Wolf Watch (The Madison Wolves Book 8) (11 page)

"You seemed quite taken with her on Saturday."

"You mean I couldn't take my eyes off her?" Zoe laughed nervously. "That's certainly true. The question to ask is what does she see in me?"

"Maybe she's as curious about you as you are about her," Lara said. She glanced over at my arm; Zoe still had possession of my hand, although I wouldn't want to fly the entire way like this. "She seems quite smitten herself."

I tried to decide how I felt. I wouldn't have used that word. Zoe was dangerous. We needed to know what was going on. But I was perhaps playing more than a part. I didn't need to sleep with her, after all. No, I'd done that out of joy.

I realized my head wasn't completely in the game. Was I making poor choices? I offered Lara my own meaningful look. She answered with a shrug. But I knew she'd be watching, and I also knew the fox never missed anything; she'd be watching, too.

"We both seem to be attracted to environmentalists," I said in explanation.

Lara chuckled. "I wouldn't have expected a trait like
that to run in the family. But Zoe, you and Michaela do have some similarities."

"Like we're half your size?"

Lara chuckled again.

The two of them talked amiably until we began to approach Ashland. "I'm sorry, Zoe. I need to pay attention to my flying again. But we have all weekend to get to know each other a little better. I'll be on the radio now for a while."

A moment later she keyed the microphone. "Is someone going to announce us?"

"I was about to," Michaela said. "So impatient." A moment later, her voice sounding different as it came over the standard aircraft radio, not the scrambled
radio we used between aircraft. "Ashland area traffic, flight of three, ten miles southeast, transitioning northbound for Bayfield. Ashland." There was a pause, and then I heard Michaela again. "Bayfield area traffic, flight of three, fifteen miles southeast, inbound. Bayfield."

Then ahead of us, I saw Michaela turn left.

"What's she doing?" I asked Lara. Madeline Island had been directly in front of us. I could see the south shoreline of Lake Superior and then, several miles past it, the island.

"An instrument approach," Lara said. "Straight in to runway oh-four."

"No way," I said. I keyed the mic. "Michaela, you are third to land."

"So go land," Michaela said. "And you're on CTAF. Niner-Foxtrot."

Oh hell. I thought I was talking over our private channel, but I'd just chastised her on a public frequency.

"Oops," I said just over the plane's intercom.

Lara shrugged. "No big deal."

Ahead of us, Portia had turned to follow Michaela, but then she turned back towards Bayfield. We followed her. I didn't like it. We were separating. Anything could happen. I tensed, but Lara reached over and patted my arm. "She flies all the time. She's fine."

"Is there a problem?" Zoe asked.

"My sister is protective of my wife," Lara said, "and prefers she would fly directly to the airport and fly big circles until the other two aircraft have landed. Instead, she's going to approach from a different direction."

I sighed. I hadn't realized I was this strung out. I wished I knew what Zoe knew.

* * * *

Zoe hugged Lara. "That was great!"

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Lara said. "You're with me for a few minutes. Elisabeth has duties and won't respond well to distractions."

I decided Lara had that under control, so I paid attention to everything else.

Portia and Karen already had our hangar secured before Lara landed our aircraft, although we'd flown two circles in the pattern before Portia cleared us to land. As soon as I had climbed out of the airplane, Karen took off to check the nearby buildings. Portia set up a guard position, so I moved over to stand next to her. Together, we watched the airport.

All was quiet, which is what we expected.

"I'm sorry, Head Enforcer," Portia said quietly. "I complicated things."

"It's fine," I replied. "But watch the titles."

She glanced at Zoe
, talking animatedly with Lara. "We don't have enough on the ground to properly secure the airport."

"You and Karen are more than enough," I told her. "We're very pleased to have you with us, Portia."

"Thank you." She paused. "Thank you for accepting me into the pack."

"You're welcome."

"Now, where the hell is the fox?"

"I wish I knew, but Lara doesn't seem concerned.
" I shrugged, pretending to be more cavalier than I felt. "Serena is with her."

"And Angel and Scarlett," Portia added. "Head Enforcer, permission to speak bluntly?"

I sighed. "Go ahead."

She glanced over at Zoe again. "You seem awfully attached to the nosy human. Is that going to be a problem later?"

"Lara will be making the final decisions," I said. I paused. "Otherwise, yeah. It would be a problem."

"And what happens to our relatio
nship if Lara orders Karen and me to take care of it?"

"I'll probably be a right bitch for a few weeks, and eventually Michaela will
let me have it. I'll apologize to everyone before finding a meaningful way to atone."

"Still speaking bluntly, but if she is a threat to the pack, because your judgment may be clouded, I expect you to include Karen and me in the conversations. And I will not remain quiet."

I glanced at her. She wasn't looking at me but was instead, doing her job, watching for danger.

I bristled a little. She was challenging my authority, and I had to push down the urge to put her in her place. She was probably expecting it, too. But she was right. So I told her that.

"I have one more thing to say." She paused, and then she glanced at me. "I am not challenging your authority."

"Portia, I will always want you to voice your opinion. You wouldn't be on this team if we didn't have faith in you. I'm sure you have noticed who gets pulled into these conversations."

Portia hadn't been with us long, but she was exceedingly good, and she had perspective most of the rest of us did not. Increasingly so, pack decisions were being made by Lara, Michaela, Serena, Karen, Portia and me far more than any other combination. It was such a change from just a few years ago, where the female voices were in the minority, even after Lara had become pack alpha.

