He intended to cook breakfast for her? She had never seen her father boil water in all her twenty-four years. No Wylfen male deigned to set foot in a kitchen.
Sure her eyes had bugged out of her head, Tania forgot her preferences, and had to concentrate to remember them.
“It can’t be that difficult a question, Tania.” His glower returned.
“Easy over, crisp, and dark.”
Before she could blink twice, he vanished.
She heard him muttering as he stamped out of the bathroom, but couldn’t understand the language he spoke.
In record time, she showered, toweled off, and hurried to the bed. Found her toothbrush, the casual jeans outfit she’d bought yesterday, grabbed underwear, and headed back to the sink. She did the shortest teeth cleanse ever and shrugged on her clothes. Saw a miniature brush on the glass shelf and borrowed it to tidy her damp, ruffled hair.
She glanced at her reflection. Tried to discern if the drugs she’d ingested since puberty were reflected in her eyes in any way. At culinary school, she had once tried grass, and the whites of her eyes had turned pink. They were clear now. Her pupils were slightly dilated, but she looked and felt “normal.”
“Normal,” she muttered. “What the frig’s normal, now?”
On the way back to the bedroom, her toes caught on the jeans she’d discarded last night. She picked the pants up, opened the walk-in closet door, and stopped dead.
Axe had to be a neat freak. And one dimensional in his clothing choices.
To her left, a dozen or so khaki pants hung from hangers, followed by approximately the same number of navy polo shirts. Shelves filled the far wall. Jeans folded with precision stacked one shelf. T’s another, underwear—he wore black briefs, even his socks an equal number of black and khaki were lined in symmetrical rows. When she swiveled to the right, her brows knitted. Black, blue, and tan hoodies, must have been three dozen of them in all sleeve lengths, including sleeveless, hung from a metal bar.
Hoodies?
Stumped and not wanting to infringe on his space, she pivoted, and trudged back to the bed. Folded her pants, glanced back at the open closet door, and smacked herself on the forehead. “To cover his scars. Oh, Axe, how deep do they go? What did those fuckers do to you in Afghanistan?”
She had a strong hunch Axe didn’t and wouldn’t discuss his Afghanistan experience with her. Did Jaz know? Lycus?
Out of the corner of her vision, she glimpsed the digital clock on the bedside table and jerked out of her despondent musings. “Deal Tania. If not, you’re going to lose it.”
Worried she’d make Axe late, Tania jogged to the kitchen barefoot, and her feet squeaked on the tiles when she skated to a stop.
Axe, in the middle of carrying two plates to the cozy table, raked her from toes to temples. “I’m in the first bathroom on the other side of the house. Okay with you?”
Why wouldn’t it be? He owned the house. She was the one inconveniencing him. “Of course. I’ll move your bathroom stuff in there today.”
“Grub’s ready. Didn’t know if you do OJ, or milk, or whatever, so I poured you a glass of each. Coffee’s coming right up.” He placed the plates opposite side-by-side chairs, curled his thumbs and forefingers around her wrist, and Eskimo kissed her.
“You look and smell like paradise. For the first time ever, I’m reluctant to go to the base.”
A crazy mixture of coffee and mint skated to her nose. She found it alluring and yearned to taste the unlikely flavors. She linked her hands behind his neck. “Back atcha Senior Chief Smith.”
“Sweet girl, you are temptation personified.” He dipped his head and kissed her breathless. When he broke away from her, she automatically tiptoed to follow his fantabulous mouth.
“Again. Back atcha.”
He helped her to sit and Tania needed the assistance because she quivered all over. She latched onto the coffee mug he gave her and gulped down two huge mouthfuls hoping the strong brew would sober the dizzy desire giddying her gray matter.
“Hmm. I think I’m going to have to come up with a dessert flavored with mint and coffee and Axe.”
The fierce, disgusted grimace he shot her had Tania puzzled. “It was a compliment. Mint and chocolate are my two fave flavors.”
“Not following you. What flavor of mine exactly are you referring to? It can’t be my sperm. Obviously. So the only thing left is my sweat and that would seriously fuck-yuck any dessert.”
