Page 71 of Fighting Furry

“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 either, 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.”

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