by Zoe Chant
"I can," she said, and then went on, in the interests of honesty, "But it might take a while. Dad, I don't think I'm coming back to New York. Not to stay. I think I'm staying here. If I can?" she appealed to Alec.
The clan alpha shrugged. He didn't quite meet her eyes. "We need to talk about it first. And I mean talk," he said, with a hint of growl in his voice, looking at Axl. "No challenges."
"I'll talk," Axl said. "First, though, I need to get this guy to jail."
"I want to call my lawyer," Dick mumbled, muffled, with two bears practically sitting on top of him.
"You should feel lucky you're not bear chow," Tara snapped at him. She thought about kicking him, then decided not to give him any ammunition for a possible future lawsuit.
Axl gave her one last squeeze and a kiss on top of her hair, then let go. He turned to her father. "Mr. Malloy, I was hoping to meet you someday, but not exactly under these conditions."
"Yes. Well." Her father shook his hand politely. "I think these are not the conditions any of us hoped for. But I can't help feeling my daughter has found a good place for herself here." He looked around at the group of bear shifters, some in their human shapes and others displaying their bears. "And a good group of people."
There was a throat-clearing noise. Sammie Jo stood with her arms folded. "I appreciate a good family reunion as much as the next girl, and Tara, I'm delighted on your behalf. But you know, we do have rules here." She nodded to the NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE sign hanging by the door. "Sheriff you may be, and I must admit the sign doesn't mention it, but I never thought I'd have to specify no pants."
"Uh ... yeah." Axl went off to collect his uniform, or what was left of it.
Tara was left standing, shaky with reaction. It wasn't over, and wouldn't be for a while. There were still the legal matters to clear up, and particularly the issue of the legal action hanging over her head, and the bail-jumping.
But she had a good lawyer on her side, and her father believed her.
Actually ...
She looked around the room: at her father talking to Alec, Sammie escorting the shaken customer outside, Axl handcuffing Dick while the two bears lurked watchfully within swatting distance.
They all believe me. And more importantly, they believe in me.
She'd gone from being alone and on the run, to having all these people on her side.
It felt amazing.
Chapter Twelve: Axl
Axl didn't get back to the ranch until after dark. Tara had gone back hours ago. She'd given her statement over and over, talked to the FBI and on the phone to her lawyer until she was pale and drawn. Finally Axl called a stop to it. Cody had driven her up to the ranch along with her father. Unfortunately he couldn't go with them, as his own work was far from done.
At long last, though, Dick and the Weezer brothers had been taken into the custody of the FBI. The Pinerock County jail was once more empty except for a couple of drunk-and-disorderlies that the deputies had taken into custody, and Axl was free to drive back to his little slice of heaven in the wilderness.
A little slice of heaven in which he now had Tara waiting for him.
The lights were on in the windows of the ranch house when he drove into the yard, gleaming out through the darkness. Since he often worked long hours, there had been many other nights when he'd driven up to find the house lit up, Alec reading quietly by lamplight or mending a harness while the house filled with the smell of cooking dinner.
But this time it was different. This time, a wave of soul-deep contentment washed over him. His mate was up there, in the ranch house. For the first time, he wasn't just going home to a quiet evening with his clan, but to his mate's loving arms.
For a little while he sat behind the wheel of the Chevy, not wanting to open the door and break the spell of contentment that had settled over him. Shadows moved behind the drawn curtains of the house, too faint to be able to tell who they were.
A tap on the window made him jump. Alec was leaning on the side of the vehicle, wearing a small sideways smile. Axl rolled his eyes at him and pushed the door open, shoving him out of the way.
"You forget how to open a car door?" Alec asked. "I was gonna just stand here 'til you figured it out, but I was getting bored ..."
"Asshole."
It wasn't raining, but the air had a heavy, wet feeling, like it might start again at any moment. Axl's boots squished in the mud. His slightly sharper-than-human sense of smell could pick out a full array of farmyard scents: the chickens and the cows, diesel and engine oil, woodsmoke where someone had started a fire for warmth on this chilly, rainy evening.
