Page 73 of Flameborne: Fury
“We were so worried!”
“What the hell happened?”
“You did it!”
“Well done, Bren. Welldone!”That was Ronen.
As Harle put me back on my feet, I gaped at them as they rushed me, closing in.
My heart skittered, that cold fear twisted in my chest. But I swallowed it back and reminded myself, these were my brothers. They weren’t a threat. They were celebrating.
“Did you really find the enemy?”
“Have you had a chance to wash?”
“Where’s Akhane—she wasn’t injured, was she?”
I shook my head and took a step back as they made a circle around me. “No, no, she’s fine. She’s just busy, um, recovering. She went into heat and—”
“Akhane’s in heat?”
That started a whole new round of questions and protests, and finally Ronen raised his hands and shushed the others. With Gill at his shoulder and a strange smile, he waited until everyone had quieted, then he turned to me.
“Why don’t you tell us the whole story so they can stop asking questions, Bren?” he said, amused.
Iopened my mouth, then hesitated. What could I say?
Akhane went crazy in heat. Kgosi found her and brought Donavyn. We all mated and none of us wanted to stop. But then we found out that the camp I found was a real one, not a set-up for the trial, so we had to come back. And now the dragons are off mating…
I huffed and cleared my throat.
“My orders came in that morning. Faren brought them.”
Every one of them went still. Gil and Voski’s eyes narrowed, sharp on me.
I shrugged. “It’s okay. He wasn’t happy about it. He gave me my orders—or I thought they were—and he blessed me. Then Akhane and I rode out. That evening I found a camp. I thought it was a set-up. An exercise. Part of the trial. I was surprised it was so big and there was so much equipment out there. When I had all the information, I went back to Akhane and would have flown home. But she went into heat.”
Their eyes all widened, I tried to smile.
“Luckily, Kgosi is her mate. He found us and—”
“Wait,what?!”
“Kgosi? The Primarch?”
“They’re mated?”
I nodded quickly, praying if I could keep going none of them would think to ask how that affected Donavyn and me. He’d said none of them would expect us to be so deeply drawn into the bond as well. But I didn’t want to take the risk and have to lie to them.
“Yes. That’s why she’s not here. They weren’t finished mating when Donavyn saw the notes I’d scribbled out there in the dark and realized what I’d found. We had to interrupt them.”
They all winced and leaned back. “Whoa.”
“I’m surprised Kgosi didn’t flame you both.”
“He challenged Donavyn,” I said quickly, swallowing hard. “He wasn’t happy and they were both worried about bringing him back here with other males. I ended up having to ride Kgosi with Donavyn because Akhane was struggling, and her skin was so hot. I think they’ll be away for another day.”
My brothers were excited and aghast at all that had happened. But then the questions started.
