Fox Dish (Madison Wolves #6) by Robin Roseau

least until we get to the adults."
    I huddled my team together. "We're going to play this easier than they did for us. I want everyone taking off in different directions. You are free to cross paths, but I want everyone to have fun. It doesn't matter if they find us. It matters if we have fun. Also, it's up to you, but it's okay if you ask your kidnap victims which one should get kidnapped."
    Then I sent the teams with kids to pick their victims.
    Lara and I ended up with Edward and Iris. When we asked them who they wanted us to kidnap, Edward started looking nervous. I think he was trying to decide whether he should volunteer, but then take the ego hit of Iris rescuing him. Or should he take the ego hit of letting Iris get kidnapped, but then he had the chance to be the hero. Or to fail.
    Iris broke his stalemate by saying, "Can I search?"
    "All right," he said. "If you really want to." I think he looked relieved.
    "Letting Michaela and Lara kidnap me would be fun, too," she said. "But I think I want to search."
    Donald and Michele were set to kidnap Monique. I stopped over and whispered quietly to Michele, and she said, "We're set."
    I stepped back, too k hold of Edward's arm, and said, "Howl our start, Lara."
    She howled the start, and I bent to pick up Edward. "No," Lara said. "Shift to fox. Lead the way. I'll carry him. Set a pace I can follow."
    I realized she could probably run faster carrying him alone than with my help. I yanked off my clothes, shifting back to fox, then watched as Lara tossed Edward over her shoulder. I immediately set off for the west, listening to Lara in my footsteps while counting seconds.
    We ran west for two minutes then I cut us to the south , then east. Iris could follow our trail, but we would be downwind of her most of the time, so she couldn't catch our scent and track straight to us. When I estimated we were six minutes into our time to hide, I dashed to a spruce tree, shifted to human, and held the branches up. I didn't have to say anything. Lara stuffed Edward into place.
    It was dry and he would warm it up.
    "Not a sound," she told him quietly once he was settled.
    "Let's go obscure the trail," I told Lara. We shifted back to fur and ran back to our last major turn. I set a clear trail southwest instead, eventually looping around to our trail at another point. Then I backtracked us so that our loop trail would have more scent than the one we'd really taken.
    Then Lara shifted back to human and ran twenty steps in the snow, barefoot, then shifted back to wolf. We ran further back our back trail then exited it via a fallen log and raced back to Edward. We checked to make sure he was still there, then we settled in to wait.
    Karen howled the start for Team Two to find us, and I began listening.
    Iris wasn't used to foxy ways, and our false trails confused her for a while. But she puzzled through it, and soon I heard her following the proper track towards us, moving slowly. In fur, she found us with about five minutes to spare, but she wasn't sure at first where we had stashed Edward. She walked up to both of us and sat down, looking between us.
    Lara yawned at her.
    She sniffed around the tree several times, not realizing we had put him under the tree. She came back and glared at us, actually putting a wolf paw on her hip, a good facsimile of a human gesture.
    I shifted to human. "You have to find him, Iris. He's close." Then I shifted back to fox. It was way too cold to sit naked in the snow.
    She sniffed both of us, then sniffed around the tree before she found where we'd put him. As soon as she saw Edward, he howled a quick victory.
    When we got back, everyone seemed in better spirits. Only one searcher got caught, and of the rest, one searcher didn't find his partner. Everyone else found his or her partner.
    "We intentionally made that easier," I explained. "Was it fun?"
    Everyone's hand went up.
    "Searchers, was it too easy?"
    "Yes," Emanuel said.
    "No," said Iris.
    There were