Page 53 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
RUBY
“What do you think our kings are talking about?”
Delphine peers through the second-story window of Nash and Vale’s bedroom. And I swear, her French accent could make grocery shopping sound clandestine.
“Us.” Vale holds up the fourth dress, considering my wardrobe for my next date with Colton. “Their minds are like drunk babies. They wander off, distracted by business, but they always stagger back to us.”
“When they’re all gathered like that?” Wren stands beside Delphine, admiring the view of a circle of seven inked men gathered around an unlit fire pit. “Why does it make me want to go down there and do naughty things?”
Delphine laughs. “Because your husband has trained you well.”
“Sire didn’t train me,” Wren scoffs, but it comes out as a giggle. “I’m the bad influence. Not him. I’m the one who tempts him into breaking the rules.”
“Breaking or breeding?” Vale chuckles. “You know, your guest bedroom has Swiss cheese for walls. We’ve heard Sire’s kink. How he’s madly in love with breeding his horny little bunny .”
“Oh, okay, Daddy,” Wren teases Vale back. “We’ve heard how Nash, yes, daddy , makes you his dirty little girl, too.”
We’re all laughing as Delphine turns to me. “Speaking of shared kinks and kings. Ma chérie, what are you waiting for? You’re one of us and deserve your initiation, too.”
“I want to finish this mission first,” I answer, taking the emerald dress from Vale, silently agreeing that this is the one to wear on my next date with Colton.
It’s elegant. It’ll look great in paparazzi shots. It’s all strategy for me. No romance. I’ve locked that part of me away.
Yes, I love Axel. Yes, I need him to hold me, to wait for me. But I don’t know what it will take to get back to trusting him.
And I know he feels it. I know he loves me. He’s not pushing me.
So, in the meantime, I thrive on this mission.
Once Stacey James, the owner of Delta’s, and Vale, one of our queens, came to me with a request to help Blair Monroe, Stacey’s employee and Vale’s twin?
You had me at a woman needs help.
Is it serendipity or strategy that Vale and I devised this plan? A way to help our king, Nick, and our queen, Zar, while also helping Vale’s twin and her partners?
Hell yes, it’s both when women are involved.
And it’s the perfect distraction for me until…
Until something shifts inside me and I can fully trust Axel again.
“I can’t believe that was you the whole time at Vale’s initiation.” Wren fills the silence, praising me, “I’m impressed. I don’t think I could’ve knelt for hours. ”
“Darlin’, you underestimate the power of a good Dom.” Zar sits on the sofa in Vale’s bedroom, swirling his whiskey. “Their reward is worth the pain.”
“It wasn’t painful,” I confess. “And yes, Axel made my reward very satisfying.”
“I bet.” Wren grins like my co-conspirator.
“I have never seen Axel do that; be so loving,” Delphine shares, while gazing down at him from the window above. “He was not that way with Katya.”
“You knew her?” Suddenly, I’m riveted. I didn’t know this.
“For a month or so.” She shrugs. “But then she left him and au revoir , bitch. That is the right word. Yes? Bitch ?”
“Yes. Bitch.” Zar laughs. “It’s not my habit to use the word but from what Nick’s told me about Katya, it fits like a bitchy glove.”
“I never met her,” Wren adds. “But Sire told me he never trusted her. That she was cold to Axel. It’s like Sire hates Katya and now, she’s coming between you and Axel and…” Wren sighs, “It sucks he didn’t tell you about her at first. I get it. I’d be hurt, too, but I hope you can forgive him soon.”
Forgive him?
I did that months ago about her.
Now, like Sire, I hate Katya, too.
No one but me, Axel, The Queen, Roman, and one unknown traitor knows about Katya’s plan with Axel’s father, to get pregnant by Axel, then leave and take his son with her.
The whole heartbreaking betrayal is still a secret and I will kill that bitch if I ever meet her.
It’s Alena I can’t forget, and it’s not about forgiveness with her.
She did nothing wrong. She’s innocent and hurting over Loch. The other queens talk about her. They worry about her, particularly Vale, her best friend, but I won’t tell them what I know about Alena and Axel .
True respect is respecting someone’s privacy and letting them tell their truth. I won’t rob another woman of her story.
Because mine is…
A deep insecurity, hidden inside the girl who sat alone at the lunch table. The one with a disability. The one who was bullied and mocked.
She can’t stop imagining Axel with Alena. She’s flawed and vulnerable and worried she’s not good enough. She was shamed and used and treated like trash, though…
I believe Axel.
He doesn’t want Alena, and she doesn’t want him. I’m starting to feel that in this group.
How the kings love their first queens above all, but they’ll never forsake another queen.
I see it between Nash, Vale, and Jace. I see it between Nick, Zar, and Sire. I even see it between Sire, Wren, and Nash. There’s a silent regard. An unspoken respect. A duty and protection that’s understood.
I know I should be a boss-bitch and move on. That’s what I tell Axel, and I’ve moved on with everything else.
Because half of me isn’t that bullied girl anymore. I’m a strong woman. Only I can heal my pain.
I just don’t know how.
“Is it true that you spied on my initiation?” Wren plops down on the bed beside the suitcase Vale and I are packing for my next trip to Atlanta. That’s where the paparazzi stalk Beau, Blair, and Colton, and that’s where I come in to help. “Sire said Axel told him about it. How you spied on us.”
