ROMANCE: SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE: Dragon Baller's Bride (Dragon Shifter Alpha Male Romance) (Paranormal Romantic Suspense) (57 page)

J
ulie rode
away from the motel in a squad car. She saw Axel's truck in the parking lot, but he was nowhere to be seen, thank goodness. She should have turned Axel in. That would have been the best thing for him. Maybe a little time in jail would have scared him straight. She sighed and closed her eyes, she just couldn't do that to him. If only she didn’t care so much maybe she could do the right thing. She just couldn't seem to stop caring.

The cops fed her while they were taking her statement. The tall brown haired officer who brought the food said she looked as if she was about to fall over from hunger. He wasn't far wrong. She hadn't left Axel's side while he was recovering. She hadn't really slept or eaten for more than two days now.

"Why didn't you go to the cops when this guy turned bad?" asked the interrogating officer. "They've got good cops in the city."

"He would have killed me," she said. "It was easier just to leave town. I didn't think he knew where I was from. I was wrong."

She sat in the interrogation room for a long time after she gave her statement. Finally, the two men who'd questioned her came back in.

"The City PD raided his house. What they found matched what you said, so we're letting you go. I expect you'll have to testify."

Julie nodded and they led her out to the waiting room. Her mother and father were there, waiting for her. Julie and her mother burst into tears. Her father said "None of that," in an especially kind tone and took them home.

Julie spent a couple of days just eating and sleeping, until one day she woke and finally felt normal. She went downstairs to the kitchen where her mother was drinking a cup of coffee and talking to the dog.

"Well you look much better," her mom said. "How about some coffee cake?"

Coffee cake was her mother's food of choice when she wanted to discuss something. Julie sighed inwardly, she wasn't in the mood for a lecture, but she sat obediently.

"Mom," Julie said when her mother set the cake and coffee in front of her. "I think I want to go to college."

"Oh thank God," her mother said. "I've been so worried about what would happen to you. What will you study?"

"I was thinking maybe law, so I could help women like me." She saw the frown on her mother's face and forged on. "You know. Women who are abused and don't know how to get out of bad situations. But I'm just going to start by going to community college and seeing where it takes me - education wise. I don't plan on moving out of here again for a long while."

Her mother smiled. "I think that is a lovely start, Julie," she said. "Go to college and meet some nice normal people. Your father will like that."

After breakfast, Julie told her mother that she was going down to the community college to see about registering. She felt guilty as she pulled the mini-van out onto the street. She was going to the college, she hadn't lied about that, but she also should have told her mom that she was going to look for Axel. She wanted to thank him and tell him good-bye. She still really liked him, in fact she thought she was probably in love with him, but she couldn't live that life. She couldn't spend her life running from the law and seeing Axel get beaten up by rival gangs.

Julie couldn’t tell her mother that. There was no way she'd understand Julie's need to see Axel. She wouldn’t understand her need to have closure. Julie kept an eye out for Axel as she drove through the town and onto the highway, but she didn't see him. She drove 30 minutes south to the slightly larger town, San Markle, where the community college campus was housed.

Julie parked near the admissions building in a parking lot. It had rows of trees separating the rows of spaces. The whole campus was green and forested, big lawns with trees dotting the common areas. Her heart was beating with anticipation and nerves as she walked into the air-conditioned admissions building. There was a pretty blond woman behind the counter who smiled and encouraged her; the next thing Julie knew she was in a friendly office with a college advisor.

After an hour meeting with an advisor Julie, was set up with her classes. A returning student showed her around campus, pointing out the buildings where her classes would be held. They wandered into Wilson Hall where the freshman seminar would be held. Julie gaped at the size of the room.

“How many students are there in Freshman Seminar?” she asked, a small kernel of panic building inside her.

“I think we had two hundred and fifty in my Frosh class,” The girl said. “It seems big, but it’s not really. There are bunches of T.A.s to help.”

