Crash, page 16
Axel wouldn’t turn him down, not this time. The words Ben spoke all those years ago, the heartache they endured, was necessary to get away from Magnus and the pack that stifled them. Even if the alpha didn’t say it, the smaller wolf knew in his bones he’d always been right.
They were mates.
“So when are you going to claim me?” Ben asked.
Axel’s head whipped around so fast Ben almost laughed. What if the taller wolf said he wasn’t going to? Then what? Ben swallowed the doubt churning in his gut and grinned instead.
“You think I might not?” Axel asked.
“No. I was asking when you would.”
“But that’s not the right smile,” the alpha said and leaned forward.
Ben’s heart stood still in his chest, and he held his breath as Axel kissed him. Their lips melted together like a double scoop of ice cream on a hot day, and the smaller wolf ran his palms over Axel’s taut arms. Pistachio and rocky road, that’s what they were.
“I’ll claim you. I promise,” Axel breathed.
Ben, wholeheartedly, believed him.
* * *
Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds came home a few hours later, one right after the other. The rain had stopped, leaving the ground puddle ridden and the air smelling fresh and damp.
Ben dug through his bags and pulled out another outfit, then tried to fix his hair into something besides a mess. It didn’t work, but he decided against pulling out the gel. He didn’t have anywhere to rinse his hands, save one of the neighbor’s hoses, and that would be difficult to explain.
Axel climbed out of the car and lit a cigarette. He smoked the whole thing down to the filter and pulled out a second.
Ben watched and waited. The alpha would go when he was ready. Maybe he’d realize this wasn’t a good idea, and they’d leave. These people probably had a hard enough time putting their lives back together. Or Ben was wrong, like he’d been about Axel all these years. Whatever happened now, the alpha needed to do this for himself as much as for the Reynolds family.
The omega grabbed the duffle bag and looked at the taller wolf. “Well?”
Axel nodded. He rearranged the money, shoving some of it into a backpack, and headed toward the door. Ben stared at the cash Axel left behind – what did he plan on doing with that? Now wasn’t the time to ask.
The alpha wolf stood at the door for a full five minutes before he finally knocked.
A woman answered.
Ben recognized her from the trial, only the lines around her eyes were heavier now and her hair was more gray than brown. “Can I help you?” Mrs. Reynolds asked and eyed Axel like he was some sort of criminal.
The omega opened his mouth, but Axel cut him off. “Yeah. Mrs. Reynolds. I’m Axel Cross, and I’d like to talk to you.”
This is it, Ben thought, this woman is going to slam the door in our faces.
She didn’t. Mrs. Reynolds stared at Axel for a long time, then called over her shoulder. “Henry. Can you come here please?”
Axel stood up straight under her stare and squared his shoulders.
Mr. Reynolds stepped next to his wife and frowned. “What’s this about? Are you here for Misty?”
That brought a wave of color to Axel’s cheeks. “Sort of. I needed to apologize for what happened to your daughter, Kelly. I never got a chance to say anything at the trial. Lawyers and all,” Axel muttered.
The Reynolds looked at each other, and Ben wished he could decipher their expressions. Hurt and anger flashed across Mr. Reynolds’s face, but what else?
“Why?” Mrs. Reynolds asked. Her voice cracked and she held her hands to her mouth. “Why now?”
The omega wanted to say everything Axel told him in the car, but if Ben did it, then the alpha wouldn’t get his chance. Instead, he pressed his shoulder into the taller wolf’s and squeezed Axel’s hand.
“Because I’m sorry that bastard killed her. He should’ve done it to me, not your daughter, and I needed to tell you that.”
The woman’s eyes widened, and Mr. Reynolds shook his head. He sucked on his cheeks like he’d just bitten into a lemon.
Ben stood still. Did Axel really feel that way? It should’ve been him over Kelly Reynolds? The iron spike inside the omega grew.
“Is that all? You know we’ve tried to get past what happened. Your father’s in prison for the rest of his life – that’s all we can ask for. We don’t need you to play martyr.”
