Maxwell Blackburnadeaux and Sin Alvarez lay naked upon her living room floor together, grateful to still be alive.
"That was a close call, though. I mean, especially when the cops arrived." Max mused, cradled in Sin's embrace.
"No doubt. You arrived at the perfect time. Any later and I might have been… well, you know." Sin said, brushing a finger-paw down the crease of Max's chest. Maxwell thought about the horrific outcome of her life had he been just a few moments late upon arrival, how she would have died so young, so early, so tragically.
Fucking stop it. She didn't die, though. She's here. Here right now, in my arms, right beside me, alive and well. No need to dwell on the 'what ifs' and 'could have beens'.
Max was relieved by the strong connection he had with Sin, strong enough to have sensed trouble afoot, even if he happened to be located many miles away from her humbled Texas abode. 
"Yeah, I know." Max said. He leaned his slender shepherd-raccoon head down and kissed her muzzle tenderly, heart singing with joy for her existence, indebted to her fighting spirit, her ability to sustain. Max and Sin were both natural born survivors, this much he knew… he'd delved into her mind one time too often during sex in the past. She could practically have been his long-lost twin.
~
"Tell us what you know right now, bitch, and maybe we'll spare you less of a beating than you deserve."
"Bite me." 
"You leave us no choice." Rory said, shaking his box-shaped Great Dane head. He nodded to a burly panther behind Sin, tied to a chair with rope and duct-tape, face bruised and nose bloodied. The panther nodded back and wrapped his meaty arm around Sin's neck, choke-holding her. Sin gasped for breath, snarling and wincing. Her eyes beamed stark yellow under the halogen-lamp bulb in the 
(Garden shed? Locker room? Abandoned building?)
interrogation room where these bastard hitmen kept her under heavy captivity. 
~
Maxwell sensed distress immediately. He saw Sin-Wolf's face, bruised and bloody. He heard her voice yelling out for help, somebody, anybody, please help. Evidently, the shep-coon had a score to settle. No force in hell would stop him.
"Max, you okay?" Bradley asked. Maile knew from his expression alone that no, he wasn't okay. Neither was the young lady who called out to him. Maile was keen in her telepathic observations.
~
"Now will you co-operate with us, young miss?" Rory asked, large hand-paws propped against the sides of his bony hips, head cocked aside. He yearned for her forced decision to give in and tell these two homely gentlefurs what they wanted to know. Sin had been on the run for years from all forms of low-life scum and deranged bounty hunters. As a result, her bounty price had increased significantly and steadily. That's precisely what these bastards wanted to get out of her, no matter what the cost.
"Nineteen thousand, wasn't it? Last we checked, at least." Rory exclaimed, shrugging comically.
"Sounds 'bout right, boss. I done remember dat price s'well, eh?" The beefcake panther-man replied.
"So will I have Maynard here squeeze the fucking life out of you before or after we find out your worth?" Rory snapped, grabbed Sin's neck with both hand-paws and begin to wring the life out of her. "Speak, you fucking whore! What are you worth? Answer me, goddamn you! What are you fucking WORTH?!"
Sin's glowing yellow eyes flickered, jittering. She began to fade from consciousness. Suddenly a bright light flooded into the empty room, blinding her. Sin fell over in the chair of her captivity, slamming hard onto a dusty linoleum-tiled floor. Rory yelled and grunted aloud while Maynard asked somebody what the fuck they thought they were doing, intruding on personal business. Not a moment sooner, an ugly gnashing sound echoed out with abysmal clarity. Sin's ears rang from choking and abhorrent coughing yet she was still able to hear a crackling snap of bone followed by a tortured scream. Gunshots rang out into the still air, immediately flooding the room with the stale scent of cordite and gunpowder, causing Sin to sneeze in-between coughing fits and gagging spasms as she breathed deep to catch in precious air, nearly choked to death. As her eyes became clearer, less fuzzy, she saw a figure approach, slowly at first. She was ready to reel her head up and bite the bastard's leg when she saw a familiar sight. The eye-patch. That damn orange eye-patch.
"Max?! Wha- how did you…?" Sin tried to ask, unbelieving of her broad stroke of luck. Max knelt down beside Sin, brushing his hand-paw through her azure blue hair.
