Wolf Ways (The Madison Wolves Book 9) (37 page)

“No. Neither of us is going to lose track.” She took my arm, led me out the back door, and then we were running again.

A few minutes later, I took another prisoner. I wasn’t the one who shot him, but he got to twenty-five in his counting, and he was just on the other side of my barricade, so I popped up yelling “Guard” and got to him before he hit thirty. I let him talk me down to thirty minutes if he helped me run back to jail with him.

But then I barely left jail before I got shot. “I’m hit,” and a second later, Monique popped up from the edge of the field yelling “Guard”.

I let her take me prisoner. I let her run me to her jail.

“I love this game,” she said. “I’ve been captured three times, but I finally got you.”

“Yes, you did,” I said. “Good one. Please let me go, Monique.”

“I want a camera like yours,” she said.

“Monique, I can’t pay for that!”

“No, no,” she said. “I’m going to ask my mom. I want you to help me talk to her, and then I want you to teach me how to use it.”

“Oh.” I thought about it. “Monique, I can’t in good conscience tell your mom to get a camera like either of mine. They are both professional cameras and very, very expensive. But they are a few years old, and good quality consumer level cameras have caught up in the most important features.”

“Oh,” she said “I didn’t know. How expensive?”

“Mine are older models, but new, professional cameras similar to mine start at about twenty-five hundred. One of mine was over five grand. And that’s just the camera. The lenses can cost that much or more. That’s way too much camera to start with.”

“Oh,” she said again. “I don’t want that. Now I don’t know what to do.”

“How about we talk to your mom and I’ll talk about the right camera to start with. It will be kind of like mine, but a consumer level camera. And you should know, Michaela asked me to teach a class on all this.”

“Will she let me take it?”

“You’ll have to ask her. But I’ll help you talk to your mom, and if she agrees, I’ll teach you how to use it.”

She smiled and held out her hand.

“But… that’s a huge bribe, Monique.”

“I know.”

“So you have to help me run back to my side.”

She laughed and held out her hand again.

Five minutes later, I found myself exchanging shots with a couple of wolves. We both had good cover, and I wasn’t the only one shooting at them. But then I popped up to take my shot but instead got nailed right between the eyes. I was getting used to it, so while it startled me, I didn’t react poorly. I raised my hands and surrendered.

And was taken prisoner by Portia.

“Finally got me?” I asked her.

“Yep.” She ran me back. I could really get used to that. Once we were at the jail, I asked her to let me go.

“I want hugs.”

“Hugs?”

“Yep. Whenever I want. Forever.”

“Really?” I asked. She nodded. “You’re asking for something you could have anyway.”

She didn’t say anything, and I wondered if she was telling me something.

“Portia, is that what you really want?”

She paused before nodding.

“What did you really want?”

“You’re not willing to give me my hugs?” she asked.

“Of course I am. But you wanted something else and chickened out, didn’t you?”

“Um. No, I want hugs. Whenever I want. That may include times I’m wet and you’re not.”

I laughed. “You may have hugs when we’re either both wet or both dry. If you want them at other times, then I want you to run me back to my side.”

She laughed and agreed.

I barely missed the next bell, and then the referee called out, “Five minute warning.”

I really wanted to catch one more person. I’d consistently been going to the right, and I was sure anyone after me knew that, so I went left, moving quickly. I managed to work my way to the far edge and had good cover. More importantly, I could just barely see someone’s shoulder while remaining under cover. I lined up and waited for the right moment.

And then I felt the barrel of a gun in my back.

“Surrender.”

“Monique.” I raised my hands.

“Guard!” she yelled, raising her own hands. She ran me back to jail. I knew I wouldn’t get back into the game again, and I knew I didn’t have enough points to remotely come close to winning, so when we arrived, I didn’t ask to be released.

“Aren’t you going to ask me to free you?”

“I won’t get back in time to catch anyone,” I said.

“I’ll meet you in the same place and make sure no one else shoots at you, and we have just enough time for one more round if we hurry.”

