Axe grabbed a clean dishtowel, dampened the cotton in the still streaming water, and gently eased Tania to her full height.
She stared somewhere in the vicinity of his sternum.
All her anger had dissipated.
While he figured she’d have heard vaguely about what the scatting meant, Axe deduced from her reaction that his mate knew the details.
“Tell me,” he coaxed, patting her forehead dry. “One of the ways of dealing with fear is vocalizing it.”
“The scatting means that Uncle Viktor has ordered them to sterilize and disfigure me and that he’s given me to the Jäeger. They’re marking me as their property.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
He lifted her chin and his gut wrenched at the sadness glistening in her brimming eyes. “Until Jaz hacked into the Senior Council’s server, none of us knew about those penalties for mating with a half-breed. Or of what the Jäeger are? How do you know?”
“There was a Wylfen senior at the boarding school. One of the ‘it’ girls. At the end of my first year at boarding school, she found out that she had been mate allianced to a man twice her age. She was determined to get out of it. I wasn’t home for three days for the summer when it broke on the news.
“Her murder. The scatting. They cut her womb out. I overheard Breede and Mishe talking about it. They were certain it was the work of the Jäeger. They were furious and they started discussing the Jäeger’s weaknesses, their history.” She shrugged. “I joined the dots.”
“I must’ve been on deployment. Don’t remember any of that.” He combed a few strands of lush, brown hair behind her perfect ears. Fingered a whorl while he digested the information, and lingered on her pearl earring before flicking the soft underside of her throat.
“I can’t believe Uncle Viktor would do that to me. I know he’s never really liked me or approved of the way my parents ‘spoiled’ me. But to give me to the Jäeger? They’re the Wylfen Nazis. The descendants of those who escaped. Dad must know, Axe.” She met his gaze. Then squeezed her eyes shut. Tears leaked damp streaks down her cheeks.
He wiped the streaming, sad tears away, but more fell. “We can’t be sure about that. Look at me, Tania. Jaz downloaded the Kiev Insurance data earlier today. He texted me right after he went through the information. Jaz found nothing connecting the firm to Triple W or Viktor.”
“Jaz said that?” A glimmer of hope had the hazel in her right eye taking on a hint of honey.
“Yes. We’d both been dreading learning otherwise. And your twin’s adamant that Breede and Mishe would never allow such an edict to be handed down. We believe that was the reason they emailed you. To warn you.”
Axe didn’t intend to tell Tania that in their emails both Breede and Mishe had declared their intention to not only rescue her from him, but find her a sanctuary where she could live out the rest of her life in absolute safety.
Not happening.
She cuffed his bicep, craned her neck, and broke into a smile so wide her cheeks must have ached. “I am such a Dodo-head. Mishe and Breede emailed me. They emailed me. Don’t you get it? They went against The Senior Council’s edict. They risked exile to warn me.”
Choking back a slew of blue-balled curses at his own stupidity, Axe returned her grin. “You nailed it, sweet girl. They’re on your side.”
No matter what Mishe and Breede had decided to do about him.
The steady hum of an engine rented the quiet chorus of nocturnal animals stalking and calling to each other. Axe cocked his head and listened. An SUV was climbing the mountain, headed either to his house or Lycus’s.
“What’s wrong?” Tania whispered. She edged closer to Axe.
Absently pleased at her automatic reaction to seek safety from him, he snagged her waist, placed a finger on her lips, and pressed a kiss to the sweet arch of one brow.
Not seconds later, a gentle breeze carried three whistles, too high-pitched to be discerned by any but a shifter, to his ears. Friendly company approaching.
Axe replied in kind acknowledging he’d received Jurango’s signal.
“We have visitors.”
Tania twisted around to check the clock on the micro. “It’s two-thirty in the morning. Who on earth visits at this hour?”
Chapter Eighteen
When Tania returned to the kitchen after brushing her hair and freshening up, she glimpsed Bandit and Axe huddled in a murmured confab by the back door.
As always, Axe was aware of her presence before she ducked around the archway leading into the kitchen. He shot her a sidelong glance, smiled with a slight crinkling of the skin around his eyes, and motioned her to him.