She burst into a giggling fit. “OMG, are you literal. It was meant as a kind of flirty nonsense. You know?”
“No. Eat up. I have only twenty minutes left and there’s a ton of stuff I have to go through with you.” He waved his fork at her untouched plate.
Tania swallowed. She’d never seen anyone do such a complete change in less than a heartbeat. He had morphed into warrior mode. The forbidding air he had worn when they had first met at the dinner-dance emanated from him in forceful gusts. His odor had also changed, now tainted with a biting lethalness.
“Go ahead.” She loaded a slice of toast with one egg and two strips of bacon.
“Here’s the deal. From now on you are never alone. Two of my men will be with you at all times. Jurango and The Kydd are outside. Once I leave they’ll take turns guarding you. One will be watching the perimeter, the other in here with you. At no point in time are you to ever close or lock a door. All doors stay ajar. No locks are engaged. Repeat to me what I just told you.”
Tania knew she must look like she’d lost her wits. With each barked instruction her jaw had seemed to work freer of its hinges. Finally, she managed to force words past the ballooning dread choking her throat. “I can’t close the door when I go to the bathroom? That’s insane.”
He gripped her chin. “No it’s not insane. It’s a new SOP I’ve ordered. My men need to be able to hear you breathe. We’re up against Wylfen alphas out to kill me and hurt you.”
“Is it Lionel? Has he decided to punish me?” Distressed terror had her near hysteria.
“Look at me. Breathe with me. That’s good. We don’t have time for you to panic. My fucking bad. I was greedy and wanted some delish time with you. Work for it, sweet girl. Get your panic under control. Come on, breathe with me.”
Somehow his deep rumble snake-charmed her into a semblance of calm. She inhaled and exhaled in rhythm with his breathing and when her toes stopped tingling, nodded at him. “No closed or locked doors. One guy inside the house, one on a…a perimeter.”
“That’s my mate. Perfect. I know you’re going to want to get supplies for the tasting menu. Jurango and The Kydd will take you wherever you need to go. Both of them will flank you at all times. They will pay for all your purchases.”
She shook her head so hard her neck cricked. “No way—”
“You can’t use your credit cards. They can trace you that way. Right now, the Wylfen have men assigned to track you online and through your cell phone. Jurango has a new cash, GPS-free cell for you. He’ll show you all the security functions Jaz pre-programmed into it. Repeat my orders.”
A numbed comprehension trickled into her pores. Her life had changed forever. She managed to dredge up his commands and spit them back out.
For nine minutes, he drilled her. The detailed nature of each standard operating procedure, which she now understood the acronym SOP meant, horrified her.
“I gotta dash. Walk out with me, and I’ll introduce you to Jurango and The Kydd. Be forewarned, there isn’t an ounce of perfection in them. Both of them are Rogue and I trust them with my life. Even more important, I’m trusting them with your life.”
A frisson of unease scraped the hairs on her nape erect. Jaz had said the same words about Axe last night. Had it only been a day and a half since she and Axe had met?
He pulled her to standing, glanced at her plate, and said. “Last rule. You eat regularly. That translates into every three hours. Understood?”
“It’s hard to drum up an appetite with all this happeni
ng.” In fact, even the thought of another cup of coffee brought bile to her mouth.
“You have to fuel the body regularly, Tania. It’s crucial to the functioning mental and physical parts.”
“You are what you eat.” She attempted a smile.
“Bingo. I couldn’t have found a more perfect mate.”
Sure. A Wylfen woman with asymmetrical features and eyes not the same color. A willful woman who was too tall and whose pack would be hunting them for eternity. What a wonderful life they had ahead of them. Axe, on protective overdrive every waking minute.
Waiting for that fateful attack.
Postponing the day Lionel Rath extracted his vengeful punishment.
But, Axe had enough to worry about, so she dug out her big girl panties, lifted her face to see him, and used the last of her fading resources to produce a real, reassuring smile. “You don’t have to worry. Not only will I obey each SOP, but I’ll write them down, and paste them on the mirror. You know the saying. You say it, you write it, you read it, you know it. I’ll do exactly what Jurango and The Kydd tell me.”
