Chapter 13
You on the way home? Alpha Steven mind-linked Drake and Jaxom.
Yep. An hour out, Jaxom replied. They’d been at a neighboring pack, just two hours away. The first of many visits to different packs, according to his dad. He said it was preparation for taking over Blood Moon when they found their Luna.
Was it a good trip? Alpha Steven asked.
I think so. I guess Alpha Terrance might disagree. But, I thought it went well, Drake spoke up. Two months in and he was getting more assertive. Jaxom said he was loving the growing confidence. He told that to Drake constantly.
I heard nothing but good, son. Alpha Terrance liked the challenge you gave his warriors on the sparring grounds. He said they started training harder because of you young twerps, Alpha Steven laughed. You may as well go direct to the cabin. Four days off.
“Now that is good news,” Jaxom said to Drake. Drake was driving. Jaxom had been on patrol with Alpha Terrance’s men the night before.
“Sleep, Jax. Two hour nap. I have plans for you at the cabin.”
“Plans? I don’t think we’ve had plans for a while. Stupid thin walls,” Jaxom complained with a yawn. “They didn’t know how to take fated male mates.”
“That was awkward,” Drake said with a sigh. Jax finally closed his eyes. His mate. It had been two months. The month at the cabin, a week at Alpha Roger’s pack, and then two at Alpha Terrance’s pack.
Male chosen mates weren’t rare. It was accepted.
Many packs found the arrangement a relief for wolves that had been rejected, never found their fated mates, or were simply interested in other men not women.
For some reason, fated male mates made wolves uncomfortable.
Legends, Lycans, and prophecy were whispered behind their backs.
Were Jaxom and Drake royalty? Or, pretenders to the throne? Were they longed for Lycans coming back to bring law, justice, and peace? Or, were the Lycans back to impose rules no one wanted to live by anymore?
In the end, it didn’t matter to Drake. His relationship with Jaxom was everything. But, Hazel’s prophecy weighed on them. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do for prophecy to advance. There was nothing they wanted to do to keep it from happening.
The dreams after the Cloth of Binding Ceremony weighed on them, too.
Both he and Jaxom had dreamt of a young woman walking through the woods.
She was lost and scared. A young man lay in a pile of rags to try and get warm in the cold.
Bruises covered a body that was too thin.
The dreams repeated. Their mates needed them.
It was the overeager and the absolutely repulsed wolves that made this adjustment so strange.
They’d run into their fair share of both at the two packs they’d visited.
Asher came to accept that he and his men were needed to keep guard over Jaxom and Drake.
The animosity seemed to be aimed more towards Jaxom.
His intense presence set wolves on edge.
Drake may have been perceived as more built, but Jaxom naturally carried authority.
Wolves that were anti-Lycan hated that air of authority.
Women found Drake easier to approach, hoping their scent indicated they were the fated Luna to complete their trio. It drove Drake nuts. He couldn’t stand women giving him that look. He called it the Miss Gentry look. He’d never said it out loud, though. That look made him sick to his stomach.
Drake heard an explosion as the SUV veered off the side of the road. They landed upside down in a deep ditch. Both he and Jaxom were hanging in their seat belts.
“What the…?” Jaxom asked. He looked dazed.
“Are you okay?” Drake asked as reached for the seat belt cutter.
“Hit my head,” Jaxom said gruffly.
Drake got his seat belt cut and fell onto the vehicle’s roof.
“Think a tire blew. You ready for me to cut?”
“Do it,” Jaxom said as he braced against the cracked windshield.
A flash of brown caught Drakes attention as he zipped through the seat belt. Jaxom was loose as wolves snarled outside the flipped SUV.
Shit. We’re under attack, Jaxom said through the mind-link to Asher and their men.
We’re on the way back to you, Asher replied calmly, like barreling off the road and getting surrounded by wolves was an everyday occurrence.
Drake used the other end of the seat belt cutter to shatter the driver’s side window. They needed to get out and shift before wolves pulled them out. He kicked the window out and shifted as he launched himself out the upturned vehicle.
A wolf was waiting, knocking him to the ground.
That only lasted for a second as Jaxom’s black wolf forced the attacking wolves back.
Just as Drake got up, two wolves jumped over the SUV to land on top of Jaxom.
He snarled as they tried to bite him. Drake was up and clamping down on a wolf’s leg, breaking it.
Two more attackers were trying to separate Drake from Jaxom as his guy threw the second wolf off. He reared and landed, paws around that wolves neck, jaws snapping it.
Drake raked his claws down a wolves side.
