Page 14 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

~ 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 ounce of 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 him alert. 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 in years. 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-dragon shriek.

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.

Shit. This would—

“Donavyn!”

I whirled, every burning drop of my blood going up in flames when I discovered Bren standing at the edge of the clearing, eyes wide and jaw slack. Her hair plastered to her skull, and her leathers saturated.

Bren.

My mate.

Our eyes locked and my body surged, drove me to her, yanked me forward.

I stumbled towards her, breathing her name as she sprinted to meet me—but we hadn’t reached each other when there was an ear-splitting scream and Akhane rippled out of the forest, head low and neck extended, ears pinned back and jaw wide showing all her teeth, her blue tongue high and tense.

The dragon was mindless. Blind. And tearing straight for Bren who’d seen me hesitate and drawn up herself, turning towards her dragon’s approach.

Kgosi’s roar set a fire under my feet.

At the same time Akhane surged forward, I threw myself across the space, tackling Bren and curling myself around her, rolling us both across the wet ground until we came up hard against one the clusters of boulders that peppered the ground here.

Bren grunted and curled arms over her head, but startled and froze when a dragon’s taloned foot pounded into the soft earth right where she’d stood just moments before.

Neither of us moved as we watched Akhane rush past, her body undulating, and neck snaking. A split second later, Kgosi galloped in her wake, his mouth open too, and tail lashing with such force it slammed a massive tree so it shuddered from its roots.

An almighty crack punctured the night, then that huge tree began to tilt towards us.

With a shout, I tucked Bren into my chest and dragged her aside, scrambling, panting, ultimately tripping and falling, but clear of the thick trunk and branches that thudded to the ground, then bounced.

I lay there on the wet dirt, Bren on my chest, both of us gaping at the massive branch that had snapped off and landed just feet away.

Then Bren turned her head and locked those wide eyes on me.

I could feel the questions in her, the confusion and thrill and…

I swallowed hard, then clawed one hand into her hair, pushing the wet strands back from her face. “They’re mates!” I shouted over the storm and the crashing and roaring of dragons now running away from us.

She nodded numbly, her expression stunned.

“He didn’t tell me,” I said desperately, pleading with her to see that I hadn’t anticipated this. Hadn’t been playing a game.

“She didn’t tell me either,” she breathed, and even though I couldn’t hear it over the storm, I felt the words right at the center of my chest.

“Bren,” I croaked.

Her eyes widened further until the whites showed all the way around. She reached for me, plowing a hand into my hair and gripping it in her fist. But then she went still on my chest, staring.

I searched her gaze, trying desperately to convince my frantic body that this wasn’t the time and I couldn’t take her when everything was so chaotic.

But then Akhane screamed again, quickly followed by Kgosi’s roar. Bren’s eyes closed and she shivered in my arms. And when she opened her eyes again, her gaze burned .

She’d straddled me in the fall, and now she pushed up on my chest, sitting back so that she was pressed against my groin and I groaned.

Bren froze. Then she fucking bit her lip.

“God, Bren—”

I sat up, intending to pull her off of me, to give her a choice, but she shook her head and grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me in and kissing me, plunging her tongue into my mouth and digging her nails into my scalp.

With a shuddering exhale, I clapped a hand to her back, holding her to me as I sat up fully, then fisted my other hand into her hair and bent her backwards, kissing her with every ounce of the desperate need burning in my veins.

Bren arched, pulling me closer, whimpering—which set my heart aflame and sent spears of desire from my chest to my groin. She fumbled at the buttons on my jacket, rubbing herself against me, gasping and the need for her was so overwhelmingly necessary, I couldn’t fight.

I tried, grasping her hair with a trembling hand, pulling her back, stammering her name.

But she shook her head and pulled me in.

“Please, Donavyn. Please.”

My self-control was shredded, and the look in her eyes—the misery— when I hesitated laid a blade to the last leash I possessed.

But, as we leaned closer, bodies thrumming, there was another roar, another creak, and I was reminded that we were in the middle of a storm with two mindless, mating dragons.

She was my mate. And she was in danger.

As another tree crashed to earth behind us, taking its brothers down with it, I snarled a curse and grabbed her up. But she pushed to her feet, to a run, pulling me with her.

“This way. This way!”

She sprinted, still holding my hand. I couldn’t tell which rumbles were the thunder, and which erupted from Kgosi, but a minute later, Bren pulled me straight into thick scrub and branches, then broke through, stumbling to a halt in a dry, dark cave.

The moment we were out of the storm she turned and stood, staring up at me. She looked like a sleek seal, her braid dark with rain and loose strands painted against her neck, leathers sucking against her skin, everything wet. But it was her eyes, wide, and pleading… Begging.

My breath shuddered out of me as I fought for control. “Bren, we’re…” I croaked.

“I know.” Her throat bobbed, and I grunted with the punch of need that stole my breath. “Donavyn, please… Don’t run away from me again.”

With a groan that tore out of my throat like it was ripped, I descended on her, pulling her to me.

Wet leather and brass buttons, clothing suctioned to skin, fingers clawed, nails scraping, breath panting, teeth bared, I feasted on her mouth, her throat, her breath as I tore at her buttons, while she struggled with mine.

As if the dragons heard our need, they raised their calls together, echoing through the storm and vibrating in my bones. But I pushed them away. Pushed it all aside to drink in the sight of her.

Mate. She was mine.

The dream I’d forsaken. The desire I’d thought selfish. She was here. And she wanted me.

For a split second, duty weighed heavy on my shoulders. The warnings that were part of my life, my role, the purpose echoed in the storm.

But I set them aside.

Mate.

Mine.

If she chose me for herself, nothing else could take her from me.

No one.