Page 37 of Bruised MC Bear

“Whatever.”

“If it makes you feel better, I was taking care of arrangements for the next stop on our road trip.”

“Oh. Sounds fancy,” she mocked him.

“Ready to roll?”

“Just drive, jackass.”

Axe shrugged one shoulder and muscled the truck out onto the main road. “I’m the jackass who just saved your bacon, doll. The dickhead you actually like.” He briefly glanced over in her direction, turning the rock music station way up. She was fighting the urge to smile over the pound of base in the speakers, and then her hand casually rested on his upper thigh as though she didn’t even notice she had touched him.

They both ignored the tone of his voice. Or maybe she hadn’t heard it. That low rumbling in his chest was his bear, rattling against his human cage. His beast urged him to touch her, producing a powerful impulse that raised all the small hairs on the back of his neck. Axe hardened his jaw and fought the bone-deep craving. It caused his stomach to churn with a primal longing to claim her right this second and own her for life. He had never felt that for anyone else and to him, it was clear as day what it meant, mainly because he had seen Cole, then Silas, and more recently, Tate all fall hard for their life mates. After that, they could hardly let fifteen minutes go by without making it clear these ladies were their respective property.

Right now, with her hand on his leg as though he was an extension of her own body, his beast snuffed, grunted, and pawed at his insides, ready to claim her as his.

“You okay?” she asked, squeezing his thigh for emphasis.

All the muscles in his leg jolted and bunched tight, and his cock twitched to life behind his fly.

“Never better,” he grumbled, fighting his beast for control.

Her fingers tensed almost imperceptibly on his thigh, and without thinking he snatched her fingers up and brought her palm up to his mouth, brushing her soft, sweet skin with his lips.

“We’re going to my sister’s,” he said with finality.

“Ohhh, nice. A blood relative,” Angel remarked, unconsciously pulling her hand away, but slowly, as if she was giving him a chance to take it again. This time, he beat back his beast and didn’t take her up on the offer. “I can get all the good gossip.”

“I have no doubt you’ll win her over, sweetheart, but as for the impression she’ll make on you, well, I just can’t wait for the fireworks.”

* * *

Axe absolutely neededto keep his sister’s location private, no matter what.

He had pulled a couple of wrong turns that were quick enough to fix without Angel noticing. He still didn’t like the idea of telling her who they were visiting, and although the information settled her down. He had no reason to trust that her silence meant she was satisfied. About two hundred yards from his sister’s place, his instincts proved dead on.

Angel turned to face him, but said nothing.

“What?” he barked impatiently, pulling over to put the truck in park right there in the middle of the suburbs.

“With what happened last night, you should talk to someone.”

“I’ve been in worse situations.”

She shook her head. “I’m not talking about the bad guys. I picked up bits and pieces. Those nightmares didn’t sound too cozy, you know?”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m serious, Axe. No one should have to go through that alone.”

The sick joke was that he had not been alone. Though he might as well have been, with the way he was forced to shield his sister after Social Services took them away from Vincent. Just because Vincent was not family, he and Nancy ended up in foster care. The couple was actually good to them, but that was the problem. They were so nice, and Nancy began to think that subverting her shifter side and keeping it a secret would be easier than letting them down or running away. The age of eighteen was crucial to them as natural born shifters. It was when their animals would first emerge. Axe preferred to run when his time came. Nancy refused to leave, and when she hit eighteen, she carried on like she was one hundred percent human.

The image of their last foster parents made him shudder, and his awareness returned.

“That’s the house,” he said, pointing to the end of the street.

“Cool. What are we waiting for?”

Cracking his neck, he drove off again, thankful she wasn’t going to push the issue. He didn’t owe her an explanation, except for getting her out of this situation in one piece. “For the sake of peace in my sister’s place and respect for her young children, can we leave the attitude at the door?”

“Fine. For the children,” she agreed.

“Thanks.” He stopped on the road beside identical sprawling ranch-style houses with perfect white picket fences.

She craned her neck left and right to take in the street. “Your sister lives around here?”

“Yes.”

“You must be excited to see her.”

That was quite the assumption. Too bad he didn’t feel like correcting her.