The alpha’s jaw clenched, and he pointed at the round cigarette scar on his neck. It was the only one not covered by a tattoo. “My father gave me this when I was thirteen. I got it to protect my best friend. If I was there when he took your daughter, I would’ve protected her too. But I wasn’t, so it’s my fault that she’s. . .”
Mrs. Reynolds shook her head and grabbed Axel. Her arms engulfed him in a hug, and the taller wolf’s body crumpled with the weight of it. “Hush.”
Ben gripped Axel’s fingers like the taller wolf might slip away.
Mr. Reynolds patted his wife’s back and hung his head. Ben caught a glimpse of Misty standing in the hall. She peeked around the corner and stared, though she didn’t step closer. The omega didn’t blame her.
Axel straightened when Mrs. Reynolds let go of him. Then he opened the bag and showed them the money. “I also wanted to give you this. Fifty thousand dollars my dad had on him. Gambling money, actually.”
The woman squeaked while Mr. Reynolds’s eyes widened behind his glasses, but he shook his head. “We can’t take that kind of money from you, young man. I’m sorry.”
Axel stepped back and stared at them like they’d lost their minds. Ben kept his eyes locked on the alpha wolf. That was not what the omega was expecting at all.
Mrs. Reynolds nodded absently. “Money won’t bring back our baby girl. You can donate it, if you’d like. We don’t need it.”
“You’re sure?” the alpha asked.
In the neighborhood back home, no one in their right mind would turn down that kind of cash. Ben’s parents could retire with that much money. The Reynolds didn’t seem to be doing too badly for themselves, but who the hell would deny a chance like that?
“Why?” Ben asked suddenly. “He came all this way – all the way from Pittsburgh, just to give you this. We had to hike through a swamp and everything just to get here, uh, long story.”
The Reynolds looked at each other, and Mr. Reynolds pushed up his glasses. “That’s. . . thoughtful of you. And we don’t want you boys to take this the wrong way, but it’s blood money from a man we’d rather not remember. Put it to good use on your own, we don’t want anything to do with it. Now if that’s all.”
Axel zipped up the pack and nodded.
Mrs. Reynolds patted him once on the arm before she shut and locked the door. Behind the heavy wood, Ben heard their hushed voices trying to make sense of the situation. The omega felt the same way – what the hell just happened?
The sun hung over the horizon, and Axel drove to a motel in town. The room had colorful southwestern style quilts, orange, turquoise and maroon. They weren’t any better than the ones in New Mexico.
The alpha hadn’t said a word since they left the Reynolds, and the expression on his face was unreadable. “Blood money,” he muttered as he tossed the duffle bag and backpack on the bed.
Ben stripped off his damp T-shirt and laid it on the chair. “You’re not going to do something stupid like burn it, are you? Because I can think of plenty to do with a hundred grand, blood money or not.”
“Burn it? You think I’m that dumb?” Axel’s eyes slid over the omega’s body, and Ben tried to keep the heat from rushing over his skin. Even at twenty-three the omega only grew a light sprinkling of dark hair on his chest. He thought of shaving it, from time to time, but it’d only make him look younger. He didn’t need to look younger.
“No. I’m gonna shower so. . . .”
Axel peeled off his clothes and pulled the smaller wolf into the bathroom. “We’re going to shower.”
The stupid butterflies took off, and Ben’s heart slammed against his ribs. The shower wasn’t huge, but it was large enough for two people, especially considering one of the people was shorter than he could be.
The hot water and soap washed away the scent of river, pine and rock that clung to Ben’s flesh. But the only smell the omega really paid attention to was Axel’s musky fragrance. The alpha’s hands trailed down the smaller wolf’s slick skin and electricity rose in their wake.
Ben took a sharp breath. “You have a thing for bathrooms?”
The taller wolf snorted and his lips brushed Ben’s neck. Fingers wound around the omega’s chest, rolling Ben’s nipples. The smaller wolf groaned and leaned into the touch. Axel’s chest fit against him like it was made to – and he tilted his head up into the crook of the alpha’s shoulder.
