Jax's X Game The Axelridge Series Book 2

JAX

I run back to my mace shift and pick it up. As I take huge steps to where Vinnie went, I spin the mace in my hand.

I find him leaning on the barn. Seemingly, trying to catch his breath. I see blood on his back. He got shot. Perfect.

I walk up behind him. “HEY!” I swing and hit him in the ribs. He goes rolling across the gravel road. I stand, holding my mace as he coughs hard on his back.

I walk up to him. “What’s a matter, Vinnie?”

He looks down at his side and blood is pouring out. He flops his head down and spits blood.

I tilt my head so he’s right in my vision. “You look a little banged up. You’re not shifted. That wouldn’t be iron in your back, would it?”

“Fuck you.” He growls.

“I get that. It hurts.” I raise my mace. “I bet this will hurt more.” I snarl and bring it down hard.

He rolls out of the way and I hit dirt. I scrape the spikes along the gravel as I pull it back to me. I’m dripping in blood and sweat. My breaths are calm and collected, though. I’m going to enjoy this.

He coughs more as his feet try to push him away.

“You’re a real piece of shit, Vinnie.” I growl low. I land a kick to his side.

“MY MOTHER!” I stomp on his chest and he screams.

“MY FATHER!!!” I boot fuck his side twice, cracking a rib.

“MY SISTERS!!!!” I wipe the blood from my nose, walk around and slam my foot right into his face.

He screams, rolls onto his stomach, holding his face.

I walk around slowly as I pick lycan flesh off my spikes. “I'm a half decent guy, Vinnie, so, I’ll tell you what...” I point my mace at him. “You confess to all the murders and I’ll let you live.”

He starts to laugh as he plants his palms on the ground. He pushes up and blood pours from his nose and mouth to a puddle under his face. “You…got…nothing.” He snarls as he tries to get up.

I squat down to him. “I got something. You want to know what I got, Vinnie?”

His eyes meet mine.

“I got you.” I lean closer. “You’re all mine. I’m the devil with all cards. I’m all in, Vinnie, because now, thanks to you…I’ve got nothing to fucking lose.”

I see his face change and his eyes glow. He spits out the bullet and it lands at my feet. My brows go up. “No.”

“Yes.” His face turns evil as he lunges and shifts. My mace is thrown as he grabs me and we fly across the driveway, through the barn wall and bounce across the barn floor. His lycan grabs my head and tries to squeeze it and I bring my knee up to his gut.

He lifts me up and pounds me into the floor. I groan and hold my ribs as I roll onto my knees.

He grabs my head and pulls me back. He delivers a swift punch to my head and raised his open claws.

“NOOOO!”

I look to the open doorway. “Audrey, no!”

She runs from the doorway, ducks into a roll, grabs my mace as she get to her feet then throws it at Vinnie. It hits his chest and he flies back to the back of the barn.

“AUDREY!!”

She lets out a rage filled scream as she runs full tilt to the mace, snatches it up, jumps and spins it in her hand. Vinnie grabs the poles on either side of him, leans out from under a loft and lets out a demonic roar as Audrey brings the mace down on his head. As she does, Vinnie breaks the supports. The loft and everything on it falls on them.

“REEEYYYYYY!!”

My heart is in my throat as I run to the pile of old farming junk and heavy power tools. I frantically start throwing stuff off. “AUDREY!”

I lift a table saw up and freak out as I throw it. Vinnies lycan arm is around a waist wearing a white shirt. I touch it and it doesn’t move. “Rey?” I move some bricks and tools from her head. She lets out a moan. I see blood. Lots of it. “Oh God.”

I clean the rest of it off her and dig out her side down to Vinnie.

I get on my hands and knees and dip my head into the hole I made. I slowly look over the situation. The mace ball is buried in Vinnies head and in Audrey’s chest. I suck in a shaky breath. “Rey?”

“Jax.” She whispers. Her eyes are slits, very breathing is erratic.

“Why?” I whine. “Why would you do that?”

“I wanted to save you…I love you.” She breathes.

“Uh. Ok.” I scrub my face and throw more stuff off and lean to her, moving her hair. “I’m gonna pull you off.”

She swallows. “That was…cool, right?”

