Fox Run

by Robin Roseau

  I heard the smile. "I can do that."

  "It will take a little while to move past the stress. We're going to be all right, if you want us to be, Lara. And if you understand that I am fox, not wolf."

  "No one else could have done what you did, little fox."

  "Not true," I said. "Any decent human investigator would have uncovered this. It wasn't hard. And a human investigator would have brought proper long range photography equipment. I didn't even think of it."

  "All right, I won't argue with you, Michaela," she said. "But I am going to remember that it was you who solved this, not anyone else."

  We talked for another minute, then I gave the phone back to Elisabeth. They made tentative arrangements before hanging up.

  Elisabeth turned to me. "You will follow any order I give you?"

  "Yes."

  "Even if you don't care for it."

  "Yes."

  "Even if I send you to the compound."

  "Yes."

  She took a deep breath. "Michaela. Shift and get in your cage."

  I stared for one second, then shifted, climbed out of the clothing, and slinked to the cabin door. She opened it for me, and I walked to the cage. She opened the cage and I stepped in. I lay down with my head on my paws, looking at her.

  "Michaela," she said. "I needed to be sure. Please come out of there. I'll never put you in that cage again."

  I stepped out immediately, nipped her hand playfully, and accepted some attention as an apology. Then I stepped away, shifted back, and got dressed. While I was dressing, Elisabeth pulled out the maps. She pointed. "This is where we are meeting them."

  Operations

  At noon the next day, we rendezvoused with Lara's forces at the Lac La Belle docks. Faces were grim, but it was good to see Lara. As soon as we stepped onto the docks, she pulled me into a fierce hug and wouldn't let go. I buried my face in her chest and breathed deeply.

  She didn't really release me so much as loosen her grasp, but she kept an arm around my shoulders while accepting a hug from Elisabeth. The three of us walked down the dock to shore and up to a cluster of wolves surrounding three SUVs. Faces were grim.

  "Are they loyal?" I asked Lara.

  "Everyone is having a hard time believing it," she replied. "If we find what you have said we will find, they will be rock steady loyal for me. If we don't, I won't have support from anyone."

  "I think I can handle that question," Elisabeth said. "Everyone, gather around." I handed her my cell phone, Gia's really, but mine for now, and Elisabeth began showing them photos."

  "How do we know these were taken where she said they were?" One of the males asked. I didn't recognize him.

  "You don't," I said.

  "But those pictures were taken yesterday," Elisabeth. "The range of places they could have been taken is small. I can vouch for that, Emmanuel."

  "How do we know this property belongs to Natalie?" he asked.

  "It is a matter of public record," I said. "I used government sources to track everything down, but once I had, I went back to public records to verify it was readily available."

  "I verified the information myself," said Elisabeth.

  "When did you do that?" I asked her.

  "Your first night out while I was tracking you."

  "I checked as well," Lara said.

  I nodded at both of them. Good. It wasn't just my word.

  "There are other possible explanations," one of the females said.

  "Yes," I said. "There are. I have only reported what I have found. What the alpha chooses to do with that information is her choice."

  "Right now, the top priority is freeing our wolves. Does anyone disagree?"

  "No, Alpha," said Emmanuel. "This issue with David and Natalie can wait until we confront them."

  "Until I confront them," Lara said. "I appreciate your support, but this is the duty of the alpha. And in spite of his cowardice, I will confront him openly."

  "Relatively," I added.

  She turned to me.

  "I'm just saying..." I said in a small voice.

  She squeezed my shoulder and kissed the top of my head.

  "If anyone has a problem with Michaela's position in relationship to the pack, speak up now."

  "I reserve the right to speak up after this operation is over," said Emmanuel. "If she hasn't lied, I will have no issue with her."

  There was muttering about that, with some coming down on my side, some on Emmanuel's.

  "That is fair," I said. "More than fair. Thank you, Good Wolf."

  "All right," Lara said. She looked at me. "Will you follow orders?"

  "Yes, alpha. From you or Elisabeth. I am sorry, but no one else."

