,” I said. “You sure seemed to enjoy it the last time I was here.”

“God damn it, Zoe!” she said. “I’m trying to scare some sense into you.”

“So being afraid of you is an appropriate reaction, and I was fully justified in trying to run. Gee. I wonder why I didn’t want to continue to come to dinners. It wasn’t just that I didn’t want to be around my former lover, the woman who didn’t think I was good enough for her.”

“You broke up with me!”

“I wasn’t enough for you, and you even admitted it.”

“Stay focused, Enforcer,” Lara said.

Elisabeth froze for a moment, then she offered a flash of a smile. “I’m not here as your former lover,” she said. “I am here as the Head Enforcer for the pack. What do I have to do to convince you to never run from an enforcer again? Are you going to make me beat you? What?”

“Go ahead!” I spat. “You’re just looking for an excuse to put me in my place. Go ahead! I can’t stop you.”

“Enforcer,” Michaela said. “She’s not a rabbit, and you have her cornered.”

Elisabeth shook the arms of the chair for a moment then straightened, stepping back a half yard. “No, Zoe,” she said, “I am not looking for an excuse to do anything to you. I’m looking for an excuse not to.”

I glared at her before turning away. “I was afraid,” I said. “I panicked. Given the circumstances and everything that has happened since, I think my reactions were fully justified. It’s called fight or flight. Look it up sometime.”

She leaned back into my space, but not as close as she’d been before. “When an enforcer tells you to do something, you will do it.” She punctuated each of the last three words. “When an enforcer shows up on your doorstep, you will open your door and smile. Or else.”

“Or else?” I said. “Or else?” I squeaked that time. “Were you watching when I was carried in here? I wasn’t half out of my mind; I was fully out of my mind. And you think threatening me is going to help?”

Elisabeth leaned forward with her hands on the arm of the chair again. She glared into my eyes from a few inches away. I glared back.

“You’re not the frightened mouse they carried in here.”

“Also called fight or flight,” I said. “You really should look it up.” But I lowered my gaze. “I get it. Assuming I’m not in a full-out panic, I’ll do what I’m told. On the other hand, if I’m in a panic, you can expect the same reaction you got today, and all the threats in the world won’t change it.”

Then I looked up. “But if you lay a hand on me, you better be prepared to kill me. I will not tolerate abuse. And if you try putting me in that cell, I will go with the understanding I won’t be leaving again.”

“God damn it, Zoe!” she spat. “Shut up!”

“Go to hell.”

“Well, this is productive,” Michaela said. “Elisabeth, back off.”

“I’m handling this, Alpha,” Elisabeth said.

“You’re treating a human like a wolf,” Michaela said. “And if you threaten her one more time, she’s going to say something that’s awfully hard to forgive. Do you want her to start threatening back? She only has one threat, and if she says it, we have to kill her. Now back off!”

Elisabeth shook my chair again, but she stepped away. Michaela moved between us. She pointed at me. “You sit there and shut up.” She didn’t wait for me to respond, but she turned to Elisabeth.

“She needs to learn her place,” Elisabeth stated before Michaela could say anything to her.

“We’ll discuss it later, Elisabeth,” Michaela said. “Was there anything else you needed to tell her as Head Enforcer?”

“I need to know if she’s going to do what she’s told,” Elisabeth replied.

“She told you she would.”

“She told me she’d run after nearly running over one of my enforcers!”

“That was her own fault!” I blurted.

Michaela spun to me. “I told you to be quiet. And don’t even think of talking back to me.”

Again she didn’t wait but turned back to Elisabeth. “She said she’d obey if she wasn’t in a blind panic. That’s the best you’re going to get from her. The trick now is to keep her from future panic.”

“She had no reason to panic,” Elisabeth said.

Michaela didn’t even wait for my outburst. Without even looking, she pointed a finger at me. “We’ll talk about that later as well,” Michaela told Elisabeth. “Anything else?”

The two stared at each other for several heartbeats. “No, Alpha,” Elisabeth said finally.

“Good. Wait right there.” She turned around to face me. “You.” She pointed at me. “Apologize to the head enforcer.” She stepped sideways so I could see past her to Elisabeth.

“Her first,” I said sullenly. “She’s the one who threatened me.”

“She was doing her job, and you know it,” Michaela said firmly.

“Bullying me?” I asked. “That’s her job? Don’t any of you know bullying isn’t socially acceptable anymore?”

From past Michaela, Lara cracked a smile. I stared at her. “You think that’s funny, Alpha?”

“After a fashion,” Lara replied. “Michaela said those very words to me the first time we met.”

