CHAPTER TWELVE

 

 

“Where is Lila?” the production assistant asked for the third time. And, for the third time, I told her I had no clue. My agent had busted her butt to get me an interview on a late-night show on a major network. It had been twenty-four hours since Axel had left me and I'd spent the last twelve hours blowing up social media to get as many people as possible to watch the show. I needed it to happen that night, or it would be too late for Axel, too late for both of us.

“Damn it,” the production assistant muttered, pacing in front of me like a caged tiger. “You're on in two. I'm going to have to send you on alone, unless she shows up in the next thirty seconds.”

My hands fisted and I looked around for someone to punch, someone I could force to fix this. Shelly and Desiree were standing just a few feet away, chatting like old friends. I was so grateful to have them there, but-

“I'm here,” Lila said, popping up next to me. She looked drop-dead gorgeous in a slinky, gray dress that hugged her curves. “I needed the full beauty treatment for this, and it took forever.”

I want it acknowledged that I didn't kill her. I think I should get a medal for that. Never mind the fact that the production assistant shouted it was go time and waved us toward the stage. I should still get a medal.

The late show host, Jackson Morris, was a good-looking guy with just enough scruff and just enough of a beer gut to look like an everyman and not just another Hollywood beauty. He shook our hands and gestured for us to sit.

“Welcome, welcome,” he said. “I understand the two of you are here to talk about this video of Julie Jacobs going wolf and ripping a woman's head off?”

“Yes,” I said. “That's exactly—”

Jackson held up a finger. “Just a minute. We're showing the video.”

I pinched my lips shut and he grinned at me. “Unbelievable. Is this for real?”

“Actually,” I said. “It is real. I was bitten a few weeks ago and I am a werewolf.”

Jackson's eyes widened and he looked over his shoulder at his crew. I didn't know if he was looking for help or approval, but it didn't matter. I couldn't stop. I stood and dropped my dress. Something moved off to my left and I saw two security guards heading my way, their expressions intense. I dropped to all fours and shifted to wolf before they could get to me. They took a few steps back when I growled at them. It was a friendly growl, but I guess they weren't willing to take any chances. In the audience someone screamed. I looked over and saw several people fleeing the studio, while the rest of the audience just stared, stunned. I shifted back to human, pulled my dress back on, and sat down with a wide smile to let everyone know everything was okay.

Jackson grinned like a two-year-old at a birthday party with extra cake. Security was still standing close. I'd told him and his crew what I wanted to do, but I guess there's no preparing for that. They'd probably thought I was insane and were looking forward to outing me as a loony and a fake. Jackson smoothed down his jacket, took a few deep breaths, and pasted on a serious expression. Damn, he was good.

“Let me tell you, Julie Jacobs, I've always wanted to see you naked, but I'd never expected it would happen like that.”

“Neither did I,” I said. “But it feels like the most natural thing in the world to me, now.”

“You aren't going to rip my head off, are you?”

“No,” I said, ignoring Lila's snort. “I only attacked that woman because she wanted to hurt me and my friends. She was a vampire who'd gone…I'd guess you'd say she'd gone crazy. She was kidnapping me and my friends. We did what we had to do to protect ourselves.”

“Vampires, werewolves,” Jackson said. “I've got to say, this all sounds insane.”

“It's not as crazy as it sounds,” Lila said. “If you can zoom in on my mouth, I'll prove that I'm a vampire.” She waited until she got a thumbs up from the camera man, opened her mouth and popped out her sharp, pointy vampire teeth. They made a sickening crunch as they popped out, and my stomach roiled. She retracted her fangs and smiled at our host, while someone else screamed and more people fled. “What Julie says is true. Those vampires she killed were bad people. They were going to hurt her and she put them down. She did the right thing.”

“That's an amazing story,” Jackson said. “And the most unbelievable part…” He gestured between us, eyes wide with mock surprise, “Are you two actually friends now?”

Lila and I shared a blank look, possibly the only moment we'd ever felt the same thing at the same time. Lila recovered first. “Friends is taking it a bit far, Jackson. I'm helping Julie because—”

“Please,” Jackson said, his grin wide. “Tell me you two are still arch enemies, because I would pay good money to see a rematch. I mean, can you imagine?” he asked the audience. “A UFC fight between a werewolf and a vampire?”

