Everything Carries Me to You (Axton and Leander Book 3) (41 page)

"You are the most flawless woman in existence," Leander said. "You are brilliant, and I could do nothing without you." He held the passenger car door open and gestured her inside.

She flipped him off, settled the hat on his head, and got in the car.

"Yeah," Leander said, taking in the lack of convenient handles on the crate. "So, uh--"

Axton walked out of the crate, waited for it to be loaded into the backseat, and then jumped into the car.

"All right," Leander said, satisfied and putting the keys in the ignition. "Let's rock and roll."

Planes, Axton decided, planes fucking sucked. His ears kept on popping.

At least I'm the only dog down here
, Axton thought, before:
wait, what?

He was not a dog.

At least the general misery of flying kept his mind off the potentially crippling claustrophobia, so maybe this wouldn't trigger the PTSD over the basement that Axton felt lurking around in his psyche.

Grumbling, Axton curled up on the foam pad at the bottom of his crate, and willed himself to sleep.

So it turned out that planes sucked, but that the process of being unloaded and reloaded as cargo sucked more, and layovers between switching flights sucked the worst of all.

"You can't punch a guy for fumbling your dog's cage," Sarah hissed, slapping Leander in the arm as they wheeled Axton away from the final airport. "Who are you, New York?"

"Yeah, yeah," Leander muttered. "I'm hungry and cranky. Rescue missions are hard work."

"I packed you snacks," Sarah said. "It's not my fault you didn't eat them."

Axton perked up at the mention of snacks.

"Oh, all
right
," Sarah said, and she unwrapped a granola bar and stuck it through the cage's grating.

"I want real food," Leander said.

"Well then you should have written that into the itinerary," Sarah said.

"Excuse me,
who
wrote up this leg of the logistics?" he asked.

"Don't whine to me about food," Sarah said. "I want answers."

Axton nosed her through the bars, hoping to get her attention. For him,
everything
was real food.

They ended up stopping at a tiny Ecuadorian restaurant on the way to the marina.

"So we're just leaving the dog in the van?" Sarah said. "The dog. In a car. In Florida."

"It's winter," Leander said, pawing through one of their bags, resolutely ignoring the fact that it was sunny outside and already hot in the van's stuffy interior. "Get us a table, please."

"For how many?" Sarah asked sourly.

Leander sighed, tossed a set of clothes into the back, unlatched the crate, and closed the van. The back windows had very heavy tinting.

"Come on," he said. "Let's order ceviche."

Ten minutes later, Axton hopped out of the back of the van and ambled over towards the smell of food.

It had taken him a while to get his post transformation clumsy fingers to do tiny but vital things, like zipping up jeans.

The table Leander and Sarah sat at was set for three. Sarah raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow at him as he sat down, and otherwise didn't budge.

"Hi?" he said.

Leander popped a kiss on his cheek.

"Is anyone going to say it?" Sarah asked, arms once again across over her chest as she scowled at the men across the table.

"Not in public," Axton said.

"I have spent the past year and a half wondering if I was slowly going insane," Sarah said. "The least someone here could do is to confirm the impossible."

"You didn't tell her?" Axton asked, glancing at Leander.

"Oh, sure, make it
my
fault she's angry at us," Leander said. "Thanks."

"Your man never failed you," Sarah said, scowling harder. "Lee is terribly fucking loyal. But there's only so much arranging for falsified vet papers you can do before you draw some pretty wild conclusions."

"I haven't told New York, either," Leander pointed out, "but being that he's funneled a few million dollars into wolf research facilities across the country by now, I mean, he's got to suspect."

"I don't know," Sarah murmured, looking suddenly distant. "I'm not sure he does."

"I'm not sure he cares," Leander agreed. "He's been really good about it. I thought about trying to do this solo, but I needed the emotional support. And he's just so good at getting donations."

"We couldn't have done it without him," Sarah said.

"And we'll be borrowing his boat," Leander added.

"Which is listed as belonging to some shell corporation owned by his uncle, like, five steps removed," Sarah said. "So the paper trail's tricky enough to follow."

