Wolf Ways (The Madison Wolves Book 9) (29 page)

“Are you going to help me?” I paused. “I don’t think I can spot for you.”

She laughed. “No, probably not. Yes, I’ll help you. We’re just doing a light workout to get the muscles moving. You’re going to have to guide me, as I have no idea what a light workout is for you.”

“I’m not sure I do, either.” She laughed.

Ten minutes later, we stepped outside together. It was brisk and fresh out, a perfect fall day. The gym was only a short walk; we could see the back corner from Portia’s doorstep.

“What’s going on over there?” I asked, pointing.

“Michaela’s building a second pool,” Portia said. “This one is specifically for scuba practice. It is deep with caves built into it for practicing diving in tight corners. One of the caves has a window that is exactly the smallest size a male wolf in dive gear could safely use. She and Karen talked about that, and it will be against pack rules for even someone smaller to use an opening any tinier.”

“Wow.” I shook my head. What a different world.

Once we arrived in the gym, Portia directed us. “We’ll start with a brief cardio workout. Then we’ll hit the weights. And we finish with another cardio. Do you want bikes, stair climbers, or rowing machines?”

“No treadmills?”

“When we want to go for a run, we go for a proper run.”

“When you want to go for a bike ride, you could go for a bike ride.”

She laughed. “And Michaela would love if we were right next to Lake Superior for a row. Choose.”

“Bikes.”

With a hand on my back, she led the way. We climbed onto side-by-side exercise bikes. “Twenty minutes,” she said. “Get your heart moving, but not pounding.”

She talked to me while we pedaled. Twenty minutes wasn’t bad, and I felt good when we were done. We came to a stop together, and Portia turned to me. “Wolves don’t need to worry about this, so I didn’t think of it. Do you need to stretch?”

“Yes, probably,” I said.

“Do you need help?”

“No. It will just take a few minutes.”

“There are mats this way.” She led the way to another small room. There were mats on the floor and walls.

“What is this room for?” I asked.

“Sparring.” She paused. “Interested?”

“Self-defense training?”

“Yes.”

“Are you like a black belt or something?”

“Or something.”

I thought about it. “I’d be pretty hopeless, Portia.”

“It’s your choice, Zoe,” she said. “Any time.”

“Thanks. Maybe not today.”

I dropped to the mats and began stretching. Zoe sat down next to me and did her own stretching. When I raised an eyebrow she said, “We’re doing everything together.” Then she proceeded to demonstrate how limber she was. I found myself staring at her. “What? Did I grow a second head?”

“All of you continue to amaze me, that’s all,” I admitted.

“I don’t mind being admired, but we’re here to get a workout.”

“Yes, Portia,” I said. I went back to my own stretches, but that didn’t stop me from watching her. She caught me a few times and smiled broadly.

I went through my own stretches, and it turned out she did her own watching. “You can do better than that,” she said. “Press harder. Stop before it hurts, then hold it. It’s not enough to stretch. You should be working to improve your flexibility.” She paused. “You know, Michaela does yoga.”

“I like yoga,” I admitted. “I have some videos, but we didn’t bring them.”

“A problem for another day,” she said. She pressed me to stretch harder for a few minutes then asked if I was ready for weights.

That was when we ran into a snag. They didn’t have weight training machines; they had free weights. And even their lightest bars were too heavy for me. Portia frowned and said, “Don’t worry about it. We’ll take turns, and I’ll help you.” So she spotted me for most of my exercises, and I knew she was taking some of the weight of the empty bar so I could do what she directed.

Still, I felt really good when she declared we were done. I admitted that.

“Good. Twenty more minutes of cardio. What would you like?”

“I have old knees, Portia. Stair climbers are hard on me. Otherwise, whatever you want.”

She cocked her head.

“You don’t understand what I said?” I asked.

“No.”

“Humans begin to fall apart sometime after thirty-five,” I said. “It manifests itself in a variety of ways. For me, it’s begun to affect my knees. I can bike and run, but stair climbers and deep knee bends will leave me hobbling around for two days. There’s nothing to be done about it.”

“All right,” she said. “Let’s use the rowing machines.”

* * * *

After we showered and dressed, she led the way back to her house. “Zoe, I talked to the alphas last night. I am not obligated to watch you twenty-four hours a day.”

“That’s a good thing. Sleep is important.”

“Can I trust you?”

“Of course.”

“Then I give you a choice. You may pack your breakfast and bring it to the alphas’, or you may eat here. I am eating there.”

“I don’t want to make you wait.”

“I’d leave you here, and you would walk over after your breakfast.”

“Oh. I see. Whatever you want, Portia.”

“No. This is your choice.”

I would have liked to eat with
her
, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend any more time with the rest of the pack than I absolutely had to. Inwardly I sighed.

“It would take me ten minutes to make something. If you wait, then I’ll walk over with you. If not, then I’ll eat here and join you when I’m done.”

“And do you have a preference?” she asked.

I smiled. “To eat with you.”

“Then I will wait.”

It took me a little longer than ten minutes, as I was unfamiliar with Portia’s kitchen, and I had to clean up afterwards. She made no indication of impatience, and soon enough I was carrying a sack breakfast with me as we walked across the compound.

Portia’s hand on my back was comforting.

As it always seemed to be, the alphas’ house was busy. I didn’t see the pups, but the living room held four teenagers. Lara, Michaela, Elisabeth, and several enforcers were at the dining room table at various stages of their breakfast. We greeted everyone and were warmly greeted in return.

No one seemed to find it at all unusual I was there.

