Bexleigh and the Beast

Chapter 9

Bexleigh POV

I walked out of the computer room to the preceptor who was watching over me and my fellow classmates. I guess today would be the day I figure out if my dreams were ready to come true or if I would have to rewind a little and take a step back. I had been studying non stop since Axel dropped me off at my house the other day. I hadn't had a face to face conversation with another person since then. I was dedicated to passing this, I had studied my notes, made flash cards took online practice tests. I had studied until I fell asleep both Monday and Tuesday night I woke up both days leaning against my headboard slouched to the side with my books still surrounding my head. Tuesday morning I woke up with drip calculation practice test questions that had transfered from the paper to the side of my face. "How do you think you did?" My one instructor asked me as I walked across the building past his office to gather my stuff from the other instructor.

"I'm not sure, I felt like I knew most of the answers but it maxed out on questions so I guess we will see."

"I'm sure you did fine, me and Ms Becky got a call from a certain chef that works for a certain company, contingent on you passing this test they are going to be giving you a call." He smiled, I smiled. My dream was so close.

"Thank you sir!"

"You have earned it Bexleigh, let me know when you get the email," he said holding out his hand for me to shake it.

"Yes sir," I said as I grabbed his hand and gave it a firm shake and walked into the classroom where I had the same brief conversation with my other instructor. She handed me my phone shook my hand and I walked out the door to my truck, when I got outside I turned my phone on and slid it into the pocket of my tactical pants and drove home I had about 5 hours before I had to get ready to bring Axel to meet my dad, brother and little sister, I was for sure going to nap. I hadn't had any solid sleep in 3 days.

I got home and immediately took my pants off and changed into a tank top and climbed in my bed Rosie jumped up and laid at the end of my bed and I don't think I even laid there for 30 seconds and I was out for the count.

When we pulled up to my family home Axel looked kind of amused. It was a larger log cabin right off the road and to the left of the and everything else was behind the house there were about 5 extremely large barns that we had separated the large herd into smaller ones to ensure care and safety of all the animals there was pond that feed all the water troughs. The grass was fresh and green because of the warm week we have been having. There was a single gravel driveway you could follow that gave you access to all the barns and a large pond in the backyard of the house with a deck and a gazebo right off the side.

I heard the tractor shut off in the distance as we got out of my truck, I seen it was Braxtyn and I grabbed Axels hand and started walking towards him. Braxton and I had some of the same features but he had dad's nose and lips. If I wasn't his sister I would say he's a fairly good looking guy never had any issues getting the girls. He was probably about 6'3" with the same blond hair and blue/green eyes. He had really grown from the scrawny little farm kid into a man in the past few years. I used to joke that he got fat, which typically ended with me upside down hanging from something. Our relationship was fairly typical he was my big brother by a few minutes but he acted like he was my big brother by a few years.

As he approached he picked me up and swung me around, "hey Gracie Girl, whose this yuppie." This is starting of wonderfully. Also should I introduce him as my boyfriend?

"This is my boyfriend Axel," I said watching Axels face to see if that's what he wanted to be called or not, it didn't show any disapproval.

"Boyfriend? We'll see," he said giving Axel what I could only describe as a stank eye.

"Don't you dare," I said giving him my meanest face.

"Hey buddy I got a few things to do before dinner you want to come help."

"Sure man," Axel answered.

"Great Bexleigh, why don't you run along and go see Hannah and Jules I got it from here."

I looked at Axel and he nodded his head and turned to walk away with Braxtyn as I just stood there watching them. "This is why I don't introduce you to people by the way." Braxtyn turned around smiled and continued walking, it looked like he was talking to Axel though. On the bright side, Axel wouldn't be able to just break up with me it would take more effort. When they headed into the barn I turned around and headed back down the drive to the house.

I heard her before I saw her, all black hair whipping in the wind and wild eyes Hannah came sprinting out of the house and about plowed me over on the side walk. She wrapped her arms around my neck and legs around my waist and held on, "I missed you Gracie Girl."

"I missed you too Hannah Banana!" She didn't let go, "you can get down you have like 4 inches on me now."

"Dads right you are a shrimp."

"That's not nice but he's not wrong," I said heading toward the house carrying her.

"Where is your wolf boy at?"

"Oh Braxtyns trying to intimidate him. I guess we'll see who comes back more sore in a half hour."

"It'll be Braxtyn, Jules says werewolves are tough, and you snagged yourself and Alpha, that's what she told dad." She said unwrapping her limbs from my body.

"What did dad say?"

"I don't know not much, he never does."

She wasn't wrong I walked in and seen Jules making dinner, when she raised her head to look at me she just smiled.

"Hey Bexleigh," she came over and gave me a hug, "where's your mate?"

"Oh Braxtyn went to try to show him who's tougher, or something like that."

"He's going to have a rude awakening when he realizes how strong Axel is," Jules said laughing. "I can not wait!"

Dad walked out of the living room and wrapped his arm around me and kissed my forehead. "Where's this 'Alpha,'" he said in air quotes, "I keep hearing so much about?"