  "In the future, in any sort of combat situation, I will expect you to obey any of my enforcers."

  "We can discuss that after tomorrow," I told her. Meaning no. Jason snickered but didn't say anything.

  "All right," Lara said. "We will drive to a point ten miles from the cabin and approach on foot from there."

  "We can drive straight up," Rory said. "There's a road."

  Lara shook her head. "They would hear the cars from too far away. Three of us will remain with the cars and may approach once we have engaged the wolves at the cabin."

  "I presume I am driving one of the cars?"

  "Little fox, I believe you are the best scout and guide we have. Are you willing to take that role?"

  I smiled. "Yes, Alpha."

  We made our plan. I checked the wind and recommended an approach. Lara looked down at my feet. "You can't walk that far in those stupid shoes."

  "I'll go in fur."

  There was very little fine tuning. These were wolves. I would get them into position around the cabin. They would rush quietly and hope to overcome the kidnappers before they thought to kill the prisoners. It wasn't the plan I would have picked, and when I suggested perhaps a little fox could draw the wolves out of the cabin, I was offered a firm "no."

  Theirs was a very direct plan.

  Lara made me promise to stay well out of the combat. She would go in fur; Elisabeth would be on two feet, and I promised to stay with her.

  We got in the cars and drove to our point. I rode with Lara, Jason, June, and one more wolf I didn't recognize. His name, I learned, was Mickey. He was young but seemed okay. I crawled into the back of the SUV and shifted out of sight while we were still en route. Mickey didn't like it, but he would drive one of the SUVs. June would drive the second one, and one of the other young wolves had been assigned to the third.

  Once I was shifted, I popped over the seat and whined. Lara looked over and smiled, then helped me climb back up to sit on the seat next to her. I leaned against her. She was using a GPS to follow our track, and when we were in the right spot, she had Jason pull over. Everyone got out of the SUVs, and those assigned to shift did so.

  It took the slowest of them nearly twenty minutes. Lara crouched next to me at the start, digging her fingers through my fur. I could feel her nervousness. I leaned over and licked her face, earning a hug in return. She buried her face in my fur and inhaled deeply.

  "You won't be able to smell anything else," Elisabeth said.

  "It'll clear," she replied.

  Eventually Lara stripped out of her clothes and began her shift. It took her two minutes, which was faster than anyone else. Except me, of course.

  We set out with me in the lead.

  It took two hours to get us safely downwind about a mile from the clearing. Elisabeth moved quickly for two feet, but she made a lot of noise and wasn't as fast as I was even when I was silent. We stopped for a break, Elisabeth passing out water to everyone who wanted any. Then I pulled on her hand, pulling her to the edge, then tugged on Lara's scruff, trying to get her to follow. The rest of the wolves tried to follow too, but I stopped and bared my teeth.

  "I think she wants to talk to the alpha alone," Elisabeth said. "Everyone stay here for a minute. We won't go far."

  The thr
ee of us moved away from the other wolves, heading away from the cabin a hundred yards before I turned and shifted.

  "Elisabeth you sound like an elephant," I said. "It will take me three times as long to get you to the clearing as everyone else."

  Elisabeth looked offended, then chagrined. "I'm not used to trying to be quiet in the woods on two feet."

  "I can teach you, but today isn't the day. And frankly, my size is a decided advantage when moving through this brush. You two decide what you want to do. But they will hear you, even downwind."

  "You're right," she said. "How close can you get me?"

  "I can get you all the way to the field, but it will take hours. I can get you to within four hundred yards the way you are and probably about a hundred yards in another half hour. Closer than that will take significant time."

  "And how quickly can you get there alone?"

  "I can walk right up to the edge, but I'd spend five minutes on the last twenty yards."

  Elisabeth turned to Lara. "Alpha, I recommend she leads us to a point four hundred yards from the clearing, then she guides each group in place before returning for me. She'll get me as close as she can in a half hour, and we go at that point."

  Lara huffed and bumped Elisabeth.

