Fighting Furry
Page 25
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. Go
d, 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.
What’s Next
Stripped is book two in the Wolves of Mule Creek series. It will be out the end of July.
Strip club owner, Abigail White, has always dreamed of getting the heck out of the small, valley town where she grew up and seeing the world. She wants to travel and not on a PB & J budget. She needs a good job in the city, a place she can use the business degree she earned online and opportunities she’ll never have in her hometown. She’s going to make the move, as soon as she finds a buyer for her club, someone who’ll keep it a strip club and will respect and care for the dancers the way she always has. Hard to find a buyer when she’s pissed off the vampire king and he’s out to make her pay in every way possible. Harder still when a sexy, werewolf yogi is appointed as her live-in protector, and he makes her forget all the reasons she’s longed to get as far away from her hometown as possible.
Guarding a human with siren blood, a born temptress, is not on Zane’s list of life goals. In fact, it’s at the top of his list of situations to avoid. But Abigail isn’t what he expected. Not only can’t he keep his hands off her, he’s starting to care for her. He’s started to picture her as the woman for him in his fantasy future of a wife and pups, and he’s determined to convince her he can be her dream. First, he’s got to keep her safe from vengeful vamps who aren’t just looking to hurt Abigail, but who also want to destroy his pack.
Abigail and Zane will have to put aside pre-conceived notions and rely on each other if they have a shot of outrunning the vamps and saving the pack. And they’ll have to figure out if the steamy attraction between them is worth the risk of giving up the dreams they’ve held onto so fiercely.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katharine Sadler lives with her husband in North Carolina. She’s been writing since she was ten and has wanted to be a writer even longer. When she’s not writing or otherwise gainfully occupied, she reads like it’s an addiction, exercises, skis whenever she gets the chance, and adds more books to her wish list.
OTHER WORKS BY KATHARINE SADLER
FANTASY
The Reapers (5 book series)
The Reaping (Reapers 1)
On a White Horse (Reapers 1.5)
The Revolt (Reapers 2)
The Rift (Reapers 3)
Switch (Reapers 3.5)
The Resonance (Reapers 4)
The Resistance (Reapers 5)
The Reapers Series Box Set
Dying Dreams (Trilogy)
Dying Dreams (Dying Dreams 1)
Dying Innocence (Dying Dreams 2)
Fairy Files (6 book series)
Fairy on the Rocks (Fairy Files 1)
Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files 2)
Fairy with a Twist (Fairy Files 3)
Wild Fairy Moonshine (Fairy Files 4)
Bloody Fairy (Fairy Files 5)
Fairy, Neat (Fairy Files 6)
Wolves of Mule Creek
Fighting Furry (Mule Creek Book 1)
Stripped (Mule Creek Book 2) – Summer 2018
Nature’s Call (Mule Creek Book 3) – Spring 2019
ROMANCE
Remixed Fairy Tales (7 book series)
Remington’s Tower (Remixed Fairy Tales 1)
Francesca’s Slumber (Remixed Fairy Tales 2)
Lizabell’s Gamble (Remixed Fairy Tales 3)
Catalpa Creek (6 book series)
The Deadbeat Next Door (Catalpa Creek 1)
The Workaholic Down the Hall (Catalpa Creek 2)
I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU
You can chat with me at:
www.KatharineSadler.com
www.Facebook.com/KatharineGSadler
www.Twitter.com/KatharineSadler
www.pinterest.com/AuthorKSadler
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to my family for their unfailing support. And a big thank you to my husband/business manager for making sure I keep my priorities straight and keep writing and editing and publishing, even on the days I’d rather spend curled on the couch reading a good book. Thank you to my friend and beta reader Becky Kyslinger for letting me know when something isn’t working for her and giving me spot-on advice about how to improve the book. Thank you to www.CoverYourDreams.net for the gorgeous cover on this and all my books.