The Warrior and the Snow Leopard (The Shifter Games Book 4)

by Sloane Meyers

  “Um, earth to Axel? Are you hearing anything I’m saying?”

  Axel winced as Violet’s voice brought him back to the present moment. He’d been daydreaming about Whisper in the middle of Violet’s kitchen. Real smooth.

  “Uh, sorry. It’s been a long day already. What were you saying?”

  She gave him a funny look, then shook her head slightly and continued. “I was just saying that I don’t think there’s much we can do from over here. And it’s dangerous. All we’re going to do if we act out more is to make the Gilt Hollow soldiers even angrier than they already are.”

  “Well, submitting to the soldiers and turning the other cheek isn’t exactly working anymore. Those guys are determined to cause trouble and kill shifters. It’s time to take action.”

  Violet set a plate of food in front of Axel, then sat down across from him with another plate of her own. Axel noticed that she was wearing quite a bit of makeup, and her hair looked different, like she’d curled it or something. She was also wearing what were probably the nicest clothes she owned. Yup, she was definitely considering this as some sort of date. Or, at least as an opportunity to convince Axel that dating her was a good idea. Axel winced. He didn’t want to break Violet’s heart, but he’d made it pretty clear to her that he wasn’t interested in a relationship right now. Or, at least he thought he had. She didn’t seem to have gotten the message.

  “Please tell me you’re not going to volunteer for the front lines of this resistance,” she said as she spread butter onto a piece of toast.

  “Umm…”

  She dropped her knife with a loud clang. “You already have, haven’t you?”

  Axel felt a small rush of anger. Why did he feel like he needed to explain himself to this girl? She had no claim of ownership over him. This was his life, and he would live it the way he wanted to.

  But when he met her eyes and saw how full of fear they were, his anger softened a bit.

  “Violet, I’ll be careful. We all will be. But we have to do this. And I’m not the kind of person who can just sit back while the town I love is destroyed. I have to do something to protect my people.”

  Violet only sighed and dug into her eggs, nodding sullenly like a teenager who’d just been reprimanded. Axel was beginning to see why she was still single. She was objectively beautiful, yes. But she was also afraid of every little thing, and having any sort of relationship with her would have required constantly reassuring her that everything was fine. That could get really old really fast.

  Still, she was a nice girl, and even though he should be angry that she had already ignored his comments that there was nothing between them, he was determined to let her down easy.

  And she was determined not to let him do that.

  After breakfast, which was pleasant enough after the initial strained conversation about the resistance, Axel stood and said he needed to get going, which was true.

  “I’ve got to get to the bar and get it in reasonable shape for tonight. As reasonable as I can with all the damage the soldiers did last night, anyway. Thank you for breakfast. It was great.”

  “Well, you saved my life. It was the least I could do.”

  Axel laughed. “After a breakfast like that, I think I might owe you another life saving or two. It’s been forever since I’ve had bacon.”

  Violet smiled. “I’m glad you like it. Are you sure you have to go so soon, though? I could make more coffee.”

  “I’m sure. I appreciate the offer, but I really do need to head over to the bar. Are you coming by tonight? If you do then your first beer’s on the house.”

  Axel realized as soon as the words were out of his mouth that the offer had been a mistake. He had only intended to be polite, but the gleam that appeared in Violet’s eyes told him that she had read far more meaning in the simple offer than just politeness. She took a step toward him and looked up at him through lowered eyelashes.

  “I’d love to come by for a beer. What time does the bar close? Perhaps I could time things so that I finish up my beer just when you finish up work.”

  Axel took a step backward. “Violet, look. I don’t want to mislead you. I think you’re a great friend, but that’s it. A friend. I’m not looking for a romance right now. I offered you a beer because you’re a friend, not because I want to imply that I want there to be something more between us.”

  Violet’s face took on a hurt expression, and she frowned. “This is about Whisper, isn’t it? You’re not interested in me because of her.”