“Are you trying to sucker me?”

“No. If anyone else shoots you, or if neither of us manages to shoot the other one before time is over, then you don’t owe me.”

“Please let me go, Monique.”

“A date.”

“Monique!”

“Not for me!” she said. “Someone I pick.”

“Seriously?”

She nodded.

“Not Elisabeth.”

“No, not Elisabeth.”

“A woman.”

“Yes.”

“An adult woman within ten years of my age.”

“Or so.”

I thought quickly. “Agreed.”

“Come on.” She grabbed my arm and then we were running, really running. She brought me most of the way back to my side, along the outside of the arena, then said, “Run! I’ll meet you at the same place.”

I ran.

As I drew close to the old spot, I heard Monique calling out, “No one shoot Zoe! No one shoot Zoe.”

I didn’t make the same request for her, but I saw wolves on both sides moving away from us. I guess they were going to let us have it out sans interference.

“One minute warning!” the referee called.

“Zoe, ten second truce!” Monique called out. We both popped out from cover. I realized she had done it just so we could spot each other, but that was probably for the best, as otherwise we would have run out of time before engaging. “As soon as we duck, I’m coming for you!”

I didn’t wait. I ducked and ran away from her, picking a different obstacle to hide behind.  I spun around, and she was running after me, firing wildly. I returned fire, but missed, missed, missed, and then we were both behind cover again.

Then I waited for her.

I was sure she’d try to come in behind me, so I turned my back to the side I’d come from.

She didn’t come from the other side. Instead, she came over the top, leaping over me.

From nearly point blank range, we shot each other. The human briefers had told us to avoid shooting each other from too close of range, but the wolves ignored that guideline; it wasn’t a rule, anyway.

Monique came to a stop. “Um. Now what?” I asked.

“We’re both hit!” she called out. She lifted her hands and stood up. “Start counting. One…”

I lifted my hands and let her count for both of us. She reached fifteen before we were each taken prisoner.

The referee called the game before we reached jail.

“You still have to bribe your way to freedom,” my guard told me. “If you don’t, we get to use you for target practice. The wolves sometimes get stubborn, but you won’t like it.”

“I don’t recognize your voice.”

“I’m Harper Armstrong. We haven’t met. My daughter was one of Michaela’s students. She’s around here somewhere. We get invited to these things and come when we can.”

We reached jail, and I turned to her. “Harper, please let me go.”

She tapped her toe on the ground. “I’m trying to decide what I want.”

“Five points.”

She crossed her arms, looking at me. “I don’t like taking points for bribes, but I’m not sure what I want.”

“Please, Harper. I don’t have anything you want. Twelve points. It’s all I have.”

“No,” she said. “If I take points, I’ll take five. Anyone with zero or negative points gets used for target practice.” She paused. “A date.”

“A date? Seriously?” I thought it was funny right after Monique asked for one. “Am I paying for this date?”

“No. I’ll pay. Dinner and a movie.”

“I’m vegan.”

“I know. You’re quite the talk of the pack.”

“A date,” I agreed, “but I don’t know if I’m allowed to go anywhere until my sentence is paid.”

“I’ll work with Portia. If I have to wait, I’ll wait.”

“Why do you want a date with me, Harper?”

“I haven’t had a date in three years, and it sounds like fun. It’s just a date.”

“Well then, if I’m giving you a date, I want a hug.”

And so I got one.

Over dinner, the wolves talked about nothing but the games. Michaela gave out a bunch of prizes, most of them small and some of them very amusing. Everyone had a good time.

“How about you, Zoe?”

“I liked that last game the most,” I said. “It was too short.”

Everyone laughed in agreement. Michaela smiled at me, and I felt a few hands clasp my shoulders for a brief moment.

“I want to hear the bribes people paid,” she said. “Raise your hand if you think you have interesting bribes to share.”

A bunch of hands went up, including mine. Michaela looked around. “Ember.”

