Page 85 of Fighting Furry

“Okay, let's get this show on the fucking road,” Sarah said. She stepped up next to us, threw the camera on her shoulder and pressed a button. “I'm filming. Lead the fucking way.”

I marched ahead of Sarah, Desiree at my side, my shoulders back, drawing in big breaths like I did before a fight to get myself into that calm space where I was aware and ready and not hyper-adrenalized.

There were no shouts or jeers from the barn, no yelling, and my heart stuttered, as I wondered if we had the wrong place. Then I heard a male voice not quite yelling, but speaking loudly, and a resounding chorus of “we do.”

Sarah hurried around me, crew in tow, and got up close to the edge of the open barn door. I put on my match face, the hard, angry face that declared to the world that I took no shit from anyone, and I marched to the barn. The doors, on huge rolling tracks, were only a quarter of the way open and it was dimly lit inside, the sunshine outside bright and making it hard to see the interior. I could make out some movement, but not enough to understand what I was walking into.

Sarah grabbed my elbow and yanked me to her side. “I want to get some more film,” she hissed at me. It took me a moment to register that she meant she wanted to record more of what was going on inside. I pulled away from her, straightened my shoulders and got my game face back on.

“Film this,” I said.

I marched inside and stopped while my eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. The entire town was seated in chairs to one side of the enormous barn. On the other side, there were long tables, behind which were seated what must be the thirty-seven council members, all of them in suits, looking respectable and upstanding. Axel was in a cage in front of the tables. Two men dressed in black with black hoods and guns stood next to the cage.

Axel saw me first, his head swinging around like he could sense me there or, more likely, could smell me. His eyes widened and then he shook his head, despair washing over every feature. Of course, Axel's reaction drew the attention of the council and the people in the audience.

Darius stood and gestured to me. “Julie Jacobs. You are here to submit voluntarily the punishment, I assume.”

“What?” I asked. “I'm being punished?”

Darius shared a smirk with the other council members. For a guy who didn't want anyone to know he was a wolf, he sure was a good grandstander. “You exposed yourself as a werewolf on national television, Julie Jacobs, of course you'll be punished.”

“And what is my punishment?” I asked. “What price do I have to pay for telling the world who I really am?”

Darius clasped his fingers in front of him. “Ordinarily we'd have a hearing and discuss your crime, but your crime was so heinous, so flagrantly disrespectful of our rules that I think we can slot you for execution immediately after we execute Axel.”

“She's a new wolf,” Axel said. “She doesn't understand our rules.”

“She's a nuisance. If she dies in a horrible car accident, her body cremated before an autopsy can be done, we can reassure the world that her whole reveal was the stunt of a washed-up, worn out fighter.”

“Might be kind of hard to convince them of that,” Sarah said. She stepped into the barn, her crew by her side. “When they see this video, which is currently streaming live on national television.”

To my surprise, Darius only paled a bit, and his smirk remained. “You forget that I work in Hollywood. I know you aren't filming live and I can make you and your recording disappear before anyone else sees it.”

I didn't think he could know for sure we weren't streaming live, but he wasn't wrong. “You don't think people are going to ask questions when five people go missing?” I asked.

“Put her in the cage,” Darius growled. One of the men dressed in black stepped to my side and shoved me toward the cage. I stumbled and went forward. I could fight him, could probably take him, but I wouldn't be able to take on the entire council if they decided to go wolfy and attack me. The guy in black shoved me again and I glared at him over my shoulder. “Take it easy,” I said. “I'm walking.” While I walked, I tried to figure out a plan. Sarah was still filming, but her crew mates were slowly moving back toward the door. The guy in black opened the door to shove me inside, but Axel shoved his way out with a force that knocked both me and the guy in black onto our asses. Axel grabbed me under the shoulders, but fell forward on top of me when someone or something barreled into him. It was a someone, because an arm wrapped around Axel's neck and a fist started pounding him in the kidneys. I tried to roll out from under him, but I had what I assumed to be about four hundred pounds of men on top of me. I was strong, I was superhuman strong, but four hundred pounds appeared to be my limit.

“Stop,” Desiree shouted. I twisted my head to see her walking into the barn, cell phone held high. “Sarah might not be able to stream live, but I can upload my video to YouTube with one push of a button. I've got over a million followers of Lotions and Potions on social media.”

The guy on top of Axel was unimpressed by Desiree's announcement and continued to pummel Axel. Axel, however, was done being pummeled. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he said to me, before he pushed down on my pelvis with his own body to get the leverage he needed to throw the guy off. Axel got to his feet with a roar and bent over the guy to throw a few punches of his own.

“Enough,” Darius shouted. “Leave Axel and Julie alone. They are good people, paragons of goodness, and clearly the cage has not worked as the intervention tool we'd hoped it would be to convince them to give up this delusion that they are wolves.”

“Oops,” Desiree said, a delighted laugh just under the surface of her words. “I uploaded the video to YouTube. Damn touch screen is so sensitive.” Darius's entire body tensed and his face reddened as the council gasped and tittered and the audience whispered. “Oh, I sent it your wife as well. I imagine she'll be glad to know you aren't cheating on her when you're away, you're just killing innocent people and behaving like an all-around douche.”

“My wife?” Darius asked, his voice so soft I almost couldn't hear it over the crowd. “Why would you do that? How do you even know who she is?”

Desiree marched over to him and started waving her hands and talking at him, but the crowd was now so loud, I couldn't hear anything they were saying. “What's she so mad about?” Axel asked.

“The council executed her husband some years back.”

“Ah,” he said with a nod. “And who are those people?”

I popped onto my tip toes so I could see his face when I laid this one on him. He was going to hate it. “They're my film crew. We're starring in a reality show.”

“We?” His eyes had gone wide, but he didn't look otherwise too put out by my news. Darn it.

“Well, me, but since I'm not letting you out of my sight ever again, they'll be filming both of us.”

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