“Ride the bologna pony?”
I couldn't stop laughing. Maybe I was still high from our run or maybe it was the company, but…“Are you serious, right now?”
“Have relations?”
“Now you're from the 1800s?”
“Do it doggy style?”
That sent me right over the edge. I laughed so hard, there were tears in my eyes. When I finally caught my breath and looked over at Axel, he was grinning like he'd just won the lottery.
“Don't like those?” he asked. “How about spearing the bearded clam, tripping down the mine shaft, Negotiating—”
“Enough,” I said. “I feel like you're avoiding the question.”
“Nope. Just like the sound of your laugh.” He grinned at me and something tightened in my chest. “Honestly, I think you need to settle into being a wolf for a while. Right now, your senses are on overload. I don't want you to do anything you'll regret later. Plus, we hate each other.”
My stomach growled, saving me from the conversation. “I almost forgot. I'm meeting Shelly for breakfast in an hour.”
“I'll go with you.”
“It's a girls' breakfast. You wouldn't fit in.”
He pulled into the parking garage next to my building, parked, and turned in his seat to face me. “You're my responsibility. I can't take a chance something will happen when I'm not with you.”
I couldn't argue with that. If I was in his place, with a possible death sentence hanging over me, I certainly wouldn't want to take any chances. “Fine, but don't be weird about it.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I'm not weird.”
I snorted. “Okay, mountain man.”
I got out of the car and hurried up to my condo, happy to have gotten the last word.
***
“It's time to go,” I hollered through the bathroom door. “Hurry up.” I wasn't a big primper, the only thing that took time was dealing with my shoulder-length curls, but I'd showered and bundled them into a tight ponytail, so it hadn't taken too long. I was planning to go the gym after, so I'd put on jeans and a t-shirt and had my work-out clothes in my gym bag.
Axel emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, and my heart stopped beating for a moment. He'd shaved and he'd done something to his hair so it was kind of slicked back. Without all the hair, I could see his face. He had a scar on his chin, but otherwise his face was absolute perfection, all angles and smooth skin. His bright amber eyes stood out even more, somehow. He was wearing a fitted t-shirt that clung to every muscle and jeans that hugged him in all the right places.
“Still weird?” he asked with a bit of a strut as he stalked toward me.
“Did you shave off your personality, too?”
He frowned and stopped moving toward me. “Ready to go?”
“Been ready. Shelly hates it when I'm late. Come on.” I hurried past him and out of the condo like I hadn't just frozen in place and ogled him for the past three minutes.
He followed me out and I led him to my car this time. It wasn't fancy, just a boxy four-door sedan, but it got me where I needed to go. He got in and I backed out. He was silent for most of the ride, until I headed into a visually less appealing part of the city, with dilapidated buildings and shady types hanging out on the street. “Are you driving me to an abandoned warehouse to kill me?”
I was proud of my past. I'd gotten away from an abusive father, and I'd made my own way to a comfortable, safe life. I'd worked my ass off and I'd found success. “Shelly and I met on the streets here when we were sixteen. The diner we're headed to is the first place that gave her a job.”
“You were homeless?” he asked, surprise and awe in his voice.
“We were both runaways. We were lucky to find each other.”
“What were you running away from?”
And that was where my desire to share ended. “A bad situation. Don't worry, it's in my past.”
“That's not why-”
“There's the diner.” I pointed it out like he was the one driving and needed to be told where to park. Of course, Shelly's tiny sports car was already in the lot. She was going to give me hell about being late. Axel got out and followed me into the diner.
Shelly was already seated at our usual table, but she leapt to her feet and squealed like she hadn't seen me in months. I hugged her back and breathed her in. I loved hugs and I'd missed her. She was my best friend, my only family, and my sister all rolled into one. She smelled like cinnamon and roses and…Wait, what was that other smell? Before I could figure it out, Shelly had pulled away from me. “Where's your cast?”
“I don't need it,” I said. I'd totally forgotten about the whole broken arm thing. I guess the turning-into-a-werewolf thing had distracted me.