“I have to let Kimbriella do my makeup every day next week.”

“Oh good one,” Michaela said. “I look forward to seeing what she does. Who else?” She worked her way around the room. The wolves were very creative in the bribes they asked for. She got to Connor.

“I have to call Ember ‘Lady Ember’.”

Ember spoke up. “For how long, Connor?”

“A week.”

“And what happens if you forget?”

“You get to add a day,” he said.

“Does anyone notice what he just called me?” she asked.

The wolves began to laugh.

“So you mean for eight days, Connor,” Ember said with a smile. “I agree with Zoe. I like this game. Even if I owe her forty-five minutes against her sentence.”

Michaela turned to me and gave me a sharp look.

“Hey,” I said. “Portia said it was legal.”

“Not that. I’m just wondering how many you caught.”

“Ember, Kaylee and…” I looked around. “You know, I didn’t get his name, but he wrote it down.”

“It was I.”

I looked over and saw Nick, Scarlett’s dad holding up his hand.

“Oh. And Nick. I only recognized a few of you in your equipment.”

“You mistook me for a wolf?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Except for Michaela, you’re all bigger than I am.”

“All right,” said Michaela. “Who else?” She looked around. “Rory, we haven’t heard from you.”

“My bribes were boring,” he said. “I won’t say whom, but one of your students tried to get me to agree to a date, but I begged off. Ten years is a little too big a gap.”

“Ah, I was wondering when someone would mention being ‘forced’ to accept a date. Without Nora here, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Raise your hand if you owe a date.”

I looked around. Four of us had our hands up. A moment later, I heard a growl, and when I looked over, I saw Elisabeth glaring around the room. But Lara put an arm on her hand and whispered to her.

I shrugged. I wasn’t hers anymore, and I could date if I wanted to.

Michaela settled her gaze on me. “Zoe. Did you have other interesting bribes in addition to dates?”

“Yes.” I looked at Monique. “Is my bribe to you private?”

“No, go ahead,” she said.

“Monique wants help picking out a camera and learning how to use it,” I said. “And I owe two dates, and I don’t even know either person. But at least I met one of them.”

“What do you mean, you met one of them?” Michaela asked.

“One of the dates is to someone here. For the other, one of your students got me to agree to a date with someone she picks. We placed a few stipulations.”

“I hope one of those stipulations was your date should be an adult.”

I laughed. “Yeah. And female.”

“Well, you’re trying to be cryptic, but half the people here know who caught you, so we can make guesses.” Michaela turned to look at Portia.

“Hey, it wasn’t me,” Portia said. “I figure I already have a two-week date with her.”

That was worth some laughs and a couple of catcalls.

And more glares from Elisabeth, but I ignored her. Mostly.

* * * *

Michaela appropriated my company for dinner, telling Monique to sit with her friends and releasing Portia from watching me until it was time to go home. She leaned over to me and asked, “Harper asked for a date?”

I nodded. “Is she nice?”

“Exceedingly, and she has the most amazing daughter.” She paused. “Make it a good date, Zoe. You both deserve a nice time, and you both could do far worse.”

“Matchmaking again?”

“Always. I won’t interfere.”

“I told her she might have to wait until my sentence is over.”

“No,” Michaela said. “You have no driving privileges, but if Harper agrees to pick you up and drop you off, she can have you tomorrow night, if she wants. Otherwise it will have to be next week or some time after that. I’ll let her know. Well, assuming that’s okay with you. It’s your date. But Portia will be with me.”

“Do you know what she likes?”

“Harper? Not a clue. I’ve never seen her date and couldn’t have told you if she preferred men or women.”

“I’m not sure you can judge by this. I think it was the first thing that popped into her head. It’s just a lark. But that’s okay.”

“Well, keep an open mind. She’s one of my favorite people. You’re going to like her.”

“I will.”

“Now, this other date… I saw Elisabeth had you, but I can’t imagine she asked for a date.”