Blood and fur flew through the air. Three more wolves were harassing Jaxom as Drake took down another attacker.
Jaxom growled as one bit his shoulder. He was able to shove the wolf away but another was taking its place.
Drake landed on top of a wolf, breaking it’s spine.
He pivoted as it fell to land on a wolf trying to bite Jaxom’s hind leg. Another body dead in the ditch.
The snarls of their pack warriors joined the fight. All the attacking wolves seemed bent on getting at Jaxom. He made short work of two more as Asher flung a wolf against a tree. One of their warriors finished it off.
Jaxom snarled as another wolf bit his side. Drake had that one dead before it hit the ground.
Three into the woods, Asher roared through the mind-link. Get them!
Jaxom snarled as he killed the last wolf stupid enough to stay around. Drake could smell his mate’s blood. He didn’t know how badly Jaxom was injured and couldn’t stop growling in rage.
I’m fine, mate, Jaxom said. He certainly looked magnificent as he surveyed the scene of the attack. Look.
Drake looked at where Jaxom was looking. A thin wooden board was lodged in their tire. Nails held it in place. The wolves attacking them had planned on taking the SUV. Neither Drake, or especially Jaxom, were supposed to have walked away from this.
Jaxom shifted to human. He was bleeding from a wound on his head. A big red patch was running down his neck and onto his shoulder. He stumbled as he wrenched open the back door to get a suitcase out. Three more bite marks were bleeding. Two on Jaxom’s side and one on his shoulder.
“Jaxom, you’re injured,” Drake said after he shifted.
“Just my head. Hit it on the window, I guess.” He threw clothes at Drake, pulled on shorts and shirt and got shoes off the roof, which was now the floor. “Head’s still pounding.”
“Common, Alpha said home now,” Asher said. “He’s sending people to investigate. We’re keeping the rest of our guys here. You’re hurt Jaxom. Home. Now.”
Jaxom stumbled as he walked up the side of the steep ditch. Drake steadied him. He needed Jaxom in the vehicle, far from here, safe. He’d never seen his guy bleed in a fight before.
“How long till we’re home?” Jaxom asked. His voice was gruff as he pressed his hand to his head.
“Half hour. Doctor Lina is waiting for you,” Asher said as he and Drake hustled Jaxom to the car. He was unsteady on his feet. The fact he was able to fight a continuous flow of wolves off was amazing.
“Dizzy?” Drake asked.
“Yeah. Need a nap. It’ll go away,” Jaxom said as he got in the backseat.
“Nope. You have a concussion. Stay awake,” Drake commanded.
“They wouldn’t’ve touched me if my head wasn’t pounding,” Jaxom said as he leaned his head back.
“Nope. Sit up, Jax. Look at me.” Drake gently turned Jaxom’s chin to look in his eyes. One pupil was bigger than the other.
“Hey, Jaxom, how many fingers am I holding up,” Asher asked as he sped down the road.
“Three.” Jaxom squinted.
“Two, buddy,” Asher said. “Tell Drake about our eighth grade field trip to the capital.”
“The one where you got us lost?” Jaxom asked.
“Yeah, that one.”
“I told him to say with the teacher but Asher decided to sneak into the closed museum exhibit.”
“Liar,” Asher said from the driver’s seat. “That was your idea, Jaxom.”
“Nah,” Jaxom’s head tilted towards Drake’s shoulder.
“Head up, Jax,” Drake was getting nervous. Wolves had faster healing than humans but a concussion was still serious. “Eyes open, my love. Did you make it into the exhibit?”
“Nope. Asher chickened out.” Jaxom slumped a little.
“How long, Asher?”
“Ten minutes, Alpha Drake.”
The formality was startling. It was always more informal with Asher. Drake saw the worried looks he was throwing Jaxom’s way in the rearview mirror.
“We beat the them?” Jaxom asked. The blood had finally stopped running down his neck from the wound.
“The them?” Drake asked.
“Ya know, bitey wolves. The them.” Jaxom groaned as the car hit a bump.
“Dr. Lina is ready for us. You’ll help Jaxom out your side, Drake,” Asher interrupted.
Luna Ellen was standing with Dr. Lina as Drake helped Jaxom slide out of the car.
“Hey, mom,” Jaxom squinted at her. “Bright lights. I’m okay.”
“I know, my boy. Let’s get inside so the doctor can look at you.” Luna Ellen took her son’s hand to lead him inside as Drake steadied Jaxom from the other.
Drake’s wolf was on the prowl, itching for another fight.