"I felt distress. Even heard your voice. They brought you here and I followed. Sorry I didn't arrive quicker, my dear! Here, let me help you out of this messy shit." Max said, crouching down to snap Sin's wrists and ankles free of their snare-tight bondage. When she was able to stand up, wobbly at first due to extreme numbness in her legs, she looked lovingly at Maxwell as he dragged the bloody bodies of Rory and Maynard, now dead as dogs, into a corner of… wherever she was. Sin shook her head, cupping her paw-padded palms to her temples.
"Where the fuck are we, anyways?" Sin asked, hearing her voice echo. 
"Monahans Sandhills. You know, the state park. They brought you into a goddam bunker. An underground bunker. Must've been a former storage shed or something, judging by the sight of things. Perfect location to interrogate anybody without raising too much suspicion. This place is both sound-proof and very well-hidden. But not for long, though. Thank the Gods for small favors." Max said with a smirk. He pointed towards a ladder that rose up and out of the bunker via a manhole cover with incredibly bright sunshine peering in through the top. "I followed your trail here by way of telekinesis. My band and I came to your home state to perform a show with a few other local anthro-groups, as a form of charity. We were set to play at Ector County Coliseum. When I heard your voice crying out in my head though, I dropped all my gear, told my group to take ten and… bolted it. No cab, no ride of any kind. I fucking ran. Ran and ran to get here." Max said, panting for breath, tongue lolling on his lower lip.
Max ran up to Sin, grabbed her and hugged her tight. While in his embrace, Sin considered his validity. While grateful, she also shared her own doubts.
So you heard me get picked up by two grown anthro-men, thrown into a van, bag covered over my face and body dragged into a nearly-bottomless pit to be wailed on, for the sake of money, and you came to invest in the profits, is that it? Dammit, shep-coon, you're as bad as the rest of them. Fucking greedy bastards, all of you. All of y-
Max chuckled. "You've got me all wrong, sweetheart. If I wanted to turn you in, I would've done so a loooong time ago. The least you could do is thank me, perhaps."
Sin pushed Max away and looked into his face with contemptuous disdain. 
"You bastard." Sin said, yellow wolf-eyes blazing. Max's expression shifted into a sour scorn. "This is for letting me get caught and fucking beaten." Sin slapped Max across the face, hard. His cheek sweltered and his tail jerked upright in response. Max's dreadlocks swung freely against his muzzle. He rolled his jaw, rubbed the point of impact and gazed at Sin, shocked and awe-struck. "And this?" Sin grabbed Max by his neck, pulled him closer to her face and kissed him with passionate intensity. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, caressing her hand-paws against his back and pressing her breasts against his chest. When she pulled free from his luscious shep-coon lips, she winked and grinned. "That's for saving me, fuck-ass. Now come on, let's get the hell outta Dodge before whoever paid these two pricks to track me down realizes something's up."
~
Sin rooted through Rory's jean pockets and found a jumbled ring-set of keys. She jangled them, uncovering a large black fob with three tiny feature-buttons - lock, unlock and alarm. She also found another handy tool, which she pocketed quickly. Max clapped his hand-paws, insisting Sin to hurry it up.
"Thank you, Rory. By the way, you were fucking terrible at the interrogating." Sin said. She spit on his dead body and kicked his lifeless belly, causing a tiny cloud of dust to spiral upward from the jagged, dusty tiling. Max watched her, cheek sore, nose crusted with dried blood and recuperated from his sprinting trip. He watched in admiration. Damn, how he loved this wolf-girl. 
~
"We need to evacuate from this place pronto, before the authorities discover something's up." Sin said with a sense of alarm.
"Right. Let's split up. You take their car back to your home, lay low, wash up, whatever it takes. I'll ensure the cops don't follow our trail." Max insisted, hoisting Sin up the ladder, ensuring she didn't misjudge her steps and slip off one of its many rungs.
"No! You can't kill local policemen, man! Odessa County is freaking devoted to their police force. Killing any of 'em will surely rain fire down upon your head, and mine too! We can't afford that fucking heat! Please, promise me you won't ki-"
"Relax! I don't aim to kill anyone. Just, y'know, taunt them. Wound them at best. No killing involved." Max retorted. Sin finally squirmed her way out of the well-concealed (Max was quite right about that) manhole, located among a large patch of dry bushes - practically invisible to the naked eye. Maxwell stepped lightly out from the hole directly behind her, reached over to a large steel-cast lid and swung it down gently, closing the hole and locking the mechanism sturdily. He camouflaged the capsuled circular cover with tattered leaves and sand-strewn brush. Max knelt down to Sin, lying on the ground, looking up at him with concern in her eyes. The last thing they needed right now was an all-out war against the authorities in her own home town. Sin had done well so far concealing her tracks, she couldn't possibly risk an all-out explosion of gunfire and solid cold death. Maxwell saw this in her eyes and aimed to please. "I promise, the least I'll do is distract them, throw them off a bit. Then they'll re-consider their advances. No killing though. You have my word."
