Protector of the Pride (Lions of Pride Island Book 3) (9 page)

“Just take me to the oracle,” Axel said. “I don’t need small talk.”

“Bad day, right?” Isaac said with a grin. “My kind of day, really, beating up an asshole.”

“I get the feeling your enjoyment of beatings isn’t limited only to assholes,” Axel said warily.

“Maybe,” the man said. “I do enjoy destroying things. Almost as much as I enjoy wenches.”

Axel winced. What the fuck? Was this man from the middle ages?

“Your wench is perfect. Sweet, curvy. Except, from what I hear, you aren’t allowed to pick her.” His grin widened, showing sharpened incisors. “If you want, I’ll pick up where you left off.”

Axel clenched his hands into fists. He couldn’t afford to get riled up. He also knew this douche with a collar had zero chance of getting to Lucy. Over his dead body.

He stayed silent. He’d had a lot of douchebags try to provoke him over the years, he wasn’t going to let them now. He leaned back against the seat, taking long, relaxing breaths and retreating into his mind. “Let me know when we’re there.”

“
O
f all the
people I expected to be in this situation, I never thought it would be you, Axel.”

Axel looked up from his chair as the oracle entered the room. He’d been waiting for several minutes, and when she appeared, she had Isaac the Neanderthal right beside her. Looking much more reserved with her right there.

She had a hold on him all right.

Axel glanced at the collar again. “What are you doing with him?” He’d never known her to chain anybody. She had tremendous power, but he’d never seen her use it that way.

“I’ll explain that in a minute,” she said, taking a seat at the desk in front of him. “After you explain what you’re doing as future king.”

Axel sighed. He leaned back in the too-small chair, wondering if there was even a way to explain it. He’d just done what he wanted to, damn the consequences. He folded his arms.

“Axel,” she said, her voice placating. “I know you. You want to do what’s right, always. You’re a good man. So tell me what’s going on that I had to hear about you punching a civilian while you were out in public at an amusement park, wearing Hawaiian clothes.”

“Not much to answer,” he said. “You have most of it.”

She tucked her hair back. She could change her hair color and style at a whim and often did. Today it was dark purple. But her eyes were the usual misty gray, startlingly sharp and youthful despite her aged, grandmotherly face. Like she could see right through him.

It had always felt that way to Axel, anyway.

She stood out of her chair and walked around him. Her office was filled with beautiful, antique wood furnishings. Timeless, just like her. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Axel, you’ve always been my responsible one. My rock. So what happened?”

He was silent, still processing his thoughts.

“And does it have anything to do with that sexy secretary I sent you a few months ago?”

He sat up straight. “I knew it. You sent her. I—”

“I wouldn’t make any assumptions if I were you,” she said, going back to her seat. A little chill ran up Axel’s back as she watched him with those gray eyes. “I didn’t say she was your mate. I haven’t told you who it is yet.”

“Then when will you tell me?” he asked.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” she said.

Axel heard a snort from Isaac and gritted his teeth together. “Now, are you going to tell me who that clown is?”

“One of the original dragons,” she said. “We were keeping them on ice. This one is from the medieval period.”

“That would explain his talk of wenches. But why?”

She shrugged. “Just exploring our options. Don’t worry about it for now. I’m still working out the kinks.”

Axel looked at the collar. “I’d say so.”

She grinned. “Back to you. What are you doing? And don’t avoid my question again. It wouldn’t be wise.”

Axel dropped his hand onto his knee. “I’m sorry. I’m just exploring something. Lucy and I are attracted to each other, and she pointed out that even when I am assigned a mate, I don’t exactly know what to do with her.”

The oracle leaned back. “I’m not averse to you dating. I never was. My one concern is that you would defy me, think that you could know better or seek to contradict my orders.”

He swallowed. Would he defy her for Lucy? He wasn’t sure.

“I hope you would understand the consequences of that,” she said.

“I would,” he said. Losing the country. Losing everything he and his brothers had worked for. Everything he’d never asked to handle, but now treasured because he always had. He couldn’t just let that go.

But after today, he knew he couldn’t just let Lucy go either.

“Couldn’t you just make her my mate?” he asked impulsively.

She sat up straight, glaring at him. “Are you suggesting I bend my complex assessment based on my gift of prophecy so that you can mate with someone you think is hot? No, I don’t think so.”

