Page 58 of Ensnared

Gideon hasn’t lowered his gun yet.

“Put that down,” I hiss. “It won’t do anything anyway.”

“These are armor-piercing rounds,” he says. “They’ll shoot through?—”

“Put it down, you idiot.”

“He’s your friend?” Axel asks. Somehow, while I was focused on Gideon, he shifted. “Or he’s your boyfriend?”

I didn’t realize he knew there was a distinction. “He’s my friend,” I say.

At the same time Gideon says, “I’m her boyfriend.”

Axel frowns.

“He’s been my friend since I was a child,” I say. “We had just talked about maybe dating when. . .” I gesture around. “All this.”

“I’m here to save her,” Gideon says.

“She doesn’t need saving,” Axel says. “And you can’t have her. She belongs to me.” He arches one eyebrow. “If you want to stay with us as her friend, you’re welcome.” His lip curls. “You can’t stay as her boyfriend.”

“That’s not what you said,” I argue. “You promised me five humans.”

His head snaps toward me. “I promised you five family members. I’m willing to extend that courtesy to this man, this man who came in with a weapon and threatened to try and kill me, but only if he’s not romantically involved with you.”

“You can’t possibly think she might like you.” Gideon’s disgust is clear and apparent.

Axel steps closer, a muscle in his jaw working. His voice comes out as a snarl as he towers over Gideon, which is not an easy thing to do. “She belongs to me, and when humans think they love someone, they act even dumber than usual. She’s already made some questionable decisions. I’d rather not invite someone under my wing unless I’m sure they won’t make that propensity worse.”

“You don’t have wings.” For someone who couldn’t have known that was a sore spot, Gideon sure did manage to needle it.

“What will it be, little man,” Axel asks. “Will you stay or will you die?”

The lyrics to that stupid song start to run through my head, which is absurd. The last thing I should be doing right now is humming a Clash song from the 80s, but with ‘die’ in place of ‘go,’ but this is how my brain works, apparently.

“I’ll stay.” Gideon drops his gun and lifts his hands. “Message received. I won’t do anything stupid, I swear.”

“See that he doesn’t,” Axel says, ignoring him. “I’d hate for him to endanger Sammy, Coral, and Jade.”

I expect Axel to go back to whatever I yanked him away from now, but he doesn’t. He walks with me, slowly, staying by my side the entire way back to the house. Then he stands next to me, awkwardly, while I show Gideon to a room.

And then he still doesn’t leave.

“Are you alright?” I finally ask, once Gideon’s showering.

“Are you?” Axel’s staring at me. “That man likely came here to find you.”

I think about the letter I left at my house and cringe. “You might be right.”

“He wants to take you away from here.”

“I won’t go,” I say without thinking. But I realize Gideon won’t be easy to dissuade.

“You can’t go,” Axel says. “I haven’t done it, but I can force you to do things, just as you force those humans.”

I had all but forgotten that, in the weeks I’ve been bonded to him. “Why haven’t you forced me before?” I’ve certainly given him plenty of cause. He could order me to stay in the house or within a hundred yards of it, for instance.

“I never wanted to,” he says. “I think rules and orders limit your ability to stay safe, to flex with situations as they arrive. But after today, I’m afraid I might not have a choice.”