I could hear his resigned disappointment as he shifted into protective mode. Probably the only thing which could have stopped him.
I sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to fill my oxygen-starved lungs. He let me slowly slide down his body, his attention still firmly on me as though he was very reluctant to end this moment. As I descended, my bare feet landing on the rough ground, I could feel that Braxton was hard … everywhere. That moment had affected him as much as me. His arousal had not left his melting blue eyes, it had just been shelved while we tried to stay alive.
“Where are we?” I said softly, facing the tawny skin lining his rock hard pecs, still trapped between him and the tree.
He didn’t answer immediately, which was a worry. He was shifting his gaze around the area behind me. What the hell was he seeing?
Finally he focused on me again, still pressing against me pretty intimately. I expected him to move back, place some space between us, but he didn’t.
He dropped his chin so that our faces were closer together. “I have no idea where we are, this is not a place I’ve been, and the scents are … unusual.”
Not reassuring.
I pouted in false annoyance. “You could have just lied and said we were still in the sanctuary. You suck as a friend.”
His expression softened, a ghost of the dimple even appeared. “Sorry, Jess. While your happiness is my number one priority, I’ll never lie to you.”
I thought he was kidding around, but the serious tilt to his head indicated that wasn’t the case.
“Do you think we should start moving? Shouldn’t we wait here to be rescued?” I shifted my head, the rough bark catching in my hair as I attempted to see the room I’d woken in. Maybe it was time to take the other desert scented door. But, of course, a thorough scanning of the area indicated that the forest had eaten the round room.
I wondered if that door had led back to the desert part of the sanctuary. I’d be okay with taking it now, even if we had to deal with the jinn, but it seemed that avenue was gone. Typical magic. I’d chosen the forest, chosen Braxton, and that had negated the other doorway.
Braxton looked around us again. “No. We definitely shouldn’t stay put, the noises are closing in. Let’s move to somewhere higher so I can get a lay of the land. Plus, I need room to shift.”
He was right. If we could get out of the dense jungle, both of us could turn into dragons and fly our asses right out of the Congo, or whichever mess of wilderness held us. I didn’t even care about releasing my marked power. Now was not the time to give a shit about the Four. Let them come at us. I was tired, hungry, and pissed off … it was lucky that wolf shifters only had a fertile window once every three months – and I was still a month out – otherwise we could have added PMS to that list of personality traits. It was only four times a year – useful in preventing unexpected pregnancy – and there was no mistaking when the time was upon us.
Braxton seemed reluctant to let me go, which I was kind of liking … a lot. As his heat finally escaped from me I almost swooned like some human in a romance novel. I hadn’t even noticed how much of my weight he’d been supporting, and despite the fact it was not cold at all in this place, I already missed the warmth of his body.
Braxton forced me to focus: “We should move. I don’t see a sun to track, so it’s hard to determine how much light we have left.” He turned, and I was drawn to the sight of his muscles rippling across his broad back. I leaned forward, my tongue already extended. I was so licking him.
Wait, what? No, Jessa!
I lifted my hand and unobtrusively slapped my cheek. I had to pull myself together. This was not the time. Not. The. Time.
Braxton started to walk. I managed to suck my traitorous tongue back into my mouth and follow him, focusing on the simple task of stepping right into each of his footprints. He was clearing the path beautifully.
“Have you ever seen plants like this?” he asked, a trace of unease in his voice.
Braxton’s words had me looking closer at the greenery around us. I knew this place felt strange, like old magic, but until I really looked I hadn’t noticed how odd the plants were. First, the colors were off. Not only were the leaves a bright, fake green, the trunks and branches were too. Plus the trees were massive, trunks as wide as a building and towering into the air. This forest was ancient. I also noticed that on top of the poison pink flowers, there were other strange blooms, yellow, looking like mini suns with petals like beams of light, and … they were warm. I could feel heat emitting from them.
This sort of weirdness continued as we pushed further through. Braxton stayed in front of me, making sure to clear the path the best he could. The terrain was rugged and I knew without him I’d still be back in the original clearing. I had no idea what the dragon man was using as a guide, but he seemed to be following a line only he could see.
We didn’t talk a lot, attempting to stay below the radar as much as possible. I was mainly trying to figure out where the hell we were. I studied our surroundings, searching for just one defining characteristic. I’d never been out of Stratford before, but I’d paid attention to at least seventy percent of school, and I knew of lots of places in the world. Especially if they were connected to supernaturals.
There was nothing recognizable here. I tilted my head back as far as my neck would reach, scanning hard for a sliver of sky or cloud. I could only see green. Which made no sense, the canopy was thick, but not so thick that I shouldn’t be able to spot blue patches.