“We can leave today,” I said, once I'd caught my breath. It really didn't make sense to draw out my leaving. “But we can't do this anymore. Once we're back with the pack, we need to be totally platonic. I don't want anyone getting any ideas about us.” When I said anyone, I meant me, because I was having ideas and I didn't like them.
“Of course,” he said. “I appreciate your willingness to leave today.”
He sounded not the least bit disappointed that he wouldn't be having sex with me again. His response did not annoy me. Not even a little bit. It was good we were on the same page.
We got up. I showered while he made breakfast, and he left to trade his sports car for a truck while I packed.
He returned an hour later, his eyes a bit wild. “I think we've got a problem,” he said, slamming the door behind him as though the hounds of hell were on his tail.
“What's the problem?”
“There was a small crowd outside the hotel when I left. When I got back, there were more of them. People with cameras. They followed me into the garage and two of them tried to follow me onto the elevator. They were asking about your injuries.”
I dropped my head into my hands. I wasn't a huge celebrity by any means. I was a fighter, but I'd also had a cameo in a movie and been in the music video of a hugely popular pop star. I'd also been in a few commercials. People recognized me, but I didn't typically have to worry about reporters or paparazzi. They were usually after bigger stars.
I grabbed my phone from the dining room table where I'd left it. I hit the Internet and typed in my name. “Aw, shit.” They had pictures of me in the club, dancing, both of my arms bare of casts with a caption asking about my injury. They were suggesting I'd faked my injury? What the hell? Had they even watched the fight? I threw the phone down in disgust and frustration. Damn it, not only was my career over, now my reputation was shot.
Axel grabbed my phone and started scrolling through it, his brow creased. “Uh, sweetheart—”
“I'm not your fucking sweetheart.”
“Clearly, but this guy thinks you're his.”
He passed the phone over and I saw a picture of me in my underwear in a bathroom stall. “Mother fucker.”
“Not to judge, but how the fuck did he get that picture?”
Axel's jaw was tensed so tight I could barely understand him. Somehow it made me feel a tiny bit better that he was more pissed than I was. “I was trying to get in the mood. I may have closed my eyes.” I looked at the picture again, yep, my eyes were closed.
Strong arms wrapped around my waist. “Were you picturing me, sweetheart?”
“So not the time for this.” I elbowed him in the gut. He chuckled like I hadn't hurt him at all, but he let me go. I scrolled past the picture to skim the article. “Super human strength…Aggressive…Tried to…What? He's saying I tried to kill him? Does he know who I am? If I'd wanted him dead, he'd be dead.”
“Pretty sure he knew who you were, sweetheart. That's why he took the picture.”
“Argh. Stop calling me sweetheart.”
He grabbed the phone from my hand and scrolled. “They got pictures of me leaving with you.” There was a smug satisfaction in his voice.
“Of course, they did,” I said, my teeth clenched now. “That's how they knew to follow you.”
He nodded, still scrolling. “Damn, this is a great picture of the two of us. If I copy it, can I save it to your phone?”
I ripped the phone from his hands and threw it on the couch. “Will you focus?”
He wasn't looking at me. He walked to the window and looked down at the paps. “Maybe we should give them what they want. We can walk around the city together, looking all cute, and make it clear you belong to me.”
I stared at him in disbelief. What the hell was wrong with him? I chucked a throw pillow at him and hit him in the back of the head. He spun to face me, grinning like a kid at the carnival. “Good idea, right?”
I shook my head. “Clearly sex has affected your brain and you're of no use to me. Go sit in the corner while the adults plan a way out of this mess.”
He turned back to the window and waved to the paps, who were probably taking his picture. I marched over there, pulled the curtains closed and shoved him toward the corner. He must have expected it, because he'd planted his feet and didn't move at all.
His frown dropped when a buzzing sounded from his pants. He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and groaned. “Darius,” he said, phone to his ear.