I laugh as a tear falls. “Yeah, baby. That was cool.”

I find stable footing, throw Vinnies arm off her and grab her under her arms. With a solid yank, I free her from my mace. She has three deep puncture wounds, I’m sure one pierced her lung and four broken ribs.

“It’s ok, baby. I got you. You did so good.” I say as I scoop her up and maneuver my way down the pile.

“I love…” I feel her head flop back.

“Rey! Stay with me, Rey.” I hit the floor, running out the door. “Stay with me." I grit.

I ran all around the fight to Falcons medic tent. “HELP! I need help.”

“What happened?” Medics meet me, take her from my arms and put her on a cot.

“She landed on my mace…I don’t…God…please..” I rub my forehead as watch them tear open her shirt. The large circular punctures pour out blood as her heart beats.

“What’s her name?”

“Rey…uh, Audrey.” I say as I try to contain myself.

“Audrey?! Can you hear me? We have minimal response.” He says to the other medic.

“She’ll need to be airlifted, she’s bleeding from everywhere.” The other medic removes his bloody gloves and throws them on a table.

I cover my mouth, take a deep breath and rub my head. “Um…She’s…She's a shape shifter.”

They look at me then each other and nod.

One medic walks over and stands in front of me. “We'll fly her to Axelridge General. She’s unstable at the moment, but if we can stop the bleeding and get pints into her, she’ll be OK.”

I nod. “Do it.”

I clap his shoulder, kiss Audrey goodbye and walk back to the barn. I climb the pile and pick my mace out of the sticky blood and brains. I place it on my shoulder and look at the mess that was Vinnies face.

“Fuck you, too, asshole.” I spit and then walk out to finish this fight for Audrey.

I walk put of the barn and head tk the battle.

“Jax!”

“Soph…Audrey’s been taken out of here. You should go…”

She stops me. “I’m not going anywhere. This battle, just got a hell of a lot bigger.”

“What are you…”

An earth shattering explosion followed by a massive shockwave, steamrolled rolled over the whole property like an out of control freight train. It shook the ground, hit us and we were thrown back toward the barn. We hit the ground, bounce and roll.

I cough and try to get my air back. “Soph.” I groan.

“I’m OK. That hurt…” She groans too.

I roll my head to where the explosion came from and my jaw drops. “What the fuck…”

We both slowly sit up, not taking our eyes off the thing that appeared out of nowhere.

At the edge of the field, in front of the forest, a deep blue, electric wall towered into the sky and seemed to go on forever in both directions.

I get to my feet as the earth stops shaking. The storm across the wall increases with lightning bolts running across the swirling shimmering divider. It looks almost looks like it's pulsing and growing. I step towards it. “What the hell is that?”

Another loud boom came from it and I flinched my head in surprise.

The lycans around us start acting nervous, quietly growling at each other and looking confused. The vampires hiss at the sight, but then started to regroup.

The mind links fly through my head like mad as fighters contact leaders for orders.

The Dires howl at it and wolves stand tall, watching what I was.

Sophie stands beside me. “That’s what I was going to tell you. I heard some Phoenix guys talking. There is some next level shit going on here, Jax.”

I push her out of the way and watch. “You can say that again.” I say quietly.

I swallow as something at the base of the wall catches my attention.

The blue waves like water in a lake as thousands of soldiers in black start to pour out of the wall with army trucks among them, into the field. You could here them shouting from where we were.

“Oh my God.” Both Sophie and I mutter in shock as the never-ending invading army starts to organize in block formations.

Chills run through us as the marching boot on the ground is heard all over the battle field.

Sophie throws her mace on her shoulder. “Who the hell are those guys?!” She barks as she motions a hand to the wall.

“It’s Falcon.” I breathe.

“What do you mean Falcon?! Falcon's back there!” Sophie says with confusion.

“Not that Falcon…the other Falcon.” I scrunch my brow and glance at her.

“What?!!”

I groan and shake my head. “Just…They’re the bad guys, alright? Come on.” I grab her and we run toward the fight.

“None of this makes ANY sense!” She says in frustration as she shakes her head and follows.

The roaring from the lycans and dires seemed to outdo the wall as we got close. The lycans made the first strike and vamps flashed fangs before our fighters got a chance to snap out of it and fight back.