“She wants a conversation.”

“Ah. Well, I won’t spoil that. Are you going to be okay?”

“If she doesn’t browbeat me.” I paused. “I’m not really ready to be alone with her, but I suppose I owe her.”

“She owes you at least as much. Portia said it wasn’t her. Monique asked for help with the camera. I didn’t see who else caught you.”

“Monique caught me twice.”

“Ah ha!” she said.

“I thought she was asking for a date for herself. I was a little shocked.”

Michaela lowered her voice. “She may have been.”

“What?”

“She’s had quite the crush on me.”

“I had noticed.”

“She may be transferring her affection.”

“Oh god. Michaela, she’s really sweet, but she’s a kid.”

“I think it’s fine, but maybe I’ll talk to her. Make a point of calling her a friend. It will be fine. She’s a good kid, but she sometimes feels like an outsider. She’ll outgrow that as she becomes more accepted by the enforcers. But she lived in her sister’s shadow for a long time, and at school she’s not in the science program. All the kids are good kids, but there’s a distinct difference between being in the science program and the enforcer program. So she kind of holds on to people who treat her well.”

“Should I back off?”

“No. It will be fine. She probably doesn’t realize she’s doing it. I’ll handle it.”

I studied her profile for a moment. “You work hard.”

She glanced at me with a smile. “Thank you for noticing. So you enjoyed that last game?”

“Yeah. I think next time we should play it twice.”

She laughed. “That’s a popular request, but you’ll realize you’ve got quite a few bribes to pay off. You weren’t caught as many as some. I, for instance, was caught seven times.”

“Did you catch anyone?”

“Hell no. If we played in the trees, it would be a different story.”

“So is the reason we don’t play twice is because you don’t want to?”

She laughed lightly. “No. We don’t want to overplay it because this way makes it the crown for the day.”

“I wanted to catch a few more.”

“We all want to catch a few more. You caught three. That’s good on your first day.”

“I only caught two. Someone else shot Scarlett’s dad, but no one was claiming him, so I did.”

“Well, that’s still good.” She paused. “It may have been Angel, who suddenly realized that demanding a bribe from her wife’s father might not be prudent.”

I smiled. “I don’t know. She could have asked for embarrassing Scarlett-as-a-baby stories.”

“I bet she’s heard all of those.”

During the movie, I got placed next to Lara, with Portia on my other side. While we waited for the movie to start, Lara leaned to me. “I’m glad to see things are going better for you.”

“Me, too. Lara?”

“Yes?”

“Do I have to worry about your sister? I heard her growling.”

“No. Ignore that. That’s her… inner spirit trying to catch up to reality. She’ll be fine.”

“It’s hard to ignore when she growls at me.”

“She wasn’t growling at you. She was expressing displeasure with whomever was bold enough to ask you out. I presume my mate already found out who it was and will talk to them to make sure they know it’s safe.”

“You know her well.”

“She has her fingers in everything.”

“I heard that,” Michaela said from the other side. “If you want your fingers in me, you’ll be careful.”

Lara leaned the other way and kissed Michaela.

I didn’t know anything about the movie we were seeing. It turned out to be a cheesy action movie, and around me, I heard the wolves heckling.

“They should let us do the action sequences,” I heard one of the kids say. “Now that would be a movie!”

I had to admit, I’d pay to watch that.

* * * *

Later in the car ride home, I said, “Why was everyone so tense in Key West but so relaxed today?”

“We’re home,” Portia explained. “We’re not at war with anyone. And we had so many wolves there, someone would have to be truly insane to try anything.”

Later before climbing into bed, Portia asked for her hug. We held each other for a long time.

“Will you tell me what you really were going to ask for?” I asked her. “You didn’t ask to be on opposite sides for hugs.”

“No, I am not going to tell you, and I don’t want you to keep asking, Zoe.”

“Will you tell me why you won’t tell me?”

“No. No more questions on it.”

And so I stopped asking, but I didn’t stop wondering.