"Good answer," Axel smiles, and inches closer to me. "When all this is over and we have dealt with whatever threat we are here to deal with, I''d love to show you more of this realm, and maybe with a good cover story we can arrange regr visits to the human realm to visit your friends,"


    "If we survive the threat. I am nowhere near ready to fight alongside you guys, and we still don''t even know what it is we are supposed to do," I sigh.


    "None of us are ready yet, we didn''t develop any new gifts whilst you were in aa. James thinks we needed your mental connection to power share, whilst you were unconscious we went back to how we were before. Hopefully, now you are awake we will all progress together Once your heat is done we will focus hard on our training. Whoever it is we are up against are clearly not ready to carry out whatever ns they have though, if they were they''d have done it the moment they found out about us. They''d have tried to do it before, we are strong enough to stop them," he exins and I feel a little better about the whole thing.


    "You know, I don''t think I''ve ever heard you speak so much"ugh and he smiles shyly.


    "I realised that I''ve been chosen for something great, I''m finally an important piece of something and the past 6 weeks have taught me that my voice needs to be heard, even if I still get ignored half the time," he rolls his eyes.


    "You are important, Axel, and I''ll never ignore you. I love to hear your voice and your opinions," I smile and his eyes light up.


    "When your heat is over and if it''s safe, would youe to visit my family with me? I want them to meet you, to see how lucky I am, and finally prove I am meant for more than just a soldier," he asks, his eyes hold a pain behind them and I know I''m close to finding out his story.


    "Of course, I would love to, but even if you were just a regr soldier, that''s still an honourable and important role. In my country in the human realm, we adore our military, they''re our heroes and we celebrate them,"


    "My family have very different views, they believe that only dumb people be soldiers. That they have no other talents except brute force and a taste for violence. They wanted me to be more academic, more like Luke. They''d be proud to have a son like Luke," he admits and I have an urge to go and visit his family right now and give them a piece of my mind, heat or no heat.


    "Luke is amazing, every realm needs people like him, but they also need people like you. You are just as amazing and important. If everyone was the same with the same talents the realm would fail. What about your siblings? What do they do?"


    "They''re all much older than me. I was ate surprise for my mother," he snorts, "My eldest brother is a soldier, my sister teaches kids to read and write and my other brother is a chief,"


    "Are your parents disappointed in them too?"


    "No. They had extremely high hopes for me. It''s very umon for a female to have more children than she has bonds. My mum has three bonds so when she found out she would have a fourth child she was convinced I was a miracle, blessed to them for something great. I guess that''s why they put so much pressure on me and why they are so disappointed in me and not my siblings,"


    "Well they were right about one thing, "I grin and crawl up to straddle him, "you are destined for many great things, and I think one of them is about to happen right now in this bedroom," I lean down to kiss him. He meets my kiss with eagerness, his hands gripping my hips as 1 grind against him. I want to show him just how important he is to me. He tugs at the hem of my hoody and I sit up allowing him to pull it over my head and leaving me bare to him. His eyes roam my chest hungrily and he quickly flips us so I''m beneath him. Axel spends the next hour


    +29 BONUS


    showing me just how great he can be until we copse into sweaty and fully satisfied mess on his bed.


    My heat doesn''t develop any further than the clingy stage and we all agree that this is just how I am now. So the next morning we return to our training with Noel. New clothes and a phone are brought to our apartment for me, and Axel and Luke finally get their red ties, now officially members of Ruby. Despite my new clothes the guys quickly ept that I''m now a clothes thief, I have quite a collection of their hoodies and t-shirts in my bed, so many that it''s starting to be an issue. I overhear the guys discussing my little hoarding problem and that it''s getting out of hand but I can''t stop, I can''t settle without having their scents avable to me at all times. Despite the gruelling training we are doing that leaves me utterly exhausted at the end of each day, I often wake multiple times in the night, checking that I have all their scents but never feels right, as if the bnce is off or something is missing. After a week of training and terrible sleep, we are finally given a day off and Mr Collins calls us to his office for a meeting. The moment we enter his office and I see his tense expression I know this is not going to be good news.


    "Thank you for joining me, we have a few matters to discuss, please take a seat," Mr Collins motions to the couch. I sit between Luke and Theo on the couch, Mason sits on the other couch facing us and Axel stands behind me, a supportive hand resting on my shoulder. Theo and Luke both take one of my hands each and a pit forms in my stomach. Whatever this is about I have a feeling my bonds know about it and are here to support me.


    "I have some good news and unfortunately, some bad news" Mr Collins says from behind his desk, he avoids eye contact with me.


    "What is it about?" I ask, hating the suspense.


    "It''s regarding your parents,"