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 t
own 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 r
eared 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.
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