“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Just…lost in my own little world.”
He grinned. “You’ve always been good at getting lost in your own little world.”
“So have you! Sometimes at the bar I have to yell at you about ten times before you pay attention to me.”
“That’s not because I’m in my own little world. It’s because I’m the boss and I can ignore you as long as I feel like it.”
Whisper threw a handful of fairytassel sage at him. “You’re impossible.”
“Hey, careful! Those things are really poisonous, you know. Do you want me to die?”
“Just don’t eat any and you’ll be fine. On second thought, do eat a few. Then you’ll be gone and I can be the boss. I won’t have to deal with your attitude anymore.”
Axel laughed. “Come on, Crazy. I think we have enough fairytassel sage. Let’s get out of here before you decide to stuff some down my throat just so you can have the deed to Bear Hollow Brews.”
Whisper followed him as he headed toward the rock they needed to climb down to head back to the bottom of the rocky hills area. “It’s not like it matters if I kill you. I would just get a new boss, who would probably be even more obnoxious than you. Who’d you leave the bar to in your will, anyway? My brother? I can tell you right now there is no way in hell I’d work for my brother. I love him, but no. He’s so obnoxious when he—”
“I didn’t leave the bar to your brother,” Axel said, turning around to look at Whisper. She was on a rock ledge that was right behind him, but was about a foot higher, so they were nose-to-nose and eye-to-eye. Suddenly being so close to him made Whisper feel strangely intoxicated, but she pushed away the feeling. Axel wasn’t interested in her. He was interested in Violet, no matter how much he tried to claim that he wasn’t.
“So who’d you leave it to?” Whisper asked as soon as she regained her breath. She was genuinely surprised. Axel had no family, and Oskar was Axel’s best friend. She’d just sort of assumed that Axel would have left everything to Oskar in his will, although she was realizing now that that assumption was rather foolish. Axel had a lot of assets. Knowing him, and how he liked to do good for the community, he’d probably spread the wealth around in his will. And, truth be told, Oskar probably didn’t have that much interest in running a bar. It wasn’t her brother’s sort of thing.
“I left the bar to you,” Axel said, looking straight into Whisper’s eyes with a sort of intensity she’d never seen before. For a second, she thought he was joking, and she laughed. When the intensity never left Axel’s eyes, though, the laughter died in her throat.
“You’re serious.”
He nodded. “That bar is important to me, Whis. You know that. It’s my life’s work. I know a lot of people think a statement like that is way too dramatic. It’s just a bar, after all. But you get it. You know that it’s more than just a bar. It’s a way for me to give this ragtag town that I love so much a sense of community. A sense of hope.”
“I…I know all of that. But I guess I would have thought that would make you less likely to leave the bar to me. Not more. Why entrust something like that to a barely competent bartender like me?”
“Barely competent?” Axel practically choked on the words. “What are you talking about? You’re the most competent person I know. Maybe I’ve spent too much time teasing you and being a hardass. That’s all just good-natured teasing though. You’re a kickass bartender, and a kickass person. More than that, you understand my vision for the bar. You get it. I know if anything happens to me and you take over the bar, you’ll keep the bar’s legacy going. You’ll make sure it continues to be the awesome community-gathering spot that it is now.”
Whisper could only gawk at Axel, her mouth unattractively hanging open. But she was too shocked right now to worry about things like appearances. “I had no idea you thought about me that way.”
“Well, now you know. And now you know that you sure as hell better take good care of my baby if anything happens to me.”
“Don’t talk like that! Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
Axel shrugged. “Let’s hope not. But the way things are going these days, no one is safe. Best to be prepared.”
Axel took her by the hips, putting one hand on each side of her, then lifted her up and spun in a half circle to set her down on the rock beside him. “Come on. Let’s get back to the bottom of these hills. I’m hungry, and I saw quite a few berry bushes down there.”
He kept climbing down, and Whisper followed him without another word. But on the inside her thoughts were a jumbled, crazy mess. He had left her his bar? She couldn’t quite process it. The bar was worth a ton of money, but, more than that, it was his baby. As he’d said, he considered it his life’s work. The fact that he’d left it to her said volumes about what he thought of her. She hoped to God that she never actually inherited the bar, because the last thing in the world she wanted was to lose Axel. Still, just knowing that he thought enough of her to leave her the bar touched her heart deeply. But if he thought that much of her, why was he allowing whiny Violet to continue to chase after him? Why not make a move on Whisper?
Because he sees me as a sister. Not a lover.
Whisper could no longer act like this truth didn’t hurt her. Lately, every time she was around Axel her heart started doing nervous flip-flops, as though hoping that at any moment he might turn to her and confess his love for her. But he didn’t, and she did her best to push away the attraction that was growing stronger within her. That task was much easier said than done. Her hips tingled where he had touched her minutes before, and her whole body felt warm—a warmth she knew was not due to the ever-brightening sunshine.
