Axel's Pup (21 page)

“I—”

“Am leaving,” Axel finished for him. He nodded toward the door.

The guy blustered. He turned to Bayden, realised that Bayden hadn’t looked away from his jugular when he stopped growling, and bid a hasty retreat. Bayden watched him until he was out of the room.

“Bayden?”

Bayden stared at the door until Axel made him look up.

Axel studied him carefully. “Do you need to take a break?”

“I’m fine.”

Axel glanced at the clock. “It’s only half an hour until you’re due to clock off anyway. Why don’t you—”

Bayden tensed. “I’m fine.”

Axel turned back to him. “Go back to work then.” He took his knuckle away from Bayden’s chin and stepped out of his way.

Bayden turned to the next customer.

It was one of the younger regulars, Evan, the blond boy who Richards had sent off blushing the same day Bayden took his bet with him. He had to have heard what the guy before him in the queue had said, and the growl, but he didn’t hesitate for a moment before he placed his order.

Bayden relaxed slightly as several other customers bought drinks and none of them complained about the species serving them. It was one idiot. An idiot who’d mouthed off in front of Axel. An idiot, who would have been much more to Bayden’s taste if his voice box had been torn out and he’d never be able to say certain words again, but still just an idiot.

Momentarily without someone who wanted a drink, Bayden wiped down the bar with a towelling cloth. He closed his eyes for a few seconds.

Yes, the guy was an idiot. But he was an idiot who’d said what he really felt—who’d just said out loud what a hundred different men who drank there probably thought. That was the kind of thing humans always thought. Those were the kind of words that they always used about wolves.

Humans were like that. All of them—even the ones who said polite things didn’t really mean them. Bayden had known that for years. The only thing any of them could be trusted to do was kick a wolf when he was down.

He jumped when Axel’s hand came to rest on his shoulder.

“Shift’s over, pup.”

Bayden gave the bar one last wipe down and washed his hands before making his way out into the crowd of customers.

Axel followed him. Other men took their places. Bayden barely spared them a look.

“Don’t rush off.”

Bayden stopped, then cursed himself for being so bloody quick to obey a human. “Are you going to fire me?”

Axel nudged him into the corridor leading toward the kitchen, where it was quieter. “Why would I?”

Because humans always take the human’s side.
Bayden shrugged.

“He really got to you, didn’t he?”

“What you said before, about me taking bets on things that look like scenes,” Bayden cut in. “I want you to change your mind.”

“No.”

It wasn’t exactly an equivocal answer, or one that invited further discussion, but he forced himself to push forward. “I want you to let me take bets like that somewhere else.”

Axel shook his head. “Not going to happen.”

Axel couldn’t actually stop him from doing that. Breaking his word to a human wasn’t the same as breaking his word to a wolf. There was no way Axel could even know.

“I’ll know,” Axel said.

Bayden glanced up at him. “What would happen if I did?”

“We’re never going to find out, because you won’t break your word to me,” Axel said, still in that same confident tone of voice. “Whatever you do, you’ll do it here.”

Bayden swallowed. He was right. Bayden was tempted to consider the fact that Axel was right to be the worst thing about the whole situation—there was no way in hell he’d break his word to Axel.

Maybe Axel wasn’t using the same tactics as other humans, but he was just as intent on controlling Bayden. That made him just as bad. Or maybe his mother was right. A human who a wolf wanted to obey, who he wanted to please, that was the most dangerous sort of all.

Following a human’s lead, thinking about him as if he was a wolf, and an alpha wolf at that, it was asking for trouble. Bayden didn’t want trouble. He didn’t want to worry about what Axel would think before he decided if he took a bet or not. He didn’t want to let Axel down.

Bayden’s heart raced faster and faster. His hand curled into a fist at his side.

“What that guy said,” Axel began.

“Isn’t important,” Bayden cut in. That guy couldn’t hurt him, not the way Axel could. Bayden turned away.

Axel caught hold of his arm.

Bayden looked down at his grip on him. “Do you want to do a scene with me?”

“Not unless you’re offering to obey my rules for longer than a scene.”

“I’m not interested in obeying you.”

Axel raised an eyebrow.

