“Sorry.” I sighed and slumped in my chair. “How did you know him, then?”
“He’s dead?” Axel’s distraught expression had me cursing under my breath. But it wasn’t like I could reassure him that Callum would be okay.
“The hunters took him down with bullets and a silver dagger, both laced with poison.”
“Of course they fucking did.”
As much as I didn’t want to defend them, they had acted within the law, and I couldn’t risk Axel wanting payback or anything stupid like that. Although exactly why he appeared to feel so strongly about all of this didn’t bode well. “Falon had to report Callum to the police when he ran off. He attacked his mum and fled the scene. You know as well as I do the damage an out-of-control shifter can do. There were humans in the forest. He had no choice.”
“And they couldn’t find any other way to subdue him other than lethal force?”
Fuck, I’d not even told him Callum was still alive, albeit it barely.
Reaching over the table, I grabbed one of his hands. “He’s not dead. But he’s in a pretty bad way,” I added quickly. “Gabriel treated the wounds from the hunters, but whatever made him lose control is still in his system, stopping him from healing.”
Axel’s eyes narrowed. “Who the fuck is Gabriel?”
Shit.
Closing my eyes, I pinched the bridge of my nose. I really didn’t want to have this conversation again. But lying to my pack, even an honorary member like Axel, was something I’d vowed never to do when I took over as alpha. No matter how uncomfortable it made me feel.
“He’s an ex-hunter now helping the paranormal police as Max’s partner.”
Axel continued to watch me. I could almost see his mind working. The fae as a whole were cagey about their magic and what abilities it gave them. Only those that lived here permanently were required to register themselves as non-human, and even then, they were listed as a magic-user and nothing else.
With the way Axel seemed to know what I was thinking with uncanny accuracy, I often wondered whether he could pluck the thoughts right out of my head. The idea made me fidget in my seat.
Especially when he looked me right in the eye and said, “That’s not all he is though, is it?”
He couldn’t know.
Magic or not, there was no way that Axel could pick up on the fact that Gabriel was my soulmate. I kept that shit locked down tight. If Talis had never suspected, and he knew me about as well as anyone, then no one else would.
But Axel’s gaze never wavered, boring into me like he was searching my head for the answer. “Stop that,” I growled, looking away and breaking eye contact.
Axel sat back, hands raised. “I wasn’t doing anything.”
It was my turn to narrow my eyes, because the slight hitch in his breathing said I’d caught him by surprise. “Can you read my mind?” I ask bluntly. Playing games wasn’t something I had the patience for.
Axel shook his head. “No, I can’t read your mind.” It sounded like there was more he wanted to say but then seemed to think better of it. “Is there something you’re worried I might find if I could?”
Maybe he didn’t need to read my mind if I continued to be so obvious.
Fuck it. If I wanted to know about him and Callum, I might have to spill a few of my own secrets. At this rate, my whole pack would soon know about my past with Gabriel fucking Mason.
I gave Axel a short summary of our relationship. “We met, we fucked, he betrayed me. The end.”
And he still looked at me as though there was more to it. “Leave it alone, Axel.” When he opened his mouth to ask Goddess knew what, I added a soft, “Please,” that made him hesitate.
He gave me a slight nod and let the subject drop.
“Now tell me how you seem to know an eighteen-year-old member of Falon’s pack far too well to be good for you?”
“You make me sound like a creepy motherfucker when you say it like that.”
I said nothing, merely waited him out.
“Fuck off,” he huffed, but then turned serious. Because he knew as well as I did that this was going to bring the police his way as soon as they started looking into Callum’s past. “He started coming to Midnight about a couple of months ago. Probably as soon as he turned eighteen.”