Shelly frowned with her whole face. She was petite but fierce. “It was broken, Jules. In three places. How do you not need the cast?”
“It's…Um, well, you see. . .” How had we been so stupid not to have worked out our story before we got to the diner?
“Faith healer,” Axel chimed in behind me.
Shelly lifted her face to stare at him, her eyes narrowed. “Why hello,” she said, her voice dripping with southern honey and twang. “I didn't see you there.” She gestured to the booth. “Why don't we all sit down and talk this over?”
Axel had the good sense to look worried, but he stood his ground instead of running from the diner and slid into the booth seat next to me.
“I'm Shelly Simmons,” Shelly said, offering her hand to Axel.
He took it and shook. “Really? You both have alliterative names?”
I watched Shelly's grip tighten on Axel's hand and I knew we were in for it. “Where I come from, making fun of a person's name is not an acceptable greeting.”
Axel straightened his shoulders. “I apologize. I'm Axel Montgomery. It's very nice to meet you.”
Shelly pursed her lips and released his hand. “The same.” She paused while the waiter took our orders, smiling sweetly at the man. I could see the powder keg about to go off behind her pleasant expression. Maybe it had been a mistake to keep our breakfast date. As soon as the waiter walked away, Shelly turned to Axel. “Mr. Montgomery, how is it that you and Miss Jacobs met?” Aw shit, Shelly only got weird and overly formal when she was level thirty-five pissed and ready to kick some ass.
“I live near her cousin, Krista,” Axel said. “We met while Julie was visiting.”
“I see,” she said, her teeth clenched even as she smiled. “And you must have gotten to be very good friends if you are now here in LA with her and she's brought you to breakfast with me.”
I got another waft of her scent when she gestured at the table like Vanna White showing off a prize, if Vanna White was trying to kill someone with her eyes and was smiling with all her teeth. What was that smell?
“We're in love,” Axel said, sounding a bit panicked. I swung my gaze to him, eyes wide. He shrugged and widened his eyes like he was the innocent in this situation and not about to get us both killed. Figuratively killed. Shelly was not a murderer.
When I looked back over at Shelly she was glaring at me. “And you had your arm healed by a faith healer?”
“Uh-huh,” I said. Damn, her full focus was intimidating. She rarely turned it on me.
“Even though you're not the least bit religious?”
“Um…I—” She shifted in her seat and I got another hit of her scent that was…“Holy shit,” I said, tears welling in my eyes. “You're pregnant.”
Next to me, Axel dropped his head into his hands and moaned something about being a dead man.
Shelly's eyes widened in shock. “How could you possibly know that? I haven't even been to the doctor to confirm it, yet.”
“Private investigator,” Axel said, his voice gruff.
“What?” Shelly asked.
“I'm a private investigator. I've been showing Julie how I use the smallest clues to figure things out about people. She probably noticed that you're looking a lit
tle heavier and your breasts are…” He finally picked up on the daggers Shelly was glaring at him and shut up.
“Bless your heart, you must have hit your head before you stepped in this diner if you think I'm going to believe that balderdash,” Shelly said.
“Look, Shelly,” I said. “Axel's telling the truth. I picked up on the changes in you, not because he's been teaching me anything, but because you're my very best friend and there's no way I wouldn't notice—”
The waiter delivered our food, interrupting me. As soon as he walked away, Shelly pointed at each of us in turn. “Not another word from either one of you until my plate is cleared. Today is the first day in two weeks that I've actually felt like eating and I am going to enjoy this meal.”
I bent over my plate and began to eat. Axel nudged my knee with his own until I looked at him. He glanced at the door in a meaningful way, but I ignored him. I wasn't going to walk away from my best friend. No way in hell.
I finished my breakfast in record time. Werewolf metabolism was no joke. I considered ordering another meal, but Shelly was already suspicious enough and I wasn't about to do anything to get Axel killed.