Nurses had Jaxom washed up and Dr. Lina was giving him a couple of stitches for the head wound.
The three bite marks infuriated his wolf even more.
Jaxom wouldn’t have been bitten by those rangy mutts if he hadn’t been hurt in the planned rollover.
“Drake?” Luna Ellen said gently. “You’re growling. Talk to me.”
“They all went after Jaxom. I was just in the way. It wasn’t the smell of blood. It was him. Deliberate.”
“It’s a good thing you two are such good fighters.
” Luna Ellen patted his hand. Drake had come to adore her over the past two months.
She was soft and kind and motherly. He’d never understood ‘motherly’ until he’d met her.
There was a way she cared for Jaxom, and him, that melted his heart.
He was beginning to suspect his dad was right. He had a lot to learn about real women.
“Okay. I have room for you guys to sleep here tonight,” Dr. Lina said. “It’s okay for you to sleep in three hours, Jaxom, but we will be waking you up periodically. Until then, stay awake. Take gentle walks down the hall if that helps. No TV. No screen time.”
“Boring,” Jaxom huffed.
“Yes, boring, but necessary. Your brain needs to heal. I expect you to rest for the next week. If everything goes well, I’ll reevaluate then. No training, running, rough housing. Willow bark for the headaches.”
Drake and Luna Ellen, took turns helping Jaxom stay awake. His guy was groggy, and just wanted to close his eyes. It was the longest three hours of Drake’s life. Time had always slowed down at Miss Gentry's but worrying about his mate made time come to a standstill.
“Jaxom, let’s play cards,” mom suggested. “The lights can still be dim because this deck is marked big enough to see.”
“Drake’ll cheat.”
“Guess you’ll have to pay attention then.”
“That’s mean to say to a guy with a head wound.”
Jaxom’s mom egged him into playing cards for over an hour. She knew her son well. They both had a competitive streak that didn’t go away because of some silly concussion. Drake knew he’d never have kept Jaxom so distracted with a card game by himself.
Not soon enough, Jaxom was in bed, drifting off to sleep. Drake settled in next to his mate, ready to wake him in a few hours just to make sure he could still wake up. The whole incident had left him feeling vulnerable. A Miss Gentry kind of vulnerable.
They’d been attacked deliberately. His mate had been wounded and then targeted. Drake tried to shut his eyes, go to sleep. He needed to be up to take care of Jaxom. Anyway, Alpha Steven was having the incident investigated. Drake wasn’t alone.
Miss Gentry smiled as she opened the door. That damn predatory look on her face made him gag. He sat on the couch as per usual and watched her sashay her way over. Disgust filled him as she kissed his cheek. Her hand wandered up his thigh to cup his shriveling cock.
“Drake?” He heard Jaxom calling his name. It was just a dream. He looked up and Jaxom was standing over him, a hand on his cheek.
“You okay?” Concern wrinkled Jaxom’s brow.
“Aren’t I supposed to be asking you that?” Drake tried to deflect. His forehead was sweaty and his body ached from tension. Always the after effects of those dreams. But, Jaxom didn’t know that. The dreams had stopped the day they met, until now.
“You were thrashing, kicked me out of bed. What were you dreaming about?”
“Come lay down. I’m fine. How’s your head?”
“Hurts. Worse now that you kicked me out of bed. Talk to me, Drake,” Jaxom said softly as he lay back down.
“It was her. I used to dream about her all the time. Stopped when we met,” Drake said. He really didn’t want this conversation. He’d been convinced she was behind them, a distant bad memory.
“So, I kinda fixed you,” Jaxom said with a touch of arrogant amusement. Drake snuggled into Jaxom’s arms. He was safe there. Safe to relax and just be. “What do you think brought her back up?”
“The attack. It just feels all wrong,” Drake sighed.
“The bigger problem is, how am I going to bond with our Luna? I’m scared shitless of women.
Tarra is safe because she’s Asher’s. Your mom is safe because she’s become a mom to me.
The only real mom I’ve ever had. What’s going to happen when we get a Luna and I actually have to have sex with her? ”
“Were you attracted to women before the bitch?” Jaxom’s hand slowly stroked up and down Drake’s back. Soft and gentle. Soothing.
“Yeah. After her I never wanted sex again, until you.”
“Hmm, I am kinda studly, aren’t I?” Jaxom smirked.
“Go to sleep, head injury. You may seriously be permanently damaged.” Drake laughed and closed his eyes. He felt Jaxom’s breathe even out. The reassuring lift and fall of his chest under his cheek lulled Drake into a more peaceful sleep.