I’m wasting no time. I swing my mace and split a lycan head in two while Sophie throws hers out repeatedly like a boomerang.

Vinnies army was dwindling fast before the call rang out.

“INCOMING!”

Through the dark night, rockets flew from the trucks, over our heads and exploded.

I grab Sophie and we hit the ground just as the ground and buildings behind us exploded.

More whistles came from the air and more explosions came from in front of us.

‘FIRE!FIRE!FIRE!’

The order was barked through the link and our gunners opened up. They fired round after round as they advanced on the army. A section broke off of the Falcons formations and headed our way while the rest headed to where main armies of Phoenix and Falcon were.

‘SHIFT!!’

We all threw down our weapons and shifted. The aerial team flew over head. Eddie threw out his knives as Marcus pitched his grenades. They detonated and men were tossed like rag dolls.

Some of the hover boards were shot down and fell into the army.

My paws dig into the dirt as Sophie runs beside me. Both wolves have murder on the brain. Phoenix, Axelridge, and Oliver’s Dires surround us in a pack of thousands.

We all lower our heads, eye our targets and hit then hard.

Men scream and wolves growl as blood rains down on us all.

Dires massive teeth chow down on Evil Falcon bones. They get shot at, but they slam their armored fur down. They raise their heads to the gunners and curl their lips. The soldiers slowly lower their weapons. One Dire in front of the pack growls loud and the soldiers shift, turn tail and run. They wasted no time and ran after the live meat.

It's not long before the Vamps and Lycans we left behind caught up. I felt I was in the middle of an ocean of death as the battle on the other side of the property joined ours.

The three armies joined up and the entire Alliance was fighting the Mirror Army and we weren’t going down easy.

The whole property was covered in fighting fur and blood. Acres from corner to corner, growling, tearing and killing. I lost Sophie, but was too concerned about trying to survive this to look for her. I felt like I was drowning in them.

I ripped out throat after throat but then I was jumped by a vamp. He pinned me and his large fangs tried to get to my throat as my wolf tried to eat his fucking head.

Another loud explosion came from the wall and again were all knocked on our asses by a massive surge of air pressure. It was followed by an extremely bright blast of light. I had to bury my head in my front legs until it died down. I shift and rise up on my ass.

I watch the wall dissipate and the trees behind it came back into view and the sky returned to normal and it was gone.

I look around and see Noah. “What the fuck just happened?”

“I don’t know, man, but whatever happened, they don’t like it.” He motions ahead of us and I see the Evil Falcons in the fight, get to their feet and run back to where the wall was. They clearly were not expecting that.

Putting two and two together, they aren’t running away. Fuck that.

“SHRED THEIR ASSES!!” I scream. I roll to my feet, shift and my wolf bursts out of the crowd. Thousands of other wolves join me in the chase down of the guys who threaten my world and Audrey. This is for her.

We mow them down just as the Lycans and Vampires pile on us.

“FALCON IN RED! FALCON IN RED!”

I drop my kill and see a huge wave of wolves all with red wolf packs charge into the fight. ‘The good guys. Cool.’ I smirk in my mind and jump another wolf.

River and Bastian rip enemy soldiers in half and the Andrews twins share in making sure no Bad Falcon asshole has limbs. Luke tosses wolves to Mica and Jayson and they tear them apart.

A pack of Super Wolves barrel through surrounded by Dires with William and Oliver in the lead. They mow the Bad Falcons down, leaving nothing but corpses in their wake.

As we push on the army, I hear more commotion come from the other side of the war.

Phoenix and the Lefu team come up from the side, surrounding Mirror Falcons and spilling blood. The Vamps and Vinnies Lycans try to fight back, but they’ve already suffered huge losses. I don’t know who tapped out first, but the Vamps turned and ran out at vamp speed. The lycans did too, but not before losing a dozen or so more.

As I search for more targets around me, I catch Jake fighting a Vamp and realize it’s the Vamp leader chick, Gia. He pins her down and their unit guys lock her down. He drags her off to their base.

As I turn back the to fight, thick, towering tree roots rocket out of the ground in several places. They grab soldiers and throw them across the fields.

