The Axelridge Series Book 1 Finn's Slapshot

FINN

“A pied piper, gentlemen. One of the oldest bands of mercenaries on the planet.” John walks around the Hub as we sit and listen to this unbelievable shit that I really don’t have time for, but with Enforcers scouring the city for Ben, I can take a few minutes to determine if this guy is just crazy or an absolute psycho.

“When society’s of the modern era were battling it out for their own slice of pie on this planet, a need was seen by a group of people out of Romania who had keen powers of persuasion. These were all forms of beast. Human, lycan, vampire…shifter…” He motions to us as he walks around the inner circle.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard of major battles…just stopping. For no apparent reason. Fighting just ended and one side gave up.” He stops and looks a me.

“A pied piper?” I mutter.

“Precisely.” He points at me and continues on. “These creatures found they had a special skill to…convince people to follow them instead of what they were doing. So, like all creatures with skill…” He stops at the top of the circle and turns. “They sold it. Mercenaries for hire. They would enter a kingdom, town or city. Boasting about ending the long, tiring war for a set price. The leaders would agree and the pied piper would get to work. They win the war and claim their prize. Now, a pied piper has one, single rule. He…or she…must be paid for services rendered.”

“If you don’t?” Jax asks as he leans back in his chair.

“He takes it.” John put his hands in his pockets and arches a brow.

“The kids.” I state.

John nods. “It’s unclear what they do with the children, but the pied piper leads with the thinking, a city is only strong as its weakest link. Take the children, the city will fall.”

“Can’t they just have more kids?” Eddie asks.

“Yes, but the pipers leave no time for that. With the city is so damaged at the loss, the piper unleashes the army he first lead astray. Effectively killing the people he once saved.” John informs.

“What happened to the kids?” I ask as I fold my hands in front of my mouth. Ben is pounding on my mind just as fast as my heart.

“Like I stated, it’s unclear. It’s theorized they force the children to join them and help kill their parents. The creatures are what you call, rogue forms of their linage. We believe they turn the children on their own kind. They do this with the common belief that they are in charge. Now, as you can imagine, these four in one place would not live naturally together outside the High council, so they have to have some bond between them.” He wraps his arms around his waist and leans on the table.

“Rogue Sickness.” Marcus says.

“But humans, vamps and lycans don’t have Rogue Sickness.” Griffin asks with a furrowed brow.

“No, but they all hold some form of disloyalty to their species. It may not be in the form of Sickness, but it’s there in the mental state. They work only for themselves. Manipulation and debauchery at its finest.” John motions to me.

“OK. So, why is he taking our kids? Who is he?” I ask.

“There’s the question. I can’t be sure, but I believe who you have on your island is a leader. One of oldest of his breed. I’ve hunted him specifically over the years, but he’s very good at disappearing.” John pushes off the table and paces around again.

“Oldest what? Vamp? Lycan?” Jax follows him with his eyes as he questions.

John stops and turns to him. “Rogue wolf.”

“What do you mean old?” I lean on the table and arch a brow.

“I mean to the tune of 40 maybe 50 years old.” He says.

“That’s impossible. No rogue has lasted more than five years with full blown Rogue Sickness.” Jax growls.

“Except Cornell. He has somehow mastered the disease to make himself a leader in the pied piper organization and has now landed in your city. He is the one taking your children. I’ll stake my life on it.” He leans his hands on the table.

“Why us?” I ask quietly.

“Obviously, he’s struck a deal.” John stands straight and looks me over.

“With who?” Jax barks.

I lean back in my chair. “The lycans.” My face softens in defeat as I come to the realization that my city has been attacked by the Vinellis this whole time and I didn’t know it.

John leans on the table in front of me. “They are stealing your children. Using this drug to turn them. They will then call them to fight you and you will let them kill you because they are your children. It’s the perfect weapon.”

A shiver runs right through me to my core. “I got to find Ben.” I stand up.

“What do you want us to do?” Jax stands too.

I look around the room, trying to keep it together. “Um…John…Can you find this guy?”

“I will assist. I have ways to draw him out.” He says.

“OK. You guys give John whatever he needs. I’ll be back. I have to try and save my family.” I say as I leave the hub.