“You’re my mate. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to make you happy.” He set his hot hand to her cheek. “Do you get it? You are the only one for me. I would die to protect you. Gladly. There is nothing on this earth more important to me than keeping you safe.”
She wormed into his hand. Kissed the center of his palm. Breathed in his male-wolf fragrance, an aroma so distinct she’d recognize it in a packed football stadium.
“I’m done fighting this. Whatever it is. All I ask is that you go slow. I’m feeling a lot overwhelmed at the moment. Like I’m on the Teacup ride at Disneyland and have lost control of the whirling. It’s hard enough processing this mate stuff. Then there’s all the wolf instincts I haven’t felt because of the drugs. And now all these military SOPs.”
“You are doing amazingly well. Don’t beat yourself up. Just promise me, you’ll talk to me. Let me know what’s going on inside that beautiful head of yours.” He wound his fingers into her hair and tugged so she had to meet his stare.
A grin slipped across her lips. She shook her head. “All my life I’ve been told how asymmetrical my features are. I have one hazel eye and one green one. Do you know how ugly that is in the Wylfen world? When I stand next to my mother I feel…wrong. I’ve tried and tried, but I’ve always felt like I don’t belong.”
His eyes turned wolf-warrior in a heartbeat. He fingered her collarbone and kissed the arch of one brow.
“You’ve never fit in because you’ve been destined for another fate. Not a Wylfen one. Mine. You are, have always been, destined to be mine. I don’t know what the future holds for us. All I know, and I know this with absolute certainty, is that I have no future without you.”
Her chest swelled and she couldn’t suck a single molecule of oxygen into her lungs. But the doubts and questions surged into a tidal wave she couldn’t swim against. “Do we have a future, Axe?”
Chapter Thirteen
Axe finished all his assigned tasks in record time.
Tania’s last question dogged his every action.
He hadn’t had the time to do more than reassure Tania that they did have a future and then kiss the bejesus out of her.
What worried his mate?
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. Yeah. Stupid fucking question. She had her pick of issues facing them as a couple. It had all been going so great until the end. He had scared the saliva out of her with the SOPs.
What he should have done was detail the SOPs in a coaxing manner and at a slow pace. Get her approval on the easy and obvious precautions, and then do the stuff that blasted terror into civilians.
Instead his fucking mate claim need had detonated.
Milk spilled. Nada he could do about it, but revise strategy, and move forward. Axe clicked on the send icon of the email he had just composed. Now, he could prove to Tania his commitment to her, to them. He had three months left on his contract, and he was done.
The decision to not re-enlist had been straightforward given the lethal threat the Jäeger posed to Tania. Her safety, her well-being, her happiness had become his priority.
Since the day he’d earned his trident, the mere notion of not being part of the Teams had sparked nothing but dread. Not for a millisecond in his years as a SEAL had Axe ever considered that the day he had to end his career would bring this astounding surge of renewal, of blissful joy. Images of cubs peppered his brain. He visualized different combinations of their individual features, and then shot up straight and stiff.
Was she expecting her period to start? Was that the reason she wanted separate bathrooms?
Axe hadn’t smelled any hint of her menstruating. But, then again, he only knew the aroma human females exuded during that time. He’d been raised by his human paternal grandma after his mother had been murdered. By Wylfen wolves during one of their many purges of half-breed shifters.
He’d grown up in a void. Been scared shitless when he came into his wolf. Thanked every deity he’d ever read about when the Navy accepted him. It had been his escape, the military. The detailed, reinforced structure, the continual repeated daily routines, the knowing what to expect if you didn’t meet set goals.
The astounding contrast between the black and white of the Navy, and the dull grays and unpredictable violence of the Polish slums where every single day he’d anticipated his own death. If anyone had told him years ago that he’d be in this moment, allowing his dream of his own pack to run free, Axe would’ve questioned his own sanity.
Fuck this wavering. He tapped out search phrases on Google. Read a couple dozen articles. Memorized the symptoms of PMS. Cursed a blue balled streak that nada was available about female shifters.
