Page 82 of Broken Souls

There's a knock on the door so Dash answers it and Ryleigh walks in. He greets her with an elated smile and a kiss. It's clear to see he loves her. Ryleigh actually uses the back road when she comes here so she doesn't run into anyone. Axe's parents show up and join Carson in the kitchen. Mandy smiles and says hi to me and Manson just nods. I know Manson still doesn't approve of me being the luna but he keeps quiet, most likely not wanting to piss off Axe now that he is the alpha again. There's another knock on the door and Olivia walks in. Oh, that's right. Olivia is Brian's mate. He left the pack for two months to travel around to other packs and he found her.

“Hi Olly,” I greet her, knowing she doesn't like to be called Olivia.

“Hi.”

Olly is shy and still adjusting to being in a new pack so I try to make her comfortable. Axe hasn't officially welcomed her to the pack because she doesn't like attention but she became a member once Brian marked her. Axe and Brian get here and Axe's eyes scan the room, seeing the decorations. He gives a small smile, then comes over to me.

“Thank you for keeping it small,” he whispers.

“You're welcome.”

Mandy and Carson give Axe a hug but Manson just shakes his hand. Is that a guy thing? Maybe it's because there's always tension between them. No one else hugs him. I've noticed Axe will only be affectionate with the women close to him in his life. The party splits up as the guys go outside and do whatever while us girls stay inside and talk. Even though all the girls here are older than me, I don't feel left out or too young. Ryleigh is twenty-seven and Olly is twenty-six. But they both have such a young nature about them. When the guys come back inside, Carson stands and claps her hands together.

“Let's get this feast on now. I'm hungry,” Carson announces, and some of us chuckle.

The party goes by smoothly, which I'm pleased about. Timothy ends up having to escort Carson to their room after her post-dinner food coma. Manson and Mandy are the first to leave after the alcohol is brought out. Brian and Olly go home drunk. It's nice seeing Olly loosen up from drinking and being more comfortable around us. Dash and Ryleigh go back to his house.

I have just gotten changed into something comfortable and I'm waiting for Axe who's in the shower. The present I got him is on my lap. I'm nervous about it. Very. I keep picking at the sides of the paper, feeling more anxious the longer he's in the bathroom. When he walks in the room, he's only wearing a towel around his waist, his body covered in water droplets. He looks heavenly.

“Let's take this towel off,” Axe says seductively.

“Actually, could you put some clothes on? I've got a present for you and I don't know how you'll feel about it.” I bite my lip.

“You're telling me to put clothes on. This must be serious.” He throws on a pair of briefs then comes and sits beside me on the bed, looking at me expectantly.

“Happy birthday. I hope you like it and understand why I did this.” I pass him the present.

Axe carefully opens the wrapping paper while I'm there watching in a breathy way. When he pulls the present out of the paper, his eyes go wide and are glued to it. It's a silver double photo frame. The photo on the left is one of Alina and the one on the right is a photo of me. I had her name engraved under her photo and my name engraved over mine.

“I don't want you to act like she never happened. She's a part of you whether you like it or not. You only have photos in her room. You can put it in the living room. I want you to see this and smile instead of feeling pained by her memory. She was your mate, Axe. I accept you will always love her so I want you to be comfortable remembering her.”

“I love you,” Axe whispers, looking up at me with watery eyes. My mouth drops open and I feel tears spring to my eyes. That's the first time he's told me he loves me. “I don't know what I did to deserve you.”

“I love you too. Did I push a boundary with the photo frame?” I ask.

Axe has opened up more about her in the last few months and I've opened up about my trauma too. Since my trauma was abuse, Axe didn't like hearing it. But he sat there and let me talk. I think after talking about it, not only did it improve our healing, but it brought us closer as a couple. It wasn't like we recovered after one conversation. It was us being together, sharing moments, opening up over many months that made us see we could be happy and that our past didn't define us.

“No, you're completely right. I shouldn't forget her. This frame shows my beginning and my future.” He looks up at me and smiles.

I smile and lean in to kiss him. The raw emotion I can feel through this kiss is astounding. We don't have sex that night. He sets the photo frame on the shelf above the heater in the living room and then we stay up most of the night cuddling and talking.

***

I wake up feeling Axe's lips on my skin. I turn over and he crawls on top of me.

“I want my birthday sex now.” He grins.

“Hmm,” I tease him, pulling away from his kiss.

“Come on. I'll only turn thirty once,” he says sulkily and I chuckle, leaning up to kiss him.

My clothes and his briefs come off pretty quickly and he lies down, sinking into me. He makes steamy love to me for a long time until we both fall on the bed in a jelly-like mess. We lie there in silence until Axe's stomach grumbles loudly, ruining the moment and making us laugh loudly.

“It's three in the afternoon. We really need to eat,” he says, sitting up.

This has been the perfect day, staying in the bedroom, sleeping and making love. If only every day could be like this.

We go downstairs and fill our arms with junk food and head to the living room, where we eat like animals and watch tv. I notice Axe glance at the photo frame with love in his eyes. Later in the night, despite how lazy we've been, we go for a run in our wolf form. Axe's wolf surprises me when he takes mine. We don't mate in wolf form a lot, mostly just around the time of the full moon. Our wolves are a lot more rowdy on those nights. We feel their force a lot stronger during full moons. After he takes my wolf we both shift back on the soft grass and lie under the starry sky.