Fighting Furry

by Katharine Sadler

  The vampire holding her released her and she stepped toward Neela, still smiling. “I'm happy to be with you.”

  Neela patted her head like she was a child and moved on to Axel. This was not good. “Don't look in her eyes,” I said to Axel, even though he probably knew more about vamps than I did.

  He struggled against the three vamps holding him, but he couldn't break free. He closed his eyes, blocking out the sight of Neela. She leaned in close and pressed a kiss to his lips. When she moved back I could see blood on them. “You are delicious. I think I will keep you for my personal pet.”

  “Fuck you,” Axel said, but the words lacked confidence. My heart sank. If Axel was out of confidence, we were all screwed.

  Neela laughed. “Oh, you will, wolf. You might not enjoy it at first, but you'll learn.” She gripped his chin in her hands. “Now, open your eyes like a good pet or I'll have Gregory rip the eyelids off that pretty girlfriend of yours.”

  Axel opened his eyes and Neela gave him the same orders she'd given Clarissa. He fought it, but eventually he succumbed, just as Clarissa had.

  I was next and I knew there was no way I'd be able to fight her stare. It went against every instinct I had, but I only had one shot of getting out of this. Before Neela turned to me, I let my face go slack, let all the fight go out of me. I stared blankly ahead, clearing my mind. I pushed away anger and determination. I remembered the way I'd felt when my father had restrained me, how helpless I'd been to protect myself or my mother. I remembered the fear and the desperate desire to do anything to please him if it meant the abuse would stop. I let myself sink into that place I'd promised myself I'd never re-visit. When Neela walked over to me, I smiled at her, faking a happy expression I didn't feel. It probably looked forced, but that was okay. I understood her, as I'd understood my father. She didn't want me happy, she wanted me submissive, docile, afraid, and in her thrall. “I'm happy to be here,” I said, the words shaky, but audible.

  Neela, apparently having no lack of confidence, bounced and clapped. “Oh, you are a gem. So easily enthralled I don't even have to look directly into your eyes. Tell me, how did Jeremiah fail to overpower you?”

  I kept the same dopey smile on my face and spoke in a robotic tone, “I didn't give him the chance. He thought I was weak. I shifted and ripped his throat out before he could speak.”

  It was only half true, but Neela accepted it. “I told him to drink before he came over here, but he always did overestimate his own power.” For a moment, she looked truly sad, looked almost human. The moment passed as quickly as it had come and her expression hardened. It didn't matter. I'd gotten one more piece of the puzzle. There was something the vamps drank that made them stronger. Was it wolf blood? Or something else? If it was wolf's blood, wouldn't Axel have known about it?

  “Let's go,” Neela said. “Everyone smile and chat like we're just out for a friendly walk.”

  Neela headed for the front door, confident we'd follow. Clarissa fell into line behind her, her vamp captor close by her side. Axel followed her with his three vamp captors, all of them chatting and laughing. They were probably quite pleased with themselves. I was last and, for a moment, I was alone in the foyer with my vamp captor. I was alone, but Alpha wasn't too far behind us, and his two girlfriends were with him. It was way more than I wanted to take on alone. I waited until I was on the porch and my vamp had closed the front door behind us. I spun, using every bit of speed and skill I had, and kicked the vamp in the thigh. He grunted and listed to one side, surprise written on every feature of his face. I took advantage and jabbed him hard in the throat with the side of my hand.

  He roared and leapt at me, but I dodged to the side and he flew over me and stumbled on the stairs. I spun and shoved, knocking him forward and into the three goons who'd grabbed Axel. My vamp only hit one of them and was back on his feet in an instant. I now had two vamps approaching, both bigger and stronger than me. It wasn't the first time I'd fought someone bigger and stronger, but it was the first time I'd fought two people at once. The first time I'd fought two people who wanted to drink my blood.

  I sprinted for the side of the porch and leapt over the rail. I hit the grass with a thud and saw Neela approaching me with an inhuman speed. I wouldn't be put under a thrall, I wouldn't submit to her. I'd die first. I'd bleed out on that green grass before I let her touch me.