I waited for Shelly and Axel to finish. Apparently, Axel had much better willpower or he was less hungry than me. Shelly put down her fork and her knife, wiped her lips with her napkin, and glared at us. “Explain. And it better be the truth this time.”
“Shel,” I said. “It's just that—” Axel put a hand on my thigh.
“It'd be easier to show you,” he said. “Do you have time to stop over at Julie's condo?”
I stared at him wide-eyed and shocked. What the hell was he doing?
Shelly's anger seemed to lessen just a smidge. She nodded. “I have a few minutes. I'll meet you there.”
As soon as I was alone with Axel in my car, I punched him in the shoulder.
He winced and gripped his arm. “What the hell was that for?”
“I'm not going to let you kill Shelly to keep our secret. We'll figure out something to tell her.”
He grinned like he thought I was cute. I was a lot of things, but cute was not one of them, damn it. “I'm not going to kill her,” he said. “I have an idea. Can you trust me?”
Damn it, I shouldn't trust him. He'd protected Krista but he didn't know Shelly and he might be close with Krista. “Honestly,” I said. “I don't know you.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. But you know you can use the alpha voice on me, and you can probably kick my ass if you have to. Just give me a chance. If you don't like what I'm doing, feel free to take over.”
I couldn't argue with that. I started the car and drove us out of the parking lot. “How the hell have the werewolves kept their secret for so long?” I asked. “You're a terrible liar.”
He shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “Shelly is more…inquisitive than I'd expected, you should have warned me.”
“Right,” I said. “Because most people just accept the changes in a person when they get turned into a werewolf without questioning it?” I was grousing at Axel, but I knew I'd screwed up, too. I wasn't in the habit of keeping things from Shelly and I hadn't realized how much I'd changed until I was seated across from her.
“Most people are born wolves to wolf families,” Axel said. “The ones who are turned are usually estranged from their families already or are…Easier to convince to break ties with their families.”
Because they wouldn't be able to fight his alpha voice, I realized. “Still, I'd have expected someone with a secret like yours to be a better liar.”
He grunted, but didn't bother to argue.
I got us back to my condo and we found Shelly waiting outside my door. I let us all in and Shelly took a seat at my kitchen table, hands folded in front of her, ready for war. I let Axel take the lead and sat across from Shelly.
“When Julie was in Mule Creek, she was bitten by a werewolf.”
Shelly gasped and I swung my head around to look at Axel so fast I gave myself a neck ache. What the hell was he doing? “Axel?”
He smiled. “This isn't the sort of secret you can keep from a friend like Shelly. If we don't tell her the truth, she isn't going to rest until she finds out for herself.” He looked at Shelly. “Right?”
She nodded, but her face was pale, her eyes wide and shell shocked. She looked at me. “Is he sane?”
I ignored her and turned back to Axel. “Are you sure?”
He knelt next to me so we were face-to-face. “If we don't tell her, she'll get us into ten times more trouble than if we do tell her. I have a feeling she'll keep your secret if it means keeping you safe.”
“Julie?” Shelly asked.
I gave Axel a quick nod and turned to face my friend. “He's telling the truth. I was bitten. I'm a werewolf.”
She leaned back in her seat and reached under the table. If I knew my friend, she was blind-dialing 911 and preparing to press the call button. “That's impossible, Julie. I mean this guy is good-looking and very charming—”
“Charming?” I asked. “You can't be serious. He's a totally gruff mountain man. He's barely verbal. He probably doesn't even know how to read.”
“I know how to read,” Axel grumbled. “And I talk plenty.”
I rolled my eyes, but Shelly's shoulders had relaxed a hair. “You like him, don't you, Julie? Is that why you're going along with his crazy story? Because you want to get in his pants?”
“In his pants?” I asked, pretending to be way more outraged than I felt. “Shelly, I am not that kind of woman.”
Shelly laughed, but her hand was still under the table and I knew her thumb was hovering over the call button. I sighed, stood, and started pulling off my clothes.
“Um, Jules, what the hell are you doing?”
