"Have a safe trip!"

"We will, thank you. We should be back tomorrow morning. Okay, babe?"

Kyler blushed when Briar's lips met his own and then his face reddened further after I pecked his lips. He nodded and quickly returned the soft pecks to our left cheeks since he was too shy to kiss us in front of Aeglaeca.

"Love you," he whispered, which made Briar and I coo. He whined and dashed into his bedroom, shutting the door as the rest of us laughed because of his cuteness.

Aeglaeca ruffled my hair. "Be good and don't cause any trouble."

"Who, me?" I deadpanned, then grinned. "You know I'm a magnet for trouble, Aggie. Stay safe, okay? You and Ky have ultimate protection but, just in case something bad happens, you should take Ky into your cabin and use the key to get to my location."

"Because you made the key, it resonates with your magic wavelength and thus I can find you because only I can use my key." he deduced, and I nodded with a smile.

I hugged his hips and he petted my head again. "See you soon, Anwyll." he murmured, gently stroking my ears.

"See you later, Aggie. Stay safe." I said again, then let go and waved with Briar before we left the apartment.

We were heading to his hometown today, which was apparently a four-hour drive. We would take a break after two hours to get some lunch and rest together before Briar keeps driving. Briar hugged my shoulders, curled down to kiss my head, then purred after I tilted my head back to peck his lips.

"Are you nervous, Bri?"

Briar released a shaky breath and nodded. "I really am, but I'm not afraid of facing those places right now because you're with me. But we'll see how I feel when we reach my old house. I doubt my father still lives there, but maybe he does because of my mother's skeleton in the backyard."

I grasped Briar's left hand and squeezed it, then kissed his fingers while we walked to the elevator. Briar purred and kept me joined at his side. We had our backpacks with us since it's going to be an overnight stay.

"I'll be with you the whole time, Bri. You can do it. You're strong, but you don't have to be all the time."

"Thank you, Ann." he whispered, then quieted himself and straightened up a bit as someone who looked completely exhausted got off the elevator. They'd probably had the late night shift. We got into the elevator, then the door closed.

"Bri, are you really happy to be with Kyler? I know you thought of him as somewhat of a brother."

Briar looked down at me with his pretty emerald-green eyes. He smiled gently and petted my head. "I didn't accept his feelings with a half-hearted attitude, Ann, just like you. He's a really important person in my life and I do love him but in a slightly different way than I love you. Kyler knows that because I told him. It's a bit hard to explain, but he understood and he actually feels the same way about me because he likes you in a different way than he likes me. It's more of a deeply romantic slash emotional love towards you and a love for me that mixes feelings with that of a brother, close friend, and lover. Not as a sex friend, though."

"Ooh, that's interesting. And no, I didn't think he was thinking of a sex friend. I could tell he had real feelings for you, just not for myself before he told me." I replied with a chuckle, my tail swishing behind my legs as the elevator opened at the second level of the garage.

"I know it must feel like things are moving too fast, but I believe Kyler didn't want to lose us. As of the last few years, I've seen Kyler less and less because the business has been doing well. Regardless of his feelings towards me, I believe he wanted a reason for me to keep coming back here."

I raised my eyebrows. "I don't think you would have stopped. You're such a perfectionist."

Briar laughed as he unlocked Kyler's second car, which was much more modest and less loud in appearance than that sports car convertible Kyler drove up in at the airport a couple days ago. Briar and I dumped our backpacks onto the backseat, then climbed into the front seats. It was nice of Kyler to let us borrow his car. I told him I could have brought Briar's car to this location, but he adamantly argued that we should take his own.

"Is Kyler a little bit obsessive, maybe possessive?"

Briar paused, then looked at me with a bewildered and puzzled expression. "What do you mean?"

"He was adamant that we take his car and not bring your car here. Maybe he wants us to be in his car because we're his beloveds?"

Briar scrunched his eyebrows together. "I was curious about that, too. That's a plausible thought, Ann."

"It is plausible, but it could also be that he doesn't want us to get any attention because your license plate would be put of state. We blend in more with Kyler's car."

"I thought that might be the reason, actually." murmured Briar.

