***
“You can come back inside,” Axel hollered. I was still in his arms, but we were both decent. The cabin smelled like sex, but it's not like Clarissa didn't know what we'd been doing in there.
She opened the door and peeked in like she wasn't convinced it was safe. When she saw me on Axel's lap, both of us dressed, she walked all the way inside. “I've really got to stop walking in on you two getting it on.”
“We'd appreciate that, too.”
Clarissa handed me Axel's phone and I handed it to him. “Call Darius and let me talk to him.”
He shook his head. “That's a terrible plan. You really think he's going to tell you anything?”
He had a point. I slumped against him. “You're just going to give up? You're going to let Darius kill you?”
Axel grinned. “I have a better idea.”
He tapped away at his phone and put it up to his ear. “Alpha,” he said.
He listened for a long while. I could hear Alpha chattering away about something, but I couldn't make out the words.
“Yeah,” Axel said. “I'm real sorry about the mess and…Yeah, about killing Neela. I know you two had a sweet set-up.”
There was more chattering and something crashed.
Axel grinned. “You really think I had no idea exactly what was going on, man? I'm not a complete idiot.”
Alpha said something about the council and Axel winced.
“I did take the council's side, but that was in the past. I've been on to Darius for a while now and I'm telling you, man, he's going to find some way to pin this mess on you, too. With you out of the picture, he'll have direct access…”
Alpha was yelling at this point, and I could hear every word. “I've been out of the picture for a while now, asshole. Darius's been dealing directly with the vamps, giving them wolves who are causing him trouble, but lately…He's been handing over prime wolves, man, wolves who haven't done a damn thing to be enslaved by vamps.”
“Didn't seem like you had a problem with vamps,” Axel said. “They sure were crawling all over your pack house.”
“Dude,” Alpha screeched. “I do what I have to do. Trust me, you do not want to get on the bad side of the vamps, because that gets you on the bad side of the council.”
Axel snorted. “I call bullshit. The vamps might have something Darius wants, but he'd never side with them that far.”
Alpha laughed. “Man, you had me going there for a minute. You have no fucking clue what's really going on, do you? If you did, you'd know Darius and Neela were so far up each other's asses, that Neela knew as soon as Darius did that Julie Jacobs had been changed. Neela wanted her, but Darius was worried about the paps on her tail and her fame. It's better to take wolves no one's going to miss when they disappear.”
“But the vamps are just feeding on the wolves, right?” Axel asked. “It's not like they're killing them.”
Alpha laughed. “They're as good as dead, man. They're just shells feeding the vamps to make them stronger than us. Why do you think I drink so much? I'd never be a candidate for their little project.”
“Come on, Alpha. The council would never want vamps to be more powerful than us.”
Alpha snorted. “They think they can handle 'em, man.”
“Why is the wolf blood making the vamps so strong? It's never had that effect before.”
Alpha was silent for a while. “I don't know, but maybe wolf blood has always made them stronger and they just didn't let on.”
“What are the vamps giving the council?” Axel asked.
“What else, man?” Alpha said. “Money. The vamps have been around so long, they got more of it than they know what to do with and you know how the council likes to live. Darius will tell you they need the money to protect the rest of us, to pay off the right people and keep the secret, but they don't give a shit about the rest of us. They're just fucking greedy as hell.”
“Huh,” Axel said. “You sure there's not more to it than that?”
“I'd sure as fuck sleep better at night if there was,” Alpha said. “Hey, no hard feelings, man, but if Darius asks me if I talked to you, I'm going to tell him where and when. You might want to get rid of your phone.”
“Yeah,” Axel said, his gaze going distant. “Thanks.”
“Shit,” Clarissa said, as soon as he hung up. “I didn't think about the GPS tracker in your phone.”
“It doesn't matter,” Axel said. “They'd have found us eventually, anyway.”
He curled his hand into a fist and the phone shattered. “We could run,” I said. “We could go to ground and disappear.”
Axel's expression was so sad my heart stuttered. I knew he didn't want to run, but it was the best shot we had at survival. Axel couldn't help his pack if he was dead and it was clear the council only saw him as an obstacle to their goals. “Yeah,” he said. “I've got a couple hundred dollars in cash. It'd be enough to get us out of here, but it won't get us a place or a—”
“I know someone,” Clarissa said. “At least, I know someone who might know someone.”
Axel rolled his eyes. “I'm not trusting anything that old coot has to say.”
“That old coot knows things,” Clarissa said. “He's our best bet.”
She stood and headed outside to the truck. I pushed off Axel's lap and got to my feet. “Who are we going to see?”
“There's no good way to describe him.”
We had a silent ride back down the hill. Clarissa was texting the whole time and, when we reached the main road, a four-door sedan with tinted windows was waiting for us, pulled over in the dirt. “That's our ride,” Clarissa said. “Get what you need from the truck.”
Axel sighed, but pulled a couple granola bars from the glove box, along with his wallet.
Rowen was bouncing next to the car when Axel and I walked over to it. “You're finally getting your wish,” Axel grumbled.