  Axel’s jaw dropped. He and Violet weren’t that close, despite his comment about her being a “great friend.” He didn’t actually know Violet that well at all, and it was rather presumptuous of her to talk about what his relationship with Whisper might be. Still, the comment made Axel feel defensive, and he tried to explain himself.

  “What? No. There’s nothing going on between Whisper and me. We’re just friends, and coworkers. We spend a lot of time together because we have to, and we’ve grown close because of that.”

  Violet looked at him doubtfully, now with one eyebrow raised. “Then why do you two look at each other the way you do?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And he really didn’t. Yes, Whisper and he flirted a bit here and there, but nothing outrageous. And to anyone that knew them, it was obviously just good fun.

  Violet crossed her arms. “Well if it’s not Whisper, then what is it? Do you not think I’m pretty enough? Just be honest.”

  Axel had never felt so bewildered. Why was Violet acting like this? Did all women do this? It had been a long time since he’d dated anyone, and he was clearly a bit rusty at the game. “You’re a beautiful woman, Violet, but you’re not for me. I’ve made that clear since the beginning. I’m happy to be your friend, but we have to leave it at that.” Don’t push me and make me tell you that you’re a coward.

  Violet looked hurt for a moment, but then seemed to recover. She shrugged, and gave him a small smile. “Alright, then. I understand. We can be friends. I hope you enjoyed the breakfast. And truly, thanks for saving my life.”

  Axel had been expecting her to protest again, and he was so caught off guard by the fact that she didn’t that he found himself speechless for a moment. “I…um…yeah. The breakfast was great. Thank you. And I was only doing my duty as a decent human being when I pulled you out of that bar.”

  “Still. Thank you. I’ll let you get to work now. I know you’re busy.”

  “Right. Well. See you around.”

  Violet gave him a small wave as he left her place, but he couldn’t help but thinking that she had let him off too easy. There had been a glint of something mischievous in her eyes, and Axel had a feeling that he hadn’t heard the last of Violet yet.

  Chapter Five

  Whisper looked at her beat-up, old wristwatch to double check the time. Six-fifteen a.m. Fifteen minutes past when Axel had agreed to meet her at the bar to set off on their hunt for fairytassel sage. Axel had never been late for anything as long as she could remember, and she couldn’t help but play out worst case scenarios in her mind. Had some soldiers come last night and raided his house? She hadn’t heard any raids last night, but that didn’t mean that none had happened. Sometimes the soldiers only roughed up one or two houses and then moved on. If they’d visited Axel’s house, she wouldn’t have heard it. He lived on the opposite side of their small town from her.

  “Shit.” Fear gripped her heart, and she left the bar at a run, heading toward his house. Please be okay, please be okay!

  When she reached his house, she breathed a little easier. There was no sign of damage to the front door, and the houses around Axel’s all looked undamaged as well. Usually, when the soldiers broke into a house they did quite a bit of physical damage, just for the fun of it.

  Taking deep calming breaths, Whisper raised her fist and knocked on Axel’s front door. She waited for several long moments, but when no answer came she knocked again.

  “
Axel?” she called. Then again, a little louder. “Axel?” She didn’t want to wake the neighbors for no reason, but it was so unlike him to be late or miss an appointment that she was starting to panic at the lack of response from him. Maybe he wasn’t even here. Maybe he’d gone out for a walk last night and had run across some soldiers who had then roughed him up or even left him for dead or…oh, god. Whisper couldn’t bear to think about horrible scenarios like that

  “Axel, please open the door? Are you in there?” She was about to dissolve into sobs when the door suddenly swung open. Axel stood in front of her, still wearing pajamas and sporting messy bed-head hair. He looked quite confused, but decidedly not dead. Whisper was so relieved that she didn’t know whether to hug or slap him.

  “Oh, shit,” he said, slapping his forehead with his hand.

  “You forgot,” Whisper said flatly.

  “Well, I didn’t exactly forget. I just overslept.”

  Whisper’s eyes widened. “Are you feeling okay?” Despite the fact that Axel was often up late at the bar, he woke up at five a.m. every day without fail. He told Whisper it was a weird quirk of snow leopard shifters, but she was pretty sure that he’d made that up and it was just a weird Axel quirk.

