Glory stepped away from the fire, stripped the shirt off her body and was reaching for the button of her pants before Emin was on his feet, taking her by the shoulders.
"What are you doing, kvietka?"
She looked up at him, her eyes blurry with frantic panic. "I'm shifting. I can't free my mother in my human form." She said it as if it were obvious.
"Kvietka, we can't go now."
She pulled away from him. It was the first time she'd ever done that and it tore at him. "What are you talking about? They just told us that my mother is locked in a cement room not three miles from here. What do you mean we can't go to her?"
"He's right." If it had been anyone but AJ who had come up to Glory at that moment, she might have been able to use her panicked rage to brush them off. But as it was, AJ stood in her baggy clothes, her hair like a slick of shiny brass in the moonlight. And her face was so kind. "It's late. We're all tired. We haven't made any sort of plan of attack. We'll make mistakes if we go tonight. One of us could get hurt or killed. Or captured." She picked up Glory's shirt from the ground, slipped it over her friend’s head. "I know what it's like to miss your mother, Glory. I would do anything to have the opportunity you have, to get her back. Don't mess it up by letting your fear lead you. Let us help you."
Glory's eyes filled. But she gave a little nod and bent down to grip the smaller woman in a huge bear hug. "My mother can be your mother, too," she told AJ.
AJ smiled and led her back to the fire.
They ate and planned and strategized and argued. In the end, no one was crazy about the plan. But it was the best they had. And, Emin thought, the only real chance. Once Navuka got wind that they'd returned for Glory's mother, well. He just didn't think they would get another chance. He tried his best to enjoy the night breeze that filtered through the tent where he lay, tangled with Glory. He was grateful for the warm bedding that Dora had thought to pack for all of them. They knew it wasn't a good idea for any of them to shift tonight. So they were all sleeping in human form.
He curled into Glory who planted a kiss on his shoulder. He wished he could tire her out the way he did when they were alone. But alas, they were all only separated by thin canvas and night air.
"Do you think this will work?" Dora whispered to Danil, where they were similarly curled up one tent away.
"I don't know, ptuska," he absently kissed at her hair, and then, catching her scent, purposefully kissed along her ear. Took her earlobe in his teeth.
She swatted him away. "I'm not an exhibitionist."
He blinked at her in disbelief. "Wife of mine, you fucked me in the coat closet of the bar not two weeks ago."
"That was different!" she insisted. "Your brothers are five feet away. It's just creepy."
Because he agreed, he merely nipped at the sensitive skin of her neck before dragging her over top of him and pulling their covers even tighter. He was warm and content. But he knew it couldn't last. They were storming the castle tomorrow. So to speak. He had never had any wish to go to war. But if he had to, his brothers at his side was the only way he would do it.
The two of them drifted off to sleep while Maxim and Anton argued in fast Belarusian.
"You're the one who is too big for this damn tent in the first place. So you sleep on the ground out here."
Maxim shrugged his shoulders. He knew he pretty much filled the two-person tent to its max on his own. "I told you, I don't mind cuddling."
"Christos," Anton threw his arms up in the air and paced away. "Fine, I’ll sleep outside."
AJ unzipped her one-person tent and crawled out, jamming on her boots. "I told you that you weren't both gonna fit in that tent."
She grabbed her pillow and walked over to the two-person tent. "I'm smaller, so I'll share the two-person tent with one of you and whichever of you two giants can take my one-person tent. That way we all fit and none of us has to sleep outside."
Without waiting for either of them to agree, AJ slid into the bigger tent, kicking off her boots and zipping up the door to keep out the cold. Her heart beat a mile a minute.
Anton scowled at the zipped door. He swallowed against the tightening in his chest. She'd looked frustrated, but not disgusted, at the idea of sleeping so close to him. Or Maxim. Anton's heart iced over.
"Well, now I really don't mind cuddling," Maxim grinned as he stepped toward the two-person tent. Anton's hand flashed out, gripped his brother by the scruff of his neck. No. Fucking. Way.
Maxim quirked an eyebrow, intrigued by what he saw in his brother's eyes. He looked back at the door that AJ had just zipped closed and then back at Anton. Lifting his hands in obvious surrender, Maxim let his large, obnoxious grin spread over his face as he backed slowly away.