I quieted to let him focus backing out of the space and then driving to the garage's door gate. It lifted when it sensed the vehicle approach, then lowered after we went through the entryway. Once he exited the garage, Briar had me turn on the GPS to get us to the right place. He told me the address for the first place, so I tapped the screen, checked that it was correct, and then started it. Briar sat back with a soft sigh, so we got more settled in the comfy, leather bucket seats.

There was pleasant silence at first, but it soon became tense when Briar started to look a bit anxious. I reached over and squeezed his right thigh for some support. The stress and anxiety that had wrapped Briar up within it quickly melted away. A soft smile was on my face when he glanced at me.

"Sorry, Ann. I think I'm a lot more nervous and scared than I initially believed."

"I know, Bri." I murmured, rubbing his thigh. "Let's talk about what we'll do when we get to our destination. Tell me about whatever scenery you remember enjoying, then let's go see it. For now, we will just take it one step at a time."

Briar's tail flicked on my lap and he looked so relieved, then a super pleased expression appeared on his face when he noticed me holding his tail. His reddened cheeks made me giggle and grin.

"I love you, Ann." he said with a smug expression. "And you're all mine for the whole day and maybe another after that."

I giggled and kissed the tip of his tail, hugging it with mine. Briar shuddered with an expression of bliss on his face and leaned over at a newly turned red light to capture my lips. I mewled and shivered, clutching his tail a bit tighter. I licked Briar's tongue and lips before he pulled away. Instead of wiping my saliva off, he licked his own lips and purred. I blushed when I saw that. I think Briar and Kyler are like two peas in a pod.

"The arcade is where we're going first. It will be my first time going there since my sixth birthday. Six months later, everything changed for the worst." he mumbled, then shook his head. "Things were going downhill quite a while before that, I guess, since my father's job went into debt and my mother started skipping her meetings to cheat on her husband. Our horrible reality came out later."

"Mm, it certainly did. But let's face the last birthday with your parents—the last real happy day with them—and start anew with a happier day than that time if possible."

Briar chuckled. "Of course it's possible, Ann. After all, you are with me. You make miracles with real magic, not cheap parlor tricks and sleight of hand. Just being with you is making me so happy right now, but I am so relieved you are coming with me to face the darkness of my past—one step at a time. I know you have full faith that I can overcome this and I have full faith that I can do it as long as you're by my side.

"Otherwise, I never would have dared to go back and I would have remained in pain, anger, and fear of those around me. You've given me a kind of strength that I thought was not possible to attain and you've shown me strengths that I already had but never noticed. Thank you so much for coming into my life and loving me, Ann." he whispered, then inhaled deeply and released a shaky breath.

I gave the seatbelt more slack as I sat up on my knees and leaned over the console. I gently wiped his cheeks and kissed his right one, hugging his neck for a moment.

"It's my pleasure to be at your side, Bri. I love you, my precious beloved. I will help you and guide you in any way I can so that you can live a fulfilling, enriching life without the pain of your past holding you back and or weighing you down. I will gladly be your battle wolf if you need me to be. I will be at your side and fight with you, defend you, and attack for you. I am willing to move mountains to make sure you can smile genuinely every day. And while I say all that, I trust you and rely on you, too. I feel so happy, safe, and secure in your arms, especially in public."

Briar sniffled and wiped his eyes, then laughed with a happy tone. "I-I can't see 'cause of my tears of love and joy, Ann. Can I rely on you now to keep us safe?"

I giggled and kissed his head. "Yup!"

__________________________

The four hours passed relatively quickly while we talked as much as we could. I had to have a nap to survive the rest of the day and its excitement, but Briar turned on some quieter music and he was happy to watch over me while I slept.

"Mm, so we're here?" I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes and yawning.

Briar's purring made my body vibrate since he was holding me while leaning on the side of Kyler's car. "We are, my cute little wolf." he said with a pleased grin, rubbing his head on mine. "You're so damn adorable."

I quietly giggled and nuzzled his neck, hugging his shoulders while my tail continued wagging. "I love you too, Bri."

"Aww," cooed Briar. "Shit, why are you so cute?"

