Page 5 of Wild Card (Foster Bro Code #2)

Axel

I woke naked and overheated from the bodies pressed against me. None of them were Dalton Harvey, which was a damn shame. After he pinned me to his car—and kissed me like he was as horny as I was—I wanted him even more.

Knowing Dalton, I wouldn’t be getting him anytime soon. But eventually, he’d break. Men like him always did. Desires could only be bottled up for so long before they escaped. He was fighting a losing battle, and I’d gladly claim the spoils when the time came.

Maybe I’d hit the pool hall tonight and look for a temporary fix to get me by until then. Last night had been a bust in more ways than one.

I stretched, my cheap sheets scratchy beneath me.

As soon as I moved, a tongue licked my cheek, and hot doggy breath washed over my face.

“Good morning to you too.” I shoved Loki away. “What have I told you about kissing without asking?”

Taz pranced over my gut. I grunted and scratched behind his tiny ears. He yipped once, sharply.

“That’s right, Taz. Consent is important. Good boy.” I picked up the Chihuahua and let him give me a quick lick.

Loki whined. I dropped my hand to pat his tan head. “Just gotta ask.”

My border collie, Oreo, bounced around the foot of the bed, eager to go outside, and Sugar’s stubby tail thumped against the floor.

“Good morning, ladies,” I said. “How are we doing today?”

Sugar made a show of looking around the bed, then running through the RV—which took about ten seconds—then returning to me. She tilted her head in question.

“Aw, you’re such a good mama bear.” I rolled out of bed and grabbed a pair of jeans and a tee off the built-in shelf on the wall. “Banshee is still at the house.”

Sugar was the first pooch I’d taken in. She’d been with me for six years.

The rottweiler had really adopted me, rather than the other way around.

One day, she’d turned up in the junkyard while I was working.

She’d followed me around for hours, and when night fell, she’d found a spot to sleep under a totaled Honda Accord.

I didn’t have the heart to boot her, and when my foster dad asked me about her, I lied and said I’d gotten her to guard the place.

Technically, the junkyard was his, but I’d already taken to spending most of my time there, while he spent most of his passed out drunk. It was an arrangement that worked for both of us.

I checked my phone. It was already seven, which was late for the dogs.

“How many times did you kiss me before I woke up?” I asked Loki.

His ears perked up.

“Uh-huh. That innocent look doesn’t work on me.”

The dogs trotted behind me as I filled their dog bowls with kibble and grabbed a garden hose to refill a couple of large buckets for them to drink out of during the day.

Sugar and Oreo fell on the food, but Loki and Taz made a game of trying to catch the stream of water from the hose. They jumped around, snapping their jaws and looking like fools until I turned it off and dropped it on the ground.

They lost interest and returned to the food bowls. While they chowed down, I crossed to the far side of the junkyard to put out food for the feral cat colony that had taken up residence. I’d put up a fence to keep the dogs from bothering them in the deeper reaches of the junkyard.

Of course, sometimes the orange hellion I’d named Fireball would come out and rile everyone up for fun. That was his prerogative, I figured.

Cats came running from every direction as I poured out food. I only gave them dry food to supplement the field mice and birds they caught in the wild.

“Okay, I better go get Banshee. Who wants to come with me?”

It was a rhetorical question. The cats didn’t follow me around like the dogs did. A few of them would spend some time in the camper when it got colder out, but there were plenty of places to take shelter in the junkyard that didn’t include a pack of dogs.

They were mostly too wild to want a home with me, and I could respect that.

With the animals fed and watered, I headed over to the house.

Sugar and Taz followed me out of the gate. Loki and Oreo were engaged in a game of chase and pounce, so I left them to it.

When I entered the house, the scent of sausage and peppers made my mouth water. Sugar and Taz ran ahead, eager to beg for a second breakfast.

Snarling ensued. I quickened my step.

“Cut it out,” Holden scolded as Taz and Banshee snapped at each other.

I scooped up Taz before Banshee could decide to chomp on his annoying little head. “Okay, that’s enough.”

Banshee whined and jumped against my legs. I crouched down to pet her. “How’d she do?”

“She was mostly okay overnight,” Holden said. “She got a little antsy this morning. Kept looking out the windows for you.”

Gray turned from the stove, where he was making some sort of egg scramble that made my stomach growl. “She sure imprinted on you fast.”

“Yeah, she was terrified when I found her. I guess she just fell in love with her rescuer.” I winked at him. “Kind of the same reason Emory imprinted on you.”

“Funny,” he said dryly.

Once Banshee and Taz were touching noses without all the jealous snarling, I put the Chihuahua down and joined Gray by the stove. “Any chance I can talk you out of some food?”

“Sure. Grab a plate.”

Emory entered the kitchen looking freshly showered. “Bathroom’s free if Bailey wants a shower.”

Holden snorted. “He’ll probably be in bed for a while. He went out with Nova and some other friends last night. I heard him trip over something and cuss up a storm around two when he came in. Banshee barked her head off too.”

“Little punk,” I said fondly. “I hope he’s finally getting laid.”

Gray chuckled, but Holden just looked pained.

Of us all, he struggled the most with the idea of Bailey growing up.

At eighteen, he was well past the age I’d started having sex.

But Bailey was gay and had only come out to us last summer.

He could have hooked up on the DL before then, but I didn’t think he had.

He’d spent too much time pretending Nova was his girlfriend.

Emory poured a mug of coffee, doctored it with a splash of Irish cream, and then handed it to me.