  “I’m fine. I just didn’t get to bed until an hour ago. I thought I’d take a quick nap and then get up and have some coffee, but I guess I overestimated even my ability to go without sleep. Come on in. I’ll get dressed and brew some strong coffee and then we can go.”

  Whisper stepped into Axel’s house, marveling at the roominess of it. She’d been here hundreds of times before, but it still amazed her how big the place was. Axel didn’t like to spend his money, even though he had plenty of it, but the one concession he’d made to his wealth was to have a big house. The inside of the house itself was furnished modestly, but still. The two bedroom hut with a full kitchen and dining room was an absolute mansion by Bear Hollow standards.

  Whisper flopped on Axel’s soft couch while he started a pot of coffee and then ducked into one of the bedrooms to change. She didn’t say much for the moment, since Axel was clearly still trying to shake off sleep. But once he returned from getting dressed and looked a bit more awake, she couldn’t hold back her curiosity much longer.

  “We closed the bar down at 1 a.m. last night. What were you doing in all those other hours besides sleeping?”

  Axel groaned as he went to check on the coffee. “Talking. To Violet.”

  “Oh.” Whisper’s stomach tightened up and she wished she hadn’t asked. She shouldn’t be surprised. Violet was gorgeous and had been openly flirting with Axel again at the bar last night. And Axel had been single for a long time. She should have known that he would eventually start dating again. But he had seemed so insistent just yesterday that there was nothing going on between Violet and him. Whisper hadn’t expected to be faced with the reality of losing Axel. Not this early in the morning at least.

  Losing him? It’s not like I owned him.

  “It’s not what you think,” Axel said. “She kind of cornered me after I left the bar. Started talking about how hard it had been to lose her dad, and I felt badly for her. So I asked her if she wanted to have a drink at my place—just as friends. I thought she could talk about her dad and feel better. That’s what friends do for each other, right?”

  Whisper stared at Axel like he’d lost his mind. “Axel, you realize she’s been stalking you, right?”

  “Stalking is kind of a strong word.”

  “Well, whatever. It fits. She’s after you, and your inviting her over for a drink is a clear green light for her to continue. I mean, if you’re into her, fine. That’s your business and it’s not my place to judge. But if you really don’t want more than friendship with her, you’re sending her all the wrong signals. Trust me. When you invite a girl over for a drink and then spend the whole night talking to her, she’s gonna take that as a sign.”

  Axel blinked at Whisper over his mug of coffee. “Really?”

  “Oh my god. You’re so clueless about women.”

  “That’s why I usually avoid them.”

  Whisper flopped backwards against the couch in exasperation. She wasn’t so convinced that Axel was really that clueless. She had a horrible feeling that he knew he’d been tempting fate by bringing Violet over here, but didn’t want to admit to it. Of course, the only reason she’d labeled that feeling “horrible” was that she herself had deeper feelings for Axel than she really wanted to admit to. Suddenly, she wasn’t sure that spending all morning alone with him in the forest was that great of an idea. She stood, and brushed some imaginary dust off her pants before giving Axel a shrug.

  “Look, if you’re too tired to go searching for fairytassel sage right now, we can reschedule. I don’t want to drag you through Bear Hollow forest if you’re feeling like a zombie.”

  “No, no!” he said, quickly gulping down his entire mug of coffee. “I’ll be fine. I don’t want to hold up the mission because of my own irresponsibility. We don’t know how long it will take to find fairytassel sage, and we don’t want to run out of time to search for it before the special Games event that’s coming up.”

  Whisper swallowed hard and pasted a bright smile on her face. Looks like she was going to spend the morning in the forest with Axel whether it was a good idea or not. “Alright then. Let’s go.”

  The morning air was chilly, and Whisper shivered despite her warm jacket. She had a feeling that winter was going to come early this year. Last year’s winter had been hard, and this one might not be much better. The Gilt Hollow soldiers had been raiding the shifters’ food stores, which was going to make getting through the winter without starving a bit of a challenge. But last year the shifters had made it, with the help of the shifters over in Gilt Hollow. Surely, this year everyone could make it through again.

