Axel caught Red in his arms before she could crumple on his doorstep. He hoisted her over his shoulder, closed the door with his foot, and made his way to the lone bedroom.
Since stealing Red’s heart, his pounded out of control. Axel looked forward to seeing her stomp her way toward his place, but he was scared shitless the effort might do her in.
Dammit, he was a bastard for breaking into Red’s cottage and stealing her heart. He was also a coward for forcing her to own up to his suspicions on his terms and his turf.
But they had a reckoning that needed to happen. Axel had warned her several times to not mess with him, hadn’t he?
He set her on top of the covers. Moonlight shone in through the window, and a candle burned on the nightstand next to the bed. Axel didn’t need the light. A wolf could see in the dark.
Crossing his arms, he leaned against the wall and scrutinized her.
Beneath the brown cloak, Red was small and thin. Laced-up, worn black boots disappeared under the length of her faded blue dress. Had she been standing, the top of her head would graze the notch of his sternum. He was six-foot-one. Yep, Red Little wasn’t a danger to him or any creature. At least while she was on land.
Axel gave her chest a fleeting glance. Soon, he’d have to give her back her heart. Her eyes fluttered open. She looked at him in confusion before her lips thinned into a fine line.
“My heart, Axel. Give it back.”
He hadn’t expected his heart to pump something fierce at having those green eyes directed at him with ire in their depths.
“I will if you give me something in exchange.”
She tipped her chin at him. “I don’t barter with thieves. Hunter—”
“Was a coward, undeserving of you.”
“You told him I had nothing to offer him. Lies. I have hunting and gathering skills worth paying for.”
“But not enough of either for him to stick around. How long did his feelings for you last, a good month or two?”
“A month.” She looked away. “I thought Hunter was different, but he couldn’t see past my ragged clothes to find me.”
Axel growled low at the hurt in her voice. After Red had saved his ass at sea, and witnessing what she’d done for the sake of survival on land, Axel understood who “me” was.
Red Little had enough strength and courage to protect and save a man. She also possessed an iron determination to make a life for herself far from the safety of the closest village, Grimm.
He pulled up a chair and sat. The man in him longed to comfort her while his inner wolf demanded vengeance. Red’s truth could’ve swayed the wolf council from stripping Axel of his Alpha title.
“Pathetic, isn’t it?” She met his gaze. “I ignored your warning and stayed with a cheater because I was scared to be alone.”
“What you felt is understandable.” The man’s need to comfort overshadowed the wolf’s desire for vengeance. “You and I are the most alive when we’re with our packs.” He with his pack of wolves, and she with her Siren sisters.
Axel pushed aside the edges of her cloak. Over her dress, he traced the seams of the metal door concealing the spot where her heart would be. His keen wolf hearing didn’t miss her quiet intake of breath.
“What do you want, Axel?” Her nostrils flared, and her mouth thinned.
He tugged the edges of her cloak together. He preferred her ire over her fear of him. “I want the truth from the day we met, Red. Why do I remember every detail of that day, but my men, nothing?”
“The sea was rough. They banged their heads and took in water. Maybe the trauma made them forget.”
He tsked. “Believable, but here’s what I think happened. Stuck between life and death, you made a deal with the gods to live again.”
Arrows had pierced the water and hit him in the arms and legs. She’d shielded him with her body, at that instance a heaven-sent nymph when earlier he believed her to be a seductress from Hell.
Red took the brunt of the final assault. Arrows clipped her fins and tore them to tatters. Axel pushed her aside as best as he could underwater, but his effort failed. A claw-tipped arrow hit her in the chest and punctured her heart.
Their blood filled the water. Sharks swarmed.
Axel had anchored her to him, swam them to shore, and carried Red’s unconscious body to his cousin, Charming’s, place by the ocean.
“Your father might be a god but you and your sisters are mortal. On our way to Charming’s, you died, I’m certain of it. At his doorstep, something happened. You took a sudden and long draw of air.”
Axel regarded her through eyes hooded. She blinked and long, dark lashes shadowed her creamy skin. Composed, keen, smart, brave, beautiful.
Good god, Red was beautiful. His gaze dropped to her lips. Full and a deep crimson. The tip of her pink tongue darted out and slid across her bottom lip. Clearing his throat, he tore his gaze away.
The dog had to outsmart the fish and do so without being distracted by the fish’s enticing looks and the way she wet her mouth.
“What you hadn’t expected was to get a mechanical ticker. With it, you live, and you’re free from your curse. But the irony is you can’t return home. Your mechanical heart won’t tick under water.” Axel smoothed his palm over the covers, near her hip and leg.
