Chapter Five

 

Whisper looked at her beat-up, old wristwatch to double check the time. Six-fifteen a.m. Fifteen minutes past when Axel had agreed to meet her at the bar to set off on their hunt for fairytassel sage. Axel had never been late for anything as long as she could remember, and she couldn’t help but play out worst case scenarios in her mind. Had some soldiers come last night and raided his house? She hadn’t heard any raids last night, but that didn’t mean that none had happened. Sometimes the soldiers only roughed up one or two houses and then moved on. If they’d visited Axel’s house, she wouldn’t have heard it. He lived on the opposite side of their small town from her.

“Shit.” Fear gripped her heart, and she left the bar at a run, heading toward his house. Please be okay, please be okay!

When she reached his house, she breathed a little easier. There was no sign of damage to the front door, and the houses around Axel’s all looked undamaged as well. Usually, when the soldiers broke into a house they did quite a bit of physical damage, just for the fun of it.

Taking deep calming breaths, Whisper raised her fist and knocked on Axel’s front door. She waited for several long moments, but when no answer came she knocked again.

“Axel?” she called. Then again, a little louder. “Axel?” She didn’t want to wake the neighbors for no reason, but it was so unlike him to be late or miss an appointment that she was starting to panic at the lack of response from him. Maybe he wasn’t even here. Maybe he’d gone out for a walk last night and had run across some soldiers who had then roughed him up or even left him for dead or…oh, god. Whisper couldn’t bear to think about horrible scenarios like that

“Axel, please open the door? Are you in there?” She was about to dissolve into sobs when the door suddenly swung open. Axel stood in front of her, still wearing pajamas and sporting messy bed-head hair. He looked quite confused, but decidedly not dead. Whisper was so relieved that she didn’t know whether to hug or slap him.

“Oh, shit,” he said, slapping his forehead with his hand.

“You forgot,” Whisper said flatly.

“Well, I didn’t exactly forget. I just overslept.”

Whisper’s eyes widened. “Are you feeling okay?” Despite the fact that Axel was often up late at the bar, he woke up at five a.m. every day without fail. He told Whisper it was a weird quirk of snow leopard shifters, but she was pretty sure that he’d made that up and it was just a weird Axel quirk.

“I’m fine. I just didn’t get to bed until an hour ago. I thought I’d take a quick nap and then get up and have some coffee, but I guess I overestimated even my ability to go without sleep. Come on in. I’ll get dressed and brew some strong coffee and then we can go.”

Whisper stepped into Axel’s house, marveling at the roominess of it. She’d been here hundreds of times before, but it still amazed her how big the place was. Axel didn’t like to spend his money, even though he had plenty of it, but the one concession he’d made to his wealth was to have a big house. The inside of the house itself was furnished modestly, but still. The two bedroom hut with a full kitchen and dining room was an absolute mansion by Bear Hollow standards.

Whisper flopped on Axel’s soft couch while he started a pot of coffee and then ducked into one of the bedrooms to change. She didn’t say much for the moment, since Axel was clearly still trying to shake off sleep. But once he returned from getting dressed and looked a bit more awake, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity much longer.

“We closed the bar down at 1 a.m. last night. What were you doing in all those other hours besides sleeping?”

Axel groaned as he went to check on the coffee. “Talking. To Violet.”

“Oh.” Whisper’s stomach tightened up and she wished she hadn’t asked. She shouldn’t be surprised. Violet was gorgeous and had been openly flirting with Axel again at the bar last night. And Axel had been single for a long time. She should have known that he would eventually start dating again. But he had seemed so insistent just yesterday that there was nothing going on between Violet and him. Whisper hadn’t expected to be faced with the reality of losing Axel. Not this early in the morning at least.

Losing him? It’s not like I owned him.

“It’s not what you think,” Axel said. “She kind of cornered me after I left the bar. Started talking about how hard it had been to lose her dad, and I felt badly for her. So I asked her if she wanted to have a drink at my place—just as friends. I thought she could talk about her dad and feel better. That’s what friends do for each other, right?”

