Page 89 of A Bond in Flames

“You have Death’s ear?”

“I did… hopefully, I still do.” Hopefully, he hadn’t given up on me completely. I just needed to get to him. “I’m sorry you’re stuck here like this, but I have to leave.”

He shoved his fingers through his hair. “I get it… can you just… will you stay for a little while? I’m… I’m so lonely, Zinnia. So fucking lonely.”

This male was War and Relic’s brother; they loved him, no doubt missed him terribly. Maybe they didn’t know he was dead? Maybe they just thought he’d left or was in Hell, serving Lucifer. The hounds all took turns controlling the demons there, spending time between Hell and Roxburgh. Whatever had happened, my heart ached for him. “Maybe… just for a little while.”

His expression lightened, his smile returning.

“I can’t stay long, though.”

He nodded. “Of course.” His gaze slid to the couch. “Can we just sit on the couch? I’m not trying to be a creep. I just want to feel someone close. I haven’t been touched by another being in… in so long. Not trying to cop a feel, Zinnia. I just want a hug, yeah?”

Everything he’d told me was plausible, and with what I knew of the hounds, their feelings about females and their unwavering loyalty, I truly didn’t think he wanted to hurt me. Hounds were devoid of certain emotions, but they were extremely tactile; they liked touch, needed it. It would’ve been torture for Axton without it and without his brothers. Yes, Nox was trying to slow me down, and staying here with Axton was playing right into her hands, but I could spare him ten minutes before I left. “Okay then.”

He took a shuddery breath. “Thank you,” he said, the sincerity in his voice clear. He walked to the couch, looking awkward, and it pulled at my heart strings.

So I sat and waved him forward. He closed the space between us and sat beside me; then he slid down, resting his head on my lap, and wrapped his arms around my middle with a sigh.

“Better?” I rubbed his back, and light glinted off the gold wrapped around my finger. It’d stopped bleeding, but it hurt like hell. It wasn’t hard to work out that whatever it was had me trapped in this limbo loop. I just needed some time—time not being chased by insane lumberjacks or emotionally propping up lonely hellhounds—to figure out how to get it off.

“Fuck, this is… I needed this, thank you,” he rasped.

“No problem.” I gasped a little when he tightened his arms around me.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “So have you spent much time at the clubhouse?”

“Yeah, when I’m in Roxburgh. Willow and War have a daughter now, and Wills has these movie nights for the hounds and anyone who wants to come along.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, and Relic is a really good friend.”

He snorted.

“What?”

“Relic’s a piece of shit.”

I blinked down at him, confused. The hounds didn’t do that; they didn’t talk shit about one another. They had disagreements, sure, but I’d never heard them say shit about each other, not like that. “You didn’t get along?”

“Relic, like the others, thinks the sun shines out of the alpha’s ass.”

“You and War didn’t get on? I thought you were his right hand?”

He shrugged. “Maybe I exaggerated. I should’ve been alpha.”

Unease slid through me.

Axton’s eyes drifted shut, and he breathed deep. He made a low groan, then breathed in again.

He was scenting me.

I glanced down, and my unease increased. His dick was straining against the zipper of his jeans.Fuck. Something was seriously wrong here. He was lying to me. If the hounds lost one of their own, if he was damaged beyond the possibility of healing, they’d find him and burn him and send him home. They were the best trackers around. I was an idiot. Why didn’t I think of that? I’d looked at him, and I’d seen Relic and War and the other males I cared about; I imagined what it would have been like for one of them. If the hounds wanted to send him back to Hell, they wouldn’t have stopped looking for him until they found him.

“Haven’t been with a female in a long time, Zinnia. You know we need it. Making a hound go without fucking for as long as I have is the worst kind of torture. You’ll let me fuck you, won’t you? You’ll be my bitch and get on all fours, won’t you, witch?”

Fear sliced through me, but I made myself breathe easy. I had to play this carefully. “I’m Death’s consort. He wouldn’t like it if I was with anyone else.”

---