"I feel like I'm in a heist movie," Axton said.

"You are the Hope diamond," Sarah said helpfully. "I hope you like your rich mafioso wardrobe I picked out."

"I can't even object to Dana being pissed about my relationship leading to people knowing, because at least two people totally know now," Axton said.

"So there
are
more of you," Sarah said with satisfaction.

"Obviously," Leander said. "We equipped way beyond handling an individual threat."

"We did," Sarah said, sounding proud. She glanced over at Axton. "I'm still mad at you, though."

"You have every right to be," Axton said.

"Do you know how many books on Stockholm Syndrome I had to pry out of Lee's hands?" Sarah asked.

"I thought we weren't going to talk about that," Leander said.

"
So many
," Sarah said. "So many books on Stockholm Syndrome."

"I don't have Stockholm Syndrome," Axton said.

"Right," Leander said.

"Really," Axton said.

"Which is why you apparently have unfinished business back there," Leander said. "Sure."

"
What?
" Sarah asked.

"That's not because of Stockholm Syndrome," Axton said.

They stared at him.

"I mean, I'm probably traumatized in ways I don't understand yet," Axton allowed, "but not that way."

Silence. Skepticism.

"Maybe a
little
bit that way," Axton conceded.

Leander sighed.

"So basically," Sarah summarized, "we
all
spent the past year and a half going insane."

"Yeah," Axton said mildly.

"Yeah," Leander agreed, then, turning to greet their server, "
El picadillo, porfavor
."

Food was serious business.

"You know," Axton said on the drive to the marina, now in the backseat instead of the crate, "if we had more time, we could visit my bear friend who owns a diner here."

"What, like, a were-bear?" Leander said, sitting up straighter. "That's awesome. You never mentioned were-bears."

"No, um," Axton paused, "not like a were anything at all."

"He means bear as in gay subculture bear," Sarah explained. "Don't get so excited."

"Or, I mean, do," Axton said, "if that's your thing now, let me know."

"You could grow a beard," Sarah encouraged Axton.

"Pretty easily," Axton agreed.

"Please don't," Leander said.

The boat's main cabin was bigger than some shitty stupid apartments Axton had flopped in during his youth, and the bed was done up in zebra print sheets.

"It's still New York's boat," Leander said apologetically, glancing at the bed. "Sorry."

"Just how rich
is
New York?" Axton asked.

"Richer than god," Leander said, "Rich enough that he paid part of my law school tuition and it didn't even bother me because I knew it was truly nothing. Rich enough to spend a lot of money on tacky shit."

"Huh," Axton said vaguely. "I kind of like it."

"Christ," Leander muttered. "You
are
going to like your rich mafioso wardrobe, aren't you?"

Axton sat on the bed experimentally, testing the bounce of the mattress.

"Good springs," he said thoughtfully, and then he looked steadily at Leander.

"I swear to god, we
just
fucked," Leander said.

"That was hours ago," Axton said.

"On a truck, on a boat..." Leander said. "In a box, with a fox..."

"Yeah," Axton said. "I mean, only figuratively for the last one, as in, you're a fox, but yeah. Also, preferably not again in a box, actually."

"Sure, later," Leander said, "and we're fresh out of boxes. But now--"

Axton surged up and dragged Leander down to the bed, kissing hard. Then he settled and coiled around Leander, tangling their bodies together, one leg flung over Leander's hip.

"Just this," Axton murmured, "just for a few minutes. Lie with me."

"Ax, we have to--"

"Please," Axton said, voice low and raw. "Leander. Please."

Leander breathed in and out carefully.

"You know it's hard to say no to you when you do that," he said. Axton stayed silent. "Five minutes," Leander allowed.

Axton sighed and pressed into him, like he was trying to meld their skins together. Which: he kind of was. His hands found their way to Leander's shoulders, then crept up to his head, so that Axton could lose his fingertips in Leander's hair.

"I missed you so much," he said softly. "I don't know if I've even said that yet."

