Everything Carries Me to You (Axton and Leander Book 3) (56 page)

"But you won't," he said.

"Is that a promise?" Leander asked.

Ilias studied him for a moment, with no pretense of being subtle.

"Yes," he said finally, placidly. "But you do not need it."

"I'm glad someone thinks I'm going to win this fight," Leander sighed. "I think you're the only one betting on me here."

"You're not fighting the fight they think you are," Ilias said.

"That so?" Leander asked, scrubbing a hand against the back of his neck. God, he felt tired. No. He felt weary. It wasn't physical so much as it was spiritual. "'Cause I'll let you know, chief, that I am ready to punch some fools tonight."

"You have a trick," Ilias said, the last word lingering on his tongue in satisfaction.

"Better be one hell of a trick," Leander said, looking up as the door opened.

"Better fucking be," Dana growled, teeth immediately bared. "You cock sucking son of a bitch."

Ilias looked at him calmly.

Dana put his teeth away and swallowed thickly.

"Sorry," he said.

Ilias looked at him longer, with a mild but clear sense of expectation.

"Sir," Dana added.

"Mm," Ilias said, considering and then waving his fingers dismissively. "That will do, yes."

"It's rude to eavesdrop," Leander said helpfully. It was totally worth it to watch how Dana had to struggle to hold back a retort. Leander was pretty sure that if Ilias hadn't been with him, Dana would have no qualms about pre-tenderizing the challenging combatant.

"Quiet," Ilias said, but Leander watched his eyes and saw the smile there.

"My apologies," Leander said dutifully, and everyone in the room knew he didn't mean it.

"Sir," Dana started. "If you're done here...?"

Ilias rose gracefully, fingertips poised on the tabletop. "I am," he said. "But bring in my son. Give him five minutes."

"Sir?" Dana said uncomfortably, shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Thank you, Ilias," Leander said, just so Dana knew who the favorite was.

"Sir," Dana repeated, through clenched teeth. "I--"

"
Now
, pup," Ilias said, in a quiet voice.

Dana cast a final, murderous look back at Leander and then went.

"Awesome," Leander said, after a moment. He cocked his head and looked at Ilias. "You hate authority. And subservience to authority."

Ilias shrugged.

"A pack can do as it pleases," he said. "It is not for me to say what others should do. Just as it is not for them to tell me how to treat my pack."

"You speak their language, though," Leander said.

"It isn't difficult," Ilias said. "Just crude." He paused. "It is dangerous," he said finally, "to give any one man too much respect, too much power. Even in something as small as a pack. It is always dangerous."

"Get a cult of personality going, rename a few villages after you and your best man..." Leander said lightly, running Russian history dates through his head. "Just how old
are
you, Ilias?"

"Educated as well as clever, I see," Ilias said, complementary but evasive. "Axton could do worse."

Leander stood and offered his hand.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, "for coming. For everything."

"I have put much trust in you," Ilias said.

"And thank you for that, too," Leander said.

Silent and anxious, Axton appeared at the door, slipping in like a shadow. He looked from his father and Leander with uncertainty flashing in his troubled eyes.

Leander tried to communicate
hey, I'm totally fine!
with just his eyebrows. Dana was looming right behind Axton, for starters. And while Ilias was apparently cool with his not-dead-gay-son in theory, Leander preferred to wait before testing those limits in practice. He already had one werew--no, two werewolves who wanted to kill him, counting Dru and Dana separately. He didn't need a third.

"Father," Axton said.

Ilias nodded.

They looked at each other and solely at each other for a moment, not in challenge but in a cautious sort of private language. Finally, Axton nodded in response. Ilias looked at him for a second longer and then swept past, making a point to pull Dana in his wake as he left.

They were alone--briefly, tantalizingly alone. It was the strawberry growing on the cliff that the man caught between the tiger above him and the long fall below him plucked, letting the sweet taste hit his tongue even in the face of certain death above and certain death below, because the only correct answer was to savor the present moment…

Axton was on Leander in the space of a heartbeat, pressing their lips together.