The crowd cheered and hooted and hollered. I waited for them to settle down. “I'd love a rematch,” I said. “But I'm actually here to—”

“Did you hear that?” Jackson shouted. “You heard it here first folks, a rematch between Lioness and Julie Jacobs is on.”

“Actually, —” I tried to speak over the crowd's cheers, but no one was listening. The camera man yelled something and Jackson stood. He shook our hands and sent us away while the crowd cheered and the show cut to commercial. I tried to talk to Jackson, to ask for more time, but a security guard grabbed me and pushed me off. I could have taken the guy, but that kind of behavior wouldn't have gone far in cleaning up my reputation.

I rushed over to my agent. “You have to get me back on,” I said. “I didn't even get to talk about Axel.”

She sighed. “I had to offer them my first-born to get you on in the first place. And Lotty Reynolds is up next, there's no way they're going to let you cut into her time.”

“Calm down, Jules,” Shelly said. She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and Desiree pressed close on the other side. “You still have an enormous social media platform. Use it.”

“And use it fast,” Desiree said. “Unless that stunt you just pulled derails them, the council has ordered Axel's execution to happen at noon tomorrow.”

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.”

“You'll be dead before you step foot on my property.”

“I'm a trained fighter, Darius. And now I've got the strength, speed, and cunning of a wolf. I will rip you apart and dance in your blood.”

Desiree shuddered and Shelly slapped a hand to her mouth like she might be sick.

“One more thing,” I said, when Darius didn't answer. “Tell the council they only get one chance.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.

“They only get one chance to make a first impression with the humans. They can do it on their terms, and come out as the nice, sensible protectors of wolves and humans, or I can out them as the killers they are. You choose.”

“Fuck you,” he said. “Do you have any idea what I've done to protect this secret? And you think you can waltz in and destroy all my hard work, my sacrifices, to save a wolf who broke our laws, who deserves punishment?”

“Considering he broke your laws because he was protecting himself from vampires you were secretly assisting to overthrow us, I'd say his need for punishment is not at all clear cut.”

“You have no idea—”

“Call me,” I said. “If I get to you before I've gotten a call from you, I'm doing this my way.”

I hung up and looked at Desiree. “Has Max found out where they're holding Axel?”

“They've got him in Mule Creek,” she said. “In the jail.”

They wanted to kill him in front of his own pack, probably to remind them what would happen to them if they didn't submit to the vamps. I used her phone to call my agent back. “What did they say?” I asked.

“Darling,” she said, “it's the middle of the night and it's only been ten minutes.”

“And I know how bad they want to be the ones to get this reality show deal with me. What did they say?”

“They're working on it. They want to help you, darling, but they aren't magicians.”

I'd never pulled the diva card. I'd always been understanding and kind to agents and managers, coaches and staff, but I didn't have time to waste on understanding and kindness. “Tell them to have a camera crew in Aspens Whiten by eight AM this morning. If they can't do it, offer the reality show deal to someone who can. If there's no one to meet me in Aspens Whiten at eight, I'm out. There won't be a reality show, not with anyone.” And that would hurt her bottom line, because if I did a reality show, she'd get a cut.

“I'll try, darling.”

“Do more than try,” I said. “Make it happen. If you don't, Axel is dead.”

I hung up and looked at Desiree and Shelly. “I'm going back to Mule Creek to confront Darius and the council. This could go awesome, or it could go really, really bad. You don't have to come with me.”

“Are you kidding?” Desiree asked. “That council killed my husband. I'd love to see them get taken down a peg or six.”

I looked at Shelly. “I love you, babe,” she said. “But this isn't my fight.”

She was right and I didn't begrudge her choice for a moment. “Want me to get you a cab to the airport?”

“Naw,” she said. “Ally is flying in tonight and we're going to have a mini vacation in the city.”

“You so deserve it, sweetie,” I said. “I'm glad you're taking some time off.”

She hugged and kissed me. “You be careful and let me know once everything's over and you're safe.”

