Luna
Axel steps inside as I scramble from Ethan’s lap. I button my shorts, pat my hair, and smooth the front of my lavender top, trying to bring order to my appearance before turning to face my Alpha.
“Axel,” I say. “What are you doing here?” I stand beneath the overhead fan, enjoying how it cools my flushed skin. The temperature outside must be approaching one-hundred, and it’s muggy from the swamp, making us all damp and sticky.
“What do you mean?” Axel’s gaze slides back and forth between Ethan and me. He looks hot and grumpy as he stands in my tiny foyer, as if it offends him that I’m with someone besides Warrick. Which doesn’t make sense, because he hates Warrick most of all.
I’m afraid I will never understand this thing called relationships. “I come by every day,” Axel says. “Am I interrupting?”
“No,” I say, just as Ethan says, “Yes.”
Ethan’s fly is hanging open, and I want to stand in front of him, so Axel doesn’t notice. I’m not sure why, because I know Axel won’t tell Warrick before I get the chance. Ethan makes no attempt to zip up, and his cock
bulges against his jeans. He lounges on the couch, his arm resting along the back.
Axel’s mouth works back and forth as he regards the two of us. “What’s going on, Luna?” he asks, looking… Hurt, I think.
I’m still learning to read his expressions, but I can tell he’s trying to hide it. His wolf isn’t doing as well at appearing unbothered, though.
Ethan palms his erection. “What’s it look like? Do you think I get this hard over the furniture?”
I could just about slug him. He’s constantly tormenting Axel.
“Ethan, don’t,” I say. “There’s no need to stir up trouble.”
He grins up at Axel, ignoring me. “Yeah, okay, little pup. Let’s not stir up trouble for the guy who’s constantly checking up on you. She’s fine, asshole, and she’d be even finer if you hadn’t just stopped her from getting wrecked by the best dick of her life.”
Axel gives me a wounded look. “I thought…”
“What?” Ethan asks, giving Axel a savage grin. “That because she’s your mate, we wouldn’t pass her around every night so we can all get a turn to come in that tight little pussy? Come on, now. You know our reputation. Surely that’s all we know how to do with a woman.”
Axel swallows, the little Adam’s apple lump on his throat moving up and down, his eyes fixed on Ethan. I can feel pain radiating off him, and I
don’t like it.
“Ethan, stop,” I say. “Axel, that’s not true. Only Warrick comes in my pussy every night.”
I’m not sure what I said wrong, but Axel looks like he’s in danger of wolfing out and tearing Ethan’s head off.
“Maybe you should go out back for a minute,” I say to Ethan.
“Fuck this guy. I’m going for a ride,” Ethan says. “Want to join me?”
“I need to talk to you, Luna,” Axel says. “Before you head out with… Whatever this guy is to you.”
“Let me see what he wants, and then we can go for a ride,” I say to Ethan, desperately trying to make him happy and not make Axel sad at the same time.
“Nah. You do your thing with this asshole, and I’ll catch up with you later,” Ethan says. He grabs his black leather biker’s vest off the living room chair where he deposited it earlier. Before heading out, he leans down to give me a soft kiss on the lips and chucks me on the chin. Then he skewers Axel with his hateful gaze before striding out the front door.
An awkward tension stretches between Axel and me.
“Can I get you anything? Beer? Water?” I ask, practicing the new social manners he taught me. Maybe if I show him that I’m using what he gave me, he’ll feel better.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he says, taking a few sniffs of the air. “I need to get outside.”
“Sure,” I say, since by afternoon, it’s hotter inside my house than out. I can smell what he does, the scent of my arousal perfuming the air around us.
“You have everything you need here?” Axel asks as we step onto the porch. The sky is darkening in the east, but the air is still, with a restless, irritable charge. Definitely a storm coming.
“Yes, Axel,” I say. “You’ve been getting my every need met before I even know I have it-buying me dishes, towels, groceries… I do appreciate it.”
“All of your needs,” he says, his mouth in a sour twist. “You mean your material needs, right?”
“Exactly,” I say as we start along Golden Glade Street. The sidewalk shimmers from the heat, and I hope my sandals don’t melt. Wearing shoes has taken some getting used to, but sidewalks retain heat like crazy. No way could I place my feet or my wolf paws on this searing concrete. The palm trees lining the road do nothing to shield us from the thick, sweltering air.
The further we get away from my house, the more Axel seems to settle. He leads me along a path into the woods, so we’re not baking in the sun. “So,” he says. “You like the new place?”
“Oh, I love it!” I say, my mood lifting instantly. “I never owned anything so amazing in my life.”
This statement seems to please him, as evidenced by the smile on his face. But after a few minutes of padding along the dirt path in silence, his frown returns. “Are you fucking them?” he asks. “I want to hear it from you.”
“Do you really want to know?” I ask, my mood turning south, too.
“No,” he admits, his jaw set as he stares blankly into the distance.
“How’d it go with the pack?” I ask, hoping to circumvent what will surely turn into a fight if we continue down the track of what I’m up to with the three brothers.
“As well as could be expected, what with you living here, the triplets living here, and the vamps occupying so much territory… Ethan was right about the vampires not sticking to the territory I gave them.”
“I know he likes to lie to make you mad,” I say. “But I didn’t think that was a lie.”
Axel rubs the back of his neck before continuing. “Woulda been helpful if he’d told me sooner. But I know things are strained between us.”
“I’m sorry about that,” I say. “I can’t seem to stop making chaos wherever I go.”
“It’s not your fault, Luna,” he says, casting a long, wistful glance in my direction. “How could it not be tense? We all want the same thing-you.”
“I know,” I say. “It’s so hard to figure out what to do. I want… I just want everyone to be happy. And once I learned what jealousy was, it don’t seem like that’s possible. If more than one person wants the same thing, it sure gets complicated.”
“It could be simple,” he says, snagging my hand. He waits, as if he thinks I’ll pull away, but my wolf is thrilling inside me at his touch.
Axel stops and pulls me in closer, turning to face me. “I’m still your mate, Luna,” he says. “No matter how much you deny it. I know your wolf feels it, too. No one would argue that-even Warrick let us be together when he thought it’s what you wanted…”
“But it’s not what I want,” I say, pulling myself away from him. “I want the triplets.”
“Do you?” he asks, cocking his head. “Or are you just punishing me for severing our bond?”
I turn and stomp deeper into the woods, smelling fresh water ahead.
“Luna,” Axel calls, hurrying after me. When I don’t answer, he falls into step beside me. “You heading for the pond?”
“Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?” I demand, stomping across the pine needles and dead palm leaves to reach a murky, shallow
pond.
I kick off my shoes and wade into the knee-deep water. It’s brackish and slightly warm, but at least it’s wet. And wading through the water helps me feel my natural self, the one I was in the swamp with Mama. Once I reach the middle of the pond, I sit down in the silty mud.
Axel laughs and shakes his head. “You’re a trip, Luna. You’re the only person I know who would sit in the middle of this pond with your clothes still on.”
“Fuck clothes,” I say. “I wish I could strip mine off, but you and the others made it clear I’m to act civilized here in town.” I splash him with a scoop of water when he wades close enough for me to reach. “Are you going to loom over me, or are you going to join me?”
After a second, he grins and plunks down beside me, splashing me back.
We laugh and splash for a few minutes until we’re both completely doused with water. Then, I lay back in the shallow pond and let myself float, my hair spreading around me like blue clouds across the sky.
Axel watches with soft eyes.
“What?” I ask, spreading my arms in the water like a water bug.
“I’d like to offer you a position in the pack, Luna,” he says. “Will you be my Second?”