Page 13 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

CHAPTER NINE

AXEL

Nine! Fucking! Months!

Ruby’s been spying on me? And she figured out I was chasing her, too?

Murder would be the punishment for anyone else, but what else do I expect from my future queen? It’s what drew me to her in the first place. I saw Ruby’s fire, and my cold heart wanted to play.

No one else noticed the closet door in my boardroom slowly cracking open during Wren’s initiation. They were too distracted. But I clocked it and knew there was only one Wildfire brave enough to spy on me.

It made me close my eyes while I performed my duty, initiating a queen. I imagined it was Ruby’s tight, wet cunt I was fucking. I imagined it was Ruby becoming my queen. The thought made me come so hard.

I’ve wanted Ruby for months. I’ve stalked and spied on her, too. I knew, eventually, I’d trap her. She’s too stubborn to obey the rules, and now she’s mine.

It changes our game because it’s no longer one.

With all she knows about me, she’s at risk.

With all I feel for her, I’m in trouble too. Yes, I’ve felt desire before, but this? This is a demand. An unrelenting need.

This woman is mine.

But is she ready?

I glance at her and…

Shit, she looks worried. Nothing close to ready.

She’s unusually quiet as we drive to her apartment to get her things. I can see her scrolling on her phone, but her shaking finger swipes too fast, like her mind is racing.

There’s too much tension between us. It’s time to stop playing and be real. I need her to know…

“What you saw tonight,” I clear my throat, “it wasn’t love. I mean…” Fuck, that’s not true. “We love our queens. We’ll die protecting them, but each king has one queen, one wife, and Wren is Sire’s wife. I know what you saw, but I don’t love her. Not like I’ll love my wife.”

Like I’ll love you, you beautiful, fucking, stubborn Wildfire. Put your phone down.

She does. She turns away, staring at the window. “So, you gangbang your brother’s wife, and it means nothing to you?”

“It’s not a gangbang,” I correct. “It’s a ritual from our people, our past, and it means everything to us.

It goes way back to when a powerful man could die any day and needed his wife and children protected.

He needed to trust another man to care for them.

It does something to us each time we initiate a queen. We know she?—”

“Zar isn’t a she.”

“He’s an exception because we love our brother; we love the one he loves. But most queens are women. She belongs to our brother but is special to us, too. She’s one of ours, and we’d kill for her.”

“So you have to fuck a woman to care for her?”

Goddamn, she presents every argument like an ace lawyer .

“No,” is my honest answer. “Believe it or not,” my throat tightens, “I care for you , and yet, we don’t fuck, but you’ve fucked us over by spying on me and?—”

“Excuse me!” She whips my way. “You’re the one who’s been playing Stanley the Stalker for a year.”

“Eleven months,” I correct.

“Well, then let me give you eleven fuck-yous because you started this. I was only stalking you back. It’s not my fault you do so much dangerous mafia shit; you have to have erotic orgies as life insurance policies.”

“Erotic?” I smirk. “So you liked what you saw?”

“That’s what you focus on in this Ruby-could-die mess? If I loved your pierced dick?”

My smirk explodes. “Oh, so you loved my dick.”

“Please,” she scoffs, “I have a strict two-at-a-time policy, so your solo jeweled jawbreaker doesn’t impress me.”

Fuck, I didn’t want to know that. I. Did. Not. Want. To. Know. That. Now I’m going to have to find out who they were and kill them.

Rare jealousy torches through me, and damn, it burns the happy smirk off my face like napalm.

Suddenly, I can’t even imagine our ritual with Ruby. I’d kill one of my brothers for initiating her.

Never did I feel this way for Katya. When we initiated her, she wanted it, and I didn’t mind. She insisted that all but me wear condoms, and she seemed eager, no, ravenous for my brothers. Particularly Sire. He’s dirty with his breeding kink, and Katya got off on it.

All the while, the only one I worried about was Nash. If he felt bonded, too. Not to her, but to me. That was a year after my night with Alena, and I wasn’t jealous about my wife being initiated by my brothers, including Nash.

I was worried I’d lose Nash, my best friend, if he ever found out I had lain with his daughter .

But how can Ruby be my queen if I don’t share her? It’s one time, one night, one sacred initiation, and I believe in it. It’s worked so far, and yet…

I will burn the world down if someone touches Ruby.

Past, present, and future; she’s mine.

I feel her studying my profile, reading my raging silence. Does she care that I’m jealous? Does she know that hurt my heart, and it fucking surprises me?

“But I didn’t love them,” she softly explains. “Sort of like you and Wren. It wasn’t love. It was sex, and honestly, it’s been a minute. I’ve been solo for months.” Huh, sounds like she cares. “Not like it’s your business.”