Bayden ground his teeth together, unable to claim that it was the truth without telling another lie. “I want you to let go of my arm.” That was the truth, wasn’t it? Bayden wasn’t sure anymore, and that just made him want to lash out at the whole world. “Or does working here mean I don’t get to want that?”

Axel released his arm but he didn’t retreat. “You know better than that, pup. If you don’t want me in your space, you only have to say. You know that, don’t you?”

Bayden looked down. He nodded. He didn’t have to let Axel in his space. If he had any sense he’d say that he wanted him to back off. The words stuck in his throat. He liked Axel in his space. Sometimes it felt like Axel’s casual caresses were the only things that allowed him to keep even part of his sanity.

But that was the real problem, wasn’t it. He liked it too much. He liked it so much he didn’t want to risk losing it by disappointing Axel—so much he’d only taken bets on fights for weeks.

Bayden shook his head. It was time he grew up and stopped indulging in silly little day dreams. Fights weren’t the quickest way to make money, or to remind humans just how difficult it was to break a wolf. Axel’s good opinion of him was a vague concept. There was nothing vague about cash in hand.

“If you won’t let me take bets somewhere else, I’ll take them here.”

Axel’s scent became more pissed off than ever. “You don’t have leave to take bets anywhere else.”

Bayden turned away and headed for one of the back rooms. He was in there for less than a minute before someone offered him the chance to prove his point and pay off the doctor’s bills at the same time.

* * * * *

“What the hell’s going on?”

Axel didn’t even glance at Hale as Hale stepped up alongside him. All Axel’s attention remained on what Bayden was doing on the other side of the room.

“Axe?” Hale demanded. “Have you lost your mind?”

Yes, Axel was half sure he’d lost any scrap of sanity the moment he’d met Bayden. For the first time in his life, Axel wanted a dom who played in The Dragon’s Lair to try to break the rules. The tiniest excuse was all he needed. One wrong move on the guy’s part, and Axel would have a perfectly legitimate reason to throw him out.

Axel forced himself to watch as the guy led Bayden across to a play space that had just become free. An order had Bayden taking off his clothes. He folded them neatly and set them to one side. He remained completely impassive as the guy’s hands moved over his body. He wasn’t turned on, he didn’t seem to be particularly anything.

Axel’s eyes narrowed.

Bayden had no more interest in this guy than he’d had in Richards. There was no submission there.

Minutes ticked by. Axel watched it all. Bayden obviously wasn’t doing a scene. As far as Axel could see, Bayden wasn’t even pretending to. It was a bet, nothing more. He was physically there, but that was his only contribution. The look around his eyes was just like when he fought a guy in the back yard of the pub—like he had a job to do, it wasn’t a pleasant job, but he was going to do it anyway.

Axel forced himself to take in each detail as the complete bastardisation of a scene played out in front of him.

On the one hand, it could have been a lot worse. It was just sex. There would be no bruises, no welts. It was just sex with someone who treated Bayden like dirt—who apparently thought that the only thing a man needed to possess in order to be considered a fantastic dom was a ready line of insults.

And Bayden…

Well, he let the guy use his arse and his mouth. He seemed as unconcerned about that as he was about taking a hit in a fight. If he was aware of the crowd watching, he gave no sign of it.

Axel was aware of the crowd, and the fact that quite a few of the people there cast curious glances in his direction. Everyone was wondering what the hell was going on, if he’d ordered Bayden to play with someone else, or why he wasn’t calling Bayden to heel.

By the definitions he and Bayden had agreed to use, it was a bet not a scene. But it looked like a scene. It looked like Bayden was playing with the guy. Semantics didn’t reduce Axel’s anger, or his jealousy.

Years passed, although it couldn’t have actually been more than an hour. Bayden got up off his knees and wiped his mouth. Axel had never been more relieved that the club didn’t allow doms to play without condoms unless the sub was wearing their collar.

The guy held out money to Bayden, acknowledging that Bayden had won whatever the hell the bet was. As Bayden reached out to take it, the guy pulled it back. He said something, too low for Axel to hear.

