Axel Summer Shifters Season 2

by Raines, Harmony

  Chapter Ten – Jenessa

  The hairs stood up on the back of her neck as the air around them filled with static electricity. Axel was about to shift and Jenessa could not take her eyes off the man as he faded out of existence to be replaced in an instant by a large cougar.

  “Hello there, kitty.” For a few moments, she forgot the person out on the street who may be watching Paula’s house for any sign of movement and instead focused on the feline form in front of her. Who could resist a kitty cat, especially one who looked at her with bright green eyes filled with love? “Do you like to have your chin tickled?”

  She reached out and tickled the side of the cougar’s head with her fingers. “Aren’t you a cute kitty?” The kitty didn’t look as if he was aiming for cute but when she cupped his face in her hands and dropped a kiss on the top of his broad head, the cougar purred, his whole body vibrating with the sound. A smile spread across her lips. She’d lived around shifters her whole life and had seen many people shift from human to animal, but this was different. He was hers.

  Jenessa straightened up. “Is the guy still there?”

  The cougar’s eyes went out of focus for a moment before he nodded.

  “Then I will see you soon.” She turned on her heel and hurried away from the feline although she could feel his eyes on her back and knew that even when she turned the corner and went out of sight, he could still pinpoint her exact location. There would be no sneaking up on the guy.

  Jenessa took a deep breath as she neared the entrance to the alleyway. This was it, she was putting herself out there, practically asking to be followed. A look over her shoulder told her Axel wasn’t keeping too close to her. If she was the bait, he was the net and they needed to keep him hidden or risk scaring off the person watching her.

  Taking a step forward, she walked onto the street making sure to stick to the middle of the sidewalk and swing her arms naturally as if there was nothing wrong. She was supposed to be here, she belonged here, there was nothing to fear. The hardest part of this was ignoring the need to look. Her eyes burned as she kept them pointed straight ahead when all they wanted to do was turn to the right and catch a glimpse of the watcher in the shadows.

  Who was he? Who had sent him?

  Or was he just an innocent guy in the wrong place at the wrong time?

  She kept walking, aware of the moment that Axel exited the alleyway and quickly melted into the shadows. He’d crossed to the other side of the road and was slinking along with his legs a little bent to keep himself hidden under the various plants and shrubs that overhung the sidewalk.

  Not for the first time or the last she wished her stepdad had been her biological father and imbued her with the shifter gene. What she wouldn’t give to sense other people and other shifters in the same way Axel could. How exhilarating to be able to see things in your mind, to put together all the information your senses threw at you and create a picture in your head as if by magic.

  But all she had was what she was born with and that would have to do just as it had for her entire life. She’d grown up being the ordinary one. She’d suffered the taunts from Tyler and his shifter friends and risen above them.

  As she neared Paula’s house, she took a sideways glance across the road, her eyes searching for anything unusual. That was where Axel had sensed someone hiding but there was no one there.

  Movement caught her eye. She was wrong, there was someone there and they were on the move.

  Jenessa kept her head straight, looking at the sidewalk as it meandered past all the houses containing people who were safe within their own worlds. None of them had any idea that she was out here being followed.

  A streak of tawny fur hurtled down the street and pounced on the guy who had been watching her. With a yelp, he fought off the cougar before going limp and submitting to the superior strength and weight of the big feline.

  Jenessa quickly abandoned her journey and doubled back to join Axel.

  “Who are you?” she demanded as the man looked up into the fierce face of Axel’s cougar.

  “No one. I’m no one,” the guy insisted.

  “Then why were you following me?” Jenessa asked.

  “I wasn’t following you.” His eyes widened as the cougar opened his mouth and showed the prone man his extremely sharp teeth. “Don’t hurt me.”

  “I heard this cougar likes to tear the skin off a man’s back, strip by strip.” Jenessa made sure to inflect horror in her voice. She succeeded because the man squirmed, trying to get free and yet not wanting to feel the wrath of the cougar.

  “I haven’t done anything wrong.” He turned his head and looked at Jenessa, pleading for help.

  “Then why were you waiting across the street and why did you follow me home?” Jenessa folded her arms across her body, making sure he knew she would not be going to his aid anytime soon.

  “I didn’t follow you home.” The guy nodded. “I was waiting here for my friend.”

  “Your friend.” She looked up and down the street. “I don’t see anyone.”

  “He’s late.”

  “And what are you and your friend doing out here so late?” Jenessa was not good at interrogation, she didn’t know what to ask the man to make him crack and she didn’t want to encourage Axel to use violence.

  “We often meet late at night.”

  “Why?” Jenessa asked, sensing this guy was not up to anything nefarious.

  “That is none of your business.” He looked back at the cougar. “Or your business, Axel. Yeah, I know who you are. I know you work at the new bar and I also know my dad would have something to say about you pinning me down like this.”

  “And I would guess that your dad would have something to say about you being out here this late when you have school tomorrow.” Jenessa applied enough pressure to make the kid squirm. “So we’re going to let you up nice and slow and we’ll all go our separate ways.”

