Page 26 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

~ brEN ~

When I fell into his arms something shifted in me. Something crucial. Something good. I didn’t hold myself away—I couldn’t. I fell into his chest and let him take all my weight. More than my body. He took the weight on my soul as well.

The words came without thought because they were the sound of my heart.

“Donavyn, please… Be mine?”

He had no hesitation, he held me against him, his voice rumbling under my ear. “Bren, you’re my mate. I love you.”

Everything in me went still except my heart, which pattered and flipped like a bird’s. I stared up at him, unmoving.

His hazel eyes were warm.

“Hear me: I’ll never leave you. Never.”

I love you, Brenny. You’re my girl—

I flinched and broke eye-contact, trying to shake off the memory, stop it invading this moment that I couldn’t quite believe, but Donavyn caught my chin and made me lock in again, though I could barely breathe.

“Bren, look at me. This is real. I’m here.”

“How can you… You can’t know! How can you say that? ”

“Because I feel it. Don’t you?”

It stunned me that to him, the question was rhetorical. He didn’t doubt in the slightest. I gaped. What must it be like to live in a world where you were certain of your reception? So sure of your strength and capability that you anticipated respect, admiration, love?

I couldn’t break from his gaze, but my heart was about to explode—hope, joy, delight, skepticism, fear, caution…

I swallowed it all, then opened my mouth. Then closed it again. Then opened it again.

Donavyn’s lips curled up on one side, though a tiny star of light went out in his eyes.

“Don’t fear it, Bren,” he breathed, his smile at half-mast. “And don’t force yourself. I’m here. I love you. I know you love me. I can feel it. We’ll get there. Whatever comes, we’ll get there.”

My trilling heart tried to leap from my chest, break out of my ribs to slide between his, to go home. But how could I? How could I articulate that when he was so much?

“Hush, hush your heart. This is a good thing, Bren. Look at us. I’ve never felt anything like this, have you?” he asked quietly, one hand still on my face to keep me with him, the other stroking my back.

I shook my head dumbly.

“See?” he pressed. “We were meant to be. Divinely appointed. Bren, my soul has called for you since the day we met. I fought it because I didn’t see it for what it was.

It felt wrong to want you—wrong of my position.

Wrong for your peace. But I can’t deny it anymore.

We’re One.” He pulled me tightly against him, our bodies still joined, and a new roll of need began in my belly.

“But how—”

“I don’t know. But it is. Our dragons will never leave each other.

And neither will we.” When my breath caught again, he shook his head.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to say it.” He traced a finger to pull a strand of hair that had slipped out of my braid and stuck to my cheek, pressing it behind my ear.

“I know you’re scared. That’s why God gave you to me.

I’m here, Bren. I’ll stay here. I’ll prove it to you. ”

He gathered me up, pulling from my body which made me suddenly cold, but then he led me deeper into the water, his hands so gentle as he washed me and rinsed me, leaving sweet kisses on my skin while I watched his tenderness, stunned and overwhelmed.

I wanted to reassure him. To show him the same. To kiss him back and applaud his manful heart. But I couldn’t move. I stared, half my heart leaping for him, jumping, skipping with sheer joy, wanting nothing more than to grasp him, take him again and again, to sing his name.

But the other half of my heart was cold, small, thick with certain doom.

I love you, Brenny. You’re my girl—

I shivered when he walked me out of the river.

He led me straight to where he’d tossed the towel, turned me to face him and began to dry my body, patting my face, slipping it across my shoulders and over my breasts, a low rumble in his chest and a hungry light in his eyes when he leaned forward to kiss a waterdrop from the curve of my breast, then continued down my body with the towel until he squatted at my feet.

Quietly, he urged me to brace on his shoulders to keep my balance, which I did.

Bracing one hand on each of his shoulders as he lifted first one of my feet, then the other.

Then I breathed again, because touching him grounded me.

Feeling the strength of him, those flat, broad planes of his shoulders, strong enough to lift and carry me.

Yet, his skin was still damp, and that small vulnerability made my belly clench.

His muscles rippled as he dried my limbs while he spoke, his tone calm and sure.

“Stop being afraid,” he murmured. “I can feel it. But you don’t have to speak until you’re ready. I know you’ve been hurt—but you’re safe now.”

He cupped the back of my calf with one large hand and dried my ankle and foot with the other.

I swallowed. “But…” He looked up and froze, waited until I swallowed and continued. “Why would you want to?” I breathed.

He frowned. “Bren—”

I rushed on. “I believe you. I believe you mean it. I feel it, Donavyn. It’s something I couldn’t fight even when I was scared. You make me safe. I want to be close to you always. But—”

He beamed. “There is no but, Gorgeous. We’re agreed.”

He straightened up, still smiling, reaching for me, but I shook my head and took one step back. He needed to hear me.

“I believe you,” I repeated. “But it also terrifies me that I believe you. Because…” God, I had to say it. I forced the words through my clenched jaw. “Because you aren’t the first to say that, but… but the first… his heart changed. Or maybe he lied. I don’t know. But he broke me.”

Donavyn stared down at me, grief lining his brow. The longer he was silent, the louder the shrieks in my head, but I couldn’t look away from him. I had to know. Had to see how he reacted.

The shrieks turned to panic when his expression grew stern.

“If a man gave you that gift and rescinded it, he isn’t a good man,” he said darkly.

Yet, when I hunched and swayed to step back, he reached for me and pulled me close.

Sliding one steel bar of an arm behind me so there was no retreat, he placed the flat of his palm right at the center of my chest, between my breasts.

The bond leaped.

“What do you feel?” he growled.

I swallowed. “Warmth. Joy. Amazement. Some fear.”

He nodded. Then he took my hand and brought it to his chest, and when he laid it against his heart, the bond thrummed, light and heat and that glowing cord that tied my heart to his.

“Heat,” he said gruffly. “Relief. Fear.” Then he leaned down until our noses almost touched, his eyes still locked on mine. “If I didn’t care, what would I have to fear? The only thing that frightens me is that you’ll stop believing, and I won’t be there to remind you.”

I didn’t know how to answer that. His brows drew down and his voice dropped to a growl.

“Promise me, Bren. Promise me if you feel afraid, you’ll come to me. Promise me if you fear you’re losing me, you’ll ask. Let me answer the fear. I promise you, Bren, I’ll always come to you. I’ll always want you near. You’re my mate. You get me first, before anything. Any one.”

The strength of his conviction roared through the bond and moved me. My eyes welled as those words seeped into a gaping, aching hole in my heart.

Breath catching, I nodded. “I promise,” I breathed. “I’ll always come to you. I’ll ask you if I’m afraid.”

The bond cord rippled with his relief.

Unperturbed, Donavyn nodded. “We’ll face enough shit from the rest of the world, Bren. Don’t let them destroy this. Us. I love you. No matter what happens. No matter what anyone else says. I love you. We’ll find the way through this.”

He was so certain. So sure of himself, my heart thrilled—and yet, it also screamed.

Because it wasn’t only him that this world needed to accept .