 

***

 

I paced the sidewalk in front of the courthouse in Aspens Whiten. The camera crew was late. “Sweetie,” Desiree said. “Sit. They'll be here.”

“How can you be so sure?” I couldn't stop pacing, my feet carrying me even as I slowed to look for the lie in Desiree's expression.

“Because they'd be idiots not to,” she said. “This reality show would be huge for them. I mean I'd watch it and I don't even like werewolves.”

I did stop then. I stood in front of her, but I kept pumping my arms, hitting air, needing to feel like I was doing something. “Why are you helping me if you don't like werewolves? And why are you friends with Max?”

“Oh, well, I like Max, dear, and you, of course. I just don't like werewolves in general. They're so primal and aggressive.” She shuddered. “And I really don't find their ability to become furry animals enchanting. I mean, fleas, darling, can you imagine?”

Fleas? I hadn't considered fleas. At the suggestion, an itch crawled up my back and I threw a hand back to scratch it. Could I get fleas?

“Julie Jacobs?”

I spun to see a woman, who couldn't be taller than four feet eleven inches and couldn't weigh more than a hundred pounds, with a camera almost as big as she was on her shoulder. Behind her was a tall, thin guy with a clipboard and another guy, this one short and broad, laden with bags of equipment. “Thank goodness you're here,” I said. I stuck my hand out and shook each of theirs in turn. “Are you with Sports World?”

The woman with the camera grinned, a malicious twinkle in her eyes. “Those assholes couldn't get their fucking shit together if a tornado was headed for their outhouse. I'm Sarah Spaulding with the Twee network.”

“Isn't that a kid’s channel?”

Sarah's eyes narrowed. “Kids and young adults, but this is a program that the whole fucking family will be watching. We want to expand our demographic.”

I just stared at her. If she wanted quality family programming, she was standing in the wrong place, but I wasn't about to tell her that. I needed her and her camera too damn bad. “Can you stream this live?”

She shook her head. “No fucking way the network is going to let me stream this shit live, princess. Soonest we can get it on air is prime-time tonight.”

“Can you tell the folks we're going to be filming that it's being streamed to national television live?”

Her mouth dropped open and her brown eyes widened. She looked like an Asian Disney princess. “You want me to lie?”

“I wouldn't ask if it wasn't really important, but—”

She bent over, laughing so hard I was afraid she was going to drop the camera. She stood and wiped her eyes. “Ah, you should have seen your fucking face, princess. Of course, I'll tell them we're fucking live.” She shook her head and looked back at the guys with her, who appeared both unamused and unaffected. Maybe they weren't morning people. “Nothing like a good fucking laugh to get the blood flowing in the morning, amiright?” She turned back to me. “Where the fuck are we doing this?”

“It's up the mountain,” I said. “We should probably take your van, if that's alright.”

Sarah slapped my shoulder. “Sweetheart, you need to toughen up. You want to take the fucking van, we'll take the fucking van. You're the money-maker here, we're just along for the ride.” She paused. “I could use some fucking coffee before we go, though. They got anything good here? Just straight fucking coffee, none of that hippy shit they drink in LA.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling. The woman was abrasive as hell and had a mouth that would offend the…Well, just about everyone with a pulse, but I liked her. “We can stop on the way out of town.”

“Before we go,” she said, adjusting the camera on her shoulder. “I'll film you telling the story, giving us an idea of what to expect. Don't pussyfoot around it, go big, keep it simple, avoid the five-dollar words.” She narrowed her eyes. “Just talk to the camera like you'd talk to a girlfriend, one who's not that bright.”

So, I told my story and then I told it ten more times, until Sarah Spaulding and her associates, who as it turned out not only had the ability to speak but also had strong opinions about everything, deemed it good enough and I was ready to scream. By the time we got coffee, got in the van and started up the mountain, it was almost eleven and we only had just over an hour to stop an execution.

The plush, comfy seats in the van were nice, but they didn't do much to protect us from the bumps and bounces caused by the potholed road into Mule Creek. Sarah seemed unbothered. she spoke to me as we bounced along, asking questions about the pack, about werewolves, and about Axel and the council.

“Aren't you worried that coming out will put you in danger,” she asked. “People don't fucking like different, not to mention the scientists and doctors who are going to want to study you.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But the alternative is losing Axel, so I think I'll take my chances.”