  My wolf roared in agreement and, quicker than I'd done it, yet, I shifted. It was like pulling a shirt over my head, it happened so quickly. I shifted and I lunged at Neela, knowing that if I gave her a moment, even one second, she'd gain control of me. I leapt and I wrapped my mouth around her neck. I didn't think, I didn't acknowledge the cold blood running down my throat, didn't think about the way her flesh felt as it tore under my jaws. I bit and I twisted until I felt her head pull free from her body, and then I dropped her. I wanted to shift back to human, wanted to get the taste of her blood out of my mouth, but I couldn't. I had to help Axel and Clarissa.

  I raced back to the front porch, only to find Axel and Clarissa already fighting. Axel was battling the three vamps who'd held him and Clarissa was fighting the other two. They were giving it everything they had, but they were losing. It would only be a matter of moments before the vamps had them restrained again or reinforcements showed up. I ran for the closest guy, the third guy fighting Axel, and leapt on him. I bit down hard on the back of his neck and he went still beneath me. I didn't want to kill anyone else, even though my wolf was howling for us to finish him. I jumped off his bloody back and went after the next guy.

  As I ran, I saw Clarissa shift. Once she was wolf, she'd be fine, but Axel wasn't shifting. One guy was holding him while the other guy pummeled him, but Axel just took it, not even trying to shift, struggling against them like a human would. I leapt on the guy pummeling Axel, but he must have heard me coming, because he spun and hit me with the punch he'd been aiming at Axel. It hit me hard, right in the chest and I flew backwards through the air, hitting so hard I had the wind doubly knocked from my chest. Axel screamed my name, but I couldn't catch my breath. I gasped and clawed at the air and, finally, cool oxygen bathed my lungs. My next breath hurt like fuck, so I figured I had at least one broken rib.

  I rolled to my feet to see that Axel had shifted and was on top of one of the vamps, clawing at his chest like he wanted to rip his heart out, even though the vamp's head lolled by his own feet. The other vamps were all down and Clarissa was nosing at Axel and whining, trying to get him to stop. I ran full speed at Axel, which was more like a limping fraction of my normal speed at that point and rammed him with my head.

  I didn't move him very far, but he stopped clawing at the vamp's shredded chest. I met his eyes and hollered with my mind. “We've got to go.”

  He winced and nodded. He looked back at the pack house and then both ways down the street, considering his options.

  He looked across the street and stilled. I followed his gaze. There was a crowd of people, all staring at us with wide-open mouths, at least three of them with cell phones pointed our way and one, clearly a pap, with a high-tech camera. Axel growled and started toward them, but I stopped him by nipping his ear. If I knew paps, the pictures or video she'd taken had already been uploaded to some site that would pay her really, really well. We needed to get out of there and we needed a plan.

  Axel shifted back to human, apparently deciding it was too late to make anyone think we weren't werewolves. He marched down the street toward his truck. I shifted and followed and so did Clarissa. We all piled into the truck and Axel turned the key, which was still in the ignition.

  “We can't go back to the pack,” Clarissa said as Axel pulled out onto the street and away from the pack house.

  “We can't escape the council's punishment,” he said. “If I go willingly, they'll likely only punish me. I was responsible for you both.”

  “When you say punish,” I asked. “Do you mean kill?”

  Axel sighed and ran a hand over his bloody cheek
. “It doesn't matter. I fucked up and I'll pay for it.”

  “That's bullshit,” Clarissa said. “Darius had some sort of deal going on with the vamps behind our backs and we were defending ourselves.”

  “Doesn't matter,” Axel said, his tone utterly defeated. “I messed up, revealed werewolves to humans, and I'll pay. The council will have to make an example of me to prevent others from doing worse.”

  I absolutely hated the despair in Axel's voice, but worse was the shame. He sounded ashamed of himself. He probably thought he'd let down his pack and wolves everywhere. He took on so much responsibility for things he couldn't control.

  “That's not fair,” I said. “This is as much my fault as it is yours. If I'd never shown up at your pack, none of this would have happened.”

