Artiface of Strength Ch. 08

"George," Maria said, still holding his ear tightly, "That other guy just promised you free health insurance and then he never even sent you the paperwork. You'd better listen to these people, do you hear me!" George's ear was saved from further abuse when the door to the boy's suite opened and Nick stepped into the room, closely followed by Oliver.

"Ah, here they are," said Beth. "I'll leave you with Oliver now, and he can explain about all of the amenities and activities available here at the Resort. Just remember to get plenty of sleep tonight, because I will be coming here, bright and early, to fetch all of you and take you on our excursion!" Beth then nodded to Oliver to take over, and casually walked out of the room.

Easy enough, she sent to John. None of them have ever been in a nice resort before. The women were ecstatic; they loved their room and the idea of a shopping spree. One of them threatened George, told him to sign those papers right now! They actually seem like nice people, John.

Yeah, Oliver said that Nick was very concerned with his dogs' welfare. Oliver was very impressed by him. I know that it was just Oliver, but still...

When will Jefferson and his lawyers get here? Have you heard anything yet?

He said late tomorrow, so get your charges good and tired while you have them out on that shopping trip, and then they'll be too tired to deal with Jeff's boys until Saturday.

Will do, John!

"Well, it sounds like Beth has that part under control," John said to Sam and Tom from where they sat in the resort bar.

Sam snorted and said, "Did you have any doubt?"

"No, not really, although I was a little surprised when she suggested assigning Oliver to them as their personal guide."

Tom said, "I can answer that one, boss. We all know that Oliver isn't very sharp, but he's worked here at the resort since we first built it. He's proud of the fact that he knows every square meter of the place, and he lives to serve. Oh, he'll never advance within the pack, or even be able to fight his way out of a wet paper bag, but he's a whiz in the hospitality industry! And to be honest, ever since we got him and Stan those new phones, they've actually been checking in regularly. I think they are setting a timer so they'll remember."

"Then that means we ought to be good until Jefferson gets here with his team."

"...and Carol," snorted Sam.

"Crap, you had to go and spoil my beer didn't you?" John mumbled.

"What's the matter Alpha? Are you afraid that scary old Carol and I are going to tag team you...umm... again," laughed Beth as she came around the corner into the bar.

"There is a reason that I don't go visit them," grumped John as he took another long draught of his beer.

"Yeah, you are chicken!" Sam laughed.

"Oh come on John, Carol forgave you for all of that years ago!" Beth laughed. "She hasn't looked back since she mated Jefferson."

John just continued to grumble inaudibly.

"Toughest damn Alpha in the hemisphere...and he's afraid of women," Tom said, pretending as if he were considering the idea for the very first time.

"Look, I'm right here! Hello!" John said menacingly.

"Yeah, you are right, Tom" Sam said, ignoring John completely. "I think that between those cousins and then what he went through with Beth and Carol, I believe our fearsome Alpha has gotten burned...or whipped or something."

"Maybe he should switch to humans," Beth offered helpfully.

"Or sheep," suggested Tom.

"Argh!" John yelled.

"There, there," calmed Beth, while patting John's hand maternally. "It'll be okay John, I'll keep mean old Carol away from you!"

Realizing that his friends were not letting up, John thought desperately until inspiration hit. "So Sam, you thought those sisters were hot? Which one did you like best?"

"I could hardly tell them apart," Sam replied with a leer. "Even their scents are pretty much identical."

"Tell us what you found out about them," John said quickly, keeping Sam talking.

That was sneaky John! Beth sent, but she didn't say anything to stop Sam from gushing.

"Sisters, Maria and Marguerite, they were born a scant ten months apart. Both were dancers until their big brother talked them into quitting their jobs and moving to Fresno to live with him."

"Dancers?" Beth asked, knowingly.

"Strippers!" Sam said, waggling his eyebrows in glee. "At a place called the Teaser Pleaser in Bakersfield. Oddly enough, it is located on Buck Owens Drive. They are completely open about it; evidently their stage name was the Habanero Sisters."

"So which one do I get," Tom replied with a grin.

"Do not piss their brother off," snapped John. We need him to remain happy!

