“Are we near Krakov?” asked Braxton.
“No,” was all the answer we received.
I wasn’t sure about everyone else, but I was relieved to know we weren’t courting the criminals of Romania. I’d heard they held the worst of our kind. Their prison was supposedly a veritable stronghold.
Cloaked dude turned and was off again. Braxton reached out then and linked our hands together. I narrowed my eyes and he leveled his stoic expression on me before he said, “I knew the moment he said ‘Don’t be tempted off the path,’ that you’d need some help.”
A few rumbling growls rocked my chest, and my eyes got even squintier. “Are you trying to say I have a short attention span? That I can’t walk into this valley without suddenly being distracted by, say, a squirrel, and scampering my ass off the road?”
Jacob and Tyson both snorted. I whipped my head around to them. At the sight of my expression, they stemmed their laughter before clearing their throats and staring off into the sky.
About freaking time. I was on edge, the need to be in control, dominant, was slamming into me. Braxton had stepped up his possessiveness more than a notch since we’d escaped the relative safety of our hometown. Maybe it was that I’d never been outside Stratford before, or simply everything from the past few weeks, but now seemed to be the time to nip this bullshit in the bud.
My finger flicked around to rest of them. “Listen up and listen well, Compasses. I’m not a delicate human, or a damsel in distress. I’m a wolf, an alpha and a supernatural. If you all try to bubble-wrap me up, I’m going to rip your faces off.”
Mischa and Grace seemed impressed and shocked by the attitude I was throwing at my boys, but the five of us fought all the time. It was how we related, we loved and fought hard. It was part of our pack dynamics.
Unfortunately, my five-feet-four of spitting mad shifter didn’t instill even an ounce of fear in my moronic quads. They exchanged amused glances, before Maximus snatched me up and threw me over his shoulder. Braxton seemed reluctant to let my hand go, as it stretched out between us, but eventually he was forced to release it.
“It’s damned cute the way you boss us around, Jessa babe,” Maximus said. He sounded amused. I sighed and resigned myself to not winning any domination contests today.
I could hear Jacob and Tyson chuckling as they followed their vampire brother. Over Maximus’ shoulder I saw Braxton ushering Mischa and Grace onto the path ahead of him, as he took the rear of our group.
“Are you planning on carrying me the entire way down?” I deadpanned, hugging myself into the broad, muscled back of Maximus. “I might just have a nap.”
His laughter rumbled the hard body under me. “Yep … and by the way, you’re starting to feel a little light. We need to get you some food.”
“Tell me about it,” I grumbled.
I could hear Mischa murmuring to Grace. “Why does Jessa even have feet? The Compasses can’t seem to stop themselves from carrying her around.”
Gentle laughter sounded from the witch. “It’s been that way since they were young. Jessa is their girl, and … well, there is more love in their little pack than in any other I’ve ever seen.” Her tone was hard to get a read on, but there were hints of envy. I couldn’t blame her.
It was true, our pack was one big pile of love. Love, claws and cursing. We were all soulmates in a manner, destined to be friends and pack from birth. But, to be fair, some of the reason they continued to fling me over their shoulders was control. I didn’t like to do what they said and this way they used their one advantage – massive bulk – to force me to follow their plans. I knew it, they knew it … and we were okay with it. For now.
“If I could interject with some insights.” Tyson’s voice jarred me from my thoughts.
Someone snorted, it sounded like Grace, all light and feminine. But still irritated. Which was her usual Tyson reaction. He plowed on anyway as we walked.
“Jessa’s small ... we like to bring her up to us. We’re pack, we’re equals. Not because of power ... but because of everything else. We actually need her in our lives ... she keeps us grounded.”
“She completes your pack,” Grace said, with the slightest quiver in her tone.
“Yes.”
Well, crap on a cracker. Who would have thought there was so much tenderness in the quads’ souls. The sharp intake of breath from Grace indicated she was in just as much awed surprise.
I bestowed a gentle smile on my wizard best friend, and he responded by reaching out and grazing my cheek with his thumb. Despite our worries, for a moment everything was right in the world.