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Draugr leaned back. “So.”

I lifted my gaze. His eyes were sharp now, brother to brother. “How are you holding up,” he asked, “being mated?” The question hit harder than it should have, because it wasn’t teasing. This was real.

I stared out toward the cabin, toward where Bryn slept. My chest tightened. “I don’t sleep right,” I admitted, voice low. “Not unless she’s beside me.”

Draugr’s mouth twitched. “Pathetic.”

“Shut up.”

He watched me, calm. “You feel it, don’t you. The fear.”

Yes, every second, because loving was weakness and Bryn wasn’t just love, she was everything.

“If she’s out of my reach, it’s like my skin crawls,” I muttered. “I want to tear the world open until I find her.”

Draugr nodded slowly, “Sounds like a curse.”

I glanced at him. “You will find yours.”

Draugr’s expression went blank, colder than the night outside. “No.” A beat passed, then he said quietly, “But I’m happy you all have found your mates.” I leaned back, letting the weight settle in my chest. I frown as I think of Ceasar in France. Of Bryn asleep in the other cabin. Of home waiting ahead, and my life split the same way hers had. Before Bryn, and after Bryn.

I looked at Draugr, voice hardening again. “We need to find Ceasar,” I said. “And when we do…”

Draugr’s eyes went sharp. “We end it,” he finished.

I nodded once, because while Ceasar was out there danger was way too close to our mates. We had to find him and make sure that he was irradicated from this earth.

Then, because the bond was tugging like hunger in my ribs, I rose. Draugr’s voice followed me. “Try to behave, don’t forget that your mate is human.”

I didn’t look back as I raised my middle finger at him. “No,” I said quietly. “I don’t forget anything about my mate.” I proceeded to return to the cabin, back to her, back to my greatest weakness, the one thing in this world which I couldn’t do without.

Bryn was still asleep when I returned, curled slightly toward the window, lashes resting against flushed cheeks. The steady rise and fall of her chest eased something tight in me that hadn’t loosened since London.

I slid into the seat beside her and pulled her gently into my side. She murmured once, instinctively shifting closer, her head finding my chest like it belonged there. It did.

My arm wrapped around her, holding her with the kind of care that felt obscene given everything else I was capable of. I stayed like that the rest of the flight, unmoving, alert, my senses stretched wide while she slept through every mile of dark sky around us.

She didn’t wake until the plane dipped, engines shifting as we prepared to land. I brushed my thumb along her jaw. “Bryn.”

She stirred, frowning slightly. “Mm?”

“We’re landing.”

Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first. Then she registered where she was. Who she was with. She exhaled and leaned into me again, trusting in a way that tightened my chest painfully.

The tarmac was lit like a battlefield when we stepped outside. Vehicles lined up in black rows, men stationed in precise formation, all armed, alert and ready for any eventuality.

I glanced around before I took Bryn’s hand as we descended the plane steps, my grip firm, grounding. Her fingers curled around mine, tense but steady. At the bottom waited my brothers.

Roman stood at the centre, tall and calm, power coiled beneath his skin like a sleeping god. Lucien leaned against one of the cars, grin already forming. Volken stood slightly apart, massive, quiet, eyes sharp as blades. Family. No matter what we have always stood together.

Lucien was the first to move. “So, this is your mate?” Bryn stiffened slightly, I felt it instantly as her body tensed next to me.

I stepped half a pace closer, claiming space. “This is Bryn.”

Roman inclined his head respectfully. “Welcome.”

Volken nodded once. “Nice to meet you Bryn.”