Sin reached up and grabbed Max's hand-paw, squeezing it tight. "Promise me."
Maxwell dragged an X-shape with his pinky finger-paw across his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die." Max reached out and hugged Sin-Wolf in his cozening embrace, regarding her warmth, wondering who in their right mind would ever harm such an incredible creature of sheer beauty. The face of Sciorrenzo sweltered into his mind and set Max's conscience at ease. Of course it'd be that fat fuck. Who else?
The police sirens arrived practically on cue with the thought of Sciorrenzo's ugly mug, blaring out of control. Sin cast a concerned gaze up at Max. The shep-coon winked and grinned, ensuring that he had this all under control. Sin inhaled and breathed out a worried sigh, hoping Max was apt to keep his promise.
~
When Maxwell Blackburnadeaux emerged from the bushes in Monahans Park, he was greeted by half a dozen Odessa County deputies and a very stalwart sheriff, elderly and way past the age of retirement. The shep-coon held his hand-paws up over his head.
"Sir, step closer to us and keep your arms raised high where we can see them." A voice, tarnished from many years of service, called out from a bullhorn. Maxwell began walking slowly toward their squad cars, keeping as steady as possible, hoping not to startle any trigger-happy beige-suits.
"No problem, buds!" Max called out. He urged Sin to stay put by sending a telepathic message. She nodded from his peripheral vision and honored his wish. When Max reached a certain point, the voice from the megaphone hollered out at him again. 
"That's close enough! Keep your arms up and kneel down, hands on the back of your head. Nothing crafty, raccoon." 
Max obeyed their command well enough, despite the species slip-up. Humans had a hard time identifying hybrids, apparently. In his mind, Max sensed Sin's anxious intent to be gone, to drive away in the vehicle formerly owned by two asshole bounty hunters as well as her former captors, now lying dead in the former storage basement of this local park. Max envisioned the fun times trying to explain that nonsense to these shit-kicking longhorn Texan boys and disputed the idea.
"Do I have the power of attorney yet, fellas?" Max asked, raising his voice to be heard. 
"Keep your trap shut, dog!" Mr. Elder-fellow sheriff proclaimed.
"Fair enough." Max smiled. He saw a chubby deputy walking toward him slowly, taser gun drawn, trembling nervously. A runnel of sweat dampened his brow and his breathing sounded labored.
Must be fresh out of the academy, poor bastard. He'll get a crash-course lesson today though. When not to fuck with a shep-coon and his wolf-hybrid girlfriend.
"Sir, hold your arms out, palms up." Taser-boy ordered. His voice didn't quite break puberty, sounding squeamish and choked-up. Nervousness incarnate.
"Certainly." Max said, calm demeanor fully intact. His hand-paws lowered down to his front-side. Max coughed aloud and when he inhaled to catch a breath, he pressed his knuckled firmly down into the dry grass below his arms. Right before everyone's eyes, strands of ivy spewed forth from underneath where the taser-wielding deputy stood, wrapping around his ankles, causing him to trip and come careening down to the ground with a wickedly loud thump!
The other cops paused, staring in disbelief. Sin cocked a conniving grin, awaiting her cue to move. She was reminded of how fucking hot her shep-coon could be when in action.
~
"Sin! Now!" Max called. As he gave the signal, Sin-wolf rolled out from behind the bush, firing a pistol she'd apprehended from one of the two bastards who now lay dead roughly twelve feet under. The cops broke free from their temporary paralysis and began to return fire. The old-fuck sheriff got on an intercom from within his cruiser and called for immediate backup, units under fire, engaging anthro hostiles, dispatch additional units to said location on the double, over and out. Max ran fast and jumped, diving behind a nearby slab of granite. Sin rolled quickly beside him, reloading the small pistol. She looked up at Max with bewildered amazement. 
"One day, you'll definitely have to teach me how to do that shit." Sin said, smiling with maniacal excitement. She was grateful to have not been shot outright.
"Oh, it's simple, really! Just get fucked by an assassin!" Max said. He smacked the ground repeatedly in a drumming pattern and cypress trees burst forth from the heat-scorched yellowing park's lawn in quick succession, blocking off the police officers view briefly. "As you can see, it worked for me!" Max said, followed by a hysterical cackling bout of insane laughter.
