Briar ruffled my hair and held me tightly, gently kissing the tips of my wolf ears. "I'm excited, Ann."

I giggled and hugged his waist. "Me too, Bri. We get to go on our first ever date."

"And we'll be going to my hometown as we'd promised." whispered Briar, lacing his fingers with mine. "Are you ready for your second trip with a plane?"

I nodded. "I am, but I'm just happy to be with you."

Briar's tail curled with pleasure and he bent down to kiss my face. "You're too cute," he said with a chuckle, then smiled when I hugged his neck. "Gimme a kiss, Ann."

After I gave him a quick peck on his lips, Briar guided us to an empty row of chairs to wait for our flight to be ready. It was a six hour-long flight, so Briar and I would get a late lunch after we arrive at the other airport and rent a car. It's still really early for me at seven in the morning.

Briar and I had gotten packed last night, slept in the same bed to wake up together at four in the morning, left at five, drove for about an hour, and got to the airport and parked at a covered parking place an hour and a half early for our flight. It took almost half an hour to get through security because of me, but I was happy that Briar wasn't upset.

I climbed onto his lap, then Briar hugged my form as I asked, "Will we be celebrating your birthday, Bri?"

Briar chuckled. "We will in a few days."

"How long will we be gone for again?" I asked, nosing his jawline.

"For a week."

"Ooh, you really want to monopolize my time, huh?" I teased, gently kneading his left pec with my right hand's knuckles.

Briar lifted my hand and kissed my fingers, his emerald-green eyes gleaming with pride and pleasure. "Of course, Ann. I have never really had enough time with you. So I'm looking forward to being with you and letting you experience my work for awhile."

My ears perked. "What do you mean?"

He looked at me with an innocent expression. "What do you mean?"

I pouted and grumbled, "Fine, keep it a secret. Give me your tail."

Briar's lightly tanned skin flushed beet-red. "What are you planning? We're out in the open!" he hissed with a panicked expression.

After I raised an eyebrow, he blushed from embarrassment when he realized I wasn't planning on doing anything that would turn him on to the point his instincts would take over. I lightly grasped his tail and hugged it to my chest as I rested my forehead against his throat. Briar started purring, so I was happily cuddled into his arms.

I jumped a bit about ten minutes later when someone got onto an intercom to talk about the flight next to ours. Because we were an hour early, the plane wasn't yet outside the terminal. Briar moved my body a bit to cross his legs, then I pressed my left cheek to his right shoulder. My big, fluffy tail was flopped over my lap and under his left arm, so I think we were both cozy in the chilly airport. Briar also had a naturally higher body temperature, too.

Briar kissed my forehead, so I pecked his lips before he straightened again. His purring started up again, his tail tip flicking against my neck since I was still holding onto his fluffy tail. I peered up at his cute, round cat ears flicking around as he kept himself alert. I had never seen him act like that, so I couldn't help watching him.

Eventually, Briar did look at me. "Is something wrong?"

I blushed and shook my head. "Sorry for staring, but I was curious."

"About what?" he asked, his right ear facing me and his left one remained towards the crowd.

"I've never seen you so alert before. It's fascinating."

Briar chuckled. "I admit that when I first sprouted these black jaguar characteristics, I was semi-fascinated, semi-annoyed, and semi-panicked."

"Why were you annoyed?" I asked, already aware of why he was panicked because that's a normal reaction from any person sprouting anything foreign from their bodies. Even I was shocked when I noticed my wolf characteristics at age three.

"I guess because of my jaguar side that they move on their own. As you know, it likes to come forward sometimes. But it's weird to feel my ears moving around upon just thinking something. I don't consciously move them around. You know what that's like."

"True," I remarked. "We are kind of the rare Emerged in that sense. Russet can't really move his heavy lop ears. Gavin has a midpoint where he can make his ears, tail, and stripes appear in human form, but I've only seen it once. I'm assuming it's uncomfortable for the reasons we're talking about. But I guess he's just not used to it too, though."

Briar pursed his lips and looked away. I stared curiously at his face, then something clicked. "You're jealous that I'm talking about another family member."

"I'm not," he denied, now childishly pouting.

"You're so cute, Bri." I grinned, then poked his cheeks.