He rolled his eyes, grabbed my waist and pulled me tight against his side. “I have her right here with me and I can guarantee she's not going to do—”
He paused, listening. I struggled against his grip, but he held me tight. “Yeah, in hindsight going out to the club was a mistake, but the gossip rags just think she faked her injury. No one believes she actually healed.” He paused again and slid his hand under the waistband of my pants onto my bare ass. I kicked him hard in the shin and he let me go, wincing. “It's under control, Darius. We're going back to Mule Creek today. Julie's dealt with reporters before, she knows how to dodge them.” He paused, drumming his fingers against his thigh. “Talk to Julie? She's in the shower right now, but I can have her call you when she's out — No? Okay. I'll give you a ring when we're back in Mule Creek…Yeah, man…Bye.”
Axel hung up and shook his head. “That man is higher strung than a chihuahua on crack.” He dropped onto the couch and faced me. “Want to come over here and sit on my lap?”
He looked so good, his legs spread wide, the bulge in his pants at full attention, I was tempted, but sex was how we'd gotten into all this trouble in the first place. “Talking to Darius turned you on?”
He frowned, dropped his arms, and crossed them over his chest. “Bad mood, sweetheart?”
Gah, as soon as we got out of this mess, I was going to hog tie him, cover him in honey, and put him on top of an ant hill. “We need a plan. A way to get out of here without being spotted, because they will follow us all the way back to Mule Creek, and I've got no good ideas about how to lose them.”
He shrugged. “We'll just go out the back way. You finish packing, and I'll keep an eye on the gossip sites.”
I rolled my eyes. “They know all the back ways, genius. We need a real plan.”
“Don't you have a standard procedure for this sort of thing?”
“Uh-huh,” I said, slowly, like I was talking to a baby. “I call my agent and she sends a car to get me away. Except I'm usually just trying to get to a different place in the city, I'm not trying to escape my own home and run away to a hick town where I'll never be seen again.”
Axel frowned and I could see it was finally sinking in just how trapped we were. “Maybe we should fake your death. That way we could be sure they'd never find you.”
I widened my eyes and tilted my head to the side. “You're so cute. It's like you were raised by conspiracy theorists or screenwriters.”
He grinned. “You think I'm cute?”
His crazy must have been contagious, because I almost smiled. “I think we need an actual plan, and you are useless.”
I grabbed my phone from the couch and dodged his gropey hands, biting my lip not to smile at his antics. Leave it to him to make me smile when we were in shit up to our necks. I dialed Shelly. “You seen the gossip news?” I asked as soon as she answered.
“Nope,” she said. “I'm sort of working.”
Just one more reason I loved Shelly. She could be in the middle of giving a massage and she'd answer when I called. Bad for her business, probably, but great for me. “We're surrounded by paparazzi and I need a way out that they can't follow. I'm moving to Mule Creek with Axel.”
She was dead silent for several long minutes. “Will I be able to visit you there?”
I looked over at Axel and he nodded. Had he heard that all the way over there? “Just her,” he said. “Not the wife.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Of course.” I'd negotiate the wife.
/> “Okay. The paparazzi know I'm your best friend, so if I show up it will draw suspicion…Let me make a few phone calls. You get ready to go.”
“I'll be ready.” I'd be ready, but I'd have to leave behind pretty much everything I owned. There was no way we'd get moving boxes past the paparazzi.
I hung up and started pacing. “Did she have an idea?” Axel asked.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Then you should probably finish packing.”
I stopped and looked at him. “I'm packed.” I pointed out the suitcase that was already next to the door. It had my laptop, warm clothes, and toiletries in it. It was all I could reasonably take.
Axel eyed the bag and sobered. “I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know this must be hard for you.”
I ignored him and his unreasonable empathy and went back to pacing. I was halfway through my fifteenth lap when Axel grabbed me and pulled me onto his lap. He wrapped his arms tight around me and it felt so good that I didn't have the energy to fight him.
***
Shelly called me half an hour later. “A man in a dark cap will knock on your door in two minutes. You can trust him. Go with him and do whatever he says.”
