Chapter 15
AXEL
Nature hated a vacuum, and so did a lion Pride.
Luckily, Billy grew some balls and slid into Regent with little to no protest from the other Pride members.
Unsurprisingly, the males hadn’t liked getting beaten down every day, and the lionesses...
Well, their stories made me want to stuff all the splattered brains back into Bob’s head and torture that motherfucker for days.
We stood to the side as Billy explained that there would be changes to the Pride.
The girls could go to college, rather than become cub-making machines.
The teenage males wouldn’t get kicked out of home at fourteen.
Everyone would be respected, regardless of their place in the Pride.
We shifted into animals—it didn’t mean that we had to be animals.
I wanted to go home and make love to Isla. I wanted to make her my mate. I wanted to get the hell out of this shithole and start a new life with her and our Pride. Maybe make a few of our own cubs.
I let out a deep growl, making the lions around me skitter away. I was glad the pretty boy had stepped up to the plate, because these sheep needed leading, and I wasn’t going to be the one to do it.
Isla smiled, threading her fingers through mine.
“We need to go,” I murmured to her. I wanted to get as far away as possible before sundown.
The Chatsville Pride was Billy’s problem now.
We’d packed up our apartment into a U-Haul, taking only the things with memories attached.
The rest we’d dropped off at the back of the local thrift store.
Maybe some other kids with nothing could use it to make a home.
Bohdie was asleep in Wyatt’s arms, his face pressed into Wyatt’s neck. He was a resilient little guy. He was going to be a handful when he was a teenager. I felt my lips curl into a smile, and no matter how hard I tried to resume my fuck off stare, I couldn’t straighten my face.
Archer looked at me, his eyebrows raised. “Is Axel… smiling? Someone get the medic. This is an emergency,” he yelled, and I punched him in the arm.
“Shut up, asshole. Let’s get out of here.”
Days, weeks, months—I didn’t know and I didn’t care—later, I lay on the lawn with Isla’s head in my lap, letting the soft strands of her dark hair fall through my fingers.
“The bear cubs and Bohdie got stuck at the top of a tree again yesterday. Franklin was the only one not on guard duty and had to get them down. Bohdie learned a few new words that are only fit for sailors and bear shifters with vertigo.”
I laughed at her story. I didn’t startle at the sound anymore. “Isla, do you want to be my mate?”
She turned to look up at me. “I thought I already was? Remember last night, when I let you put it—”
I cleared my throat. “I don’t mean making love. I mean the actual ceremony, where I tie my life to yours. Forever. No takebacks.”
“As if I’d ever want to take it back. But what about the other guys? I love them too, you know.”
I rolled my eyes. “Those assholes? You can do better.”
The sound of her laugh made me want to say mushy shit, like how the sound lit up my world or set butterflies off in my chest or something else ridiculous.
“Don’t be a jerk.”
“They’re my Pride. To mate one of us is to mate all of us. We’re kind of a package deal.”
It wasn’t the first package deal we’d engaged in since we’d gotten back to the cabin in Nebraska. There had been a rather memorable night when Bohdie had been having a sleepover at the bear den…
“Axel? Are you listening?”
I leaned down and kissed her lips. She tasted like strawberry lipgloss and sunshine. “Uh-huh. What do you say?” I moved, until her head was haloed by the grass and my body was pressed along hers, my hard edges cradled by her soft curves.
“Yes,” she breathed. I kissed her, trying to make her senseless enough that she’d never regret her decision, ever.
Because I had no regrets. Even the missing years between us had turned her into the woman she was now. Turned her into a lioness who I would protect with my very last breath. Made us a family that I could trust with my soul.
Fate was a bitch, but sometimes things turned out just how they should.