  Axel reached across the bench seat, grabbed my arm and pulled until I was against his naked side. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. Normally, it would have been sexy, comforting at the very least, but he was covered in blood and smelled like vampires. It made me gag, but Axel held on tight and the feeling passed. He wasn't any grosser than me. “I'm sorry, Julie,” he said. “It's the law. We don't follow the law, we might as well move back to the woods and live full-time as wolves.”

  I rolled my eyes. Had he always been this dramatic? “We need time,” I said. “We need to figure out what Darius's up to and figure out a way to get you out of this.”

  He squeezed me tighter. “There is no getting out of this. There's nowhere I can go that the council won't find me.”

  “I might know a place,” Clarissa said. “Turn right at the next light.”

  Axel looked over his shoulder at his pack mate. “You agree with Julie?”

  “Yep,” she said. “I'm too young and beautiful to die, and I don't want to lose the best alpha our pack has had in three generations.”

  Axel turned his gaze back to the road. “There's no escaping the punishment of the council,” he said. But he turned right at the next light.

  ***

  “This is it?” Axel asked. He sounded tired and defeated, and I hated it.

  I gazed out the front window of the truck at what could only be described as a shack and tried to look on the bright side. “I doubt the council will think to look here.”

  “It's better inside,” Clarissa said. “There's a shower out back, and I bet we can find some clothes inside.”

  “What is this place?”

  “Rowan's aunt's last boyfriend uses it as a hunting cabin in the fall. It's really not as bad as it looks.”

  I wiggled out from under Axel's arm. “I for one want to hit that shower before I do anything else.”

  Clarissa hopped out and led the way around to the back of the shack. There was a wooden table built from pallets and stained by years of cleaning hunted or fished animals, I would guess. I didn't see a shower. Clarissa pulled a garden hose from a box next to the house.

  “That's the shower?”

  “Would you rather stay covered in vamp blood?”

  I sighed and spread my arms. “Hit me.”

  The water was even colder than I'd expected. It was so cold, my skin was bright red and my whole body was shuddering with shivers hard enough to rattle my teeth by the time I was finally clean. “Here,” Axel threw a ratty old towel at me. I dried myself off as best I could while Clarissa hosed him off.

  I have to admit, I enjoyed the show. He always looked good enough to eat, even dancing around and cursing about the cold. He smiled at me, even as he shivered and the kindness in his gaze warmed me. I'd do whatever it took to protect him. Whatever it took, even if it meant I had to walk away from him again.

  Clean, he grabbed a towel from a pile he'd placed on the hose box and gestured for Clarissa to give him the hose. She took her place on the cracked, cement patio and took her hosing down silently, just shivering and turning when Axel instructed.

  Once we were all clean and, mostly, dry, we headed inside. I still smelled like vamp and I wished for shampoo and soap, but I pushed the wish aside. We had far bigger problems to deal with.

  The shack wasn’t too bad inside. There was a dusty space heater and a bare cot. Other than the normal accumulation of dust to be expected when a place stood empty for a while, it was surprisingly clean. It was dry and there was even a pantry with pots and pans and a camp stove. There was no food, but there was a suitcase that held hunting clothing. It all reeked of mothballs, but it was clean.

  The clothes were a bit small on Axel, but huge on me and Clarissa. We might have looked like we were part of some cult militia group, but at least we weren't naked and, if we had to run into the woods, we'd be well camouflaged. There must have been just the one guy who used the cabin, because there were only about two outfits worth of camo. Axel took the outerwear pants and gave me the matching jacket. Clarissa took the camo coveralls and camo hoody. The jacket was long enough to cover my bare butt, but I wouldn't have minded if the guy had thrown a pair of sweatpants in there, too.

  “Okay,” Axel said. “We're safe. For now. What did you want to decide?”

  I gave him a little shove, until he was seated on the floor and then I climbed onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed a kiss to my hair. If there was a chance in hell that I might lose him, soon, I wasn't going to waste our time together with me on the other side of the room from him. “I think you like me,” he whispered.

  “Nope,” I said, at full volume. “I'm just still chilly from that hose bath.”

