Chapter 6
Because Wallace had the warehouse and surrounding area wired for security, Axtyn heard the alert on Monday evening that a vehicle had entered the parking lot.
“I’m positive it’s my friends,” Brierley said. “I knew that they’d come for me.”
Wallace’s message had been left on Ian’s cell on Saturday before she’d been taken. Brierley had expected that Ian would show up on Sunday night after their mating time was over, but no one had. Axtyn didn’t have a cell phone; he’d offered to get her one of the dead male’s phones, but she didn’t have anyone’s direct number. In the end she’d simply decided that eventually Ian would show up at the warehouse because that’s where Wallace lived. And it turned out she was right.
She turned to rush from the security room, but he grabbed her wrist. “Not so fast, sweetheart.”
She sighed. “You’re going to let me come with you, right?”
“Only if you swear you won’t rush out until I’m certain it’s safe.”
“What could possibly be unsafe? All the bad guys are dead in the fridge in the sub-basement.”
He grimaced. “I know. But promise.”
She used her index finger to make an X over her heart. “I promise.”
“To listen to my mate and not put myself in danger,” he prompted.
“Are you serious?”
“Very.”
She put her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes. He loved her eyes. They were blue streaked with gold, and when she looked at him, he was certain she could see right through him to his heart. Which was firmly hers. “I promise I won’t rush out into danger because my mate is a big, overprotective nutcase.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“It’s close, though.” She wrinkled her nose and then laughed. “Come on, let’s go.”
Taking her hand, he led her from the security room through the main fighting room, and up the stairs to the front door. Even though she’d promised not to purposely put herself in harm’s way, she rushed away from him, unlocking the front door and pulling it open. She waved at whoever was outside. He snarled and grabbed her, pushing her behind him to shield her and then crossing his arms over his chest.
Axtyn recognized Ian, but not the other males with him. Ian said, “Brierley? Are you okay?”
She peeked around Axtyn and answered, “Yep. Sorry, he’s kind of crazy possessive.”
Axtyn growled a warning to the males.
“Hey!” Brierley said. “Stop growling at my friends. We talked about this already. I told you they’d come here for me, and they did.”
“Brierley is our friend,” one of the males said. “We’re not trying to hurt her.”
Axtyn slowly walked from the warehouse, drawing Brierley against his side. “She’s mine,” he said.
Ian’s brows arched. “What?”
She grinned up at Axtyn and it made his beast rub against his skin, wanting to shift and hold her. “Crazy, right? Sorry I couldn’t get in touch with any of you. Axtyn doesn’t have a cell and I didn’t have anyone’s numbers memorized. Plus, I knew you’d see the text from my phone when you were finished with your mating.”
“You could have called information for the campground, found a phone somewhere or flagged down a car,” another male pointed out.
“I was a little busy,” Brierley said. “Besides, we couldn’t really leave with the way things are inside.”
“How are things inside?” a male asked.
“Dead. I mean, the place is full of bodies. We weren’t sure what to do.”
Ian introduced the males to Axtyn, and then they followed them into the warehouse and down the steps. They hadn’t cleaned the main fighting room, so the walls and floor were splattered with dried blood. They stood in the middle of the room and Axtyn said, “Wallace kidnapped Brierley to force you to fight. She and I shared a dream about each other, and when I met her I knew she was mine. When I pushed for her release, Wallace and his males tried to kill me. My beast doesn’t like being told no when it comes to my woman.”
Quill asked, “Where are the bodies?”
“This place was a meat packer’s at one time. There are several walk-in freezers down in the lower level. I put the bodies in one and locked it.”
“He’s wicked good with a sword,” Brierley said. “If you want to see the bodies, help yourself. I’m not going down in the sub-basement. It’s hella creepy.” She shivered, and Axtyn drew her close.
Ian looked around the warehouse. “I planned to kill Wallace if he wouldn’t let Brierley go and release me from fighting for him. I’m sorry you were taken.”
She shrugged. “I let myself be taken.”
“What?” Ian demanded.
“When Wallace broke into the cabin, I had a chance to flee. I could’ve opened my window, shifted, and flown to safety. But something kept me in place, and when I scented Axtyn on Wallace’s clothing, I knew that he’d lead me to my mate. I would gladly be kidnapped a hundred times if it brought us together.”
Axtyn snarled. “You’re not putting yourself in danger anymore.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. Promise.”
“I can’t believe this,” Ian said.
Brierley said, “Fate’s got an interesting sense of humor.”
Because Brierley wouldn’t go down into the sub-basement and Axtyn wouldn’t leave her side, he told Ian and the others how to get there. When they were alone, he turned to his mate. She smiled.
“I told you they’d come here for me.”
“I’m glad you had friends looking out for you.”
