It didn’t escape my notice that Louis had pushed all of my friends a few feet back from me, and I raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“What?” he said, somewhat playfully. “They were crowding you.”
I just shook my head at him before turning back to my guys. “So, where is your pack?” I asked, knowing they would be here with the rest of their bears. I’d been wanting to meet their family for a long time, especially after hearing so much about them.
James pointed across to a low building that looked like it might be a bakery or doughnut shop. “Half of them are eating. The other half are running in the forest.”
Shifters needed their freedom.
Noticing Connor still wasn’t moving, I narrowed my eyes. “Can you move closer to me?”
He snorted. “I can’t move my feet at all, so I’m going to say no.”
I spun on Louis. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t stop my friends from being near me! You can’t stop them from hugging me. We’re supes, for fuck’s sake.” I shook my head at him. “You never used to be the jealous, possessive type … so what’s up with that?”
Louis was no longer smiling, his expression serious but not angry. “You happened. I lost you for more years than I care to think about. The darkness happened. The darkness that is fighting me every moment of every day. Just … I need time.”
Even as he said it, I felt his magic ease, and the guys seemed to relax. “We need a compromise,” I said. “Because there’s no way you can protect me from the world. I’ve already been hidden away for years. I refuse to do it again. This is a new season for me. One of freedom.”
Louis rubbed the bridge of his nose before he let out a deep breath. “Fine, okay. I understand. I’ll work on it, and if the darkness gets to be too much, I’ll talk to you about it before I start smashing your friends into the ground.”
His gaze shot across to Connor, and I saw my friend nod. They had an understanding, apparently. “Don’t you have council members to get back to?” I joked, giving him a little shove.
His lips pressed briefly to mine, and I forgot everything.
“Yep. We’re bringing the vote forward a little. It’ll start in about twenty minutes.”
The guys shot a look over at where their family was, before turning back to me. “We’ll stick with you, but Connor will be up on the stage,” James warned me. “He has to cast a vote for our pack.”
I appreciated them sticking with me, especially since Jessa and Braxton appeared to have disappeared. Probably to the nearest soft … or not soft surface. “What are you voting?” I asked him.
He arched a brow at me. “I know I said I wanted to bring supes out into the world, but from what I’ve learned, this was not the way to do it. Pure fucking chaos. And personally, I don’t want to deal with humans’ bullshit. Maybe one day they’ll be able to handle our world, but today is not that day. We don’t need humans to know about us yet.”
“Yep, no amount of extra tits and ass is worth that,” James said, and he actually sounded serious.
I smacked his arm. “Seriously, like you have any issue with that, even when the humans don’t know about us.”
He shrugged, but didn’t disagree with me.
The next twenty minutes passed quickly. We all perched ourselves near the stage. It was good that somehow the stage was half a football field in size, because by the time Connor left and the other leaders from the different packs and cities and prison towns got up there, the number of councilmembers gathered together was huge.
Louis stood in the front, and it appeared he was done trying to chat to the leaders individually. At his side was the Compass quads, and I loved the ease with which they stood there together, silently. There was a trust between those five that spoke of a true family bond, and I couldn’t tear my eyes from Louis as he looked out over the crowd.
“You’re drooling.” Paulie smirked, leaning back against a nearby pole. “Never thought I’d see the day that our little Liz was whipped.”
I shot him a derisive stare. “Whipped? Really?”
He shrugged. “If the obsessive stare fits….”
I couldn’t really argue with him. I was pretty obsessed with Louis. Not that I’d admit that to the purple-eyed sorcerer though. As if he heard me, his eyes slammed into mine, and I felt that stare all the way to my toes. For a brief moment, my feet were moving toward him, and it was only when a sliver of clarity returned that I stopped myself. Now was not the time to crawl up onto that stage.
He crossed closer, and I swear half the supes on the ground with me stared up at him wearing the same expression I had.
“Popular guy.” James laughed, but cut the sound off with a cough.
Louis stood right on the edge of the stage and held his hand out for me. Everyone started to look around, trying to figure out who he wanted. A bunch of women pushed forward, like groupies rushing the stage.
I shook my head, and part of me wanted to stay where I was, but I needed to be closer to him as well. Normally, I didn’t throw my power around, but this time I allowed it to leak out a little, pushing supes aside so I could get to my mate.