Up until that moment, Leander had kept himself together. There had been strained moments, uncertain minutes, seconds of what felt like heart stopping anticipation. But Axton crushed their lips together and something in Leander's chest burst and unfurled, exploding forth like the juices from a ripe, ruptured berry. He tilted his head and kissed back, arms vice tight around Axton's body. When they broke apart to gasp for air, they were pressed forehead to forehead.

"I can't do this," Leander panted. "God, I can't do this now--you make me come undone and there's so much left I have to do."

"We can finish this," Axton said. "Leander. Christ, I've missed you. Let's finish this and go
home
."

"Yeah," Leander gulped. "Yeah, no, I know--I missed you, too."

Axton rested his fingers on the ridge of Leander's cheekbone.

"I'm ready," he said. "I'm ready to fight for you."

Leander's hand wrapped around Axton's wrist and gripped hard.

"Are you?" he asked, sounding strange even to his own ears.

"Yes," Axton said, with perfect calm. "I know what you're going to do."

"And what's that?" Leander asked.

"You can choose a second," Axton said. "And I've been studying Dru for a long time. I can beat him."

"Is that the plan?" Leander asked. "I don't remember planning it that way with you."

"That's how I always suggested we do it," Axton said, "unless you could get Dana to do it for you, which seems pretty unlikely right now. You two don't seem to be getting along."

"No," Leander agreed. "But you really think I want you to fight Dru?"

"Of course." Axton pulled back to look Leander in the eyes. "You're not going to fight him. Right?"

"I'm going to make sure we go home," Leander said.

"But--" Axton started.

Dana reappeared in the doorway.

"It's time," he said, with relish.

"Leander?" Axton asked. "You're not, right?"

Trevor stepped out from behind Dana.

"Come on, Lee," he said, glum and reluctant.

"All right," Leander said. He went for the door.

"Leander?" Axton asked again. "You're not--"

"Trust me," Leander said, and he left.

Frozen in place, Axton stood still and wide eyed as a thousand deaths flashed before him. Leander eviscerated, Leander staggering around from a fatal wound to the throat, Leander gutted with his organs spilling to the ground like rubies and amethysts and sapphires, Leander having his heart torn out under the light of a full moon. It felt to Axton that he stood horror struck for an eternity, but in reality it wasn't more than a second. Then, all at once, he bolted.

Dana darted forward and grabbed him by the back of the arms, swinging him around.

"No, sugar," he growled quietly. "Let the bastard go. He done made up his mind. Ain't a damn thing you can do now. He chose this."

I didn't find you just to lose you again
, Axton thought wildly, still lunging for the door and straining towards his lover, as if he couldn't even perceive Dana's presence other than as an obstacle.

Dana braced himself and yanked Axton back.

"
No
," Dana said.

Axton made a raw, keening sound in his throat, eyes still on the door.

"Your man is a goddamn fool," Dana hissed, coiling his grip tighter to keep Axton from running. "I'm not one bit happier than you about having this happen all in public and shit, so calm the fuck
down
because I gotta get my ass out there, too."

In Dana's hands, Axton turned, slipping out of his grip and melting down to the floor. He turned quickly to snap at Dana's fingers just once, and then he ran.

"Shit," Dana cursed behind him. "Shit, shit,
shit
. Fuck today, fuck your man, fuck you. Fuck everything."

Outside, the bright full moon illuminated the tense faces of the assembled werewolves. Everyone wore their human shapes now, except for Axton. They were in a clearing, in a loose circle, save for Ilias, who was hanging back from the proceedings, lounging against a tree and his arms crossed over his chest, looking almost aggressively casual. No one should be that at ease with so much tension in the air. The atmosphere was so thick with it that Axton stopped his mad, galloping rush forward just to look around. Dana popped out of the house seconds after him and had to screech to a halt. He'd clearly expected to be in pursuit.

Leisurely, Ilias pushed off the tree with his hip and stepped forward. He motioned for Axton and Dana to stand beside him, opposite Dru and Leander, who had Jack between them as a mobile buffer state.