The wind picks up and dirt flew all around us. Fuck! Tornadoes? Really? The funnel clouds touch down and suck up everyone around them. They too, are thrown away into the surrounding forest.

The ground quakes and starts to crack as boulders the size of small cars fall from the sky. They turn to molten rock and magma spills out in pools. The soldiers scream as they’re melting in the red hot lava.

“NYPHMS!” Someone yells.

I look up and five gorgeous women float above us. They look at each other and nod. They fly off in different directions and unleash hell.

The one in yellow burns Vamps with a bright light. Almost like sunlight. We can barely look at it. She giggles like a school girl as the Vamps smoke, catch fire and scream out on the ground then fall to ash. She smiles and flies away. Fuck. Sadistic much?

My attention is pulled to the forest as sounds of crashing trees comes from it. I stare at the noise then my face falls.

My eyes widen as I start to walk backwards and turn. “EVERYBODY RUN!!”

The entire battle runs away from the trees.

A wave of water taller than trees comes crashing out and hits the ground like a tsunami. It’s roaring waves splash and engulf people as it heads our way. Fighters run past me in panic as I run. I look back and see people trying hard to fight against the flood waters, but it’s no use.

I look up to the nymph who almost literally looks like goddess. She raises her hand and stops the flood as it crested over half of the 100 or so acres. She puts her hands out and raises them. The wave sucks up and turns into a tall column of water. It’s packed with fighters trying to escape drowning. She manipulates it into a ball, raises it high in the air and claps her hands together. The ball explodes and men fall to the deaths. The thud of there bodies could be felt in my chest.

“Oh shit!” I stand in almost a hypnotic state. As I watch these women attempt to kill everyone. Hollering and fear could be heard and felt by people running past.

“Jax!” Sophie grabs my arm and I’m broken out of trance.

“Sophie. You OK? You hurt?” I look over her blood covered body.

“No. I’m fine, but we should get out of here. Those chick’s don’t look healthy.” She motions to the nymphs.

“Uh, no. They aren’t. As long as they’re focused on the bad guys.” I say.

“It doesn’t look like they are, big bro.” She redirect me to the fight.

I see a woman who looks like stone, throw her arms out in front and spread them apart quick. She cackles loudly as the ground splits and hundreds are swallowed up in the crack. Some were our guys too.

“Fuck. Ok. You get to safety. Go to Audrey. I can’t leave the guys. I just need you out of here.” I look into her eyes to show I’m really serious about this.

“OK. Please be safe.” She wraps her arms around my waist and I hug her back.

“Alright. Go. Run.” I push her back and she gives me one last look and runs off.

With my ladies out of harms way, I can focus on finishing this.

As the nymphs blow the war apart, I shift and clean up those who try to run. I catch a target and take off. My wolf salivate at the thought of ripping his throat out.

His white tail whips and bounces behind him as he runs at full speed into the trees. I chase him through the trunks. He sees me and I think I hear him whine, but its hard to tell over my wolfs growling, panting breath.

We hit a small open space and I catch up to him, grab his leg and flip him in the air. He lands and rolls onto his back. I’m on him in a second. I bite his face and he howls out a yelp. His wolf bites back at me, but it feels different. Like he’s not trying to murder me, but just defend himself.

I grab his throat and throw him into the trees. I go in for the kill, but he shifts and throws his hands up.

“WAIT! WAIT! Please don’t kill me.” His head is lowered, showing his neck and his white hair is wet and shaking as he trembles on the ground. His pale body is slightly muscular. Certainly not as strong as most of these guys. He feels oddly familiar.

I shift and tilt my head. I study him as I take a few steps closer. “Raise your head.” I say curiously.

He slowly does and I’m met with red, terrified eyes. I cross my arms and nod. “Draco Torrent.” I say with contempt.

“Please. I mean you no harm.” He says.

“Yeah, right.” I grab him with a growl and lift him up. If we want answers, we’ll get them from his ass. “Move!” I shove him forward and head back to base. “You're coming with me.”

“A-Alright. No need for hostility.” He says as he gets in line with me.

I give him a weird look. This is the guy that everyone was afraid of? It must be some sort of trick. I know the Torrent I’ve read about in books and in the news is not this guy, but he’s in there and we'll find him.