Page 53 of Fighting Furry

CHAPTER EIGHT

I walked all the way to the barn where the meeting was supposed to happen, but no one was there. I pulled out my phone, only to realize I didn't have Axel's number. How could I not have his number?

I paced in front of the barn for twenty minutes, but no one showed. What the hell was going on? Had I misunderstood the time or the location of the meeting? I was annoyed with myself and with Axel, so I marched my ass back through town to Axel's house. I banged on the door for a full two minutes, but there was no sound from inside. Annoyance shifted to worry at that point, and I marched around back and through the woods to the gym/studio. There were no sounds coming from there, but I barged in anyway, only to find it empty, too. What the hell? Completely out of ideas of where to find Axel, I decided to take it out on the punching bag. I punched and kicked, working out my worry, both that something had happened to Axel and that he'd deliberately misled me for some reason, until I started to enjoy myself. I enjoyed myself so much, I forget to pull back on my punches and punched the bag right off the hook. It flew across the warehouse and knocked over a stack of rusted metal on the far side. Huh, guess that explained the three extra punching bags lined up along the wall. I considered lugging the thing back over and hanging it up, but decided against it. It was the least Axel deserved for not being where he said he'd be and making me worry.

With nothing better to do, I got into my weight-lifting routine. I'd always loved lifting, because it was a constant challenge. If I could do too many reps, I just added weight and, boom, challenge. It helped that I had a mesomorph-style body and built muscle pretty quickly and easily. Now that I was a werewolf, I could lift three times what I'd been able to lift before. I felt like superwoman.

I was doing Smith squats, facing an exterior window, when I saw Axel walking toward the warehouse. I paused mid-rep, ignoring the screaming of my quads, and watched him. His shoulders were slumped, his steps dragging. His mouth was pinched in a tight line, his expression dark and weary. I'd spent a lot of time thinking about Axel and my reaction to him, but I hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about what it took to do Axel's job, what stress he must experience being responsible for the entire pack, being the one they looked to for everything they needed.

He'd been so good to me, so protective, even before he knew me at all. Who took care of him? Who did he talk to when he needed to vent or just forget the pressure for a while? All my earlier annoyance and worry was forgotten as it occurred to me that I wanted to be that person for him. I wanted to make him smile and ease his stress and be there for him when no one else was. I wanted to be a help to him, not the girlfriend who didn't know how she felt about him, not the friend who pressured him to get physical when he wanted more. It wasn't fair to him for me to ask him for anything until I was sure, absolutely positive that I was one hundred percent in it with him. I needed to be the girlfriend capable of standing on her own two feet, capable of supporting myself and him. I would not be just another burden to him.

He paused and looked back toward the house, like he'd heard something, his whole body tense. Did he ever relax? Was he ever not on guard?

He turned back to the warehouse and I finished my reps as he walked in the door. His expression lightened when he saw me, his mouth turning up, his shoulders going back, his steps becoming lighter and quicker. He was by my side in an instant, his arms tight around me, and I could have cried for how good it felt. “There you are,” he said. “I got worried when you weren't at Lucinda's.”

“I came here looking for you,” I said. “I was worried about you.”

He grimaced. “Shit. I forgot to let you know the meeting was canceled.”

I stepped back and got under the bar, using my shoulders to lift it and drop down into another squat. I was happy to see him, but I didn't need to screw up my workout. “Why don't I have your phone number?”

He paused. “You don't?”

I shook my head, the squats making it impossible to speak.

He looked around, spotted my phone on a weight bench near the door, and headed that way. He tapped the screen for several moments and set it back down. “Now you have it.”

I finished my set and walked over to him. “Why was the meeting canceled?”

He rolled his shoulders, the tension returning to his expression. “There was a fight at one of the outlying homesteads. Clarissa and I had to head out and break it up.”

“A fight? I thought we were all pacifists here.”

A bit of the tension left his face, but I didn't get a smile from him. “That's the idea, but living in a small town, seeing the same people day in and day out, tensions can run high. This fight was two families feuding over a hill.”

“A hill?”

He nodded. “One family loves to ski in the winter and they want to build a lift to make the hill more accessible. The other family hates skiing and they want to use the hill for sledding.”

I stared at him. “Couldn't the lift be used for both?”

He sat on the bench, grabbed my waist, and pulled me into his lap. I could have complained, since he'd said he'd keep things platonic until I asked him for more, but I was happy there in his lap and didn't want to change anything. “That's what I suggested, but they said the sleds would ruin the snow and get in the way, so it needed to be zoned as a ski-only hill.”

“Seems like an idiotic argument.”

Axel nodded, his nose brushing my neck. He caressed my side from hipbone to ribs, making it hard for me to focus on the conversation. “It is,” he said. “I think there's something else going on, but they weren't interested in mediation or discussing anything reasonably. For now, none of them are allowed to use the hill for anything. If they can't work it out, I'm letting the teens build another zip line there.”

“The teens build the zip lines?”

He lifted his head, his brow crinkled in confusion. “Sure.”

“Don't you think adults should be involved? Make sure everything is built safely?”

“Herbert checks them over during the build and at the end. It's a good way to keep the teens busy.”

He brushed my hair out of my face, just as the music flipped over to a rock ballad. I've never understood the point of rock ballads. If I wanted to listen to a ballad I'd step into an elevator somewhere. When I listened to rock, I expected to get rock. It was the sort of song I'd usually skip, but staring into Axel's eyes, his hand on my cheek, it felt like the perfect background music. And, yes, I was fully aware I was as cheesy as the characters on Lucinda's favorite soap. I just didn't care.

I leaned in and Axel didn't lean away. It started as a tender kiss, a sort of tentative kiss, that exploded with heat and passion. I knew I should be thinking about this, probably talking about this with Axel, so I pulled back a moment. “Okay?” I asked.

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