Nightmares run through me as I run out of the unit and to my car. This fucking guy was beating my ass for a year and I had no fucking clue.

All those kids. All those missing persons reports. The bodies. The overdoses. All symptoms of the battle I couldn’t fight because I couldn’t see it.

I drive through the city streets to Aprils and can only think that there’s nothing more scary than something that doesn’t make sense.

One of the questions that weighed on my mind through this whole thing is why?

Why would Ben do this? What would compel him to sell drugs? Why run from his mom? Why?

I rush through traffic and the weight on my chest feels just like that day I got another devastating phone call. The circumstances may be different, but the feelings are all just as scary and heavy. The day I vowed to keep my boy safe. The day I made a promise to never let anything hurt him. Ever. As of today, I failed.

****

2010

‘Alpha Trezner…This is Alpha Moreau…I…I have some disturbing news.’

‘What about?’

‘About a pack member of yours…Kyle Warren.’

‘Is he OK?’

‘I’m sorry, Alpha. Kyle Warren was tragically frozen by Nordic wolves.’

‘No…He can’t…Are you sure?’

‘Finn…We found his dog tags in his remains. They…um…They smashed him. I’m sorry.’

I run the conversation through my head as I fight the tears back. Pulling into Aprils driveway, I get out and run to the door.

I throw it open and run into the house.

‘APRIL!’

I hear the wailing of her pain. “Fuck.”

I see her on the floor of the bathroom. “FINNN!” She cries out.

Ben is crying breathlessly in the bedroom. Scared of his mother’s cries.

I fall to her side.

“KYYYLLEE!!” She screams on my shoulder. “NOOOO!!”

“They just called me…April…Oh God…I’m so sorry…” I hold her up as she tries to fall to floor in devastation.

Tears well in my eyes as I hear and feel the pain she has. I feel it too and can’t help but cry with her.

She's sobbing uncontrollably and delivering weak punches to my chest as she fights this on me.

“It’s OK…It’s OK…” I mutter as I hold her head. Tears fall from my eyes as I try to make sense of why the world would take a guy like Kyle away from us. It’s not fair to April and it’s not fair to the tiny baby in the next room. It’s not goddamn fucking fair!

“IT HURTS!! KYLE!!” She cries out.

I see her grabbing at her shoulder.

“Your mark…It broke, Bunny…I’m sorry…So fucking sorry…Just hang on, baby, hang on.” I hold her tighter as I wait for the pain of her mark to pass. I know from experience with other loved ones, the pain of the mark is intense at first, but fades. It will never truly go away until it’s taken away by another, but it becomes tolerable to a sense that it’s not entirely noticeable and you can function in your life. Still that first fucking snap of the bond almost kills you. Nobody should go through this.

Once the pain passed, I needed to get her and Ben to a place where I help them through all this.

I stand her up, wipe her face and look into her heartbroken eyes. “April. Pack a bag and I’ll pack Ben’s baby bags. You’re both are coming to the penthouse with me. We’ll sort this out there. For now, I’ll take care of both of you. Whatever, you need, bunny. Whatever you need, ok?”

She hitches a breath and nods.

She packs her bags and I run into Ben’s room dark room. At just a few months old, he was already looking like a spitting image of Kyle.

I walk to the crib and he was in his little pajamas. Red in the face from crying.

“Shhh…Benny…I got you…Hey…I got you buddy…” I whisper as I pick him up and hold him to my chest. I walk over to the change table and grab a bag. I throw diapers and other things.

He cries a little more as I gently bounce my buddy on my arm. “It’s OK…No problem…We got this…it’s fine.” I soothe as I grab clothes from his dressers and pack them. “Yeah…That’s it…See…We’re just going on a trip to Finns…You like that?...Yeah…”

I sling the bags over my shoulder and look around the baby blue room I helped put together.

I look in the crib and see a blue teddy bear. My chin quivers as I see my friend holding that bear when he realized he was a dad.

I sniff and slowly walk over to the crib. Ben coos in my arm as I grab the bear and hold it next to him. “Don’t worry, Benny. I got you.” I hitch with clenched teeth and leave.

