Chapter Twenty
Axel struggled to fall asleep once they returned to the den. Next to him, Joe was stretched out, exhausted and sated. When Axel thought back to that moment at the bar, finding him penned between those two lion shifters, he felt the anger rising inside him. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. It was all okay. Joe was safe.
He fell asleep a few hours before dawn, waking to Joe lying against his chest, the beta’s face pressed against his neck.
Another hour passed before Joe stirred, blinking his eyes open and smiling at him.
“Morning.”
“Good morning. No nightmares?”
Joe’s smile grew wider. “None. I knew you were there to chase them away.”
“We should get up.”
“In a minute.”
There was a knock on the front door. Joe groaned. “It’s probably Ollie.”
The front door opened. Axel sat up. “Ollie’s not one to let himself in.”
Joe had a sleepy frown on his face. “Course not. It’s not polite to just walk in.”
The door to their bedroom was thrown open. Joe sat up next to him and they stared at the figure in the doorway.
“Axel.”
“Dexter.”
A wide-eyed Joe was looking from one to the other before mock whispering to him.
“Axel, why did you brother just barge into our bedroom?”
Axel snorted. “Good question. Bro, I’d like to say it’s good to see you but this really isn’t a great time.”
“We need to talk.”
Axel sat up straighter while Joe pulled the blankets up to cover himself.
“Is everyone okay? Has something happened?”
“Everyone’s fine. We just need to have a discussion. Brother to brother,” he added, staring pointedly at Joe.
“Give us a minute to throw some clothes on. There’s a coffee pot ready to go in the kitchen if you feel like making yourself useful.”
Dex shook his head, turned, and walked away, leaving the door open.
“This isn’t exactly the relaxing day I had planned for us,” Axel said out loud, groaning and hiding his face in his hands. Beside him, Joe sputtered out a laugh.
“It could be worse.”
Axel turned to him in bemusement.
“Worse?”
“He could have walked in on us last night.”
Axel chuckled. “He’d certainly have gotten an eyeful.”
They could hear Dex moving around the kitchen, slamming cupboard doors.
“I guess we should get up.”
Joe groaned and stretched. “I guess.”
They climbed out of bed and dressed, heading to the kitchen where Dex was waiting.
“He doesn’t need to be here for this,” Dex said, nodding to Joe.
Axel crossed his arms. “He has a name and he’s my mate. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of him.”
“This is family business, pack business.”
“He is family. And I’m not pack anymore.”
He held Dexter’s gaze, determined that he wasn’t backing down.
“It’s okay, Axel. I have to go to the clinic this morning anyway.”
Joe leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek then filled a cup with coffee and headed off.
That left him and Dex staring silently at each other.
“It’s been weeks, Axel. I was sure you’d have come home by now.”
He blinked. “The den is my home now.”
“The Weir is your home, it always will be. You need to be there.”
Axel turned to pour himself some coffee, setting it down on the table with a thunk and sinking into a seat.
“This is a waste of time. The den is my home and Joe is my mate. There’s nothing more to say.”
“There’s a hell of a lot more to say,” Dex replied, sitting down opposite him. “You’re an alpha of the Weir, you can’t just turn your back on that.”
“An alpha. Not the alpha, not the next alpha.”
“So, you think that absolves your responsibility, allows you to just walk away?”
Axel groaned. They’d been over this. “I wanted some control over my life, Dex. And now I have it. I’ve found a place here.”
“Your place is in the Weir. You have a duty to our pack. There’s work to be done. And if something changes, if anything happens to me…”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Axel retorted hotly.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you have a responsibility to be there for the pack, to have a family.”
“Joe and I are a family.”
“Kids, Axel. With Joe, that’s an impossibility. But with someone else…”
Axel pushed back his chair and stood, growing tired of the conversation.
“There is no one else. I love him and I’m not leaving him. I’ll come back when he can come with me, as my mate.”
Dex’s face fell. “Dad will never allow it.”
“Then he’ll have to contend with being estranged from his youngest son.”
His brother opened his mouth to speak again and Axel held up a hand. He’d heard enough. “There’s nothing you can say that’s going to change my mind. Dad sent you here on a fool’s errand.”
Dex sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t come here for Dad. I came here for me. I miss you.”
Axel leaned back against the counter. “I miss you, too. But this is how it has to be.”
“You need to think of the family, Axel.”
“That’s all I did, for years. But I’m not like you, Dex. My wants and needs don’t line up with Dad’s expectations. And the moment came when I realized that if I didn’t think of myself for once, there wouldn’t be anything of me left. Choosing Joe is the most selfish decision I’ve ever made. And the best one.”
