Page 82 of Fighting Furry

My chest tightened and I found it suddenly hard to breathe. Black spots popped in my vision as panic overtook me. I couldn't lose him. I couldn't lose Axel.

“Calm down, sweetie,” Shelly said. “We can still save him. Don't give up, yet.”

“I need to get to a computer,” I said. “Now.” Which was easier to say then do, since we'd flown to New York for the taping and I didn't have a computer with me. “Do we know anyone in New York?”

Shelly sighed and her shoulders slumped. Then her eyes widened and she leapt to her feet and raced after Lila. “Lila. Lila, we need your help.”

***

“I know I'm going to regret this,” Lila said. She stuck a key in the door to her apartment and stepped inside. She flicked on lights as she walked in, revealing a tiny apartment. Much smaller than what I'd have imagined the Lioness would choose to live in, but it was in a modest building in a good neighborhood, so maybe she paid for location. “Computer's over there,” she said. “I'm going to bed. Don't make yourselves at home.”

That computer was all I saw and I made a beeline for it, ignoring the decor and details of her place. I sat down and logged into my twitter account. I stared at the screen. I had over a thousand notifications, but I didn't have time to look at any of them or get a feel for what the fans felt about me being a wolf. I needed to write a text to convince them that Axel was worth saving, that he was someone they should care about. I stared at the screen, but I couldn't express what I needed to say in two-hundred and forty characters. I needed more. I clicked over to Facebook. I started several times, typing words, trying to express why people should care about Axel. Nothing. I couldn't…I went to my Instagram page. Surely, I could…I didn't have my phone, but everything on it would have uploaded to the cloud. Maybe I had a picture of Axel, of the town, something…I didn't remember taking a picture, but maybe…I hit the cloud and came up empty on pictures of Axel, but I did have a video, a video of Axel working, his bare muscles flexing, shiny with sweat. He was glorious. I uploaded the video to Instagram, with a short note explaining he was my new beau, a very talented welder, and that I needed the video to go viral to prevent him from being punished for exposing werewolves to humans. I linked the video to my Facebook and Twitter accounts, but I wasn't happy to just sit around and wait to see if it worked.

For the next two hours, I immersed myself in social media. I answered questions and replied to comments. I told the story of how I'd been bitten. Shelly recorded me as I talked about Axel and explained how dire his circumstances were. I called Clarissa, who was unavailable, and then I called every number Max could get us for people in the pack town until I got someone. That someone happened to be a ninety-two-year-old with a hearing problem, but I wasn't going to complain.

As it turned out, the council was in Mule Creek, making sure no one escaped. They hadn't let the vampires in, yet, and I took that as a good sign. I asked the ninety-two-year-old to take pictures of Axel's work and send them to me. He didn't have any clue what I was talking about, but he must have found someone who did, because I got fifteen pictures twenty minutes later. I loaded them all onto Instagram, linking them to Twitter and Facebook, and then I made another video talking about Axel's talent. I did everything short of calling Darius out by name and, after two and a half hours, Desiree's phone rang. She answered, frowned, and handed it over to me.

“Darius,” I said. “It certainly took you long enough.”

“It's not Darius. It's your agent.” My agent, who was only a few years older than me and eager to make a name for herself, sounded like she'd swallowed a helium balloon that was trying to come back out.

I'd given her Desiree's phone number the first time I'd called her, earlier that day, so I didn't have to wonder how she'd found it. “What's up? I'm a little busy.”

“This won't take long,” she said. “Sports World wants to film a reality show about your life as a werewolf.”

I almost groaned aloud, but stopped myself, because, holy shit, this could solve everything. “I'll do it.”

“Listen, Jules,” she said. “This is just the first offer. Don't you want to wait and see if we can get something better? Everyone is going to want a piece of you, darling, and you shouldn't go cheap.”

“I'll take it,” I said. “If they can start filming and uploading now, I'm in.”

“Darling, that's not the way it works. There are contracts to sign and —”

“Consider it a teaser for the show, Marla. I need to get more attention on Axel. I need to get him away from the council before they kill him. I've done everything I can and I've heard nothing from them. I need something big and this reality show is it.”

“I think you're making a mistake, Jules. I mean this is your career. How well do you even know this guy?”

“I appreciate your advice, but this is my choice. Tell them the deal and get them here as soon as possible with a camera crew.”

She sighed. “I'll call you back as soon as I know something.”

I hung up and paced, considering my options. “Desiree,” I said. “I need to talk to Darius.”

She nodded and started tapping at her phone. After ten minutes of a lot of her shouting and cursing, she handed me the phone.

“Don't kill him,” I said before Darius could even say a word.

“It's cute what you're doing,” he said. “But for every social media post you've sent, we've posted ten comments contradicting your story. There's still enough doubt out there that if Axel disappears, it'll be like he never existed. You'll just be an anomaly, one that's forgotten in a matter of days.”

I hated what he was saying so much I almost missed the shake in his voice, the screechy pitch. He was worried. “Maybe,” I said. “But I've just signed on to a reality show, Darius. They're going to be following me around everywhere I go. You know where I'm going first?”

“It doesn't matter,” he said. “You think you've got pull? We've got people on the council who've buried nuisances ten times as famous as you. You're nothing.”

“I might be nothing, but the first place I'm going with my camera crew is your house, Darius. I'm going to talk to your wife and your kids and I'm going to tell them you're just like me. You're a werewolf. Except you're also a killer.”

“They won't believe you,” he said, but there was definite panic in his voice now. “You're just a washed-up fighter who's desperate for attention.”

“And you know what I'm going to do after the reality show ends, Darius? After the cameras are gone and you're all alone? I'm going to show up and I'm going to make you hurt in every way you've made Axel hurt and then I'm going to rip your head from your body. I'm going to find every council member who touched him and I'm going to make sure they die a slow and painful death.”

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