  She nodded at Axel. His cougar snarled one last time, up close and very personal and despite the guy’s threats, he shuddered as he stared at the fine set of sharp teeth only inches from his face. As he backed off, the air shimmered and the cougar disappeared, only to be replaced with a man a few seconds later. An angry man, if Jenessa was any good at reading expressions.

  “Why are you here, Owen?” Axel asked. “Your dad wouldn’t be very happy. He was telling me the other day that you have a curfew. He thinks you are respecting it.”

  “Well, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Owen jutted out his chin as he clambered to his feet.

  “We could always test that theory.” Axel leveled his gaze at Owen. “Why don’t you just tell me what is going on? I’d hate to see you in trouble, your dad is very proud of your grades.”

  “That’s all he cares about. How good I’m doing at school. But school isn’t everything.” He dusted down his clothes and then looked to the left, concern etched into his features.

  “She’s hiding out just down the street.” Axel arched his eyebrow as Owen gave him a questioning look. “What?”

  “You can sense her?” Owen looked over his shoulder.

  “Sure, I can. When we exited the alleyway, and you began moving down the street, I stretched out my senses a little farther and realized what all this was about.” Axel ignored Jenessa’s questioning look. “Why don’t you tell your dad you met your mate?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Owen asked, his voice cracked, rising high before going low.

  “No, I’m not.” Axel placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You can’t keep this a secret. It’s huge.”

  “Yeah, you have no idea.” He shook his head mournfully. “My dad wants me to go to college, but all I want to do is settle down with my mate.” He ended the sentence with a raised eyebrow. “You understand what I mean.”

  “I sure do and there is no easy way out of this, but one thing I do know for sure is that this isn’t going away. You have to tell someone and soon.” Axel sighed. “Listen, I have to g
o away for a couple of days but, when I come back, I don’t mind coming with you to tell your parents. Your mate can join us or not, makes no difference to me either way.”

  “You’d do that?” Owen asked.

  “Sure, I would. And I am also sure that your parents will understand.”

  “Maybe about us being mates but not about me not going to college. He’s been saving his whole working life to be able to afford to send me to college. He said it was better than ending up with a huge debt behind you.” Tears misted his eyes. “They have made sacrifices for me. So how do I tell them I am not going?”

  “Are you sure you aren’t going?” Axel asked.

  “I have a mate. You heard that part, right?”

  “Yes, but you don’t have to start a family and settle down right away.” Axel’s brows knitted together. “How old is she?”

  Jenessa stopped herself from gasping. What if the young teen had been mated to an older woman? A much older woman whose body clock was telling her it was time to make babies and settle down.

  “She is a couple of years older than me. She’s already at college so we decided that she should carry on with her education and then she can get a job good enough to support us while I look after the children.” Owen sounded as if they had it all figured out.

  “Is that what you both want?” Jenessa asked.

  Owen shrugged. “Sure, I never actually woke up and thought how cool it would be to have a couple of kids when I’m only just out of my teens. But... Well, maybe that is what fate had in store for us.” Owen, like any other shifter, wanted to make babies with his mate. However, he had no idea how to raise a child or look after a house.

  “There’s no rush.” Axel slipped his arm around Owen’s shoulder and they all walked down the street together. “You can both wait a few years. Neither of you is going anywhere.” He held his hand up to Owen’s face. “I don’t need you to tell me all of the places you have talked about going.”

  “You mean we are fortunate to find each other when we are both young and it’s okay to put it all off for a few years.” He mulled it over. “Maybe you should talk to my mate and my dad.”

  “I will when I get back to town. There will be a compromise in all of this, a way for you all to get whatever you want.”

  “I don’t think my dad would agree with you.” Owen chuckled nervously. “I think he’d be a lot happier if I met my mate in ten years after I finished college and made a career for myself. But it’s my life.”

  “Your parents only want what is best for you,” Jenessa told him. “It’s just that sometimes what they think is best for you isn’t what you want. The way to show them you are an adult is to come up with a plan. The two of you together.”

  “But first, my friend, you have to finish high school. Enjoy being young and carefree. The rest will follow in time.” Axel glanced along the street to where a small fox stuck its head out from behind a wall. “Is that her?”

  “It is.” A small smile crept across his face. “She is beautiful.”

  “She is.” Axel grinned at Jenessa. “You’re a lucky man.”

  “I am.” Owen turned and walked backward as he headed toward his mate. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell my dad you assaulted me in the street.”

  “And I won’t tell him you have a mate. Yet. But if you don’t tell him soon, I might have to let it slip when he comes to the bar and orders a drink.” Axel moved closer to Jenessa who was watching Owen with some amusement. “For your own good, of course.”

  “I’ll tell him.” Owen waved and then turned around and jogged toward his mate. The little fox ran to meet him and then trotted along by his side as they crossed the street and headed toward the road leading to the mountain.

  “I hope when we have kids, they won’t be afraid to tell us stuff like this.” Jenessa linked arms with Axel as they crossed the street.

  “Me, too.” He looked both ways, his eyes unfocused. He was checking to see if there was anyone else acting suspiciously. When his eyes cleared and his shoulders relaxed, she figured that was the all-clear.