She shrugged. “Yeah, you're a strong woman, made stronger by fucking werewolf powers, I guess you can afford to take chances.”

Her words reminded me about what I'd said to Axel, about him being a pacifist because he was a big guy who didn't need to fight for respect. “I'd imagine you're a strong woman, too,” I said. “You couldn't have had an easy time convincing your boss you could tote that camera around and do a good job.” I imagined that was also why she had such a tough attitude and swore like a sailor.

“Yeah,” she said. “I'm a woman, small, and Asian. They still try to stick me in fucking accounting every three weeks. But I've managed to hold onto the camera and your show is going to prove to them all just how good I am.”

We reached Main Street and I looked over to Desiree, who'd been texting with Max and Clarissa. “The barn,” she said. “Whatever that is.”

“Turn around,” I said to the driver, Kurt. “It's back the other way.”

The street was entirely empty, so we had no problem pulling a U-turn and heading to the other end of Main Street. I directed Kurt to the barn and he parked outside it. I leapt from the van and bounced from foot to foot in the dry, crackly grass while I waited for the guys and Sarah to get their equipment. Desiree hopped out and stood next to me. “Nothing will be the same for any of us after this,” she said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“I'm hoping that will be a good thing,” I said.

“It certainly can't be any worse than it has been.”

“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.”

He smiled wide. “You won't be letting me out of your sight?”

“Yeah. When I do, you have a nasty habit of running away and sacrificing yourself to the powers that shouldn't be.”

“Sweetheart,” he said, his expression softening, as he scanned my face like he had something important to say.

“Quiet! Everyone shut the fudge up and listen.” I turned from Axel and looked at the long table of council members. A woman, tall and lean with glowing, gray skin was standing and surveying the crowd. “Our rules have been broken, but it is time for us to accept that the old ways don't belong in these new times. The council has decided to downgrade Axel and Julie's punishment to sixty days of house arrest.”

“What about the rest of us,” someone from the crowd shouted. “Is it still a secret that we're werewolves?”

“That question is not an easy one to answer,” the woman said. “The council will meet on this issue and make a decision. We'll alert you all when we have reached an agreement.”

I didn't bother to point out the obvious, that there was a camera crew who'd gotten a shot of everyone in that room, so their covers, all of them, were blown. “Did she just say we can't leave your house for sixty days?” I asked.

Axel grinned. “Nope, she said we can't leave our house for sixty days.”

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me tight against him. I didn't argue with him calling it our house, I figured I'd earned my place there seeing as I'd just saved his life.

“I don't suppose the camera crew will stay outside?”

“Not likely,” I said. “But maybe we could be so very boring they decide a show about us won't get any viewers and move out.”

Axel snorted. I was about to ask him what that was all about, but a hand on my arm and my name spoken softly stopped me.

I turned to see the tall, gray woman from the council table. “Julie Jacobs,” she said. “I would like to ask you to remove the camera crew from the premises and destroy any recording they have made.”

I made a mock-sad face. “I'm really, really sorry,” I said, not the least bit sorry. “But I already signed a contract. It's unbreakable. If you hadn't tried to kill my boyfriend, I wouldn't have had to go to such an extreme.”

“You're going to have to break that contract,” she said. “It's one thing to expose werewolves to the humans, it's another thing entirely to have us under surveillance while we have no control over—”

“Excuse me,” Sarah said, in a tone that suggested she wasn't really looking to be excused. “Could you say that again?”

The tall, gray woman reared back and frowned even harder than she'd already been frowning. “What?”

“I fucked up,” Sarah said. “I didn't expect you to come over here, so I got your back for the first few moments of you talking to Julie and Axel. Could you start over?”

“Young lady,” the woman said. “I am not some actress you can boss around. I am an elder of the council and I'm going to require that you not film me at all.”

Sarah frowned. “Wow, then I guess you can't talk to Julie. I'm under contract to film everything she says or does for the next three months.”

“Everything?” Axel asked, frowning.

The gray woman glared, but Sarah seemed entirely unaffected. Seeing she wasn't going to get anywhere without resorting to violence that would be filmed, the gray woman huffed and sauntered away, her back stiff.