“TA?” Julie asked.

“Teacher’s Assistant. They’re pretty good at what they do.” She led the way back out into the sunshine.

Julie tried to keep the panic down. Two hundred and fifty people in one class, she was bound to fall through the cracks. The other student put a hand on her shoulder.

“Stop worrying. You’ll be fine. It’s community college, it’s their job to get you through.”

Julie felt the world start to spin around her.

“You’d better sit down!” The girl led her to a bench under a tree and gently pushed her head down between her knees. “Stay here,” she said and ran off.

Julie stayed, feeling foolish. She wondered what people were thinking as they passed by, but it wasn’t long before a paramedic was crouched in front of her taking her vital signs.

“I’m okay,” Julie said. “I’ve been under a lot of stress is all. I think I should go home now.” Julie went to get up, but the paramedic put a hand on her arm, holding her down.

“Sweetheart, your blood pressure is unstable. I want to take you in for observation.”

“But my mom’s car,” Julie cried out.

“Will be perfectly safe in the parking lot until either of you can pick it up. Now here are my team, we’re going to wheel you out of here.”

Julie assented and they strapped her onto a gurney and wheeled her to the ambulance. Julie blushed with embarrassment. This was so mortifying.

She was admitted and held at the hospital overnight. Her mother brought her toiletries and fresh clothing after her collecting the minivan from college.

“You don’t have to do this, you know, Julie,” her mom said. She was sitting on Julie’s hospital bed, holding her hand. “Your Uncle Henry needs a file girl in his office. It doesn’t pay much, but you could live at home until you get some savings built up.”

“No, mom. I’m going to college. I want a profession, not just a job. I can do this.” Julie surprised herself. There had been a time when the best she would have hoped for would have been an office job. “I am going to help women and children,” she said. “Even if it takes me ten years to get through school I’m going to do this.”

“Well okay then,” said her father, “It’s about time you starting standing up for yourself.” He punched her lightly on the shoulder. “I don’t know what happened to you in the city, but if this is the result then maybe it was worth it.”

“Don’t be silly,” her mother said. “She was in a horrible situation. How could it possibly be worth it?”

But Julie secretly thought her father was right.

She was released from the hospital the next day and took the bus down town to search for Axel. She looked in all their old haunts; the coffee shop where he asked her to drive for him, the Old Octopus – the pub where she’d first seen him drinking and coming on to the girls. She tried the carwash and the taco place, but she couldn’t find him anywhere.

She went and stood on the sidewalk outside the building where Axel lived, but she didn’t have the courage to go in. She didn’t know the apartment number and there was a scary looking guy leaning on the wall next to the door. Not a doorman more like a door thug. She stood there until the thug noticed her and started staring. Then she went home.

Julie dug in her drawer for her old cell phone, the one she’d left behind when she went to the city. She flipped it open but it was dead. She plugged it in and tried to forget about Axel, but she wanted, she NEEDED to say goodbye. To make him understand that she loved him, but she couldn’t be with him because he was a criminal. She believed he could go straight, but only if he wanted it. If he had a reason that meant something to him. She didn’t know what that reason might be, but if he could find it, he could be free.

The phone beeped, indicating that it had charged. But she had changed her mind. If she was only chasing him down because she believed deep down that he loved her and would change for her, she was destined for disappointment. Surely the city had taught her that. She threw the phone back in a drawer.

T
he first thing
Axel did after retrieving his truck at the motel was to drive to San. Markle and rent an apartment. If he was going to get out from under Eduardo, he needed a bolt hole.

Then he went back to his first apartment to assess the situation and decide what he owned that he could do without. As he packed his clothes he thought about his plan. Should he take on Eduardo or the cops first? He decided he’d better see the police chief first.

He carried his boxes and a couple of suitcases to his car. Rog, who was stationed outside the basement door, asked if he was going on a trip. “No,” Axel said, faking nonchalance he didn’t feel, “just getting rid of some stuff.”

