Page 38 of Flameborne: Fury
My chest heaved. Bren’s trembling fingers dug into my sweaty back. And outside the dragons raised calls that warmed and calmed the storm within—while the storm without raged on.
14. Safety
~ BREN ~
I was stunned.
Somehow I had ended up on the bedroll, the fur soft against my naked, sensitized skin. And though my breath made a cloud in the air and my skin pebbled, I didn’t feel the cold in the slightest. There was a massive, precious, steel blanket pinning me into the bedroll, hot breath against my skin, and a strange heatedchaosin my chest and between my legs that pulsed with my heartbeat and kept my breath short.
I shook like a leaf.
I laid there, blinking, before Donavyn’s head suddenly jerked up and he stared down at me, searching my eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a hushed, worried tone.
I nodded, but I blinked again, because he looked different.
His dark, heavy brows drew down. “Bren, talk to me,” he rasped, one hand, which had been curled over my head like he feared I’d be pulled from him, stroked strands of hair back from my damp cheeks.
“That was…” I trailed off into a smile.
His eyes crinkled as he nodded. “It was.”
“That wasreal?”
He huffed and there was a jangle of both thrill and nerves in me because I felt his chest expand, and felt him move within me. My cheeks heated. Instinct was to curl up, to cover myself from his eyes, or close mine, but he stared at me with awe.
I swallowed again.
“Yes, Bren. Beautiful. Very real. DearGod.I’ve been an ass.”
I frowned. “What? How?”Did he regret it?But the questions in my head stopped there, because Ifelthim tense. Not on my body, but in my chest. My eyes widened and I blinked rapidly, clinging to him because my head spun.
There was a space under my ribs, nestled next to my heart, that washim.
“Bren, what’s wrong?” His tone was quiet, but sharp.
I shook my head and put my palm to my chest, feeling my heart flutter. Then I frowned and put my hand to his, astounded when I could feel his heartbeat under my palm, and so much moreinside me.
“I canfeelyou,” I breathed.
Some of the tension went out of him. “Yes. I know. Me too.”
He looked awed, but I frowned. “Donavyn, what’s happening to us?” My voice grew higher, thinner on every word, hope and fear tangling together because I was confused, but he was smiling.
“It’s a matebond,” he whispered, eyes searching mine. “It’s us,together.The dragons have clearly sensed it for a time and they were… well, beingpatient.But Akhane came into heat and it seems to have braided us in along with them,” he concluded with a wry smile.
Patient.I frowned harder, then remembered why that word sounded significant.
It was the day of the second trial and I’d had to select whether Akhane and I would fly attack or defend. I’d put the question to her, asking if she had a preference. And she had.
‘Attack. We’re too impatient for defense. Kgosi teases me about it.’
I’d been confused, and a little stunned to hear that the stern Primarch dragon, Kgosi, teased at all. But that he teased Akhane about impatience?I was dying to know the context for that. From my perspective, Akhane was breathtakingly patient…
“Oh shit,” I breathed, then clapped a hand to my mouth. Donavyn grinned. But I had a moment ofstruggle.He wastheCommander. We’d sworn in front of each other before, but it was something I tried to avoid. It seemed disrespectful to his rank.
But here we were,entangled.Did his rank even matter?