Made a list on a worksheet with header columns, Symptom, Y/N.
“Fuck.” He glowered at the Ys.
Mood swings.
Emotional.
Irritable.
Fatigue.
He’d been so certain.
The mating after they’d had their run.
It had been so complete.
The door to his office, really an unused storage closet, flew open. Axe didn’t bother to look up. Only one man would dare barge in without permission. “Whatzup?”
“She claim you yet?”
“Fuck off.” He propped two booted feet on his desk and glared at Lycus who stood in the doorway. He barely fit through without having to duck or turn sideways.
“Guess that’s a no.” Lycus slumped into the seat opposite Axe’s.
“Nada. Nothing more. I don’t intend to discuss my mate with you. Got it?” Axe shot bolt upright.
“You need to get her to claim you. My sources say she’s a second beyond being Jäeger kidnapped. And you know what that means.” Lycus jammed his palms onto the chair’s handles.
Axe shook his head. “It’s against everything we’ve agreed upon. I can’t do this to her.”
“Shit. Believe me Axe, I wouldn’t be recommending this unless I had to. Breede and Mishe emailed Tania this morning demanding to know where she was. Not to worry, Jaz is monitoring her every move online. She didn’t get the emails.” Lycus scraped his chair back and stuck his sand encrusted boots on the opposite desk end to Axe’s.
“At the graduation, Mishe told me in no uncertain terms that Tania was off limits. Right before he told me about Tania being mate allianced to Lionel Rath.”
“A minor detail you managed not to communicate to me.” Lycus glowered.
“Not done deliberately, buddy. Fucking mate claim’s making me sloppy.” Axe had lost his mind in a hell-hazed fury wolf rage after Mishe’s dropped bombshell.
“What do you make of Mishe’s immediate hostility to both of us? At first, I figured he was one of those hate-the-SEALs because he was a wannabe. But, I got to think that he’d make it through BUD/S.”
“That’s a roger. Mishe is a tough fucker. So is Breede. I’d lay odds both of them would pass muster. I suspec
t Mishe caught bits and pieces of my conversation with Tania during the dinner. And she did dance with me twice.” When Lycus’s brow quirked, Axe explained, “According to Mishe, Tania hates dancing.”
“Hmm. Two dances. Definite tip off. So, it was simply the alpha big brother instinctively protecting his baby sister?” Lycus shrugged. “Nah. Don’t buy it. Mishe was instantly suspicious of both of us.”
“Mishe could’ve suspected about Jaz and BUD/S. But that’s not at the top of my list at the moment.” Axe swung his feet to the floor.
Lycus sighed. “Okay, I’ll bite. Talk to me.”
“I went through our Prakov files and the Rath data Jaz downloaded last night. Rath Financial Investments fired Wasserman and Litchfield five hours after Tania left with us.”
Axe had been surprised by the move. His sniper-sighting-for-a-kill instincts had the fuzz on the back of his neck tingling on overdrive.
Lycus whistled. “Whoa. Shit on a string.”
“Precisely my thoughts. Mishe is a month away from taking over leadership of Wasserman and Litchfield. Wasserman and Litchfield have represented Rath Financial Investments, Triple W, and the Senior Council for a century and a half.” Axe itched to get back to the data.
“You fucking realize this is fucking huge. The implications are mind-boggling.” Lycus kneaded his jaw and stared at the far wall.
“And you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Mishe hacked into Viktor’s server about a month ago. He downloaded all the files for Triple W’s security division.” For Axe, Mishe’s action had dissolved any lingering suspicion Tania’s family may have been involved in Viktor Prakov’s subversive activities.
“Holy fuckahola! Mishe hacked into Viktor’s server? That means he violated not only Wylfen laws, but all the traditional credos associated with honoring the alpha of a pack.” Lycus met Axe’s gaze. “Mishe disrespected his own alpha.”
“Yeah. It reinforces my gut instincts. Neither Mishe nor Breede called in the Jäeger. It’s either Viktor or Lionel Rath.” Relief surged through Axe. He’d dreaded having to tell Tania her brothers ordered her violation.
Prymal Lust Page 11