Rog saluted and said “Carry on.”

On his way back in, Rog stopped him.

“Remember that girl you used as a driver that time?” Rog asked.

Axel nodded.

“She was standing on the sidewalk across the street from the lobby earlier today. I was going to ask what she wanted but she disappeared.”

Axel thought Rog had probably taken so long to work up the energy to walk across the street that Julia just got tired of waiting and went away.

“Don’t bother with her,” he said. “She’s not worth your time.”

Rog saluted again and Axel went up for one last sweep through his apartment. He left the most of his belongings behind, if it could be replaced it was worth it for him to look like he was still living there.

He drove to his Van Markle apartment and unloaded the car. It was important for it to look like he dropped his “trash,” while he was here. He showered and changed, thinking it would be nice to have furniture, so he paid the apartment manager to let delivery men in. Then he drove into town and stopped at a family-run store he shopped at before. He made their sales quota for the month paying for furniture as well as delivery and set up. The next time he walked into his apartment it should look like home, right down to the plates on the table.

That done, he slid back into his car, cranked the air conditioner and drove back to his hometown. He went straight to the Police Department, walked to the reception window and gave his name. Then he asked to see the chief.

Axel got a lot of satisfaction out of how quickly everyone started moving when he said his name. He was big stuff and he was about to give them even bigger stuff.

It was a near thing. Axel could tell the chief was itching to get to him, but Axel waylaid him with the offer of a bigger fish. In fact, the biggest fish in this Podunk town.

“You’ve got to let me go in first and bring Eduardo down. If I don’t assert my dominance, those ass holes will be dogging me for the rest of my life. That’s a deal breaker.”

In the end the chief agreed. They set a date a few days away to give all the parties involved time to get ready.

Next, Axel went to see a man he had been avoiding for a very long time, asked for forgiveness and got his job back. It helped when you had family on the board of trustees.

The worst of it over, he went back to the new apartment – still no furniture, not that he was surprised – and changed back into his gang clothes. Then he drove back to the old apartment and walked in like he owned the place, his senses on high alert in case there was a snitch in the police.

He laid low for several days, until the time came for action. On the day he was calling “Operation Free Axel,” he took the elevator to the top floor. As he stepped into the vestibule, he incapacitated the two guards by snapping the fingers on their trigger hands and knocking them unconscious.

He opened the door to Eduardo’s apartment and took a minute to assess the situation. There was a goon out on the roof, his back to the glass doors and Eduardo was on the couch with a different blonde than last time. Axel wondered what Eduardo’s wife thought about the revolving blondes. Axel stepped into the living room.

“Better send her to the back,” Axel said indicating the blonde, “I’ve got news.”

Eduardo jerked his head in surprised and sent the girl away.

“What’s up?” He asked.

Axel stepped forward and grabbed Eduardo’s dominant hand, breaking his fingers. Then he twisted that arm up behind Eduardo’s back and held there with the lightest of pressures on the broken digits.

“Push the panic button,” Axel said.

“Are you crazy, the boys will kill you.” Eduardo’s voice was two registers higher than normal.

“Only if they kill you first. Push the button.” Axel applied the tiniest pressure to Eduardo’s broken fingers and Eduardo quickly reached under the table and pushed the button.

The building erupted in the noise of men in heavy boots running up the stairs. As the first man burst into the room, he stopped frozen at the sight of Axel with a gun to Eduardo’s head. As more and more men arrived they pushed into the room; the front line of men being pushed closer and closer. It would’ve been humorous if Axel hadn’t known that this was freedom or death. If he got it wrong, he wouldn’t live to walk out of this room.

When the noise in the stairwells stopped, Axel performed a mental count and calculated that everyone was here. He spoke.

“Does everyone see this?” He asked in a voice so low they had to strain to hear him. Axel indicated the gun that he held to their bosses head.

The men nodded.

