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  The wolves all chuffed their pleasure. Lara released me, and I climbed to my feet, shaking out my fur. I looked towards Elisabeth, walking towards her, lowering my belly to the ground until I was stalking her. She stared at me, not moving, and then right in front of her, I rolled onto my back.

  Elisabeth was more forceful than Lara had been. She lowered her chest to mine, pinning me firmly, almost uncomfortably, before wrapping her jaws over my throat. I whimpered nearly immediately, but she didn't release me until I whimpered again, more loudly.

  Lara chuffed. I rolled onto my feet, and she looked pointedly at the ground next to her. I stepped into place and sat. Lara leaned against me, and then Elizabeth was on my other side, also leaning against me, then they both raised their noses to the air and began to howl in pleasure. The entire pack joined them.

  And my hearing was protected by Lara and Elizabeth, each pressed against me, my delicate ears shielded with their thick bodies.

  The howling went on and on, but finally Lara dropped her nose from the air, looking down at me still huddled between her and Elizabeth, and the wolves grew quiet. She licked me once, then yipped twice before dashing through the assembled wolves and into the forest, nearly every wolf following in pursuit. They were gone in seconds.

  If I had been wolf, I am sure I would have been meant to follow, but I couldn't keep up. I looked over at Elizabeth then lay down in the grass, watching the woods.

  We stayed like that for some time, the wolves making so much noise I presumed they wouldn't be expecting to catch any game tonight. Lara ran them east for a while, then I heard them double back. When they were still some distance out, Lara barked twice. I looked up at Elisabeth, and she leaned down with her nose and nudged me towards the woods.

  I took off running towards Lara, Elisabeth beside me, keeping to my fox pace. I took us straight to Lara, then rolled over on my back in front of her. She licked my face and nudged me to get up, then set off through the woods at a pace a fox could bear. I ran along beside her.

  Fleecing

  "Time to get up, little fox of mine," Lara said gently. "How are your ears today?"

  "Better," I said, stretching before cuddling back into her. "There are parts of me that are still a little sore."

  "What parts are those?" she asked me playfully.

  "The parts that got the most attention late last night," I replied. "Someone was insatiable."

  Lara pulled me closer. "You don't know how happy you have made me."

  "Did anyone else guess?"

  "Angel and Scarlett split the prize money. It was significant."

  We cuddled. "How much time do we have?"

  "A little," she responded. "You're expected at the school again today."

  "When are you going to tell me about tonight?"

  "This afternoon sometime, I believe. I didn't tell you this, but you're going to visit the council again today."

  I pulled away from her, looking at her. "Should I worry?"

  "No."

  "All right," I said. "Lara, what does omega mean? If alpha is first, and omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet-"

  "No, that's not it," she said. "An omega wolf is outside the dominance structure. Rarely there are wolves who are neither dominant nor submissive. It's unusual. And sometimes we have deeply submissive wolves who excel at a job, such as being a doctor, where the wolf would need to give orders and be obeyed but a submissive wolf would be laughed at."

  "Well," I said, and I moved until I lay on top of her. "I am feeling my own brand of dominance right now." I bent down and kissed her, then began trailing a line of kisses down her body.

  "I thought you were sore," Lara said, squirming. "And you know I'm not going to let you stay on top."

  "You could, you know. You might like it."

  In response, she reared up. I pushed on her shoulders, trying to push her back onto the bed, but I didn't even slow her down. She wrapped her arms around me, shifted, and I immediately found myself underneath her. She pinned me in place with her body while she kissed me.

  I didn't even struggle. Sometimes she liked it when I did, but she also liked it when I submitted to her. But when she broke the kiss I said, "I really am sore, Lara."

  "Then what were you starting?"

  "I don't mind if you're on top," I said. "But I want to taste you. Please."

  She kissed me again then turned around, offering herself to me. I raised my head and began to lick, slowly.

  She tasted divine.

