Bad Love: An Alpha's Regret (Leah and Aaron) novel Chapter 300

Chapter 300
AXEL
I’m good at sneaking in and out of places, and with the current confusion and distress within Aaron’s pack over the vampires brazenly walking onto Rathborn pack lands, it’s not hard to avoid notice or detection as I leave the house.
Outside, I easily pick up the stench of the vampires.
It’s this musky, sweet smell that’s apparently appealing to humans, and makes it easier for vampires to lure in their unsuspecting prey.
They would have left by road in a vehicle of some kind- probably a luxury brand, since vampires tend to be extravagant and do everything in ‘style’-so I shift and run, cutting across Aaron’s land to where I know I can intercept them on the road more quickly.
Once I reach the darkened stretch of highway-deserted at this time of night I shift back and then stand in the middle of the road, waiting for the lights of the vehicle to sweep around the nearby bend.
I hear the purr of the engine first, and a few moments after that, the glare of the headlights cut through the gloom of a moonless Montana night.
The vehicle slowly rolls to a slop, and then before the three vampires climb out of the car.
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“I have to say,” the female vampire says as the trio line up to stare at me. “I was expecting something much more intimidating -larger than life-from the Axiel of Legend.”
“I go by Axel these days,” I tell her in return. I drop my carefully curated Texas accent. Not much point in keeping up the façade when these vampires know exactly who I am.
As for this bunch, I wasn’t lying when I told Aaron I’d never met them before.
What I didn’t tell him was I’d met and killed-many other vampires over my impossibly long life.
I’d even taken down some of the most powerful and legendary vampires of all time, like Vlad, whom the story of Dracula had been based on, and Aemilia and Khilomir.
However, these three are just run-of-the-mill vampires.
Nothing special about them.
I could probably behead them in my sleep.
“Hiding out in some backwater with a bunch of unsuspecting m orons more your style these days as well?” one of the male vampires asks, making all three of them laugh.
“The Rathborn pack is under my protection right now,” I tell
them, my voice cutting through their anger like an axe to a dead tree. “You’d do well to remember that before moving against Aaron, or any of the other pack members.”
Unbidden, my mind goes to Emily.
And despite breaking the mating bond, my instincts still want to protect her above all else.
The vampires don’t have an answer for this, but they do glance. uneasily at each other.
“We have a contract-” one of the male vampires begins, but quickly trails off when I aim a glare at him.
“And I have a whole bunch of stakes, plus a broadsword I particularly enjoy beheading with. If it didn’t infringe on the treaty, I’d kill all three of you where you stand, right this minute.”
The vampires all shift back, as if getting ready to run, as if they don’t trust I won’t kill them anyway.
My reputation is well-earned.
See, what most wolves don’t know, that peace treaty that got signed all those centuries ago?
I am named on it as the Enforcer.
Most of the laws of the treaty don’t apply to me.
I’m the one they send out to hunt down the vampires or wolves who threaten to break the peace between wolves and vampires.
It’s what brought me to Montana.
I’d been given intel that something was brewing here between wolves and vampires.
However, Karolina was one step ahead of me.
I just didn’t know at the time Karolina was the one I needed to deal with.
I knew one or more wolves on the Council were making dangerous deals with vampires, and there was some kind of new uprising going on within the vampire community, but I didn’t get to the bottom of the truth before Karolina had me captured and locked up in the basement cells of the Council building, with that whole false story and false witness about supposed atrocities I’d committed in Texas.
Well, okay. Some of the atrocities had been true.
But the so called ‘victims’ were mostly vampires and a rogue pack that’d aligned itself with a nest of vampires to cause all kinds of strife and trouble with the local human population.
They’d risked outing all of us.
So they had to be dealt with.
In a permanent way.
I’d been about to break out of the cell and start snapping heads and staking hearts when they’d dragged Aaron in.
I stuck around after that to see what I could learn and to determine if he’d be an ally or an enemy.
“We’re not afraid of you,” one of the male vampires sneers.
I can only laugh cuttingly. “Aren’t you? Then you’re definitely more stu pid than I took you for. And I already figured you were pretty dumb, walking onto Rathborn pack lands like that for all the world to see.”
“We’re backed by the Enclave,” the female vampire tries, like I haven’t heard that before.
“Your Enclave is nothing to me,” I reply in a hard voice, threading power through the words. They thought they may have met their match with Aaron.
But they have no idea what they’ve encountered with me.
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