God, he loved this place. He hadn't devoted his life to the ranch in the same way Alec and Cody had, but he knew that being severed from it would leave a hole in his heart.
They stood together in the darkness for a few moments before Axl said, "So, I'm ready to talk. Are you?"
"Yeah." Alec let out a sigh. "I'm not gonna apologize and I'm not gonna say I was wrong. Because I wasn't."
"I know," Axl said, and he wasn't sure he was going to say it until the words left his mouth. "You're the alpha. I directly challenged one of your orders, and then challenged you. You'd have every right to rip my throat out for it."
"Traditionally, at least." There was just enough light spilling from the windows for Axl to see him shake his head. "And you and I both know what those backwoods 'traditional' bear clans are like. I mean, hell, Mom came from one of them, and she got out of there as fast as she could and never looked back. It was a nightmare: arranged matings, everybody cooped up on the farm, not even allowed to talk to outsiders without the alpha's say-so. That's not how I ever wanted to run this place."
"I know. You're not like that. But it's hard, when instinct gets involved. I didn't want to challenge you either. But for Tara ..."
"She's the one, then?"
"Yeah," Axl said. "She's the one."
Alec slapped him on the back, making him stagger. "Then let me congratulate you, brother. Watch, you'll set a trend. Cody and Remy will both have mates by calving season next spring."
"Not you?" Axl asked.
Alec chuckled softly. "No, not me. I'm not the mating kind. Cody and Remy are nesters, even if Remy won't admit it, and so are you. Gannon and I can be confirmed bachelors together. The rest of you can have passels of nieces and nephews to take care of us in our old age."
"One of these days, you're going to meet someone who makes you change your mind."
"Ha," Alec said. "I'll believe that when I see it."
Axl started toward the house, then looked back. "Coming?"
"Nah. I'll make the rounds and check on the stock first. Be in later."
"Hey, man," Axl said. Alec had started to turn away, but paused and looked over his shoulder. "Thanks for changing your mind."
"I'm not that set in my ways," Alec said, and strolled off toward the barns.
Axl scraped off his boots in the mud room. He could hear cheerful voices from inside, and he stepped into a warm and well-lit kitchen, filled with good cooking smells. Cody, Remy, and Tara's dad were all lounging around the kitchen table with cups of coffee, and Tara was taking something out of the oven, her small hands swimming in the big oven mitts the bear shifters used.
"Hey, Axl!" Remy said. "Your mate cooks!"
"I bake," Tara retorted. Her red hair was piled on her head, sloppily held up with pins, and there was a smudge of flour on her nose. She looked amazing. "My culinary skills are limited to desserts, and maybe some pasta if there are detailed instructions on the box."
Axl put his arms around her and kissed her neck, brushing his lips across the claiming mark. The feel of her quick shiver in his arms already had him half hard. He succumbed to temptation and licked the flour smudge off her nose.
"Eww," Tara said, scrubbing at her nose with her sleeve.
"What's in the baking dish?" It smelled incredible, whatever it was.
"Strawberry torte," Tara said. "With fre
sh strawberries from that patch behind the house."
The torte vanished quickly, with one piece saved aside for Alec when he came in. There was also a plate that Tara, or someone, had saved from dinner for Axl, piled high with slices of ham and home-grown potatoes.
The mood around the table was relaxed and cheerful, even though the specter of Tara's future also hung over them. She was going to need to go home to deal with the charges against her. Right now, she was technically in Axl's custody.
Her father turned out to be good company, although it was hard for Axl to forget that he'd accused his own daughter of embezzlement. She apparently felt the same, or so Axl gathered from a coolness turned in her father's direction, a tendency not to laugh at his jokes.
But they both also seemed to be willing to move past it; they were, at least, cordial with each other, if not quite as warm as they might have been in the past. Perhaps more would come in time.
And if not, she has a home here.
Tara's lawyer called as they were finishing up the torte. She took the call in the living room. Axl trailed after her, not wanting to intrude, but hoping to be there if she needed him.
