Bearing Hearts (City Shifters: the Den Book 2) (6 page)

"He's worried about you," she said, bending to check the dryer and its contents. "He knows he was a jerk but he doesn't know how to admit it." She snorted and gave me a sideways look. "And I never expected him to crawl into bed with you, Lucy, believe me, or I'd never have let him sleep up here."

I concentrated on stripping off the soggy jeans and sweater, though my fingers trembled as I worked the button and zipper. "It wasn't that. I didn't mind that."

"Most girls wouldn't, but that doesn't mean he's off the hook." She took a deep breath and faced me, her hands on her hips. "I wasn't born a shifter, so none of the automatic mate stuff makes sense to me. I love Kaiser, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't ever an insta-love thing. Not for me, anyway. Our lives had to make sense together, or it wouldn't have worked. Kaiser is a comfort and a safe haven for me, and there's never been a point where he wasn't. If that's not what Axel is for you, then don't put up with him, because you deserve better."

"But if he's my mate —" I leaned back against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "It's supposed to be magic, you know? He's supposed to be perfect for me, the other half of my soul. I'm supposed to feel complete around him, and he's..."

"An asshole," she said under her breath, and gave me a sideways look.

"Well, yeah. But it's not that." I took a deep breath and stared at the wall, though I saw Ragnar instead. "I loved Ragnar. He made me feel better — about myself, about us, about the world.
That
felt like magic. I don't know if I can feel that way again, with anyone."

Josie sighed and started folding laundry into a wicker basket on the floor. "Maybe it's too late for both of you. I'd hate to see that, Lucy, because I like having you around and I think you'd be good for Axel, but it's not your job to save him. You know, one of the Chase brothers lost his mate in a car accident when he was in high school, but he found someone who's almost as close as a mate. They certainly seem happy. Maybe you found your almost-mate first, and Ragnar felt like the real thing."

I took the pair of fresh jeans she handed me and pulled them on, concentrating on the button and getting the pockets right. "Maybe. Regardless, I don't think I could survive losing someone else. Ragnar's only been gone a couple of months, and it feels like..." I trailed off, my heart in my throat, and I couldn't look at her. "It feels like drowning. All the time. Like I can't breathe or think or move. If he wasn't my mate and I might feel like that for someone else but
worse
... I wouldn't survive that. For a second. I don't even want to think about it."

She cleared her throat and frowned down at the laundry. "I felt that way when I lost my sister. I don't know if it gets easier, Lucy. I can't tell you that yet. But what I do know is that my sister wouldn't want me to miss out on all the amazing things in life because I was grieving her. I'm guessing Ragnar wouldn't want you to spend your days crying over him."

"You're right." I helped her fold the rest of the load of laundry, shaking my head. "But that doesn't make it any easier."

Josie took a deep breath. "Nope. Now before we both start crying over Tyler's underoos, let's get back to those pancakes. I'm sure all the good ones are eaten, but maybe they'll have figured out how to make different shapes. Katie started crying when Axel tried to make a teddy bear and it turned into more of a horribly misshapen whale."

I managed to laugh and followed her out of the laundry room after pulling on a fresh t-shirt. What she'd said stayed in the back of my mind after we sat at the table and Kaiser shoveled massive stacks of pancakes and bacon onto our plates, and I tried to keep up with the constant babble from the kids and a convoluted story from Tyler about his trains. I didn't know how I felt about Axel, and I didn't know how I would ever feel about him. But I knew exactly how I felt about Ragnar and our mission. Evening the score with the bastards who killed him took precedence over other business, and that included Axel. Whether he was my mate or not, I didn't have time for that yet. And I might need to put him in my rearview mirror as well, just to protect my heart.

A
xel insisted on driving
, even though Malcolm tried to beat him to the door after they left the gym. But Axel had the keys and the rank, so he sat behind the wheel as they headed for the old warehouse near the docks where they'd first brought Lucy. Lucy. He gritted his teeth as his stomach twisted and his chest hurt. He hated to think of her in the car with Kaiser, driving to see Smith, and Axel headed in the other direction. He couldn't protect her if she was on the other side of the city.

"Dude, the speed limit here is —"

"I know," Axel growled, and eased his foot off the gas. Going forty over the speed limit wasn't a great idea, even in the shitty part of the city. He scowled at the empty streets in front of him. Luckily the warehouse wasn't too far away, though it sat inside Miles Evershaw's territory. The wolf alpha let them use the location for interrogations and allowing people to cool their heels, but Axel knew the SilverLine pack had their own reasons for loaning out their property. He waited for the other shoe to drop every time he stepped into the warehouse.