Dex stood too. “You really love him, don’t you?”
“More than I have words.” Axel tried to salvage something. “Since you’re here and all, you could stay, get to know him, us, and the den a little better.”
Dexter wavered and Axel knew what or, rather, who, he was thinking about. It had taken everything for Axel to defy their dad but he knew it was harder for Dex, who’d always been the son Shane wanted, the future alpha their pack needed.
“I guess I could stay until this evening.”
Axel grinned and stepped closer to pull his brother into a hug. “I’ve missed you. It’s great having Hunter around, but it’s just not the same.”
“I’d say the Weir is quiet without you, but you’re not exactly a loud guy. I keep expecting to see you in odd places, sketching some patch of sky or trees or whatever person was hanging around. Or hearing Mom yelling for you when you’d been missing half the day.”
“How about some breakfast?” Axel offered. “Bacon, eggs, sausages…”
“Sounds great.” Cooking was one skill Axel had picked up that Dex hadn’t had a chance to.
After they ate, Axel took Dex on a tour of the den. He could see his brother was more impressed by the people than anything. Axel felt the same way. There was a sense about the den, as animals and people alike moved around, of something mystical and otherworldly. The Cove was starting to feel the same.
“The air feels almost charged,” Dex said, as two kids ran by, one shifting into a fox as he ran. “The Weir seems kind of flat in comparison.”
“Everyone here fully embraces the shifter life. They’re not trying to hide their nature, their true feelings, their instincts.”
“And we are?” Dex seemed curious rather than defensive.
“Look at how the Gathering went this year. There were three mating challenges, one polymating, and the omegas did loads of groundwork for the next one.”
“Dad hasn’t stopped talking about their… interference, as he calls it. He doesn’t understand why the other pack leaders are going along with it.”
“Do you?”
Dex slowed to a stop, glancing around.
“They can feel the world closing in on them. They’ve seen the benefit of the omegas’ influence on the Cove and they want to experience that for themselves.”
“What about you? What do you want?”
“I want to lead a healthy pack, a pack of true wolf shifters and not the shadows we are right now.”
He turned to face Axel. “I’m not Dad. I can’t ignore the evidence before me and I won’t blindly walk our pack to the end of their existence. But I’m not alpha.”
“Yet.”
Axel saw Joe in the distance and waved. “Time for dinner. I’m cooking.”
It was awkward at first, all three of them sitting around the table. Axel felt stuck in the middle, trying to find some common ground between his brother and his mate. It turned out the common ground was him.
“This salmon is delicious, Axel,” Dex said.
“Isn’t it?” Joe agreed. “I don’t know what he does to it but it always tastes amazing. Have you had his carbonara?”
The conversation turned to Axel’s sketching and from there to Joe’s work as a midwife. Whereas Shane would have been dismissive, Dex was the opposite, interested in what Joe did and why he’d chosen that path.
As dinner ended, Axel grabbed a few beers, ushering the two into the living room while he got dessert ready. So far, the day was going a lot better than he’d anticipated.
When he stepped into the living room, Joe was giggling. He took one look at Axel and laughed harder.
“What did I miss?”
Dex grinned. “I was just telling him about that time when you climbed that tree in the orchard to sketch the squirrels.”
Axel felt himself flush red. “Oh, that.”
“Did you really fall asleep up in the tree?”
“It was warm and I got tired waiting for the squirrels to come out. It was only for a minute.”
“There was this almighty crash. Axel yelling his head off brought half the pack over to make sure he was okay.”
Joe stopped laughing long enough to ask. “And you were, right?”
“Dislocated my shoulder.”
“But it wasn’t his drawing arm. Next day, he’s back there, sitting at the base of the tree waiting for those damn squirrels.”
They walked Dex out to the bridge, Axel reluctant to say goodbye. It felt like old times, like nothing had changed, and he felt a pang of longing at the thought of his pack. Axel pulled Dex into an embrace. There was a moment’s hesitation before Joe did the same.
“I’m really glad you’re both doing okay here,” Dex said. “And that you’re happy.”
“It was so great to see you, Dex.”
“You, too. I’d love to say I’ll be back again soon but…” He shrugged his shoulders. “…you know Dad.”
“You’ll always be welcome here,” Axel said, wishing there wasn’t such distance between them.
Joe slipped a hand into his as Dex got into his car and drove off, giving them a wave as he passed.
“I know you miss him,” Joe said.
Axel threw an arm around his shoulders. “I do. I never thought we’d get a day like today. And, hopefully, we’ll get many more.”
Arm in arm, they strolled home.