  * * * *

  It was shortly after lunch that Gia retrieved me from the school. Like yesterday, I followed her to the second floor of the barracks and waited outside the conference room. My wait was brief, and when Elizabeth opened the door, I stepped inside.

  "Lara didn't tell me what was going on or whether there are protocols for me to follow," I told Elisabeth.

  "Be polite. You'll be fine."

  She opened the inner door and I stepped inside.

  The room looked the same as yesterday, but this time there was a seat waiting for me.

  "Please sit, little fox of the Madison wolves." She said it with a smile. I took my seat and waited to see what they wanted.

  "Michaela," Lara said. "What is discussed in these chambers must never be discussed with anyone else. Never. No exceptions. Is that clear?"

  "Yes, Alpha."

  "The pack has need of your services." She sat, looking at me, and her body language was unclear. So was Elisabeth's. I waited. She hadn't told me anything yet. "Michaela, we find ourselves in need of, well, it's not quite the right word, but it's what we have for words. We need a spy."

  I stared at her.

  "I have no training in such matters," I said. "You can certainly find a human mercenary who would serve far better than I would. Furthermore, I am deeply hampered by my inability to travel readily outside pack territory."

  My mind started moving a million miles a minute, and the first thing I did was shut down my expressions. I made a conscious effort to sit very still in the chair, holding my hands calmly in my lap, and gazing casually at Lara. It took everything I had.

  I didn't find it remotely coincidental they made the offer they had yesterday only to ask me to risk my life for the pack today. That wasn't remotely a coincidence. The only thing that wasn't clear was how long Lara had been planning this. Was our entire relationship a sham?

  Could she be that good an actor?

  She was the alpha. She could be good at anything. I didn't think the entire pack could, but I was sure everyone in this room could be acting when dealing with me.

  I schooled my features and waited to learn more. Then I would decide how far I would need to run.

  "Spy may not be the right word," Lara said. "And we would not send you into a dangerous setting. Surely you know I could never do that to you. Everything I have ever done has been to keep you from danger."

  Perhaps it had all been part of the recruitment plan. I wondered how naive I had been all this time.

  "No, certainly, but I don't understand."

  "Initially, tonight, we have guests," Lara said. "From Chicago. Relationships with Chicago have been stressed for a very long time. There have been overtures from them lately, but we do not fully trust them."

  "They are coming to your poker game."

  "Yes," said Lara.

  "What do you want from me?"

  "Simply learn whatever you can. Watch them and decide if you feel they are being deceitful."

  "So a fox lie detector."

  She smiled. "Yes."

  "I can do that," I said. "I don't promise accuracy. What else?"

  "For now, that is all. In the future, we don't know." Lara's body language still had me puzzled.

  "All right," I said. "May I ask a question?"

  "Of course."

  "Why is this a council issue? Why didn't you just ask me quietly yourself?"

  Vivian answered, "Because we know you have questions you are not asking, questions th
at should be asked of the council, not only of the alpha."

  "All right," I said. "What questions am I not asking?"

  "You are wondering when we knew we would need these services from you. You are wondering how long we have been discussing your status. And I think perhaps, based on how you closed off your features, that you wonder if Lara has been deceitful with you."

  Lara looked at Vivian, then at me, and horror crawled into her face.

  "Does your lover's expression answer the last question, fox?" Vivian asked.

  "I would never doubt Lara's love for me," I replied. I smiled at Lara. "I love you, too."

  But somehow I wasn't convincing. Perhaps it was the stiff way I was sitting.

  "You doubt me. Michaela, how can you doubt me?"

  "I never said I doubted you," I pointed out. "Vivian did."

  "She isn't going to admit it, Alpha," Vivian said. "But if you push her, she will be forced to lie to you. Right now she wonders what game we are playing with her, and I don't blame her one bit."

  "How can you doubt me, Michaela?"

  I opened my mouth to deny it. "Ms. Redfur, perhaps I can explain," Vivian offered.

