Broken Gates (18 page)

17

I dreamt that I was in a maze, not knowing which way was out, and as I ran around one of the corners, I saw Bryn. He smiled at me, giving me one of his patented lopsided grins complete with dimples, and turned to run from me. He glanced over his shoulder and called out, “This way Peej.” As if I was supposed to follow him. And of course I did. Or at least I tried. But bands of steel held me around my waist, keeping me from moving from the spot I stood. I yelled at him to wait but he didn’t seem to hear me. I struggled against the bands, and when I looked down I realized that they weren’t bands at all, but arms. I whirled around in a panic to see who was keeping me from following Bryn, half expecting to find Khol, but instead I found Drake. He grinned at me and whispered harshly, “You belong with my lord. And I’ll make sure he gets you.” That’s when I screamed.

“It’s okay, it was just a nightmare.” A heartbreakingly familiar voice murmured from underneath me. My eyes snapped open and I inhaled sharply the scent that I’d come to think of as home . . . Bryn! His hands pulled through my hair, smoothing it back away from my face. “Peej,” he whispered my name like a little prayer as I swept my eyes up the line of his chest to meet his fathomless dark blue eyes. My whole body tightened with need, and I pushed myself up so I could slant my lips over his. I needed him, needed to taste him, needed to feel his skin underneath mine. I’d never been so singularly driven to possess Bryn in such a way in all of my life. It was as if I couldn’t have him . . . all of him . . . as soon as I could manage . . . I would just shrivel up and die.

As I pushed my tongue into his mouth, demanding him to accept me, I pulled myself up so I could straddle him. He immediately responded to me, a low growl rumbling in the back of his throat as his hands threaded into my hair and pulled me tighter to him. I frantically ground myself against his growing need, wishing that there were no clothes separating us, wondering if I could possibly wait one moment longer or if I possessed the skill to just burn them off without injuring him. “I need you . . . now,” I gasped into Bryn’s mouth as he lifted his hips up to meet me while I continued my frantic gyrating rhythm. I swore I’d never need anyone again . . . especially a man . . . but I did. I needed Bryn in that moment more than I needed oxygen in my lungs to breathe. It’s exactly what I’d told Khol, and it was true. I was so empty without him and I needed him to fill me up, to make me feel . . .
more.

And then he just stopped . . . everything. “No. Peej. We can’t do this,” Bryn croaked raggedly as he grabbed my wrists to keep me from holding on to him and slid out from under me.

“I need you, Bryn. Please,” I begged as I looked up into his tormented face. “I don’t wanna be with anyone but you. It’s been you, and only you for as far back as I can remember. It’ll be you—always.”

His sea storm eyes suddenly began to churn with anger as he regarded me darkly. “You never seem to have a problem getting cozy with Khol. It seems to me you want him plenty.”

My mouth dropped open and any sort of reply stuck in my throat. Bryn’s lips turned up into a cruel smile. “Even the first time when I was sent away, you couldn’t seem to keep your hands off him.”

White-hot fury coupled with adrenaline shot through my system. “Nala—that’s all I have to say about when you were sent away—Nala.” I ground my teeth together. “And as for the rest”—unbidden and unwanted images of the intimacies I’d shared with Khol played across my mind’s eye—“you practically put a bow around me and handed me to him.” It was true, if Bryn hadn’t walked away like he did from me, and he had just let our—even if it was semi-permanent—mate bond reform then I never would have so much as kissed Khol.

“A willing gift,” Bryn growled.

I rose up onto my knees so I could reach him, swung my arm through the air, and slapped him across the face with as much force as I could manage. “I love you—you stupid asshole!” And I was showing him in a very peculiar way at the moment.

Bryn blinked his dark lashes over his shocked blue eyes at me, all anger draining from his face. “You hit me,” he said as he brought his hand up to cover the small red spot blooming on his perfectly chiseled jaw. “I can’t believe you hit me,” he mumbled numbly as he continued to stare at me.

“You deserved it,” I said with conviction.

Bryn shook his head slowly and the shock turned into some emotion I couldn’t quite read. “I think you should leave.”

I raised my chin at him petulantly. “No,” I replied simply.

“No?” Bryn said incredulously.

“No,” I said again.