Bayden replied in the same hushed tone. The guy turned pale. He seemed too shocked to react when Bayden took the money out of his hand. Apparently content that the guy understood that he’d lost, even though he still had his jugular intact, Bayden turned away from the would-be dom without another word.

Axel waited to see if Bayden was going to look in his direction, but he didn’t.

Bayden seemed to make a point of not doing that. He seemed to have a lot of points to make that night. Points like—
if you don’t want to screw me, lots of other guys do
. Points such as—
you don’t get to tell me what bets to do unless I bloody well give you the right.
Whether it was intentional or not, the loudest point he’d made was—
I act out whenever some idiot insults wolves, anyone I actually submit to will have to find a way to curb that.

Bayden disappeared into the gents’ room. By the time Axel caught up, Bayden was in one of the cubicles. None of the others were occupied, no one was standing at the urinals. They had the room to themselves.

Bayden had cleaned the space near the end of his shift. It was still spotless. Leaning against the edge of one of the sinks, Axel settled down to wait. He half expected Bayden to hide himself away, regretting making his point, but he came out within a minute.

He didn’t look at Axel when he went to the sink and washed his hands.

“What was the bet?” Axel asked, forcing his voice to remain calm.

“That I couldn’t last an hour without safe wording out.” As he dried his hands, he met Axel’s gaze. “I won.”

“And did it work?”

“What?”

“Did it make you feel better about what the guy at the bar said to you?” Axel asked.

Bayden’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t like what I do, let me take it somewhere else.”

“I don’t reward temper tantrums.”

Bayden jerked his head up. For a moment, Axel thought that Bayden was angry enough to tell him an unedited version of the truth, but Bayden corralled his temper as quickly as he’d seemed to lose his grip on it.

“You don’t usually let idiots get to you. What was different this time?” Axel asked.

Bayden shrugged.

Axel mentally scrolled through as much of the conversation as he’d overheard. “He said that shifters are animals. That you shouldn’t be behind the bar. That you’re a tame—”

“No!” Bayden took a step forward.

Axel was shocked enough to fall silent.

“There are some words wolves don’t say—not willingly, not ever,” Bayden said, his words barely above a whisper, as if he felt uttering them out loud was a huge risk.

“Okay.” Axel reached out, keeping his movements slow, giving Bayden plenty of time to back away if he wanted to. Bayden remained where he was when Axel stroked his cheek. His eyes dropped closed as if he was relishing the contact.

“Tell me why,” Axel ordered.

Bayden leaned into his touch. Axel doubted he was aware of doing it, but the plea for reassurance couldn’t have been clearer. Axel’s anger faltered.

“It’s what humans called…” Bayden swallowed. “In the Captivities. The wolves the humans caught, that’s what they called them.” He looked up, so wary, so uncertain if he should trust Axel with such information. “The things they did to those wolves. What they made wolves do—with humans, with other wolves, with…” He took a deep breath. “Those wolves didn’t have a choice. Now wolves do. We choose, and that changes everything.”

Axel stroked his fingers through Bayden’s hair very gently, praising him for trusting him.

“Humans can’t hurt modern wolves the way they hurt those wolves because now, we choose.” It sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

Axel’s heart ached for him, but he resisted the desire to pull him close. “You think that’s what taking that bet with that idiot proved?” Axel asked, gentling his words as much as possible.

“He threw what he had at me. I proved my point. Nothing he can do to me will break me.” Bayden cleared his throat. When he spoke again, his voice was strong and brisk. “If you don’t want me to submit to guys here, give me leave to do bets like that somewhere else, or—”

“You didn’t submit to him,” Axel cut in.

Bayden frowned. “Yes, I did. That’s what humans call it.”

“I can think of a few things to call what you just did, but it didn’t involve a scrap of submission.”

Bayden glanced up at him, amber eyes once more full of uncertainty.

“I’ve watched all your bets. I’ve seen you fight and get screwed. I’ve watched you take a whipping and obey another man’s orders. I’ve never seen you submit to anyone.” It wasn’t until he said it that he realised just how true it was. He’d never seen Bayden do
anything
that could be taken as an inclination to submit to anyone else. That wasn’t something that happened by accident. Whether he did it consciously or instinctively, Bayden had to have worked hard to make sure of that.