  “Did you talk to your parents freely?” Jenessa asked. “I know you have a great relationship with your mom now, but has it always been like that?”

  “With my mom, pretty much. My dad, not all the time. He was a hard man to please.” He glanced at Jenessa. “Don’t get me wrong, he loved me, I know he did. But he didn’t know how to open up and talk to me like a man, like an equal, he always talked down to me which is what ignited my rebellious side.”

  “And that is when you left Cougar Ridge?”

  “Yes and no. I left for long stretches of time. I traveled around a lot but never settled down. This place is hard to beat for a shifter. The freedom is incredible. Some of the places I visited, I never dared shift, they would have shot me soon as look at me.”

  “I know the kind of places you mean. And then there are the kind of places where being a shifter is the best thing in the world and it’s us poor humans that get the raw deal. Places like Cougar Ridge and Bear Creek.” She looked up at the dark silhouette of the mountain behind them. “The freedom of being a shifter is just incredible.”

  “It is.” They reached the front door of his house and he took out a key and unlocked the door. “But as much as we are free as a shifter when it comes to the mountain, we are trapped in a prison when it comes to the person we love as our mate. We don’t get to choose.”

  “Are you saying that is a bad thing?” Color tinged her cheeks. She hated the idea that he might have chosen someone else as his mate given the freedom and opportunity.

  “No,” he said quickly. “The only thing I’d change is that I wish I’d met you sooner.”

  “Oh.” She followed him into the house and waited by his side as he locked the door.

  “I see Owen and I’m so jealous that he’s met his mate so young in life. They have their whole lives ahead of them. Together.” He smiled sadly. “I wish I’d had those years with you.”

  “You make us sound like a very old couple who are not going to be around for long. We still have half our lives ahead of us. The good half. The half where we have learned from our mistakes, we’ve found out who we are and what we’re doing.” She cocked her head to one side. “The part where you’ve made enough money to not have to worry about it for the rest of your life.”

  “Really?” Axel didn’t sound too sure.

  “Yeah, really.” Disappointment crawled into her heart and set up home. He was an old-fashioned guy who wanted to be the provider. Just her luck.

  “That’s incredible.” He glanced down at the floor and shuffled his feet.

  “Why don’t you look pleased?” she asked.

  “Because I don’t feel worthy,” he admitted. “I have messed up a lot of things in my life, I never saved for this moment. Probably because I never believed I would find my mate.”

  “If it was the other way around, you would tell me what was yours is mine.” She reached for his hand. “That works both ways. I trust you because I know you would rather lose a leg than hurt me.” She gave a short laugh. “And if you spend my money, you would hurt me. Well, if you spent a lot of it.”

  “I promise not to.” His smile was easier but still, he was holding back. “We should go to bed.”

  “It’s still early.” She glanced at the time on her phone.

  “It’s actually late since I thought we could get up early in the morning and go meet O’Malley’s flight.” His eyes sparkled and danced.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing. You go get some sleep and I’ll wake you around four. We can get in the car and drive to meet him. It’s not far.” Axel leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Goodnight.”

  Jenessa stood still, not wanting to break the moment or let the day end so early. This was the only day that would be the first day she met her mate and she wanted to savor it.

  However, she was also intrigued by O’Malley’s return and so she said goodnight and we
nt upstairs to bed.

  Chapter Eleven – Axel

  “Remind me why we are getting up so early to go meet O’Malley.” Jenessa dragged herself out of bed after Axel had shaken her awake. As she stood before him in a loose shirt that skimmed her curvy thighs, he had to resist the urge not to grab hold of her hand and pull her back to bed. But he had something he wanted to show her. Something special.

  His cougar snickered and Axel shook his head at his feline side. Not that.

  I know, his cougar replied and chuckled to himself as he went back to sleep. This early morning start was not for his cougar who preferred to sleep in until the sun rose in the sky and warmed the air. Lounging in the sun on a deserted mountain slope was his thing. Nothing strenuous before midday.

  “Get dressed and come downstairs. I promise what I want to show you is worth a couple of hours of lost sleep.”

  Her curiosity got the better of her and she’d nodded mutely and waited for him to leave the room before she dressed. He’d lingered in the doorway for one moment, before he pulled the door closed behind him and went downstairs. He’d nearly turned around and taken her to bed. But this was something he wanted her to see, something he wanted to share with her. So, he’d resisted the primal urge coursing through him and went downstairs.

  While Jenessa dressed and visited the bathroom, Axel got busy. He didn’t want his mate waiting in the dark on an empty stomach. Or perhaps he was just hoping to impress her. He needed to have something going for him since Jenessa earned more money than him.

  He paused, leaning on the counter as he tried to figure out how he was supposed to react to the news she was a self-made woman while he was a washed-up has-been who lived with his mother.

  We find Tyler for her. His cougar didn’t even crack an eyelid.

  That was one way to show her he had a use. That he was worth keeping around.

  Perhaps if she was the shifter, he might feel more secure in his role. But she wasn’t and so she didn’t have the same burning need to be with him. Jenessa could walk away at any time and find a new love, one who was more worthy of her.