Chapter 7
Chapter seven
Nora
I slipped into the gas station bathroom and glanced at myself in the mirror.
I looked like shit, but I probably blended in well enough in this tiny rural town full of people who worked with their hands for a living.
Axel, on the other hand, didn’t blend in so well.
He was so damn tall, and he looked like walking sex.
Not that I was into him. He belonged to a giant purple alien and a tiny Asian woman, and I knew he loved them both dearly.
I pulled a few stray curls back into my ponytail and sighed.
We’d tumbled out of the moving train in Illinois and had run for miles, falling bone tired into the back of a truck that was headed west. It hadn’t been difficult to evade the authorities.
We were both skilled in espionage tactics, and running from the local police was easy.
But we’d had to dump our phones and credit cards, just to be safe.
It was too much of a risk to call to the safe house.
We couldn’t do anything that would be traceable.
Not until we figured out who was with the Vul.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, Axel was leaning casually against the counter, joking with the clerk in an American accent.
Something about losing his phone. He glanced at me and gave a subtle shake of his head as he told the clerk a ridiculous story.
The clerk laughed the whole way through, then offered Axel his phone, and Axel excused himself to make a call, all in a matter of minutes.
I grabbed a bag of nuts and paid cash for it, grimacing at the dwindling stack of bills in my wallet.
We needed to find someone to take us the rest of the way to Montana for cheap.
I stepped outside, sat on a bench, and munched on my snack, trying to tell myself that it was plenty of food. Axel caught up to me, grinning. “We have a ride. We just have to wait.”
“What? How did you arrange for a ride? Isn’t that too risky?”
“We need to get there more than anything.” He glanced around, a habit he had, scanning the parking lot for threats, then stole a few of my nuts. “Come on, let’s walk.”
“Walk?”
“You’ll see.” He grinned a little wickedly, but said nothing.
We followed the access road parallel to the highway for a few miles, and then Axel abruptly cut down a long driveway, weaving through a rocky pasture full of cattle.
I’d never been to North Dakota before, but the western half of the state was more hilly than I would have imagined, full of dry desert hills and interesting canyons.
Axel jumped a fence and scrambled down a hill, and I wondered how the hell he knew where he was going, but I trusted him, so I followed.
“Are you all right?” The booming voice wasn’t Axel’s, and I startled and looked around. “Close your eyes.”
I did, stopping where I was standing, and Mu’ol was there, somehow. He was more beautiful than I had remembered, with his elegant bone structure and broad shoulders, and the almost lavender tone to his skin. Fuck, was I hallucinating now?
“What are you doing?” Axel asked.
“He can wait,” Mu’ol said. “This connection is taking a lot of energy resources for me.”
“How are you doing it?”
“We have a bond, you and I. It’s called the Bhesai Ker’el.” He paused and glanced behind him, and nodded to whoever was there. “Axel is going to the safe house to regroup and train with some of our warriors. We can’t allow the full regiment to be captured. I want you to come with me.”
“All right. Are you going to transport me there with your brain magic?”
Mu’ol gave a startled laugh, then shook his head.
“There is a ship that’ll pick you up. Axel is in communication with T’ukka and will lead the way.
If you wish to join me, stay on the ship after it drops Axel off.
” He glanced back again and said something that I couldn’t quite hear, something that had a vague, blurry quality to it, to the person behind him.
“I must go. I hope to see you soon.” And then he was gone, and the back of my eyelids looked like the back of my eyelids again.
I opened my eyes and Axel was standing there, smirking a little behind him.
The wind whipped up, blowing his golden hair into his eyes, followed by the telltale whir of an Aunga’ri shuttle landing in the grassy field at the bottom of the hill.
“Our ride is here, if you’re done having a psychic conversation with your boyfriend,” Axel said, smirking.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I muttered, sounding a bit like a petulant middle schooler. The door of the shuttle opened, and Axel whipped around and started jogging down the hill.
At first, I thought something was wrong, and glanced over my shoulder to see who might be chasing us.
But when I looked back at Axel, I saw my friend launch himself at a seven-foot-tall dark purple alien with a laugh.
The prince, Axel’s lover, smiled only slightly, and wrapped his arms tightly around his human man, burying his face against Axel’s neck.
Behind them, a small purple and black Aunga’ri shuttlecraft sat, still powered up from the flight, but Axel and his prince ignored the ship and held each other tightly, as if they had been separated for more than a few days.
They stood like that for a long moment, holding each other, until Mia, their other lover, peeked out of the door to the ship.
“Guys. We’re in a hurry. Do your damn Bhesai Ker’el crap inside the ship.
” Mia sounded a little cranky, but she was staring at them both with warmth in her eyes.
But who wouldn’t stare at Axel Mason with warmth in her eyes?
The man was a thing of beauty. I started jogging for the ship as well, guided by an urgent need to see who was inside.
I passed the men just as Axel leaned forward and brushed his lips against T’ukka’s, murmuring words of love.
“T’ukka. I want to hug Axel, too,” Mia yelled, and that finally turned them around.
Axel scooped the small woman up on his way through the door to the ship, spinning her around.
I rushed up the gangplank behind them, trying to ignore the slight jealousy.
I wasn’t sure if it was related to Axel himself, or simply to the intensity of the relationship between the three of them.
“I missed you guys. I’m not sure I’ll be able to leave you again. It was so damn hard.” He squeezed Mia’s hand as the shuttle roared back to life.
I looked around the ship, which was empty inside. “No Mu’ol?” I asked, my heart sinking.
“No. We’ll fly you to him,” Mia said, then she looked at me more closely, her sharp eyes curious. “So, you and the commander, huh? And On’nas, too?”
I frowned. “On’nas? What does he have to do with anything?”