赤裸裸的滑稽故事

“So,” Corrine said, pulling away from her son and looking up at him thoughtfully. “Where is she?”

Axel sighed, leaning back against the counter.

“It’s complicated.”

“How so?” Corrine asked, crossing her arms.

“I…” he began and then sighed again. “Look, I wouldn’t have broken tradition without a reason. It wasn’t about just wanting to… be together.”

Corrine stifled a laugh at her son’s bashfulness.

“Axel, I am not here to give you a hard time about tradition. Honestly, the past year has really made me start to wonder about how important some of our traditions are,” Corrine sighed. “And it seems that the Goddess isn’t offended that you chose to mark your mate outside of the full moon, so how can I argue her will? What matters to me, is you.”

Axel looked carefully at his mother, she wasn’t angry, but she did appear concerned.

“Why didn’t you tell us that you found her? When did you find her? Where is she? Who is she? Is it she? Because if the reason you didn’t tell us is that your mate is a man–”

“She’s a she,” Axel interrupted with a soft chuckle.

“Well, I didn’t know and I didn’t want to assume,” Corrine replied with a smile.

Axel sat down at the small table in the corner of the kitchen, and Corrine joined him.

He had considered telling his family, but there were too many unknowns in Alice’s life. Her connection to Granger and Holden, the things she had done in her past.

Axel knew that if he told Corrine about Alice, about how they met and how they lost each other, she would understand. But Axel also knew where he inherited his sense of justice. His father was a good man, but his mother was the one that could not stand on the sidelines and watch as wrong was committed._.

She would insist on bringing Alice home.

As much as Axel wanted that, he had promised to trust Alice, and he would honor that promise. He believed that of every person he knew, Alice’s sense of danger was probably the most spot-on. A sad reality of the life she had lived.

Alice said it was too dangerous to come for her. He had to trust that she would find her own way out of that danger.

Until then, his focus needed to be on keeping Winter safe, preparing for war, and making it through each day to the next. Because one ‘next’ day would bring her back to him.

“Do you trust me?” Axel asked.

Corrine looked at him curiously.

“Of course,” she replied.

“Then I need you to trust that I am doing what I need to, and so is she,” Axel said.

Corrine took a deep breath and pushed it back out. She leaned back in her chair and shook her head.

“Why are my children’s love lives so complicated?” she sighed.

Axel laughed.

“Can you at least tell me one or two things?” Corrine pleaded.

Axel laughed once again.

“Like what?” he asked.

“First off, how long have you been hiding her from me?” Corrine asked. “You are not the type to get so swept up in the mate bond that you just do away with tradition in one night. And I know that mark was not there before you left Winter.”

“That’s a complicated question…” he said. After a moment he decided to share some of their story. “I don’t want to get into it, but years ago I was given the Bitter Night tea.”

“What?!” Corrine snarled, her eyes immediately beginning to glow.

“It happened a long time ago, only once,” Axel said immediately. “Peter reversed the process for me just before Bell’s wedding. I’m fine.”

Corrine let out a low growl.

“I’m fine,” Axel repeated. “The point is, I met her a long time ago. I just didn’t remember her. At least not in a way that I recognized. After Peter reversed the treatment… she was there. The answer to the hollow feeling I held inside of me for so long.”

Corrine’s eyes widened and then fell.

“Axel…” she said softly. “I had no idea you felt that way.”

Axel touched her hand and gave her a comforting smile.

“Neither did I,” he said. “It wasn’t something I could describe. Just a feeling that I was always a little lost. Missing something.”

Corrine took a deep breath, wishing she had paid more attention to her children.

“This isn’t on you,” Axel smiled. “Remember?”

Corrine chuckled.

“How dare you use my own wisdom against me,” she said playfully.

“I really am fine,” Axel repeated. “Finding her again was a chance encounter. But it was an opportunity I couldn’t waste. We needed each other. We needed to complete our bond.”

“Why aren’t you together, Axel?” Corrine asked sadly.

Axel pursed his lips and took a deep breath.

“’It’s complicated’, I know,” Corrine huffed with an eye roll to emphasize her irritation at his predictable response.

Axel chuckled and then sighed.

“All I can tell you, is that something happened, something bad. In order to resolve that bad thing, she had to go far away.”

“That does sound complicated,” Corrine replied woefully.

“Yea…” Axel replied.

There was a melancholy silence that hung between them, one that made it difficult for Axel not to think of Alice so far from him. He absentmindedly reached his hand to the back of his neck, gently brushing a small hidden braid for just a moment.

“Is there anything else you want to know about her? I mean that I can answer…” he offered.

Corrine smiled at him.

“What is she like? Is she pretty? What sort of person is she?” Corrine asked quickly.

Axel thought about his answer for a moment.

“Quirky, beautiful, and… she’s a fighter,” he replied, a soft smile on his lips as he thought about the short time they had together. Her softness, her strength.

“I see,” Corrine smiled, she crossed her arms on the table and laid her head down. Looking up at him with warmth in her eyes. “That, right there, is what I needed to see.”

“What?” he asked.

“The smile on your face, the way you think of her,” Corrine said softly. “There are people brought together by the mate bond that never develop beyond the bond. It’s not a guaranteed love, it’s a connection through our wolves. Love is something that happens between humans.”

Axel thought of Alice. How long had he loved her?

His mind fell back into memory…

“Boo!”

Axel jumped back, and the girl laughed.

He wanted to be mad, but the sparkle in her eyes as she laughed just made him smile. He couldn’t see them clearly in the moonlight, but now he saw they were a deep brown. Warm and light, with flecks of gold.

He smiled at her.

“Is it that funny to scare me?” he asked.

“It is!” she laughed.

“As long as it makes you smile,” he said softly.

‘Yea,’ he thought with tenderness as his mind returned to the present. ‘That was probably the moment.’

“What do you love about her? Corrine asked, shaking his thoughts.

“I can be honest with her… about anything,” he smiled. “We haven’t had much time together, but I know that I can trust her. That she trusts me.”

Corrine looked at Axel and sighed as she wished desperately to meet the woman that had made him smile this way.

“No matter what the situation is Axel, you bring her home,” she said.

Axel smirked and shook his head.

“I can’t,” he said.

“What? Why not?” she asked.

“Because stabbings and dragons,” he laughed to himself.

Corrine looked at him as though he had lost his mind.

Axel cleared his throat.

“She made me promise to take care of Winter and to save as many as I could from this war. And she promised to rescue herself.”

Corrine smiled. “I like her already.”