I smiled and lifted my head to kiss his cheeks, then met his lips once to see that crazily obsessive expression. Briar did not disappoint with his reaction. His tail curled and the tip flicked, his lips trembling as he held them closed with an extremely pleased expression. His lips lifted slightly and I saw his fangs, so I grasped his face and pressed my lips to his own again, then licked his teeth.

"So cute, Bri." I whispered, his aroused expression making me want to melt and give in to his possessive murmurings of wanting to "mate" with me. "You're so cute."

Briar purred and nuzzled my jawline, lightly nipping, kissing, and sucking on my throat. He hiked my body higher and I hugged his neck, then kissed and nipped his black jaguar ears.

"I will gladly commit public indecency to have my way with you, Ann. I'm already so turned on that I'll definitely burst if you kiss me once more."

I smirked. "Should I test that?"

Briar chuckled. "Are you sure you want to?"

"Well," I began, then lowered my voice and whispered in his right human ear, "I do, but I also don't want to let your seed go to waste."

Briar's body temperature spiked and a rumbly growl vibrated my form. I giggled, rubbing my right cheek on his head and nuzzling his black locks. Briar hugged my body a bit tighter, then opened his mouth and sucked on my throat again. He purred when my tail swept around his legs, tilting his head back to continue sucking my skin up to my chin.

I leaned back and molded our lips together, pushing my right hand into his hair and sliding my left hand underneath the crewneck of Briar's shirt. My tail curled more with the feeling of my hand between his shoulder blades, which felt so different than mine. His lithe musculature was erotic, honestly. I really want to spend some time later (if I'm not too tired) giving him a massage to get my hands on his body without inciting too much sexual arousal and excitement from my beloved Emerged black jaguar.

"Get a room!"

Briar and I flinched from the sudden shout, so we opened our eyes and began to laugh as the group of younger teens passed by us. All of them seemed a bit shocked at my childlike appearance, but two of five looked extremely disgusted.

"Fuck off, furries!" shouted the shorter, angrier guy, then the slightly taller girl added, "Disgusting fucks!"

The other three teens stopped and looked at their two friends with bewildered expressions. "What the fuck are you talking about? Do you know these two?" asked one other guy.

The girl scowled. "Of course not. You'd know these sick fuckers if we did. You're with us every damn day."

The angry guy nodded. "Yeah, so why aren't you grossed out? I know Dino doesn't like furries. Why didn't you react?"

Briar and I glanced at each other. He quietly asked, "Do you think—?"

I nodded after he silenced himself. "Has to be, but maybe not Emerged because we don't see any animal or creature characteristics."

Briar hummed, then pecked my lips once more and set my shoes onto the asphalt. He held my hand and started guiding me towards the arcade entrance, but the frustrated pair started shouting at their friends and made us pause.

"What do you mean you can't see them? They're obviously wearing ears and tails! Stop fucking pulling pranks on us, you assholes!"

The guy called Dino vehemently denied the prank accusation with his friends, which was another guy and a girl backing him up. I'm guessing the aggressively attacking pair were either siblings or somehow related because they had a similar appearances. Briar squeezed my hand when the younger girl stomped over to us, but he breathed a silent sigh of relief when my barrier blocked her from touching me. She was alarmed but then slammed her fists down on my barrier as if she was trying to check to make sure she wasn't "tripping" as I heard the others say.

"What the fuck?" hissed the really foul-mouthed girl. "What the actual fuck?"

I raised my eyebrows and stared up at her. "You know, all of your bad language is really giving me a headache." I stated, then tugged Briar away from her when she began to shout obscenities at us with at least five expletives per sentence.

"Let's go, Bri. I'll shut her up if I have to, but I want to make sure you enjoy your eighteenth birthday."

Briar reached down and easily lifted me into his arms, hugging me against his side and chest. I hugged his neck and stuck out my tongue at the girl, then kissed Briar's head. He chuckled and rubbed my back.

"Thank you, Ann. I will trust that you will make this one of my best birthdays ever."

I giggled happily, my tail whipping back and forth while Briar's laughter joined mine.