"Neither of us has, I think," Leander breathed. "It's self-evident. Too big to say."

They stayed like that for a time, Axton's fingers trawling through the short fuzz at the back of Leander's skull as they shifted positions to press together, forehead to forehead.

"Everything carries to me to you," Axton whispered, his long hand stroking Leander's face, his neck, his hair, everything, so softly.

Leander's lips quirked into the start of a smile.

"You read it," he said.

Axton nodded and shifted closer.

"As if everything that exists," he continued--

He felt, rather than saw, how Leander contained his shudder so that it was just a buried muted thing--but Axton still felt it, deep under his skin.

"Aromas, lights, metals," Axton went on in a fierce rush, pausing only to kiss quick with savage intimacy, "Were little boats that sail--"

Leander shut his eyes and breathed in too quick, shoving blindly closer to Axton.

"Towards those isles of yours that wait for me," Axton finished.

With a pained sound, Leander bit at Axton's lips, quick and pulling back before plunging back in, pushing their lips together and his tongue into Axton's mouth as if to silence him.

"You memorized it?" he whispered as he paused, but he gave Axton no time to answer between kisses.

"Every night," Axton said, when he could. "I read it every night I had a human shape, Leander, I--"

"I rescued
you
, motherfucker," Leander said, but his voice was shaky and he was holding Axton tight. "I carried myself to you, not the other--"

"The thing, oh, god, the thing you do," Axton breathed, words tumbling out of him in a grateful rush, "when you're uncomfortable, the mood breaking--"

"Shut up," Leander said, his hands gripping Axton's shoulders and they both breathed too hard.

"Can't," Axton whispered urgently, and they were so close, yet grabbing each other so tight, and readjusting their grip, swallowing hard, like they were trying to find the right position to keep their raft from capsizing. "I was going to rescue
myself
, asshole, god, I was working on rescuing
both
of us, securing our future. And you--all ready to get yourself killed--everything carries me to you, everything, and the only reason I came up with a plan for the pack was that I needed
your
safety to be assured. It would have taken a lot time, but--"

"I couldn't wait," Leander breathed, "even if I knew that, which I didn't--I couldn't wait one more fucking day, Axton."

"Fuck," Axton whispered, pressing frenzied kisses to Leander's mouth, around his mouth, at his neck, "fuck, fuck, fuck, you can't put yourself in danger like that, coming right up to the pack's territory, the fuck."

"The wait was killing me," Leander said unsteadily. "The past year and a half--it feels like I didn't rest a day. The wondering, the agony, the planning, the
looking
, jesus fuck, the looking--" Leander broke off, panting suddenly.

"You could have
waited
," Axton said, still scattering frantic kisses. "You could have guessed I would--"

"
No
, I couldn't have," Leander said. "I
told
you I was coming for you. You knew what I was doing. You told me you were leaving forever."

"And you believed me?"

"You're terribly fucking honest and loyal," Leander said, "so I figure you for a man who keeps his promises--and now you want to go back for some unspecified unfinished business, so I don't even know if--"

"What's the story?" Axton asked, "About the wolf and the oath breaker?"

"Tyr," Leander said, "and Fenris. But that's not--"

Axton rolled them over, straddling Leander and posturing up. His body was long and lean, and his eyes were burning and sharp.

"For you I would break any oath," Axton said. "Do you understand? It would take me longer. It took me a long time to figure out what to do, and it would take longer still to do it. But for you? Doubt my speed. Don't doubt my intent. Any oath. For you."

Leander breathed under Axton uneasily, trying to take big breaths with proper form, rising from the stomach and then the chest, but not managing it.

"And to me?" he asked. "What about oaths to me?"

"I'll keep them with my life," Axton said. "Everything I've done for the past however long--everything--has been to keep you safe. And for that I would give my life, my freedom, my
everything
. You want to know if I'd keep my oaths to you? Yes. Unless they hurt you--yes."

"You still don't understand," Leander whispered, fierce and quick. "You
leaving
hurt me."