Beth sighed theatrically and then said, "Gee, I think I remember telling you something like that about a pair of cousins once, John."

"Yeah, and I learned my freaking lesson too!" John snapped back.

"Uh-huh, until you tried to juggle Beth and Carol at the same time." laughed Sam.

"I need better friends," John said grumpily as the other three laughed at him.

"No seriously, which one do I get?" Tom pressed.

"I don't think it matters, Beth put them into the 'double-romance' room. Maybe they'd like to share!"

"Sam, you are a pig!" Beth immediately snapped.

Sam began making snorting noises as John and Tom laughed.

Happy with their unexpectedly easy time with the humans from Fresno, and lost in their revelry, none of John's people quite noticed that Florence and William had neither shown up nor reported that they would be arriving late. So, help was not on their way, and William continued to glare at his grandfather.

"You said that you'd had this piece of crap serviced!"

"I did have it serviced."

"You didn't think that maybe Old Willy needed some new tires? How long have these been on here; was the Viet Nam war still going?

"Okay fine, my honorable grandson, I screwed up. Happy now? But you are a wolf, why don't you go on a run and scare us up some help?"

Ignoring his grandfather, William continued to rant, "You've predicted everything else. You couldn't predict that a set of forty year old tires might not last on a long journey? You couldn't be useful for once and predict that two freaking tires would blow at once and leave us stranded out of cell phone range in the middle of nowhere?"

"What's a cell phone?" Ja-mul responded blankly.

William looked up at Florence in time to see her eyes bug out at the old man's question. "Don't believe his crap, Florence; the old fart has a television set, he is well aware of what a cell phone is. He is just trying to change the subject; I keep telling you...He's a coyote, do not listen to him!"

Ja-mul tried to maintain a straight face for a moment, but he couldn't do it as he broke into laughter. "Damn it grandson, she almost bought that!"

Florence shook her head and said, "You and John are going to butt heads, grandfather. I can see that coming and I'm not even a shaman. But that reminds me; you said something about John not having to put up with you very long, what was that all about?"

"Granddaughter, honestly, I can't really tell you much more than that, but don't worry about your Alpha. He has worked long and hard for your people, and though he doesn't really realize it, my People as well. Your Goddess will reward him no matter what happens, and I promise I won't make him yell too much. He doesn't deserve that, though I will have to give him a bit of a hard time or he won't listen to me. But Florence, he has my respect; just don't you dare tell him that I said any of that!"

"So," William interjected, "the tires?"

"What, are you still here?" Ja-mul said with a grin.

"What am I supposed to do? Carry my wallet in my teeth while I run to the nearest city, then shift back to human and pay for a tow-truck while standing there naked? We don't have any of those wolf backpacks with us. Besides, it's already starting to get dark; I doubt if anyone will even be open."

"Oh foolish grandson, maybe you should just take the magic, spirit-summoning stick far enough down that path until you can get a smoke-signal up to the Gods of the network. You know, do the proper rain-dance for triple A, and then run back."

"Fuck me," William swore as Florence burst into laughter.

"He's not too bright," Ja-mul said to Flo with a wink. "I hope your cubs take after you."

"You are a rotten bastard!" William said before dropping his clothes and loping down the road with his cell phone in his teeth."

"I hope your mighty warrior doesn't drool into his phone, or he'll be running back to borrow yours," chuckled Ja-mul.

Oh William, Beth sent to her mate, Grandfather says to make sure that you don't drool into your phone.

Shortly thereafter, Will ran back into camp, dropped his phone into his undershirt and then picked it up and ran back out of sight, not even once glancing at Florence or his grandfather.

"He's always taken directions well, though. Perhaps you should consider rewarding him with a doggy treat when he gets back," Ja-mul said dryly.

Florence stifled her laugh, knowing full well that while Ja-mul might get away with this abuse, William might choose to get even with his loving mate if she laughed too heartily at him. So she waited until after she was sure that William had run out of hearing range before she asked, "Have you two always been on one another's case like this? Has it been like this all of his life? Mind you, I see why he doesn't bat an eye at Beth now."