"You are one crazy-ass shep-coon." Sin said. She grabbed Max's T-shirt collar. "That's why I love you though." Sin licked Max's muzzle passionately and growled with desire. Max grinned devilishly. With not a moment to spare, she fired off a few more rounds, puncturing the surface of a vehicle's hood and blowing out a side-view mirror, enough to frighten the cops into submission awaiting their precious backup. "You're so unpredictable. That's why we're so compatible." Sin exclaimed.
"Oh, and you're not?" Max asked. He clenched his hand-paws into fists. Until now, Sin didn't realize that Max had not been wearing an eye-patch. Her adrenaline was so thoroughly pumped that she didn't even think twice about checking his face. He wore an exact duplicated ocular prosthesis of his good eye, his brown intact right eye, save for the hazel iris hue. Max grit his teeth and swung a fist through the air, punching at nothing. Sin was on the verge of asking him what in fuck's name he was doing when she heard one of the cops grunt and yell aloud, screaming with a muffled voice, audibly pained. 
"Ouch, you asshole! Why'd you goddam slug me?! We're aiming for those two pricks, not each other! Get over your shit and fucking tag 'em!" The cop blurted out.
Sin looked at Max, who also returned the gaze. A brief moment of unexpressive silence passed between them, when Max broke into a fit of whimsical laughter. Sin followed closely behind. Max shrugged his shoulders. Works for me!
"C'mon, Max, let's get the fuck out of here." She jangled the key in her hand-paw. "I'll drive. No arguments, either." Sin said, pressing her finger-paw against Max's lips. He smiled, kissing her leathery paw-padded palm. Sin smiled and hoisted herself up to her feet, shaking sand free from her fur-tufted wolf-girl cheeks
"Rock on!" Max said, standing awkwardly, pulled hard by Sin's firm grip. She limped slightly and her face was puffy on one side, but she seemed fine otherwise. Thank God for small favors. Luckily those fuckers didn't cause her any more harm.
"We need to take off, ditch the car and split up for a little while, so as to gain our beari- oh shit, LOOK OUT!" Sin hollered, pushing Max down to the ground, leaping onto his back, firing off another round of shots toward the cops who managed to pry their way through Max's cypress barricade. Sin yelled out loud and Max dragged his finger-paws across the yellowing grass in front of his face, exhaling a deep breath of air, forming a small cloud of dirt to swell in front of his face. Sin watched a sizeable clump of blackberry bushes grow wildly beneath the police dispatch vehicles, breaking free through aged blacktop. The cops tried to avoid the thorny patches, to no avail. They tripped over roots and fell into the bushes, rolling madly, yelling out in dire pain. A car alarm tripped nearby and one of the dispatch vehicle's airbags engaged, popping free from a steering wheel.
"That'll stall 'em for a bit. The best part? They'll live. C'mon, let's skedaddle!" Max said. Sin stepped off Max's back and helped him up to his feet. She pushed the alart button on the fob-chain then the unlock button to gain access to the only other vehicle in the lot, a BMW. For top-notch bounty hunters, these dummies didn't exactly roll anonymously. Luckily they'd picked a fairly dull day to arrive at this particular park. Max was grateful not to put anyone at risk too heavily, especially with guns drawn, firing live rounds. The shep-coon opened the driver-side door for Sin, who thanked him with a single kiss to his muzzle. She plopped down upon the car seat and stuck the key into the ignition, turning the car over. The engine started right up and Max jumped up and slid across the hood of the vehicle, finding his feet on the other side. He landed gracefully enough and held his hand-paw in the air. As Max opened the door wide, he carved his hand-paw down, as if karate-chopping through an invisible two-by-four plank. Every tire on each police unit burst and deflated in the wink of an itchy eye. Max nodded and winked, saluting the cops with a gesture of good faith. 
Smell ya later, alligator!
Max entered into the passenger side and slammed the door shut. He buckled up quickly and urged Sin to take off, slapping the BMW's leather-bound dash-board.
"On it!" Sin shifted the car into reverse and barreled out from the parking spot backwards, then jerked the stick-shift lever forward to drive and peeled out, burning rubber, leaving forty feet of tire track markings. Luckily the cops were still attempting to pull themselves free from the twisting patches of blackberry bushes. The cars were stalled and there was no backup in sight. As they made their daunting escape, Sin breathed deep and exhaled a sigh of relief. The cops may not have won the war, but at least the anthros won this particular battle. Sin was extremely relieved to have survived. She spared a glance toward Maxwell, actively looking back over his shoulder, ensuring they weren't being tailed. Not a likely chance by far, but it never hurt to double and triple-check.
