Page 26 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RUBY

For a week, Axel holds me in bed. We don’t do anything but fuss, talk, cuddle, and laugh. And for a week, I’m on my period.

But for the rest of my life…

I’ll never forget what we did in Harlow Sutton’s office.

It felt like Axel erased all boundaries between us in one act, the most intimate act.

Then, he made the taboo tender by protectively putting his hand on my back while I proudly wore my panties soaked with his cum out of Harlow’s office.

She blushed as we left but winked at me, too, and yeah, I like her. It doused my jealousy over her. I believe Axel, they’re strictly friends.

So, why can’t I shake this simmering jealousy over something with him?

It’s odd because I’m not the jealous type. I’ve never given myself a reason to be jealous over a man or two, and I never stick around long enough for a man to be possessive over me.

But Axel brings the Bratva to his possessive party.

I know a lot of it is legitimate .

He’s trying to keep me safe, and it is partially my fault that I’m in this hot mafia mess, that he’s turned his charming historic home into our temporary fortress until his office is safe again.

When he says he’s going to Delta’s, the sex store, for another meeting and I have to stay here, I trust him. I know some of his brothers work there, hiding behind their roles. I know they’re up to mission mischief.

But this morning, when I sit at Axel’s kitchen table, and overhear him talking with Helen about moving his boardroom furniture.

That’s it.

I’m dying to know once he ends their call.

“What’s going on? Are you moving our office?”

He refills his coffee, then holds the carafe over my mug, filling mine, too. “Don’t ask, Wildfire. The less you know, the better.”

“Um, ignorance is bullshit, not bliss in Bratvaland.”

He grins. “I’m not moving offices. Everyone can work remotely for a while.”

Pause for my frustration. “… butttt ?”

“But what?”

“But tell me the rest. I’m your queen, right? So crown me with some intel.”

He crouches to pet Sparky, who rarely moves. She must be due any minute. It’s another reason I’m content to hide here, ready when she needs us.

And it’s too sexy how he pets the cat but smirks up at me. Tick. Tock. So, I arch an eyebrow and lethally glare at him, making him chuckle.

“I’m not moving my boardroom.” He stands. “I moved the thrones, the chairs in it. I found someplace safer to meet because I suspect we’ll be doing another initiation soon.”

“Another initiation?” My logic works too fast. “In Delta’s, right? I gotta say, it’s brilliant—meeting in an adult shop. Now, people will assume you hide a sex addiction, not a rogue mafia operation.”

“I prefer ex-mafia because there’s nothing rogue about us. We have rules and follow orders. We have missions, and complete them.”

“Whose orders?”

“The Queen’s or mine, but all contribute. We all have skills.”

“Which are?”

“Too much intel,” he warns, refreshing Sparky’s water bowl.

“I’ll give you the silent treatment until you tell me.”

He opens the fridge, laughing. “Don’t threaten me with peace and quiet.”

Silently, I seethe while he makes an omelet, smirking like a sinister chef, knowing that I’m bursting to know everything about him.

Until…

“Okay, fine!” I blurt. “I know Sire’s a pastor. He’s your divine cover story. You’re the smug lawyer. Nick’s the cute diversion, the athlete. Nash runs the numbers. Grant does your cyber shit, plus he’s all beefy and cute.” Axel cuts me a look. “But the other two? What do they do?”

He whips eggs with cheese and a silent smile.

“Tell me, or I’ll start training for a marathon, and your ass will have to chase me.” His smile drops. “That’s what I thought. It’s all fun and games being the king until you have to run behind me for twenty-six point two miles with bleeding raw nipples.”

“Fuck me,” he huffs, pouring the egg mixture into a skillet.

“Yeah, we’re not doing that either until you tell me.”

“We’re not doing that until you trust me. ”

His back is turned, but I can hear the sincerity in his vow.

While part of me is dying for Axel. Like I want to pounce on him like a hellcat in heat and make him breed me to repopulate the world.

My heart needs to wait because this is too powerful between us.

The taboo teases he gives me along the way are enough to satisfy me temporarily. I assume they satisfy him, too, because it’s like we both know if we cross over, there’s no going back.

He wants me in his world, but it’s lethal. And I feel him in my heart, but that’s love.

Lethal love.

That’s what we’d be together.

“Jace is my other brother,” he finally answers, turning around. “He’s the head of security at Delta’s and practically Grant’s twin. They look alike and are only ten months apart.” He mutters, “My poor mom.”

I swallow the sudden lump in my throat. I respect this most about Axel. All he’s known is witnessing his mother’s suffering, and now, he can see it in other women, and it enrages him.

He’ll kill for a woman.

And I know he’d die for me.