"Your son ran off with him, I don't know."

"Does he treat you well? A gentleman?"

"He is pretty awesome dad," I answered.

" Well that's good, because it sounds like we don't have much of a choice rather we like him or not."

He walked out and sat on the deck over looking the pond. I looked at Jules and she motioned with her head for me to go out there too. I glared at her not emotionally equipped if there were to be a confrontation, even though dad's not much of a confrontation guy. "You cool, old man?" I sat next to him on the swing and stared at him trying to figure his true answer out by the look on his face.

"I mean yes, Jules says he's a good guy and is confident he will make sure you are well taken care of. You are exactly like your mom was around this age, ambitious, full of hope, and an incomprehensible drive, I have seen that fire in your eyes put out by a boy before I don't want to see it happen again."

"I think I will be okay, and if I'm not then I will pick myself up again, it seemed to work out in my favor the first time," it was a loaded joke but it was true. Dad just grunted, nodded his head, and put his arm around my shoulders. Anderson Armstrong was a man of very few words he was not a unloving dad by any means just quiet, if he started shouting or yelling it was a big deal. He had always had more than enough patience with me and Brax when it came to figuring stuff out. He says what he needs to say and moves on.

When me and Jenson got the age where it wasn't just kids hanging out He gave me a "Don't let him do anything you don't want him to do," speech and that was that. Him and Jules made it incredibly easy to talk to them, even in me and Braxtyns wilder days, which was we just both got a little destructive with vehicles, he would never yell but he would ask if we were alright and whatever we broke was our problem to fix. Jules always made it easy to go to her for girl stuff you just needed to figure out how to word it passively so she didn't talk to the other Betty's about it, if you worded it so it didnt seem like good gossip she typically didn't say anything to anyone. The whole me and Axel thing has probably already filtered through most of the town at this point, and it was probably hot gossip because all the Betty's thought me and Jenson would wind up back together.

I sat there for a few more minutes with dad before he looked at me again and smiled, "You going to be one to?"

"What?"

"Are you going to be a werewolf?"

"That's the talk but I don't know what were doing yet, apparently it's not the safest thing to do."

"There is no doubt in my mind you'll be okay, you're the toughest girl I have ever met. Do I still get to walk you down the aisle? Jules said these types of relationships usually move pretty quickly and you told her you loved him, why wait? When me and your mom got together I knew from day one we would get married we just had to wait for her to turn 18, and that's what we did, she didn't get a dream wedding by any means but we had each other and that made me happy enough and then we had you and Braxtyn and that completed my happiness. When we lost your mom I still had happiness I just could never do what she did in raising you guys. Whatever you do just do it for happiness, you can make all the money in the world and go on every trip and see every sight, but if you are not happy.it doesn't matter. If he makes you happy do whatever, you have my support Bex, as long as I still get to walk you down the aisle."

I leaned over and hugged my dad it's not often I get two positive speeches in one day. "I love you dad, and if ever the opportunity arises it will be no one other than you that walks me down the aisle."

We sat out there a little while longer before Axel and Braxtyn came walking toward the house. I just smiled because that fine specimen was walking toward me. When they got to the deck Brax sat down, "Alright Bex, he's approved."

"What did you do to him?"

"Unloaded the wagon to the hay loft."

"Why? Don't you need that on the trailer?"

"Yes," Dad interjected, "I guess because you were showing off now you get to be tired and unload it."

"Smooth Brax." I got up and walked over to Axel, "Axel this is my dad, Anderson."

Axel held out his hand and grabbed my dad's and shook it, "Nice to meet you Mr. Armstrong."

"Same bud, but please Andrew works."

"Very well Andrew."

About that time Hannah came hippity hopping out the door and stopped dead in her tracks where Jules About ran into her and her face dropped and she looked at me, "No way this is your boyfriend?"

Dad, Jules, and Brax all said a consecutive, "Hannah!"

"Okay I get it I should have just thought it, but for real life, mom. Look at him. Bexleigh your pretty and all don't get me wrong but this is a Selena Gomez level of hot."

I smiled because I wouldn't say Selena but, she isn't wrong. "Anyway, Axel, this thing, this is Hannah."

"Nice to meet you Axel," Hannah said gliding over to him and putting her hand out, which he grabbed and shook.

"Nice to meet you Hannah," she giggled like a school girl and it made me laugh.

"And you know Jules," she smiled and he nodded at her. "And this is the fam," I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Well with that being said," Jules added, "foods ready!"

We all went and side and carried on with small talk, Axel fit right in to the non sense. As we started finishing up our meals, I suggested to Axel we go out on the 4 wheeler I could show him around the area a little better, Braxtyn and Hannah asked to come too, so we all helped Jules clear the table and load the dishwasher and headed up to the barn laughing and joking.