From the cars parked on the street nearby, they joined the party a little late. Axel blamed Malcolm, who'd been praying or handling snakes or something in his room, and Sasha, who couldn't go anywhere without smoking half a pack of cigarettes. Axel wanting to see Lucy leave safely with Kaiser had nothing to do with the delay, or so he would claim if anyone bothered to ask.

He paused outside the door to the warehouse, scanning the surrounding buildings and cardboard homeless shelters for any signs of an ambush. Something felt off. A hard-eyed woman leaned against a broken public telephone, her arms over her chest and her eyes flashing gold. When Axel stared too long, she displayed some teeth. Definitely a hyena. Sasha played with his lighter, also considering the hyena bodyguard, and a hint of a smile pulled at his mouth. "You want I should question her?"

"No." Axel scowled and strode toward the warehouse entrance. "Hunt hyenas on your own time, you fucking communist."

Sasha muttered in Russian as they entered the dimly lit structure, but Axel ignored him. Mal wandered behind them both, still looking a little peaked from the snakes, and shoved his hands in his pockets as he hung back from the main room. Axel approached the men and women standing in a loose group at one end of the main warehouse floor. He shook hands with Edgar Chase, the security chief of the lion pride, and with Miles Evershaw. Ruby and Rafe O'Shea, twin alphas of the BloodMoon pack and allies of the Chase pride, stood close to Lacey Szdoka, the hyena queen, and the jackal leaders. Edgar's mate, a cold-eyed woman who’d suffered mightily at the hands of BadCreek, hovered at the edge of the group and kept her eyes on a lone figure, hooded and handcuffed, in a wooden chair on the other side of the room. The financier.

Axel kept his voice low as he nodded to the other representatives for the Alphas Council members. "Kaiser sends his regards. He had a meeting with Smith."

Edgar nodded, glancing down at a notebook before gesturing for his brother, an absolute mountain of a man, to approach from the shadows. "We've had some time to work on our... guest, Mr. Adams. Many thanks to Axel and Sasha for bringing him to us."

"And yet the beta escaped," Evershaw said, eyebrow raised. "How did that happen? I heard you had both of them right in front of you, and yet only the human is here."

"What are you implying?" Axel growled and took a wider stance, ready to fight if it came down to it. Evershaw was a notorious asshole and fucked with people just because he could, but he’d never tried that with a polar bear before.

The wolf alpha shrugged, though his eyes glinted. "Sure you don't have that beta tied up somewhere? It would be quite the coup if the bears took down BadCreek."

"You're out of your mind," Axel said. He ignored the wolf and instead turned to look at Edgar. "What did the human tell you?"

The lion's eyes betrayed a hint of gold, no doubt due to having his almost-mate around with so much posturing and testosterone in the same space. Axel didn't want to see Edgar Chase lose his temper, and from what Axel remembered, the girl wasn't too shabby as a fighter, either. Edgar eased closer to Isobel as he spoke, and only relaxed when she rested her chin on his shoulder. "He's the middleman. He arranges the deals between BadCreek and the purchasers, mostly humans. So far he hasn't admitted selling anyone to other shifters, and allegedly none of the goods have been delivered. It's all just on paper so far."

"Purchasers," Lacey Szdoka said, and a hint of sharp teeth showed. "What are they purchasing?"

"The kids," Edgar said. He managed to keep emotion out of his voice when he said it, but they all recoiled. Growls and rumblings struck up among the collected shifters, and Axel wasn't the only one seeing red. Even Edgar went white-knuckled as he went on. "Before Keller fled the country, they'd set up design-to-order shifter kids with half a dozen billionaires in Asia and the Middle East. They advertised the healing properties, the freak show of nonhumans, and the... breeding potential."

Axel had to walk away. He didn't want to hear anymore. Ruby O'Shea picked up a metal folding chair and smashed it into a metal pipe, curling the chair around the pipe, then strode into the shadows. Isobel, Edgar's mate, remained still and silent, her eyes practically glowing as she stared at the financier. Even Miles fucking Evershaw snarled and looked around for something to break.

It took a while for the shifters to collect themselves and regroup, though growls broke the silence periodically as their predator selves struggled with fury and bloodlust. Axel concentrated on the business at hand. The sooner they destroyed BadCreek and everything it stood for, the sooner they could get on with their lives in safety and happiness. He didn't want Lucy to walk into a city that allowed something as evil as BadCreek to exist. If she stayed, anyway.