“That won't be the last time they try to shut this down,” Axel said.

“They can try,” Sarah said. “But this is my fucking chance to prove myself to all the dicks at the network who think I can't hack this 24/7. I am not letting anyone stop me.”

Music blasted from every speaker in the place. “Let's have some fun,” Clarissa yelled. She'd climbed onto a precarious arrangement of chairs piled on one another when they were pushed aside to make room for the dance floor. “All are welcome, but if you don't want to party, get the hell out of our house.”

Sarah's eyes lit up. “This is going to be fucking fun as shit.” Even her crew seemed a bit perkier at the prospect of a party.

Axel smiled down at me. “Thanks for saving my ass.”

“You're welcome,” I said. “Next time don't try to be the martyr. We're a team. Whatever happens, we do it together.”

His smile widened. “A team? Are you admitting you like me?”

I rolled my eyes. “Please, I'm just worried about what kind of trouble you'll get into if I leave you alone.”

He bent his head and kissed me. God, I'd missed his taste, the feel of his lips against mine. In seconds, the kiss went from tender to smoking hot and I had both legs around his waist and my hands in his hair. When someone tapped me on the shoulder, I pulled away from Axel, good and ready to be annoyed, but it was Clarissa and I was happy to see her, too. Happy she was still alive.

I hopped off Axel and hugged her. “I'm glad you didn't get yourself killed,” I said. “But you're almost as bad as Axel, running off and trying to be the hero.”

She grinned. “You're the hero today, Julie. Thank you for saving our pack.”

I looked around. The pack was already dancing and someone was laying food out on the tables the council was hurriedly vacating. “I'm pretty sure I just saved Axel,” I said. “The vampires probably still want our pack and the council still probably wants to give it to them.”

“Kind of hard for them to enslave us to vamps when we're being filmed all the time,” she said, gesturing to the cameras.

“Cut,” Sarah shouted. She trotted over to us. “Don't mention the cameras, okay. Just go about life like we aren't here at all.”

Clarissa's eyes widened and then she laughed. “You and Axel are going to have so much fun with this.”

I shrugged. “It was the price for saving his ass.”

She walked away, still laughing and I turned back to Axel. “Let's dance.”

“Let's go home and fuck,” he said. “We are under house arrest, remember?”

I glanced at the camera. “Let's dance for a little while, I want to see everyone. Then maybe we can go zip lining.”

He raised his brows and I slanted my eyes at the camera crew. I thought it might be a good way to lose them and get some alone time to ourselves.

Axel grinned, kissed me, and led me to the dance floor.

 

***

 

We weren't dancing long before someone grabbed Axel and pulled him away. He grasped my hand and pulled me with him. We were led over to a quiet corner by Clarissa. Some of the folks from the town senate and some people I recognized from town were waiting for us.

“We don't want the camera crew in our town,” Paulie said. Sarah and her crew were of course right behind me, filming the whole thing.

“That camera crew saved my life,” Axel said. “And the longer they're here, the less likely it is that the vamps will show up and try to take over the pack.”

“Vamps?” another one of the group asked. “What do they have to do with anything?”

“They want our pack as their personal blood bank,” Axel said. “It makes sense, since I never thought Alpha was smart enough to come after us the way he did.”

I looked at Axel, eyebrows high, curious as to why he didn't tell them about the council's role in this. He kept his focus on the group, but squeezed my hand. The group got quiet after Axel's announcement and no one suggested that the council might help us out, so I figured they already had their own negative opinions of the council.

“I think it could be good for business,” one of the men said. He looked into Sarah's camera and smiled. He was a good-looking guy, young, and his smile was clearly flirty. “I run the hardware store and I carry just about everything you'd ever need for your home improvement projects. I also offer classes, I can teach you anything from how to caulk a hole to how to lay some pipe.” He winked at the camera and I went from thinking even a reality show wouldn't bring a hardware store more business, to thinking he'd be over-run. He was not hard on the eyes. Not. At. All.

Axel dropped my hand and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me tight against him like he knew what I was thinking. “I understand your concerns,” he said to the group. “We should meet to discuss them tomorrow. Tonight, let's have some fun, celebrate. Remember there are cameras rolling, so try to keep the idiocy to a minimum.”

