Jonathon draped his arm over Mischa, pulling her closer. “Your mother is right, so now we just have to figure out how to derail their plans.” He directed the rest to all of us. “Mischa must keep her word, and Jessa has no choice here.”

Sprawled out on one of the single couches, I clashed eyes with a blue so frosty it pretty much iced all the breath in my lungs. I’d been avoiding Braxton’s gaze. I hated when he was upset. Rigid against the wall, he had yet to say anything, which was far scarier than Maximus’ blustering, and I was a touch nervous of his next actions.

Unable to stop myself, I rose, needing to cross to him. He straightened and right before I reached him, he opened his arms. I threw myself into his warmth. Both of his hands ended up under my butt as he lifted me into his body. Some of the heaviness in my chest eased.

I heard a growl from Maximus; he was still pissed. Not to mention frustrated – his new vampire mate had been excluded from this little gathering. “Great, Brax is too enamored with our Jess to even voice his protest.”

It was better that Cardia wasn’t here, she didn’t need to jump into our shit-storm of secrets. Though we still had to be careful of our words, Grace was in the room. She still didn’t know about my ability to shift into a dragon. I had told my parents after our run through the forest. It was nice to have everything in the open, and even though Jonathon had been a little emotional, he’d handled the news okay.

Braxton didn’t lift his eyes from mine, but he did answer his brother. “There is no point arguing, I trust Jess, I trust in her abilities to protect herself and her sister.” He held my gaze with a fierceness that had me rendered senseless. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want her to go, but I will not be the male who is always standing in her way.”

This was why I loved him, he knew what battles to fight and what ones to walk away from. He was offering me his support, he was supporting Mischa – who already felt like shit – and he was going to help in any way he could.

“Guess it doesn’t hurt that I’m pretty unbreakable,” I whispered close to his cheek.

His chest rumbled beneath me as he laughed a few times. “Yeah, we would probably be having a different conversation if you weren’t.”