Portia collected a plate of food from the kitchen, and we sat down. I took a seat as far from Elisabeth as I could without being obvious. Conversation was light and easy, although like last night, I was quiet.

It all seemed so normal. It shouldn’t have seemed normal, should it? Nothing was normal about any of this, after all.

As I finished my meal, Michaela said, “Zoe, I need you for about a half hour after school this afternoon. This does not count towards your sentence.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Portia, please coordinate that with Serena.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Portia replied.

“Portia,” said Serena, “I need you Monday from four PM until late. And you’ll be on duty next weekend. Otherwise, there’s nothing scheduled that I don’t have covered.”

“All right,” Portia answered.

I paused, then said, “Um…”

“Yes, Zoe?” Michaela asked.

“If Portia is on duty Monday, does that mean I have to go to the cell in the barracks?”

Both alphas turned to look at me for a minute. Finally Lara said, “Ask again on Monday.”

“May I ask why you can’t answer today?”

“Because we’re waiting to see whether you follow through on your promises to be pleasant,” Michaela explained.

“Oh.” I lowered my head. “I understand.” I still felt sullen. I thought everything they had done was unfair, and now they were threatening to imprison me if I didn’t paste on a fake smile.

Portia reached over and clasped my hand for a moment. “Zoe has been lovely,” she said. “You have nothing to worry about, Alpha.”

“If that remains the case,” Michaela said, “then it will be Portia’s decision what to do with you while she’s otherwise occupied. Otherwise, it becomes that of the alphas.”

“I understand,” I said again. “And next weekend?”

“That is what we’re discussing this afternoon. You owe me five days plus your October pack service days. There is a field trip. I don’t have time to get into it right now.”

“Of course. Thank you for explaining, Alpha.” I realized as I said it that I was feeling vulnerable around both of them, terribly afraid of offending them. I didn’t know I was supposed to fit in if I felt the need to walk on eggshells around them. It seemed unlikely.

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “Hmm. A half hour may not be sufficient. Plan on an hour, but we might be done sooner than that.” Without waiting for a response, she rose to her feet. Then she pulled Lara’s face to hers and gave her a deep, deep kiss. Elisabeth received a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll be back down in a minute, then we can go, Serena.”

We all stared as she bounded up the stairs.

Lara’s gaze was obvious. She remained deeply in love with her spouse.

It seemed so normal. Why did it feel so normal?

Well, discounting the whole eggshells thing.

* * * *

The house emptied out. Michaela left for school taking Serena and Angel with her. A short while after that, Lara left with Elisabeth and Karen. Then the teenagers packed up. Finally, Nora collected Rebecca and Celeste, and soon they were gone along with the last of the enforcers. Portia and I had the house to ourselves.

By then, we had long finished eating. I washed our dishes, and by the time I returned to the dining room, Portia was waiting with paper, pencils, and a measuring tape. When I looked, I realized she had drawn a floor plan of the house, both upstairs and down.

I’d never been upstairs.

“All right. We’re measuring the rooms. Come on.”

We started downstairs. I took the end of the tape measure and held it where Portia directed. It took about fifteen minutes to measure everything she wanted measured. Then we did the stairway and the upstairs hallway.

There were four bedrooms upstairs and one bath — I would discover shortly there was a second bath in the master suite. We started with the bathroom and a bedroom that Portia called, “The pups’ room.” Then we measured a couple of bedrooms that clearly belonged to teenage girls.

Finally we turned to the master suite. I felt quite strange invading the alphas’ personal space, but Portia walked in like it was nothing. When I hesitated at the doorway, she asked me what’s wrong.

“I don’t want to invade their privacy.”

She cocked her head. “We’re supposed to be here.”

“I know. It just seems… I don’t like people going through my things; I can’t imagine they’re any different.”

“We’re not going through their things. We’re measuring the walls.”

“I just…” I paused. “You’re right. I’m being silly.”

“You’re being respectful of their privacy,” Portia countered. “But you don’t need to worry. Come on.”

* * * *

Fifteen minutes later, we were done. As we stepped out of the house, she asked me, “Are you afraid of heights?”

“No.”

“Ladders?”

“No.”

“Falling off of roofs?”

“Well, I would prefer not to fall off any roofs,” I admitted with a smile. “But if the roof isn’t too steep, I’m not afraid.”

“Perfect. Come on.”

She led me past several houses, and then I realized she was taking me to Angel’s house. Well, Francesca’s house, I guess. “What are we doing here?”

“This is where the things are we need.” We didn’t enter the house. Instead, there was a touch pad for the garage. Portia walked straight to it, entered a code, and the garage door opened. Inside was parked a nondescript sedan in one stall. The other side held a large riding lawn mower and a push mower. Along one wall was every tool known to man, or so it seemed. Portia led the way to the ladders. She eyed them. “The extension ladder, I guess,” she said, pointing. It hung on hooks high above our heads.

“How do we get it down?”

Portia demonstrated by grabbing a stepladder. She positioned it at the center point of the extension ladder, climbed up, and easily pulled the ladder off the hooks.

Two minutes later, with one of us on each end, we were making our way to her house.

“What are we doing?”

“Carrying a ladder,” she said.

“Oh, that was so informative, Miss Obvious.”

“I know,” she replied. “You can thank me later. It sure is a beautiful morning, isn’t it?”

At her house, she leaned the ladder into place, extending it until one end was well above the lowest point of the roof. Then she turned to me. “We need to measure my roof. How comfortable are you on a ladder?”

I didn’t wait. I climbed up the ladder. Getting off the ladder and unto the roof took just a little bit of jockeying, but soon enough, I was easily standing, looking down at her. “Comfortable enough?”