“Now I have you, too.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and settled her head on his chest with a happy sigh. He hugged her and kissed the top of her head. “You’ve got every inch of me, sweetheart. I’m entirely yours.”
The group returned and Richard said, “We’re going to call in an anonymous tip about the bodies. We’d like you to come back to the campground with us.”
They headed upstairs, and Richard explained that Axtyn could stay in the cabin with Brierley until things were sorted out.
Brierley grinned and looked up at her mate. “I told you they were good guys.”
“First, though,” Troy said, “we’d like to know what you are.”
Axtyn’s whole body tensed, his tendons standing out on his arms. Brierley made a hooting sound that was soft and sad, and he recognized it as her owl’s way of trying to comfort him. “They’re my friends, it’s okay,” she murmured.
He inhaled and relaxed a fraction. Then he shifted, but only partially. His body lengthened until he towered over them. Dark fur covered him, thick horns curved from the side of his head, and his face transformed into an odd combination of man and bull.
“He’s a minotaur shifter,” Brierley said, never losing her hold on his waist, even though he was two feet taller than her. “He can go all the way to bull, too.”
“Fuck me,” Richard said under his breath.
“He’s only dangerous if someone threatens me, which you may have noticed from all the bodies in the fridge.”
Ian glanced at the others and said, “If Brierley says he’s not dangerous, then he’s not. Angel trusts her implicitly and so do I.”
“Agreed. Can you shift back, or are you tied into the shift for a while?” Troy asked.
He transitioned back into his human form swiftly. Ian said, “We need to get on the road so I can call Angel and let her know you’re okay.”
“He’s already packed,” Brierley said.
“Do you have a vehicle?” Richard asked.
He shook his head.
Quill said, “You can ride in the truck with me.”
“Thank you,” Axtyn said.
When Axtyn and Brierley returned from his room, he was carrying two duffel bags over one shoulder and holding her hand. They left, Brierley and Axtyn in the truck with Quill, and everyone else in the SUV with Ian and Richard.
A few minutes later, they stopped at an all-night diner. Richard asked to borrow the phone while they got coffee to go, and he called in the tip to the police. Within minutes, they were on their way to the campground. They dropped Axtyn and Brierley off at her cabin and said they’d see them in the morning.
Brierley shut the cabin door and turned to face him. “You’re really here.”
He looked at her questioningly. “Where else would I be?”
She grabbed his hand and tugged, and he followed her into a bedroom. “Ever since the dream, I wanted you in my bed. Now that you’re here, I just feel like I’m still dreaming.”
He dropped his duffel bags and drew her close with a growl. “You’re not dreaming, sweet little owl.”
“Prove it,” she whispered, her voice husky and low.
And he did.
Again and again.
* * *
After they’d spent the rest of the night driving each other wild, they slept until ten a.m., and then Angel and her mates had arranged to come and meet him officially. He was nervous to meet what Brierley referred to as her “pseudo-sister,” because he wanted her friends to like him. After meeting Angel, the group sat in the family room and chatted. He didn’t have much to say. He answered their questions, but let Brierley share the details of her ordeal.
Angel and Brierley went into the kitchen to talk, and Axtyn was left with the hyenas.
“Our mates are close,” Brin said. “I suspect that they’ll want to get together for meals a few times a week.”
“Whatever Brierley wants is fine with me.”
Quill smiled. “We do what we can to make our mates happy.”
Ian asked, “When are you meeting with Richard and the others?”
Richard and his clan owned the campground and were Brierley’s bosses. “Later today.”
“Will you want to stay here?” Brin asked.
“If we can. This is Brierley’s home.” He smiled as he thought about how much Brierley loved the cabin and the pride that was clear on her face when she showed it off to him: the curtains she’d made, the way the hardwood floor sparkled because she worked so hard to clean it. She loved the cabin and the campgrounds, and he wanted to be where she was. “I like it here. I haven’t really had a home. Not in a long time.”
“We support you one hundred percent,” Ian said. “Brierley is family to us, and that makes you family, too. Family sticks together.”
“Thank you.” He was humbled by their show of faith. Hyenas, he was coming to discover, were good males.
Quill stood and called for his mate. “We need to get going.”
“Right. Work calls,” Angel said as she walked into the family room.
Brierley said, “We’ll see you later.”
When they were alone, he asked, “What do you think will happen when we meet with your bosses?”
“I hope they’ll offer you a job here. But if they don’t, that’s okay, too. If we need to leave here so you can find work, then that’s what we’ll do.”
“You’d like to stay, though.”
She smiled sweetly. “Only if it’s the best choice for our family.”
The thought of her carrying his young made his blood heat. His beast rolled under his skin, and he let out a snort that was half growl and half plea. She bit her lower lip and lifted the hem of her top to bare her sexy stomach. “I think we’re both thinking the same thing.”