"We need to drop this car off somewhere unsolicited. Afterwards, we need to-"
"I'll take care of the car, babe. You just drive us back to your home. I'll have you get out, lay low, catch your breath, collect yourself, sip herbal tea, whatever works best. No need to worry about a thing. Your worries after today are guaranteed to end. May not be permanent, but damned if it isn't gonna put you in a good spot for a long while."
"Who were those jerks, anyways? Did you recognize them, Max?" Sin asked her shep-coon savior. He shook his head, shrugging his shoulders.
"Nope. Must've been from another bounty agency. Whoever they were, the fat one was ugly as shit." Sin giggled aloud at this. Max somehow always knew what to say to break the tension in any situation. She admired him for such a wonderful personality trait.
"You could say that again, coon-boy." Sin said, grinning awkwardly.
"Okay. The fat fuck was ugly as horse-shit!" Max yelled aloud, cracking up afterwards. Sin laughed her ass off just as hard right along with him, all while maintaining her driving. She wasn't necessarily laughing at his commentary of the big-boy named Maynard as much as she was laughing at the absolute absurdity of her situation overall. She smiled, rubbed a puffy bruise on her cheek, licked at her nose and tasted dried blood, then placed a hand-paw over Maxwell's thigh, squeezing it gently. 
"Thanks for saving me back there, Maxwell."
"Hey, I figured you'd probably do the same for me." Max reached down and caressed Sin's hand-paw in his own grip. "You're welcome, love." Max smiled, watching the road, deep in thought, hoping they'd seen the last of whoever had hired those two dirt-bags to acquire Sin-wolf by force.
~
"Okay, we're here. Now go inside and… y'know, lay low! I'll be back around soon, I promise. Then we can… unwind a bit." Max told Sin, now parked in front of her cozy little home. If there was one thing that could be said about houses in Odessa County, it was that comfort wasn't too far out of reach.
"Sure thing, shep-coon." Sin replied, standing right outside the driver's side door, leaning in, brushing Max's fuzzy cheek-tufts with her finger-paws. He sat in the driver's seat, now significantly warmed by Sin's former presence. He felt comforted by her lingering body-heat. Sin stepped back, removing her hand-paw from his face. As he shifted the car into drive, he pressed down on the brake petal hard. 
"Sin?" Max called out to her, just before she entered into her home. She looked back at Max, eyebrows raised, yellow eyes pondering curiously.
"Yeah?" Sin replied, brushing blue hair free from her forehead.
Maxwell surveyed her features, her supple curves, her elegant blue hair, her feminine distinction. He loved her immeasurably. In fact, Max had no clue what he'd possibly do without her. 
"Lock your doors, girl. There's cops on the prowl. But you knew that already, didn't you?" Max said, cocking his brows smugly.
"Never hurts to get a reminder every once in a while, shep-coon." Sin winked at him, returning with a smile of her own, beaming and beautiful. "Smell ya later, old dog."
"I'm sure you will." Max said. He sped off quickly, honking the car's horn, rearing a corner. Sin stood a moment longer, watching her empty road, devoid of cars, pedestrians, neighbors. Nobody seemed to be out today. She wondered if Maxwell's musical performance was really that damn popular after all. Ah well, she'd just attended quite a show herself. One that could put any mosh-pit to shame. Sin-wolf Alvarez closed her door and locked the deadbolt shut tight behind her. She needed a shower. That would do her a world of good, she imagined. It would be nice to wash off any excess blood that may have gotten into her fur. She could also 'jill off' (what the cool kids often called female masturbation) a bit, perhaps. Knowing her luck, she'd run into Maxwell again sooner than later. Maxwell, with his ocular prosthetic, making him look way less disfigured than he really was. Maxwell, with his insane supernatural abilities, apt to guide him out of damn-near any scrape. Maxwell, a bass guitarist and bounty hunter who had all the chances in the world to kill Sin for profit and instead flat-out refused, sparing her life in exchange for his own. She'd always be grateful to the raccoon-shepherd hybrid for his righteous decision to see her not as a body to deliver but as a gifted soul to protect. God bless Maxwell's spirit.
For now though, she had a shower to tend to.
END