Lips surged against Ben’s, like lightning in a summer rainstorm. He turned around and melted into Axel’s arms. His groin ached, and the slick heat of the alpha’s cock pressed into Ben’s flat stomach. The omega’s erection throbbed against the taller wolf’s thigh.
Ben barely remembered the rest of the shower. They stepped onto the tile floor, dripping and grasping onto each other in a mad attempt to touch as much as possible. Maybe they dried off with the thin white towels – maybe not.
They tumbled onto the bed in a mess of limbs. The air conditioner blew over their damp skin, raising goosebumps on Ben’s chest. Axel rolled on top of him and stared. With their eyes locked like that – the heavy sound of labored breath and the steady thump of their hearts – the omega knew what was going to happen.
He grinned.
“That’s it. The right smile,” the alpha groaned as his mouth explored Ben’s chest.
Lips, tongue and teeth pecked at the smaller wolf’s eager flesh. Ben wound his fingers in Axel’s slick hair as the butterflies fluttered throughout his body. His balls felt close to bursting and his groin ached for attention, but he didn’t want to rush the moment.
It could last for all time, as far as he was concerned.
Ben hardly even heard the sound of a zipper and the squirt of the lube before the alpha’s skilled hand rolled the omega’s hips forward. The smaller wolf took a deep breath, steadying his nerves, as a slender finger poked at his entrance.
“This is your first time, right?” Axel asked. His eyes were hooded with lust, but the shadow of doubt crossed his face all the same.
Ben’s heart twisted. So the alpha knew about those other guys. “Yeah. I’d never let anyone claim me but you.”
Axel kissed Ben’s bent knee. Then the taller wolf’s finger slipped inside.
The omega whimpered at the sensation. Hot pleasure melded with the intensity of the digit nudging his prostate. Ben wiggled and moaned, eager for more pressure and girth. The cheap sheets scratched his skin.
“That good, huh?” Axel mused and slipped another digit inside. He worked them slowly and methodically, opening his fingers like a pair of scissors to loosen Ben’s entrance for something larger.
When he slipped a third inside, the omega twitched around it and dug his fingers into the mattress. “Fucking claim me already,” he moaned.
Axel’s mouth brushed Ben’s thigh. “You don’t want it to be slow and romantic? I thought you were that type.”
The smaller wolf’s skin blazed with fiery need, and he shook his head. “Yeah, we can do the romance later. Right now, I think you should fuck me.”
The smile that spread across the taller wolf’s lips was the one Ben remembered. It was the same smile Axel got, on those rare occasions, when he was perfectly happy. When he didn’t have anything else to worry about.
It filled Ben’s heart, and the omega smiled back.
This was Ben and Axel’s moment.
The one Magnus and Cross senior tried to steal away, but they couldn’t.
They couldn’t deny mates.
Axel leaned forward, and Ben shifted his hips to accommodate the alpha. The slick, ironclad head pressed into the omega’s ass, stretching him wider than before. The ecstasy washed over him like the river – the solid heat of Axel’s cock pounding inside. The spike in Ben’s heart turned into something beautiful, made from something ugly.
Axel seemed like an extension of Ben’s own body. Whenever the alpha wolf moved, Ben moved with him. His balls drew tight and twitched for release. The omega’s fingers gripped onto the taller wolf’s taut arms, sliding them up and over Axel’s back. The tattoos seemed to come alive with every thrust of the taller wolf’s hips, slamming into Ben once the omega relaxed to allow it.
Golden eyes burned across Ben’s flesh. Lips surged with his. The thundering pleasure of his lover – his Axel – his mate, filled every moment.
“I love you,” the alpha groaned as he smashed his lips to Ben’s.
The smaller wolf let the words sink in to his flesh and heart, like water soaking into sand, and held on to Axel’s sweat slick back with all his might.
Whatever happened with Magnus or Tommy Malone didn’t matter in the least.
They had this moment.
They had each other.
And that was all they ever needed – although a hundred grand didn’t hurt.
