Axel's Pup (3 page)

“What?”

“What are you into?” Bayden asked. “What do you hope I’ll do to get that hundred you pocketed?”

Axel took the folded notes out of his pocket and handed them across the corner of the table. Anger chased any arousal out of his scent.

Bayden hesitated. All five notes were there. Axel wasn’t keeping any of them? “I don’t understand.”

“I was holding it for you while I cleaned you up, not stealing it from you.”

Bayden peered down at the notes, completely off balance. Apparently, silly little rich boys got to keep all their winnings without any argument.

He pulled himself to his feet and picked up his helmet, but his gaze went to the table—the bowl of water, the first aid kit, the wraps Axel had tied around his knuckles. Axel had been kind—maybe only because he thought Bayden was a rich idiot with money to burn, but still. Bayden offered one of the twenties to Axel.

“Why?” Axel said.

“For…” Bayden waved a hand toward the things on the table.

“I’m not your waiter.” His tone changed to match the anger in his scent. “You don’t need to tip me.”

Bayden dropped his hand to his side. “I wasn’t trying to insult you.”

Axel stood up. “No problem.” Except it obviously was a problem. Axel’s body language made his displeasure clear.

“I should go,” Bayden mumbled.

Axel didn’t try to stop him. It was stupid for Bayden to feel disappointed by that. He wasn’t there to take an interest in any human.

In. Pick up some fast cash. Out. Quick and clean. Everything had gone exactly to plan.

Bayden was almost outside when Axel spoke. “The opening times are listed on a board next to the front door.”

Bayden glanced over his shoulder. “It’s okay if I come back sometime?”

Axel dipped his head once in acknowledgement. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

Bayden looked down. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say, what the man who Axel thought he was would say. It was safer to leave in silence.

Around the front of the pub, Bayden was aware of men watching him. He ignored them all as he pulled his clothes on. In a few seconds, he was on his bike and riding away from The Dragon’s Lair. His thoughts raced in a dozen different directions. It was more habit than conscious thought that guided his bike onto the housing estate on the other side of the city where his mother and grandfather lived.

Pulling up outside the dilapidated row of houses that made up the farthest corner of the estate, Bayden took off his helmet. He touched his lip, checking the split hadn’t reopened. He was fine.

He strode up the path and knocked on the door leading to one of the upstairs flats. Taking the money he’d won out of his pocket, he folded it into his palm, out of sight.

The door creaked open. His mother peeked around the edge of it. She smiled when she saw him and undid the chain.

“How’s he today?” Bayden asked.

Her smile faded a fraction. “He’s sleeping now.” She looked tired. She’d tied her hair into a braid over one shoulder, but several locks had escaped, and she’d obviously lacked either the time or the energy to fix it. The strain was showing around her eyes. It hadn’t been an easy night.

“Do you want me to sit with him for a while?”

She shook her head. “We’re fine.” Her gaze settled on his lip. “Are you?”

“It’s nothing. I’ve had worse paper cuts.” He was about to smile to prove just how fine he was when he thought better of it. It wouldn’t do for his lip to start bleeding in front of her. “Is there anything you need?”

“We’re fine, love, really.” She stroked his cheek. “You need to stop worrying about us. We’re not your responsibility.”

It was nothing he hadn’t heard before, nothing he intended to heed this time. “I’ll go and let you get some rest while he’s sleeping,” Bayden said. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and slipped the folded up notes into the pocket of her cardigan. It would be enough to let her finish paying off that week’s rent and stock up on some food.

He was halfway down the path leading back to the road when his mother called after him. “Keep your head down, sweetheart.”

Bayden looked over his shoulder and nodded at the familiar advice.

Straddling his bike, he pulled away from the curb and turned toward his own place nearer the centre of the city. It was Friday. One set of rent paid, he could start earning the money to pay his own. Bayden bit back a sigh. Two days—that gave him plenty of time, providing he wasn’t fussy about how he earned the money.

Bayden paused at a set of traffic lights and his mind wandered back to Axel and The Dragon’s Lair. The more he thought about it, the more being a silly little rich boy appealed. Playing pretend like that probably didn’t count as keeping his head down and staying out of trouble, but it was a damn sight more fun than reality.

