Page 194 of Axel

Oh my God, he’s going to kill Jace.

But Axel smiles.

Gently. Knowing. Almost kind to his brother.

Jace couldn’t help it.

Yes, Axel will kill for me. But he wants his brother to feel love, even if it’s the edges of our love that we share with him. At least until Jace finally has a love of his own.

“Fuck,” Jace huffs. “Thank you. Fuck, that felt good. I needed it.”

“You’re welcome,” I sigh, feeling tendrils of the taboo and tender still swirling through me. But it felt right. I feel closer to Jace now, and I try to turn my head to comfort him, but the angle is too awkward.

“It’s what I wanted for us, man.” Axel still hovers over me in a plank of muscles and ink. His cock remains raging hard. He didn’t come, though his beard and cock drip with my pleasure. “My queen is so fucking beautiful, isn’t she?” He gazes warmly at me while assuring Jace, “I promise, you’ll love your queen one day like I love mine.”

“Thanks,” Jace answers softly, and I glance to my right. At Delphine and Grant. How she’s in his lap. How he loves her, too. Sire and Wren are the same. So are Nash and Vale.

Then I glance left, and Zar is curled up with Nick.

But Loch?

Why does it hit my heart so hard that he’s sitting alone?

“You still with us, Wildfire?”

Axel leans down, softly kissing me. He’ll always worry, care, and love me.

And I don’t fight it anymore.

I trust it.

“Always.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

AXEL

In life,there’s the man you’re raised to be. Then, there’s the man you become.

Violent. Cold. Immoral. In charge. That’s who my father wanted me to be.

He half succeeded.

Noble. Loyal. Protective. Loving. That’s how my mother made me.

And she won.

It’s a duality. A war that used to wage inside me.

But with my new queen, with Ruby, all I feel is peace.

Don’t get me wrong. Touch her. Hurt her. Dare to even speak to her with disrespect, and I will disembowel you, alive, and fill your insides with salt.

The beast in me will never die.

But let me witness my breathtaking queen give her body to me, while she wants to comfort my brother, too? While she can feel his pain like I can?

Fuck, yes, that’s my Wildfire. My queen. My wife. My goddamn life.

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