Page 13 of Tethered Magick

“You don’t have to continue,” I told him softly. I wanted to hear it, but I never wanted to cause Axel pain. Reliving the past was taking its toll.

“Yes I do. You deserve to know what’s molded us. Changed us. Why Kota struggles as hard as he does with your relationship.” Axel turned his head, his fingers toying with the sheet as he looked down at me where I rested against his chest. “Enoli never made it home. A group of magic hunters—warlocks—came out of fucking nowhere. Their magick was still crackling over his lifeless body when Kota arrived. All I know is that Kota tried his best to save him, but he couldn’t restart his heart. Our healing abilities, even his, only go so far.” A tear dripped down Axel’s cheek, and he let out a grunt as he shifted to wipe it away before settling back into the mattress. “He was only a kid. Twelve years old, still human, barely a threat, and they fucking killed him in cold blood.” Axel clenched the sheet in his hand, crumpling it in a white-knuckled grip. “I lost two brothers that day,” Axel whispered. “Kota was never the same again.”

The pain that rocketed down our connection took my breath away.

“I’m so sorry, Axel.” Tears pressed behind my eyes, gathering enough to obscure my vision. I rolled away from him and swiped my fingers over my cheeks and under my nose. I was a watery mess again, my heart barely beating in my chest.

There was no denying how bad the war had been between both races I loved if the warlocks had taken to killing children in the street. How wrong had I been about the ones who’d raised me? My father would have done something if he knew, right? He couldn’t possibly be guilty of the same crimes, could he?

What had happened to Enoli was unforgivable. I didn’t even blame Kota for despising me when I first arrived. His rejection, his unwillingness to be part of the relationship that was obviously blooming between us, made so much more sense now that I understood.

My stomach churned with my anxiety as I mourned the brother I’d never get to know, the life taken much too soon, and the pain my mates held so close to their hearts.

Axel turned onto his side and stroked his hand down my arm.

“It’s hard to talk about,” he rasped. “But I didn’t mean to upset you and make you cry again.”

I shook my head. “No. I appreciate you sharing something so personal. I wanted to know.” The breath shuddered out of my lungs. “How long did it take for you both to…” I trailed off, but he knew what I meant.

“To shift? We turned just after his funeral just a few days later. That whole week went by in a blur. I barely remember any of it until I was standing at his gravesite feeling like my skin was about to fucking burst.”

“The primal spirit,” I guessed.

“Yeah,” Axel murmured. “Dason found us the next day and took us under his wing, sensing we were pack. Without him, I don’t think we would have survived. He helped us through the toughest year of our lives. Pushed us when we wanted to give up, helped us grieve. He let us be upset and angry and sad. And then one day it was easier to fucking breathe. It’s been years, but when I let myself feel, it seems like it was just yesterday.”

“Grief is funny like that. One minute it’s a scar, and the next it’s a fresh wound bleeding all over the floor,” I told him, glancing over my shoulder.

“I realize that if none of that happened, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.” His thumb stroked over my skin. “Right here, with you.”

My heart swelled in my chest. “I’ll always be here for you, Axel. For both you and Kota. When you feel submerged in grief, I’ll help you find the surface,” I promised. “We’ll weather the tide together.”

“You’re incredible, you know that?” he murmured, awe in his tone. “I’m finally, finally happy again.” Axel kissed my bare shoulder, his lips a whispering graze. “It’s been a broken road to find you, Lorn, but I’m so fucking glad I did. For the first time in so fucking long, I feel alive again, and that’s because of you, sweetheart.” Raw, all-consuming love shone from his warm brown eyes, and I rolled over.

“I love you, Axel. Every part of you. The darkness—” I kissed one cheek and then the other. “And the light. The sad and the beautiful,” I continued, trailing kisses along his jaw and down his neck. “The funny, the charming, the passionate.”

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” Axel kissed my forehead, taking a moment to just breathe in my scent, and I his. It was an addiction for our primal spirits. One hit would never be enough.

As it was, my sheets were covered in the various scents of my mates. I wanted to roll around in them all day and luxuriate in the heady combination, wear it like perfume on my skin. But that would be weird. It’d be weird, right?

Instead, I kissed Axel, drawing out kiss after slow, languid kiss, our tongues dancing, teeth nipping, lips sucking. I wanted to be the sunshine after the storm for him, to warm his face and let him know the future was bright.

And I knew it would be, because I’d do everything in my considerable power to protect what was mine. Axel was mine, just as Dason, Chayton, Kota, Jolon, and Syler were.

It didn’t take long before Axel was groaning into my mouth, his low moan shooting lightning between my thighs.

I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth as I rolled on top of him and pinned him to the mattress. I wasn’t naive, he let me do it. He also let my hand trail south, my nails grazing over the hard planes of his stomach, until I dipped below the waistband of his boxers and wrapped my fingers around his long, hard shaft.

He hissed through his teeth. “Trying to cheer me up, I see.” His teasing ended on another moan as I stroked him, my hand sliding up his cock and then back down again.

“I take care of what’s mine.” My primal spirit deepened my voice to something guttural and animalistic, and Axel’s eyes flashed yellow as his wolf pressed close, just under his skin.

I teased him with a few more strokes, enjoying the way he grew impossibly harder beneath my fingers. My thumb brushed against a spot just below the head of his cock, making him tense and throw his head back into the pillow.

Biting my lip, I crawled down his body, leaving a trail of kisses along his abs while Axel breathed my name. I licked down his Adonis belt, the hard muscle jumping under the light caress. Hooking my fingers under the waist of his boxers, I drew them down, revealing him inch by long inch until his cock was bare before me.

“Fuck, sweetheart,” Axel gasped, staring down the hard line of his body, watching me flick my tongue out to lick the mushroom head of his dick. “God, that’s so damn sexy. Do it again,” he half begged, half ordered.

Wrapping my fingers around him, I guided him to my mouth, licking a line up his shaft before closing my lips around him, unable to deny him what he wanted.

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