He was there to pick up a fight; that was all. As Bayden pulled up outside The Dragon’s Lair, he was very clear about that in his own mind.

He was back barely a week after his last visit because it was getting harder for him to pick up fights in pubs where he was better known. Obviously, his return had nothing to do with Axel. That would be silly.

Bayden pulled off his helmet and looked around the car park. There weren’t so many bikes there today. There might not be anyone who’d want to fight. Bayden remained on his bike. Axel had probably been setting him up for a slap down when he suggested he come back. Humans were like that, and Axel really hadn’t liked Bayden offering him a cut of his winnings.

Bayden stared at the swinging sign outside the pub. It showed the same design as the backs of The Black Dragon’s club jackets—a Dragon just like the one on the Welsh flag, but in black and on a red background. Finally he sighed and pulled himself off his bike. He was an idiot for being there, but there was no way he could leave without at least checking.

Just outside the pub door he slipped on his sunglasses. Taking a deep breath, he squared his shoulders and stepped inside.

Axel was there. For a few seconds, Bayden remained just inside the door and simply let himself stare, comparing the reality of Axel to the memory of him that he’d carried around for the last week.

Bayden had half convinced himself that he must have embellished Axel in his mind, but the man standing behind the bar matched his recollection perfectly. From the tightly cropped blond hair and sharp blue eyes, to the intricate tattoos that covered his arms, Axel was just as Bayden remembered.

Axel was a big guy, tall and broad across the shoulders. But, that wasn’t the really interesting thing about him. Axel exuded pure dominance. That hadn’t been Bayden’s memory playing tricks on him. If there was such a thing as an alpha human, Axel was it.

It took all of Bayden’s self-control to tear his gaze away from Axel and glance around the room. There were twenty-odd guys there. Most sat at the tables, a few were at the bar talking to Axel. About a quarter of the men wore those jackets that marked them out as members of The Black Dragons Motorcycle Club. Axel’s jacket hung behind the bar.

Bayden stepped forward. The movement caught Axel’s attention. He didn’t smile at Bayden, but he didn’t tell him to piss off either.

Bayden cautiously made his way to the bar.

Axel lowered his gaze, but there was nothing submissive about the gesture. His inspection went all the way down to Bayden’s boots and back up to the top of his head. There was no admiration in his gaze; it felt more like a statement of ownership over everything he saw.

Bayden stopped a foot away from an empty bit of bar. A sudden rush of nerves almost translated itself into fidgeting. He tightened his grip on his helmet, hooked the thumb of his other hand through one of the belt loops of his jeans and forced himself to fall still.

Axel didn’t say anything.

“You told me it was okay to come back sometime,” Bayden finally reminded him.

“Did you think I’d change my mind?”

Bayden shrugged. He’d have been far from the first human to decide he didn’t want a wolf in his pub.

“What are you drinking?”

A little of Bayden’s tension eased. “A bottle of Coke, please.”

Axel put it on the counter and took his money. “Don’t wander off while I get your change.” It was an order, not an invitation.

Bayden did as he was told, but once Axel handed him the coins, he knew better than to push his luck. He turned toward the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Axel said.

Wasn’t it obvious? “To sit outside.” Anyone who wanted a fight would find him easily enough.

“No.”

Bayden hesitated. “No?”

“You’ll sit at the bar, where I can keep an eye on you.”

Bayden felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up. “I’m not here to cause trouble.”

Axel raised an eyebrow at him. “Who said you were?”

Bayden stared at Axel through the darkened lenses of his sunglasses, trying to get a read on him and failing.

Axel’s lips twitched into a smile. “I don’t think you’re going to start a riot, but until you prove you have more survival instincts than a seriously stressed out lemming, you’ll stay at the bar.”

What the hell? “I can look after myself.”

“Of course you can.” He didn’t even try to sound like he meant it.

Bayden frowned. Apparently, there were disadvantages to being considered rich and stupid. He looked toward the door. “My bike’s out there.” He had no intention of saying the words aloud, but somehow they slipped out. Bayden tensed, knowing it was stupid to let on any detail that could be used against him.

