Page 39 of To Match A Dragon's Fire

Mate.He turned to nudge her uninjured side, heart breaking at the thought of her never waking up.

I ignored the dragon-speak term of endearment. It wasn’t possible, but none of this was logical anyway.

We’d felt her leave the territory and followed at a distance, pulled in a way that defied reason. I tried to wrestle my beast back to the compound, but he’dfeltwhen she’d been hurt.

It'd taken everything in me to keep him from burning the entire town to the ground. That was still a possibility if Ember didn’t live.

My beast growled low and deep.

She’ll live,I promised him, not sure if I was lying to myself.

With a tenderness I hadn’t thought him capable of, his talons scraped the road until he was able to nestle her safely within his claw.

Mine.

The action of holding her like precious treasure sparked something deep and primitive within him.

Roaring viciously, he took to the sky.

Her blood coated his claws and he wanted nothing more than to bathe in the blood of those who’d done this to her.

If she dies, I will end their world myself.

∞

I shifted back to human form near the caves and the tunnels that led to the compound, not wanting to frighten the women who traveled with Ember.

Her body was so cold, pressed against my naked chest. I willed the heat I naturally produced to warm Ember as I raced back to the house.

An earthquake rocked the world beneath my feet and I cursedHerfor these games of life and death. It was as if Earth were mocking me for the strange emotions swirling in my gut.

Later, I’d decipher what they meant.

Now it was time for action and to save the woman my beast had somehow claimed as his.

I reached the back door of the kitchens and threw it open in a fury, calling for Agatha to alert Catherine and Samuel and Grace and whoever else had the skills to heal.

But I didn’t head for the infirmary.

My beast wouldn’t allow her placed somewhere out of our sight. I was moving on instinct, propelled by forces outside of my control, as I kicked open the door to my bedroom.

Ember needed to be bathed in my scent.

Somehow, I knew that would help.

And when Grace, the sweet old nursemaid dragon who’d tended to me as a hatchling, tried to assist me in laying Ember down a moment later, I roared in her face.

Something was happening. My emotions were not my own and they were taking control.

“His eyes,” Fredrick whispered to Samuel as the two men hung back by the door.

I closed my eyes, realizing my vision was blurred. Ember was so delicate and cold in my arms.

“We have to stop the bleeding,” Catherine was saying. “She’s human. They don’t heal as fast on their own.”

She needs my help.

That got through the haze of fury clouding my mind. Slowly, I lowered Ember to the bed.

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