“That’s right,” Isaac muttered from his position at the back of the room. “You aren’t exactly big on letting people do what they want.”

“Say that again when you aren’t at risk of burning villages,” she snapped, shutting the other man up.

Axel tried not to grin and failed.

“Wipe that grin off your face, asshole,” Isaac called out.

Axel stood. “You will not address your king like that.”

“You aren’t king yet,” she said. “And you won’t be if you don’t stay in line with what’s expected of you.”

He gritted his teeth, frustrated. “I have been acting as king since my father died. And I will act that way until I am removed from the position. And until I give you reason to do that, I expect you to not let your employees insult me.”

He also still hadn’t forgotten Isaac’s crude comment about Lucy. He doubted he and the other man would ever get along.

“Apologize,” the oracle said.

The man frowned. “No.”

She raised a finger, and he twitched.

“I’m sorry,” he said bluntly.

Axel sat down again. “No problem.” Then he looked at the Oracle. “I’m not going to cause problems with you. And I’m going to call the press and fix things up.”

“We already have our PR people on it. But you can’t screw up again.”

“I won’t,” Axel said. “I’ll keep it inside the castle.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Given that I could pick a mate for you any moment, isn’t that a little reckless?”

“She knows I’ll do anything for my country,” Axel said. “Besides, she doesn’t want me. So you have nothing to worry about.” He stood. “Was there anything else?”

She shook her head.

He jerked a thumb at Isaac. “I expect a report on what’s going on here. You may be our prophetess, but I’m still responsible for safety and keeping tabs on the dragons. If you are going to go forward with… whatever this is… then I need to know.”

She waved a hand. “All in good time. I think you’ll see the wisdom in it soon enough.”

He frowned. “Okay. But if it’s all right with you, I’m going to call my driver to bring me home.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine, Axel. Everything will be fine if you just do what you’re supposed to.”

That rankled, but there was nothing he could do about it. There was something shrewd in the old woman’s eyes, and he felt she was hiding something from him.

But he’d been the one to break her trust with his actions, so he had no place to throw stones.

“I’ll be at the castle the next few days for sure,” he said. “I always am, but yeah. If you need me, just call.”

She nodded and then got up, came around the desk, and hugged him. He sank into it. Despite their occasional arguments, she’d been a surrogate mother since he lost both his parents. “You’re a good man, Axel. Stay the course.”

Axel nodded and then stood up as she released him. “I will.” He didn’t even acknowledge Isaac as he walked from the room, pulling out his phone to call the driver.

He
would
stay the course. The course he had lately been on: following his heart.

* * *

“
W
here’s Lucy
?”

Lucy heard Axel’s deep voice in the main hallway and hurried out of her room to see him walking toward her. His posture was cool, relaxed, composed.

But there were stress lines under his eyes that said everything wasn’t going as great as it could be.

“What’s going on?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Just weird things with the Oracle,” he said. “Nothing that new.” He ran his hand through his hair and loosened his tie. “It’s been a long day I guess. Things going okay with you?”

“I didn’t let anything happen to her, if that’s what you mean,” Cain said, walking forward.

“Good,” Axel replied. “Sorry for keeping you. Give my regards to Brenna.”

“Your apologies, you mean,” Cain said, looking at his phone. But his tone was still good natured. “You gonna be okay?”

Axel nodded. “Nothing I haven’t heard before. And the PR machine is already hard at work, repairing the public damage.”

Cain nodded. “Sorry you have to deal with all this shit. I mean, I’m used to screaming crowds at my events, and Beau is, too, but we’re performing then. You were just trying to have a date.”

“Yeah, well, nothing is normal when it comes to me. It’s fine.” He turned to Lucy. “I’m going to head up for a bath and go to bed. Is there anything you need from me?”

He saw disappointment flash across her face but knew it was probably best if they went their separate ways tonight. He had a lot to think about after his appointment with the Oracle, and she had already said earlier that she didn’t want anything serious.

They’d said they were going to slow down a bit, right? After the date?

And since he already felt pretty serious about her, he didn’t think sex was a good idea.

Even if it felt like his body was tearing to pieces, he gave her shoulder a pat and stepped back.

She looked at him like a traitor. “No. I don’t need anything, I guess.” She sighed. “I guess I’ll go to bed, too, then.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll see you in the morning, then?”

She raised an eyebrow as Cain looked between them. “Fine.” Then she turned on her heel and stormed off.

