His lips parted, pink tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip, and I was powerless to hold back any longer.
I knew I shouldn’t, but this would be the last time I’d be in this position, because after I left here, I had every intention of guarding Axel from a distance.
Fuck it.
Fuck it all.
I crashed my mouth to his, pulling him flush against me. If this was the one time I got to do this, then I was going to make the most of it.
His hands slid into my hair, fingers wrapping around the long strands and tugging enough to coax a low moan out of me. I teased his tongue with mine, the taste so familiar even though we’d only done this once before. I could’ve cried with how right this felt, knowing that he’d never trust me enough to let me in. To let me love him in the way I knew I could. The way I was desperate to.
Syl howled again, more urgent this time, raising the hairs on the back of my neck.
I broke the kiss, both of us breathing hard. “I have to go.”
And I’m not coming back.
At least not like this.
Axel traced my lips with his thumb, and I saw it in his eyes. He knew what I wasn’t saying.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, the sadness in his voice too much.
I kissed the pad of his thumb. “I know.”
Another answered Syl’s howl, and although I wasn’t officially on guard duty tonight, I couldn’t resist the call of my pack.
With one last look at the fae I would’ve given everything to if he’d only asked me, I dropped the blanket, took two steps back out of his space, and shifted.
The pain was immediate, sharp and intense in a way that nothing else was, and I welcomed every bone-snapping second of it. Anything to get the feel of Axel’s mouth, of his warm, firm body out of my head.
Throwing my head back, I howled long and loud, letting my brothers know I was on my way.
AXEL
Dathal was waitingfor me in the kitchen when I went back inside.
I felt…fuck, I had no idea what to feel right then.
“So…” Dathal had his knives out on the breakfast bar, like that wasn’t alarming or anything. “That seemed to go well?”
I snorted, because how the fuck did he come to that conclusion? “Seriously?”
He gestured towards the living room. “When I glanced out there five minutes ago, you had your tongue down his throat, so I assumed you’d both come to your senses.”
I rubbed a hand over my face, suddenly feeling every lost hour that I hadn’t slept. “Pretty sure that was goodbye.”
His eyes narrowed. “I thought you liked him?”
“I do.” More than I’d liked anyone in a long time.
“And he doesn’t hide the fact he’d like to kill anyone who looks at you twice.” He smirked. “At least not very well anyway.”
Pulling out the stool next to him, I slumped into it and put my head in my hands. “I told him about my magic. About Zh’alek. Well most of it. Enough that he understood why I can’t have a relationship with him. Withanyone.”
Dathal picked up one of his daggers, thumb running lovingly over the hilt before he set it down again with a sigh. “Axel. Apart from Nick, I love you more than anyone else in my life, so understand I say this with only your best interests at heart.”
I turned to face him, eyebrow raised. “Go on, then.”