  I shifted back, and before I could react, Lara turned to me and gave me a long, wet wolfy lick from my nose to halfway down my back. I air snapped at her then walked over to Elisabeth and used the jeans of her pants to wipe off the slobber. Elisabeth pulled away and Lara eyed us both with an amused, wolfy expression.

  Then I walked up to her and licked her face. She licked mine in return, then bumped me, nearly knocking me over. I bumped her back, a firm fox bump, which she probably barely noticed.

  I led us through the forest.

  It didn't take long to lead the wolves, although one of them was noisy. The third time he stepped on a leaf, I turned back to him, growled at the leaf and swatted his nose.

  He chuffed at me, amused by my feeble swat, but he didn't step on any more leaves. I got both groups into place, thirty yards into the forest. I saw Lara creeping forward on her belly and hoped she knew what she was doing. This was her show; it wasn't for me to correct her.

  I fetched Elisabeth. She was loud. It took time, but I got her as close as I thought was safe.

  "All right, little fox," she said, crouching down and speaking into my ear. "Go tell Lara I'm here. Then you come back here. You are with me, and you will do what I say."

  I bumped her and ran to Lara. I couldn't believe where she was. She had slithered out into the field and was slowly creeping forward on her belly. The high grass may have hid her, but I could see where she had gone.

  The rest of the wolves had stayed where I had put them.

  I followed Lara, moving marginally faster than she had. We were out of sight of the front door of the cabin, but when I heard it open, I chuffed once and flattened myself in the grass. From the sound, Lara had, too, and she was deathly still. I heard the outhouse door, and I moved closer to Lara, flattening when I heard the outhouse again. When the wolf had gone back into the cabin, I chuffed again then caught up to Lara. She was slinking forward.

  She flicked an ear at me. I crouched to her side and watched her. She was a thing of beauty, every muscle tense, her focus directly ahead. She was the most frightening, wonderful thing I had ever seen.

  She crept closer, a few inches at a time, barely moving. It took her an hour. I could hear the wolves behind us, their sounds muffled together into one. And I could also hear Elisabeth moving marginally closer, although I didn't think a wolf would.

  Lara's path was not directly to the cabin. I stayed beside her, but it wasn't even clear to me what she was doing. She took a path that had her even with the front wall of the cabin a tiny forty yards away. Through the tall grasses, she could see the front door and the outhouse. That was when she flattened herself the rest of the way to her belly and waited.

  She looked over at me, then slowly reached out one paw and with one claw, drew a line directly in front of me, digging through the grass into the dirt. That was the line I was not to cross. I brought my nose directly to the line, then backed off a half inch. She turned back to the cabin and waited.

  The front door opened. I could tell from the sounds it was an adult and a juvenile. I stayed flattened in the grass, well out of sight. Lara stayed flat, but her nose twitched, and I saw her muscles grow extremely tight. She relaxed very slightly and waited.

  My best sense was my hearing followed by my eyes. For a wolf, it is scent and then eyes. Lara didn't need to see. She could smell what she needed. We stayed like that for an hour. Only one more of the teenagers was taken to the outhouse. Two of the wolves smoked.

  Finally when one of the males was in the outhouse, Lara's every muscle tensed, and she began growling, a low, frightening noise, a noise that would carry.

  I heard the wolves behind us begin to move forward. Lara waited, but when I heard the man's hand work the latch on the outhouse, I chuffed once very quietly, and Lara went silent. A half second later, she sprang forward, her first leap taking her eight yards. Her next two leaps were even further, and the first wolf died without a sound.

  The cabin door flew open and slammed against the outside wall of the cabin, and Lara took two leaps. I heard a scream.

  There were at least two more inside. The sounds were confusing, and then the rest of Lara's wolves were racing past me, two of them jumping directly over my place, growls in all of their throats. I had a brief flashback to when I was fourteen, but I pushed it aside.

  I stared at my line in the dirt and waited.

  I heard when Lara killed the third male. She took her time with the last, driving him out of the cabin. I stood up enough to watch.

