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I didn’t get a chance to hear the answer, using what muscle strength I had to look up at Brandon as he shuffled in and rested my head on his lap. Slade barrelled up to a wide-eyed Finn, still holding his rifle in somewhat limp fingers. He didn’t answer, obviously processing what happened. That wasn’t good enough for Slade. He had his fist pulled back in one second, and drove it into the side of Finn’s face in the next, man and gun going flying. He stood over the fallen man, chest heaving.
“You were supposed to fucking make sure she was safe! What the fuck were you doing?”
Finn had no answer. He sat up slowly, hand going to his jaw.
“We’ve been best mates since we were kids, but fuck me, if you don’t get your fucking head out of your arse, I’ll do my damnedest to break the mate bond myself. This is not you, Finn! Your dads wouldn’t want you neglecting the one thing they have to live without because of them. This isn’t helping anyone.”
I struggled to get to my feet, feeling the discord as keenly as a knife to the ribs. I needed to fix it somehow. The ragged sound of Slade’s voice breaking as he delivered his judgement, Finn’s blank-eyed stare, it all tore at me.
“No,” Brandon said when I managed to sit up. I was hauled back into the shelter of his arms, his limbs wrapped around me like iron bars. “Just stay, please.”
Brandon, as always, knew what he was doing. Slade turned on his heel, his face disfigured with disgust, something that only softened when he saw me. He marched over, then dropped to his knees beside us.
“You don’t have to let her go, but I need to hold her as well,” Slade said in a low voice. I felt Brandon nod, loosening his grip a little, sharing the burden that was me between the two of them. “You better not tell me you’ve got a shy bladder, princess, because I am gonna be on you like white on rice. Taking a piss, even a dump, I am there.”
“Slade…” I gasped, both of them feeling a bit oppressive as my head started to swim.
“We’ve gotcha, love. We’ve gotcha.”
And that seemed as good a time as any to pass out.
6
“Give her some air.”
“She’s got plenty of air! There’s a whole world of it around her! She just has to breathe it!”
“She’s breathing, Jack. She’s OK.”
“She’s not OK. This should never have fucking happened.”
“This is an alien world. Shit’s gonna happen. We need to—”
“RAWRR!”
My eyelids fluttered at the sound of the godawful roar, trying to open and assess what new danger awaited me. My brain refused to comply, my face falling lax. It stayed limp as I was scooped up and hauled away from where I’d passed out at incredible speed. I groaned faintly, frowning at the dizzying swirl in my head as we went. When we came to a stop and I was delivered gently to a firm surface, I found my body was slightly more compliant. I forced my eyes open.
“Jules…”
“Aaron?”
To say I was surprised to see the man leaning over me—his breath coming in shuddering gasps that weren’t brought on by exertion, and his eyes glowing green—was an understatement. I reached up to touch his face, and he grabbed my hand, bringing it to his mouth and depositing a rough kiss on the palm. His eyes closed for a moment as he rubbed his nose across my wrist, and when they opened again, they had returned to hazel.
“You OK, big guy?” I croaked.
“Don’t worry about me, worry about you. Jules, what the fuck?”
“I know, I know, my reputation as a trouble magnet is maintained. In my defence, the little purple guy looked so cute.”
“What?”
“And then there was this big rock lizard thing…”
I was scooped up and held tight to his chest.
“Just…stop talking. I’m holding on by a thread, and listening to this isn’t helping.”
His arms were tense around me, but he wasn’t content to simply hold me still, his hands moving restlessly, trying to draw me closer. His fingers buried themselves in my hair, his nose going to my throat as he breathed me in, his lips soon following.