"I told you I'm not jealous!" he groaned, then the corners of his lips lifted when my tail wiggled.

"Are you sure?" I pressed, a teasing grin on my face as my tail moved a bit more. "I'll give you a kiss if you tell me the truth."

Briar groaned under his breath. "Now you're just playing dirty, Ann."

"It's the truth, though..." I said quietly, rubbing my cheek on his chest. "And I want to kiss you."

Briar's tail tip flicked a bit more vigorously and a pleased smirk appeared on his face. I giggled as he curled over me a bit to kiss my face and hands. He admitted what I wanted to hear, then I used some magic to hide our kiss as I met his lips with mine. Briar growled when my tongue pushed into his mouth and rubbed his own. I mewled and he was even more turned on as our kiss deepened. A minute later, Briar gently drew back and nuzzled my slightly swollen, somewhat tingly lips. I snuggled into his arms again and relaxed with a happy exhale.

"I love you, Bri." I said softly, then closed my eyes.

"I love you too, Ann. Are you sleepy?"

"Just a bit 'cause it's cozy in your arms."

Familiar purring started up again, which made me chuckle. Briar petted my head, his fingers pushing through my silvery purple-heather waves as he stroked my ears. I let myself start to drift off, knowing Briar would keep me safe. Peace washed over me as I slowly exhaled.

The next time I awakened, though, everything was different. Briar was gripping my body tightly against himself and his breath was harsh against my head. Since my face was smushed against his neck, I used magic to see what the fuss was about. I was surprised to see about ten people in dark clothes and masks, toting military-type guns and shouting at people while waving their weapons around. This particular terminal was now under lockdown with airport security unable to enter without risking the lives of civilians.

I hummed as I watched travelers empty their bags and purses with fear in their eyes, the gun barrel moving along near their faces. It made me wonder how those people even came into the airport. We were quite a few terminals away from the airport security we had to go through earlier, so these bad people made me even more suspicious about how they sneaked their weapons in here.

Using magic, I stored the contents of our bags in my inventory and waited patiently for one of the gunmen to come our way. Briar was really scared, though, so I started rubbing his shoulders.

"Breathe, Bri. Please don't be scared. I'll protect you."

Briar inhaled sharply and then slowly exhaled, his tight grip loosening to become firm. I sat back on his lap and cupped his cheeks, smiling gently at his worried face. I kissed his cheeks. I'd already put protection magic over every member of our family, but he hadn't known that to keep him safe. I just didn't want him doing anything reckless, but I doubt he would anyway because of how he is right now. It probably brought some memories back of his father shouting at him and beating him.

"It'll be okay, Bri." I whispered, petting his head again. His green eyes filled with unshed tears and he hugged me again, pushing his fingers into my hair. He heaved a shuddering breath and released it.

The gunman having people empty their purses and suitcases eventually reached us. It was inevitable. However, the man was stunned when we revealed we had nothing on our persons or in our bags. Briar realized what I had done and looked extremely relieved for some reason. But the gunman wasn't happy at all.

"Do they have anything?" shouted one masked woman. "They're wearing nice clothes."

The gunman clicked his tongue. "Where did you hide your things? How did you know we'd be here?"

Briar's voice caught in his throat, so I turned my upper body and looked him dead in the eye. "We didn't know you were coming."

The man's eyes widened and then he frowned, knocking the tip of the barrel under my jaw. Women screamed at the sight and more shouting ensued to end the shrill cacophony of terror for a "child." I guess looking like a child is handy in this situation.

"This your little brother?" asked the man, looking at Briar who was even more choked up than before. Having noticed Briar was too scared to talk, the man laughed aloud. "What a wimp! His little brother has more bravery!"

Briar suddenly looked hurt, then acceptance formed in his gaze as he looked at me. I sighed aloud and petted his head, stroking my fingers under his eyes. He closed them with a soft sigh on his lips just as I turned to look at the man again. He was watching me cautiously, somehow sensitive to the change within me.

"He's not my older brother." I remarked with with a soft laugh. "I am his older brother."

Unlike some people who would have laughed, the man was actually grinning. "I knew it. You're that kid that's not a kid. You are family of Angelique Michaels, right? This is perfect. Come here." he said, grabbing my arm.

