Page 28 of Flameborne: Fury (Emberquell Academy #2)

SOUNDTRACK: Siren by Gonedark

~ brEN ~

The dragons groaned.

Donavyn’s eyes flashed as, without warning, he flipped me onto my back. I was startled into silence, but it wasn’t until he spoke, forcing the words through clenched teeth, that I realized he was angry.

“I swear to God, Bren, if you speak of my mate with such derision again—”

“I am your mate!”

“Precisely!” He glared, bracing himself over me. “I know you’ve been hurt and belittled. But don’t add to the offence of those bastards by believing them and telling me to see you as so worthless.”

I blinked, simultaneously unnerved and flushed with joy. “I didn’t mean—”

“Yes, you did,” he growled.

I stared up at him, trying not to smile because even though I was tense and worried about this, he was bristling with fury on my behalf and it made my heart pound.

“It’s not just me,” I spluttered. “No single person is worth giving up a position like yours.”

“Not even your mate?” he asked grimly.

I wanted to answer, but his gaze was intense, and I knew the words would anger him. Yet, they were true.

For me as a Flameborne, new to this world, young, and untried, to have the General as a mate and our dragons as well…

There was nothing to weigh against that.

But for him? He was the most powerful Furyknight in the Kingdom—possibly, the world.

He had the ear of a King, and the admiration of nations.

And he was bonded to the Primarch of the most powerful dragon in the known world.

I couldn’t hope to measure against all of that.

“Donavyn—”

“Don’t,” he growled. “Don’t flutter your eyes and give me that whisper, Bren. Not when you’re trying to convince me to deny you. I wouldn’t. I won’t.”

“I didn’t say deny me,” I answered quickly, panicking even at the thought. “I said we could hide this. The bond. Stop them from even knowing until there’s proof it doesn’t affect our work.”

“I am not living a lie. I’m not ashamed of you, Bren.”

My insides churned in a confusing tumult.

I adored that he was so protective, so insistent.

And I was terrified that he’d throw his position away on some needless sense of honor.

I was certain that here and now, in the throes of the new bond and my dragon’s heat, it felt right.

It felt right to me! But after we’d returned and the King demoted him—or worse?

What about two years from now when he had to watch others lead and know it should have been him?

He'd resent me. And who could blame him?

He braced over me looking so stern and defensive, bristling with indignation. On my behalf. It was sweet, and sexy, and so dangerous.

“Donavyn, I don’t want to lose you as my Commander,” I whispered.

His eyes flashed and he swore under his breath.

“But it’s not only me who needs you in charge.

It’s all of them. You were angry with the King and how he dealt with Faren and Lorr.

Ronen says the Officers argue with you, too.

I know most of the Furyknights aren’t as honorable as you.

We need you. All of us. Including me. We need you to be in charge because you make all of us better. ”

His breath rushed out of him. “God, Bren, that’s such an incredible compliment.”

I rushed on to push my advantage. “I don’t want you to hide me because you’re ashamed.

You’re not. I can feel it, and it fills my heart.

” I put my hand to his chest and both of us sucked in as the bond swelled.

“I don’t think you should be unfaithful, or ignore me.

But I want to keep this bond between us sacred.

Those bastards are already so sure I’m the King’s whore, or maybe yours.

If they hear this…” I flinched and he growled.

“Don’t,” he muttered, curling a hand at the back of my neck. “Don’t think those ugly things.”

“I have to, because they do!” I insisted. “You know they do.”

“I’ll watch over you—”

“I’ll never be a true Furyknight if I had to take every step in your shadow, Donavyn.

You know that. If this gets out, they’ll dismiss me.

But it’s you they’ll destroy. Right now, you hold their hearts and minds because they know you’re a good man, a strong man, and the right man.

If they hear about this, they’ll decide you’re just like them. ”

He shook his head. “I don’t care—”

I gripped his shirt and shook it. “I do! If your reputation is tarnished because of me, I care a lot. And some day you will too!”

“I won’t pretend you’re nothing to me, Bren. I won’t!” He growled.

“Then you’ll only succeed in turning me into a whore in their eyes,” I protested. “A whore who’s forced to follow you around to stay safe. Is that better?”

His breath heaved, his chest rising and falling with the force of it. “Yes! The truth will out!”

“But—”

“Stop trying to convince me to make you less than you are. I didn’t exaggerate when I said I love you.

It isn’t misplaced honor to give you your due as my mate.

I’m not martyring myself for your claiming.

I’ll tell the truth and walk into the fire to stand for it!

If those little pricks want to call names and tell themselves their lack is made less by belittling you, let them deal with me! ”

I was desperate to make him see, but the bond crackled and he dove for my mouth, taking it, stopping my voice with his breath, his lips, his tongue.

The earth under my back trembled and in my head I heard Akhane’s scream a moment before it sang through the clearing sky.

I grabbed for Donavyn, uncertain whether I’d pull him closer, or push him away, but he tore out of the kiss and opened his eyes again, locking on mine.

“You deserve better, Bren. You see me lead the men? Then watch me lead for you. I’m not turning my back on you. Ever. The mere thought turns my bones cold.” He gave a great, rasping gulp.

I had to swallow the lump that appeared in my throat and was grateful I could close my eyes as I pulled him into another kiss. But only moments later, as we twined together, kissing reaching, clawing, diving, the ground trembled again.

Then again.

A roar to shake the trees rose, and the trembling grew stronger and closer.

Moments later there was a great crash as Akhane tore out of the trees and into the meadow.

I gasped and instinctively pushed Donavyn away, rolling out from under him and to my feet, pushing to a run—or would have.