With one final thrust, Ben’s body stiffened as he came. It spurted across the alpha’s chest, dripping onto the omega’s own. The pleasure flowed through his veins like honey – thick and sweet – and pooled in his groin and the tips of his toes. Then Axel buried his face into the smaller wolf’s neck while he released his own load. The heat seeped into Ben’s body and filled him.
For a moment, the taller wolf sat totally still, his arms braced on either side of Ben’s head. Then he collapsed into a pile with the omega. Their hearts pounded.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Ben’s fingers drifted up Axel’s sweat slick back, and he closed his eyes.
“I love you,” the omega muttered. “I’ve always loved you.”
A slow smile spread across the alpha’s lips, still pressed to Ben’s neck. “I know. I’ve always loved you too.”
They stayed like that for a long time.
16
Then
Axel drove Chester Malone’s BMW recklessly fast. All the things he’d learned in school about deadly car crashes crossed the alpha scion’s mind, but at the moment, he didn’t care. If he died, what did it matter? Ben wouldn’t miss him now.
But the omega still needed Axel’s protection.
He slowed down.
The cops caught the alpha scion on the highway. When they pulled him over, Axel gave them the finger and smirked. Act the part of a juvenile delinquent, he told himself.
They bought it. Hook. Line. Sinker.
At the police station, he heard them mumbling about him. Axel Cross. Yeah. That Cross. Just like his old man. Seems to be headed in that direction.
The alpha scion scowled.
An officer put him in a room with stark gray walls while they waited for Magnus and Mrs. Cross to arrive. Axel twisted his hands in the cuffs. It’d be too easy to bust free – simple metal couldn’t contain a wolf.
When Magnus finally stalked into the room at around one in the morning, his broad face was as hard as stone. “I should leave you here to rot,” he growled.
Axel smirked. “Do it. Better than living with you.”
The alpha went on like he hadn’t heard. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Messing with one of my business associates? Mr. Malone is pressing charges. Grand theft auto. You’ll go to juvie, Axel. Like father like son, isn’t that what they say?”
Axel gritted his teeth, waiting for Magnus to threaten Ben. It didn’t matter what anyone thought of him now. They could compare him to Cross senior all they wanted, but the alpha scion knew it wasn’t true. He was nothing like that sick fuck.
The threat to the omega never came, and Magnus took Axel home in silence.
Word of Axel’s arrest spread through high school and the neighborhood faster than ice melting in the summer sun. The alpha scion ignored all of it. He walked through the halls with his back straight, glaring at anyone who dared look in his direction.
The only thing that hurt was the expression on Ben’s face. It wasn’t fear, thank the moon, but the omega furrowed his brow and pouted. It was the look the smaller wolf got when he was working on a particularly difficult math problem. This time, Axel was the one Ben couldn’t figure out.
The alpha scion wanted to open his mouth and spill the entire story to his best friend. Being alone for the last eight months with his thoughts was worse than Axel thought it’d be. Telling Ben would lift the huge weight of the situation from his shoulders. Maybe he hadn’t given the omega enough credit.
Then Ben shook his head and walked away. The moment slipped by as quickly as it came, and Axel scowled at the ground.
His plan to turn Ben against him worked too well.
* * *
When Axel got out of juvie, life dragged, like usual. He went back to high school for Ben’s sake. The omega flitted between a few groups of friends, dressing in his clean-cut style and ignoring the alpha scion.
Axel followed Ben at a distance. The taller wolf’s camera was always ready to snap pictures of the omega. It was all Axel had left of their friendship, and he wasn’t prepared to give it up. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
While the smaller wolf acted strangely from time to time – like he was trying to egg Axel on – he mostly kept out of the alpha scion’s way. But that meant Ben kept out of Magnus’s way too, so it worked out.
Everything Axel did was an act he put on to taunt his uncle. When the alpha scion moved out at eighteen, the thought of leaving Pittsburgh didn’t even cross his mind. He was the buffer Ben needed against the alpha. He’d stay in town as long as he was needed – as long as Magnus ruled their pack.
