Luna
I’m yanked from the fog of bliss at the sound of the front door slamming shut. I can feel Axel’s wolf, how wounded it is, and guilt cloaks me like a shroud. I didn’t mean for this to happen, even though some part of me thought Axel deserved to see what he threw away. That’s why I let him stay and watch.
“Go make sure he doesn’t destroy shit,” Warrick says to Ethan.
Ethan leaves the room. I know Axel wouldn’t destroy my house, though. At least I hope he wouldn’t. He did demolish our swamp home, according to Evan. But I don’t trust vampires, so I’m not sure if that’s true.
The light of a half-moon streams through the slit in my blue and white lace curtains, lighting up the bed. Callan lays on one side of me, playing with my nipples and stroking my breast.
Warrick gives a low growl and settles in on my other side. “Did my baby girl like that?” he asks.
“So much,” I say, snuggling in beside him.
“You want me to share you with Ethan, too?” he asks.
“Yes, please,” I say, squirming at the thought of what Axel interrupted earlier.
He chuckles and gives my nipple a tweak. “Wouldn’t Axel shit himself if we turned you into a regular club whore?”
“What’s that?” I ask.
He rolls onto his side to face me. “What we like to do to them,” he says, running his calloused fingers up my side, making me shiver. “Is one of us wrecks their cunt while another fucks them in the ass. Sometimes the third one fucks their face at the same time. Then we switch around. Keep going all night until they’re overflowing with cum.”
“Oh,” I whisper. “I’d like that.”
Warrick laughs quietly, a sound I don’t think I’ve heard before. “You’re a regular little slut, aren’t you?” he asks, sliding his hand between my thighs. “You’d do anything for an orgasm.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I ask. “It’s the best feeling ever.”
“Can’t argue with that,” he agrees, sinking a finger into me.
Callan clears his throat and gives me a significant look, and I’m pretty sure I know what the wants. I thread my fingers through Warrick’s chest hair and look up at him through my lashes.
“So, actually, I was thinking…” I begin. “Maybe I’d like to be mates with all three of you all the time.”
“Is that right?” Warrick asks, pumping into me until I almost lose my head.
“Yes,” I said, closing my eyes and sinking into the pleasure.
“Well,” he says. “I don’t guess I mind sharing, as long as it’s with my brothers. I’ve done it plenty before.”
“Thank you,” I say, leaning in to kiss him before giving in to his skillful fingers and letting him shoot me into the stars again.
Later, Warrick falls asleep on one side of me, and Callan snuggles close on the other. I should be perfectly and truly content now that we’ve cleared up the mate situation. But I can feel Axel’s wolf all the way from down the street, can feel the anguish I caused.
A fat tear spills from my eye.
“What’s wrong?” Callan asks, propping himself up on one elbow. “Why are you crying?” He leans down and sucks the tears from my face, waking Warrick.
Warrick clears his throat and says in a groggy voice, “Do we have a problem?”
“We hurt Axel,” I sob.
“We didn’t hurt Axel-Axel hurt Axel,” Warrick says, wrapping a protective arm around me. “Breaking a sacred oath the way he did is inexcusable.”
“Yes, but hasn’t he suffered enough?” I reach for the sheet to wipe my eyes.
“Not hardly, Luna,” Callan says. “I don’t think you understand the enormity of his actions. No one breaks the sacred True Mate bond. Some wolves actually die from it, when their mate dies or is killed. Or they lose their minds, like your mama did. Axel did that to you knowing that could be the consequence. He’s getting off easy.”
“I doubt if he sees it that way,” I say in a too-small voice.
“Callan’s right, baby girl,” Warrick murmurs sleepily. “At your request, I spared his life. But that don’t mean he doesn’t deserve to die.”
“You’re tender hearted, and we love you for it,” Callan says to me. “Now put him out of your mind and be here with us.”
Warrick sighs again, and after a minute, he resumes snoring.
Callan lowers himself back to prone and nuzzles my neck. I smile and pretend to be okay for his sake, stroking his chest and playing with his unruly hair until he falls asleep. But I lay there half the night, feeling as battered as I did when I woke up from my wolf attack coma.
The next day, Callan and Warrick are already gone when I drag myself from bed. My heart feels as heavy as the stones lining the creek near their house. I pad to the kitchen and find a note resting on the table, scrawled in Callan’s messy handwriting.
Gone hunting. See you tonight.
In a way, I’m glad. I don’t want them around when Axel stops by today to bring me gifts or ask if I need anything. I intend to explain that I didn’t mean to hurt his wolf and telling him how sorry I am.
I make breakfast and sit at the window seat, waiting for him to come knocking.
But I finish breakfast, and he’s not there. I wash up and then tend the garden out back, looking up whenever someone strolls by. None of them are Axel.
All day, he never comes.
Nor does he stop by that night. Or the next day…or the day after that.
Or the five days following.
Finally, I see him driving his truck down the street one day. My wolf leaps with joy. He’s okay after all!
I race out onto the sidewalk, waving wildly, but his truck lumbers past without slowing.
I’m sitting at the counter the next morning when Callan comes whistling in. “What’s up?” he asks, setting the coffee on. “You’re looking morose for a girl who just got fucked until she couldn’t take it no more.”
I manage a small smile. “What’s morose?”
“That,” he says, gesturing to my face before taking a seat beside me. “What’s bothering you, pet?”
“I miss the coffee Axel used to bring,” I admit.
“Oh, now, don’t you worry about that,” he says, tucking my lilac hair behind my ear. “How about this? I’ll take you down there right now, and you can get whatever frou-frou coffee shit you want.”
“Okay,” I say, nodding because I know he doesn’t really mean shit. He said that’s just a word to describe things in general.
I hop on his bike with him, and we race along the streets of Jacksonville, under the heavy sky. The air smells restless again. At the coffee shop, we step inside, and my wolf leaps high inside me, threatening to take me over. Our eyes fix on the blond-haired man at the counter-Axel. He takes his coffee and turns, his blue eyes landing on me. Without a word, his jaw tightens, and he pivots and heads out a side door.