“Jace is the big teddy bear who bashes skulls.” He keeps going. “That’s his skill. He’s also an expert in surveillance and avoiding it. And then there’s Loch, my baby brother. He wanted to join the Marines, but I convinced him to be a forest ranger instead.”

“Loch?” My pulse doubles. “The one marrying Alena Allen?”

“Yes.”

He turns around and flips the omelet.

But here it is again.

That feeling .

The one that doesn’t have a name but wants answers.

“Why was Alena at your office a couple of weeks ago? She seemed upset.”

Is it my imagination, or did Axel’s broad shoulders just stiffen under his starched white shirt? Am I just new to this emotion, jealousy? Or does it normally make your stomach suddenly twist?

I don’t know why I keep getting this feeling about Alena Allen, but I do.

He keeps his back to me, taking two plates from the cabinet. Halving the omelet, he quietly prepares our breakfast, garnishing our plates with berries.

Axel has a habit of cooking for me now, especially since I told him it’s not really safe for people with epilepsy to do it, and I like his care. He seems to thrive doing it, but this feels unsettling, and I won’t break his weighted silence.

Setting our plates down, he sits across from me.

Sparky waddles over and rubs my legs like she can sense that his silence is killing me. I reach down and pet her. It soothes me while Axel’s fighting something tearing at his heart; it’s obvious.

It’s scaring me.

I stop petting Sparky, and it starts biting at the back of my eyes, making them prick with tears. Don’t ask me why; I just need to know. “Axel, what is it? What is it between you and Alena?”

He picks up his fork but doesn’t take a bite.

“She’s my goddaughter,” he answers, and I exhale. “And there’s more to tell you, but it’s trust, Ruby. It’s a lot of trust you can’t break, promise me.”

“Okay,” I murmur.

“Alena doesn’t know about our family, our father.

Nothing. Her father, Nash, joined us when he was eighteen.

He became part of our family, and so did Alena when she was barely two.

Then, her mother died years later, and my mom became like a grandmother to her.

But we don’t tell Alena who we are or what we do. It’s for her safety.”

“I understand.” I do. It makes me feel better.

“She thinks I’m Michael Cummings, the lawyer, and her dad’s best friend, so he made me her godfather. But to my family, she became our princess. Now, she’s older. She’s a queen and at risk, just as you are, should someone go after you, so we assigned Loch to her.”

“Assigned?”

“He was supposed to be her secret bodyguard. She’s a forest ranger, so he became one. To act like her colleague. To keep an eye on her … but then he fell in love with her. He’s going to be her king.”

“Aw.” A thousand pounds lift off my shoulders. “That’s so sweet.”

“It’s a fucking mess,” he grumbles. “Because Alena doesn’t know Loch is one of us. She doesn’t know he’s my little brother, and their marriage was arranged.”

“Arranged?” Cue pulse rising again. “Um, I’m Team Alena on this one because I’d go on a rampage if I found out my marriage had been arranged.”

“If it were you?” He quips, “We’d throw every gun in the ocean.”

“Can you blame a woman?” I’m feeling the rage for Alena. “How dare you arrange a marriage for her? She deserves love.”

“Loch does love her,” he insists. “Trust me. I beat the shit out of him for defying our orders, and Nash had to pull us apart because Loch was willing to die for her. So, we said he had to marry her, but he said it was too late. He already had a ring for her.”

Puzzle pieces move quickly in my mind, putting the picture together. “So Nash is hiding this from Alena? That Loch’s mission became love? And you’re hiding it from her, too? That he’s your little brother?”

“Yes. And this is me, trusting you not to break her heart. Please don’t ever tell her.”

“Oh,” I pick up my fork, “I don’t need to say a word. Karma keeps no secrets. Alena will find out one day, and I’ll hand her the bullets.”

Axel smirks, stabbing his omelet. “Spoken like a queen.”

“What does that mean?”

“Our queens have a way of bonding, then bending our will until we break.”

“Um.” I chew my yummy breakfast. “Pussy has a way of doing that.”

He grins, chewing his. “Don’t forget Zar.”

“Point taken.” I aim my fork at him. “A big dick can be giantly persuasive.”

His brows lower. “You’ve seen Zar’s dick?”

“And Nick’s.” He glowers, and I chuckle. “Not biblically. Just their flaccid flap-doodles, jumping in the pool.”

Axel spews his eggs, laughing.

It’s cute, but…

“Hang on. If Zar’s been initiated, that means you made him a queen, too, and…” Oh, the erotic image in my mind. “My god,” I sigh. “It wasn’t, was it? A gay gangbang?”

“Jesus, woman,” he says flatly, “quit calling it that. It’s not about sex. It’s the vow. The bond. It’s a king and a second king protecting their queen. And?—”

“Wait. What? A second king?”