  Axel didn’t say much at first. He seemed to sense that Whisper’s mood was a bit sour, and gave her space. Eventually, though, Whisper felt a bit guilty for not acting friendlier, and she decided to attempt conversation about a neutral topic: fairytassel sage.

  “Did you read through all the information Danny gave us?” she asked.

  Ahead of her, Axel nodded. “Yeah. It seemed pretty straightforward. Fairytassel sage grows at the highest altitudes of Bear Hollow forest, so we’re most likely to find the plant up in the rocky hills at the west end of the forest. No one’s reported seeing any for decades, but no one’s been looking for them, either. And most people don’t bother venturing all the way up into the foothills, so…”

  “So hopefully the only reason no one’s seen the plants is simply that no one has been to their favorite growing spot.”

  “Yup. It will be nice if it really turns out to be that easy. But I’m not holding my breath.”

  Whisper laughed. “Why not? Not feeling like an optimist today?”

  “I’m not feeling like an optimist this week. Or this month. Or even this year. Bear Hollow has been through the ringer.”

  “We have. Which is why we deserve a win. Keep your chin up. We might find that fairytassel sage on the first shot.”

  Axel fell silent again for a while, but he seemed to be in a better mood. By the time they reached the rocky hills, the morning sun was bright and hot, and Whisper tore off her jacket and left it hanging on a tree near the bottom of the hills. She let Axel lead the way as they climbed, even though she wasn’t sure that he knew any better than her which way to go. This was all a bit of a guessing game, but if taking the lead made Axel feel better, then so be it. He’d always had a bit of an alpha streak, and he was happiest when he was the boss. Besides, Whisper liked climbing along behind him. His ass looked good in his hiking pants.

  Not that she should be thinking about his ass. If things kept going the way they were, that ass was going to belong to Violet before long.

  And that’s just fine with me. Axel and I are just friends and coworkers anyway. Heck, he’s my boss. Dating your boss is never a good idea.

&
nbsp; “Whis! Come look at this!” Axel had scaled a large rock ahead of her, and was excitedly pointing to the east.

  “Coming.” Whisper hadn’t realized how out of shape she’d gotten. She’d thought about suggesting that they shift into animal form, because that would make all of this climbing a lot easier. But her pride got in the way and she hadn’t wanted to admit that she was having a hard time. Besides, it wasn’t easy to carry her backpack and supplies when she was in bear form. Axel would have trouble carrying his stuff while in snow leopard form as well.

  Whisper finally made it the top of the rock Axel had just climbed, and her first reaction was relief. This rock appeared to be the top level of the rocky hills, which meant she shouldn’t have to scale anymore rocks. Her second reaction was one of shock.

  “Oh my god. These are it, aren’t they?”

  Axel grinned and nodded. “I’d say they are. And I’d say that we have more than enough fairytassel sage to make all the poison we need.”

  Stretching out a mere step above the rock that Axel had just scaled was a veritable sea of purple sage flowers. The flowers were tinged with a hint of orange, just like the drawings of fairytassel sage that Danny had given to Axel and Whisper.

  “Look at that,” Whisper said with a smile. “Something did turn out easy, after all.”

  “I guess so. I’ll take that as a good omen. Now let’s start gathering these bad boys up.”

  Axel and Whisper both pulled small sacks out of their bags and began filling those sacks with fairytassel sage. They each filled their sacks to the brim, which was probably a good deal more flowers than they would actually need to make enough poison. According to the information Whisper had read about the plant, it only took a very small amount of poison to do a very large job. Still, while Whisper was here and had access to plenty of these flowers, she might as well load up. You never knew whether these would still be here tomorrow. The memory of the forest fire that had swept through parts of Bear Hollow forest last year was still fresh on Whisper’s mind. If another fire swept through here and destroyed all of the fairytassel sage, this plan would be toast. Literally toast, since the fire would toast the fairytassel sage. Whisper giggled at her own corny joke, and Axel looked up and raised an eyebrow at her.