Chapter 28 - The Invitation

Chapter 28 - The Invitation
Axel

Axel sat at his temporary desk in Warrior Harpe’s pack house. Ray was sitting on the small couch in the room looking over papers, but his mind looked like it was a million miles away; just like Axel’s. Oscar was on the other side of the couch completely avoiding paperwork and doing is absolute best to get on Axel’s already fragile nerves.

It had been over twenty-four hours since the evening at Runagate and he felt like rampaging through the entire office to relieve some of the pent up stress he was feeling. He managed to stay in check by reminding himself that he was a guest here.

But it had been over twenty-four hours since he had last seen his beautiful Mate. Since he had felt her in his protective embrace and felt her soft lips against his own. Her scent washing over him as she buried her face in his chest. He wanted to see her and he had been patient, but the damned blood-sucker had yet to contact him like he had promised and Axel was starting to lose it.

‘You shouldn’t have let her go with that woman!’ Leon scolded him for the millionth time.

‘I know!’ He growled back.

He had recognised the silver haired woman the moment she had appeared, she was in many of the pictures Axel had managed to get of his Mate after she ran away. He knew the silver haired woman was part of the reason he had trouble finding her and had something to do with them being one step ahead of him this whole time, but he didn’t know how.

He had been so distracted by his beautiful Mate that he never managed to scent out what she was.

‘Why would you, when Mate’s mouth-watering scent was all around us.’ Leon purred.

Axel nodded in agreement; he wanted to be surrounded by her sweet scent forever.

‘We will be soon!’ Leon told him. ‘And when we mark her, she’ll have our scent with her always too!’

Axel felt his chest grumble contently with the very idea of her carrying his scent. Unfortunately it was very loud and the others looked up at him.

“Everything alright, Alpha?” Ray asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

“I’m fine.” Axel replied, trying to calm himself down.

“Yeah right!” Oscar chuckled. “He’s sitting there thinking about the Luna, I bet.” He chuckled even harder when Axel growled at him in response. “I’m surprised she’s not here though, I thought we were going to get her?” Oscar asked with his brow furrowing.

“As did I.” Ray joined in, carefully watching Axel.

Axel sighed, placing the papers he was holding back down on the table before rubbing his eyes with his fingers. He felt exhausted, he hadn’t slept a wink since he felt what it was like to have his Mate come on to him and his friends were not helping.

“Look guys, that was my intention but she was in no state to come back with us.” He said, gritting his teeth at the end.

If he ever got his hands on the bastard who dared drug his woman he was going to make them pay a hundred times over.

‘Agreed!’ Leon growled.

“But couldn’t she have been healed back here?” Oscar asked, rubbing his chin.

‘That’s a good point!’ Leon chimed in. ‘We should have just taken her back, fuck what anyone else said!’ He whined.

“They knew how to deal with it.” Was all Axel grunted in reply.

“It didn’t seem like an isolated incident.” Ray input. “The guys she works for probably knows exactly how to help her faster than we would.”

“But wouldn’t she heal faster if she was near her Mate?” Oscar kept on with his annoying questions.

‘She would have been much better off with us!’ Leon continued to agree with Oscar; which never happened!

“I don’t know? Doesn’t that only work if both of them are wolves? We don’t know what Luna is exactly…” Ray kept on answering Oscar’s stupid questions.

All three of them were beginning to give Axel a serious headache. He clutched his head in his hands trying to drown out all of the voices when another sound joined the mix and he snapped. He grabbed the phone on his desk tightly, bringing the receiver to his ear and yelled down the other end.

“What!?” As soon as the word left his mouth everyone in the room and his head fell silent.

“Have I caught you at a bad time Alpha?” A familiar voice chuckled through the phone.

The moment he heard who was on the other end of the phone he leapt from his chair with wide eyes and he felt Leon begin to listen intently. Oscar and Ray watched him carefully from the couch, but didn’t dare say a word after his earlier outburst.

“You!” He gasped.

“Yes, we spoke at my club on the weekend. However, I believe you were a tad preoccupied.” The vampire chuckled on the other end of the phone. “My name is Sigmund and I am the owner of Runagate.”

“I remember you.” Axel gritted through the phone.

Oscar and Ray gave him questioning looks.

“I thought you may have forgotten and who could blame you with my Siren throwing herself on you.” The vampire laughed again.

He knew the words were probably innocent but as soon as they came through the receiver he felt Leon’s hackles rise. Axel immediately felt a deep rumble in his chest.

“She’s mine!” He growled through the receiver.

This only made the vampire laugh more and made Axel more furious; he was being serious!