“Just give me two minutes, Shelly. If you aren't convinced, you can hit that call button and have me and Axel dragged off to the psychiatric ward.”
“Call button?” Axel asked. “She can't—”
I held up one hand to him as I unbuttoned my jeans with the other hand. “I've got this. Just make sure I don't go psycho-killer.”
“Now, wait just a—” Shelly said.
But I'd finished undressing. I dropped to all fours and I shifted. Wolf-Julie scented Shelly right away and knew she was pack. I walked over and put my head in her lap. I loved her scent, it was so comforting, and the smell of her little one, a strong and healthy child, made me want to leap for joy. Shelly would be so happy. After a moment, Shelly dropped her hand to my head and petted my fur. “I can't…I just can't believe this,” she said. “If I hadn't seen it myself. . .”
I lifted my head and licked her hand, enjoying the salty taste of her mixing with her scent. Home. She was my home and my pack. I walked back to the other side of the table, shifted to human, and dressed.
When I looked over at Shelly, there were tears in her eyes. “You're a beautiful wolf, Jules. How…How does it feel?”
“It healed me,” I said. “I've been up all night and I'm not the least bit tired. It feels pretty fucking amazing.”
She smiled, but she looked worried. “So, what will you do now? And who is he to you, really?”
I sat and explained who Axel was and my plans for the future. I pretended confidence as I told her I'd go back to fighting and my life here would be normal. I'd changed and I was still changing every day. I had no idea what normal was for me anymore.
Shelly didn't look convinced, but she stood and hugged me. “Call me later,” she said. “Let me know how it goes at the gym.”
“Take care of you and that baby,” I said. “Let me know what the doctor says.”
She gave me another hug and turned to Axel. “If anything happens to her or I hear that you've treated her less than awesome, I will hunt you down and kill you. I don't care if you are a super-strong werewolf.”
“I believe you,” he said, entirely serious. “I don't want to hurt your friend, but I'm afraid she's going to be hurt anyway.”
; “What?” I asked.
He and Shelly both ignored me. “Then be there for her when that happens, okay?”
“I'm not going anywhere.”
Then she hugged him. And Axel hugged her back. When did they become friends? What happened to her hunting him down and killing him? What was this weird twilight zone I was living in?
I watched her leave and Axel shut and locked the door behind her. “Well,” I said. “That went well. Ready to go to the gym?”
Axel's lips tickled with a smile and amusement danced in his eyes. Maybe that was why he was such a bad liar, as tough and gruff as he was, his emotions played clearly on his face. “You might feel like you're full of energy, but you need to sleep. And so do I.”
My stomach rumbled with hunger at his words. “Fine,” I said. “One hour of sleep.”
CHAPTER FOUR
I woke up to sun streaming in through the window. I was starving, again, but I felt energetic and ready to take on the world. I climbed out of bed and stretched my arms over my head, giving myself a good whiff of my body. I smelled stale and dirty. Weird to be so rank after an hour-long nap. Shrugging, I headed for the shower.
When I emerged from my room, dressed in work-out clothes, my wet hair in a bun on top of my head, I found Axel in my kitchen. He was cooking and it smelled delicious. It smelled delicious and he looked delicious in another tight t-shirt and fitted jeans. For a mountain man, he really did dress well. I walked into my small, barely used galley kitchen to find platters of bacon and eggs set on the counter. I snagged a piece of bacon and chomped on it happily. “Breakfast for dinner? My favorite.”
“It's breakfast for breakfast,” he said. “You slept for twenty-four hours.”
He wasn't looking at me, all his attention was focused on what looked like French toast. “No way. I never need more than six hours and I didn't even feel tired when I laid down for my nap.”
He turned to look at me, his expression sad. “You've changed. In a lot of ways, the Julie Jacobs you were died when you were bitten.”
Dread clenched my belly and I got angry, because I'd promised myself I'd never be afraid again. I would never be afraid again. “You don't even know me. I'm strong, and I know who I am. I just needed a little extra sleep, but I'll be back on track now.”
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