Page 70 of Fighting Furry

Alpha laughed. “They're as good as dead, man. They're just shells feeding the vamps to make them stronger than us. Why do you think I drink so much? I'd never be a candidate for their little project.”

“Come on, Alpha. The council would never want vamps to be more powerful than us.”

Alpha snorted. “They think they can handle 'em, man.”

“Why is the wolf blood making the vamps so strong? It's never had that effect before.”

Alpha was silent for a while. “I don't know, but maybe wolf blood has always made them stronger and they just didn't let on.”

“What are the vamps giving the council?” Axel asked.

“What else, man?” Alpha said. “Money. The vamps have been around so long, they got more of it than they know what to do with and you know how the council likes to live. Darius will tell you they need the money to protect the rest of us, to pay off the right people and keep the secret, but they don't give a shit about the rest of us. They're just fucking greedy as hell.”

“Huh,” Axel said. “You sure there's not more to it than that?”

“I'd sure as fuck sleep better at night if there was,” Alpha said. “Hey, no hard feelings, man, but if Darius asks me if I talked to you, I'm going to tell him where and when. You might want to get rid of your phone.”

“Yeah,” Axel said, his gaze going distant. “Thanks.”

“Shit,” Clarissa said, as soon as he hung up. “I didn't think about the GPS tracker in your phone.”

“It doesn't matter,” Axel said. “They'd have found us eventually, anyway.”

He curled his hand into a fist and the phone shattered. “We could run,” I said. “We could go to ground and disappear.”

Axel's expression was so sad my heart stuttered. I knew he didn't want to run, but it was the best shot we had at survival. Axel couldn't help his pack if he was dead and it was clear the council only saw him as an obstacle to their goals. “Yeah,” he said. “I've got a couple hundred dollars in cash. It'd be enough to get us out of here, but it won't get us a place or a—”

“I know someone,” Clarissa said. “At least, I know someone who might know someone.”

Axel rolled his eyes. “I'm not trusting anything that old coot has to say.”

“That old coot knows things,” Clarissa said. “He's our best bet.”

She stood and headed outside to the truck. I pushed off Axel's lap and got to my feet. “Who are we going to see?”

“There's no good way to describe him.”

We had a silent ride back down the hill. Clarissa was texting the whole time and, when we reached the main road, a four-door sedan with tinted windows was waiting for us, pulled over in the dirt. “That's our ride,” Clarissa said. “Get what you need from the truck.”

Axel sighed, but pulled a couple granola bars from the glove box, along with his wallet.

Rowen was bouncing next to the car when Axel and I walked over to it. “You're finally getting your wish,” Axel grumbled.

“I've always wanted to drive his truck,” she said to me, her grin wide enough to split her face. I didn't see what was so special about his truck, it looked like a ginormous penis extension to me, but I didn't know much of anything about cars.

They traded keys and Axel opened the driver's door to the car. I opened the passenger door and looked back to see Clarissa still in the truck, though she was now in the passenger seat. “What are you doing?” Axel roared.

Clarissa rolled down her window. “A life on the run isn't my idea of a good time.”

“The council could very well punish you in my stead.”

She shrugged. “I've got two uncles on that council, and I can blame the whole mess on my alpha. I'll be fine.”

Before Axel could argue any more, Rowan had pulled out onto the road and driven away. Axel growled and punched the roof of the car. “I don't like this.”

Axel punched the car one more time and then climbed in behind the wheel. He started the car and whipped out onto the road before I'd gotten my seatbelt buckled. “Look in the back,” he said. “I bet she brought clothes for us.”

I didn't look in the back, I watched Axel. “We aren't really running, are we?”

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