Page 36 of Axel

She does. She turns away, staring at the window. “So, you gangbang your brother’s wife, and it means nothing to you?”

“It’s not a gangbang,” I correct. “It’s a ritual from our people, our past, and it means everything to us. It goes way back to when a powerful man could die any day and needed his wife and children protected. He needed to trust another man to care for them. It does something to us each time we initiate a queen. We know she?—”

“Zar isn’t a she.”

“He’s an exception because we love our brother; we love the one he loves. But most queens are women. She belongs to our brother but is special to us, too. She’s one of ours, and we’d kill for her.”

“So you have to fuck a woman to care for her?”

Goddamn, she presents every argument like an ace lawyer.

“No,” is my honest answer. “Believe it or not,” my throat tightens, “I care foryou, and yet, we don’t fuck, but you’ve fucked us over by spying on me and?—”

“Excuse me!” She whips my way. “You’re the one who’s been playing Stanley the Stalker for a year.”

“Eleven months,” I correct.

“Well, then let me give you eleven fuck-yous because you started this. I was only stalking you back. It’s not my fault you do so much dangerous mafia shit; you have to have erotic orgies as life insurance policies.”

“Erotic?” I smirk. “So you liked what you saw?”

“That’s what you focus on in this Ruby-could-die mess? If I loved your pierced dick?”

My smirk explodes. “Oh, so you loved my dick.”

“Please,” she scoffs, “I have a strict two-at-a-time policy, so your solo jeweled jawbreaker doesn’t impress me.”

Fuck, I didn’t want to know that.I. Did. Not. Want. To. Know. That.Now I’m going to have to find out who they were and kill them.

Rare jealousy torches through me, and damn, it burns the happy smirk off my face like napalm.

Suddenly, I can’t even imagine our ritual with Ruby. I’d kill one of my brothers for initiating her.

Never did I feel this way for Katya. When we initiated her, she wanted it, and I didn’t mind. She insisted that all but me wear condoms, and she seemed eager, no, ravenous for my brothers. Particularly Sire. He’s dirty with his breeding kink, and Katya got off on it.

All the while, the only one I worried about was Nash. If he felt bonded, too. Not to her, but to me. That was a year after my night with Alena, and I wasn’t jealous about my wife being initiated by my brothers, including Nash.

I was worried I’d lose Nash, my best friend, if he ever found out I had lain with his daughter.

But how can Ruby be my queen if I don’t share her? It’s one time, one night, one sacred initiation, and I believe in it. It’s worked so far, and yet…

I will burn the world down if someone touches Ruby.

Past, present, and future; she’s mine.

I feel her studying my profile, reading my raging silence. Does she care that I’m jealous? Does she know that hurt my heart, and it fucking surprises me?

“But I didn’t love them,” she softly explains. “Sort of like you and Wren. It wasn’t love. It was sex, and honestly, it’s been a minute. I’ve been solo for months.” Huh, sounds like she cares. “Not like it’s your business.”

Sounds like she keeps her pride, too.

It’s what I admire about her the most.

I don’t reply. I let my rage evaporate as I park in front of her apartment and wait in my car while she gets her things. When she appears, tugging one suitcase behind her, I get out to help her.

“Where’s the rest?” I’m shocked. Katya had a lot of baggage. Obviously.

“This is all I own.”

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