She had fallen for him. Damn it, the one person she had told herself was off limits was the one person she had fallen for. She had tried so hard to resist it. And for the longest time, she had. But as she watched him walking up ahead of her, the sunlight turning the ends of his dark hair a golden hue, she could no longer deny it. She wanted him. But it was too late. Apparently, it had only taken him falling for another woman to make Whisper realize how much he meant to her. Stealing a man from another woman was not even close to Whisper’s style. If Violet and Axel were a thing, which it already seemed like they might be, then Whisper wasn’t going to stick herself in the middle of that. She would act happy for them, even if it was killing her inside.
And it was killing her inside. Even the mention of Violet made Whisper sad. But she couldn’t dwell on that right now. She had a job to do with Axel, and she couldn’t let personal feelings get in the way of that job. Time to act professional and get the fairytassel sage ready for a little trip over to Gilt Hollow.
Chapter Six
Axel’s brain was running on overdrive as he walked back through the forest toward Bear Hollow. He hadn’t intended to tell Whisper about the bar, but it had seemed like the appropriate thing to do in that moment. There was some sort of new tension between them that hadn’t been there before. It had started the night of the soldiers’ raid on Bear Hollow Brews, and it had only grown from there. Axel couldn’t quite figure out what had changed between them, but he had a feeling that it had a lot to do with Violet.
Whisper wasn’t a fan of Violet, that much was clear. No matter how many times Axel told Whisper that Violet was only a friend, Whisper didn’t believe him. Apparently Violet didn’t believe him either. She kept pursuing him even though he’d made it clear that he had no romantic interest in her. Or maybe he hadn’t made it so clear. Whisper seemed to think that staying up all night talking to Violet had given the girl the wrong signals.
God, I’m such an idiot when it comes to women.
Axel was good at a lot of things. He was good at running his bar. He was good at uniting the shifters of Bear Hollow despite their differences. He was good at hunting and fishing. Apparently he was good at tracking down fairytassel sage. But he wasn’t good at figuring out how to act around Whisper or Violet.
> The fact that he had no idea what he wanted from Whisper only complicated things. No matter how many times he told himself that she was just his friend, just his best friend’s little sister, Axel couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to pull Whisper into his arms and kiss her. He’d thought about this off and on through the years, but he’d always written the feeling off as mere coincidence. When a single man and a single woman spent as much time together as he and Whisper did, there was bound to be the occasional curious feeling about what a physical relationship with that person would be like. But what he was feeling for Whisper now was going beyond just occasional curiosity.
He couldn’t get her face out of his mind. Even when they were apart, he daydreamed about her. He had been glad that she was chosen to be his partner for the fairytassel sage mission, if only so he could spend more time with her. Which was kind of ridiculous, considering how much time he already spent with her. But something within him had awakened in the last day or two. Something that told him there was more to Whisper Warden than just good friendship.
As Axel and Whisper drew closer to Bear Hollow, Axel suddenly found himself unable to stand the thought of parting ways with her. Even though he had already spent several hours with her this morning, and even though he would see her again at the bar tonight, he wasn’t satisfied. He had planned on spending the entire day with her, because he’d thought finding fairytassel sage would take much longer. And damn it, he wasn’t ready to give up those few extra hours with her.
Axel Clawson had somehow become a man obsessed. He knew he was going crazy, but he couldn’t find it within himself to care. He couldn’t bring himself to care about anything else in this moment other than following these new feelings for Whisper and seeing where the trail took him. He turned around abruptly, catching Whisper so off guard that she nearly ran into him. She immediately thought something was wrong, and her eyes filled with concern.
“What is it? Did you see soldiers up ahead?”
“No, no,” he shook his head. “I was just wondering whether you have any other plans for today?”
She gave him a funny look. “Well, no. I had planned to spend all day in the woods looking for fairytassel sage.”
“Me too. But just because we found it so easily doesn’t mean we shouldn’t spend the rest of the day in the woods anyway.”
“What do you mean?” She cocked her head sideways, her eyes taking on a bit of a mischievous glint. Axel grinned. She was always ready for an adventure, and he loved that about her.
“Remember when we were kids and used to shift just for the fun of it, so we could run through the woods at top speed?”
Whisper laughed. “Yes, I remember. You used to drive Oskar crazy, because his bear could never quite keep up with your snow leopard.”
Axel laughed. Oskar and Whisper were probably the two fastest bear shifters in Bear Hollow. They could run surprisingly fast for a couple of giant grizzlies, even outrunning many of the panther and wolf shifters in town. But they still had been no match for Axel’s snow leopard. He could outpace any shifter in town with ease, a fact that he had always flaunted in Oskar’s face as much as possible.
“I still drive him crazy. He refuses to race me these days.”
“I swear the older he gets the more he can’t take a hit to his pride.” Whisper was laughing hard as she spoke. “But yeah, those were the days. Running carefree through the forest. Well, as carefree as we’ve ever been.”
Axel sighed. Their lives had never been exactly easy, even when they were kids. Still, when they’d been younger there had been less threat of raids by the Gilt Hollow soldiers. The soldiers had come once or twice a year then, instead of once or twice a week as they did now. “Let’s do it. We can hide our stuff in the brush and no one will bother it. The soldiers aren’t likely to be searching through the bushes, and even if they do, they’re not going to be interested in a bunch of flowers. I’m positive they have no idea what fairytassel sage is or what it looks like.”