I smiled at her serious tone. “Ten-four. The eagle has landed.”
“What?”
“We'll go with him. Thanks, Shelly. I love you.”
“Love you, too, babe. I'll miss your stubborn ass.”
I hung up and spun on Axel's lap to tell him what she said. “I heard,” he said. “Werewolf hearing. Yours will get stronger every time you shift.”
A knock sounded at the door. Axel stood with me in his arms and set me on my feet. I opened the door to a teenager in a dark cap and a t-shirt with the logo of the local flower shop. “Are you old enough to drive?”
He smirked with way too much attitude, even for a punk kid. “I'm saving your ass, aren't I?”
Behind me, Axel chuckled.
“Let's go,” I said, fighting a smile. I grabbed my suitcase and followed the kid. I didn't even fight too much when Axel entwined his fingers with mine and held on tight.
The kid led us to a freight elevator. “This is the way I come up when I make flower deliveries,” he said.
I followed him onto the elevator. “How do you know Shelly?”
“She orders a shit-ton of flowers for her spa and her wife. I see her all the time. She's good people.”
“What's the plan?” I asked as the elevator doors slid open to reveal a delivery van parked directly in front of us, the back doors open.
“I'm getting you to the nearest car rental joint. That's what Shelly said.”
I looked at Axel to see if he had a better plan, but he shook his head. “Okay, then,” I said. “Let's go.”
Axel and I climbed into the back of the delivery van and sat on the cold metal floor. It smelled like flowers and stale water and had no windows. “Stay as far back as you can,” the kid said. “In case they can see in through the front windows.”
He slammed the door shut and, a moment later, got into the driver's seat. “Hold on tight,” he said, grinning back at us.
There was nothing to hold onto, but Axel wrapped an arm around my shoulders like he could hold me in place. The kid started the engine and ripped out of there so fast we both went sliding to the other side of the van. “Hey,” I shouted at him. “Drive like you always do or they'll get—”
But it was too late, he'd already pulled out onto the street, likely drawing the attention of every pap within a two-block radius. Axel and I slid to the other side of the van and then against the back doors as he floored it.
“This was a better idea than faking your death?” Axel asked, pulling me tight against him like he could protect me from the idiot driving the delivery van from hell.
“Still do,” I said as we slid back to the other side of the van.
Luckily, there was a rental car place just a couple miles from my condo. The kid let us out of the van and rushed off without a word of apology for his insane driving. Axel and I looked around and didn't see any paparazzi, so we hurried inside. I rented a sensible, basic truck - I'd have to ask Shelly to sell my car — and we left LA as fast as we could.
On the way out of the city, Axel called the rental company he'd used and told them where to pick up the truck he'd gotten for my move that was no longer happening. That done, he leaned back in the seat and started fiddling with the radio dial. I didn't complain, since we'd already established that we liked the same music. And we rode to Colorado in relative peace, only stopping three times to eat and making it back to Mule Creek just as the sun rose on a new day. My butt was sore, my stomach was growling, and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open by the time we rolled into town. Axel and I had taken turns driving, but it had been a long drive and I was beat.
I hit the blinker to turn onto Krista's road. “Keep straight,” Axel said. “You can't stay with Krista while she's under house arrest.”
My stomach sank. Was I homeless now, too? “Where can I stay? Is there a hotel around here?”
He snorted. “You can stay with me until you get your own place.”
“With you?” My heart picked up speed with something like panic. “That seems like a really bad idea. Surely there's someone looking for a roommate or a couch mate or something.”
“This is a small town. Most all the rooms are full and no one here knows you, they wouldn't want a stranger in their space.”
“What about Clarissa?” I asked. “She knows me, sort of. Does she have room?”
“Not unless you like sleeping in the bathtub. Here, turn left. Plus, Clarissa keeps odd hours and she's…Well, you don't want to live with her. Just come home with me and we'll find you a place to live as soon as we can.”
I felt sure I was missing something, but I was exhausted. We'd figure it out later. “Fine.”
