Page 208 of Axel

“Damn right, I’m trashy. And it’s gonna hurt real bad when I roll my trash out all over your face. You fucking bitch, you stole Axel’s son!”

“He is my son, too!” she shrieks.

“No, you chose to be used by this man over being a mother to your son. And you,” I point at Ruslan, “are already paying the price, aren’t you? Your own blood hates you. All of them. No ice cold pussy in the world can fuck and breed that karma away.”

Katya steps to me and I smile, taunting, “Bring it, Barbie Bitch. I don’t need a goddamn knife to rip your neck open. I’ll use my teeth.”

“Enough.” Ruslan raises his hand, shooing Katya away.

And I see it. The grey pallor of his skin. The lack of life in his eyes. How he was once a sadistic and seductive man. How everyone feared him, but now he fears death. It’s imminent.

“I see that my son has chosen his queen well.” Reverently, Ruslan reaches for my arm, but I jerk it away. “Strong. Beautiful. Smart. Fearless and proud. I raised him well.”

“No,” I lift my chin, “hismotherraised him well, and I’m just like her. And she sends her Fuck Yous.”

“She is a bitch,” Katya mutters.

“She is a mother whose sons love her,” I say. “Spoiler alert: yours won’t.”

She lifts her nose. “A son always loves his mother.”

“Not when he finds out that she stole him from his loving father.”

“Axel is a cold man,” she scoffs.

I say bitingly, “You would be too if you were married tothe White Cunt Walker from Hell. They can freeze eggs in your womb.”

I catch it.

Ruslan’s grin.

“Speaking of…” My stomach flips, and not from this.

I’m pregnant with the baby of the man I love.

And he loves me with the ferocity of a lion. Axel will always chase me and come looking for me soon.

And it will be a bloodbath if he finds his father and Katya here, and I don’t want that.

Maybe it’s the detective in me.

Maybe it’s the lioness mother I’m becoming.

But I can sense it:they need something.

Why else would Ruslan and Katya be here? Why would they risk showing up in the lion’s den? If they wanted me dead, they’ve had ample opportunities. If they want a war, they’ll get one. If they want to die, they’ll lay a hand on me.

“You’re right,” I say to Ruslan, lifting my chin. “Axel has chosen his true queen wisely. So tell me what you need and I’ll tell you the price for it.”

An hour later,Axel’s gently rubbing my feet, and why does it look so sexy when he does it with inked hands and his finger, proudly wearing a thick platinum wedding band?

We’re cuddled on our sofa, facing each other, and he knows I’m holding something in.

But? I don’t know how totell him this.

It’s not bad news.

It’s karma.

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