Fox Rematch (The Madison Wolves Book 10) (2 page)

I closed my eyes and nodded.

“You realize we’re not done asking,” she said. “But frankly, this isn’t fun for me. I am very proud of you, but I don’t like doing this to you.”

I nodded. “What are we going to do next?”

“Feed you, clean you up, and play some poker.”

I stared at her. “I was hoping to be somewhat fresher.”

She smiled. “Consider it a handicap. We’ll give you time to recover, and your next punishment isn’t too bad.”

The rest of the girls came down carrying food. “Nothing greasy or spicy,” I said, “and no garlic.” I let them feed me whatever else they wanted, washed down with cool water.

I felt better after a while. I asked for a bathroom break. Angel took care of my needs. I’d already paid a major favor to each of them for bathroom breaks and a minor favor to Angel to take care of me.

They set up a poker table and set me in a chair with my back to the corner. The buy-in was only a thousand dollars, all on account. Everyone got a tray for their chips with their name written on it, and people subbed in and out as they wanted; we didn’t all play at once.

To allow me to play with my hands bound, they dealt the cards, then whoever was seated to my right would carefully expose my cards to me. No one tried to cheat by peeking, and I could ask to see my cards as often as I wanted. I slowly took money from all of them, although the teenagers were especially easy to both read and bluff. Ava was out of chips by the time Elisabeth declared a break.

“It is time for your next punishment,” Elisabeth said. “We are going to tattoo you.”

“What and where?”

“A set of wolf tracks either on your ankle or forearm, your choice.”

I smiled. “Do I have an option to make all of you accept a similar tattoo?”

“Yes, but it is a very large price,” she said. “We spin you.”

I sighed. “For how long?”

“Until you beg Lara to stop us, or you are sick, or a time limit is reached. We will not tell you the time limit, and it is long. We will not stop if you beg us to stop; you must beg Lara.”

“That is indeed a large price. May I have a bathroom break while I consider it?”

“Yes.”

“And in exchange for a minor favor to you, Elisabeth, will you attend me rather than Angel?”

“All right,” she said.

They carried me into the bathroom, leaving me standing. Elisabeth bent down to cut my legs free.

“Don’t bother,” I said. “I don’t have the vaguest need to go. I wanted to ask you something and I didn’t want Lara to hear.”

She stood up and looked at me in surprise. “What?”

“The tattoo you intend is relatively small? A pair of feet or something?”

“Four feet, small, discrete. We have a drawing I can show you.”

“I want something else. Will you listen to my offer?” She nodded. “I want a set of wolf tracks side by side with a set of fox tracks, starting at just above the ankle bones, and going as high as you want. Avoid my crotch and all bony areas. Do it however you think is attractive and artistic.”

“Wow!” she said. “You know that is going to take a long time.”

I nodded. “But Elisabeth, I want it to be your idea. I don’t want Lara to know it was my idea.”

“Are you going to have us swing you?”

“Yes, but I do not expect all of you to match my tattoo. At least two fox tracks on each of you, and if anyone wants longer than just four wolf tracks, then the fox tracks should be much more subtle than mine will be.”

“I have a counter-offer,” she said. “I will match the length of yours. I will add fox tracks periodically to represent you in my life as my sister.”

I started to cry, and she hugged me.

“But everyone else has the option of what they want. They will get a tattoo based on this motif, but it may be small and there may not be fox tracks.”

“I want that discussion off camera, please.”

“Yes. We’ll do it upstairs.” She looked at me critically. “I do not know what to do with you while we are gone.”

“I’m not exactly going anywhere.”

She smiled. “I don’t want you on camera unattended.”

“Turn them off, gag me again, hang me from the hook, bring me with you…”

“We’ll hang you and turn the audio off. People can watch your face slowly turn red.”

“Someone needs to listen in case I get sick.”

“Gia will watch the feed. Scream if you become distressed and are able to do so.”

“All right,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

Elisabeth opened the bathroom door and carried me out. “Get her in the harness,” she said gruffly.

“She’s letting us spin her?” Ava asked.

“Put her in the harness. We have something to discuss as a group and I want to know she can’t cause mischief. Gia, once she’s hanging, turn off the audio feed, leave the video feed, and monitor her.”

Gia nodded. They put me in the harness, then they lifted me and hooked me up by my feet to the ropes which in turn were hooked to the ceiling. Soon I was dangling upside down, the harness distributing my weight throughout my body, not just my ankles. My head was two feet above the floor.

“Does this count against my time limit?”

“Not hardly,” Elisabeth said. Then she lifted me by the shoulders until I was at a forty five degree angle and released me, causing me to swing around uncomfortably. “Let’s go.”

I closed my eyes and tried not to get sick. I concentrated on Lara. I wondered if she was watching, I wondered if she had watched while Elisabeth had questioned me. She hadn’t paid my ransom, so she must be handling it.

The swinging stopped eventually. I wasn’t sure that was better. The swinging had actually been kind of fun. I tried to get it going again, but all I ended up doing was wriggling and sending too much blood to my head.

Karen came down, sat in front of me, and asked, “Are you sick?”

“No,” I told her.

“You were squirming around. Is everything all right?”

“I was trying to get the swinging going again. It was kind of fun. Could you swing me?”

She stared into my face. “You aren’t serious.”

“Absolutely. Please? I’ll kiss you on the cheek later, after I throw up, if you don’t.”

She laughed. “All right.”

“I have a question first. You left earlier. Will you tell me why?”

“None of us enjoys hurting you. Some of this is fun. And we’re proud of you for doing it. This is duty for us, not pleasure. The games in between are fun. The tattoo is fun. Very clever of you. But hurting you isn’t fun. I needed to compose myself.”

