Page 23 of Flameborne: Chosen (Emberquell Academy #1)

~ DONAVYN ~

“Sleeping late I see, Keg,” I grumbled early the next morning, striding into my dragon’s stable after only a few short hours of sleep.

Kgosi and Akhane were still curled in the straw next to each other, just inside the entrance. I wasn’t sure if he was guarding the girls, or if both dragons were simply offering Bren as much space as they could in her little room.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” I continued. “Were you bothered overnight? Or did the men listen and leave you all alone?”

‘You need to ask?’ my dragon sent with disdain in his tone.

“Not really,” I chuckled. “But I like to see you prickle.” I smiled as Kgosi lifted his head, his nostrils slitted and ears pinned back in mock-anger.

“Has Akhane heard from our newest Flameborne this morning, or should I knock on the door?” I turned automatically, looking at the door into the groom’s room to see if it was open or—

‘We allowed her to sleep. She is weary,’ Kgosi said in my mind. ‘Perhaps you should step out while Akhane wakes her?’

“I won’t enter her room—and you tell me if anyone else tries to without her permission. She may not tell me. She seems very submissive and might—”

“Oh.”

The gasp behind me was quiet and startled.

I whirled, wondering who’d approached so early—only to find Akhane’s head high, her wing lifted… and Bren pushing to her feet from within the curl of her dragon’s foreleg.

She slept with her .

I wasn’t sure why that thought gave me a pinch, but Bren had gasped because she’d seen me. She scrambled to her feet.

“Am I late? I’m very sorry, Sir. Very sorry. Terra left me a wash basin—I’ll only be moments…”

She continued to speak, reassuring me, I thought. But I didn’t hear a word of it.

Her hair tumbled around her shoulders, which were bare. The nightdress she wore hung precariously from the point of each.

I suddenly fought the urge to hook a finger under one and let it fall, knowing the weight of the fabric would send it sliding down her arm and leave that gathered front hanging from her breasts.

Her breasts.

Sweet rounds that had been innocently swathed in my jacket the day before, but now were emphasized by the rippling folds of soft fabric that molded to them like water and revealed everything.

The sun beamed through the high windows behind her, making her skin and hair glow—and shining directly through that thin, white fabric so that her form was revealed in mouth-drying detail.

And where the fabric fell against her skin, the flush of it showed through. Especially the darker dusk of—

‘You asked me to advise you if you ever had something hanging from your nose, Donavyn. Do you also wish to be warned to wipe your chin when you’re salivating?’

Horrified, I whirled, turning my back on her, spluttering apologies and excuses like an adolescent boy caught peeping on his sister’s friends.

“Bren, I… I apologize. I assumed you were in your room—”

“Please don’t! I’m sorry!”

“You have no reason to be,” I said, clearing my throat. “I only came to make certain you’d received the clothes and food and—”

“Yes! Yes, I have. I did. I’ll dress now. Just a moment!”

Her hurried footfalls were softened by the straw on the floor, but Kgosi’s chuckles in my head were not.

I dropped my face in my hand and cursed myself for a fool.

She was a woman, alone for the first time, trapped in a cell of a groom’s closet on the first night after her Choosing.

Of course she sought comfort in her dragon.

Didn’t we all? I’d left the barracks almost every night for the first month when Kgosi first Chose me.

‘I’m not sure if you’re aware, Donavyn, but it is unwise for your eyes to leave your head. I only mention it because you looked like you were in danger of it for a moment there.’

“Shut up,” I muttered.

Akhane fluttered her wings like she disapproved, but I was mortified. And Kgosi was teasing? I clawed both hands through my hair.

‘You should have told me she was here.’

‘You didn’t know? ’

‘That she was here in the stable? Not properly dressed? No, Kgosi, I assumed she was in the room.’

‘Ah. Well, no harm was done.’

‘No harm? I practically saw her naked!’

Kgosi’s eyes narrowed and he rumbled. ‘I was under the impression you’d seen your females bare before. If you’re in need of advice for mating rituals—’

‘Kgosi, stop. This isn’t a joke!’