When they were fighting for their lives in the ocean, her side fins and tail had blended with the blue-gray of the water. Holding her against his chest and running on land toward Charming’s place as though the devil chased them, her face and arms turned a similar blue-gray. She was dying, and Axel couldn’t do anything other than run faster.
He’d never experienced as much fear as he had that day, holding something so small and fragile in his arms.
“I’m glad you’re alive, Red, but why involve my pack in your deal with the gods? Was it for revenge, amusement… vindictiveness? Have I somehow wronged you?”
“None of that. I saved your life and you, mine. We’re even. End of story.”
“Not by a long shot. Your deal came at a cost, Siren. You cost me my Alpha position. Tell the truth from that day to my council, and I’ll consider us even.”
She stared back with a defiant tip to her chin.
His attention drifted to the spot where her heart would be. “You were brave taking that shot for me.”
The pain and fear Red must’ve gone through when Charming had cut into her chest, removed her heart and gave her life with a mechanical ticker.
“I’m grateful, but I need the truth. My isolation from my pack edges me closer to an insanity I can’t return from. Do you understand?”
She bit down on her bottom lip. He glanced at the candle burning on the nightstand. Charming said Red could live without her heart for three hours maximum. The cuts on the wax marked her time. Red had an hour.
“Being with my pack is important as I’m certain being with yours is imperative, too. Without a pack, a wolf is nothing but a stray dog. Without her sisters and the ocean, a Siren is a fish out of water. I want to go home, Red.”
Her warm fingers brushed his. The small gesture spun Axel’s world on its top.
A fish shouldn’t comfort the savage beast. The beast might take a chunk out of her, or worse, kiss the fish. The fish tempted the dog with her quiet courage and determination though her stubbornness tested Axel’s patience.
In the months she’d been land-bound, Axel watched over Red.
At first, she’d struggled to live on land. Many nights he was certain she went to bed hungry. Axel had left her dried meat and berries. Every morning, he’d hurry to her place believing he’d find her on the verge of death. Maybe her mechanical ticker had stopped ticking in the middle of the night. Instead, he found an empty bed, neatly made.
He’d raise his muzzle to the air, catch her scent, and with a growl of frustration, go in search of her skinny nymph ass. As he followed her scent, he detected something off about the trees that lined his path to the field of wildflowers. The trees were missing pieces of bark. Was the sea nymph using them for target practice?
His suspicion proved true a week later when he’d watched her hunt. With one shot, she’d killed the elk, putting the best marksman to shame. The animal and hunter inside him chortled with approval.
“You can’t punish me for wanting to live another day. You can’t judge me guilty for what I was.” Her words were a whisper, stroking the flames of his guilt into a roaring blaze for the situation he put her in—flat on her back and without her heart.
Suspecting her guilt of angling her closer to a confession, he cemented the god-awful feeling into her with his next words, guaranteeing him a spot in Hell.
“You mean judge you guilty for being a murderer of innocent men?”
“A curse my sisters and I were born with, something beyond our control.”
“You win on that point. I won’t judge you guilty for living that life, but I can make you pay for being a trespasser, a thief and a liar.”
“The pot calling the kettle black. Taking mushrooms is nothing compared to stealing a person’s heart.”
“Not any person, but yours, Red. Only yours.”
Her eyes widened. Axel held back his wolfish grin. He’d only wanted and had dared steal her heart and no other woman’s. A truth he would deny if asked by his fellow wolves. A dog shouldn’t fall for a fish out of water.
“You foraged and hunted on my property without my permission. I snuck into your place and stole your heart. I’d say we’re even except you didn’t own up to being a liar.”
“I didn’t lie. I decided not to speak up on your behalf.”
She’d spoken casually but her decision had cost Axel his Alpha position.
His canines elongated, the first sign before a full on attack. Clenching his jaw, Axel commanded his agitated wolf to stand down. The wolf pushed forward and growled low. Red covered her face. Axel demanded his wolf settle the fuck down. The animal in him whimpered and cowered.
“I scared you. I’m sorry.” It took all of his restraint to not scoop her into his arms and beg her for her forgiveness.
“It’s not you.” She uncovered her face. “There were… others.”
Dark suspicion gripped his gut and twisted. “Wolves corned you. Which pack?” He saw her through a haze of red.
For putting the fear of a dog’s bite in Red, Axel would rip the pack’s Alpha to pieces before he tore off the offender’s head.