“I've always wanted to drive his truck,” she said to me, her grin wide enough to split her face. I didn't see what was so special about his truck, it looked like a ginormous penis extension to me, but I didn't know much of anything about cars.
They traded keys and Axel opened the driver's door to the car. I opened the passenger door and looked back to see Clarissa still in the truck, though she was now in the passenger seat. “What are you doing?” Axel roared.
Clarissa rolled down her window. “A life on the run isn't my idea of a good time.”
“The council could very well punish you in my stead.”
She shrugged. “I've got two uncles on that council, and I can blame the whole mess on my alpha. I'll be fine.”
Before Axel could argue any more, Rowan had pulled out onto the road and driven away. Axel growled and punched the roof of the car. “I don't like this.”
Axel punched the car one more time and then climbed in behind the wheel. He started the car and whipped out onto the road before I'd gotten my seatbelt buckled. “Look in the back,” he said. “I bet she brought clothes for us.”
I didn't look in the back, I watched Axel. “We aren't really running, are we?”
“Until we come up with a better plan, that's exactly what we're doing. We're just running far enough that we get a reprieve from the council's punishment, a chance to figure out how to help the pack.”
“And if you decide the best way for you to help the pack is to submit to the council's decision?”
He didn't take his eyes off the road, but his hands tightened on the wheel. “Then that's what I'll do. My first, my only, responsibility is to the pack.”
“They wouldn't want you to die for them.”
“If it's the only way to save the pack, they sure as hell would.”
I couldn't argue with him, no matter how much I wished we could we just run and never look back. I didn't want to lose him, but his dedication to the pack, his love of the pack, was a huge part of what made him the man I was obsessed with. And the truth was, I didn't want to see the pack hurt ei
ther, I didn't know all of them, I didn't even know some of them very well, but I felt connected to them all.
I looked in the back and saw my duffel. I yanked it to my lap and changed as he drove. I tossed him a shirt and he pulled it on at the next red light. He drove back to downtown, the downtown of Aspens Whiten, not Mule Creek. He parked in the lot of an assisted living home. “Let me do the talking in there.”
I gave him a look. A look that very clearly said I thought he was being an asshole and he was an idiot if he thought I was just going to sit there and look pretty.
He sighed. “I'm not trying to be a dick, just…” He shook his head. “You'll understand when we get in there.”
***
The assisted living facility was dreary on the inside, institutional and smelly, with elderly people wandering around, looking like extras from a zombie apocalypse set. One or two smiled and waved at us, but most of them looked sad or vacant. I shivered, hoping that when I reached that age I didn't have to live in such a glum place. Axel's expression was set in a hard frown and he muttered something about humans not taking care of their elders.
I followed him down a long hall to a small room with a bed, a chair, and a television. The room was as dreary and institutional as the rest of the building, but the man seated in the chair, attention on the television, was like a rainbow on a desert plain. He had on a purple ball cap, a neon green t-shirt, and striped pants in a clashing mix of orange and red. “It's birdwatching you fucking idiot,” he shouted at the television. He was watching Wheel-of-fortune at full volume. Axel grabbed something from a shelf by the door. He walked over to the old man and stuck the things in his ears.
The elderly man swatted at his hands. “I don't need those fucking things. Stop touching me you—”
Axel knelt in front of the man so he could see his face and the man immediately stopped yelling. “You are in some serious shit, Axel.”
Axel nodded, seemingly unsurprised that this man already knew about the trouble we'd gotten into. He reached up and slid the hearing aids into the man's ears. The man helped, his expression fond, almost tender. “You here to say goodbye before the council cuts off your nuts and burns you alive?”
I gasped and slapped a hand over my mouth. When Axel said he'd be executed, I'd pictured death by firing squad, not torture. The old man looked my way, clearly able to hear now that he had his hearing aids in. “Who are you?” He growled, the sound so primal it would be clear he was a werewolf, if I hadn't already smelled him. “Who sent you? You leave before I-”
“She's with me,” Axel said.
“With you?” the old man asked, never taking his eyes off me. “I've seen her on the television. She's one of them fighters. You can't trust a fighter, Axel. She's working for them. She's probably called them in already.” He rose to his feet, a gun suddenly in his hand.
I backed out of the room and got ready to run, but Axel had already plucked the gun from the old man's grasp. “Max, this is Julie Jacobs. Julie, this is Maxwell Thompson.”
“Give me back that gun,” Max roared. “It's for your own damn good.”
“How did you even get this in here, Max?”
Max shrugged. “I know people. Want me to call them? They'd take care of this Julie for us, make it look like an accident.”
I was beginning to understand why Axel hadn't wanted me to speak around Max. I was less certain why we were there in the first place. He seemed more than a little crazy.
“Julie is mine, Max. I trust her with my life.”
I went from being angry that Axel referred to me as a belonging, to touched that he trusted me so thoroughly. Of course, he was probably saying both of those things to keep Max from killing me.
Max looked me over. “If you trust her, I trust her, but don't blame me if she stabs you in the back.”
“I swear I won't.” Axel seemed way too serious for what should have been a light-hearted promise. “Can you tell us what you've heard? We have reason to believe the council's in league with the vampires.”