His brain fogged over as she tugged her shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor.
“To see how many times you can scream my name?” he asked, taking a step toward her.
“Hell yes.”
* * *
Axtyn sat next to Brierley, across the table from Richard, Troy, Blake, and their mate, Ally. They were friendly and kind, and he could see why Brierley enjoyed working for them. The meal that Ally had prepared was delicious, and he and Brierley shared the story of her abduction and the end of the were-fights.
“I honestly had no idea that there were fights going on,” Ally said.
“They’re underground for a reason,” Richard pointed out. “Weres can’t fight legally, and there’s a lot of money to be made in the underground, illegal fights. Ian made a killing – no pun intended – from them.”
Axtyn had banked nearly all his winnings, too. He’d had no one to spend it on, so he’d saved it. Now he and Brierley had a nest egg for their future. Although he hated the fights and Wallace, he was thankful for the money.
“We’d already discussed asking you to work here after we dropped you off last night,” Richard said. “We’d like to offer you a job here at the campground.”
Axtyn’s brows rose. “I…don’t know how to do anything but fight and fix cars.”
“Yeah? Cars?” Troy asked.
“My dad fixed cars on the side when I was growing up. He also fought. That was where the money was. He taught me, and I worked in a garage until I was old enough to start fighting.”
The three brothers looked at each other, and then Blake said, “We have a dozen four-by-fours in a storage barn on the property. We used to offer four-wheeler tours, but we got busy with other things and we didn’t really have anyone to keep up with the maintenance. If you’d be willing, we’d love for you to fix them up. Then you can be in charge of the tours – clear and map the trails and handle the guests. Brierley can work with you, too. Those could be your permanent jobs. How does that sound?”
Axtyn suddenly had a lump in his throat the size of his fist. No one since his father had ever thought he could do anything but bust heads. They looked right past his bloody history and gave him a chance.
“I’d love that. Sweetheart?”
Brierley grinned and winked at him. “I’d adore working by your side. Will you teach me how to drive a four-wheeler when we get one fixed? I bet it’s cool as hell to tear around the woods on one of them.”
“Only if you promise to be safe.”
“Safe and hell on wheels.”
“No. Just safe.”
“Spoilsport.”
“Let me show you to the storage barn,” Troy said. “You’ll need to organize it and make a trip to the auto parts store, I’m sure. We’ll give you one of our corporate credit cards and put you on the account.”
“I’ll do that right now,” Ally said.
“Thank you. I’m honored.”
“It’s our pleasure. You’re doing us a favor,” Ally said.
Brierley hugged Ally and then they followed Troy out of the main registration cabin their clan called home, heading to the storage barn. While they walked, Troy talked about the four-wheelers and the fun guests had using them. Once they were inside the large barn, they pulled the dusty tarps off the vehicles and then opened the windows to air the place out.
“We have the manuals for the vehicles in the storage cabinet on the wall, and there are several tool benches. You can fix this place up however you like so you can work. When you’re ready for the tours, maybe by the spring, we’ll get the outside fixed up so it looks like a real business.”
“This is wonderful,” Brierley said, hugging Axtyn’s waist. “I thought he would be working with me, cleaning. This is more than I ever imagined happening.”
“I’d do anything to be by your side,” he promised.
“Even cleaning toilets? Because that’s my least favorite thing.”
“Even that.”
“Aw, I’m a lucky duck to have such a sweet mate.”
“In the off-season, you two can still help out around the cabins as you’re able, but we’ll go back to hiring in local cleaning crews as we need to.”
“Sounds perfect,” Brierley said.
“Thanks,” Axtyn said.
“You already thanked us, but you’re welcome. You need anything, call the cabin or stop by anytime. Our door is always open.”
After Troy left, she and Axtyn stood in the barn in silence and stared at the four-wheelers. They were filthy and clearly in need of repair. He’d never fixed a four-wheeler before, but he knew he could handle it. Hell, he felt like he could rule the world with Brierley at his side. She was everything to him, and he was so grateful to be with her.
“Did I tell you that I’m crazy about you?” she asked, turning to face him.
“Are you psychic? I was just thinking the same thing.”
She smiled. “Not psychic, just so lucky to have you for my mate. You’re more than I ever imagined, and I’m happier than I ever thought possible. My life is infinitely better because you’re in it.”
“Mine, too.”
“Let’s go home. I’ve got another great idea,” she said, her eyes glittering with happiness.
“I’m feeling pretty psychic. Can I guess what your idea is?”
“Only if you beat me home!” She turned and raced from the storage barn. He growled, following on her heels, stopping only to shut the storage barn before he hustled after his swiftly disappearing mate. She was fast, but he was faster, and he couldn’t wait to catch her, listen to her laugh, and then make her moan in pleasure.
There was nothing better.