Everyone nodded seriously, not a one of them taking offense to Axel suggesting they might get up to something idiotic. My heart warmed. These were my people. This was where I belonged.

Axel nodded and pulled me back to the dance floor. He put a hand on my lower back and pressed me tight against him, swaying and grinding to the music. It took all of ten seconds of that before I was ready to get the hell out of there. He nuzzled my neck and nipped my ear. “Think we can lose the camera crew more quickly?”

I looked to the flashing lights overhead and considered our options. “Think Esther is around?”

He grinned and pulled me from the dance floor again. We searched the crowd and finally found Esther just outside the barn, trying to talk someone into waterfall diving. It was a middle-aged man, who appeared to be honestly considering her suggestion.

“Hey, Esther,” I said. “You going to do that thing tonight where you climb to the top of a waterfall and dive off?” I spoke extra loud and slowly to be sure our camera crew didn't miss it.

“I sure am, honey,” she said. “You want to dive with me, tonight?”

I yawned and stretched. “I'm exhausted. I think I'm going to go home and go to bed. It'll be terribly boring, nowhere near as exciting as waterfall diving.”

Behind me, Axel chuckled and the sound sent shivers over my whole body.

“Your loss, missy,” she said. She looked back to the middle-aged man. “You in or out, boy? Cause this train is leaving the station right now.”

“I'm in, Esther, just don't push me this time.”

“Don't be a pussy, Reginald, and I won't have to push you.”

We watched Esther and Reginald walk off into the darkness. Sarah and her camera crew followed them, but Sarah looked back at the last minute. She put her fingers to her eyes and then pointed to me to let me know she knew what I was up to. I smiled and waved goodbye.

Axel pulled me into the darkness and around the side of the barn. Together, we raced through the forest to his cabin. We raced onto the porch, but he didn't reach for the doorknob, he shoved me against the door and kissed me, hard. The cool night air and the scent of the forest wrapped around us as I leaned into him and kissed him back. He slid a thigh between my legs and moved it in just the right place and just the right way. I moaned with pleasure and laced my fingers through his hair. “I'm sorry,” he said.

My brain had been thinking sex, so his words took a moment to sink in. “Damn right, you're sorry,” I said. “What the hell were you thinking? Running off like that?”

“I wanted to protect you and the pack.”

I shoved him off, because he was pissing me off, but he didn't budge. “It seemed to me like you were the one who needed protecting, since you're the one who was minutes away from being executed.”

I could feel his smile against my cheek. “We'll protect each other from now on,” he said. “How about that?”

“Fine. Because if you pull another stunt like that, I will kill you.”

He chuckled, his breath warm against my neck. He reached between us, unbuttoned my pants and slid his hand inside. He stroked me until I was moaning again and then he slid one long finger inside me. “God, yes,” I said on a groan.

He nipped my neck as his finger worked inside me and his thumb applied just the right pressure to my clit. I came around his finger, screaming into his mouth. He shoved my pants down, unbuttoned his, lifted me and was inside me before I'd finished coming down from my orgasm. He felt so good inside me, and he didn't hold back. He hammered into me hard, bringing me to a second orgasm in record time before he found his own release.

He sagged against me, still inside me. “Marry me, sweetheart,” he said.

“Why the hell would I do something like that?” My voice was breathy and lacked the impudence I intended it to have.

“Because I love you. And I'm an idiot who's likely to get himself killed without a wife to keep me in line and save my ass when necessary.”

“You do need that,” I said, the final walls I'd put up to guard myself against him crashing down. “And I do love you, so I guess it makes sense.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Well,” I said. “I haven't gotten any better offers, so I guess so, sure, why not.”

He nipped the sensitive skin on my neck and chuckled.

“Plus,” I said. “A wedding will be great for ratings.”

He threw back his head and laughed before looking me in the eyes, his own expression serious and determined. God, I loved him. “Thank you,” he said. “For making me the luckiest man in the world.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don't get sappy on me, tough guy. Take me inside and remind me why marrying you is a good idea.”

He took me inside and he did just that, over and over again.