by River Ramsey
“Why don’t you let Ella decide that?” Axel sneered. “Unless you’re afraid she can’t control herself without you babysitting.”
Bishop lunged and if Sterling hadn’t been ready to grab him, Ella knew things would have come to blows between them again.
“It’s fine,” she said under her breath, deciding that separating them was the only way she could keep the peace. Besides, she did have a bone to pick with Axel. This wasn’t the time or the place she’d thought she would do it, but he was already there, so she might as well. “I’ll talk to him.”
Bishop clearly wanted to argue, but Sterling already had them halfway out the door. “We’ll be close if he gives you any trouble.”
“He is trouble,” Ella muttered under her breath, earning a snort from Axel.
The moment the door closed behind them, she turned to find him watching her with that triumphant look that made her want to put his head through a wall. “So,” he said, taking a step toward her. If he strutted anymore, he’d be a damn peacock. “Just couldn’t handle a weekend without me, huh?”
“Like I’ve ever been given the luxury,” she shot back, folding her arms to put some form of barrier between them besides space. It wasn’t him she didn’t trust, but rather whatever primal part of her brain took over when he was in close proximity. “Why are you even here?”
“Because you needed me,” he answered, seizing on the fact that his words had shocked her into silence to cup her face in his hand. It was an uncharacteristically tender gesture, which made her all the more wary of his true intentions.
“Bullshit,” she said, trying to ignore the hint of sincerity in his voice. However much it bothered her, she knew him and he knew her. She could tell when he was lying, and he’d never cared enough about what she thought to bother lying to her. He certainly wasn’t now.
“Think what you want,” he said, grabbing her waist before she could pull back and crushing her against him hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs. His gaze burned with a flame that sent the one inside of her rising even higher. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
That raised enough questions on its own, none of which she was sure she wanted answered. She planted her hands against his chest and pushed away. “You’ve been MIA since the dance and you expect me to believe you’re going to rescue me with your magic penis?”
He shrugged. “Pretty much.”
A growl escaped her throat. “I’ve seen it before. You’re not packing anything Sterling and Bishop lack.”
He gave her a shameless, lopsided grin. “So you were peeking all those summers at the lake.”
Ella rolled her eyes.
“I’m serious,” he said, coming closer once more. “You’ll fuck the damn etiquette teacher but you draw the line at me?”
This time, Ella had the sense to dart back before he could pull her in for another mind-sucking kiss. She had always known he was a demon, but it was only recently that she’d come to realize he was an incubus.
“He isn’t the etiquette teacher, he’s the civics teacher. He’s just subbing for the etiquette teacher,” she muttered.
Axel raised an eyebrow. “That’s supposed to make a difference?”
She knew she was grasping at straws, but she wasn’t going to make the mistake of letting her guard down around him again. Every time she did, it seemed he found a new way to wound her, and his latest method of pulling a disappearing act was the most lethal yet.
“He was there when I needed him,” she said, hugging herself tighter. “So was Bishop.”
“I’m sure they were,” Axel said bitterly.
There it was again. That look of possessiveness he’d always had when he thought he owned someone. Everyone except her, until she became useful in his eyes.
“No,” she snapped. “You don’t get to stand there and judge them, or me. You had your chance, and you blew it. You don’t get another one.”
He scoffed. “You know, it’s not the first time you’ve said that.”
“Maybe not, but it is the last,” she said firmly. “I mean it, Axel. You’ve done a lot of shit to me over the years, but disappearing like that after everything that happened? That was low, even for you.”
He stared at her with an unreadable expression for what felt like hours. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d actually felt like he was listening to her, and this was one of them. She expected him to make one of his bullshit excuses, or to dismiss her feelings entirely.
And why not? No one had ever held him accountable for his actions. It was probably monumental news to him that they had an impact on anyone else, let alone why he should care.
“I’m sorry.”
The words came out so low and quiet that she almost didn’t hear them, and when she did, she was sure she’d misheard him. “What?” she finally asked.
His eyes narrowed in a familiar glare. “I said I’m sorry. You want me to write you a letter?”
The edge of embarrassment in his voice was the only thing keeping her from thinking he was just messing with her. “You’ve never said that before,” she murmured.
“Yeah, ‘cause I’m never wrong, so don’t get used to it.”
Ella still couldn’t believe he’d actually apologized, let alone meant it, but given the increased likelihood that hell would freeze over at any moment, she had other questions she wanted answered. “Why did you drop off the face of the earth? You couldn’t even respond to a text?”
“Like you do?”
“That’s different and you know it. Harassing and worrying are two different things.”
“That’s just it,” he growled. “I didn’t want to talk to you after that. The way you looked at me that night was bad enough.”
It took Ella a moment to process what he was saying. The only answer that made any sense was the night he’d fought with Bishop. “I don’t understand. This is about Bishop?”
“What else?” he snapped.
Ella had never seen him this way. Embarrassed. Vulnerable. Even that night, with the other male inches away from tearing into his throat, he’d been willing to meet his end with defiance. This was a side of him she’d never imagined actually existed, and now that she knew it did, she wasn’t sure how to proceed without pushing him away again.