Bandit half-turned and flashed her his wicked, dimpled, crooked grin. “Top o’ the morning to you, darlin’. My felicitations.”
She halted in mid-step. “On what?”
His grin evened out. “The two of you are wearing claim bite marks. Not to mention the mating musk emanating from you both. It’s smothering every other fragrance in the room.”
Tania’s entire body heated, but her face and throat felt as if flames licked her skin.
Gawd, would all of them know right away?
What she wouldn’t give to know what Bandit smelled? Was it the mix of Axe’s sperm and her cream?
Tania resisted the temptation to run back to the bathroom and apply a few drops of Eva’s scent mask to her pulse points. She had precious little of the magic elixir left and didn’t want to use the potion unless it was necessary.
“Cut line, Bandit. You’re embarrassing my mate. Tania, Dax and Eva will arrive any minute. They’re going to stay in the last bedroom on the other side of the house.”
She frowned. “I thought Eva was too sick to travel. You know, because of the…
Bandit bared elongated fangs. “Fuc—”
“Miscarriage.” Axe glared at Bandit. “Dax decided his mate was well enough to make the trip.”
Was it horribly selfish of her to be glad that Eva was coming?
Eva was probably weak and possibly depressed. Who wouldn’t be after losing a baby? And Eva and Dax were going to stay the night so she wouldn’t tire herself out. The least Tania could do was ensure Eva would be comfortable.
“How soon will they be here?” She recalled a linen closet laden with luxurious Egyptian cotton sheets. “I’ll check the room quickly to see if the bed needs fresh sheets.”
“No need. I’ll see to it. I believe Axe wants a word with you.” Bandit disappeared through the archway before Tania could sputter a protest.
All the Wylfen alphas she knew wouldn’t have a clue as to how to make a bed.
Were the Feral and Rogue males born with domestic urges?
“Tania, to me.” Axe used the same tone as he had when barking out SOPs the other day.
Her stomach cramped. Not good. That tone harbingered bad news.
She hurried to him.
Capturing the fingers of both her hands, he let out a sharp sigh. “I had hoped to break this to you differently. The Jäeger kidnapped Eva.”
Tania gasped. She blurted, “Oh God, no. When? I thought you said Dax and Eva were here.”
Axe wrapped both arms around her waist. “The night of the dinner-dance. She’s alive and will be okay. Bandit and Dax rescued her within a couple of hours. But, the Jäeger hurt her during that time.”
All at once, she knew. “The miscarriage. The Jäeger caused the miscarriage. Please tell me they didn’t sterilize her?”
Nausea crashed over her in cyclone-size waves. She swallowed the acid welling up her gullet.
He cradled her cheeks. “No. No. She can and will have another baby. They cut her face. She’s too weak and too depressed to shift. Once she shifts her wounds will heal. It’s not pretty, sweet girl. You need to prepare yourself. I know how much you dislike scars.”
She slapped at his wrists and dislodged his hands. “I could so hurt you right now. You think so little of me that you believe I’d be offended by a few measly injuries? H
ave the last few days taught you nothing about me? I don’t give a crap about your scars. Or Eva’s.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He wrapped his thumb and forefinger around her wrists.
“It is so what you meant.” Tania struggled to free herself from his hold to no avail. “You taunt me for believing all the things I was told about the Feral and the Rogue wolves, but you’re worse. You can’t let go of your prejudices.”
The back door flew open. Jaz stalked through the doorway. He screeched to a halt when he spied Tania and Axe. Shot a pointed glare at Tania’s tousled hair and Axe’s bare chest and feet and planted his hands on his hipbones. Tania knew that stance and expression, Jaz was in overprotective mode.
“They’re parking. Better hope that The Kydd and I managed to drown out you two fighting. Tania, Eva needs you. Just be yourself. Don’t pretend not to notice her face. Let your honest reactions show. And remember, once she shifts the cuts will heal.”
Bandit strolled into the kitchen and gave the room at large a thumbs up. “Sheets changed. Bathroom’s clean. Checked the supplies. We’re a go.”