“Does anyone dispute that I’m now the Lord of this house?” Again his voice was low.

There was a mass headshaking this time.

“Good. I want you to know that as is my right, I am disbanding this community. Should I see any of your faces ever again, I will shoot you on sight and without question.”

Again they nodded. At that moment, the entire Police Department plus at least two more from the surrounding areas, burst in through the stairwells, the roof, the windows and even the elevator shaft.

I
t was
fall before Axel went looking for Julie, even though he knew she was nearby. He had completed his transformation, including having the worst of his tattoos removed. But not all of them, a man had to have some autonomy. He spotted Julie walking from class, freshman seminar he guessed and fell into step beside her.

Julie looked at him and smiled her polite smile, the one she reserved for strangers. He had to choke back laughter when she did a double take and stood stock still on the path.

“Axel?” She looked both pleased and frightened.

“Professor Kehoe to you.” He said sternly.

“What? Professor?” She looked around and sat on a nearby bench. “Are you really professor here?” She asked.

“Adjunct professor of criminal studies, law enforcement and prison culture,” he said. “For a start.”

“I didn’t know you were qualified,” she said, still somewhat dazed.

“Back before I fell in with the wrong crowd,” Axel said. “I’m not as uncultured as you might think.”

“I never thought you were uncultured,” she said. “You are a very cultured criminal.”

“Cultured ex- criminal,” he said pointedly.

“Really? Ex- criminal?”

“Yes.” And he held out his hand to her. “Why don’t you come back to my place and I’ll show you just how reformed I am.”

He pulled her to her feet and she threw her arms around him. When they broke apart, he walked her the three blocks to his apartment. There was so much heat between them, they could barely get through the door. He pushed her up against the wall and kissed her with all the gentleness of a werewolf at the full moon. She pushed him away.

“I tried to find you,” she said. “I wanted to tell you that I loved you, but I couldn’t live a life of crime.” She sounded sad and Axel couldn’t bear it.

“There will be none of that,” he said. He pulled her through the living room and into his bedroom, which was dominated by a king-sized bed. She got the better of him, twirled him around and pushed him backwards onto the bed, climbing on top of him. She sat on his stomach grinning down at him.

“None of what?” She asked.

“None of any of it,” he said. “No crime, no sadness, no lowlifes, no prison.”

“Good,” she said. “I won’t tolerate any of that. In fact, I think I must punish you for the crimes of the past.” She bent down and kissed him full on the lips.

Axel reached up to pull her flat against him, but she batted his hands way.

“You are forgetting this is your punishment,” she said. “Lay still.”

She unbuttoned his shirt, pushing it aside to run her fingertips over the hair on his chest. She felt him harden against her ass and liked the feeling of power over him. She licked his nipples until he writhed and bucked against her, his breath ragged.

“Stay,” she said, standing above him to shimmy out of her silk panties. He groaned as she danced overtop him until she took pity and leaned down to slide down his zipper. The movement brought her vagina inches from his face and she gasped as he slid his tongue between her labia. He sucked her clit and it was her turn to moan and writhe. The she slid his erection into her mouth and the tables were turned yet again.

She left off torturing him to sit up and say, “Enough of this,” and she turned and lowered the warmth of her vagina over his penis. She rocked her pelvis over him, moaning and gasping until he could take it no longer and bucked into her until they came together.

Julie slid down next to Axel; resting her head on his chest and he pulled her close.

“Why did you decide to give up your life of crime?” she asked. “It had to be more lucrative than teaching community college students.”

“I had my reasons,” he said softly.

She smacked him on the shoulder.

“Yes, and I’m asking what they are,” she said.

“Babe,” he said. “It was because I knew you wouldn’t have me unless I went straight. So I had to.”

“Too right,” she said crossly, smacking him sharply on the chest. “Don’t you forget it.”

But Axel could see her face in the reflection of the dresser mirror. Julie was smiling, she was his forever.