"Let us begin," he said mildly. "My name is Ilias Vuk. I believe most of you know me as 'the Russian.' I am from three packs to the north of here, and I have been asked to oversee trial by combat between Leander Avilez and Drusus Weiss."

He didn't say
Weiss
like Leander had, or like Dana did, or how Axton would have. He said it farther back in his throat, though his pronunciation had little to do with the name's native German and much more to do with his own mother tongue. It had been years since Axton could actually hear his father's accent, even in his memory, but there it was.

Axton remembered the last time he had that sense of
I do not pronounce that name that way
, and it had been when two little girls were trying to climb him like a jungle gym, on the night that he'd been welcomed into a
family
... if he didn't fight well tonight, Carmen and Carolina would grow up without an uncle. They wouldn't even know how Leander died. Only Axton would know, and he wasn't going to be in a position to tell anyone.

If Leander died tonight, it would only be because someone had killed Axton first.

Axton took a deep, even breath and crouched down, light on his paws.

"This is unbelievable," Dana said. "We can't have this human come in and, what, accuse us of keeping him unjustly or--"

"The challenger will state the charge," Ilias said, "and choose his weapon, and his second."

"But--" Dana started.

"Dana," Dru warned. His blue eyes watched Ilias carefully. Leander was not his concern. Ilias occupied the entirety of his attention. "Don't."

Good
, Axton thought with satisfaction.
Then he won't see me when I lunge for his throat.

"Why?" someone asked, in the crowd. Axton let his gaze flicker over only briefly--it was Fridge Guy. What was his name again? Axton was sure he'd managed to learn his name at some point. "Is this some sort of power play? A distraction so you can kill our alpha? Or just a joke before you kill us all? Is this how you take over territories?" He stepped forward, eyes locked on Ilias.

Oh, Fridge Guy was taking a stand with Dana. How nice. Axton hoped they'd attack. In the ensuing confusion, he could kill Dru all the more easily, and he was absolutely certain that his father could defend himself for long enough even against Dana and Fridge Guy combined.

"The challenger will state the charge," Ilias repeated easily.

"No!" Fridge Guy said. "You're here to kill Dru and take our land!"

"Your herds are thinning," Ilias said, unruffled. "In a few more years all the prey in this area will be gone. It would be a poor acquisition."

Fridge Guy took another step forward, and Axton saw how he exchanged glances with Dana.

Yes
, Axton thought, excitement roiling in his gut,
do it do it do it come ON do it
.

Ilias said nothing, but he was smiling.

"Somebody
do
something," Jack suggested. His eyes had been darting from Dru to Dana to Ilias to Fridge Guy.

No
, Axton thought, with soft and peaceful menace.
Let the battle begin
.

"I accuse Drusus Weiss of murdering Jonathan Weiss," Leander said loudly.

Silence erupted, so sudden was the resulting quiet.

Dana looked pale.

Damnit
, Axton thought. Why did Leander want to do this so goddamn officially?

"What?" Dru asked, stepping forward. "My brother?"

Ilias held up a warning hand and Dru stopped coming forward.

Another werewolf, the short and muscular one--Axton didn't know his name--pushed his way to the front, yanking Fridge Guy away and taking another step closer. His eyes were wide and he was staring at Dru intently.

"Name your second," Ilias told Leander, seemingly ignoring everyone else.

Axton stood up straighter and made eye contact with no one. Let them
know
his willingness, his
readiness
to fight. He would fight them all to have Leander go free. He would tear out their throats, their hearts, and drink their blood under the full moon if he had to. Giving up a lifetime of peace was small price to pay for the life of his lover. He would give up what innocence he had gladly. Axton hadn't ever killed anyone before, but he ached with how ready he was to kill a hundred wolves, if that would keep Leander from harm. His muscles tightened and his lips rolled back from his teeth--

"I choose Dana as my second," Leander said.

WHAT
, Axton thought.

"
What
?" Dana echoed him, voicing their shared surprise out loud.

Axton swiveled his head around to check if the rest of the pack was surprised. Yeah, okay. He wasn't alone. Everyone was surprised, and, judging by the bounce of his eyebrows, that included Dru.