Whisper stared at Axel like he’d lost his mind. “Axel, you realize she’s been stalking you, right?”

“Stalking is kind of a strong word.”

“Well, whatever. It fits. She’s after you, and your inviting her over for a drink is a clear green light for her to continue. I mean, if you’re into her, fine. That’s your business and it’s not my place to judge. But if you really don’t want more than friendship with her, you’re sending her all the wrong signals. Trust me. When you invite a girl over for a drink and then spend the whole night talking to her, she’s gonna take that as a sign.”

Axel blinked at Whisper over his mug of coffee. “Really?”

“Oh my god. You’re so clueless about women.”

“That’s why I usually avoid them.”

Whisper flopped backwards against the couch in exasperation. She wasn’t so convinced that Axel was really that clueless. She had a horrible feeling that he knew he’d been tempting fate by bringing Violet over here, but didn’t want to admit to it. Of course, the only reason she’d labeled that feeling “horrible” was that she herself had deeper feelings for Axel than she really wanted to admit to. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure that spending all morning alone with him in the forest was that great of an idea. She stood, and brushed some imaginary dust off her pants before giving Axel a shrug.

“Look, if you’re too tired to go searching for fairytassel sage right now, we can reschedule. I don’t want to drag you through Bear Hollow forest if you’re feeling like a zombie.”

“No, no!” he said, quickly gulping down his entire mug of coffee. “I’ll be fine. I don’t want to hold up the mission because of my own irresponsibility. We don’t know how long it will take to find fairytassel sage, and we don’t want to run out of time to search for it before the special Games event that’s coming up.”

Whisper swallowed hard and pasted a bright smile on her face. Looks like she was going to spend the morning in the forest with Axel whether it was a good idea or not. “Alright then. Let’s go.”

The morning air was chilly, and Whisper shivered despite her warm jacket. She had a feeling that winter was going to come early this year. Last year’s winter had been hard, and this one might not be much better. The Gilt Hollow soldiers had been raiding the shifters’ food stores, which was going to make getting through the winter without starving a bit of a challenge. But last year the shifters had made it, with the help of the shifters over in Gilt Hollow. Surely, this year everyone could make it through again.

Axel didn’t say much at first. He seemed to sense that Whisper’s mood was a bit sour, and gave her space. Eventually, though, Whisper felt a bit guilty for not acting friendlier, and she decided to attempt conversation about a neutral topic: fairytassel sage.

“Did you read through all the information Danny gave us?” she asked.

Ahead of her, Axel nodded. “Yeah. It seemed pretty straightforward. Fairytassel sage grows at the highest altitudes of Bear Hollow forest, so we’re most likely to find the plant up in the rocky hills at the west end of the forest. No one’s reported seeing any for decades, but no one’s been looking for them, either. And most people don’t bother venturing all the way up into the foothills, so…”

“So hopefully the only reason no one’s seen the plants is simply that no one has been to their favorite growing spot.”

“Yup. It will be nice if it really turns out to be that easy. But I’m not holding my breath.”

Whisper laughed. “Why not? Not feeling like an optimist today?”

“I’m not feeling like an optimist this week. Or this month. Or even this year. Bear Hollow has been through the ringer.”

“We have. Which is why we deserve a win. Keep your chin up. We might find that fairytassel sage on the first shot.”

Axel fell silent again for a while, but he seemed to be in a better mood. By the time they reached the rocky hills, the morning sun was bright and hot, and Whisper tore off her jacket and left it hanging on a tree near the bottom of the hills. She let Axel lead the way as they climbed, even though she wasn’t sure that he knew any better than her which way to go. This was all a bit of a guessing game, but if taking the lead made Axel feel better, then so be it. He’d always had a bit of an alpha streak, and he was happiest when he was the boss. Besides, Whisper liked climbing along behind him. His ass looked good in his hiking pants.

Not that she should be thinking about his ass. If things kept going the way they were, that ass was going to belong to Violet before long.

