She needed protection. Deserved it.
He was here in a professional capacity, and there was nothing professional about being the very thing he could be hired to keep her safe from.
“Okay, dear,” her father said as he shifted in his chair. Like he preferred her to go back around and be at an arm’s length. “All is well.”
And that was kind of sad—then again, he’d gotten his fill of parental rejection, hadn’t he. At least she didn’t seem to mind, though, as she returned to the chair beside him.
“Now, is there anything you should wish to ask of him, Elise?”
Axe felt her glance over, and damn it, he liked it. He wanted her eyes all over his face, his throat, his naked body. He wanted to be sprawled out in front of her on some bed … maybe the floor … fuck it, he’d lie flat on hot coals for her if that turned her on … and he wanted to have his hand on his cock as he looked in her eyes and begged her to ride him.
The submission fantasy, with him as the sub, was a new one for him, but what the hell.
It wasn’t like it was actually going to happen.
“Yes?” Axe prompted her.
“Um … so I go to SUNY Caldie. I attend class at night and I work with one of my professors as his assistant. Will you be able to … blend in?”
Axe could tell she thought the answer was no, but he wasn’t sure she exactly cared. Then again, she had narrowly missed being all but shut indoors for the rest of her life if a sehclusion petition had been filed.
If he were her, he’d take a hall pass to the university in any form it came: Santa Claus … asshole in a Batman suit … him.
“I will do whatever is necessary,” Axe said—and he directed the response to her sire. “I will be as visible or fade-to-black as required. I will not hesitate to use force, but I will not provoke the humans. And yes, I am prepared to take a bullet for her if I have to. Nothing scares me and I do not run—from anything. Even my own death.”
Next to him, Elise recoiled, but he couldn’t help her with that. He’d gotten a modified dose of reality last night out in the field, and he knew all too well exactly what her father was worried about.
Felixe the Younger cleared his throat. “That’s just fine. That is …”
“What you need,” Axe finished for the male. “That is what is necessary if you want to protect your daughter. The goal is to let her do her work and make sure she comes home alive every single night. I can give you that peace of mind because when she is in my care, she will be my only priority, above even myself. Nothing and no one will matter except for her.”
Felixe exhaled like the elephant that had been sitting on his chest had gotten up for a drink at its water source.
“You can trust me,” Axe said.
“Well.” More of that throat clearing. “That is just fine, son. Just … fine.”
Annnnnnnnd that was when he knew he’d been hired.
Meanwhile, Elise was quiet and tense next to him, but then she was telling him what her schedule was like—which wasn’t going to be a problem, because now that the trainees were heading out into the field, the Brotherhood’s classes were going to be starting later.
He listened to it all, and then her father told him what the salary was.
Holy shit, Axe thought.
Steak-for-dinner money. Electricity. Repairs to his father’s house.
“What is your family like, son?” the father inquired.
Axe started to jerk back and caught himself. He hadn’t been prepared for anything personal.
At least the answer was easy: “My parents are dead. I have no mate and never will. I have no ties to anything or anybody aside from the training program.”
“Did you lose your family in the raids?” Elise asked softly. Like she was having a moment or some shit.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “All you need to worry about is whether I can keep you alive, and I will. That’s it.”
As her spine straightened in that chair, he kept his smile to himself. She might be a female, but she was a fighter at her core. And she clearly didn’t like doors shut in her face, literally or figuratively.
An image of her holding his arms over his head and putting all her weight into keeping him where she wanted him made an erection threaten behind his fly.
Axe cocked a brow back at her, challenging her to let some of that heat out. But she wouldn’t. Not in front of her father.
Man, he couldn’t wait for his first night on the job. She was going to give him an earful.
And he was, absolutely, hired.
Even if Axe hadn’t come across as the deadly force her father was looking for, Felixe had wrongly assumed Novo was a guy: There was no way this genteel chauvinist was going to stand for a female guarding his daughter, no matter how spectacular a soldier and professional Novo was. And that was just fucked up.
But it worked in his favor.
Because he wanted her—
The job, he corrected. He wanted the job.
“So I’ll be in touch,” Felixe said as he rose to his feet.
“Yes,” Axe murmured to them both. “I think you will be. And I’ll give you my answer right now. I accept the position and I can start whenever you two are ready.”
TEN
Complete. Chaos.
As the beast broke out of Rhage’s body, triggered by Bitty’s suffering, Mary covered the little girl on the exam table with her own body—although not from any fear that the dragon would hurt her.
Parts of the ceiling were raining down, chunks of plaster falling from where the great dragon’s head had slammed into the panels. And then that barbed tail was slashing back and forth, splintering cabinets and scattering equipment, smashing into the sink and springing the pipes.
As a spray of hot water golf-sprinklered all around and lights flickered, Havers and his staff had the exact wrong idea. Instead of freezing, they made themselves targets by bolting around, trying to get to an exit that was blocked by something that might eat them.
But come on. Like any of them had dealt with this before?
“Stop! Don’t move!” Mary barked.
And that was when the beast roared.
Mary turned her head to try to get one of her ears protected, but she wasn’t going to use her hands. Bitty was so exposed— Behind the dragon, the door to the exam room broke open, Zsadist, V, and Lassiter crowding in.
“Close the door!” Mary yelled. “And stay out!”
Her best shot for this not turning into complete carnage was to make contact with the dragon, soothe it, and keep the thing trained on her and Bitty. As long as she could get and keep its attention, no one was going to get hurt— The dragon’s jaw snapped closed. And then the beast seemed to shudder as its reptilian eyes swung around and focused on Bitty. Chuffing noises came out of its throat, and it took a step forward, the clawed foot landing heavy as construction equipment.