“Looks like she wasn’t ready for the night to be over,” Cain commented.

Axel watched her go with longing in his eyes. “I wasn’t either. But I’m trying to do the smart thing for now. Not that I even know what that is anymore. Did you know the Oracle found more dragons?”

Cain’s eyes widened, and he pushed his longish hair back from his cheeks. “No. Seriously?”

“I don’t know much about it. Old dragons or something. And this one wasn’t in a pair.”

“Weird,” Cain said. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that. I know she just tries to take care of us. She’s the one who set up the dragon system as it is, so we can probably trust her.”

“I don’t know,” Axel said. “This is different. She might be in over her head.”

Cain let out a hoarse laugh as he walked to the front door, Axel following. “Dude, I think you have other things to worry about. You’re the one in over
your
head. You need to get your priorities straight.”

“They’re straight,” he said. Or they sort of were. But as he gripped his brother and brought him in for a one-armed hug, he felt uneasy about it.

All his life, one thing had been important to him above all others, and now it wasn’t that simple anymore.

He didn’t just treasure his country. He treasured Lucy. And that was dangerous for a man who was the only person standing between evil and the throne.

He took the stairs two at a time up to his bedroom. He’d never so looked forward to a bath.

L
ucy tried
to stay in her room and respect Axel’s decision. She really did.

The problem was she really didn’t want to.

She could hear the water running upstairs, imagine Axel’s lean, muscled body stretched out inside a tub, and the lioness in her growled to go up there.

“I can’t,” she said to herself. “We’re slowing it down. We said so.”

And he’d gone and gotten in trouble with the Oracle over their little fling.

What was wrong with her? From the moment she’d come to work here, she’d known he didn’t belong to her. That he couldn’t. And that she herself wasn’t looking for anything long term. Just to skate through life without much connection.

But that wasn’t looking so great anymore. It was looking really lonely.

She put her hand on the doorknob and hesitated. She looked down at the silky pajamas she’d put on under her dress robe. She’d showered while Axel had been gone, hoping for a little something when he got back. She knew they had to cut things off, but what was one more night together if they had to say good-bye anyway?

She paced, taking her hand off the knob. Even if one more time would feel great together, would it just end up hurting them more in the long run?

She crept out of her room and walked up the long stairs and down the private hallway to his room at the end.

She stopped within a few steps of it and hesitated. She brushed her hair back over her shoulder and took a deep breath. Then she put her hand on the handle and rested it there lightly. Her heart felt like a jackhammer.

This was Axel. The stressed-out, funny boss she’d gotten to know, with the unexpected tender side and a giant protective streak, if today was any indication.

Any woman who got to be with him would be lucky. The luckiest. As long as she took care of him in turn.

Lucy dropped her hand from the doorknob. What was she doing? Being selfish like always?

When Axel had talked to her at the park about being mated, she’d seen the hope flickering in his eyes. Hope she knew couldn’t come to fruition because of everything between them. A million things in their way. Her heritage being only one of them.

He still hoped the Oracle would pick her as a mate.

She knew that was basically impossible.

And she would never force Axel to pick between his country and his heart.

Why had she started any of this in the first place?

She knew the right thing to do. Pack up her things and get out of here before either Axel or her could get really screwed up by the situation.

But she couldn’t leave without saying good-bye.

She knocked on the door and waited. A few minutes later, she heard the padding of footsteps, and then the door opened. Axel stood behind it, breathtakingly handsome, with a towel around his hips. He was still damp from the bath, water dripping from his hair and running down around his perfect pecs and rippled abs. Truly an impressive specimen.

But he was more than that to her now. She cared about him. It was as plain as the gold sparkling in his eyes.

“We talked about this—”

But she cut him off, going up on tiptoe to press her lips against his, moving them both into the room as she kicked the door shut behind them.

He finally pulled his lips back, breathing heavily. “Lucy…”

“Shut up,” she said. “This is the last one.” She kissed him again, backing him up toward the bed, the lioness in her begging for more. When his legs hit the back of his bed, he fell back onto it and scooted back, and she followed with him, stealing kisses all the way.

He got into it, kissing her back, his hands running over her curves under the robe.

He’d never been able to turn her down.

When they were fully back on the bed, her straddling him, looking down into his gorgeous eyes, a muscle twitched in his jaw.

“We never seem to be able to do the right thing here,” he said. “Do we?”