Donavyn’s thick arm whipped around my middle and his guttural curse hushed in my ear as he caught me.

“Relax. You’re safe, and so is she,” he murmured. “She’s not frightened, she’s teasing him. Watch.”

I clawed at his arm around my middle, but watched as my dragon rippled across the meadow, her chin high and tail lashing. Kgosi roaring in her wake.

“She’s taunting him,” Donavyn rasped.

I was suddenly desperately aware of Donavyn’s blistering heat at my back. Of the hard lines of him pressed against me.

“She… she…” I couldn’t find the words because Donavyn groaned as Kgosi leaped forward, clamping fangs at the base of her neck, and growling his dominance as he pressed her to the earth, using his greater weight to overpower her.

My breath caught as my dragon trembled and I reached for her, linking with her—only to have that portal in my mind suddenly alive with heat, and need, and thrill and joy.

I sucked in a breath, then gave a shaky laugh as the flickering images and garbled vocalizations that seeped to me from my dragon simultaneously aroused and soothed me.

She wanted him. She was playing with him. She needed him.

Donavyn gave a low moan in my ear and hunched over me, his free hand sliding up my body to my chest, then my throat, his palm cupping my neck as he turned my head with his fingers on my jaw until I met his eye over my shoulder.

The moment our eyes locked, Akhane screamed again, sending a spear of craving through me, a jagged lightning bolt from my navel to my toes.

“Donavyn—”

“I need you, Bren. I need to know you won’t run from me.”

“I won’t,” I gasped. “I wouldn’t!” I would have turned, but he clamped that arm around me tighter, keeping me in place and turned my head away to stretch my neck, clamping on to the sensitive skin under my ear and sucking so hard I gasped and my knees trembled.

Reaching back over my shoulder for him, I grasped his hair, holding him to me, shivering as he sucked and kissed.

My breath came in short, sharp puffs as I leaned back into his chest, and rubbed my ass on his already evident arousal.

Then I slipped one hand back, sliding it between us to cup and stroke him through his leathers.

He shuddered and I closed my eyes, smiling in anticipation of having him again when he pulled my hand out from between us and instead fumbled at his fly. I thought he’d turn me, kiss me, strip me—but he growled against my neck. “Get your leathers off. Now.”

The words were so demanding, so forceful, I jumped to do as he’d instructed without thought. The feeling of his body against my back raised the hair on the back of my neck and sent waves of pebbling down my spine and up the backs of my legs.

I was already panting again, clawing for buttons, scrambling to rid myself of clothing. But I was too slow.

As a resonant call from the dragons rose from among the trees, Donavyn bent me forward and pressed me to the ground, catching me when I would have lain down, yanking my leathers down to my knees and grasping my hips as he reared over me.

I planted both hands on the grass, curling nails into the dirt to ground myself—but as he entered me with a shout and I shuddered with joy and the divine sensation of him filling me this way, he braced over my shoulder, his fingers twining between mine so we clawed the earth together.

And then he took me with such force a cry broke in my throat.

“Mine!” he snarled.

I felt him in every inch of my body—he invaded, sending waves of pleasure radiating out from my core to my trembling limbs.

He hunched over me, his chest and thighs igniting fires on my skin.

He rasped in my ear, his breath hot and words hushed, calling for me, pleading, and there was a surge of him in the bond—an electric thrust through that golden cord that fed straight to my heart.

Then he drew back with a ragged cry, grasped my hip with his free hand, and thrust into me again. I cried out as sheet lightning crackled through my flesh from the inside out.

As I arched, and called, and our bodies met, harder and harder, I forgot the growing sun overhead. Forgot the dragons. Lost awareness of anything but his blistering length moving within me, his guttural demands in my ear, and his flesh covering mine.

When he arched his back to take me deeper, I gasped and dropped to my elbows, pushing back to meet him with a tattered cry.

The world sucked in to nothing. The universe disappeared. The only thing that existed was the twining, devasting pleasure Donavyn wrung from me.

Cool air brushed over the skin of my lower back, but his hand was in my hair, and his body within mine.

He was my world.

“Mine. And they’ll all know it!” he hissed with a conviction that cut between my ribs like a blade and stole my breath.

“Y-yes—” I rasped, shaking, tipping up my chin, mouth open, seeking that perfect joining that I felt to the soles of my feet. Right… there. “Oh, Donavyn—ohgodohgodohg—"

As my body peaked, quivered and twitched, dragged me over that precipice of bliss, Donavyn growled my name, grasped both my hips, and pulled me back against him, meeting me with a thrust so powerful, it threatened to cleave me in two.

My orgasm exploded, turning my blood to fire and ice.

As I spasmed and bowed, the dragons flashed in my mind, but were replaced with visions of Donavyn, the warm brown of his skin against the pale of mine that never saw sun and—

I was in freefall.

But as my heart began to shriek, and the reflex of fear jangled in my limbs, he caught me.

Amidst the roar in the air, and the singing in my ears, his warmth, his strength, his insistence seized me.

I was caught, swung out of freefall and into his arms, both of us twitching, crying out, crying for more.

And when it was all over, I lay in the grass, wrapped in him, cradled by his body, his panting breath thundering in my ear and fluttering against my neck.

His fingers laced with mine and my body held tightly.

And as I blinked and caught my breath, he turned his face to brush his lips against my neck, his breath still tearing in and out of his mouth, and rushing against my skin.

“I won’t do it, Bren,” he graveled, still panting. “I won’t leave you. I won’t deny you. I can’t. You’re mine.”

And even though I squeezed my eyes tightly closed because I was terrified of where this insistence would take him, I also wanted to weep with joy.

Because he meant every word.