He rumbled again and ruffled his wings as he pushed to his feet, then shook like a dog the size of a cottage. I had both hands on my hips, my heart pounding, and wanted to simply leave. But it would be worse for both of us if I did, I knew.

“Please ask Akhane to pass my apologies on to Bren, and assure her I meant no disrespect.”

A moment later my dragon responded. ‘She is aware and only wishes for you to know she didn’t attempt to trap you.’

I frowned. That thought wouldn’t have crossed my mind. Why would she think—

The creak of the door behind me skittered like an insect down my spine. I took a deep breath and turned, determined to keep my eyes firmly on her face— not blush like a schoolboy—and be so utterly professional she couldn’t possibly mistake any of my actions as even remotely inappropriate.

But the moment I looked at her—my expression carefully fixed so as not to belie any errant, er, thoughts—my heart sank.

She was wearing a dress?

She hurried towards me, her feet sinking into the straw as she tried to trot, but her arms were bent up to braid her hair as she approached, and the dress she’d been loaned was low cut.

With her arms like that, her chest pushed up straining against the neckline, and the swells of her breasts were pinched almost in half.

Hands reaching, filled with those soft, sweet rounds as she let her head loll back and I could taste that delicate skin at her thr—

“Shit,” I muttered, and squeezed my eyes closed, gritting my teeth and clenching my hands to fists at my sides as my body responded to hers and threatened to betray me.

I turned to Kgosi before opening my eyes, pretending that I needed to speak with him to give my eyes a break.

“Can you please pass through the herd that the acknowledgement will be pushed back an hour? Make certain they know the order comes directly from me,” I growled.

Then braced myself and turned to face her.

“This is… not appropriate, Bren,” I said as quietly and unemotionally as I was capable.

“You are Flameborne. A soldier in training. You can’t wear a skirt that might tangle your legs, or clothing that would be easily torn by an errant spine if you needed to mount your dragon quickly. ”

She stopped dead halfway across the stable. Thank God she’d braided down the length of her hair and her arms were no longer bent back. But now she looked horrified and scared.

I raised my hands, palms forward to reassure her. “It’s my fault for not ensuring they understood what you needed. I’m sure the women assumed it was a formal affair, and the dress would be appropriate for that. But the Acknowledgement ceremony isn’t so refined,” I said dryly.

Kgosi huffed.

“Have you eaten or—but no, of course not,” I muttered, hating myself for conjuring the images of her, sleep-rumpled and flushed, eyes hooded and— shit!

I swallowed hard and took hold of myself.

“We’ll pass the kitchens on our way to the Quartermaster,” I said through my teeth. “You can eat while we walk.”

“Y-yes, Sir,” she said shakily. “I was told to report there today, but—”

“We’ll find something,” I said sharply, aggravated with myself for not anticipating this.

Of course the female servants wouldn’t know what she needed for this.

I’d let her down, and now she was trembling.

“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to make my voice gentler.

“You may not have flight leathers, but we can find something… workable. And I’ll have words with them to ensure you aren’t left inappropriately attired again,” I said. “Now, come. We only have an hour.”

She nodded and hurried to follow as I turned on my heel and strode for the stable door.

‘Well done, Commander. She’s barely trembling,’ Kgosi sent, his tone as dry as the Waghasi desert.

‘She isn’t the only one,’ I shot back. ‘If you don’t have anything helpful to say right now, please say nothing at all.’

Kgosi gave a long, low rumble, the deep bass that rolled out of the ground and buzzed in my feet on the stones of the aisle outside the stable.

‘Very frightening,’ I taunted him.

‘We can’t all be as terrifying as the peak in your trousers, Donavyn.’

Mortified, I snapped my head down to look at myself—then whipped it back up, cheeks flaming.

‘That wasn’t funny.’

But both the dragons were fucking laughing.

And when I looked back at Bren, hurrying to catch up with me in that fucking dress, her brow was furrowed with worry. She turned, her body straining against that neckline again as she looked over her shoulder to stare at the dragons, both huffing with amusement in our wake.

What a fucking morning.