Page 10 of Fighting Furry

“A couple years? No. I need to go now. If I drop out of the fight circuit for two years, I might as well quit, my career will be over.”

Axel rumbled a low, grumbly growl. “You aren't listening to me. Your career is over now, anyway. You can't fight as a werewolf.”

“It's my life,” I said. “That's for me to decide.”

Axel stomped over to the cage and glared at me through the bars. “No more arguing. You will stay here and you will do as you're told.”

I glared right back. Sure, I wasn't totally unaffected by his scary glare and his deep alpha voice, but I wasn't about to back down. This was my life, my career. “I want to leave. Now.”

He continued to glare at me, but I didn't back down. I glared at him just as hard as he was glaring at me. I stepped right up to the bars of the cage until my nose was just about touching his. “Let me out.”

“Step away from the bars,” he said in that weird, deep voice.

My heels lifted from the cement floor, a huge part of me wanting to do as he asked, but I stood my ground. “No fucking way.”

Something like surprise ignited in his expression. “Move to the far side of the cage.”

“Make me.”

His whole demeanor shifted and lightened and he smiled, a happy smile revealing fine lines around his brilliant amber eyes. “Fine. You're free to go.”

He pulled a key ring from his pocket and unlocked my door.

“You can't just let her go,” Clarissa said.

Axel turned his glare on her. “It seems everyone has forgotten who's the alpha here.”

Clarissa lowered her eyes and rolled her head to bare her neck. “Forgive me, alpha.”

Axel nodded. “You are forgiven. Your concerns aren't unwarranted, however—”

“Um, can I go?” I asked. Axel had unlocked the door to my cell, but he hadn't opened it or moved out of the way.

He looked over at me, as though he'd forgotten I was there. “Of course,” he said, with a cheeky grin. “You're free to go.”

I hurried out of there onto the quiet, but muddy, main street. There wasn't another person in sight, but I could see my rental truck about a block away, still parked where I'd left it. I fished my car keys out of my pocket and hurried down the street. I hit the button on the key ring to unlock the door, but saw the lock already popped up. I swung the door open and found my purse, along with my groceries, on the bench seat. I pulled my phone from my purse and checked it to see several missed calls and a text from Krista warning me to stay inside until sunrise. Too little, too late, my cousin.

I hopped in, slammed the door, and gunned it out of there. I wasn't sticking around and giving Axel a chance to change his mind.

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