She hung up and flopped onto the couch with a sigh. He sat next to her and pulled her gently against him.
"Something bad?"
"No ... yes ... I don't know. There's a U.S. Marshal coming to pick me up in the morning. Mr. Hooper thinks he can get me house arrest instead of jail, but I'm still considered a fugitive."
"You're going to get to tell your story," Axl reminded her, kissing her neck. "And Dick is on the hook now for everything that they used to think you did."
"Except bail jumping."
"Which is a lot more justified if someone's trying to kill you and no one believes you're in danger," he pointed out. "They'll have my testimony as well."
"Axl, I'm scared," she whispered. "What if I go to prison?"
"You won't." He kissed her face, and each of her closed eyes. "And if you do, I'll help you break out."
She giggled. "You wouldn't!"
"Oh, yes I would. You'd be surprised how helpful an entire clan of grizzly shifters can be to a prison break."
"You think the others will help too?"
"They won't have a choice about it." He slid an arm under her knees and stood up, sweeping her off the couch into his arms. She let out a squeaky little gasp as he picked up her up.
"Dishes are on you guys!" Axl called down the stairs as he climbed them with his mate in his arms.
"Where are we going?" she wanted to know, looking around at the top of the stairs. There was not much to see, just a short hallway with a bathroom and bedrooms opening off it.
"We're going to need the downstairs guest room for your father." He pushed open the door to his room, feeling a slight, unexpected clutch at his heart as he did so. He was taking a woman into his den. This was something he'd never done before. "I guess that means you're bunking with me."
"Oh," she said softly.
Axl turned the light on with his elbow. He felt weirdly nervous, although there wasn't much to see. It was a pretty typical bedroom, all things considered. Alec had the main bedroom that used to belong to their parents, and this was the bedroom that had been Axl's since he was a kid. He didn't spend a lot of time here, and he'd cleaned out most of his old stuff years ago. There was still a shelf of models, and a couple shelves of books. Most of the room was now taken up with a massive wooden bedframe with a queen-sized bed on it. Forget sleeping in kid-sized beds. Axl was a big guy, and he liked to have room to stretch out.
He laid Tara on the bed. He'd fixed it this morning, but not well, just pulling the covers roughly over the sheets. Now Tara lay on top of the quilt his grandmother had made, looking up at him, her legs slightly spread and hair tousled.
"I've been dreaming about this all day," he told her.
"Me too," she said, propping herself up on her elbows with a smile.
He stripped out of his uniform, unbuttoning the shirt, undoing the pants, folding each piece carefully as it came off. He wasn't that careful with most of his clothes, but he was proud of his job and liked to look spiffy doing it: every crease neatly pressed, all his buttons buttoned as they should be.
Tara watched him undress with her full lips parted, like she was watching a strip tease. As he peeled out of his boxers, she said, "I don't suppose you have the hat handy, do you?"
"You want me to wear my hat?"
The tip of her tongue touched the corner of her mouth. "I think you naked except for your sheriff's hat would be incredibly hot."
"I left it in the car."
"Awwww. I guess you can't exactly run down naked and get it."
Axl grinned. "Oh, yes I can."
And with that, he shifted, nudged open the door with a careful paw, and trotted downstairs.
Everyone was still in the kitchen; no one was paying attention. He shifted briefly to open the front door, padded over to the SUV, shifted again to open that door, and clamped his human teeth on the brim of his hat before shifting back.
Then it was just a matter of repeating the process in reverse.
He was padding quickly up the stairs, leaving damp bear tracks, when Remy called from the kitchen, "What the heck is going on in there?"
Axl scuttled quickly up the stairs like he'd been caught doing mischief—not the easiest thing for a thousand-pound bear clutching a sheriff's hat in his teeth—and shifted quickly to enter the bedroom. He dropped the hat from his teeth into his hand, and came in to find Tara had not been idle in his absence. She'd stripped out of her clothes and pulled back the bedcovers, and now was sitting crosslegged on the bed, completely naked, and busy undoing the pins that held her hair up.
