Page 44 of Fighting Furry

“Dude, you're coming on way too strong,” Raphael said. “Give the woman some space.”

Axel's smile widened. “You're right,” he said. He turned to me. “I've been coming on too strong, haven't I, sweetheart?”

Seriously, this guy was giving me the worst case of emotional whiplash. He was smiling, his stance easy, but there was a tightness around his eyes and I knew I'd hurt him. I hadn't meant to, but I'd hurt him. “Maybe a little,” I said, smiling for his friends. This was the right thing to do. Space was what we needed.

“We all need space sometimes,” Lara said. “I'm glad to have you in the pack, Julie, whether you're Axel's girlfriend or not. I want you to teach me some of your moves.”

“My moves?”

“You know,” she said. “Those kicks and punches and wrestling moves you did in the cage. I'd love to learn how to be a better fighter.”

My smile that time was real. “Of course. I'd love to teach you.”

Lara bounced on her toes and grinned. “I bet I'm not the only one either. It gets kind of boring around here sometimes,” she said. “It's fun to learn something new.”

“Boring?” Axel asked with mock seriousness. “How can you be bored? There's always some work that needs to be done.”

Lara laughed. “Fun, Axel. You should try it sometime.”

“I'm up for fun,” Axel said. “Let's show Julie the zip line.”

The rest of the group cheered and I found myself herded toward the back of the warehouse and out of the barn. It was dark outside, but my eyes adjusted quickly, able to make out more people outside. Two men were brawling near the woods, but Axel and his friends walked past like nothing was going on.

“I thought you were all pacifists,” I said, gesturing to the fighting men.

Axel shrugged. “They're just having a disagreement.”

I watched as one guy flipped the other guy under him and started pummeling his face with both fists. “It looks a bit more serious than that.”

Axel turned to face me. “I'm a pacifist and I won't let my pack fight with outsiders or anywhere we can be seen, but not everyone is as peaceful as me. As long as they follow the rules, I stay out of it.”

The guy on the bottom, the one getting beaten, shifted to wolf and flipped the other guy off him. He put his paws on his chest and growled down at him. The guy underneath swore at the wolf, but shifted, too, and the fight continued.

I shook my head and ran to catch up with the others. Even though I'd shifted a few times, I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to seeing humans become wolves.

Axel gestured me forward and climbed on a beat-up, muddy four-wheeler. His friends were on four-wheelers of their own. I climbed onto the back, having no idea what to expect, and got comfortable. I didn't wrap my arms around Axel's waist and I didn't press my cheek between his shoulder blades. We needed distance. Learning how to be a wolf had to take priority over a relationship, before I became any more dependent on him than I already was.

He started the four-wheeler and followed the others through the forest on yet another bouncy, dirt trail. I was sick of bouncing. I missed the smooth pavement of LA. We bounced up the side of the mountain for what felt like hours but was probably closer to fifteen minutes. We finally stopped and I hopped off before Axel could help me. I dodged his hand and joined the others at a set of rickety wooden steps.

Behind me, the four wheelers' engines revved and I looked back to see them now occupied by teenagers who whooped and drove at top speed down the mountain. “You wreck it, you buy it,” Axel yelled after them.

There was some more whooping in response and Axel shook his head. “We can't afford to keep replacing them. I'm going to have to ban those kids from any and all motorized devices.”

“Lighten up,” Freddie said. She handed both me and Axel harnesses, and we stepped into them and tightened the straps. “Where are the helmets?” I asked, looking around. I'd zip lined before, I knew the drill.

They all laughed like I'd made a ridiculous joke. I looked over at Axel and he smiled. “The kids wrecked whatever helmets we had doing stupid shit. It's safer not to give these people helmets. Makes them think a little harder about what they're going to do.”

“Right.” I thought I hung out with daredevils and risk-takers, but this pack had all my UFC friends beat. “I kind of like my brain. You sure you don't have a spare helmet lying around anywhere?”

“Nope,” Axel said. He didn't touch me, hadn't touched me, since we'd left the party. I was grateful for the space. I hadn't liked him touching me, anyway. “But the zip line is safe. Someone checks it out a few times a day to make sure.”

I followed the others up the rickety steps to a platform. There weren't many steps, so I figured we couldn't be up that high, but when I looked over the edge of the platform, all I saw was darkness below, the ground completely out of sight, even with my new wolf vision.

“How far does this thing go?” I asked.

No one answered me. Lara hooked herself to the zip line and hurtled down into the darkness. I watched her go, almost straight downhill, the trees so close to the zip line it looked like she could easily run into one of them if she got the slightest bit out of line. The others took their turns down the zip line, leaving me and Axel alone. I was happy to go last. Rationally, the zip line was safe and often used, but it was dark and I'd be zipping into a complete unknown.

“You go first,” Axel said. “I'll be right behind you.”

---