“Elisabeth’s job is to discipline wayward pack members,” Michaela explained. “Which you know. You were a wayward pack member, and a yelling is getting off lightly. Your continued tone isn’t helping your situation. I think you’re being intentionally belligerent because you’re goading us into proving to you we’re monsters.”

I stared at her for a minute, then lowered my gaze. I wasn’t sure she was entirely accurate, but it was fair to say I was goading them.

“Head Enforcer,” I said, “I apologize for my tone.” I didn’t mean a single word of it.

No one responded. I wasn’t sure if they were expecting more, but it was as much as they were going to get.

Finally Michaela said, “Elisabeth, accept the apology.”

There was another pause, and then Elisabeth said, “Zoe, your tone is forgiven.”

“Zoe, thank her.”

I looked up. Elisabeth looked as upset as I felt. “Thank you,” I managed to croak out. I didn’t feel at all thankful. She should be apologizing to me.

“Head Enforcer,” Michaela said firmly. “I will handle the rest of this. You need to calm down. Right now, the two of you don’t respond well to each other. I wish your permission to reassign one or two of your enforcers. Do I have it?”

“Assignment of enforcers is my responsibility,” Elisabeth said.

Michaela didn’t take her eyes from me, but from beyond her, Lara stepped up next to Elisabeth and whispered in her ear. Elisabeth nodded and said, “Of course, Alpha. Whatever you need.”

“Thank you. Go calm down, Elisabeth. Perhaps a swim before dinner will feel good. We could meet you in fifteen or twenty minutes.”

“I’d like that, Michaela.” She began moving to the door but then stopped beside me, looking down at me. She began to reach a hand out for me, and I stiffened, but didn’t pull away. She dropped her hand and fled the room.

Michaela paced away from me for a minute while I sat in the chair, staring at the floor. Finally she came to a stop in front of me. “Are you going to try to run again?”

“I can’t vouch for what happens if I panic,” I replied.

“Are you about to panic?”

I looked up at her. “I don’t know. I’ve been dragged from my car, kidnapped, carried up here, and been threatened not only with a beating but also with an execution. Fear and panic seem like pretty reasonable reactions to me.” I glared for a moment. “If you intend to toss me in that cell, just get it over with.”

Michaela pursed her lips. “That is not my intention,” she said. She looked around. “Eric and Rory, I’m sure you can find something else to do. Monique, you have homework.” Then she stopped, her gaze on Karen. “You too, Karen.” She gestured with her head towards the door. A moment later, I was left in the room with the alphas, Serena and Portia.

Michaela turned back to me. “I am not pleased with you, Zoe.”

I returned my gaze to the floor.

“Why didn’t you return my calls?”

“I didn’t want to listen to you yell at me or remind me I had to come to Wednesday dinners.”

“If you had listened to my voice messages, or if you had actually called me the way you should have, you would know that’s not why I was calling.”

I looked up at her.

“I was calling to remind you that you have friends. I was calling to make sure
my friend
was okay. And I was calling to tell you I understood if you needed some time away from the compound, but I was only giving you one month. That ended today.”

She let me chew on that for a minute. Then she leaned close, the same as Elisabeth had, her hands on the sides of the chair. “This had better be the last time you ignore my calls. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Alpha,” I replied in a small voice. I didn’t apologize.

She straightened. “All right.” Then she began pacing again. She stopped by Portia and said something too quiet for me to hear, then she paced her way to Lara. “Alpha, I find I must press charges against this pack member.”

“What?” I squeaked.

She turned to me. “Shut up. Anything you say right now is going to make this worse. Just shut up.”

She turned back to Lara. “One charge of insubordination for refusing my calls; one charge for running from the enforcers; one for refusing to stop when Monique ordered her to stop; another charge of insubordination for her tone with the head enforcer. And I’m not sure what charge to levy for nearly running Monique over.”

“That was her fault!”

She spun to me. “And a charge of insubordination for
not shutting up
!”

I clamped my lips together.

She turned back to Lara. “I believe you once charged me with endangerment of a valued pack asset. I don’t know if there is a more appropriate charge.”

“Probably,” said Lara, “but that one will do. Ms. Young, do you understand the charges levied against you?”

“I don’t know the punishments,” I said in a small voice. “Is there a trial? Do I get a lawyer?”

“In this case, insubordination would be handled with pack service,” Lara said. “Endangerment of a valued pack resource is a more serious charge. There is a hearing, which we would conduct immediately. I have already heard the prosecution, so unless Michaela has more to say, you will present your defense and I will make a decision.”