Brace gently bopped me on said nose before turning to his insane mother.
The softness in his gaze disappeared as he faced Lasandra. It didn’t take a genius to see the warning in his black eyes. He wouldn’t be tolerating her crap for much longer. Which was completely fine with me. Sure, I didn’t want a huge rift to occur, but Lasandra had been coming at me quite aggressively, and it wasn’t in my nature to just lie down and let someone stomp on me. Even if that someone was my mother-in-law.
“Brace!”
The shout broke the moment; Colton had impeccable timing. For once. It took the wolf-Walker a few minutes to find the secret entrance – Brace was probably guiding him mentally – but soon his very blond hair and icy white-blue eyes made an appearance. He seemed a tad pissed off as he stomped down the darkened stairway, boot steps echoing. Then, when he reached our level, I understood why. Fluttery wings disturbed the still air, and my best friend Lucy popped out from behind her mate. Lucy, the pixie cross faerie.
Colton was as protective as Brace, sometimes worse, and he would be hating that she was here in this unknown and possibly very dangerous situation.
Brace graced his second-in-command with a tense grin. “I see you were as successful as I was in keeping the deadly duo out of it.”
Colton growled, practically throwing his hands into the air. “Do these two listen to anyone? … Stubborn … crazy … frustrating.”
Surely he wasn’t talking about us? We were totally lovable. Plus he’d forgotten to add funny, smart, and kickass.
Ignoring them, Lucy flew across the tight space and linked her arm through mine. “The big, strong men are trying to keep us poor, weak females out of danger.” Her tone dripped with derision. “I’m thinking Colt loves his dog house so much that he wants to permanently move in.”
“Lucy, you seriously can’t –”
“Shut it, ass!” She cut him off, leaving him opening and closing his mouth.
I almost giggled as lines of shock settled over his face; Walkers were not used to being reprimanded, especially by a pixie a third of their height.
“If you wanted a female who was content to sit home knitting scarves and raising a brood of blond-faerie-pixie-wolf-Walkers,” she said the last mouthful in a rush of tinkling words, “then you should have mated another female.”
I sensed the slight trickle of hurt under her tone. They were very newly mated and, as happens in all new relationships, were still feeling their way through. I assumed that since they were having this discussion out loud, one of them had cut the other out of their mind. The pixie, for sure. If overprotective was Colton and Brace’s middle names, stubborn was Lucy’s.
A grin rippled across Colton’s face then, which seemed odd in the middle of their bickering. Then the self-righteous anger died from Lucy’s features, and I knew exactly what had just happened. Walker males had plenty of weapons at their disposal. They could disarm a female with little to no effort. Colton stepped closer to her – to both of us, since our arms were still linked – pushing Brace out of the way as he crowded over us.
His eyes never left Lucy’s doll-like face. “My little pixie – I want none other than you. The fire with which you face life is one of your most beautiful traits.” His tone was low, with that growly timbre that spoke of his animal inside.
“Why are you always trying to change me then?” Lucy bit back, but with a fraction of her previous intensity.
He shook his head, short strands of his silky hair falling across his handsome features. “Not change, I would never want to change you. I protect. I need to protect you, because if anything happened …” He trailed off, stark terror flashing across his incredible eyes. “Nothing can ever happen,” he finished on a whisper.
Everyone in the room knew about the ghosts which littered Colton’s past. His father had gone rogue wolf and killed every member of his family, bar his twin Magenta and niece Petal. His very real fear that he might lose it in a similar way had almost cost him his bond with Lucy, but in the end he couldn’t live without her. I really hoped that there were no more victims in his cursed family. I couldn’t live without Lucy. It was not something I would even consider.
Lucy left my side and moved toward her mate. She would not be able to stand his pain; I knew the feeling all too well.
Can you remind Colt why he’s here? I said to the ever patient Brace. Being princeps had really taught him tolerance. Something tells me he’s forgotten about the two giant tanks of Walker in the room.