“We can do the right thing tomorrow,” she said. “At least in your case, you’ve done the right thing all your life. You deserve a break.”

“Tomorrow, huh?” he asked, biting his lip. But then his strong hand reached up and caught her behind the neck, pulling her down for another harsh kiss. As they kissed, he reversed their positions, flipping her under him and pinning her hands.

Dominant Axel was out. She licked her lips, and he laughed, pressing her hands back into the bed.

“I love the way you look at me,” he said.

“Ditto that.”

I love you
, was the thought that hung in the air between them. It couldn’t be spoken. Once it was, they couldn’t go back. And she intended to leave just as soon as this interlude was over. Just one more happy memory and she’d let him move on with his life.

She’d be lonely again, but that was fine. She’d been lonely before.

But she wouldn’t be lonely for the next few minutes. Axel trailed rough kisses over her shoulders, nipping and then sucking in a way that made her writhe, made wetness pool between her legs.

He pulled off her robe and then popped the buttons of her pajama top as he bared her to him. She wasn’t wearing anything under, and her breasts were fully exposed. He grabbed one with his hand, moving her two hands to his other one, and suckled it gently. Then he gave her a devious look and bit down softly, grazing the distended tip with his bottom teeth. She gasped and arched, and his eyes lit with satisfied fire.

He continued to torture the nipple, swirling his tongue around it, as the tension built and she writhed. Everything he did felt amazing. Like they were made for each other.

Would he feel that way with his mate? Jealousy surged through her, and she tried not to think about it.

He let go of her hands so he could run both down her body, touching and memorizing every curve. There was an urgency to his movements, like he was feeling the pressure between them as well and wanted to take as much as he could get.

He had a serious look in his eyes, like he was memorizing the moment.

He brought his mouth down to her belly button, gripping both of her hips as his tongue swirled inside it. She gasped and gripped his hair, loving the damp feel of it.

His mouth started to trail lower, and she opened her legs, totally willing.

He gave her another grin and grabbed her hands, pinning them to her sides as he lowered his tongue to her wet center and gently stroked.

“Axel,” she cried out in shock. But he didn’t let her go. Instead, he deepened his kiss on her most sensitive area, sealing his mouth over it and Frenching it intensely.

She’d never felt anything so warm, so wet, and so wonderful. She struggled against his hands, wanting to grab something with her arms. Do anything to expel the tension.

But it was nice having him hold her. She was forced to feel every sensation, every deft lick of his tongue, every gentle press of his lips as he worked his way along the inside of her thighs and then came back to kiss her center again.

She was so close now, pulling desperately at his hold on her, body struggling to keep everything back as she felt herself close to the edge, threatening to burst over.

When he lowered his mouth in a last, reverent kiss, she erupted, pleasure rippling through her body, spreading out to her fingers and toes, to every part of her, as she closed her eyes and screamed into the total darkness behind her eyelids.

Her eyes flew open as he licked her, stoking her orgasm as she struggled against him, overwhelmed by the feelings rushing through her. Unending pleasure, so intense it was almost painful, and the feeling that he was her
mate
. That he belonged to her.

He let out a growl and started in on her again, and she jerked a hand from his hold and bit down on it. He let her, too involved in getting her off, in kissing her voraciously, eagerly seeking another orgasm.

Her body burst again, sending tingles to her toes, the top of her head, filling her with sensation that was too great to bear. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

She said his name over and over again in her mind, unwilling to say it out loud. To cry out his name would be to admit everything. How far she had fallen. How hopeless it was. How much she loved him.

He raised his head in triumph and looked at her possessively, and she felt something in her break.

She pushed at him, and at first he didn’t let her up. But then she pushed again, and he sat back, perplexed.

She felt tears bite the corners of her eyes and turned away, letting her curly hair fall over her face, hiding her.

He reached for her, gently holding her chin between two fingers. She wouldn’t look at him.

“Lucy, look at me. What’s wrong? Did I do something I shouldn’t have?”

She glared at him, knowing she looked red-eyed and strange, especially with aftershocks of her orgasm still moving through her. She softened her expression. “No. You did nothing wrong. I just… I can’t do this anymore.”

She pushed off the bed and grabbed her robe, pulling it on.

He sat back on the bed with a huff, watching her in puzzlement. “Was it me? Was I too rough? I thought you liked it.”