Sounds like she keeps her pride, too.

It’s what I admire about her the most.

I don’t reply. I let my rage evaporate as I park in front of her apartment and wait in my car while she gets her things. When she appears, tugging one suitcase behind her, I get out to help her.

“Where’s the rest?” I’m shocked. Katya had a lot of baggage. Obviously.

“This is all I own.”

“And your sister?”

“She’s asleep. I’ll have to come up with some story to tell her.”

“Tell her you fell in love with your hot boss.” I risk a tease. “I’m a very convincing story.”

She scoffs, “My sister knows I’m allergic to love.”

I arch a brow at that, setting her suitcase in my trunk, thankful she doesn’t own much because it wouldn’t fit.

On the drive back over the bridge, Ruby’s silent again, so I play Tchaikovsky. When I pull into the reserved parking space by my row house, I inform her, “Your car won’t fit with mine, so you’ll have to walk and drive with me. ”

“I’m not your prisoner,” she fumes. “I’ll park on the street.”

“It’ll get towed,” I snarl back. “It’s a street of Land Rovers and luxury. Your car doesn’t belong here.”

She looks away. She looks … hurt?

“What did I say?”

“Everything.”

Her eyes blink like she’s fighting tears.

Fuck. FUUCCKK!

I finally have Ruby trapped. I finally have a chance to make her mine, and it sure as hell won’t happen if she keeps hating me.

The game is over. This is real.

“Ruby, I’m sor?—”

“Next dictate from the dickhead, please,” she interrupts, opening her car door. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

I get out and grab her bag before reminding her of my gate code and programming her thumbprint into the pad that controls my security. It automatically unlocks my front door.

“Meow!” Sparky comes prancing our way. She traps us by the front door, weaving between our legs.

“I got her a box.” I point to it in the kitchen. “She’s made her nest there.”

“No, she sleeps in my room or yours.” Ruby picks her up. “We have to be here when she needs us.”

Closing her eyes, she nuzzles Sparky, but her soft body nuzzles mine. We’re standing closer than ever, and I can feel Ruby’s warmth. Inhale her lilac perfume. Admire the sexy constellation of tiny, faded freckles on her nose. Witness how breathtaking she is when she’s loving and…

What just happened to my chest?

A heart attack?

No. No, it’s fucking butterflies.

I love this sight. I love feeling like this damn cat is suddenly our baby, and I might have a chance at domesticating this woman.

“Then come to the vet with me tomorrow,” I gently insist, trying not to sound like an asshole. “We need to know what to do.”

She nods, cradling Sparky, when my phone rings.

I take it out of my pocket and see TWO on the screen. It’s Nash, and I answer, depositing Ruby’s suitcase in her bedroom upstairs before I disappear into mine with fury spreading through my bones at the news…

Nash is being followed. He has Vale Monroe in the van with him, and he’s trying to lose the tail. He knows what to do.

We’ve trained for this. Defensive driving schools. Black belts. Close-quarter battle training. Small unit tactics. Sharpshooter qualifications. That and six of us have violence in our DNA. While Nash? Sometimes, I think he has more. He has Alena, a daughter he fights for, too.

I’m pretty certain it’s Claude Olan Turner the Fourth—the head of a sex trafficking ring we’ve been hunting for months—who’s following Nash.

Turner found Nash snooping in his online accounts and tracked him down.

But Nash can take the heat. He’ll protect us.

He won’t lead Turner to us, and he’ll protect Vale, too.

Loch will protect Alena. The other kings and queens are safe; my mom’s club is a fortress, and now I need to protect Ruby even more.

Yeah, I know.

That’ll be as easy as putting a leash on a lioness.

While Ruby unpacks in her room and talks to Sparky, I call the others. For them, it’s life as usual. Stay hidden. Stay alert.

For me? Time to change the plan. Again.

I knock on Ruby’s bedroom door.

“What?”

I grin at her brashness. “Tomorrow,” I push her door open, “you’ll co?—”

I choke on my orders at the sight…

Ruby’s bent over her suitcase on the floor, wearing tiny jean shorts, a black cropped tank, and flip flops with her fiery mane tumbling in wild waves. Her peachy skin has no scars or tattoos, only light, sexy freckles. Her body has every goddamn curve I crave.

It’s suddenly the real her, exposed and free, solidifying my maddening obsession.

Good God, that woman will be my queen.

“I’ll what?” She rises, holding a hairdryer and turning around.

“You… uh…”

Fuck, she’s not wearing a bra, either, and my air conditioner works. My dick threatens to harden like her pearled nipples. It really wants out of its cage.

“I, uh… what?” Her sapphire eyes sparkle, delighted that the sight of her stupefies me.

It’s obvious.