Chapter 7
AXEL
Iswaggered out of the cabin like I was king shit, but inside, my heart was hammering against my ribcage. I never lost control of my lion like that. I’d been moments from taking her against that wall, consequences be damned.
But that was him talking, not me, Axel the man. We had an agreement. The man was in control.
At his amused huff, I was beginning to think I’d been fooling myself all this time. Maybe he’d given me the reins, but it had been his choice. I hadn’t taken them by force.
I knew why my lion had decided to make his power play, though. He liked Isla; he wanted her as a mate. But she was new to our world, and my lion getting all Alpha on her was not the way to ease her into this life.
Hear that, you arrogant motherfucker? Keep your shit together or you’ll scare her away.
He let out a whining snarl in my head at the thought of her leaving again. Or maybe it was at me calling him a motherfucker. Either way, he needed some hard truths or she’d be gone for good. He’d been a moody bastard for the last five years.
I stopped as we reached the clearing where Archer was playing with Bohdie.
“You have to stand real still, until they think you’re just part of the woods,” Archer was whispering to the little boy, crouched low.
A rabbit was standing in the clearing, its ears twitching as it searched for predators.
“You’ll know when the time is right. You can see your prey relax, the tension easing from its body.
You’ll wanna rush in, but don’t. Wait. Breathe in deeply, fix it in your mind, and on the next heartbeat, you pounce. ”
As if the rabbit was playing along with Archer’s explanation, it gave a few more ear twitches, then lowered its head to chew on the grass.
I watched the boy pause, then leap at the rabbit.
Unfortunately, he had about as much grace as a small herd of elephants, and the rabbit took off into the woods at an impressive speed, the boy trailing it to the line of trees.
“That’s far enough,” I shouted, and Bohdie turned around, pouting.
Archer threw me an amused look, and I smiled back. Archer had always been the best with cubs. He’d come from a huge Pride, where the youngsters had often cared for the cubs. It had broken Archer’s heart when he’d been ejected from his Pride, knowing he wouldn’t see his younger siblings for decades.
I gave him a half-grin. This was why we needed to go easy.
For our Pride, so Archer could have cubs, and Wyatt could have his teenage dream.
So we can have our mate, I reminded my lion, and I felt him brush against my mind, finally in agreement.
He was an arrogant fuck, but he loved his Pride with as much fierceness as I did.
Bohdie stopped beside Archer. “I lost it,” he said, his bottom lip jutting out.
“We will always lose prey—that’s the balance of nature. The mark of a great hunter is trying again.”
They began walking toward me, but I held up a hand. I tilted my nose in the air.
Bears.
“Bohdie, get inside now,” I growled at the kid, who, to his credit, took off toward the house like his tail was on fire.
Archer and I fell back to the main clearing, and I let out a low whistle.
Wyatt was on the porch in seconds, shutting the door firmly behind him.
I wasn’t sure what he’d said to Isla, but she didn’t step outside with him.
Moments later, three bears stepped into the clearing. Fucking bears. They were huge motherfuckers even in their human forms, each one of them over six foot six and wider than a damn Mack truck.
“What do you want, Vance?” My lion was pushing at me to see once and for all who would win between me and the bear Alpha.
Vance raised his hands placatingly. “This is a friendly visit, Axel.”
“Bullshit. You would have called first, unless this is an ambush.” Raising my nose to the air, I tried to scent for more bears, but all I could smell were the three in front of me.
The tall, brown-haired man laughed in my face. “If I wanted to ambush you, Lion, you wouldn’t know it until you were on death’s door.”
“You wanna try?”
Vance shook his head. “I want to know if you have a cub in there.”
Archer took a step forward, shifting into his lion in one fluid movement. His tawny lion was huge, and it let loose a roar so low that it would have turned a normal human into a piss-covered mess. Unfortunately, there were no normal humans here.
One of the twins at Vance’s back—Talbot or Tolbert or some other kind of poncy-ass middle-class name—shifted too, standing on his back legs and letting out an equally loud growl.
“It’s none of your business. Now take your fur-skin rug on legs outta here before I kill it, skin it, and then fuck your sister on it.”
Vance threw back his head and laughed. “You are one down-home, backwater asshole, Axel. But this is my business, because when someone puts out a hit on a cub—its pelt as proof—well, it makes us a little testy. And when you three confirmed antisocial fucking bachelors show up with two new scents, we begin to wonder just what kind of people our neighbors are.”
Wyatt sucked in a surprised breath. “What?”
Rage built inside me. No one was taking Isla and Bohdie. Not these fucking bears, or the Regent. No one.
For the second time today, my lion surged up and took control, swinging my fist at Vance’s face.
The solid thud of my knuckles connecting with his jaw was quickly drowned out by the roars of our shifted brethren and the sound of Vance’s fist hitting me in the gut like a freight train, knocking the air out of my lungs.
I heard more than saw the front door open, and then Wyatt was shouting as Isla leaped over the railing of the porch, landing on the gravel and shifting for the first time in a flurry of limbs.
Unfortunately, the first shift was always painful, and you were a little like a newborn foal—all legs.
She took three beautiful steps, and she was glorious. Then she faceplanted at Vance’s feet.
Vance’s laugh had her pulling herself upright, her snarling growl scary despite the way she weaved on her feet. I stood beside her, fighting the urge to shift and rip the throats out of any threat to Isla. “One false move, Vance, and I swear on my life that I will tear you limb from goddamn limb.”
He lifted his hands again. “If you listened with your ears, Axel, you’d know that the last thing I want is a fight. Not even for this gorgeous creature.”
Isla lifted her lip, showing deadly teeth. My lion purred his appreciation. Literally purred. “You need to shift back, Isla.” I didn’t know how much longer I could hold off my lion, now that he could smell his mate. “Shift,” I commanded, using my Alpha voice.
She shifted back slowly, painfully, and I winced. I had no idea it would be so hard for a changed shifter, since it came as naturally as breathing to born shifters. I watched Vance for the slightest deviation in his intentions.
I heard a squeak, then Isla was tapping me on the arm. “Axel! I’m naked.”
I’d forgotten her human sensibilities. I peeled my shirt over my head and passed it over, pushing her slightly behind me, never taking my eyes from Vance.
The smug bastard was grinning so hard that I thought it was going to crack his pretty-boy face. “On second thought, maybe I will fight you for her.”
I saw Isla flip him the bird over my shoulder, and it was my turn to look smug. She stepped out from behind my back, and I was glad to see that my shirt hung to her knees.
“What were you saying about my son?”
Vance frowned and breathed in deep. “Not your son.”
Isla’s growl was impressive even in human form; even I resisted the urge to take a step away. “My. Son.”
Vance held up his hands again. “Yes, ma’am. There’s a hit out on him—we just wanted to make sure the kid was okay. We bears aren’t like the lions. Every child is a blessing to us, even the bachelors. Unlike these antisocial fucks, we don’t take infanticide lying down.”
“Tell me everything.”
Vance looked around the woods, which made the fur on my neck stand up on end.
“Maybe we should do this inside instead.” Isla eyed him again, taking his measure, before she nodded and turned, marching back to the cabin, not even consulting me.
Vance raised an eyebrow. “After you, Alpha, or is she…?” He trailed off, a stupid grin on his face.
I glared at him, then at his second—the other twin, Franklin—who wasn’t even trying not to laugh. “Shut it, Vance.”