“Are there any more besides wolves and bears?” I blurted out.
She blinked slowly, like she was waking up. “Um, yeah. Cats are pretty popular. You know, jaguars in the Amazon, panthers in Asia, lions in Africa. I think there may be a few cougars left in North America. Those are also earth-based ones.”
“Do the other elements have shifters, too?” Tate questioned curiously.
She nodded. “The first shifters, like, ever came from eastern Asia. They’re fire elements. They created dragons.”
“Dr-dragons?” I stuttered. “Actual dragons?”
“They’re extinct now,” Dimitri added. “No one has seen one in like half a century or more. It’s hard to hide a sixty-foot wingspan from radars.”
“The only water ones I know of are dolphins. Those are mostly found in the Pacific islands.” Lulu frowned, thinking. “Air is birds, obviously. Eagles and hawks, mostly.”
I was so busy thinking about freaking dragons that I wasn’t prepared when the wheels touched down on the runway. The plane bounced, jolting me. The roar inside the cabin became deafening as the flaps lifted to slow our speed.
Tate’s fingers clamped around my wrist and squeezed. “Skye.”
I followed her gaze out the window to where a group of people were waiting at the end of the runway.
My heart beat so hard, so fast, that I got dizzy.
“Breathe, Skye,” Dimitri told me.
I sucked in a deep breath as the plane slowly rolled to a gentle stop and the cabin lights came on. I unbuckled my seat belt and stood up, Tate right behind me.
I moved down the aisle until Nikolai stepped out in front of me.
“Wait, love,” he said.
My eyes narrowed. “For what? I’m not waiting. Move.”
“Skye—”
“Move, or I’ll move you myself,” I growled, my wolf ready to mow down anyone who got in our way. I could feel Tate crowding behind me, so I knew she would help me fight past him if needed.
He sighed softly, hiding a smile. “They need to bring the stairs over to the door unless you plan on dropping fifty feet to the ground.”
Oh.
Well, shit.
That made sense.
But still, I wanted to scream.
It took an eternity for the stairs to be wheeled over to the side of the plane, and longer still for the door to open.
As soon as it did, Nikolai stepped out of my way. I made it to the door when Alexei stopped me.
“I need to make sure it is safe, printsessa.”
“I promise you the bigger threat will be me if you don’t get out of my way,” I replied evenly.
“Let her go,” Nikolai called.
Alexei sighed and moved back. “Go on then.”
The stairs could have been a slide for as fast as I ran down them. As soon as my feet hit the tarmac, my eyes scanned the crowd of people until they landed on the only person I needed.
I broke into a run that would have made an Olympic athlete proud. Everything blurred by as I pushed myself to run faster, closing the distance between us. I could hear Tate behind me, running just a few steps back.
Remy was still a few feet away when I launched myself at him. He caught me easily, barely rocking backward at the force of my impact.
His strong arms banded around me while I wrapped my arms and legs around his torso, my face buried against his neck where I had claimed him only a few days earlier.
Home.
I was home.
34
Remy
The second I saw her face, my heart started beating again.
The moment she wrapped her body around mine, I could finally breathe again.
I wasn’t sure if Skye was shaking, or I was, but everything in me felt raw and cracked open. It was one of the few times in my life I could remember wanting to actually cry.
My hands hooked under her thighs, sliding to cup her ass, while I pressed a kiss to her throat atop of the scar from where I claimed her as the sun started to dip behind the trees.
I found my voice first, but it sounded like I dragged it over gravel and broken glass. “Hey, baby.”
She lifted her head and I got a small glimpse of her emerald eyes before she kissed me eagerly, desperately.
I gave myself a second to get lost in the feel of her lips on mine, the way her body pressed against me, before I slowly set her down. My eyes moved past her to where a group of people were getting off the airplane.
Her hand cupped the side of my face, drawing my attention back