‘Who is it, Axel?' Ray asked through the mind-link; including Oscar so he could hear as well.

‘The Vampire!’ Axel growled to them while he waited for the vampire to stop laughing.

‘Which one?’ Oscar smirked, obviously recalling the red haired hostess they had encountered as well.

‘The owner! The one from last night!’ As soon as they heard this they exchanged worried glances with one another and then watched Axel silently, waiting for his conversation to continue.

“As amusing as this conversation is going, I think I should get to the point of my contacting you.” The vampire; Sigmund; chuckled after finally calming himself down enough to speak.

“Go on.” Axel urged.

“Well, it would appear you have quite an infatuation with my Siren…” Axel growled the moment he heard him refer to her as ‘my’ Siren. She didn’t belong to him! “…and I think we should nip it in the bud before anyone gets seriously hurt.”

“Of course I’m infatuated with her, she’s my Mate!” He couldn’t stop himself from snarling down the phone, especially with the way he sensed the vampire was going with this.

“Your Mate?” Sigmund mused and neither Axel nor Leon liked his tone. “There have been many before you who have tried to claim the same right with her and they have all proven to be nothing but love sick puppies.”

‘What!? Others have tried to take Mate!’ Leon roared so loud Axel thought he may go deaf.

But he held the same anger, how dare these mutts attempt to claim her! She already had a True Mate! Him! He could understand why they would fall for her, she was beautiful and wonderful and she sang like an angel. But she was his angel, no one else’s! Another growl escaped his lips at the very idea of others attempting to claim what was his.

“However, there is someone close to Siren who believes you may be the real deal.” Sigmund continued, suddenly all trace of amusement had disappeared from his voice and he was all business.

“There is? Who is it?” Axel asked curiously. Someone else suspected that they were mates and if they were helping him get closer he wanted to thank them in person.

“Siren’s partner, Lunarr.” Sigmund informed him.

“Lunarr?” Axel breathed.

‘The Werewolf guy?’ Oscar asked, obviously confused as to why he was suddenly brought up. Ray however seemed to grow even more intrigued as his eyes lit up like it was Christmas.

‘The vampire is suspicious of my Mate claim but apparently this Lunarr guy believes me.’ Axel quickly told them.

Oscar rubbed is chin processing the information, while Ray smiled at Axel and leaned closer to the phone conversation.

“Yes, he has experienced the Mate bond before and believes you are Siren’s true mate. However, I am still not entirely convinced, as I said many have tried before.” Again Axel and Leon growled at the very audacity of other males trying to stake their claim on their precious mate.

“If you would indulge me Alpha, there is one other person who could tell us if your claim is true and I would like you to meet with them.” There was a slight edge to Sigmund’s voice, almost like he was uncomfortable at the very mention of this mysterious stranger.

“Who is it?” He asked cautiously.

“Someone very, very close to Siren. They are preforming tomorrow evening and as I said, they would be able to sense your bond with her as soon as she saw you.”

“I don’t know…” Axel breathed, he could sense the apprehension in the vampires voice as he spoke of this person and that made him uncomfortable. There were not many beings who could frighten a vampire, especially one as aged as Sigmund seemed.

Sigmund seemed to sense his apprehension and quickly added, “Siren will be at the performance as well.”

“I’ll come!” Axel all but yelled excitedly at him. Even the chance to catch a quick glance at her was worth it and he didn’t need telling twice.

Sigmund chuckled at his eagerness at the mere mention of her.

“Excellent, I will send a car for you tomorrow evening at ten.”

“Why so late?” He asked curiously.

“The performance is a special full-moon performance. She only performs at midnight.” There was a slight pause before Sigmund added. “You should consider yourself lucky, I am offering this performance free of charge others pay a lot of money for the experience and the tickets are hard to come by.”

“Experience?” Axel asked, suddenly feeling apprehensive again.

“You will see tomorrow evening. Wear something you don’t care for.” The vampire advised.

“Who is this stranger?” Axel quickly asked, sensing that Sigmund was about to end the call.

Again, there was another long pause. Axel imagined Sigmund was debating what and whether to give him any further information about this stranger who would be able to sense his mate bond. Finally, after what felt like forever Sigmund sighed.

“Her name is Maria. But that is all I can tell you for now, I will see you tomorrow when you arrive.” Before Axel could ask anything else the line disconnected.

He placed the phone back down and looked up at his two friends who were eagerly waiting to be told what had just happened. Axel wasn’t quite sure himself, but he knew three things for definite.

He was going to a midnight performance at Runagate tomorrow night, he was going to see his beautiful Mate again and he was going to have the mysterious Maria confirm their bond.