“I imagine Eva won’t appreciate having a huge audience at this time of night. Maybe it should be Axe and me alone?” Tania knew in Eva’s shoes that’s what she’d prefer.
“Your mate’s right. Let’s get outta here.” Bandit nodded to Jaz.
The two men headed out the doorway and clattered down the deck’s steps.
Tania folded her arms. She breathed deeply in an attempt to shed her anger. Did both Jaz and Axe believe her so superficial that she’d be repulsed by Eva’s wounds?
“Switch off the lights,” the coarse murmur came from the porch.
Jurango slid into the room without making a sound. He put a finger to his mouth and whispered, “Eva’s asleep and Dax doesn’t want to wake her.”
Tania reached over to the wall and dimmed the lighting. “Okay?”
“Should do.” Jurango tucked himself into the alcove between the fridge and the countertop dividing the kitchen and the eating area. He cocked one boot over the other and jammed a shoulder against the wall, his focus on the open doorway.
Right at that moment, a shadowy silhouette muted the soft haloes from the solar lamps on the posts framing the deck.
Tania peered as the figures advanced into the room. She caught a glimpse of a tall, lean man carrying a swaddled bundle in his arms. As he passed the window above the sink, the light from the porch illuminated his features for brief seconds.
Dax had Lycus’s inky curls, a complexion weathered to a mahogany shade, and one of those aquiline noses she associated with ancient, noble warriors. Though a brown blanket covered Eva from head to toe, a few strands of her daffodil blonde hair escaped and flicked back and forth over Dax’s dark shirt.
“Your usual room,” Axe said, his voice an oomph above a whisper. “Need anything?”
Dax shook his head. “We’ll see you in the morning.”
None of them moved or spoke until Dax’s footsteps retreated and could no longer be heard, by Tania anyway.
“Everything secure?” Axe asked.
“Yeah. No worries. Later.”
Tania followed Jurango’s spectral stride until he closed the door. She didn’t hear Axe moving and gasped when his arms enfolded her from behind.
His lips grazed her temple when he crooned, “My bad, sweet girl. Wanna go have our first make up loving?”
Loving. Instead of fucking. She didn’t care what the difference was as long as he was inside of her, holding her, tonguing her. The horror of the violence done to Eva made Tania ashamed of her temper tantrum. She didn’t want to waste another second of her and Axe’s time together quarreling. “Yes.”
They walked down the hallway hand in hand each taking care not to make a sound even though Dax and Eva’s bedroom was located on the other side of the house. Very little escaped an alpha’s hearing she’d learned over the last few days.
Axe guided her into the master bedroom, shut the door, and hugged her to him.
When the crinkly hair on his chest tickled her nose, she grinned, and breathed in his aroma.
They stood like that, not saying a word, content for some time.
An owl’s hoot echoed from the canyon above them. The sharpness of the call muted by the boomeranging mountains and valleys formed by massive shale outcrops.
Axe tensed and straightened.
Tania craned back to see him. She asked, her voice low, “What is it?”
“Jurango’s signal. He’s manning the top of the mountain.”
A crow cawed.
“That’s The Kydd. He’s guarding the lower canyon.”
“You get all that from a hoot and a caw? Is that your SEAL way of communicating?”
“More Prymal than SEAL.” He linked their hands together and led her to the bed. “Do you think we can discuss a few things without the decibel level accelerating?”
The tips of Tania’s ears burned. She had shouted at him. Behaved like a fishmonger’s wife. Years of Decorum, Discipline, and Deportment training kicked in. Guilt assuaged her. She bit her lip and then blurted, “I didn’t mean to shout at you. I never shout. I don’t know what got into me.”
She had never seen her parents disagree either in public or private, and no proper Wylfen, male or female, ever bellowed.
Axe switched on the lamp on the bedside table. He tipped her chin.
Surprised and a tad peeved that he wore a huge grin, she muttered, “I don’t see what’s so funny.”