  "Oh certainly," I said. "Be my guest." It was said somewhat sarcastically, and I regretted my tone. I was starting to slip.

  "Lara, she doubts you because she doubts herself. She believes, deep, deep down, that the only thing a wolf can see when looking at her is prey. At her core, she can not believe you love her, or at least it is so much easier for her to believe you will hurt her than love her."

  My control wavered even further. I felt the tears crawling into my eyes. I tried to push them away.

  "Don't listen to her, Lara," I said. "We're fine. What do you need me to do?"

  "Lara," Vivian said gently. "She loves you from the bottom of her heart. Michaela, Lara loves you equally as much."

  I turned to look at her. "You have raised interesting questions and suggested these are my questions. Would you care to answer the questions you think I have raised?"

  She laughed. "Carefully said. All right. Clearly the timing of yesterday's events was not remotely coincidental. They are definitely related to tonight's. The council could not bring in anyone from outside the pack on this issue, and we believe we need you."

  "Thank you for being honest," I replied.

  "It is clearly obvious," she said. "And thus not evidence of a lack of duplicity. However, you fear yesterday was a sham. It was not. The council has been discussing your status since the unpleasantness in September. The alpha has not been the only one arguing for inviting you into the pack. And I know she has been working on you to accept the idea as well."

  "I take it there were issues that complicated yesterday's offer?"

  "Yes," she said. "It is unprecedented to invite a non-wolf into a wolf pack. We had to decide if we were willing to set a new precedent, one that could prove difficult for us in the future."

  "Because now you've let in the riff raff and might be forced to let in more?"

  "Lara," Vivian said. "That's how she thinks we see her. As riff raff. And worse." She turned back to me. "And no. It's because the other packs will cause difficulty for us. That's a guarantee."

  "But you offered anyway."

  "Yes, and even without the pressures tonight, we would have gotten past that issue, but it would have taken time. The other issues were about your place in the dominance structure."

  Mr. Berg spoke up. "I already told you how I had felt."

  I nodded to him.

  Vivian continued. "Lara has been trying to push the council into making an offer you could accept. On Monday, things came to a head. We were discussing tonight's events, and Lara said casually, If only Michaela were a member, we could lean on her expertise. It's too bad we can't invite her into the pack in a fashion she could possibly accept."

  I looked at Lara. She was nodding.

  "We would have come to the offer we gave you yesterday," Vivian. "If more of us had taken time to get to know you like some of us finally did yesterday, perhaps it would have happened sooner rather than later. But, bluntly, most of us were rather dismissive of you. A fox? What could Lara possibly see in you?"

  "I think I understand."

  "Deep down, most of us will always have a hard time understanding you, Michaela," Vivian said. "May I ask some very personal questions?"

  "I guess," I said.

  "Are you afraid all the time?"

  "No," I said. "Not all the time. I'm not afraid when Lara is holding me. Sometimes when I'm out on the lake in my kayak, I'm not afraid."

  "Lara, I believe your fox needs you," Vivian said.

  Lara got up and was immediately at my side, pulling me into her arms. I clung to her, breathing deeply, and trying very hard not to cry.

  "Michaela," Vivian said. "I know you still are wondering if Lara is just an exceptionally good actress and has been leading you on for months. Maybe it is just a small part of you that wonders this. But I want you to look around this room. Everyone in here is asking for your help. We're asking because we trust your judgment. Would we trust your judgment if we knew it was flawed?"

  I buried my face in Lara's chest, sucking in wracking sobs. Lara held me tightly, clutching at me as hard as I was clutching at her.

  No one said anything for a while. I couldn't believe all these people were sitting here watching me cry. Finally I settled down, and someone had slid a box of tissues to my place at the table. I wondered why wolves needed tissues. I glanced at the box while taking several to deal with my disorder.

  "I think for future meetings of the council, the little fox should sit next to the alpha," Vivian said. "We may be able to keep things moving more smoothly that way."

  "I am so sorry," I said.

