Eztli squeezed his hand and looked at him, her fear extremely obvious in her expression. She looked over as Bran and Paion walked into the ring of trees as well. Then only one who remained out was Cavan and that was only because he was in no condition to deal with Sinka if it came to that.<br/>Bran gave her a reassuring smile and said, "It'll be okay. Even if you can't keep yourself under control, which I think you can when it's your<i>mate</i>," he emphasized the last word to really put it in her mind since their bond was kind of messed up, "there are enough of us here to keep you from hurting him."<br/><br/>Æsc smirked at the feeling of her teeth nipping at his tongue and he ran it over her bottom lip softly.