Page 67 of Fighting Furry

He roared and leapt at me, but I dodged to the side and he flew over me and stumbled on the stairs. I spun and shoved, knocking him forward and into the three goons who'd grabbed Axel. My vamp only hit one of them and was back on his feet in an instant. I now had two vamps approaching, both bigger and stronger than me. It wasn't the first time I'd fought someone bigger and stronger, but it was the first time I'd fought two people at once. The first time I'd fought two people who wanted to drink my blood.

I sprinted for the side of the porch and leapt over the rail. I hit the grass with a thud and saw Neela approaching me with an inhuman speed. I wouldn't be put under a thrall, I wouldn't submit to her. I'd die first. I'd bleed out on that green grass before I let her touch me.

My wolf roared in agreement and, quicker than I'd done it, yet, I shifted. It was like pulling a shirt over my head, it happened so quickly. I shifted and I lunged at Neela, knowing that if I gave her a moment, even one second, she'd gain control of me. I leapt and I wrapped my mouth around her neck. I didn't think, I didn't acknowledge the cold blood running down my throat, didn't think about the way her flesh felt as it tore under my jaws. I bit and I twisted until I felt her head pull free from her body, and then I dropped her. I wanted to shift back to human, wanted to get the taste of her blood out of my mouth, but I couldn't. I had to help Axel and Clarissa.

I raced back to the front porch, only to find Axel and Clarissa already fighting. Axel was battling the three vamps who'd held him and Clarissa was fighting the other two. They were giving it everything they had, but they were losing. It would only be a matter of moments before the vamps had them restrained again or reinforcements showed up. I ran for the closest guy, the third guy fighting Axel, and leapt on him. I bit down hard on the back of his neck and he went still beneath me. I didn't want to kill anyone else, even though my wolf was howling for us to finish him. I jumped off his bloody back and went after the next guy.

As I ran, I saw Clarissa shift. Once she was wolf, she'd be fine, but Axel wasn't shifting. One guy was holding him while the other guy pummeled him, but Axel just took it, not even trying to shift, struggling against them like a human would. I leapt on the guy pummeling Axel, but he must have heard me coming, because he spun and hit me with the punch he'd been aiming at Axel. It hit me hard, right in the chest and I flew backwards through the air, hitting so hard I had the wind doubly knocked from my chest. Axel screamed my name, but I couldn't catch my breath. I gasped and clawed at the air and, finally, cool oxygen bathed my lungs. My next breath hurt like fuck, so I figured I had at least one broken rib.

I rolled to my feet to see that Axel had shifted and was on top of one of the vamps, clawing at his chest like he wanted to rip his heart out, even though the vamp's head lolled by his own feet. The other vamps were all down and Clarissa was nosing at Axel and whining, trying to get him to stop. I ran full speed at Axel, which was more like a limping fraction of my normal speed at that point and rammed him with my head.

I didn't move him very far, but he stopped clawing at the vamp's shredded chest. I met his eyes and hollered with my mind. “We've got to go.”

He winced and nodded. He looked back at the pack house and then both ways down the street, considering his options.

He looked across the street and stilled. I followed his gaze. There was a crowd of people, all staring at us with wide-open mouths, at least three of them with cell phones pointed our way and one, clearly a pap, with a high-tech camera. Axel growled and started toward them, but I stopped him by nipping his ear. If I knew paps, the pictures or video she'd taken had already been uploaded to some site that would pay her really, really well. We needed to get out of there and we needed a plan.

Axel shifted back to human, apparently deciding it was too late to make anyone think we weren't werewolves. He marched down the street toward his truck. I shifted and followed and so did Clarissa. We all piled into the truck and Axel turned the key, which was still in the ignition.

“We can't go back to the pack,” Clarissa said as Axel pulled out onto the street and away from the pack house.

“We can't escape the council's punishment,” he said. “If I go willingly, they'll likely only punish me. I was responsible for you both.”

“When you say punish,” I asked. “Do you mean kill?”

Axel sighed and ran a hand over his bloody cheek. “It doesn't matter. I fucked up and I'll pay for it.”

“That's bullshit,” Clarissa said. “Darius had some sort of deal going on with the vamps behind our backs and we were defending ourselves.”

“Doesn't matter,” Axel said, his tone utterly defeated. “I messed up, revealed werewolves to humans, and I'll pay. The council will have to make an example of me to prevent others from doing worse.”

I absolutely hated the despair in Axel's voice, but worse was the shame. He sounded ashamed of himself. He probably thought he'd let down his pack and wolves everywhere. He took on so much responsibility for things he couldn't control.

“That's not fair,” I said. “This is as much my fault as it is yours. If I'd never shown up at your pack, none of this would have happened.”

Axel reached across the bench seat, grabbed my arm and pulled until I was against his naked side. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. Normally, it would have been sexy, comforting at the very least, but he was covered in blood and smelled like vampires. It made me gag, but Axel held on tight and the feeling passed. He wasn't any grosser than me. “I'm sorry, Julie,” he said. “It's the law. We don't follow the law, we might as well move back to the woods and live full-time as wolves.”

I rolled my eyes. Had he always been this dramatic? “We need time,” I said. “We need to figure out what Darius's up to and figure out a way to get you out of this.”

He squeezed me tighter. “There is no getting out of this. There's nowhere I can go that the council won't find me.”

“I might know a place,” Clarissa said. “Turn right at the next light.”

Axel looked over his shoulder at his pack mate. “You agree with Julie?”

“Yep,” she said. “I'm too young and beautiful to die, and I don't want to lose the best alpha our pack has had in three generations.”

Axel turned his gaze back to the road. “There's no escaping the punishment of the council,” he said. But he turned right at the next light.

***

“This is it?” Axel asked. He sounded tired and defeated, and I hated it.

I gazed out the front window of the truck at what could only be described as a shack and tried to look on the bright side. “I doubt the council will think to look here.”

“It's better inside,” Clarissa said. “There's a shower out back, and I bet we can find some clothes inside.”

“What is this place?”

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