  Vivian looked around the room. "We have thrown a lot at you in a short time, and you have a great deal of cause to distrust wolves."

  I looked around the room and found Violet. "I am sorry for what I said yesterday at dinner."

  "About putting a bell on me?" She asked. I nodded. "Don't apologize. I was put out at the time, but Vivian pointed out you were making a reasonable attempt to cope with a deeply difficult situation, and that it was a mistake to think of you as wolf. In fact," she said. And then shifted and I heard a bell. I stared at her.

  Then Vivian shifted, and there was a bell. Then one by one, the other members shifted, and there was the sound of a little jingle bell.

  I couldn't help it. I began laughing. They had done something silly just to make me feel better.

  "Don't expect us to wear them in public," Mr. Berg said. "But we wanted you to know we have a sense of humor. And to make sure you understand. You are one of us now."

  I breathed in Lara's scent again and looked up into her face. I was about to apologize.

  "No, little fox," Vivian said. "You had every right to question things. Do not apologize for doing so."

  Lara kissed me quickly, then whispered in my ear. "We're fine. More than fine. All right?" I nodded.

  "All right," I said. "What do you need me to do?"

  "Just pay attention tonight," said Lara. "And lose."

  "What?"

  "We're playing a long game," she said.

  "You're making me lose my own money? I'm not rich like everyone else in here."

  "We'll let you win it back," Vivian said. "But there needs to be a paper trail showing you pulled the money out of your own account, and we can't turn around and replace it next week. It needs to look like you lost, and it needs to stand up to a pretty solid investigation."

  "Besides," said Elizabeth. "Most of it is Janice's money anyway."

  I laughed. "And some of yours, and quite a bit of Malcolm's, and not a small amount of the alpha's. But still, I worked hard for that money!"

  "Especially the alpha's," Elisabeth said. "You definitely worked hard for her money."

  "Elisabeth!" I said.

  She looked at me smugly.

  "All right," I said. "Was th
ere more?"

  "We're meeting them for dinner," Lara said. "We'll leave in an hour. You'll need to get ready right away. I'll be over in a bit."

  "All right," I said. I breathed her in once more then stepped away.

  * * * *

  An hour later, I was dressed and waiting for Lara. There was a knock on the door.

  "Come in," I said.

  Vivian stood in the door. I was surprised to see her. "I wanted to talk to you alone," she said. She crossed the room and stood in front of me, studying me. I looked up at her.

  "You are remarkable," she said finally. Then she reached out a hand offering me a business card. Vivian was a psychologist. "I can help. If you do not call me, I will approach the alpha. But I think perhaps you would prefer we keep this between ourselves."

  I stared at the card, then looked up at her.

  "From time to time, when it's especially bad, I wonder what it would be like to visit some sort of counselor. I can imagine the reaction a human would have when I said, I am a were fox, and when I was fourteen, a pack of wolves killed everyone in my family but me. They chased me down, but I killed them, one by one. After that, I found and buried my family before running, running for years."

  "They would lock you up."

  "I could prove the were fox part, but I can just imagine the cover up that would cause."

  She laughed. "Quite. Will you promise to call me, or do I need to ask Lara to make you call me?"

  "I will call, but give me time to get used to the idea."

  "A few days," she said. "We can do telephone calls when you are in Bayfield, but we need to start in my office or here."

  "Everyone will know," I said. "If we do it here."

  "Lara will know, but do you intend to hide it from her?"

  "No."

  "Call me. Soon."

  "I will. Thank you."

  Vivian left and Lara came upstairs a few minutes later. I had known she was in the house, of course. Lara entered our bedroom and looked at me.

  "I am sorry I doubted you," I told her immediately.

  "It looked suspicious," she said. "It was suspicious." She crossed the room and stood in front of me, her presence offering me her body and comfort, but not assuming I would accept it. I moved closer, not quite touching, waiting for her to take the last bit. She did, stepping closer, but her arms didn't wrap around me until I pressed myself fully against her. And then we held each other.