When we got there I got on my old four wheeler with Axel behind me, and Braxtyn on his with Hannah behind him. We started the bikes and backed out of the barn when we heard Jules yell, "your phone has been going off non stop for the past 5 minutes Bex you may want to check it!" So we rerouted our destination to the house first, where Jules handed it to me, with a glowing smile in her face, the wench looked at it before I got here. I should have put a password on the thing. An email from the school and the national registry was in my inbox, I took a deep breath an (re)opened the email:

Congratulations Bexleigh Grace Armstrong on your fulfillment of the EMT-P national registry test, on the date April 28th 2021.....

It had the more information further down the email, but the first part was all I needed to see. I squealed and jumped off the bike into Jules arms. Everyone else got off their bikes and asked what was going on. "You can just call me Bexleigh Armstrong, RN, BSN, Paramedic!"

I turned to Axel and he picked me up and spun me around, "Congratulations baby!" He said kissing me on the lips.

My dad came out just in time for the announcement and when Axel put me down he gave me a quick hug also followed by a Congratulations.

"Now when can we change that to Bexleigh Ross, RN, BSN, Firefighter, EMT, Medic and whatever other abbreviations you have after that name," Jules asked.

"Get married? Already? Seriously Jules? They have known each other for 15 minutes," Brax interjected.

"When you know you know," dad added.

Careful not to argue Braxtyn got back on the 4wheeler about kicking Hannah, who was on her phone, in the head. "Watch it ass!" Hannah yelled. Which lead to everyone else yelling at her telling her to watch her mouth. "Why don't you kids go play before somebody starts a fight." Me and Axel got back on the 4wheeler and turned it on, "Don't scare him off with your driving girl," Dad said with a wink.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I said hitting the accelerator hard causing the bike to fishtail in the gravel of the drive way. I felt Axels grip around my waist tighten as he went speeding through the woods with Braxtyn and Hannah hot on our tail. Me and Braxtyn spent days at a time building little trails throughout the woods and around the property. We finally stopped in my favorite spot that was on the highest hill overlooking the valley. You could see everything from this height. The whole layout of the farm and the surrounding properties. I used to want to build a house here, but it was right in the middle of the best ground so dad shut me down continually.

I turned around so my legs were resting on top of Axels, "This is my favorite place," I said as Braxtyn and Hannah pulled up beside us.

"We used to race the storm up here," Braxtyn said to Axel. "We would come up right before the nasty ones and just watch the rain roll acrossed the valley. We got in trouble for it all the time," he said looking at me.

"Y'all gon' get yourself killed," we both said laughing and trying to imitate dad's voice, which caused Hannah and Axel to chuckle.

"That's where Bex got in her first wreck," he said pointing toward the area where there is a random ravine. "She was chasing something? A deer?"

"A coyote," I said smiling. Axels smile got bigger too and then he winked.

"I'd chase them too," he said touching my face.

"You guys are disgusting," Hannah said rolling her eyes and sticking nose back in her phone.

"Dad had to drive up with a truck to get her out, him and Jules came up and Jules wrapped her in a blanket and took her to the hospital, you were what ten?"

"...ish...." I said thinking, "Jules was at the end of pregnancy with that thing," I said gesturing toward Hannah, "so atleast 10. Dislocated shoulder, broken wrist and I had 7 stitches in my head," I said pulling my hair back to show him the tiny white scar.

"Then over there we got into a knock down drag out putting that fence in," Axel started to say.

"I remember that," Hannah added, "Dad drug you both back by your hair still trying to get each other."

"What happened?" Axel asked.

"I don't even remember, do you?" I asked Brax.

"Nah, we went through the asshole teenager stage at the same point in our life."

We did went through a whole phase where we hated everything. After a bit more of Bexleigh stories Hannah and Brax headed back over the hill, it was right before sunset so I appreciated it. Braxtyn didn't want to leave us alone and I am certain I would hear about it after we left tonight. I was still sitting backward on the 4wheeler but I was leaning against Axels chest as he was asking me random questions about random parts of my childhood and the cows. Which evolved into our wedding and our future. He was so perfect. I never wanted to move. This place where I was was exactly where I wanted to be everything in life was perfect right now and I wasn't ready for it to go back to "normal" on Monday.

"GSW to the leg, stable, pressure 110/78 pulse 91% resporations 16 and heart rate 92," the EMT said pushing the large man into the ER on the cot.

"Trauma 3," the doc shouted over the commotion or the ER, "This is our fourth in the hour, what's going on?" The doctor asked rhetorically. That was a good question we had been swamped all evening.

I walked into the patients room, "Hello Mr. Vega, I am Bexleigh, your nurse, can I take look at your leg?" He nodded his head and grunted, the EMTs that commonly work this shift had already cut his pants on his right leg all the way up to the top. "What's your pain on a scale 1-10," he just grunted as I started the care on his leg. "I can help you with pain sir if you tell me what your pain is."

"Whatever gets me the good s**t," he finally responded.

"What would you consider the good stuff," I asked looking at him. Which apparently struck a nerve because he shot up off the bed grabbed me by my neck and held me against the wall with my feet dangling. I tried yelling for help but was unable to get any words out because he was cutting off my airway, I slowly seen the darkness coming but not before coming and punching me twice in the side of the head, I heard mumbling in the room and felt my body fall to floor and then nothing. Darkness.