Whisper’s grin widened, and she was already dropping her backpack from her shoulders. “Alright. But I hope you’re up for racing me. I’m still pretty fast. Think you can keep up, old man?”
Axel snorted. “I’m only a couple years older than you. Get ready to eat my dust.”
The two of them stripped naked so that they wouldn’t ruin their clothes when they shifted, then stuffed their clothes in their backpacks and hid the bags behind a large bush. Axel tried not to stare at Whisper’s naked body. He’d seen her naked countless times before, since shifters always lost their clothes when they shifted back and forth between human and animal forms. But he had never really noticed her before now. He caught a brief glimpse of her perfect curves and felt himself going hard, a reaction that he should have expected but didn’t. This newfound attraction to Whisper was taking him completely off guard. Quickly, he turned away and began to shift before she could realize the effect her nakedness was having on him.
It had been a little while since Axel had let his snow leopard come out to play, and it felt good to stretch out the kinks in his powerful muscles as he morphed into his animal form. He stretched out his head, now covered in crisp white fur and black spots, and let out a long roar. Beside him, Whisper had almost completed her transformation into bear form. She was just as gorgeous when she was a grizzly as she was when she was human. She roared along with Axel, her bear mouth turning up in an unmistakable smile, and Axel winked at her. Then he took off running as fast as his legs would carry him.
His paws flew over the rough forest terrain, covering ground so fast that everything beneath him looked like a blur. Behind him, Whisper did a good job of keeping up. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told him she was just as fast as ever. Every now and then, he could feel her hot breath on his heels. But that only motivated him to run faster. No way would he let her catch him. He had far too much pride for that.
He breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with clean forest air. At some point the ground started climbing upward, but he never slowed down. He kept flying through the trees until he suddenly broke out into an open, rocky plateau at the very top of the hill. He skidded to a stop and let out another roar, just for good measure. A few moments later, Whisper skidded to a stop beside him, panting heavily but still smiling that adorable bear smile. He looked over at her and couldn’t help but feel overcome by a deep sense of desire and longing. She was perfect. He shouldn’t be thinking that way, but his heart wanted what it wanted. Whisper would probably think he was crazy if he tried to explain his feelings to her. She’d probably tell him that he was like a brother to her—that she cared a lot for him but would never feel that way about him. Axel didn’t think he could bear to hear her say those words out loud, so he resolved not to say anything. Still, he couldn’t resist reaching over and nuzzling the side of her face with his own soft snow leopard face.
To his surprise, she nuzzled him back. Then she went back to looking out at the landscape below them. From their view at the top of this hill, they could see miles and miles of forest. The Bear Hollow forest went on for about one hundred miles, although none of the shifters really knew what lay beyond it. Rumor had it that there was a big city where shifters could live without fear of oppression, but Axel had no way of knowing whether the rumors were true. Leaving Bear Hollow was strictly forbidden, and if the soldiers caught wind of anyone attempting it, they hunted them down. Over the years, many shifters had been killed for attempted escape. Others had disappeared never to be heard from again. No one in Bear Hollow had any way of knowing whether the missing shifters had made it to the supposed Promised Land beyond the forest, or if they died on the journey. The wilderness out here could be harsh and unforgiving, even for tough shifters.
But regardless of what might be a hundred or so miles in the distance, no one could deny that the view from this hill took your breath away. The leaves on the trees were just starting to change, and amid the deep green of pine trees a smattering of red, orang
e, and yellow lit up the landscape. The midday sun shone hot and bright, but the air still felt fresh.
This moment felt like freedom to Axel, with open land in front of him and a beautiful shifter girl by his side. This moment felt like hope. It’d been too long since he’d come out here and just ran through the forest. He felt like the trees and sunshine helped him recapture a feeling that he’d lost long ago. He looked over at Whisper and thought that she must be feeling that too. She’d closed her eyes, and her velvety bear nose was raised into the wind. For one crazy moment, Axel thought about telling Whisper that they should escape into the forest and live here. It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be done. Kellen Cooke, another Bear Hollow shifter, lived somewhere among the caves in the lower forest. He’d escaped out there after the Gilt Hollow nobles mistakenly thought he died in a fire in Gilt Hollow. Perhaps Axel and Whisper could fake their own deaths, and then spend their days enjoying the relative peace of the forest. Surely, someone from Bear Hollow would agree to check on them now and then, bringing them any food or other supplies that they needed.
But no, Axel knew that thoughts like this were unrealistic. It took a special set of circumstances to be able to pull off living in the forest. And besides, even if he could fake his own death, he knew deep down that he didn’t want to. He wouldn’t be happy out here if he knew that so many shifters in Bear Hollow were still being crushed by the unrelenting Gilt Hollow raids. He would never truly feel free until everyone in town was free. Still, it felt good to imagine, just for a few moments, what a life out here with Whisper would feel like.
The Warrior and the Snow Leopard (The Shifter Games Book 4) Page 5