“Here,” he said a few moments later. “Pull into this driveway.”
I pulled in and gazed up at the small log cabin. It didn't look much bigger than my condo. “This is the alpha's digs?”
“Don't need much,” he said. “It suits me.”
He got out and grabbed my suitcase from the trunk in the same time it took me to work my stiff body out of the driver's seat, stand, and stretch. “Come on in,” he said. He grabbed my hand, but I jerked it away. This all felt like too much. I was in his town and I was about to be in his house. It felt like a relationship and I didn't do relationships with big, gruff mountain men. Axel and I might be sexually compatible, but that's all it was. I would stay in Mule Creek until I got my wolf under control and then I'd move on. Until then, I needed some space.
He led the way into his house and it wasn't any bigger on the inside than it had looked on the outside. There was a decent-sized kitchen with an island, but no dining room table or couch, just a king-sized bed and a big-screen T.V. “Um,” I said, looking around. “Where am I going to sleep?”
He gestured to the bed. “There's plenty of room for both of us. You ready for bed now or do you want to eat first?”
“Food first. You got anything that won't take long to make?”
He nodded and headed into the kitchen. He pulled a plastic container out of the fridge, sniffed it, and held it out to me. “Smells like lasagna. Sound good?”
“Don't you know what you have in your own fridge?”
His cheeks pinked a bit. “The older ladies in town worry I'm not eating enough. They keep my fridge stocked.”
“How nice for you.” I'd noticed he'd dropped eye contact when he'd said older ladies. I had a feeling the older ladies weren't the only ones who cooked for him, but that didn't bother me. Not. At. All.
He stuck the container in the microwave and I found plates and silverware and set them on the island. He poured us each a glass of water and dished the lasagna onto our plates when it had finished heating up.
I stuffed a big bite in my mouth and nearly mouth-gasmed. “Oh, my gaw.” I chewed and swallowed. “Who made tha
t? It is amazing.”
Axel rubbed the back of his neck and forked up some food. “Might be Ella Mae,” he said, before he shoved the food in.
“You'll have to introduce me to her,” I said. “I'd love to get her recipe.”
Axel almost choked on his lasagna, making it clear that Ella Mae was interested in more than just his eating habits. He swallowed and took a long drink of water. “You hate to cook.”
I shrugged. “Like you said, I'm going to have to learn. I can't get take-out here.”
“I can cook for you,” he said, the urgency in his voice making me bite my lip not to laugh.
“I'd rather learn to cook for myself,” I said. “It's not like you'll be around to cook for me every night once I get my own place.”
“I can teach you,” he said. “You don't need to talk to Ella Mae.”
We finished our meal in silence, me brooding on this Ella Mae and what the hell she thought cooking for Axel was going to get her. Wondering what it might have already gotten her. I stuffed in another bite of pasta and forced the thoughts from my head. Axel could do whatever he wanted with whoever he wanted.
We finished eating, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and took turns in the bathroom to brush our teeth and get ready for bed. I went last in the bathroom and emerged wearing only a lacy thong and a t-shirt that was just barely long enough to cover my bra-less tits. I sashayed into the room and it only took Axel ten seconds to grab me and show me how much he liked my outfit. Suck on that, Ella Mae.
***
I woke up to late afternoon sunlight streaming in through the window and warming my bare skin where the sheets didn't cover me. I stretched and reached, without thought, for Axel, but I was alone in the bed, his side chilly. Shivering as my feet hit the cold floor, I stood and walked over to my suitcase. I grabbed some clothes and carried them with me into the bathroom. My stomach grumbled at me, but it would have to wait. Quickly, I showered, dressed, and put some product in my curls, letting them tumble loose.
I needed a work-out, a run and a couple hours in a gym, but I needed to find food and Axel first. His house was small enough that I knew he wasn't inside and his fridge was as empty as his house. There were none of those magical plastic containers like the one he'd found last night. There weren't even eggs or milk in there. My stomach increased its growling.
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