“Tate’s coming with us,” I told him, shrugging away from his touch and unbuckling my belt as the plane coasted to a stop. I shot a glance at her, not willing to be separated.
A smile tugged at his lips, a mixture of amusement and compliance. “Okay.”
He turned to the front of the plane and snapped out another sentence in Russian to the men in the front of the plane. One headed for the small galley separating the interior of the plane from the cockpit and the other came towards us.
I stood up, warily watching the newcomer as he headed towards us.
He was tall enough that the blonde spikes in the front of his hair nearly brushed the ceiling. He had to angle his large body to move down the aisle to us, his icy blue eyes flicking from me to Tate and then settling on Dimitri. He settled his massive hands on the headrests of the seats on either side of the aisle, his tattooed knuckles curving around the leather until it squeaked in protest.
“This is Alexei,” Dimitri told me, standing between us. “He’s going to move Tate to the helicopter, okay?”
I narrowed my eyes at him before looking at Tate. I wished like hell she was either able to walk on her own or I could lift her myself. Something told me Dante and Ryder would have my ass for letting some strange guy carry her around.
“No,” I said finally, giving Alexei another glance, trying not to stare too long at the tattoo on his throat, before shifting my gaze to my brother.
Dimitri shot me a look. “You want me to leave her here?”
“No, you’re going to carry her,” I informed him coolly.
At least I knew Dimitri.
Sort of.
Okay, not really, but I definitely didn’t know this Alexei guy, so that meant Dimitri was my only choice. Plus, he was my brother, so that had to count for something, right?
“Me?” Dimitri pointed at his chest, his eyebrows lifting as Alexei snorted behind him.
“Yes, you. Or is that beneath the prince?” I snapped archly. If he said I was the princess, that made him the prince.
Judging by the way he glowered, my barb landed exactly where it was aimed.
Behind him, Alexei outright laughed. “Oh, I like this one,” he said, his rough voice accented and bemused. His smile made him seem less menacing and almost boyish.
“Shut up,” Dimitri grumbled, shoving him back a step with an open palm to his friend’s massive chest before looking back at me. “Fine. I’ll carry Tate. That means you stick to Alexei’s side, got it?”
I opened my mouth, but he cut me off.
“We’re on pack land, but I’m not taking any chances. I didn’t save you only to have you kidnapped an hour before I bring you home.”
Home.
Something about that rankled, but I let it slide. Russia, this place, this pack, wasn’t my home. My home was an ocean away, and I needed to get back to it as soon as possible.
Dimitri missed nothing, and noticed the way I stiffened when he said home.
“As soon as we get to the pack, we’ll find out what’s going on back there,” he said, his tone gentler. “If anyone could survive that explosion, it’s Remy.”
I knew that. I did. I believed it with every broken fragment of my heart.
But the not knowing was the worst sort of torture.
I pushed down the rising tide of anxiety that was cresting, physically shaking my head to knock the thoughts away.
“You think we’re not safe here?” I asked softly, watching as he bent and gathered Tate gently into his arms before lifting her and cradling her against his chest.
“I think the shifter world is currently being thrown into chaos,” he admitted. “It would be stupid for someone to attack us, and the likelihood is pretty non-existent. Then again, I never expected Elias and his pack to blow a hole in the middle of Wyoming and kill dozens of Alphas either. Until we’re with our—”
I flinched and stiffened up.
“—my pack,” he corrected easily, “I’m not taking any chances.”
I nodded reluctantly and waited for Alexei and him to turn and head down the aisle before slowly following.
The air grew cooler as we moved to the now open door, but I wasn’t expecting the frigid blast of arctic air that slapped me as I stepped outside the plane. It ripped my breath from my chest, and I almost ducked back inside the warm interior of the airplane.
I had only been wearing jeans and a t-shirt when the bomb went off, and Dimitri definitely hadn’t stopped to grab my jacket.
Russia was freaking cold.
I tucked my hands under my armpits and ducked my head as I headed down the stairs. At the bottom, my sneakers hit the tarmac and a jacket was draped over my shoulders.
I glanced up at Alexei, his leather jacket more like a blanket on me. He didn’t seem bothered by the cold air in his ripped jeans and thin white t-shirt that showed even more inked skin. Aside from his face, I wondered if there was any place on his body left unmarked.
“Thanks,” I murmured, falling into step beside him as we followed behind Dimitri. I tried to focus on Dimitri’s back, and not the fact that the jacket wrapped around me smelled like sandalwood and smoke.
And utterly, devastatingly wrong.
My wolf would have pitched a bitch fit having another man’s scent on me if she were around.
I glanced down at the bracelet, wondering how long it would take until I was rid of it.
“It will be removed once we land,” Alexei told me, his voice pitched low like I might startle and run. “It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
“Not really,” I replied. I looked at him from the corner of my eye. “You and Dimitri are friends?”
Alexei grinned down at me. “Yes. He is my brother.”
The surprise must have been evident on my face because he laughed loudly beside me.
“Not like the way he is your brother,” he explained. “My pack brother. I am his beta. We’ve been friends since we were pups.”
I nodded, taking that in as Dimitri headed for the hangar at the end of the tarmac beyond the small building that served as the airport.
“We live there.” He pointed towards the mountains to the right of us, their snowy caps fringed with clouds against a gray sky.
Alexei tilted his head up. “This storm will be bad. Usually we don’t have storms like this so late, but winter was bad this year.”
“You live in the mountains?” My eyes narrowed, trying to see where their pack could live, let alone survive, in the snow and rock.
A secret smile lit his eyes. “Our pack has lived here since the beginning.”
“My pack lives in Washington,” I said tartly, arching a brow that begged for him to correct me. “In the US.”
He nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets as the wind kicked up. I considered giving him his jacket back, but I was pretty certain I would arrive inside the hangar as a wolfcicle.
“Your country is strange,” Alexei remarked curiously. “Are your Alphas always so … wrong?”
I snorted. “They’re not all like that.”
“Dimitri spoke highly of your mate,” he said after a moment.
I stopped walking and he paused beside me, waiting patiently even as Dimitri moved on and into the hangar.
“Dimitri told you about Remy?” I asked, unable to stop the wobble from shaking my voice.