Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
“We still don’t know where they even came from or if there’s more of them,” Wyatt said.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Wyatt called.
The door opened, and Axel stood on the other side.
“Bell,” he called, “Mom has been looking for you. She said it’s about the wedding.”
Bell’s face lit up. She got up from her chair and set down her glass.
“Gotta go!” she said with a quick bow to Wyatt and a smile that filled his heart with warmth.
Bell hurried past Axel and ran into the night.
Axel stepped inside with a sigh.
“I still don’t like that it’s a Summer wolf,” Axel said, “but I do like seeing that smile on her face.”
Wyatt nodded.
“She has earned it,” he said. “And Galen is a good man, you’ll see.”
Axel smiled.
“And what about Alexander?” he asked.
Wyatt cleared his throat.
“I already told you, Axel, Alexander is a good man. Your sister is lucky.”
“What about when he finds out about his father, about Tomas?” Axel asked. “Will he still be such a ‘good man’?”
Wyatt sat up and looked Axel in the eye.
“Alexander already knows about Bell’s past. It was her choice to tell him,” Wyatt said. “She didn’t tell him the connection to his father’s death, but she will if she needs to. He is a good man. Like his father, neither of them would put her at risk.”
Axel sighed.
“Do you know who it is?” Axel asked.
Wyatt shook his head.
“She has refused to tell me all these years,” Wyatt answered.
“If we knew, we could just–”
“That,” Wyatt interrupted, “is why she has refused to tell anyone all this time. It’s not what she wants.”
“Why not?” Axel asked, dropping himself into the sofa. “Does she still care about him?”
“I can’t know her mind, though I don’t think that’s it,” Wyatt said. “I think she is who she is.”
“What does that mean?” Axel asked.
“She heals, Axel,” Wyatt smiled. “She fixes the ones that get injured, keeps them alive. Revealing his identity will only lead to his death or the death of someone she loves. It’s against her very nature.”
Axel sat quietly with that thought.
“After everything, she’s been through,” he said. “The stuff we know about and the stuff she doesn’t tell us about. How can she still really know who she is?”
“What do you mean?” Wyatt asked.
Axel shrugged.
“I don’t know, just wondering.”
“Axel,” Wyatt called. “Are you alright?”
Axel stood up from the sofa.
“Yea,” he said. “I’m heading out for patrol.”
“You’ve been doing those a lot lately,” Wyatt commented.
Axel shrugged.
“With Selene gone, and the others we’ve lost, there are gaps in the rotation,” he said. “I’m just filling in where I can.”
He walked out the door without another word.
Wyatt sighed.
Axel had always been a bit childish and unmotivated. But his heart was pure. He was devoted and trusting. His desire to protect the ones he loved far outweighed his self-destructive thoughts.
Wyatt and Corrine had spoken many times about how to encourage him. How to pull him out of his shell. But nothing they tried seemed to work. Wyatt knew Axel would be a great Alpha. He would always look after the wolves of Winter. But he didn’t know if he would ever look after himself.
Axel swept the perimeter. He checked for cracks along the border and reported to the others. The night was quiet.
He looked up at the moon. It was only another week from being full, but it felt empty somehow.
He wandered the trails for hours. He had long since traded off shift, but as the sun peaked over the horizon, Axel still found himself walking the forest paths aimlessly.
He took a deep breath and then climbed the nearest tree. He sat at the tree top, enjoying the wind in his hair and the sound of the birds waking in their nests.
Axel sighed.
He pulled the small paper from the pocket inside his jacket where he had kept it since the night she left it for him. He opened it up and read the note for the hundredth time.
“Little Alpha,
I have to make this quick. Don’t trust me. I won’t be me the next time we meet. You’ll be you, but I’ll be shiny and new every time. I might not see you again, or I might watch you from the trees. I see your face a lot when I dream. I like it, especially when you don’t cover it. Don’t trust me, please. I really think I don’t want to hurt you, this me, or the shiny one. Don’t look for me. You seem like that kind, the one who tries to be a knight. But that leads to getting stabbed or eaten by a dragon. I like you not stabbed or eaten. Stay that way.
Not so shiny,
Alice.
P.s. I’m glad you didn’t eat it. He would have made you shiny again.”
Axel took another deep breath and put the note back in his pocket. He didn’t understand what Alice meant, by most of it… but she was right. He wanted to look for her. He wanted to see her again.
He kept dreaming of those chocolate eyes. It hurt. Even now, it hurt to think of them. But each time it hurt, he could swear he saw them just a little clearer.
Peter was finishing his last chart. He had been here all night and finally caught up with all his patients. Finally, he was ready to go home, draw his curtains tight and crawl into bed to sleep.
At least, that was the plan until his office door flew open.
He let out a deep sigh, preparing to tell whoever it was to go away.
“I… need help.”
Peter looked up at the voice. It was Axel.
He was leaning heavily against the door frame, his hand gripping his head, and he was sweating profusely. Even from his seat at the desk, Peter could see the pain written on Axel’s face.
“Axel!” Peter shouted, jumping up and running to the man’s side.
“Help…” Axel gasped out, grunting as the pain in his head grew.
“Let’s get you to the chair,” Peter said, helping Axel sit down. Once he was in the chair, Peter moved back to the door. “A little help in here!”
Peter dropped down to his knees in front of Axel.
“Hey, tell me what’s going on,” Peter said, lifting Axel’s chin. “Shit!”
Axel lifted his chin, and blood poured from his nose. His mouth was almost covered in the dark liquid.
“I need to get you to a room.”.
A nurse appeared in the doorway.
“I need a wheelchair and a clean room!” Peter shouted to her.
“My head…” Axel said, his teeth held tightly together. “… it hurts…”
“What happened? How did this happen, Axel?” Peter asked. “Did you fall? Did you get in a fight?”
The nurse appeared with the wheelchair. Peter helped Axel into the chair and then rushed him down the hall.
An hour later, Axel was in one of the hospital beds, IVs attached, monitors connected. Peter stood by his side, checking all the test results again. He didn’t understand what he was seeing.
There was no reason for any of it.
Axel’s fever was spiking, his heart was racing, and the bleeding had stopped, but there was no explanation for how it started.
Peter had given him a strong sedative, but even that wasn’t keeping him calm. Axel lay on the bed struggling through whatever nightmare he was witnessing.
“Maggie, I think you need to call Bell,” Peter said as the nurse walked in, “I can’t figure this out on my–”
“No!” Axel shouted, grabbing Peter’s wrist.
Peter looked down at Axel. He should have been asleep.
“Axel, I don’t know what’s going on with you, and I need help,” Peter said, trying to calm Axel down.
“I don’t want anyone to know,” Axel said through gasping breaths. “Bell, my parents, no one… you can’t… tell….”
“Axel, I–” Peter tried to argue.
“Order… from… your Alpha…” Axel managed to say before his consciousness faded.
Another hour later, Axel’s room had been made private. Only Peter and Maggie knew he was there. He had fallen asleep; his vitals were returning to normal. But Peter didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone.
He fell asleep in the chair beside Axel’s bed.
“Peter,” Axel called out gently.
Peter stirred. Axel sat in his bed, looking at him with tired eyes.
“Axel, are you alright?” Peter asked, jumping up from his chair and immediately checking on Axel’s vitals.
“I feel okay,” Axel replied. “My head, it’s still hurting a lot. But I feel better than I did when I came to the hospital.”
“What exactly happened?” Peter asked as he sat down.