“You’re the best,” I told him. “When you get tired of Gray, I’m all yours.”

Gray turned a glare my way. He really hated when I flirted with Emory. I really loved to get under his skin. It was a win-win.

“Watch it,” he growled.

“Aw.” Emory stepped in close to kiss his cheek. “You’re so cute when you’re jealous. But what am I gonna do, move into his RV?”

“So if he had a bigger place, you’d happily leave me?”

Emory laughed, eyes teasing. “Well, I do love his…dogs.”

“There’s no shortage of those,” I said with a grin. “You can join me this winter. We’ll sleep in a puppy pile while it snows outside.”

“That sounds strangely wholesome,” Emory said.

Gray dished up scrambled eggs with sliced peppers, onions, and mushrooms and handed me the plate. “Nothing about Axel is wholesome.”

“I don’t know,” Emory said, watching as I gave my first bites of breakfast to the dogs. “I think he’s tamer than you all think.”

“Take that back,” I joked, even as my heart gave a startled thump. I wasn’t used to someone trying to see the best in me.

Emory ruffled my hair like I was a dang kid as he passed to take a seat on the other side of the table. “Nope. You’re as sweet as your dogs, even if you snarl a bit.”

I ignored him and started shoveling eggs into my mouth. Wasn’t like I could convince him he was wrong. Emory was so nice it’d be pointless to try.

“Gray, your taillight is busted on the bike,” I said. “Got pulled over last night. Almost got a ticket.”

Or a dicking. But didn’t mention that part.

“I could have told you that if you’d asked before you borrowed it,” Gray said. “I’ll get it fixed this week.”

“What have you got going today?” Holden asked me.

“Gonna borrow the shower here shortly. Maybe bring over some laundry to wash.”

“Did you pull that fender off the 2001 Chevy Impala yet? We need to finish that repair tomorrow.”

“Right. Damn. I’ll do it today.”

“I can send Bailey over to remind you la?—”

“I said I’d do it,” I snapped. “Just let me finish breakfast first. Jesus.”

Taz picked up on my tension and growled. Gray took a big step back.

Holden and I snickered, the tension breaking. The first time Gray met Taz, my tiny terror had gone for his dick as he crouched on the ground, and he’d been skittish around him ever since.

“Oh, fuck you,” Gray said as our snickers gave way to full laughs.

“He’s just so small,” I choked out.

“You could squash him with one stomp,” Holden added.

I narrowed my eyes. “Not cool.”

“I’m not saying he should ?—”

Emory cut in as he lowered his hand to feed Taz a bite of sausage. “He’s a sweetie pie.”

Banshee and Sugar pushed in, eyes big, and Emory gave each of them a bite as well. Then a second round for them all when the begging continued.

I pushed back from the table. “Your boyfriend is a pushover.”

“Uh-huh, and you didn’t give them your first bite or anything,” Emory said.

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re getting as bratty as my brothers, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “If I’m going to live here, I guess I need to start acting like one of you.”

Holden choked on his bite of eggs. “Wh—What?”

Gray grinned as he took my spot at the table. “Yep. Asked the golden boy to move in.”

“That’s…” Holden picked up his coffee and took a long swallow.

This should be good. I turned, leaning back against the sink, and waited for the fireworks.

“Good,” Holden said.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Not like it’s a surprise,” Gray said. “I floated the idea weeks ago.”

“Ah.”

Emory turned in his chair, eyes fixed on me. “Is that okay, Axel? All of you should get a say in it.”

I shrugged. “I don’t live here.”

“But you might want to come back, and if you do, Gray and I will move out.” He glanced at Gray. “Right, babe?”

“Yeah. We’re just saving some money while Emory does his apprentice thing. This isn’t forever. We might want to get an apartment.”

“Bailey’s going off to college in the fall,” Holden said. “We’ll have more room then too.”

Bailey emerged from the hallway, a scowl on his face. “Dying to get rid of me, huh?”

Holden winced. “No, kid. Just talking about space since Emory is moving in with us.”

Bailey snorted. “Amazed they made it this long.”

I chuckled. The kid wasn’t wrong. Emory and Gray had been inseparable for the last two months. “Congrats, I guess.”

“Are you sure it’s okay?” Emory asked, forehead creased. “I don’t want to intrude or anything.”

“It’s fine, cutie. You’re here all the time, anyway. Why would it matter to me when I’m not?”

Gray and Holden exchanged a look. Holden cleared his throat. “I should have mentioned it sooner. Gray asked me to run it by everyone. I just wasn’t expecting him to ask so soon.”

“My bad,” Gray said. “I just got a little too excited.”

I snorted. “Is that a common problem, Emory? I feel sorry for you.”

“Fuck off,” Gray said, as Emory laughed and said, “Gray is just the right amount of excited for me.”

“Which we have to hear all the damn time,” Bailey mumbled.

“What are you bitching about?” Holden said. “You got to miss the fireworks last night.”

I grinned as I set my plate in the sink and headed for the hall.

Learning Emory was moving into my house, when I hadn’t been comfortable living there for years, had caused an odd twinge in my gut.

It made me feel displaced, which was silly, because I chose to leave. But childhood baggage could be a bitch.

Judging by how much Holden and Bailey complained about listening to Gray and Emory fuck, I was lucky to be out at the junkyard.

I got to sleep in peace, then eat and shower at the house. Best of both worlds, really.

So why did I feel like I was missing out on something?