  He chuckled and hugged me tighter.

  Clarissa smiled fondly at us. She sat on the cot and pulled her legs up under her. The coveralls didn't look remotely comfortable, but she didn't complain. “Okay, so we know that Darius has got some deal going with the vamps. He wants them to have our territory and our pack, so getting Axel out of the picture would only benefit him. What do the vamps have that he wants?”

  “And what makes the vamps so strong?” I asked. “I didn't have much trouble besting Jeremiah, but the vamp holding me was like a steel robot.”

  “I don't have any answers,” Axel said. “And even if I did, what would that solve? Knowing why Darius wants the pack isn't going to save me or the pack.”

  “Knowing what Darius is up to might give us some leverage,” I said. “Something to use against him in exchange for him letting you live.”

  “That kind of leverage doesn't exist,” Axel said. “What just happened is too huge. The council will have to act.”

  “Do you have your cell phone?”

  He sighed. “It's in the truck.”

  Clarissa popped up. “I'll get it.”

  She was out the door without even asking what I needed it for. She was good people.

  Axel nuzzled my neck and pressed a soft kiss to the spot where Neela had bitten me. “Does it hurt?”

  “Not really,” I said. “That vampire saliva is good stuff.”

  “Julie, I love that you're trying to help me, but you have to know this is futile. Our way of life depends on secrecy and I've destroyed that. I need you to know—”

  I spun in his lap and slapped a hand over his mouth. “That's enough.” If he said what I thought he was going to say, my heart would crack into a million pieces. I needed to hold it together and I needed to save him. Somehow, he'd become the most important person in my life and I'd be damned if I was going to let him go without a fight. “That's bullshit. You said yourself it was only a matter of time before the secret came out and—”

  “It came out in the worst possible way. We were filmed ripping the heads off what will look to the world like innocent humans.”

  Okay, well, when he put it that way…“But they weren't innocent humans. They were vampires who are ten times more dangerous to humans. We probably saved some human lives by ridding the world of them.” I really had no idea if any of that was true, but I was going with it. “Quit talking like you've already given up and fight. Fight because you want to get back to your pack and make sure they keep th
eir territory and don't get overrun with vamps. You know Darius is going to give your pack to the vamps if you aren't there to defend it.” Something lit in his eyes, a spark of indignation, a bit of panic. “And fight for me. You can't fuck me if you're dead and—”

  He pressed his lips to mine and pulled me tight against him. Suddenly, I was ravenous for him and I wrapped my legs around his waist and pressed myself tight against him, my bare hands running over his shoulders and into his thick hair. The door creaked open and then immediately slammed shut. Clarissa was giving us some time and I was going to take it. I was going to take every moment I could get.

  Axel pulled away from me, he ran his thumbs over my cheeks and studied my face. “I need you to know, Julie, that this is more to me than sex. I'm crazy about you. No matter what I'm doing or where I am, you are my first thought. You've overtaken my mind and my life. I can't get your scent off my clothes or out of my sheets. I will never regret you coming into my life. I l—”

  I gripped his face and slammed my lips against his. That sounded way too much like goodbye and I wasn't going to let him say goodbye. I broke the kiss to reach between us and unbutton his pants. “Nobody wants to hear your pretty words,” I said. “I just want you to shut up and fuck me.”

  He grinned and lifted up to slide the pants out of the way. “Tell me how much you hate me.”

  “With the fire of a thousand burning hells,” I said, rising and sliding back down onto him. I gasped as he filled me. He felt so fucking good, every fucking time.

  He groaned and grabbed my face. “Look me in the eyes and tell me how much you hate me.”

  I looked into his eyes, his gorgeous eyes. The eyes that made it hard to breathe and made me want to get naked simultaneously. “I hate you with every fiber of my being,” I said, but the words came out breathy and the very last thing I felt for the man beneath me was hate.

  He smiled like I'd told him I loved him. He pulled me to him and kissed me like it was the most important thing he'd ever do. He thrust up and I was lost to sensation, the press of his lips against mine, him moving inside me. This. This was worth fighting for.