Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) (13 page)

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We had a nice weekend with the Bancroft family. We did m
ore climbing and went on a hike. Saturday evening, we went for a run together.

"No games," Elisabeth said to me before the run. "You will plaster yourself to Lara's side and stay there. I will be on your other side.

"I do not answer to you anymore, Enforcer," I told her, my eyes flashing.

"You do when it comes to security," Lara interjected.

"Oh please," I said. "This isn't security. It's politics." Then I smiled at Elisabeth. "Both of you understand wolf politics better than I do, so I will happily follow your recommendations. What do you suggest?"

"Damned fox," Elisabeth muttered.

"We have discussed this, Enforcer!" I said firmly. "That is 'damned alpha fox' to you!"

"Damned fox," she said again.

"I think the two of you should assume I know how to be charming," I said. "But if you don't, tell me and I'll follow along meekly, keeping my little fox tail tucked firmly between my legs."

"As if," Elisabeth muttered.

"Honestly," I said.

"Like you could," Lara said. "Please stay with me, Michaela, and run. No games."

I sighed. "How will you get proper exercise?"

"Maybe that multi-pitch climb this afternoon will have to do," Lara said. She flexed her shoulders as if she
was stretching them out, but I knew she felt good from it.

I laughed. "All right."

Elisabeth shifted to fur. While we were waiting for her, I pulled Lara into the kitchen then tried to push her up against the wall. She stood there, a wall all on her own.

"What are you doing?" she asked as I pressed against her.

"You could cooperate," I said. "I am being sexually aggressive."

She laughed, spun us around, and immediately had me in her arms, my legs wrapped around her waist, and my back pressed against the wall. "Like this?" she asked after a long, passionate kiss.

We had a thorough kissing session while Elisabeth shifted, both of us completely losing track of her progress. It wasn't until she stood in the entrance to the kitchen, chuffing at us, that we realized she had completed her shift.

"We have an audience," I told Lara.

"She likes to watch," Lara replied.

Elisabeth huffed her annoyance.

"I suppose we should go," I said.

My clothes had loosened themselves while Lara and I were kissing. Or at least that's my story. Still in Lara's arms, I shifted to fox then licked her face before she set me down. She helped me wriggle out of my clothes, then picked them up and set them on the counter. I watched as my wife disrobed, and seconds later, she stood in front of me in all her wolf's glory.

I chuffed and licked her face.

With Elisabeth in the lead, we stepped outside, collected the rest of our enforcers, then headed to the boathouse.

Brooke was waiting for us. Shortly, several furry wolves joined us. They took up defensive positions. Then Daniel, Ysabella, and the kids trotted along the path from their cabins towards us, their enforcers spread out around them.

Daniel was a glorious alpha male wolf, easily recognized. Ysabella would have been easy to overloo
k, although I realized she reminded me a little of Francesca. But I thought Francesca carried herself better. Ysabella had a fine coat, but her tail was down, and she didn't carry herself with the confidence an alpha's mate should have.

The kids were, well, kids. They were, of course, much larger than I was. I lost two thirds of my body mass when I shifted to fox, making me small and delicate compared to all but the youngest wolf pup.
But there was no mistaking, even from a distance, which was Cory and which was Casey. Cory was larger, just entering adolescence. But Casey pranced, joyous in her fur. The difference between the two kids was clear, not just in size, but also in attitude.

Brooke pranced over to meet her family as they approached, and then the five of them approached Lara and me. The enforcers tried to interpose themselves, taking defensive positions in a fashion that made it clear they considered us a threat, but Daniel chuffed at them, physically nudging three of them out of the way. He and Lara greeted each other. I stepped up nose to nose with him for a moment, then exchanged greetings with Ysabella and the two kids.

And then Daniel turned and led the way west, running at a slow wolf's pace, immediately leaving me behind.

Brooke traveled with us. I plastered myself to Lara's shoulder, the enforcers fanned out, and we followed along with Brooke very slightly in the lead.

In the thin air, it didn't take long for me to lose track of Daniel's group, even though they hadn't been particularly quiet. Ten minutes later, I heard them approaching again; they had made a loop and were to the southwest. I listened, and if they were looking for us, they weren't going to find us immediately.

Then Daniel howled, twice. Brooke answered, and immediately Daniel adjusted his direction to intercept us.

The two groups rejoined. When we saw them, Daniel led the way with Ysabella just off his right shoulder and slightly behind him. Cory followed around behind Daniel, trying to emulate him, although his tail was down. Casey looked tired out, her tongue lolling to the side, but she was still prancing in joy.

We came to a stop and studied each other for a moment. Casey flopped down on the ground, panting. Her mother looked over at her then clearly decided her daughter was fine.

I sat down and scratched a particularly annoying itch I couldn't quite reach. Lara looked over at me, chuffed, then used her teeth in my fur to worry at the itchy spot. I moved around until she found it, then chuffed my pleasure. I gave her a lick in thanks when she was done.

Daniel looked pointedly at his youngest daughter before lying down. But a minute later, Casey bounded to her feet and bounced over to me. She bowed in front of me, asking me to play with her.

I sat down and looked at Lara. Playing with the little wolf would have been fun, but it fell under politics I didn't understand. Lara looked back and forth between us then chuffed. I looked at Daniel and he offered a wolfy smile.

I bowed to Casey then immediately pounced at her, intentionally missing, but letting her know the game. She immediately ran away, but I batted her tail for her before chasing her around. She was confined to a small area within the protective circle of enforcers and didn't have the room to use her full wolf speed; chasing her around was easy, and I pounced at her several times before bounding away. I stopped and waited for her to turn to me, then bowed.

She immediately began chasing me.