Axel turned a monitor on the shelf behind the bar toward Bayden so he could see the screen. The entire line of bikes was clearly visible. “Your baby’s perfectly safe. Any other excuses?”

Bayden climbed onto the stool furthest away from the other men at the bar.

Axel nodded his approval. “Do you coddle it in every pub you stop at, or are we special?”

“What?”

“I can’t imagine you being this worried about leaving it outside some posh wine bar in the middle of the city.”

“I wouldn’t like leaving it there either,” Bayden said, honestly. “I don’t even like parking it on the street outside my place when I’m just rushing inside to get something.”

“Rough neighbourhood?” Axel asked, his tongue obviously in his cheek.

“No, it’s a nice area.” Where would he live if he had money to burn? “By the bay, where they built the new flats, overlooking the marina,” Bayden decided. That would be nice. He’d ridden through there once or twice. It was quiet, peaceful.

“Sounds like it would be a safe place to park.”

Bayden shrugged. “I just feel better when it’s properly garaged.”

Axel laughed, but it was a warm, indulgent sound, just like when Axel had called him a little pup. “How long have you been riding it?”

“Since I turned twenty-one.”
I didn’t steal it.
He stopped himself short, just in time. If Axel thought he had money, he wouldn’t have jumped to the same conclusions as every other human seemed to when they saw a wolf riding an expensive bike. “My granddad gave it to me.”

“He’s got good taste.” As he spoke, Axel picked up some of the empties that had been left a little further down the bar and set them on the counter behind him. “Does he ride?”

“He used to.”

”Not anymore?”

“He’s not well,” Bayden admitted.

Axel remained silent, as if waiting for Bayden to add something, but it was too real. Bayden had no idea how to fit how ill his grandfather was into the fantasy life he’d been creating.

Just when the silence was building up to the point when someone would have to say something to break it—

“Axel?”

Axel glanced down the bar to the guy who’d called him. He lifted a hand in acknowledgement, but he didn’t rush away. ”I’ve got no problem with you drinking here, or with you keeping an eye on the monitor so you know your baby is safe, but Bayden?”

Bayden tensed, ready for anything. “Yes?”

“Lose the sunglasses.”

Bayden blinked at him from behind the safety of the tinted lenses.

Axel didn’t walk away. He didn’t move. He just waited, with apparent patience, for his order to be obeyed.

Bayden reluctantly took off his glasses, folded them up and set them on the bar.

Axel smiled. “Good boy.” He didn’t sound sarcastic, or even gently amused. It didn’t seem like he was making a joke out of talking to a wolf the way humans liked to talk to dogs. The way he said it, it actually felt nice.

* * * * *

“If you wanted a puppy, you could have just said. We’d have chipped in and got one for your birthday,” Hale said.

Axel grabbed a beer and set it on the bar in front of Hale. “You’ve had a week to come up with something, and that’s the best you can do?”

“Just warming up,” Hale corrected. “You know he’s not what the leather gods had in mind when they invented puppy-play?”

Axel glanced down the bar. Bayden’s attention was divided equally between the monitor and his drink. He showed no sign of being able to hear what was said about him.

“He’d look good in a collar though,” Drac pointed out from the stool next to Hale.

Axel didn’t argue with that. Bayden in a collar and nothing else would be a walking wet dream. Or, even better, a kneeling wet dream. The boy certainly had the lips for it.

Axel looked down the bar, again, just in time to see one of the pub regulars, Joe, stop alongside Bayden’s stool.

The only word Axel caught was drink.

Bayden indicated his mostly full bottle of Coke, as if he really thought Joe was worried he might be thirsty. Joe went away. Bayden went back to studying the monitor.

Out of the group of Black Dragons who’d gathered at the bar, Griz was sitting closest to Bayden. The exchange had obviously caught his attention. He turned to Bayden, obviously not about to take Bayden choosing the stool furthest away from him as a sign the boy had no interest in talking to him.

Griz whistled to get his attention. “Wolf-boy!”

Bayden continued to watch the monitor.

“I thought wolves were supposed to have good hearing,” Griz complained.

Axel tossed a couple of empty bottles in the bin. “Try calling him Bayden, his hearing might improve.”