Briar growled and his arms tightened around my waist. His emerald-green eyes flashed gold as he glared at the man trying to take me away. The gunman pointed his gun at Briar's face, but Briar wouldn't let go of me.

The gunman grunted and kicked Briar as he yanked me out of Briar's hold. I used magic to heal him in an instant, so he went from wincing in pain to trying to get up. Briar and his black jaguar side were absolutely pissed off. His tail lashed from side to side and his fangs dropped down.

"Release him," he hissed, his nail tips forming claws. "He's mine!"

Now the gunman was freaked out. I was just kind of watching the scene unfold. I mean, I could do something right about now. It was a good time since all of the people—even the bad ones—were distracted by Briar's sudden courage. Well, it was courage incited by rage. But the gunman fired a shot towards the floor by Briar's feet and suddenly people were frightened again.

"Back the fuck up and stay there. I will shoot you if you can't behave. This guy right here is valuable, so we'll keep him alive." stated the man, then dragged me over to his friends. Briar was in shock, which was why he hadn't stopped the bastard from taking me.

"Just stay there, Bri. It's safer that way. I told you I will protect you. I probably have infinite mana generated inside me, so I can easily deal with these guys. But I want to do it when a lot, if not all, of them have gathered together."

Briar looked much more relieved now. "So that was why you didn't do anything."

"Yes, although I'm proud of you for trying to protect me. Thank you, Bri."

He hid his smile, but I could sense his happiness through our mental connection. I said a soft "I love you" to him as I returned my attention to the group of gun-toters that my current captor was bringing me towards. They seemed annoyed that the man had grabbed a hostage. Five of the ten were gathered, which just wasn't enough for my liking. The other five were keeping the people in this stretch of terminal huddled together.

"Give me one fucking reason why I shouldn't shoot you." snapped another woman. "We agreed on no child hostages because the fucking FBI gets involved."

The man laughed. "Who the fuck cares? This guy is eighteen. He's a family member to Angelique Michaels. We can get a huge amount of ransom money if we keep this guy with us."

The woman frowned, then looked down at me. "Do you know Angelique?"

"I was on the news with him, so yes, I know him." I remarked, rolling my eyes.

"See?"

Another guy put his two cents in: "How can we know this kid is actually eighteen?"

"Like my government-issued passport?" I asked sarcastically. "Oh geez, who would have thought."

"Shut up." growled the second woman from earlier. "Can we just kill him now?"

"Not if we want to make millions each, you fucking moron." hissed the last of the five. He crouched down and looked up at me, a sneer in his eyes. "You are going to be our money bag."

"And you are going to pass out," is what I wanted to say, but thankfully I had enough insight to wait because two more people were called over. Now there was seven of ten. It was the perfect time to act.

"Excuse me," I interrupted. "Can you look at me for a sec?"

All seven turned their attention to me just as I released an illusion of my wolf-dragon form exploding forth towards them with my jaws open. I released all my killing intent, too. They stiffened and I smelled urine, then they dropped like flies. I stepped around my former captor and hurried over to one of three remaining gunmen. He had felt my killing intent since it was aimed at all ten, so he crumpled to the ground after I kicked the backs of his knees.

I looked at a few guys in suits and ties. "You better find something to tie him up with, pals." I remarked, then made my way over to the second and did the same.

Once I reached the third, he was already starting to come around. I kicked the backs of his knees as well and knocked his gun away with the tip of my shoe, using magic to make a rope appear ever so subtly. A lot of men had already jumped up to tie the people up like I was doing to this guy, so I was relieved I wouldn't have to do it on my own.

The last guy struggled and screamed profanities at me as I went to leave. I slapped him and he shut up with wide eyes. Shakily, he asked what he'd seen and felt.

I smirked. "That was my other form and my actual killing intent. Be happy you're still alive, bud." I said with a dark chuckle, then laughed aloud when he pissed himself.

I returned to Briar's side and he picked me up, kissing my head. "You're amazing, Ann."

"Oh, I didn't do much. Everyone who could helped out, just like you."

Briar snuggled me against his side and petted my head. "I love you, too." he murmured, having heard my earlier declaration of love.