Page 32 of Fated by Fire (Dragonblood Dynasty #1)

Chapter 32

E lena

The elevator doors shudder open, and Caleb’s penthouse swallows us as we step into the vast space—a cavern of cold granite and sharp edges, lit only by the fractured glow of the city below. Even here, across town from the war, the air sears my throat with the metallic tang of burned ozone, the aftermath of battle still clinging to our clothes.

Caleb’s hand rests at the small of my back, possessive but trembling faintly, as if the presence of the Heartstone in my jacket pocket might scorch him.

“You’re sure you want it here? The stone?” he’d asked in the car, his voice graveled with exhaustion as we’d sped through deserted streets.

“If I let it out of my sight, Malakai’s thugs will be on it before dawn,” I’d replied, my fingers curling possessively around the relic’s jagged edges. “Or have you forgotten how we got into this mess?”

“You think I could forget?” His grip had tightened on the wheel, tendons cording. “That stone’s been the single most important thing to my family for centuries—”

“Well, now it’s my responsibility too,” I’d cut him off, the Heartstone pulsing hot against my ribs as if in agreement. “So humor me a little. I need to feel it close. Besides, do you think anyone would be stupid enough to try to take it from me?”

His silence had been answer enough.

Now, alone in his apartment, the stone’s pulse throbs against my ribs, matching my heartbeat. Caleb locks the door behind us, the deadbolt’s click too final. His reflection glowers in the mirror across the hallway—blood smeared across his jaw like war paint, his shirt torn where Malakai’s claws had grazed him.

Alive.

The relief leaves me lightheaded.

“Thank God we made it,” I exhale as I turn to him. The sight of him still makes my chest tighten. When he’d stormed into that vault where Malakai was holding me, it was like my fear melted away.

“I can’t go through something like that again, Elena.” He cups my cheek. “You… I can’t lose you.” His throat works.

“I can’t lose you either,” I say, surprising myself. A month ago, this man didn’t exist in my world. Now, I can’t imagine a world without him. Gazing up at the hard lines of his beautiful face, I need him so badly that I’m not quite sure what to do with myself.

I don’t wait. I surge toward him, lips grazing his, taking him by surprise.

“Now you hesitate?” I laugh when he looks startled. I shove him against the door when he pauses there, my fingers twisting in the ruined fabric of his collar. His breath catches, eyes flaring with something wild. “After all we’ve just faced together?”

“Elena, I’m worried—”

“No.” I press closer, the adrenaline of the fight still roaring in my veins. “You don’t get to lecture me about risk. Not after you charged into that vault like a goddamn suicide bomber.”

He growls, low and dangerous, and suddenly, my feet leave the ground. His arms band around me, crushing me to his chest as he strides down the hall. The penthouse blurs—sterile artwork, a liquor cabinet glinting with cut crystal, a hallway lined with doors that I have no interest in right now. He kicks the bedroom door wide, and I’m airborne for a heartbeat before I hit the mattress.

It makes me shriek, but the sound is nothing like the screams of earlier. I’m light and happy. Laughing as I look around briefly.

The room is pure Caleb—crisp white sheets, a vaulted ceiling streaked with pre-dawn light, a single painting of a dragon coiled around a mountain. No warmth, no softness. Just him, looming over me, his shadow trailing across the bed.

“I need you to be careful, Elena.” He braces his arms on either side of my head, his breath ragged. “You can’t do that again. My heart won’t take it.”

I wish I could say it won’t happen, but I sense that in our new shared world, it very likely will. But now’s not the time to think about it.

“Enough talk, Craven.” I claw at his belt; the need driving me is sharp and demanding. “We’ll deal with that later.”

His mouth crashes into mine, teeth sharp, tongue hotter than any human’s. He bites my lower lip, and the sting melts into a rush of heat that pools low in my stomach. The bond ignites, a live wire between us, and suddenly, I’m drowning in him—the iron grip of his control, the wildfire need he’s buried since the moment we met.

“Show me,” I breathe against his jaw, my nails raking down his spine. I’m not quite sure what I’m asking for, but I know it will come to me.

He tears my shirt open, buttons scattering like shrapnel. His hands map my ribs, callouses scraping skin, thumbs brushing the underside of my breasts. My pants are off, too, and then I’m ripping at his clothes, leaving them in a crumpled heap at the end of the bed.

“Show you what?” he asks breathlessly.

That I’m not another pawn. That this bond isn’t a cage.

“Everything,” I whisper fiercely.

His lips blaze a trail down my throat, teeth grazing the frantic pulse at my neck. When he reaches the swell of my breast, he pauses, breath searing my skin. I reach for him, thighs splaying as I hook a leg around his hip.