I take April and Ben back to my place to try and help them through this and make sure that no matter what they will be OK.

I vowed that night as I closed the door to the spare room, they will always be OK.

“Kyle, I promise. I will die before anyone touches a hair on their heads.” I mutter to the door before leaving.

****

PRESENT DAY

I pull into the driveway, get out and rush up to the door. I press the bell several times.

I hear stomping down the stairs. The lock flips and the door flies open.

“BEN?”

“No…Not yet.” I flop my hand at my side.

She looks at me and starts to cry. I grab her and hold her head.

“Please find my baby.” She sobs.

“I’ll find him. Everyone’s on it. He’ll turn it up.” I hug her tight. “I need to ask. Why would he do this?”

She huffs, wipes her cheeks while breaking from me. She pulls out a cigarette and lights it. She only smokes when she’s super stressed and right now she’s fucking stressed as am I.

We walk upstairs to Ben’s room. She sits on his bed with an ashtray and stares out the window. Her eyes are puffy and worry is coated all over her.

“April. You need to tell me why Ben would runaway.” I say again.

She takes a shaky drag of her smoke and blows it out.

“It started last year. The moodiness. The anger. I tried to help him. Tried to make him understand that none of this is his fault. I tried so hard to help him…” She chokes.

“April. What happened?” I ask quietly.

“Grade 8 Career Day. That’s what happened.” She glances at me then buts out her smoke. “He was so goddamn excited about it. I tried to give him what he wanted for it, but it didn’t happen.”

“What do you mean?” I cross my arms and tilt my head as I stand in the middle of Ben’s room.

“When career day happened all the other kids brought their dad’s and Ben sat in the back of the classroom heartbroken.” Her chin quivers and she sniffs back her tears.

“Why didn’t you tell me, I would’ve gone.” I say as I lean to her and point to my chest.

She turns to me and her face fills with anger. “What do you think he wanted, Finn? What do you think I tried to do?! I called. I texted. For two solid weeks, I tried, but guess what? YOU WEREN’T HERE, FINLEY! YOU’RE NEVER…HERE!” She yells and my face falls.

“All he wanted was to have the great Finn Trezner stand up with him and he was so crushed I couldn’t make that happened. He told everyone you were coming and was humiliated.” She wipes away a tear that fell.

“I-I didn’t…”

Her eyes narrow. “You think you can pop in here once a month and be a dad and that’s supposed to be enough. Guess what, Finley. It’s not.”

“I do what I can…” I mutter.

She gets up and takes big steps to me. “You think that’s going to fix the little boys heart that you constantly break with broken promises, Finn? You think that’s supposed to make everything better?!”

“What do you want from me?! I’m trying to help the best way I know how!” I yell back.

“You want to know what I want? You really want to know, Finley?” She shoves me back.

“Yes, damn it!!”

She hitches a breath as she starts to cry. “I want a father for my son! A REAL FATHER! I want a man who supposedly loves me to not jump on plane for weeks at a time to sign autographs! I want a man who doesn’t constantly disappoint me or my child! I want a man who will not promise me forever then go off to war and disappear!!! I don’t want to be surrounded by all this love and feel so goddamn alone!!” She slams her hand over her eyes and cries hard in front of me. “I don’t want my baby to be angry at the world anymore.”

My heart pounds as my mouth falls. I feel like she just beat me into the fucking ground with a shit ton of truth and I fucking deserved every bit of it.

I shake my head as I figure out this whole fucking thing is my fault. All of it. This whole time I thought I was doing the opposite of my dad when I actually became what I despised the most.

“I’m sorry…so fucking sorry.” I grab her and hug her as she cries into my chest. “April…I’m fixing this. I swear on my life.”

She pushes me off her. “I’ve heard that before, Finley. All its ever got me was more pain.”

She leaves the room and I’m left standing in my guilt and shame.

She’s right. I have made that promise a number of times. I didn’t understand it back then. I didn’t know what my promises meant or the damage they caused.

I thought I suffered because of them, not the people around me.

I’m worse than my fucking father. He knew what he was doing. I blamed everything else, but me.

Why did Ben run? To get away from me.