Page 155 of Axel

It’s elegant. It’ll look great in paparazzi shots. It’s all strategy for me. No romance. I’ve locked that part of me away.

Yes, I love Axel. Yes, I need him to hold me, to wait for me. But I don’t know what it will take to get back to trusting him.

And I know he feels it. I know he loves me. He’s not pushing me.

So, in the meantime, I thrive on this mission.

Once Stacey James, the owner of Delta’s, and Vale, one of our queens, came to me with a request to help Blair Monroe, Stacey’s employee and Vale’s twin?

You had me ata woman needs help.

Is it serendipity or strategy that Vale and I devised this plan? A way to help our king, Nick, and our queen, Zar, while also helping Vale’s twin and her partners?

Hell yes, it’s both when women are involved.

And it’s the perfect distraction for me until…

Until something shifts inside me and I can fully trust Axel again.

“I can’t believe that was you the whole time at Vale’s initiation.” Wren fills the silence, praising me, “I’m impressed. I don’t think I could’ve knelt for hours.”

“Darlin’, you underestimate the power of a good Dom.” Zar sits on the sofa in Vale’s bedroom, swirling his whiskey. “Their reward is worth the pain.”

“It wasn’t painful,” I confess. “And yes, Axel made my rewardverysatisfying.”

“I bet.” Wren grins like my co-conspirator.

“I have never seen Axel do that; be so loving,” Delphine shares, while gazing down at him from the window above. “He was not that way with Katya.”

“Youknewher?” Suddenly, I’m riveted. I didn’t know this.

“For a month or so.” She shrugs. “But then she left him andau revoir, bitch. That is the right word. Yes?Bitch?”

“Yes. Bitch.” Zar laughs. “It’s not my habit to use the word but from what Nick’s told me about Katya, it fits like a bitchy glove.”

“I never met her,” Wren adds. “But Sire told me he never trusted her. That she was cold to Axel. It’s like Sire hates Katya and now, she’s coming between you and Axel and…” Wren sighs, “It sucks he didn’t tell you about her at first. I get it. I’d be hurt, too, but I hope you can forgive him soon.”

Forgive him?

I did that months ago about her.

Now, like Sire, I hate Katya, too.

No one but me, Axel, The Queen, Roman, and one unknown traitor knows about Katya’s plan with Axel’s father, to get pregnant by Axel, then leave and take his son with her.

The whole heartbreaking betrayal is still a secret and I will kill that bitch if I ever meet her.

It’s Alena I can’t forget, and it’s not about forgiveness with her.

She did nothing wrong. She’s innocent and hurting over Loch. The other queens talk about her. They worry about her, particularly Vale, her best friend, but I won’t tell them what I know about Alena and Axel.

True respect is respecting someone’s privacy and letting them tell their truth. I won’t rob another woman of her story.

Because mine is…

A deep insecurity, hidden inside the girl who sat alone at the lunch table. The one with a disability. The one who was bullied and mocked.

She can’t stop imagining Axel with Alena. She’s flawed and vulnerable and worried she’s not good enough. She was shamed and used and treated like trash, though…

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