“Axel,” she murmured, reaching for him.
“Don’t,” he said, grabbing her wrist before she could touch him.
She ignored him, reaching up to touch his face with her other hand. “Listen to me. I don’t give a shit about that stupid fight, or who won or lost. As far as I’m concerned, you’re both idiots.” She couldn’t help but smile a little at the flash of irritation in his gaze. “Just don’t ever do that to me again.”
He blew a puff of air through his nose, but he still wasn’t looking at her. Instinct was winning out and before she could talk herself out of it, she had leaned up and pressed her lips to his. For a second, he was frozen. When he finally began to kiss her back, it was gentler than she’d expected. Nonetheless, it stirred the heat within her veins.
When he broke the kiss to look down at her, his eyes were aglow with a new kind of desire. “What the hell was that for?”
She answered by kissing him again, and this time, he responded with the usual force, pushing her up against the wall. She gasped, her arousal spiking as he pinned her. She ran her hands down his chest, her fingers splaying across its muscular planes.
In that moment, something inside of her unleashed. Something raw and rough, the perfect complement to his jagged edges. She craved his aggression as much as she craved his touch, and the combination of both had her head spinning.
“Damn, make up your mind, would you?” he taunted as her hands slipped underneath his shirt, groping his perfectly sculpted abs.
“Shut up and mate me,” Ella breathed, digging her nails into his flesh.
He punished her by thrusting his knee between her thighs and she moaned in blissful agony as the rough fabric of his jeans rubbed
against her. The robe’s sash had already untied itself and Axel made quick work of the robe itself.
She thought of telling him to at least take it into the bedroom, but the journey seemed too long to be worth it. She wasn’t thinking about the possibility of someone coming in, or the mere decency of not letting him fuck her against the living room wall in someone else’s cabin. All she cared about was the pulsing need that surged every time they touched.
Something in his gaze darkened as he looked down at her naked body for the first time, and she felt the familiar needling of self-consciousness once more. When she saw the tinge of approval and lust in those verdant eyes, it faded to something else entirely.
For a moment, looking was all he did, as if he wanted to fully appreciate what was in front of him before he let his hands explore. Once they roamed freely over her curves, cupping her breasts and traveling down over the generous swell of her hips, she realized it was entirely possible to forget how to breathe.
She’d once thought Axel’s carelessness was the most dangerous thing about him. The way he snatched whatever he wanted and handled it as roughly as he pleased before tossing it away like everything and everyone else who failed to hold his attention. Now, she knew the truth. Gentleness in his hands was a far more dangerous thing. Now that she knew what it was like to be touched by him so tenderly—to be held like a precious, delicate thing—it would be so much easier for him to break her.
This time, she knew there would be no fitting the pieces back together, but it didn’t matter. She could see it all played out before her in black and white as clearly as any psychic vision, but she dove in head first regardless. Because the taste of that moment, even if that was all it ever would be, was too tempting to resist.
His lips captured hers once more, claiming and desperate. They were both breathless and her hands trembled as she unbuttoned his jeans, eager to remove the remaining barrier between them as quickly as possible. He pushed them down enough to free his shaft from his boxers and grabbed her thigh, his fingers digging roughly into the soft flesh as he hitched it up over his hip.
Ella moaned as he entered her. No fingering, no preparation. She was already shamefully wet for him, and even through the dull ache of penetration, she found herself bucking for more. She’d tried for so long to convince herself she didn’t want him, so she’d have a prayer of convincing him. In a few wordless pleas, she had undone all that, and felt no regret.
He knew. He’d always known. It was plain in the way he kissed her. The way he claimed every inch of her, as if he already knew she was his. As if he’d always known and had simply felt like taking his time in taking her up on the offer.
“Axel,” she moaned his name, knowing she was probably making good on a thousand bets he’d made in his mind in doing so. He grabbed her arms and pinned her wrists against the wall, angling into her until he was balls-deep. Every time he thrust, he hit some part of her deeper than flesh. Their souls had always been bound, by hatred or whatever this thing was that burned just as brightly between them, but for the first time, she could actually feel it. It was a cord wrapped around her throat, tight and strangling.
No... that was his hand. His grip was subtle, applying just enough pressure to keep her where he wanted without restricting the flow of air, and her body tightened up in response. The hoarse curse on his lips made her shudder. She dug her nails across his back and up his scalp, tugging at his blond locks.
She just wanted to make him feel. Pleasure, pain, it didn’t matter. It was all just two sides of the same coin. As long as she made him feel a fraction of what he inflicted on her just by existing.
“Fuck,” he panted against her lips, sweat beading down his forehead. “You’re tight.”
He looked like the sex god he thought he was, and she could see why he thought he had justification for his ego.
He did.
“Harder,” she demanded before crushing her lips to his once more. Her fingernails were already drawing blood to the skin, but he didn’t seem to care or notice. He just grabbed her hips and thrust his pelvis against her, hitting her at just the right angle to make her see stars. Ella felt a wave of pleasure so intense it bordered on pain coursing through her, and before she’d fully realized what she was doing, her teeth were in his neck.