“That was a shout? You’ll have to do better in the future, mate. Do you know you’re glorious when you’re in a temper? Your eyes flash. The green one goes mossy. The hazel one warms to molasses. You get flushed all over, just like you do when you’re coming, and you scream my name.”
When Axe started speaking Tania hadn’t been in the least aroused. Sex was so not in consideration. But with each sentence he uttered, her body reacted. First her nipples pearled, and then those familiar delicious flutters started low in her belly. By the time he finished all her woman parts erupted simultaneously.
“Discuss fast, sailor-boy. I have more pressing matters on my mind.” She planted her hand on the erection straining his pants.
“Hold that thought.” He twined their fingers together.
“What is it?” His serious expression had her quaking. “What’s gone wrong?”
“Nothing. Simply need to lay cards on the table. One, I grew up without a pack. Two, the only ‘laws’ or rules I know are those that apply to the Teams, to being a SEAL. Three, I fully intend that we will together form our own, I won’t call them rules, more limits and expectations as we go forward. You and I. The Prymals as a pack.”
She beamed at him. This was so much more than she had ever hoped for.
“There is one caveat. I will not compromise where your safety, or that of our cubs, or the Prymals are concerned. My word is absolute law in that capacity. I will not tolerate even a hint of disobedience. Got that?”
He was definitely in SOP mode. Severe. Somber. Stern. Unyielding.
She nodded.
“Say it.”
“Your word is law. You command. I obey.” The three sentences left a sour taste in her mouth.
“Good girl. Now. It’s time to go back to that thought you were holding.” He captured her hands and pressed her palms to his aroused cock.
“It’s kind of scary the way you do that.” She worked on his pants button and eased the zipper of his fly down.
“Do what?” He suckled her ear lobe.
A quivery shiver zapped up her spine. She muttered, “Go from mate to warrior in a heartbeat.”
“I’m always your mate, sweet girl. Trust me in that. You are my one and only.” He nibbled his way down her neck.
“Gawd. It drives me nuts when you do that,” Tania mumbled too crazy involved in the exquisite sensations his tongue wreaked to get her mouth and brain connected.
“I know.” He chuckled.
“Come on, mate. Let’s get skin-to-skin.”
“Oh yeah.” Frenzied desire had her movements clumsy. Tania kicked off her shoes and shed her clothes while Axe got naked. “I want to be on top.”
He froze. His dilated pupils glittered in the soft lighting. “Oh yeah, sweet girl.”
The room spun when he picked her up by the waist, sat on the mattress, stretched out his legs, and positioned her in a straddling position over his jutting penis. “Brace your hands on my hipbones.”
Tania couldn’t take her eyes off the glistening engorged head of his cock pushing through his foreskin. Her mouth watered. She set her palms right below his waist.
“Ready?” The growled question made her glance at his face.
He was sweating buckets. Rows of tiny beads of perspiration clung to his brow. One drop hung at the tip of his nose. Tania smiled. He was in as much agony as her. She wriggled around until her core was above his crown. Let her weight settle on her knees and hands. “Ready.”
His hold on her fell away.
She had complete control.
Unable to drag her focus from his cock and her pussy lips, she lowered onto him, and cried out when his penis rimmed her center. Bit her lip and eased down on him. Savored the excruciating bliss of him filling her aching sex. Her hands slipped and he jammed into her and filled her so completely the breath whooshed out of her. The sensation hovered on the brink of pain.
Tania squeezed her eyes shut and waited out her body’s slow accommodation to his girth. She leaned forward and the base of his cock grazed her over sensitized clit.
The explosion burst through her. Her arms trembled. The contractions multiplied and intensified until she arched and collapsed onto his chest.
“Fuck. Losing it.” He rolled them over. “Spread.”
She lifted one eyelid. Couldn’t even muster a smile at his bared teeth and elongated canines. Stretched her thighs apart. “Do me hard, sailor-boy.”
He grunted. Battered in and out of her convulsing pussy. His balls slapped against her slickened folds. One orgasm morphed into another. Each climax corkscrewed higher and tighter.
“Now. Come. Now.” He reached between their joined bodies and tweaked her clit.
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