Page 109 of The Breeding Cave
A strange calmness settled over me as my body descended toward the ground, still engulfed in flames. I opened my eyes and physically watched my body fall hundreds, if not thousands, of feet, in what I could only explain was an out-of-body experience.
Down and down and down.
I felt everything and then nothing.
No sound. No light. No sensation.
Nothing. Not even life itself.
CHAPTER
SIXTY-TWO
LUCIANO
My lungs burned as blood continued to gush out of my wound. I had lost Gideon miles ago, but continued to follow his directions to where the dragons’ den was supposedly stationed—on top of some cliffs near the mountain that housed my pack.
Did I believe him? No, but I had no other leads.
Yeosin was gone—had been gone for far too long. And her faint scent lingered here.
Someone shouted up ahead, and my gaze locked on to a ball of fire falling from the sky. I furrowed my brows and pushed myself forward. The lower and lower it fell, the stronger Yeosin’s scent became. And then I saw it … her long black hair in flames.
Mate!
I shifted into my beast to run faster and then back into my human, my arms outstretched to catch her before her flaming body smashed into the ground. She collided with me, and we both crashed into the forest floor.
“Yeosin,” I shouted, rushing to the nearest lake that I had passed on my way here.
Her flames engulfed my body, burning hotter than anything I had ever felt before, but the adrenaline rushing through me pushed me further and further toward the lake. Her head was lolled backward, and her bones protruded from parts of her skin.
My hands trembled, and I ran into the water, dunking us both under until the flames died. When I emerged from the lake, I set Yeosin on the dirt beside it and checked for a pulse. Nothing … there was nothing.
“Yeosin …” I whispered, my voice cracking. “Yeosin … no, no, no, no!”
Panic squeezed at my throat. I placed my hands over her chest, made of bones, to start CPR. Tears blurred my vision. I pumped and pumped and pumped in no steady rhythm because I … my mate … our baby …
“Please, come back to me. Please, please, please, come back to me.”
Someone grabbed my shoulders and yanked me backward off Yeosin. Flakes of her skin danced in the air, her bones hanging together by tendons and ligaments and a thin layer of skin. I shoved whoever it was off and dropped by her side to continue.
“Luciano!” Gideon shouted behind me, grabbing me again. “Luciano, stop!”
“I will kill those fuckers!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Burn them all!”
Gideon shoved me off her. “Calm down. We need to think.”
“Think?!” I screamed. “She’s fucking dead, Gideon!”
How the fuck could I think at a time like this? My mate was dead. My baby was dead. My life was fucking gone. Every chance I’d had at having a family, at being happy … had been burned by those fucking dragons.
Instead of pulling me back again, Gideon knelt beside me. “I can help.”
“No!” I shouted, unable to pull my gaze away from my lifeless mate. “You can’t do fucking shit. She’s dead!” Tears stung my eyes, yet I was full of rage. “I can’t lose her. I can’t fucking lose her after everything.”
I stood to my feet and turned toward the cliff she had fallen from. Those fuckers were up there. They had to be up there! I shifted into my beast and ran as fast as I could toward the mountain. I would climb the fuck up the edge if I had to.
Once I made it to the mountain, I leaped as far up as I could and latched my claws into the dirt. Gideon grabbed me again and hurled me to the ground, standing between the mountain and me, his eyes blazing.
