Axel tensed, about to resist when Sam nodded, anger evident in the tension along his body. “I’ve never seen him like this.”
Kace clenched his fist. “I’ll deal with it.” He waited until they were alone before he let his frustration tone his voice. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Axel’s face twisted into a sneer, his arm coming up to knock Kace back. “You think you’re any different from me?” he spat. “We’re the fucking same, you and I. You just use your fists to numb yourself while I use something else, something a lot more fun.” His words shot like bullets, his pupils covering the entirety of his irises.
“You don’t deal with this shit alone, and especially not by getting high! If it’s bad, you talk to us.”
“Like how you talk about your need for violence?” Axel seemed to shake, a dangerous fury in the set of his jaw. His hair was usually kept military short, but it hadn’t been cut recently, nor had his stubble. It should have made him look disorganised, but on Axel it looked fashionably dishevelled.
Kace ground his teeth, fists clenched tightly by his sides. “Don’t talk about something you don’t understand.”
Axel threw his head back in a laugh.
“Does Titus know you’re here putting fuck knows what into your body while he gets his lungs torn from his chest?”
Axel’s head snapped back down, the glassiness to his eyes lessening.
“His blood sure looked pretty with his pink fucking hair.”
Axel let out an unsteady breath, his voice strained. “Titus, he okay?”
“I don’t know Axel, I had to leave him with Jax while I came to deal with your fucking arse.” His beast was prominent, teeth bared inside his mind at the thought of any of his brothers vulnerable. “You were supposed to be our pick up, and look at you.”
Axel shook, fists clenching.
“Now we’re going to leave before I let Sam beat the shit out of you.” A pause, colour darkening Axel’s expression. “Or is that what you want?”
His smile this time was feral. “Fuck you, brother,” he snarled. “Don’t think I haven’t seen that picture of Eva in your room.”
“Why the fuck were you in my room?”
“You’re just as broken as me.” Axel laughed, the sound void of any humour. “Probably more so.” His eyes darted over Kace’s shoulder.
“Red?”
Kace tensed at the name, realising he hadn’t heard the kid sneak up on him. His beast growled, letting him know that he was aware, but didn’t see Hunter as a priority right at that moment.
“Go wait in the car,” he told his brother, not waiting for a reply before he turned. “You’re a bit young to be hanging around a bar.”
Hunter watched Axel warily, not taking his attention off him until he disappeared with an angry huff. “I wanted to speak to you alone.”
“How did you know where I was?” He kept his personal life separate from the kids. He didn’t want them to know what he was truly capable of. The shifter kids knew something was different, and not just because of his irises. Hunter had once asked him at the beginning what he was, not believing when he had explained he was a druid. He didn’t give off Alpha energy like Riley did, but it was something that caught the attention of their animals.
“I followed you once.” Hunter wrapped his arms around his chest, his hoodie barely thick enough from the cold. “I’m ready, you can let me fight.”
“Yeah?”
Hunter’s eyes brightened, his animal teasing his irises. Kace had never seen Hunter shift, and that was a concern he shared with both Hudson and Marshall. The kid was strangling his animal, and that was dangerous for both himself and those around him. “I’ve been training really hard. I could fight, maybe earn some money and...”
“When was the last time you used?”
Hunter swallowed, straightening his spine. “Four months. I don’t accept anything when I go visit mum.”
Kace swallowed his growl. Hunter stayed with Hudson, but he still visited his mother at the drug den he once called home. Hunter wanted to save her, but sometimes people were beyond saving, especially when the woman had tried to use her own son as payment for drugs.
“Red,” he said, puffing out his chest. “I’m ready.”
There was no hesitation.