“The pack needs to see this, don’t they?”

“Yes. You are a kidnap target. They need to know you are tough.”

“I break easily.”

“Your body does, but you aren’t giving us anything except paying for favors with favors. This is what you should do: trading favors with your kidnappers give them a vested interest in keeping you alive.”

“Please don’t spin me; just let me swing.”

“All right. Then I have to go upstairs and change my mind.”

I laughed.

“You shouldn’t look like you’re enjoying this.”

She stood up, lifted me like Elisabeth had, and released me. I closed my eyes and swung back and forth, back and forth.

Angel came down and asked me, “More?”

“Swinging? Please.”

She lifted me, and I swung.

It was some time later that they all returned.

“Turn the audio back on. Unhook her,” Elisabeth said.

They carried me back to the sofa.

“May I have a tiny amount of water?” I took just a few sips.

“If you want fox tracks in your tattoo,” Elisabeth said, sitting down on the coffee table. “Then it will extend from your ankle up the outside of your leg to your hip.”

I looked at her, considering. “That is excessive unless you all match me.”

She pursed her lips. “No.” She paused. “I will match your length.”

“I will match half your length,” Angel said. “And Scarlett will.”

“The rest are only on their ankles,” Elisabeth said.

“I see. And what about fox tracks on each of you, hmm?”

Elisabeth sighed. “I will take one pair of fox for four pair of wolf.”

“I’ll do one for two,” said Scarlett.

I glanced at her in surprise.

“Mine will be a mirror of Scarlett’s,” Angel offered.

I looked at the other women. “I am your alpha,” I said. “Am I not?”

Elisabeth smiled. Her back was to both cameras, so they wouldn’t see it.

“You are,” said Ava.

“And you are not all willing to show your love and devotion to your alpha while I show mine to you?”

Oh, that got them. They were all silent. Elisabeth grinned though.

“Furthermore, fox feet are far smaller than wolf feet, and a fox steps a much shorter distance per step, so the steps are closer together. If you wish to show your pride, love and devotion, you will offer more than you have. Perhaps you are not proud of me. Perhaps you do not love me. Perhaps you have no devotion.”

I closed my eyes. “Spin me. I will show you pride. Then I will accept whatever tattoos you wish. They are your bodies, and I will not dictate how you adorn them.”

“We only have one tattoo artist,” Elisabeth said. “The tattoos you are suggesting will take one person far too long. You will, after all, break when we swing you.”

I laughed.

“You will spin me. We will all take a small tattoo we each feel is appropriate. When that has been done, then you will finish mine. The rest of you may adorn your bodies as you feel is appropriate. Will your artist fill me with pride in her work?”

“Yes,” Elisabeth said. “You will be very pleased, Alpha.”

“Spin me,” I said. “Or tattoo me first, if that is your pleasure.”

“We will spin you first,” Elisabeth said. “We will begin the tattoos on ourselves while you spin, if you last more than a few minutes. If you beg to be ransomed, or if Lara ransoms you, you will accept the entire tattoo we have agreed.”

“Yes.”

“Spin her,” Elisabeth said.

Many strong arms picked me up from the sofa. They attached my feet, and before they released me, Scarlett whispered in my ear, “I will wear fox feet to match yours, to my hip.”

“Oh Scarlett,” I said. “You don’t have to.”

“I will.”

Then they lowered me until I hung from my feet. I closed my eyes when they began to wind me up.

I tightened my stomach, attempting to hold the bile at bay, and clamped my mouth closed.

They turned me around and around, twisting the ropes from which I hung, twisting the ropes around and around themselves, and when they released me, the ropes untwisted, causing me to spin in a circle, slowly at first, but then faster and faster. The ropes would become untwisted and then my own spinning inertia would cause the rope to twist in the other direction until I came to a stop. Then the rope would untwist, and I would start to spin in the opposite direction, going past the untwisted point again, but not as far, and I spun this way, and that, until finally I came to a stop, my breath heaving.

They spun me, and they spun me. I didn’t count. I tuned them out. I thought about fox tracks entwined with wolf tracks. And I spun.

There was talking around me, but I ignored it. I thought perhaps the world had grown still, but I was so amazingly dizzy, I couldn’t have told you.

I felt arms on me, and I knew the spinning was to start again. But then I was lifted and carried, and I was almost sick. They lay me on the sofa, and I willed my body to be still. I was dizzy, very very dizzy, and I ignored them.

Someone slapped me. Not hard. I ignored her.

There were voices in my ear, my name was called, and I ignored them.

Then there was Lara’s voice. “Little fox. Talk to me, little fox.”

“Lara?”

“You are scaring them, Michaela. You need to come back to them now.”

“Good. Let them know, I am alpha, and I am not to be bested.”

She was silent.

“Lara, are you here?”

“I am home, waiting for you,” she said. “You need to respond to Angel. She is scared.”

“No, I think I’ll go back to the hidden place,” I said.

“No, Michaela. These are your friends, come back to them.”

“Do I have to?”

“Yes.”

“If they spin me again, I will go away and I won’t come back.”

“I don’t think they will spin you again,” she said. “I love you, little fox. Please, open your eyes now.”

I took a breath and opened my eyes. I lay in Angel’s lap, and she was looking down at me. I saw other concerned faces.

“I love you, Lara.” I sighed. “Don’t pay.”

Elisabeth snatched the phone from my ear. “Gag her!” she screamed.

“I’ve paid for my hair to be protected,” I said, then accepted the gag graciously. Scarlett wrapped my hair in the scarf and they wrapped the tape around and around.