“Guilty.” I wink at her. “That was me, hiding in the boardroom closet. Sorry. I didn’t know what I was about to see. I just wanted more intel on Axel.”
“I think it’s hilarious,” Wren giggles.
“And dayum, that took lady balls.” Zar raises his glass to me. “I’m proud. ”
“I would give my lady-balls to have seen Axel’s face!” Delphine laughs, too. “He was pissing. Yes?”
“Pissed.” I laugh with her. “And yes, he was so mad that he said he owned me and made me live with him.”
“Aw, lucky you,” Wren sighs. “I had to beg Sire on my knees to take me.”
“Poor man,” Zar deadpans. “Pastor Sire Rutledge, lured into sharing his bed with his hottest young parishioner. I’m sure the struggle was real.”
“It was real kinky.” Wren blows him a cute kiss before aiming her big brown eyes at me. “So, whenever you’re ready, do you know who your second king will be?”
The light catches the diamond Monroe piercing above Wren’s lip. All the queens have one, except Zar. He has a diamond barbell through his nipple. They’re gifts from The Queen, marking them as queens, and I’m next.
“I guess.” I glance nervously at Delphine. I’ve avoided this topic. “I don’t want to disrespect or?—”
“He will be honored.” Delphine toasts her wine glass toward the circle of kings seated outside. “My husband is a beast, but a very loving man. They all are, and Grant likes you. He likes how you help Nick and the shit you give Axel. He says you are Axel’s true match.”
“And you won’t be mad?” I worry. “If Grant … initiates me?”
“I loved my initiation!” Wren blurts.
“Oh, we know, darlin’,” Zar drawls. “You cute, greedy little bitch.”
He makes Wren smile proudly because there’s no judgment in the room. Just fun. Just love.
“I will not be mad or jealous. I share Grant.” Delphine turns toward us.
“I am free because for too long, I had no control, no choice. I was bought and sold, so please, not to offend, but I am not a puritanical American. I do not own anyone, and no one owns me. I love freely, and my husband loves me, Axel loves you, and we love our bonds. All the kings and queens.”
“Yeah, but I worry about some of them.” Vale tucks a pair of heels into my suitcase. “The last time I saw something like this, I flushed it.”
“What?” Wren laughs.
“This shit,” Vale says. “This shit between Loch and Alena. She’s devastated.
She was so in love with him. They were like the hottest romance.
You should hear her stories, but now this shit .
They were lying to her. And yeah, I love Nash.
I always have. So he can handle it when I speak Cuntanese to him about it. ”
Delphine scrunches her nose. “Do you mean Cantonese?”
“No, darlin’.” Zar laughs. “She means Cuntanese. It’s what a queen speaks when we’re raging and right.”
“Ah, a cunt.” Delphine nods. “Yes. I speak Cunt to Grant when I am mad.”
“Do you think Alena will love again?” I pack my bra and panties, secretly trying to get some intel and feeling guilty about it.
“If you count Smokey the Bear, yeah,” Vale answers. “Other than that, the only bear Alena loves is Loch. It’s him or no one. He just needs to grovel enough to get her back.”
Grovel?
Is that what I want Axel to do?
All the nights we spend together in bed with our kittens and…
No. I know he’s sorry.
I need something else.
“And then there’s Jace,” Vale sighs, joining Delphine at the window. “He’s in love with some woman he calls Mary. It’s not her name, but that’s what he calls her because she’s married and he’s in love with her. ”
“Married?” Wren’s shocked. “I mean, some of us like to share, but Jace?”
“He’s not sharing her.” Vale gazes down at the kings. “He’s waiting for her to leave her shithead husband or something.”
“Damn,” Zar huffs. “And I thought my situation was complicated.”
“It is,” I jump in, zipping my suitcase closed.
“Nick wants to come out. You two should be free to love. No more bribes or closet. And we’ve secured every player in the group except Colton and Beau.
They’re not sure if they’re ready to do this, and honestly?
Nick’s movement won’t be as powerful if we don’t have them. I have to make this work.”
“Blair’s so ready,” Vale says. “She’s tired of having to hide their love.”
“Firecracker,” Zar rises, “you’re a true queen.” His hug is warm. “Thank you for doing this for us.”
“A chance to fuck with a fucker? It’s my favorite thing.” I squeeze him back. “So, I’m off to another Atlanta game as Colton’s girlfriend, and hopefully I’ll convince them to come to our meeting.”
“Our meeting?” Zar scoffs. “Darlin’, we won’t merely meet at my beach house. We’ll have a meeting of the minds, then we’ll have a meeting of everything else.”
Oh, I know.
The first floor of Zar and Nick’s palatial beach home is for casual entertaining. It’s the perfect place to meet and share our plan.
But after their meeting downstairs?
Upstairs, red ties will hang from doorknobs to bedrooms where privacy is wanted, while black ties will hang from doorknobs where partners are wanted. Where anyone can watch or join.
But me?
Zar and Nick have dedicated a bedroom to me. A red tie hangs from my doorknob while I sit alone on my bed and gaze at the sparkling night ocean, watching it churn, unsettled and seeking.
Like my heart.
Seeking a way back to Axel.