And that’s just fine with me. Axel and I are just friends and coworkers anyway. Heck, he’s my boss. Dating your boss is never a good idea.

“Whis! Come look at this!” Axel had scaled a large rock ahead of her, and was excitedly pointing to the east.

“Coming.” Whisper hadn’t realized how out of shape she’d gotten. She’d thought about suggesting that they shift into animal form, because that would make all of this climbing a lot easier. But her pride got in the way and she hadn’t wanted to admit that she was having a hard time. Besides, it wasn’t easy to carry her backpack and supplies when she was in bear form. Axel would have trouble carrying his stuff while in snow leopard form as well.

Whisper finally made it the top of the rock Axel had just climbed, and her first reaction was relief. This rock appeared to be the top level of the rocky hills, which meant she shouldn’t have to scale anymore rocks. Her second reaction was one of shock.

“Oh my god. These are it, aren’t they?”

Axel grinned and nodded. “I’d say they are. And I’d say that we have more than enough fairytassel sage to make all the poison we need.”

Stretching out a mere step above the rock that Axel had just scaled was a veritable sea of purple sage flowers. The flowers were tinged with a hint of orange, just like the drawings of fairytassel sage that Danny had given to Axel and Whisper.

“Look at that,” Whisper said with a smile. “Something did turn out easy, after all.”

“I guess so. I’ll take that as a good omen. Now let’s start gathering these bad boys up.”

Axel and Whisper both pulled small sacks out of their bags and began filling those sacks with fairytassel sage. They each filled their sacks to the brim, which was probably a good deal more flowers than they would actually need to make enough poison. According to the information Whisper had read about the plant, it only took a very small amount of poison to do a very large job. Still, while Whisper was here and had access to plenty of these flowers, she might as well load up. You never knew whether these would still be here tomorrow. The memory of the forest fire that had swept through parts of Bear Hollow forest last year was still fresh on Whisper’s mind. If another fire swept through here and destroyed all of the fairytassel sage, this plan would be toast. Literally toast, since the fire would toast the fairytassel sage. Whisper giggled at her own corny joke, and Axel looked up and raised an eyebrow at her.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Just…lost in my own little world.”

He grinned. “You’ve always been good at getting lost in your own little world.”

“So have you! Sometimes at the bar I have to yell at you about ten times before you pay attention to me.”

“That’s not because I’m in my own little world. It’s because I’m the boss and I can ignore you as long as I feel like it.”

Whisper threw a handful of fairytassel sage at him. “You’re impossible.”

“Hey, careful! Those things are really poisonous, you know. Do you want me to die?”

“Just don’t eat any and you’ll be fine. On second thought, do eat a few. Then you’ll be gone and I can be the boss. I won’t have to deal with your attitude anymore.”

Axel laughed. “Come on, Crazy. I think we have enough fairytassel sage. Let’s get out of here before you decide to stuff some down my throat just so you can have the deed to Bear Hollow Brews.”

Whisper followed him as he headed toward the rock they needed to climb down to head back to the bottom of the rocky hills area. “It’s not like it matters if I kill you. I would just get a new boss, who would probably be even more obnoxious than you. Who’d you leave the bar to in your will, anyway? My brother? I can tell you right now there is no way in hell I’d work for my brother. I love him, but no. He’s so obnoxious when he—”

“I didn’t leave the bar to your brother,” Axel said, turning around to look at Whisper. She was on a rock ledge that was right behind him, but was about a foot higher, so they were nose-to-nose and eye-to-eye. Suddenly being so close to him made Whisper feel strangely intoxicated, but she pushed away the feeling. Axel wasn’t interested in her. He was interested in Violet, no matter how much he tried to claim that he wasn’t.