Max waved a hand. “The council's been trying to negotiate with them for ages, since they actually own businesses and properties that make money, unlike the wolves who would rather kill themselves trying to come up with the craziest stunt known to man.”
Axel smirked. “Says the man who invented roof sledding and zip line trapeze.”
Max waved his hand in dismissal. “Sensible occupations compared to what you kids get up to today.”
“So, you've heard the council has promised the vampires my territory and my pack in exchange for a share in their businesses?”
“Heard that,” Max said. “Didn't figure you'd let it happen, but then you had to walk right into their hands by killing vamps in broad daylight on Main Street.” Max shot a glare in my direction as though the whole mess was my fault. Since he wasn't wrong, I accepted his glare with a nod. He grinned like I'd just told him he'd won a million dollars.
“Is the entire council involved in this deal with the vamps or just Darius?”
“Darius and Mary,” Max said. “They're going to use this coup to try and convince the others they should be leading the council.”
“Any chance I can use this information against them and save my own ass?”
Max's eyes widened. “You get hit in the head too hard, boy? The council would welcome news of a negotiation with the vamps and they'd jump for joy at the chance to sacrifice you as the scapegoat.”
Axel nodded unsurprised. “What about my pack? What can I do for them?”
Max's expression sobered. “This is the problem, my boy, with being in the shadows. The council is the highest authority. If they want your pack, they will take your pack. There is nothing you can do.”
“I won't accept that,” Axel said. “There has to be something. I won't just step aside and allow my pack to become vamp food.”
Max rubbed his chin. “What you'll want is dirt on the council members. Blackmail is the only threat that will work.”
Axel's shoulders lost some of their tension. “You got anything for me?”
Max frowned. “Not unless you want to out them as wolves. Other than being greedy, sanctimonious pricks, they keep their personal lives clean and their businesses cleaner. They'd never risk inviting more attention.”
“Right,” Axel said. Again, he didn't look surprised, or worried. It was like he knew everything Max was going to tell us before we'd arrived. “We need a place, Max. Somewhere they'd never think to look, somewhere we can hide until they forget about us.”
Max nodded, his eyes sad. He gave Axel an address, which Axel put into his phone.
Axel started to stand, but Max stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “They'll do whatever they have to do to find you, kid. They'll question the pack members for information and they won't be gentle about it. If you're gone too long, the pack will start to go rogue and the council will use that as an excuse to start killing them, to try to lure you back in by hurting your pack.”
Axel's frown deepened and his eyebrows ticked up only a millimeter, but it was enough for me to know that this information surprised him. My heart sank because I knew he'd never let the pack suffer if he could prevent it and I'd never do anything to keep him from the pack if they needed him. “You've seen this before.”
Max nodded. “I have. It's a messy business.”
Axel thanked and hugged Max, stood, and led me back out the building.
“Why does he live there?” I asked, once Axel had started the truck and gotten us back on the road. “And how does he know so much about the council?”
“His wife was human,” Axel said. “She never lived with the pack and, when she couldn't take care of herself any longer, her family moved her in there. Max tried to convince her to join the pack, to live with him there, but she refused. She wanted to be near her family, to be somewhere they could visit her. Max moved in with her. After she died…He said he'd gotten accustomed to life there and didn't want to leave, but most of
his friends in the pack had moved on or passed by that point and I think he felt he wouldn't be welcomed in Mule Creek.”
I couldn't imagine anyone staying there voluntarily, but I'd never been married, never watched my spouse die, never been left all alone. “And the council?”
Axel grinned. “Max has a twin brother, Mort, and the two of them served on the council for more than two decades. Max was asked to resign after some stupid stunt or prank, I can't even remember, but Mort is still there. He tells Max everything.”
“He hasn't figured out that Max will just tell you and your pack?”
Axel shrugged. “That's the problem with ego, you can't see past your own toes.”
“You weren't surprised when he said the council would be glad to see you gone, what's that about?”
Axel's grip on the steering wheel tightened. “When Darius placed me in the Mule Creek pack, the council thought I'd be their puppet, that I'd do whatever they asked.” He shrugged. “I wasn't too keen on giving the council more of our money or punishing pack members with the violence the council felt was necessary to keep a tight rein on the wolves. If our territory wasn't so remote, they probably would have pushed me out a long time ago.”
I took that in for a moment. I would have figured the council would love a pacifist alpha, someone unlikely to draw attention to werewolves, but I was beginning to see that the council was more complicated than that. “So, what's the plan? We aren't just going to hide, are we?”
He kept his eyes on the road, but his eyebrow twitched and his knuckles whitened. “Until we come up with a better plan, that's exactly what we're doing. We'll rescue the pack once the council is focused on something else.”
“Okay.” It sounded like a rational plan, a logical plan, but I wasn't buying it. Something huge would have to happen for the council to forget about Axel and I knew he'd go back at the first news of trouble with the pack. I didn't push him, though, because I was afraid of what he might say. If he decided to sacrifice himself, I couldn't stop him. And, as noble as that choice would be, I was almost certain I'd never be able to forgive him for choosing the pack over me. A selfish, bad feeling, but one I couldn't deny feeling.
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