Page 31 of Flameborne: Fury
~ DONAVYN ~
Kgosi arrowed through the sky for hours, maintaining a pace that worried me as the sky darkened and the storm blew up. But even when we were lashed by the elements and blown sideways he wouldn’t stop.
My mind called for caution. But my body urged him on.My skin was hot. I felt feverish. My blood pounded in my ears and hummed in my veins.
I fought hard, teeth gritted, against the images that flowed from Kgosi. He had remarkable control, and self-discipline, so the fact that anything slipped through should have been alarming. But all I could do was grip the straps, pant, and beg him to go faster.Faster.
On we flew until it was almost dark and the first lightning bolt lit the sky.
Neither of us spoke—it wasn’t the first time we’d been out in a storm. I prayed it would pass to the east of us. But God didn’t hear me this night, and my dragon refused to listen when I tried to urge him to land.
As night descended and the storm grew worse, every ounceof wisdom in me screamed that we had to land. Had to wait. It was too dangerous. I was trying to find a new way to voice the thought to Kgosi when I felt himalert.He lifted his chin and roared, then banked left and dove.
‘Keg…Keg,are you landing? We have to get out of the storm—’
A quivering wave of need, frustration, and pinpoint focus rippled through me from the bond, leaving me gasping with desire and rocked with images of Bren—staring up at me, back arched so her breasts pressed into my chest, hissing through her teeth when I pulled her against me and dove for her throat—
“Keg,” I croaked, gripping the neckstrap as he tipped down and retracted his wings, diving like a bird of prey.‘Keg, you can’t—do you want to get us both killed?’
‘At least one of us will die knowing he has the balls to claim his mate.’
My terror at the sight of the wet earth rushing towards us overwhelmed even the lava burning in my veins. I screamed at him to open his wings, begged him, and clawed at the straps until the last possible moment when his wings snapped wide, pulling us to a near-halt in the air so I was thrown down, slamming into Kgosi’s neck with a grunt as the blow to my temple stunned me silly. I tumbled to his side as he back-flapped and extended his legs to lower us to the ground.
Moments later, his wings sending the grass rippling even harder than the storm, I swung against his side, blinking, and trying to find my bearings.
I hadn’t fallen during a landing inyears.It was humbling and I’d find my embarrassment—and bruises—later. But now that I could think, the roaring flames in my blood were back and my body pulsed with need.
Using leverage on Kgosi’s neck, I managed to get my body swinging like a pendulum on the safety strap until I could grab the mounting leather, pull myself across his shoulder, and clamber high enough to unclip. I took a bare second to thank God once more time for the safety straps that had saved my life, before I let go of the harness and slid to the earth. Luckily the wet ground was soft so my ankles didn’t take a terrible pounding as I landed. But it took a moment and a deep breath to rise to my feet and start on Kgosi’s buckles.
He tossed his head and roared, dancing as I clambered between his legs, using shaking hands to unbuckle the straps, begging him to help.
‘I know it’s hard, Keg, but we can’t go any further until this storm blows through. Let’s pray the girls found a safe—’
Three things happened at once.
An image bloomed in my head of Akhane, running through the forest, her head high and tossing.
There was a very distinct, she-dragonshriek.
And Kgosi physically shuddered.
‘Donavyn. Remove this harness.Now.’
Blinking, stunned, still uncertain, and with a racing heart, I struggled with the last of the buckles. Kgosi didn’t wait for me to pull it off. The moment the final strap was unbuckled he turned his head to grasp the straps at his chest in his teeth and tore it forward and off his withers, flipping it over his head and to the ground, then he roared loud enough to drown out the storm and tore out of there with such speed his talons left tears in the sodden earth.
I stumbled back, almost knocked off my feet by an errant foreleg, but thankful that he’d held himself together long enough to keep me safe.
As he raced away, I made myself remain still, and tried to calm, peering through the dark.
Was she really here? Or had he only imagined her for me?
But then I remembered the scream. It had to be Akhane. Kgosi wouldn’t have torn up the forest for a feral female he didn’t know.
Affirming the thought, his roar rose again. A tree groaned, then cracked like it had been snapped.
I took one step in that direction, then pulled up with a groan. My body still thrummed, still needed, but I knew the dragons would be mindless. I needed to find shelter, get the harness out of the way in case they returned. And then I had to find Bren.
A bolt of desire shot from my chest to my groin at the thought of her. I was already panting.