All the lust and passion and anger had congealed into something uncontrollable and wild, and she no longer felt like herself but a woman possessed. By what, she wasn’t sure, but the moment his blood hit the tip of her tongue, she gave herself over to it entirely.
The string of curses on Axel’s lips was strained with pleasure as the bite pushed him over the edge. He came hard, pounding her into the wall so roughly she was convinced they’d go through it, but she didn’t care about that, either. The taste of him and the feel of him deep inside of her, taking everything he gave, was all there was. All that mattered.
When he’d spent his last inside her and she finally regained the presence of mind to release his neck, they stared at each other for seconds that seemed to stretch on indefinitely. Ella’s sex was still hot, the rhythmic drum of his pulse beating within her. His gaze traveled down to the blood on her lips and he stared for a moment, completely entranced.
He finally broke out of it and pulled away, leaving her to collapse against the wall. She felt empty, longing for him even still, but the fire was gone. There was still an ember burning, the same one that was always there with him, but the heat had been sated. It had washed over her and retreated like the tide, and as she caught her breath, she wasn’t sure if it was the mating or the bite that had done the trick.
She still couldn’t believe either one had just happened.
“You bit me,” Axel said, holding a hand to his neck as he stared at her in indignation.
Ella swallowed hard, struggling to think through the haze in her mind. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” he quipped. “What the fuck was that?”
“I don’t know what came over me, I just ...” She trailed off when she realized she didn’t really have an explanation.
Axel grumbled something unintelligible, still catching his breath as he hastily pulled his jeans up. The cabin door opened before Ella could fully gather her thoughts, and when she found Bishop and Sterling staring at them both, taking in the scene in utter silence, she knew there wasn’t going to be the chance.
“I smelled blood,” Bishop said, stalking into the room. He paused, looking between them as his eyes narrowed dangerously. They lingered on Axel’s neck. “What the hell?”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Axel hissed, still holding his neck as if to hide the evidence.
“What happened here?” Sterling asked, looking Ella over. She realized she was still naked and hastily pulled on her robe. “Besides the obvious.”
All three turned to look at her expectantly, and Ella felt like a deer in the headlights. She didn’t have an answer for them any more than she did for herself, but she knew she had to say something.
“I’m...out of heat?” she choked.
“And rabid, apparently,” Axel muttered under his breath. The orgasmic bliss with which he’d first responded to the bite had obviously worn off.
“I don’t understand,” Bishop said, clearly still trying to find a way to blame Axel for whatever it was. “You bit him? Why?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, newly humiliated. Out of one debacle and into another. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she couldn’t even begin to fathom what had gotten into her. “I just did it. I didn’t mean to, it just happened.”
“I’m fine,” Axel said gruffly. “Can’t say I’ve ever made a girl do that, but I’ll take it as a compliment.”
Sterling was still watching Ella closely and she couldn’t tell if he was upset about the bite or the fact that she and Axel had mated. Even if that was what he claimed he’d called him for, maybe he’d changed his mind. Before she could say anything, he asked, “Did you black out when it happened?”
Ella blinked. “You mean when I bit him? No... I mean, I wasn’t really aware of doing it until it happened, if that counts.”
She could tell from the increasingly concerned look on his face that it did. “Come here,” he said, beckoning to Axel.
The other tom glared, immediately defiant when ordered to do anything. Sterling walked over impatiently and grabbed his wrist, bringing it up to his nose to sniff the inside of it.
“Hey!” Axel hissed, looking like he was ready to deck him. He yanked his hand away and stared at Sterling in horror. “What the fuck was that for? Has everyone lost their damn minds today?”
“Your scent,” Sterling murmured, his voice devoid of tone. He seemed deeper within his thoughts than he was present in the room. “It’s changed.”
“What?” Axel frowned, looking down at his wrist. He gave it a sniff as well and frowned. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Let me see,” Bishop said, walking closer. Before Axel could stop him, he leaned in to sniff the other male’s neck and his eyes widened. “He’s right.”
“What?” Axel demanded, looking at them warily. “I swear, if you two are just fucking with me--”
“You smell like her,” Bishop said, turning to look at Ella with the same disbelieving expression that was already on Sterling’s face.
“Of course he does,” Ella said with a nervous laugh. “We just mated.”
“No, that’s not it,” said Sterling. “It’s deeper than that. It’s in his blood.”
“Bullshit,” Axel snapped.
“I don’t know how that’s even possible,” said Bishop.
Ella frowned. “I don’t understand. What’s possible?”
“You marked him,” Sterling answered.
The room fell dead silent. Of course, Axel was the first to break that silence. “You’re a couple of sons of bitches, you know that?”
“He’s not fucking around,” Bishop said, folding his arms. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but she marked you.”
“No she didn’t,” Axel snapped, turning to Ella in a panic. “Did you?”
“No!” she cried. “Of course not. I’m a queen, how could I even?”