Fuck. I want him more than air.

“You’re sure?” he asks, and something tells me that it’s not just the sex he’s talking about.

I fist his hair, yanking his head up. “Don’t you dare coddle me now.”

A dark laugh rumbles through him as he settles between my legs, his cock gliding along my entrance as if it’s finding its way home. When he tilts his hips and thrusts into me, I gasp, bucking up to him. It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last, but it always surprises me how well we fit together.

“Yes…” I moan, my head tipping back as my back bows. Pleasure flares around where he’s pistoning into me. I focus on the sensation, letting it surround me.

The Heartstone flares in response, its crimson glow bleeding from the nightstand where I’ve dropped it. The room swims—shadows twisting on the walls, the air thick with the scent of fire.

He pins my wrists above my head, his scales rippling faintly along his forearms. His lips are everywhere: my throat, my chest… my nipples are in his mouth, tight points of pleasure. I writhe against him, wanton with lust.

“You want everything?” he growls as he raises his head to look at me. “Then take it.”

Without warning, he bites down, sharp and sudden, and I cry out as pleasure-pain arcs through me when his teeth sink into the junction of my neck and shoulder.

Pain.

White-hot, electric—it liquefies my bones, molten gold flooding my veins. The bond shatters wide open, and I’m inside him, everywhere : the ache of centuries-old loneliness, the vicious thrill of the fight, the raw, unspoken terror that he’d lose me like he lost his father. His essence—smoke and embers and ancient knowledge—pours into me, branding me.

“Now me,” he demands, tilting his head to bare his throat.

I hesitate. My human side is new to this, but there’s something older inside that seems to know. Instinct makes the decision for me. I press my lips to his pulse, then bite down. His blood floods my mouth, rich and coppery, and he roars, his hips slamming into mine. The Heartstone’s light erupts, painting the room in violent red.

“Elena—”

“Don’t stop,” I growl.

His nails rake my hips as he drives into me, each thrust stoking the fire in my core. The stone’s energy weaves around us, wreathing us with age-old light—I feel his name as if it’s etched into my heart. The bedframe cracks against the wall, and I don’t care because he’s everywhere, in me, around me, part of me—

I feel the sensation of my orgasm building, but it’s different this time. Deeper. More dimensions to it. Layers of pleasure that ripple over me, through me, leave me reeling.

“God! Caleb!” I gasp, clinging to him. His head is bowed, face buried in the curve of my throat as he jerks against me, his own climax consuming him. I can feel the little pulses deep in my core as his body releases into me. It’s like liquid ecstasy.

When it ends, we’re both shaking. He collapses beside me, breath ragged, gathering me close. The Heartstone’s glow fades, leaving only the aftermath: sweat-slick skin, tangled sheets, the twin spirals of mate bites glowing faintly on our collarbones.

I trace his mark, the raised skin humming under my fingertip. “Still think you’re in control?”

His laugh is dark, warm, his thumb brushing the bite on my shoulder. “Never with you, Ace.”

The silence stretches, thick with unsaid things. Outside, sirens wail—the city licking its wounds. There’s going to be talk of this night for a long time to come. I wonder how we’ll weather this storm.

“We”—it’s strange to use the word in connection with a species of creatures that I’ve somehow become a part of.

“It’s not over,” I whisper. “Malakai’s still out there. The Syndicate. The Circle—”

“Let them come.” His arm tightens around me, pulling me flush against his chest. “You think I’d let anyone take you now?”

“You might not have a choice.” My voice cracks. “This bond… the stone… I’m not safe, Caleb.”

He tilts my chin up, his gaze burning. “You think I care about safe? Safe is shadows and lies. Safe got my father killed.” His thumb traces my jaw. “You’re fire. And I’d burn the world to keep you.”

“Even if it destroys you?”

“Especially then.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “You’re an idiot.”

“Your idiot.” He kisses me, soft and lingering, a promise. “And you’re mine. Clan politics, Syndicate wars—none of it matters. I love you, Elena Ross. My witch.”

I’m silent as I stare up at him in bemusement. It feels too soon… and yet, it seems like a lifetime since I first laid eyes on this man. Like I’ve known him forever. Yet not long enough.

“How long do dragons live?” I ask as his eyes lock onto me, waiting for some sort of response.

“Forever,” he says, tracing a fingertip down my cheek.

I nod. “Good.” My lips quirk up at the corners. “Then that’s how long I’ll love you back.”

His kiss takes my breath from me and is all the approval I need right now.

The Heartstone thrums in agreement, its power settled deep in my bones. For the first time in a lifetime, I don’t feel alone. I feel like part of something that is my destiny.

And I’m going to meet that destiny with this man by my side.