"I want to be clear," she said. "I do not want your position. I don't want Serena's, either. The fox won't respond to me the way she does to Serena, and we'd fight until she kicked me off her detail."

"She doesn't have that authority."

"Oh please," Portia said. "You know she'll get her way. How many times will she have to ditch us before you decide to give her what she wants if she'll just agree to behave?"

I sighed. "Twice."

"Once, because she won't just ditch us. She'll disappear for the better part of a week, and no one will know where she is."

I sighed. She was right again. Portia and I continued to watch for trouble.

A minute later, Karen came back into view, offering the "all clear" signal. Portia lifted a handheld radio to her mouth. "Michaela, you're cleared to land. Winds are from the northwest, almost directly abeam the runway. We used two-two, but oh-four is fine."

"Roger," Michaela said after a brief pause. "We'll be straight in. Please advise if there's any other traffic."

"It's clear now and no activity."

"Roger," Michaela said. "You'll be able to see us in about five minutes. Tell Elisabeth to relax."

Portia chuckled.

* * * *

We jammed into the two SUVs we kept at the Madeline Island airport and made the short drive to the ferry landing. We would have to wait ten minutes for the ferry to arrive, and Zoe leaned to speak into my ear. "May I take photos?"

"Just watch where you point the camera," I told her.

So she and I climbed from the car. I took her camera bags for her, and she pulled one of the cameras out. She eyed everything, then began taking photos of... almost everything.

The ferry docked at a concrete pier. It was, I supposed, very picturesque. Zoe took numerous photos of the pier, contorting herself a few times to shoot from unexpected directions. She seemed to like taking photos from very low, holding the camera just an inch or two from the ground and shooting at a slight upward angle.

"Everyone shoots from five feet off the ground," she explained. "So I try to find other angles." Then she stepped up to me. "Do you know how to use this?" She gestured to her camera.

"Point it in the right direction and push the button."

She sighed. "Go stand over there."

"Zoe..."

"I'm not going to take your picture. I'm going to set the camera up, and then we're going to switch. You'll take mine."

"Oh. All right."

It took her a minute, but finally she seemed satisfied. "Okay, switch."

"You don't really expect me to crawl around on the ground for this."

She laughed. "You can use the screen. Come here and you'll see."

I walked over. She was kneeling down, holding the camera just above the concrete. I stepped behind her, and I could see that the screen on the back of the camera actually could be rotated, and she was watching the screen to frame the photo. I knelt down and took the camera from her. She moved into place with Lake Superior behind her, then smiled.

I'd done my share of photography, so I took her photo, then I played with the framing and took several more shots before I began moving around. All in all, I took twenty photos while Zoe stood there, smiling. Finally she thanked me.

"It looked like you knew what you were doing."

"I haven't used a camera this fancy before, but I know how to zoom in and out. I don't know about color balance and all that other stuff, though." I paused. "That's the ferry."

"I've never been on it," she said. She began taking photos of the ferry. "I love digital. Shoot, shoot, shoot. It's so liberating. What's our plan?"

"We're going to leave the cars at the house in Bayfield and grab kayaks and a snack. We'll go kayaking until dusk then do something about dinner after that."

"Fishing?"

"Probably."

"And everyone is going to have a steak for dinner?"

"It depends upon what we catch. Quite possibly."

She nodded. "So dinner will be grilled?"

"Yes, but we have a full kitchen if you need it."

"I brought things to grill, and I won't feel poisoned if some of my food inadvertently touches your disgusting hamburgers." But she smiled when she said it. "I'll need a few minutes for preparation."

"One thing. Around Michaela, don't talk about the house in Bayfield. Don't even mention it. Not a peep."

"Another story?"

"Yeah, for another time."

Michaela had never forgiven me for taking her house during the first ransom night. I didn't blame her, either. We had moved past it, more or less, but I knew it still ate at her, even several years later. I had talked to Lara about it, but we agreed there was no way I could give it back to her. I never should have taken it, but what was done was done.

The
thoroughly photographed ferry arrived, disgorging a small number of automobiles and passengers. Ten minutes later, we were fully loaded, with Zoe and I taking a space at the railing. Michaela and Lara stepped up next to us with the rest of the wolves taking up protective positions around us.

We had a lovely conversation as we crossed the bay to the mainland.

* * * *

Benny was the only human we'd kayaked with. No one was sure what to expect from Zoe, but we all knew it would be a slower trip than we were accustomed.

Zoe had kayaked before, but Michaela insisted on a holding a safety seminar, anyway. We left her cameras on shore for that, although Michaela frowned at them.

"I have watertight liners," Zoe said. "But I don't want to test them unnecessarily. Um. No one's going to screw around with me, are you? I can't afford to replace these cameras, so if I can expect hazing or something, I'd rather we left them up at the house. I can handle the hazing as long as there isn't an economic impact to me."

"Your cameras are safe," Lara declared.

Over the years, the number of kayaks owned by the pack had grown significantly. The garage at the house was full, although Lara and Michaela kept theirs at Benny's boathouse. Still, everyone was in her own kayak with Zoe in one borrowed from Monique Simpson.

Zoe handled the safety clinic just fine, although I was struck by the physical differences between her and the rest of us. I really, really wasn't accustomed to humans, but it wasn't normally driven home so well.

After that, we collected Zoe's gear and paddled the waterfront for twenty minutes. All the wolves were on duty, even Scarlett, and I realized Michaela considered herself on duty, too, in her own, foxy way.

She spent the time talking to Zoe, pulling a lot more information from her than I had. At one point, I glanced at Lara, who smiled at me.