Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) (9 page)

"No screwing around," Lara affirmed.

Gia offered to race Serena, betting a favor to the winner. Serena won, but it was a close race.

"I want to see the sisters race," I said. "So Karen, that means you and me."

"All right," she said. "If I win, I want your chopsticks."

"Really?"

She nodded. "And if you win, I have a little something in my bags you're going to like even more."

"I don't know, I like my chopsticks quite a bit."

She whispered into my ear. "It's a little two-shot derringer with silver bullets. It's exceedingly slender and you can wear it in place of one of your ankle sheaths or carry it in a purse."

"Agreed," I said. "But you only get two of my chopsticks. I have four more, but they're at home."

"No they aren't," Lara said. "I packed them."

"Agreed," Karen said. "My little toy for two of your chopsticks, but I get to pick which two."

"You have to pick a pair," I said, and she nodded. "You can pick which side you want," I told her.

"Left," she said. The right had the one spot that was difficult for me.

We got ready, Simone and Brooke were on belay, and Lara called our start.

Karen got an early lead, but I erased it quickly and was well in front of her when I reached the difficult spot. She caught up to me just as I did my move, and she passed me as I was getting ready to climb again.

We climbed over the top toget
her, then laughed at each other, offering a quick hug.

"Trade?" I offered. She grinned and nodded.

Lara and Elisabeth went next, and Lara was winning when she fell.

Brooke let her fall a full ten feet before arresting the
descent. It took more time for Lara to catch hold of the wall, and Elisabeth made it to the top before Lara was fully recovered. Lara finished her climb, and we watched the two of them hug at the top. I didn't hear whether they had a wager.

Once they were firmly on solid ground, Brooke said, "Everyone had enough?"

"I want to race Lara," I said.

She grinned at me. "Fine, but I want the left side this time."

"The wager is for a full body, non-sexual massage delivered before dinner," I declared.

"Oh, that is going to feel nice," Lara said. "Make sure to put your muscles into it."

I laughed.

We got ready, and then just before Elisabeth was going to start us, I said, "Lara?" I turned to her, flashed my breasts at her, and Elisabeth said, "Go!"

I got a good ten feet up the wall before Lara recovered and began, laughing as she climbed the wall below me.

She caught me easily before my one difficult place.

"I love you," she said. "I am going to win."

"I
know," I said. "The wager was my thank you. Get your ass in gear and make me proud of you, Lara."

S
he moved cleanly up the wall. I took my time to get past my one difficult point, and Lara was well over the top before I was ready to finish my climb.

I kissed her at the top and took my ride down.

"It's hardly a fair wager," Lara said once we were at the bottom. "My body is much bigger than yours."

"I know," I said, eyeing her up and down. "I'm glad I won."

"Perhaps you didn't notice," Lara said. "I won."

"Perhaps you didn't think about the implications. I get to run my hands up and down your magnificent body for an hour
while you lie there and let me."

Lara laughed.

"We're done here," Brooke said. "We have lunch planned, then a more difficult wall, if you're up for it."

"Excellent!" I declared. "More wagers."

"Sorry, not on this wall. We're going to teach you how to set equipment in the wall this time. You'll be belayed both from the top like we did here and from a climbing partner as you ascend."

"What do we do about the equipment at the top
here?" I asked. "Does it stay up there?"

"I'll go get it," Brooke said. She turned to the right and began jogging along a trail I hadn't noticed before. The rest of us packed the gear we had, and twenty minutes later, Brooke caught up to us.

Simone had a portable grill with her and a cooler of food. We had steaks and brats. She had some chicken for me, which I enjoyed more than the steaks. We ate, cleaned up, then hiked to the other climbing location. It was a shorter hike, but the wall looked intimidating.

"If you were human," Simone said, "There is no way you would be ready for this wall. But you're all big stubborn wolves," then she looked at me. "Or perhaps wolf-wannabes." I grinned at her.
"I am going to head up to the top and drop the ropes down. Brooke can explain what we're doing."

Brooke spent a while showing us the equipment we would use on the way up the wall. The plan was for us to be belayed from the top, but we were going to treat the climb as if we were belayed only by the anchors we were installing ourselves. "Michaela, you and I will go first."

Simone dropped the ropes down but didn't take a ride down. Instead she reappeared a few minutes later from the trail to our left. She set up Gia to belay Brooke and she belayed me. I put on a small backpack with climbing equipment, hooked up, then Brooke checked me carefully. "I'll do the first twenty feet. Once I am ready, you will follow after me, removing the equipment I'm putting in. Then you'll go up twenty feet and add equipment." She helped me attach myself to the wall and said, "You belay me here."

I watched her climb. She faced the wall, climbed ten feet, then said, "The twenty feet starts here." She found a crack, wedged an anchor into it, wedged a second anchor into the same crack several inches away, then clipped our rope through
both of them. She repeated that every five feet. Once she was thirty feet above me, she installed several anchors, then leaned back into her harness, testing them. "All right, Michaela, I am on belay. Climb up after me and to my right, removing the anchors I already installed."

I climbed slowly, pulling out the anchors as I went. They were lodged in good, and I had to work them back and forth to slide them out of their cracks. I arrived even with Brooke.

"Leave this one in," she said. "You will notice I used extra anchors here. Climb until you find a place you can really anchor yourself."

