Page 49 of The Breeding Cave
That spot was reserved for one person and one person only. Yeosin Cho.
My employee. My partner. My mate.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
YEOSIN
“Stop!” I scream at the top of my lungs, but the smoke around me traps my voice.
Flames burn my body—from the tips of my fingers to my shoulders and down to my toes. I roll around on the ground, back and forth and back and forth, like the teachers at school had taught me—because my parents never did.
Tears stream down my cheeks, but they quickly evaporate away from the fire.
“Stop it!” I shout, getting glimpses of dragons circling above and burning everything that I love to the ground.
Everything is so in and out, and I can’t remember what happened directly before this.
All I know is that my entire body is on fire.
From across the forest, I spot the beast lying against the entrance of the cave, his entire body burned so badly that I can barely recognize him. But I can smell his distinctive scent, tormenting me because I can do nothing.
Absolutely nothing to stop this madness.
He confided in me about this happening before—I am sure of it.
And while I want to protect him, to make sure this never happened again, to give him a family lineage that he so desperately wants, I can’t. I am nothing more than a helpless human, caught in this mess with creatures I never thought were real.
“Stop!”
Except the dragons continue to breathe fire down upon me.
The smoke around me becomes almost unbreathable. I cough and try to breathe as much as I can. I do what I need, what I think will help. But no matter what I try, I can’t put the fire out.
Flames engulf the beast.
I need to help him.
Once I make it to the cave, I drag the beast’s burning body down the small walkway to the hot spring. Will hot water cool him off enough? Will it stop the fire? I don’t know, but I have to try.
I have to try. I have to try. I have to try.
I can’t lose him.
Out of all the people burning in the forest with us, out of all the people important to me, he is the only person I recognize. He is the only person I care about, which is sad.
I don’t know his name. I don’t know who he is in real life.
All I know is that he makes me feel special, even if it is only because I will one day have his children. If that is all my life becomes, then I am fine with that. But I am not going to lose him like this.
The dragons—no, the Dragon Clan isn’t going to win.
I refuse to let them win.
“Please,” I whisper, dumping his body into the lake and jumping in after him.
Almost immediately, the water swallows the flames that emanate from both of our bodies. I pull his face out of the water and tug him to the rocks, using all my strength to lift him out of the water so he won’t drown.