"Ouch! You are comparing your esteemed grandfather to William's mouthy mother-in-law? Didn't your pack tell you to respect your elders?"

"Ha! She's way older than you. That tack aint gonna work!"

"But I look way older than she does. Doesn't that count?"

"No. Now answer the question."

"Yes, granddaughter, your mate and I have always battled; it makes us smile, and life should be happy."

"What happened to his parents?"

Ja-mul spat on the ground, looking troubled for a moment before responding, "White man's poison. My adopted son got drunk... Hell, he stayed drunk, only this time it was much worse. He decided to play chicken with another car on the highway and four people died. The only one who survived that collision was William. If the accident hadn't happened on tribal lands, I would never have managed to keep custody of the boy."

"You said 'adopted son' and 'never managed to keep custody', does this mean that Will isn't really your grandson?"

"Is John really your father? How about Beth, is she really your mother?"

"Yes grandfather, they are, but you know what I meant."

"No, there is no direct blood-line, although his last name was always Yazzie. I adopted Will's father when he was only a youth. I tried to save him from the alcoholism that killed his parents, but he was too far gone by the time he came to live with me. I had thought that he'd finally beaten it for a time after Will was born, but then he got drunk again and killed everyone in that crash."

"Grandfather, I'm sorry for bringing it up, I hadn't meant to make you sad; it's just that you and Will seem to love each other so much, and I wondered how it came to be."

"No child, it is good that you know. You have some shocks coming regarding your own parentage, and I think that it is important for you to realize John and Beth love you as much as Will and I love one another. I've told you more of his story than I've ever told Will."

"Shocks coming? What do you mean?"

"Yes, but we won't get to that until later on tonight; Triple A won't be able to bring us tires until tomorrow. We are going to be stuck sleeping out here tonight."

Florence began to smile, "...and you knew this even before you sent Will out to 'send smoke signals up to the God of the network'?"

"The Goddess works in mysterious ways," Jamul said, while grinning. "So, since we will be stuck here all night, do you think you might be willing to shift into your wolf and go hunt us up some dinner? While you are gone, I'll rub these two sticks together and make a fire," he said, while holding up a Bic lighter.

Florence giggled, "Will was right; you are a rotten bastard!"

When Will returned from contacting Triple A, he found the two calmly cleaning a brace of rabbits while they sat together next to a small cook fire. Skewers had been cut from a nearby tree, and his loved ones had obviously been preparing for a night spent outdoors while the towing service scared up the required parts to fix Ja-mul's truck. Before William could say a word, Ja-mul responded, "Yes, I know, I'm a rotten bastard. I knew that they'd be unable to come out and help us until tomorrow, but look on the bright side: your mate managed to scare up these wonderful rabbits for our dinner. So it looks like your wife is quite a hunter and you will not be going hungry anytime soon, grandson. Umm, since she hunts, does this mean that you will be doing the farming in your marriage?"

Will shook his head and responded, "You got us stuck here on purpose?"

Ja-mul only responded that there was someone that the two of them needed to meet, and he was then unwilling to say any more on the subject despite the couple pressing him for more answers. He'd merely replied that they needed to be patient, and that nothing would be revealed until after nightfall. William accepted his grandfather's response grudgingly, while Florence was quickly learning that Ja-mul only had one speed, slow. To press him for more, when he was unwilling to grant it, would just result in more passive-aggressive abuse. The old man seemed to think that this equated to teaching, but as far as Florence was concerned, the old man's lessons always seemed to have a hook of some kind within them, and she was quickly learning not to be baited; so instead of arguing, she raised one eyebrow and asked, "Is there any particular time we need to be back then? It sounds like we will have time after dinner, so I think I will entice my mate into going on a before dinner run."

Ja-mul looked up from where he was skinning rabbits, a questioning look on his face, but Florence wasn't biting, she was content to hold her tongue and force him into an answer. Seconds passed as the two assessed one another, waiting for the other to break. William looked on with amusement, understanding that an unspoken power-struggle was going on.

Realizing that Florence had him where she wanted him, Ja-mul gave in. "Come back in time to eat dinner before the moon is directly overhead. I will cook the rabbits, but don't be late. Yes, patience is a virtue, but stubbornness rarely accomplishes anything for an Alpha."