I climbed up five feet, found good places for anchors, and wedged them in, testing them before clipping the rope through them. The next good place was four feet further, then seven feet after that, then almost ten feet.
I installed a pair of anchors at that point, then meticulously set up more anchors to hold myself in place. I tested it cautiously, then more firmly until I felt fully safe and comfortable.

Working in a leapfrog fashion, we made it all the way to the top without incident. Brooke went over the top first, then told me to remove all the anchors immediately next to me before climbing up to join her. She went on belay, I went off belay, and soon we were sitting together at the top.

"That," she said, "was true technical climbing."

It was late afternoon before each of us had gone up the wall once with either Brooke or Simone. Everyone was ready to be done for the day. I was cuddling with Lara and asked, "Is this just today?"

"No, honey. We have two weeks of climbing, kayaking, and a few other surprises."

"Is Brooke staying the whole time?"

"Yes. This is also diplomacy. How do you feel it's going?"

"Amazingly well. I'd trust her with my life."

"You've been trusting her with your life," she said. "We all have."

I glanced up at her. "You're an amazing alpha, Lara."

She smiled, and I knew she was proud.

That was when Gia fell.

Worse, Brooke was letting her fall.

And then Gia came to a stop, suspended by the anchors she had just installed, Simone holding her in place. I glanced over and realized that Brooke was on perfect belay, but she'd left slack. She looked over at me.

"I knew someone would fall eventually," she said. "If I caught her early, she couldn't see that her own anchors held."

But I listened, and Gia was crying.
Simone held her suspended from her rope while Gia gingerly reattached to the wall and climbed slowly until she was next to Simone.

"You're okay," Simone told her quietly. "Don't be embarrassed. The first time you fall like that is scary. But I had you, and if I hadn't, Brooke would have caught you in another few feet. She let you fall far enough for me to catch you first, that's all."

I didn't hear Gia's response.

"We can ride down from here,"
Simone said. "Or we can finish."

"Finish," said Gia firmly.

"Good," Simone said. "I knew you could do it."

Gia and Simone finished the climb with no further incidents. They threw the ropes down to us and took the path to the bottom, carrying the equipment from the top. By the time they reached the bottom, Gia and Simone were joking around, and then Gia pulled Simone into a hug and thanked her.

* * * *

Back in our cabin later, Lara enjoyed her massage immensely, but I'm not convinced she enjoyed it any more than I did.

We ate heartily for dinner. Afterwards, Lara and Elisabeth walked me to the cabin for my nightly phone call with Vivian. Vivian and I talked for a half hour about nothing important before I asked her, "Don't you want to ask me about everything I told you on Saturday?"

"We'll talk about those things when you get back, Michaela," she said. "For now I only want to know you're doing all right."

When the call ended, I collected my wife and sister-in-law, and we returned to the lodge. Leland had built a bonfire, and we hung out, the wolves drinking beer. I had one then dozed in Lara's arms while the conversation happened around me.

Brooke wandered over to us and sat down. "How's your hip?" she asked.

"Fine," I said. "Thank you again for your help. And today was amazing."

"I'm glad," she said. "You all did very well. You'll all be pros before you go home."

"More climbing tomorrow?" I asked.

"Hiking," Lara said. "Brooke promised us a view."

"I'd like a paddle in the morning, unless we're leaving really early."

"We're leaving early," Brooke said. "It's an eight hour climb and two more coming back down. We'll all have packs. Michaela, I don't know how
to judge how much you can carry."

"I can carry my share," I said.

"All right," she replied. "I figure you're about sixty pounds lighter than the rest of us, so I'll adjust accordingly."

"I can carry my share, Brooke."

"Right. And I've seen what you eat. Your share is not as much as Lara's share."

"How much gear are we bringing for a day trip?"

"Food, water, and emergency gear," Brooke said. "If someone gets hurt near the far end, or if a storm rolls in, we could be stuck out there."

"Or we can shift to fur and be back in an hour," Lara said. "Regardless of the weather."

"What if someone is hurt too badly to shift?" Brooke asked.

"Ah, of course," she said.

"I can carry my share," I said again.

Brooke smiled. "I'm sure you can."

"Brooke, do not patronize me. I get it enough from the rest of them."

"I wasn't trying to be patronizing," she said. "I'm sorry it came out that way. Your pack will be marginally lighter, but that is as much about balance as anything else.
I promise you will not feel coddled. The trip we're taking is at least an overnight trip for sturdy humans. We will have enough gear in case it turns overnight for us, and you'll have your share."

I smiled. "Thank you. Of course, if Lara gets smug with me, I'll slowly get even by migrating things from my pack into hers when she isn't looking."

Brooke laughed. "I wouldn't be at all shocked."

"Don't be shocked when I paddle her bottom, either," Lara said.

"Good luck with that," I said. "You'd have to catch me while weighed down with a ninety-pound pack."

She chuckled and kissed the top of my head. I turned to look at her. "I would let you carry me to our cabin and ravish my body, if you wanted."

"I could do that," she said. "Good night everyone. What time in the morning, Brooke?"

"Breakfast at seven. Simone will wander around making sure everyone is up."

"So if I want a paddle, be back at the cabin and ready to go at 6:45?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

Lara stood up, untangling herself from me, then bent down and tossed me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I immediately began laughing and squealing as she marched off towards our cabin.

"This wasn't how I wanted to be carried!" I said.

"You should have been more specific," she replied.

"If this is how you're going to carry me, I
may be slow to suggest it in the future."