“So who’d you leave it to?” Whisper asked as soon as she regained her breath. She was genuinely surprised. Axel had no family, and Oskar was Axel’s best friend. She’d just sort of assumed that Axel would have left everything to Oskar in his will, although she was realizing now that that assumption was rather foolish. Axel had a lot of assets. Knowing him, and how he liked to do good for the community, he’d probably spread the wealth around in his will. And, truth be told, Oskar probably didn’t have that much interest in running a bar. It wasn’t her brother’s sort of thing.

“I left the bar to you,” Axel said, looking straight into Whisper’s eyes with a sort of intensity she’d never seen before. For a second, she thought he was joking, and she laughed. When the intensity never left Axel’s eyes, though, the laughter died in her throat.

“You’re serious.”

He nodded. “That bar is important to me, Whis. You know that. It’s my life’s work. I know a lot of people think a statement like that is way too dramatic. It’s just a bar, after all. But you get it. You know that it’s more than just a bar. It’s a way for me to give this ragtag town that I love so much a sense of community. A sense of hope.”

“I…I know all of that. But I guess I would have thought that would make you less likely to leave the bar to me. Not more. Why entrust something like that to a barely competent bartender like me?”

“Barely competent?” Axel practically choked on the words. “What are you talking about? You’re the most competent person I know. Maybe I’ve spent too much time teasing you and being a hardass. That’s all just good-natured teasing though. You’re a kickass bartender, and a kickass person. More than that, you understand my vision for the bar. You get it. I know if anything happens to me and you take over the bar, you’ll keep the bar’s legacy going. You’ll make sure it continues to be the awesome community-gathering spot that it is now.”

Whisper could only gawk at Axel, her mouth unattractively hanging open. But she was too shocked right now to worry about things like appearances. “I had no idea you thought about me that way.”

“Well, now you know. And now you know that you sure as hell better take good care of my baby if anything happens to me.”

“Don’t talk like that! Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

Axel shrugged. “Let’s hope not. But the way things are going these days, no one is safe. Best to be prepared.”

Axel took her by the hips, putting one hand on each side of her, then lifted her up and spun in a half circle to set her down on the rock beside him. “Come on. Let’s get back to the bottom of these hills. I’m hungry, and I saw quite a few berry bushes down there.”

He kept climbing down, and Whisper followed him without another word. But on the inside her thoughts were a jumbled, crazy mess. He had left her his bar? She couldn’t quite process it. The bar was worth a ton of money, but, more than that, it was his baby. As he’d said, he considered it his life’s work. The fact that he’d left it to her said volumes about what he thought of her. She hoped to God that she never actually inherited the bar, because the last thing in the world she wanted was to lose Axel. Still, just knowing that he thought enough of her to leave her the bar touched her heart deeply. But if he thought that much of her, why was he allowing whiny Violet to continue to chase after him? Why not make a move on Whisper?

Because he sees me as a sister. Not a lover.

Whisper could no longer act like this truth didn’t hurt her. Lately, every time she was around Axel her heart started doing nervous flip-flops, as though hoping that at any moment he might turn to her and confess his love for her. But he didn’t, and she did her best to push away the attraction that was growing stronger within her. That task was much easier said than done. Her hips tingled where he had touched her minutes before, and her whole body felt warm—a warmth she knew was not due to the ever-brightening sunshine.

She had fallen for him. Damn it, the one person she had told herself was off limits was the one person she had fallen for. She had tried so hard to resist it. And for the longest time, she had. But as she watched him walking up ahead of her, the sunlight turning the ends of his dark hair a golden hue, she could no longer deny it. She wanted him. But it was too late. Apparently, it had only taken him falling for another woman to make Whisper realize how much he meant to her. Stealing a man from another woman was not even close to Whisper’s style. If Violet and Axel were a thing, which it already seemed like they might be, then Whisper wasn’t going to stick herself in the middle of that. She would act happy for them, even if it was killing her inside.

And it was killing her inside. Even the mention of Violet made Whisper sad. But she couldn’t dwell on that right now. She had a job to do with Axel, and she couldn’t let personal feelings get in the way of that job. Time to act professional and get the fairytassel sage ready for a little trip over to Gilt Hollow.