Chapter 74

“He’s fine, I have him,” Axton tells me before sighing and shaking his head.

“I still can’t believe you started a pack.”

“Actually, I have two. I just need to make my father’s pack submit to me.”

“Good, so you will be moving back to the city soon, then.”

I shake my head. “No, and I don’t know what I am doing about that yet.”

Axton growls. But I’m not going to demand the pack submission. Many are loyal to my father and I can’t do that yet. I need to figure out a plan first. Especially since most may refuse since I am female, and not only that, I need to think of Luke’s and my mother’s safety, as well as the women here. They aren’t too comfortable going into the city yet.

Axton shakes his head and mutters something under his breath.

“Just because you found me doesn’t mean I’m coming back, Axton.”

“You will be. You have my sons, and you promised I can have them this weekend.”

Yet now I am having reservations about that. Especially with the way he carries on after finding out I have no warriors out here, and only Omega women.

I purse my lips and Axton sets Bane down in the crib, tucking him in. He passes me the bottle.

“I need to go tell Eli to go home. I will need the keys to my car.”

“Wait, you aren’t leaving?”

“As I said, Elena. I won’t leave my sons, or you, out here unprotected!”

I go to argue when he growls. “I’m staying the night. Fight me on this, and I will order my pack here to take down yours.”

I scoff. “How fucking dare you! These women have been through enough! You don’t get to come here and order me around. You shouldn’t even be here! Threaten my pack again, and I will have you breached with the council. I bet you never notified them of your intention to appear here. We aren’t part of the city borders, so you don’t just get to trespass here. You have no right stepping on my territory, Axton.”

“And by the time you did that, your pack would be no more. You would be locked in my damn basement and the boys would be at home with me,” he snarls, glaring at me. “Either way, you accept it or lose the boys and your pack. Pick, Elena. Either I stay until I can work out patrol rosters for my men out here, or I am taking them home.”

I glare at him, but if he orders his pack to attack us, we won’t stand a chance. We would be outnumbered fifty to one, which is why now I need to figure out how to make my father stand down or make him submit. I refuse to have this become a lingering threat he can use against me.

“So, which is it? You have three seconds to decide, Elena.”

I press my lips in a line. He knows I won’t risk my pack or our sons! Digging in my pocket, I pull out his car keys and hold them out to him.

Axton grabs them along with my hand. He jerks me to him.

“You keep fighting me. When are you going to see that you won’t win?”

“I didn’t realize we were competing!” I sneer at him, and he laughs.

“We aren’t. I’ve already won, Elena. You will come back to the city eventually because you won’t have a choice,” he growls, pressing closer.

His aura slips over me as he tries to get me to submit. Yet mine doesn’t falter as I shove him off. He chuckles, gripping the back of my neck, and his lips crash against mine.

I shove him, but he holds tighter, his tongue forcing its way into my mouth so I bite him. He pulls away but doesn’t let me go, his lip bleeding as blood trickles out. I watch his tongue dart out over it, and he chuckles.

“You forget one thing, love,” he purrs, ripping me closer. His aura is painful as he unleashes the full force of it on me, mine is new and not as strong as his yet, but it’s still not enough to make me submit to him having had my father's used on me for years, i have decent toleration.

“You will submit to me!” he growls.

“Not likely,” I tell him and he buries his face in my neck, pleasure explodes through my body when he runs his tongue over his mark. My entire body shudders, having forgotten he has marked me.

“Now that is where you’re wrong. You’re forgetting something, Elena. I knew you would always come back. That is why I marked you.”

I jerk away from him. “Yeah, so you can fucking find me!”

“You would have come back, that I’m sure of. You wouldn’t have a choice,” he says, stalking me, and I take a step back. “Fight me all you want, I’ll play along for now but you will submit to me!”

I shake my head when his arm wraps around my waist, tugging me flush against him, and I have half a mind to unleash Lexa on his ass. However, his following words make me freeze.

“You’ll come back. I’m the only one that can stop your heat,” he purrs, then chuckles. I growl, shoving him.

He staggers back, and my claws slip out as Lexa presses forward. Just when I was starting to feel bad for taking the boys from him, he pulls this shit.

“You reject me, I take the boys and wipe out your little pack. Either way, you are mine now, Elena.”

Lexa snarls in my head, furious at his words.

“So now what you need to decide is which situation is more appealing, Elena. My basement or the packhouse? You’ll end up in one of them. Though I prefer you at my side than beneath my feet,” he says before walking to the door. He stops at the door and looks back at me. “I don’t want to force your hand, Elena, but I will if I have to.”

“Because the options are so appealing!” I sneer at him, and he shrugs.

“Most would drop their mates to be with an Alpha, Elena.”

“I’m not most, and I know exactly what sort of pricks they are. I don’t need an Alpha. I am one.”

“For now, you are,” he tells me, and Lexa presses forward.

Axton smirks, seeing her. “Settle, Lexa. Not even Khan will submit to you, no matter how much he loves you both. And you are no match to even think of challenging us.”

“We’ll see about that,” Lexa growls in my head angrily.

“I’ll let Eli leave. I will be back in a few minutes. Don’t even think of locking me out, Elena. A fucking door won’t stop me from getting in and taking them,” he warns me, wandering off.

I glance at their crib.

“Oh, I’m going to make him my Lupha one day!” Lexa snarls. Looks like that title remains. Somehow, I don’t think Axton will accept it lying down.

“He will,” Lexa assures me, and for once I don’t doubt her. Because Axton forgets one thing, the mate bond works both ways. If he wants to play with our bond to try to break me, fine, but I will play with something far more damaging: his fucking heart.