“I loved it,” she said hoarsely. “That’s the problem. I liked it too much.”

He stood, but she put up a hand and backed up. “No. Axel, if you care about me at all, you’ll let this go now. You’ll give me my space and not come after me. I need to think.”

His eyebrows lowered, but before she could see what he made of that, she had the belt of her robe tied and ran out of the room.

She shut the door behind her and ran down the stairs, not stopping until she was inside her room. She leaned against her closed door, breathing heavily, and then ran to her closet and pulled out her suitcase and started throwing things into it.

She had to leave now. She couldn’t even wait one more night.

Having him do that to her made it all too clear that even one more encounter would wreck her. She’d underestimated him in a big way. Underestimated how easy it was to fall in love with Axel Hunt.

She shouldn’t have, given that half the country was in love with him.

But where would she go? The mainland maybe? Anywhere she could hide without Axel finding her. She’d let him know she was okay. She didn’t want to worry him.

She stuffed her things in the suitcase and pushed it down, forcing the zipper. It wasn’t everything, but she could write for the rest later.

For now, she just had to go. She picked up the phone in her room and took a deep breath. Then she called a cab. She changed into good travel clothes. Black yoga pants and a gray zip hoodie, pulling the hood over her head so she wouldn’t be too obvious.

She got a text notification from her phone that the cab had arrived, and she took her suitcase in hand.

She opened her door, peeked out of it, and looked both ways. Then she crept toward the front door.

No sound from Axel’s room.

She wasn’t surprised he wasn’t chasing her. Not with what she’d said to him. He’d always respected her boundaries. He’d always respected everyone’s.

That was part of his problem. He put everyone’s needs above his own. Now, for once, she was going to do the right thing and put his needs above hers. Because she knew they couldn’t end up mates, and he didn’t. She knew there was no hope and didn’t want to see his hopes dashed.

The sooner she got out of his life, the better.

She got to the front door, disarmed the alarm, and timed it to go back on in ten minutes and then quietly opened the door and then shut it behind her.

Still no sound from Axel, but she wasn’t going to test it. Looking back at the castle one last time, she stumbled forward into a run for the gate. Once she got through it, the cab would be just behind.

Not a problem.

She turned back to face where she was going just in time to bump into something solid and warm and hard.

She took a few steps back, panting, and stared up at the man in front of her.

A shiver went down her spine. He didn’t look like any cab driver she’d ever seen, with that huge body, that foreboding look on his handsome, rugged face, and that cruelty in his dark eyes.

He had longish hair like some old-fashioned Viking, except it was dark, and he was wearing an odd necklace of some kind. It almost looked like a collar. Maybe with all the leather he was wearing, it was some kind of BDSM thing.

Regardless, if he was the driver, she didn’t want to get in his car. She looked around them, realizing he’d appeared out of nowhere. The gate was still closed. How had he gotten in? The fence was high and spiked and alarmed if someone breached the top.

You’d have to be able to fly to get over it,
she thought with a scoff.

“Who are you?” she asked quietly. “You aren’t my driver.”

He blinked, and a cruel grin spread over his lips. “No. But I am here to take you somewhere.”

She stepped back. “I’m not going.”

“Too bad.” He closed the distance between them in a split second, covering her mouth and holding her up against him like a rag doll, preventing her from even uttering a squeak.

He looked up at the castle for a moment, listening, scenting the air. His grip was iron. She was a lioness, and not a weak one at that, but struggling against him would be like fighting a marble wall.

“Shh,” he said. “Looks like no one noticed.” He looked down at her scared eyes. “Guess princey face doesn’t care as much as he thought he did.”

She wriggled in his arms, offended at his words on Axel’s behalf, but the man was already turning his back on the castle and looking up at the gate in front of them. Then his gaze went higher, to the sky.

What the hell?

She heard a whoosh and then flapping and looked side to side to see giant wings had extended on either side of him, scaly and shimmery and so wide. They began to flap, making the air move in bursts toward the grass, flattening it.

As they slowly lifted off, shock moved through her. A dragon. She was with a fucking dragon. And more to the point, he could semi-shift.

Even more to the point, he looked primeval.

As they shot into the air and easily cleared the gate, moving toward the mountains in the distance, she struggled hard to free her mouth. She tried to look back at the castle, sending a silent call for help. She could turn her head enough to see her suitcase lying in the grass alone, the only clue she was gone.