I ran her around carefully. I didn't need to use the other wolves as obstacles, so I didn't set her up to run into any of them. Daniel
, Ysabella, Brooke and Lara surreptitiously formed a corral, and I let Casey herd me into it, my back towards the other wolves. She chuffed, thinking she had me trapped, but when she rushed at me, I ducked around her, yipping, and dashed out of the trap.

Cory was sitting to the side watching our antics. I ran over to him, smacked him gently on the nose, and ran away, trying to draw him into the game.

He huffed at me, and then I had Casey chasing me again. Twice more I ran past Cory, smacking him on the nose as I ran by. The third time I tried running past him, ready to smack him again, he pounced at me, and I barely ducked underneath him.

It only took a few seconds to realize the two siblings didn't know how to work together. They both chased me as if they were the only wolf playing the game. I gave them a chance to start working together, even setting myself to get corralled again, but only if they worked together. They didn't.

I bounded away, leaving them in my dust at the edge of the circle, then ran around behind Brooke. I shifted into human form and whispered to her, "Why aren't they coordinating with each other?"

I shifted back to fox, ready to bound away, but Brooke stood up and interposed herself between me and her younger siblings. She growled at them each, just once, and they both immediately rolled onto their backs in front of her, offering their throats.

Brooke accepted their throats briefly, then shifted to human and walked to Lara. She bent down and whispered in her ear. Lara paused for a moment, then chuffed agreement. Lara then turned to Elisabeth, chuffed at her, then looked pointedly at me.

Oh shit. I knew that look.

Two seconds later, the sisters were stalking me.

I sat down and yawned. A human yawn, letting them know they didn't frighten me. In reality, the two of them working together could easily catch me. Normally, I could make it difficult, but I couldn't use Daniel's wolves as obstacles.

"Cory," Brooke said. "Casey. Come here." They both got up and immediately ran to her. She knelt down and took them both under an arm, turning them to face me. "Watch."

Lara and Elisabeth herded me
all around the available space, working perfectly together. Brooke spoke quietly to her little siblings, explaining what Lara and Elisabeth were doing, and explaining what I was doing to try to evade them. Against the two of them, and with no obstacles I felt I could use, it was easy for them to cut me off, and the few times one or the other of them pounced at me, it took everything I had to avoid being easily caught.

Oh, they caught me, but it wasn't easy. They were able to successfully herd me, but catching me was at least a little more difficult. Still, Elisabeth caught me twice, and the third time Lara caught me, she rolled me onto my back and took my throat slowly. She pinned me to the ground with her body, and I shifted to human underneath her.

As she always did, she adjusted her position to offer me some modesty.

"This wouldn't have been so easy if I could have used the other wolves as obstacles," I said quietly into her ear. She huffed at the suggestion.

I shifted back to fox, and Lara let me climb to my feet. She and Elisabeth lay down, and I pranced over to Cory and Casey. I batted them each once on the nose and ran.

They tried working together this time. They weren't very good at it, but I let them herd me a little. They were still easy to evade, but at least they were working together.

"Better," Brooke declared after a minute watching them. "We'll be working on this."

I bounded over to Lara, looked pointedly at Brooke and chuffed quietly. Lara checked my glance and chuffed permission.  I bounced up to Brooke
, bit her ankle, and ran away.

"Hey!" she yelled after me. I used my ears to track her as she took two steps after me, then jumped, shifting into wolf, and setting off in pursuit.

I ran her twice around our space, and on the second circle, I ran right past Daniel, spanking his nose on the way past, then skidded around him and smacked his tail for good measure. He howled and joined his daughter, chasing me around.

I now had two big, fast, dominant wolves chasing me. More importantly, if they ran through the Boulder enforcers, it wouldn't cause an incident. I began weaving around the enforcers.

Brooke shifted to human and said, "Enforcers, stand still, do not interfere." I chuffed happily, Daniel hot on my tail, but he couldn't turn remotely as quickly as I could.

Brooke shifted back to wolf and cut me off as I came around the circle. I ran directly across the middle, narrowly avoiding Daniel as I ducked between his two youngest children and took a tight turn around Ysabella. Brooke almost had me there, but I ran along Ysabella's side, and Brooke had to hold off to avoid running over his father's mate.

I ran the two of them around for a minute or two.

Daniel managed to trip me once, but I controlled my tumble, shifted to human once, jumped over Ysabella, and shifted back to fox on the way back down.

The two of them finally realized they weren't going to catch me that way. Daniel huffed at Brooke and the two of them came to a stop, side by side. I turned around and watched them from behind the legs of one of their enforcers. The two of them conferred with a look, and they switched to stalking me much the way Lara and Elisabeth had.

I pranced across the middle of our play space, waving my tail at them. Daniel leapt to my left, trying to get me to cut into Brooke's path on my right, but instead I ducked past and ran right underneath Ysabella's nose. Daniel cut me off on the other side, with Brooke on my tail, and I was forced to run for the edge.

Daniel finally managed to trip me and I tumbled right into Ysabella's side. Brooke immediately cut off my escape in one direction, and Daniel cut me off in the other. Either of them could have caught me at that point, but the both immediately dropped to the ground, each less than a foot away. I climbed to my feet, bumped Ysabella gently with a shoulder, then bumped Brooke and Daniel before bouncing over to Lara. She gave me a lick before rolling me onto my back and taking my throat again. She held me to the ground for a long time; I didn't struggle, even though she was heavy. Finally she chuffed and let me climb to my feet.

I pranced away towards the west
, leading us further from the lodge, not ready to head back yet. Lara caught up to me immediately, then Brooke bounded ahead to lead the way in a big arc to the north.