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“Yup. We’re all bastards.” He lifted a shoulder. “I plan on letting them know that they fucked up. When they come to apologize to me, they’ll quickly learn that it’s not me they need to make things right with. They’ll end up on their knees if you want them to.”
I snorted, and his lips curved upward further before his expression grew serious again. “What happened in the forest will never happen again, Mo. I swear that to you on my damn life. I didn’t think I’d need to protect you from them, but I was wrong. And next time, even if they’ve promised to be on better behavior, I’ll be ready.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Honestly, I appreciated the promise. And I believed him, even though I would undoubtedly get stupidly nervous the next time I saw his pack.
Maybe if I hoped hard enough, I could make it a few months before going back. Or even a year.
That wasn’t likely though, considering he was still going to be working with them. And I wouldn’t ask him to quit his job. He was clearly passionate about helping people connect with their wolves, and I would’ve put money on him being good at it.
“About my past,” he said, his expression growing a bit distant for a moment. “I don’t really want to get into it right now, when we’ve got other shit to discuss. But long story short, my mom cheated on my dad with a human man. It’s not usually possible, but she and her wolf are enemies. The wolf ran back to my dad as soon as she’d done the deed, and he smelled the other man on her. He was a good man, struggling with a mate who didn’t want him. When he smelled it, he lost his mind.”
There was a short pause, before Axel surged on. “He killed the human, even though the guy didn’t know that my mom was married with kids. The town ended up putting together a search party, and when they found him, they killed him. That happened when I was nine. I was furious with my mom, and devastated to lose my dad. My twin brother sided with her. They talked shit about dad constantly, so I moved in with my grandparents after a few years. My mom and twin officially disowned me when I moved to the forest with my pack, and I haven’t seen them or heard from them since.”
A moment of tense, heavy silence passed.
“Fuck,” I finally said.
“Yeah.” He let out a slow breath. “Shit. That was a lot.”
“No kidding.”
I scooted forward on the couch a little, lifting one of my sock-covered feet to rest against his leg. His hand lifted to it, stroking the top of my foot lightly.
Axel didn’t want to discuss it further at the moment, and I respected that. There was more shit to share about my past too, at some point, and I felt a world better knowing what he was keeping from me. Even if it made me hurt from him.
So I knew it was my turn to share something.
“I shouldn’t have told you I just wanted to be friends,” I admitted to Axel. “But I saw the way you were talking about the forest, and your pack. I knew you didn’t want to live with me, so I thought it would be better to claim I just wanted to be friends than to deal with the rejection that would follow admitting I knew I’d eventually want more. I didn’t want to let you hurt me.”
Axel dipped his head in a nod. “I can understand that.”
“And I’m not going to apologize for walking away from you,” I added, my voice growing slightly defensive. “Yes, maybe I could’ve reacted differently, but what I did wasn’t wrong. Pretty much every person I’ve ever associated with has treated me like shit, and I was never allowed to fight back. Now that I can, I’m not just going to sit there and take it.”
Axel studied me for a long moment.
I folded my arms over my chest, waiting for him to argue.
But instead, he finally said, “I’ll do my absolute fucking best not to ever make you feel like you need to run from me again. But if I screw up again, can you swear to me that you’ll open the door and listen to my sorry ass apologize before throwing any of my shit out the window?”
I snorted, and his lips curved upward just the tiniest bit.
“I promise to let you apologize,” I agreed.
“Good.” He grabbed me by the waist, dragging me over the couch and up onto his lap before setting me down. His erection hadn’t budged—I was pretty sure I’d broken the damn thing by having sex with him without letting him finish. “You accept my apology?”
“I do.” I rocked against him, just a little.
“Good. Now take your damn clothes off,” he growled.
“I’d rather let you do that.”
My lips curved upward wickedly as he ripped the sweatshirt back over my head.
Then he dropped me on the couch for a minute, disappearing into the garage. When he came back, he was rolling a condom over his cock, his pants dragged a few inches down his thighs.
“It’s a good thing we’ll be going into another climax after the release is over,” Axel rumbled, lifting me back up onto his lap and then sliding my own pants down to my knees. “I need to re-taste every inch of you.”