"Your wish is my command, ma'am," he said, placing the hat on his head.
She looked up, and her blue eyes danced. "Okay, that is about the hottest thing I've ever seen. Well, the hottest thing since the last time I saw you naked, I guess."
"You do like the hat."
"What can I say." She undid the last pin. Bright waves of hair fell around her shoulders. She flopped back on her elbows in a swish of red hair. "I've always had a thing for a man in uniform."
"Hey, if you want me to put the uniform back on ..."
"I want you to get down here and kiss me."
He knelt on the bed, down on his knees between her spread legs. "Kiss what part of you?"
She wiggled her hips a little. "I get to pick?"
"At your service, ma'am," he drawled.
"Hmmm." Her smile was playful, but he could smell her arousal; she was leaving a wet spot on the sheet. "You decide."
So he picked up her slim little ankle and kissed the top of her foot, then her smooth shin. It was the first part of her he'd ever touched, back when they were still strangers to each other. The little scrapes and cuts from her run through the brush behind the Shell station were healing slowly—or rather, he reminded himself, at a normal human rate. The bite mark on her neck, because of its special nature, had healed much faster.
"Am I allowed to touch above the knee this time?" he teased.
"You'd better!"
Grinning, he kissed her knee, and then worked his way slowly up the soft expanse of her inner thigh. By then her breath was coming quickly with anticipation. And Axl was already so hard he ached.
Still, he went as slowly as possible, drawing it out. He kissed the soft inner curve of her thigh, and then carefully, cautiously, he tasted her.
Her body rose, and she gave a soft moan.
Axl kissed her folds and the little bud of her center of pleasure. He had to tilt his head to keep the hat from falling off. It wasn't something he was used to taking into account during sex. But the look on her face when she opened her eyes and looked down and saw him pleasuring her, hat and all, made the extra effort more than worth it.
Then he kissed his way up her softly rounded belly, over the rise of her breasts, pausing at each nipple to take it into his mouth. He kissed her ch
est, and the little ridges of her collarbone. The sight of the claiming mark, healed now to a light silvery scar, sent a jolt of pleasure through his cock. He spent extra time on it, kissing and sucking it, loving the way it made her arch and writhe.
Finally he tongued his way into her mouth, and slid his straining cock into her sex just as she opened her mouth to receive him. She was so warm, so wet, so ready for him. No woman had ever been able to take him, all the great length and girth of him, the way that she could.
He pushed in carefully, sliding into her wetness, reading her reaction in her little jerks and her small gasps against his mouth. The first thrusts were gentle, but she gasped, "Harder!" and raised her hips to receive him, and he stopped holding back, plunging in to his full depth. She met him thrust for thrust.
With his mouth on hers, he pushed them both to the edge, his hands tangled in her hair and hers wrapped around his shoulders. A final thrust sent them plunging over, sparks igniting behind his eyes as she squeezed him in the depths of her own delight. Her cry was swallowed in his mouth.
Her lips went slack under his, her body going limp. Axl kissed the corner of her mouth, and withdrew carefully, shivering with lingering reaction.
"You do like the hat," he murmured.
"I do—except when it stops you from being able to lie down next to me." She reached up to pluck it off his head and drop it over the edge of the bed.
"Hey, that's a piece of official government equipment."
"It'll be okay there. I promise I won't step on it."
He stretched out alongside her, and she curled into him, pillowing her head on his shoulder. The room was a little chilly now that sweat was drying on their bodies. Axl sat up and reached down to pull the covers up over them.
"Hey," he murmured when he lay back down. Tara had gone pensive, her blue eyes a million miles away. "It'll be okay."
"I know," she whispered, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.
He idly stroked her hair as they lay there. "I'll fly out to be there for you."
"No, don't. I'm not planning to be there for long. Don't rearrange your plans for me. I want you to be here waiting for me when I come back. I want you to make this place a home for me while I'm gone."