"Thank you grandfather," was all she said.

William saw that some sort of resolution had been achieved, but he hadn't a clue as to what they'd been arguing about. Must be above my pay grade, he thought to himself absently. Then, taking a second look at the string of rabbits that Florence had found, he asked Ja-mul, "This is a fair number of rabbits, I remember that it used to take you all day to hunt up one or two; how long did it take Florence to bring these down?"

"About ten minutes," grumbled Ja-mul.

"Maybe you should learn to farm?" William offered helpfully.

Ja-mul merely snorted and continued cleaning another rabbit.

Seeing that Will and Ja-mul were preoccupied with yet, another argument, Florence slipped behind the truck, quickly removed her clothes and then crept silently into the trees, shifting as she moved.

"Grandson..." Ja-mul interjected, "Are you missing something?"

"Missing?"

"Something very important to you, something that you would quite likely cause your death if you ever lost it."

Belatedly realizing what his grandfather was hinting, William noticed that Flo was gone and grinned in thanks to the old man before hurriedly shifting and loping off into the forest. Ja-mul's eyes twinkled, remembering a certain girl from his own youth, but he had dinner to cook and a ceremony to prepare for, so he walked over to his truck and began digging through his boxes in the bed for his gear.

This time, William knew that he was not far behind his target; he hadn't spoken with his grandfather for long, and in any event, Florence's scent was very strong here, her arousal wafting through the wind behind her as she ran. He knew that she didn't know that he was already on her trail yet, and he wasn't about to wreck the surprise by sending her any warnings. He quickly estimated her speed by the distance between paw prints and then attempted to match her pace, not wanting to get so close that she heard him coming and he didn't want to catch her too near his grandfather's camp.

This time there would be no home-field advantage for either of them. Neither wolf knew these woods and William briefly wondered if that might not be the reason that Ja-mul had conspired to strand them here. Chasing his mate required his full attention however, so he didn't linger on this thought for long. He knew that he had to keep her close for if she managed to increase her lead too much, his nose might not be able to track her so readily.

As Florence ran on, she smiled as she remembered William chasing her as a human that first time. She'd been so lonely and so miserable, and yet, she had never fully realized this, even though everyone around her had seen it very clearly. She also knew that her life was much better now, she rarely stopped smiling. William had proven to be the answer, and he was rarely out of her mind; his sensual smell was always with her. It was almost as if she could smell him now. Wait... I can smell him now! Dammit!

You think you are pretty slick, don't you?

About like my mate sneaking out of camp while I was speaking with my grandfather, don't you think?

Yeah, but you screwed up and got too close, and now I caught a whiff of you and know what you are doing.

Yes my love, but that means that I'm practically right on top of you...and umm, you mentioned the word 'slick'... and from that wonderful aroma that you are leaving behind you, I am guessing that your pu...

Don't say it, you pig!

No mate, I'm not going to say it, I'm going to catch you and then make you say it. I'm eager to hear you say the word and ask me to do something with it. Besides, I'm not a pig, I'm a wolf; you saw to that!

Looking for an escape route of some kind, Florence was slow to respond to this. She had to find a river to mask her scent, a mountain to climb...anything. Instead, she found herself running into a muddy bog of a meadow. Sticky and wet, it was surrounded by hundreds of flowering thorn covered berry bushes.

Crap! If I skirt this, he'll likely just take a route directly through it and gain even more ground on me. If I go straight across, I risk him seeing me, and then it will all be over, he's faster than me and would surely run me down. Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll get stuck in the mud. She quickly decided to hope that the middle of the bog would prove to be a barrier and the hundreds of thousands of blossoms would mask her scent, so she started skirting the edge of the meadow, fully aware that her paw prints were leaving a clear trail behind her in the mud.

Her plotting was for naught though, as she was barely a third of the way around the meadow when he reached its edge. Immediately seeing her struggling through the densely growing bushes, he did exactly what she had though he would do, he made a bee-line directly for her, and unfortunately for her, his path was one of the dryer parts of the meadow.