Edgar pulled his mate tight to his side. "Right. So we all agree on that. Smith owes us some information on the beta we missed in the park, although he was spotted this morning."

"Kaiser is meeting with Smith right now," Sasha said, studying his lighter as he flicked it over and over. "So we should have answers."

"Are we done with
that
?" Lacey said, canting her head at the financier.

Edgar took a deep breath as he studied her. "You can't kill him, Lacey."

"Why not?" The hyena looked half-feral, even in human form.

"We intend to have him arrested and tried for human trafficking, among other things." Edgar squeezed his mate tighter when her expression darkened. "He'll spend the rest of his life in jail. Killing him is too easy."

"There are many things worse than death," Isobel said very quietly. "I imagine Lacey and I can come up with a few."

Axel figured he could help them with some creative solutions to that particular problem, and from the looks on their faces, Sasha and several of the other men would line up to help as well. Edgar opened his mouth to speak but a wobbly voice reached from them across the room, "I'm innocent. I haven't done anything wrong. Just let me leave and there won't be any problems."

Lacey's eyes narrowed as her head swiveled to face the restrained financier, and her teeth glinted in the gloomy warehouse. Miles Evershaw was the one who moved, though, striding over to the bound man. He ripped off the guy's hood and the human blinked as his eyes adjusted. Evershaw crouched next to the man, pointing at the assembled group of shifters. The wolf alpha's growl reached them even across the empty expanse of the warehouse floor. "Think about this, human, as you contemplate the very few remaining minutes of your life. You made deals to sell the children of these people. You are responsible for the pain and suffering of
children
. And you want us to let you walk away?"

"My hands are clean," the human said, false bravado setting Axel's teeth on edge. The financier blinked rapidly as he struggled to focus. "Keller approached me to find international investors for his project. I didn't know children were involved. I swear. I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Lacey's lip curled. "How many investors?"

"S-seven." The man tried to straighten his shoulders, even bound to the chair. "I can provide their names and contact information. I gave them to you already, I'll say it all again."

"How many deals were completed? How much money changed hands?"

Axel wanted to walk away. He didn't need to know the details. He didn't want to know the details. The hyena queen interrogated the financier all over again, with Evershaw standing by to encourage the guy with a pipe to the knee on occasion, but eventually Axel caught Edgar's eye and nodded that they would leave. Sasha and Mal were only too glad to retreat as Axel strode out toward the car.

Mal frowned over his shoulder as the human started screaming. "Do you really think they'll let the hyenas kill that guy?"

"I don't think there are many people that could prevent Lacey Szdoka from doing what she wants," Axel said under his breath, glancing down the street at where some of the hyenas loitered in the bad neighborhood. Lacey's enforcers looked like the most dangerous people on a street with three bears, which was no easy feat. Sasha gave them a lazy salute, and more than one looked like she wanted to charge and teach them a lesson.

Axel waited until they were in the car and on their way back to the gym before he went on. "Regardless of what happens to that man, we know what we have to do. As soon as Smith gets those beacons inside the BadCreek compound, we move in and eradicate them. Those people cannot be allowed to continue."

"They wanted to sell children." Mal sank lower in his seat. "Maybe the hyenas are right. We should take him apart piece by piece."

"They will hurt him where it hurts most first," Sasha said. He managed to sound bored and disinterested even while discussing the pending demise of a dirt bag financier and an entire rogue pack. He might as well have been discussing getting rid of a plague of roaches or fleas. "Take his money, take his reputation, take his freedom. His health. His family. Everything important. Leave a broken man. Then kill him. Is better that way. Makes him suffer, to know everything is gone."

Axel stared through the windshield as icy pellets of snow began to fall, crackling against the glass as he accelerated. He wanted to be home. He needed to talk to Lucy. Axel knew what it felt like, to think you'd lost everything. To think he would walk alone in the world, without family or friends or a history. It crushed part of his soul, when he lost Ragnar and it was his own fault. His lip curled. It was a fitting punishment for that financier son of a bitch, tied to a chair in the warehouse, but it wasn't something that Axel deserved for being a stupid asshole as a kid. He wouldn't be able to make things right with Ragnar, but he could make things right with Lucy so at least she knew how he felt. That she would never be alone and he would always protect her when she needed it. He ignored Mal's quiet warning about the speed limit, and hoped that Lucy and Kaiser were back from their meeting.