  She harried him around the yard, the other wolves standing back and watching. Then Lara backed off and turned to one wolf, giving him a lick, then gave a lick to another wolf and settled on her haunches.

  The two wolves Lara had licked stepped forward, their growls fierce. The man turned and ran.

  Those two wolves spent ten minutes chasing him around, and they worked together like teamwork. Then, Lara chuffed, just once, and both wolves leapt together, taking the man down. There was a shaking of massive wolf jaws, and I heard the neck snap. The map fell limp.

  The two ravaged the body. Lara sat and watched.

  Elisabeth finally caught up to me. She crouched down next to me. "What the hell are you doing up here? You promised to behave!"

  I reached up and grabbed her hand and pulled it down, pushing it against the line that Lara had drawn. Elisabeth leaned closer.

  "She drew a line in the sand. And you stayed. Good girl."

  I nipped her hand, and she scratched my neck.

  "Wait here until I call," she said. I licked her hand.

  I watched as Elisabeth stood up. "Alpha! Is the cabin secure?"

  Lara turned to Jason and another wolf and looked at the cabin. They raced inside then Jason howled, very briefly. Elisabeth went running in that direction.

  I waited.

  It took a minute, but then the boys all came out, Jason and the other wolf following. Elisabeth remained in the cabin.

  One of the boys saw the two wolves who had taken down the last man. "Dad! Mom! Mom!"

  He ran forward but was bowled over by the two wolves. Another boy ran after, and he got knocked down, two. Soon there were two wolves taking turns licking two faces.

  The last boy walked to Lara. "Alpha." He knelt down and rolled onto his back, exposing his throat to her. "It was my fault. I talked them into leaving the compound."

  She reached over and gave him a single lick across the face.

  "Michaela," came Elisabeth's voice, far more loudly than was necessary. "Come."

  I ran straight to the cabin and dashed inside.

  "Shift," she ordered, and she was holding a blanket. I shifted straight into it, and she wrapped it around me.

  I looked around. Ther
e were two dead wolves in human form in the cabin. Lara had broken the neck of one and ripped the throat out of the other. "She didn't even need help?"

  "An enraged alpha against four wolves in skin? They didn't stand a chance. We brought so many just in case they were in fur, or in case there were more."

  "They were so stupid."

  "Agreed." Elisabeth pointed. "The kids were shackled together against the wall there." I saw the shackles. "We couldn't tell from the photos, they were out of sight. It was your outdoor photos that we counted on."

  I nodded to her. Then she held up a computer laptop case. "Are you a computer expert?"

  "Not really," I said. "If the pack doesn't have one, I can try to find one, but anyone I can find will be government. I don't think you'll want to use him."

  "All right. Do you want to search for any further evidence?"

  Lara chuffed from the doorway and turned around.

  "Maybe later," I said, following the alpha.

  One of the boys, the one who had bared his throat, walked up to me. "You're the fox who tried to help us."

  "I'm so sorry," I told him. "If I had called the alpha when I first saw you, maybe this would have been different. I was just so scared, I wasn't thinking straight."

  "You were afraid of us," he said. "I could smell your fear. But you tried to help anyway. I was half out of my mind from the pain, but still you tried to help."

  One of the wolves, very bloody, walked up to me and licked my hand.

  "That is Emmanuel," Elisabeth said from behind me. "His mate is Serena."

  "Your kids were here," I said to them. "I didn't know. I'm glad we saved them."

  Serena walked to me slowly then she reared up, putting her paws on my shoulders. She was heavy! Elisabeth stepped up behind me to steady me while Serena cleaned my face with her long, wet tongue.

  "Eww!" I said when she was done. She dropped to her four paws, butted me with her head, then went back to checking out the health of her boys.

  I crouched down to Lara. "Are you all right?" She licked my face.

  "Damn it! You all please stop that!"

  She chuffed at me and licked my face again.

  I wrapped my arms around her neck but looked up. "Elisabeth, can someone drag those bodies out? I'll search the cabin."