“Then I guess I’ll just have to make you,” Bryn retorted as his face morphed into a mask of zen. All cold clean lines, and no emotions . . . at least none I could read. Which was beyond frustrating because I used to be able to read him so well, or at least I thought I could. He reached for me, and I slipped out from under his grasp, reached up and smacked him across his other cheek this time.

His arms immediately dropped to his sides and he gazed at me with renewed shock. “You hit me again.” Thanks, Captain Obvious. Next would you like to tell me that the sky is blue?

“Yeah, I did. And I’m gonna keep hitting you until I smack some sense into you.” Did I really just say that? When did I become so violent?
Since Bryn started refusing to see reason
, that helpful little voice whispered in my brain. As if to punctuate my point, I reached up and hit Bryn again. This time he just stood there as still as a statue, his big blue eyes blinking in confusion at me. His lack of reaction only angered me more. So I hit him again . . . and again . . . and again. He continued to just stand there.
What the hell?
The sound of my palm meeting his face, first on one side and then the other was the only sound besides our harsh breathing. I just couldn’t seem to stop myself.
Crack, crack, crack
 . . . a steady rhythm was taking shape, and I seemed to be a slave to its dance.

Finally Bryn reacted. He moved with the speed of a dragon and Guardian mixed as one as I abruptly found myself pinned under his body on his bed. His eyes blazed the fiercest dragon blue, and even though I couldn’t see them, I was positive mine glowed just as brightly. What would he do? I absentmindedly wondered, too focused on his perfectly formed face, and how even contorted with rage, it was the most beautiful one I’d ever laid eyes on. “You may be quick to give me away Bryn Aries O’Bannon, but make no mistake—you always have been and always will be mine,” I spat at him with more harshness in my voice than I intended.

A low growl erupted from his chest and before I really registered what was happening, his lips came crashing down on mine. He covered me with his entire body, pinning me with his weight down into his mattress. I moaned my approval as his tongue plunged into my mouth, hot and wanting. This is what I needed; this is what I’d been waiting for. As he ground himself into me with wild abandon, I lifted my hips up to meet him with each thrust. His clothes needed to be off . . . like yesterday. I was more than happy to help him with his not being naked issue. I tore at his clothes with a desperation he seemed to match, and within what seemed like the blink of an eye, Bryn loomed over me, naked and ready to finally give me what I needed . . . him.

But he paused, despite the raw hunger I saw in his eyes as he looked down at me. “Peej—we shouldn’t—why won’t you just—”

“Let you go?” I snarled at him. “Never. I’ll never let you go. You promised always and I’m here to collect.”

Bryn’s pupils noticeably dilated further and he looked at me with wonder. “Always,” he murmured, and as the word left his mouth, I could almost see the acceptance wash over his face. He finally understood . . . He finally realized he belonged to me and when he promised always, there would never be any going back. We didn’t need to be mated as dragons for that to be the truth between us. Being mated to him would merely be an added bonus. He brought his lips back down to mine in another onslaught of need, and in one quick motion he came to find his home . . . inside me. I cried out as the pleasure of feeling him again rippled through my system. “I love you Peej . . . always.” Bryn’s voice was a guttural sob as he began to build a blistering pace.

And that’s when I felt it . . . my magic . . . my new stronger magic flowing up to wrap around us. I just instinctively knew that this time, our mate bond would be complete . . . the real deal. No words were needed between us like when Khol had claimed me; Bryn’s soul and mine were linked together on a much deeper level. I cried out at the pure joy of knowing he was finally and completely mine. Our session was much quicker than normal, but then again we hadn’t been together in quite some time and our current need was completely primal. Even still, the familiar feeling of ecstasy began in my center and pushed its way out through my body before I fell to pieces in his arms shouting his name to the world. I heard Bryn call out my name with his own release just before I slipped into darkness.

18

“You don’t look well,” I said, knowing there was no way to tell Bryn that tactfully. “Were you sick or something?” I thought back to the vision that had me so worried about him when he woke up as if from a nightmare covered in a sickly sweat.

“I haven’t been sleeping very well,” Bryn replied as he ran the tips of his fingers down my naked back, eliciting a shudder from me. “But I have a feeling that’s all going to change soon.” I didn’t have to look at him to know he was smiling.

I inhaled deeply, letting his delicious scent overwhelm my senses as I lay with my head on his chest, my hand making lazy circles across his skin. “I had a vision about you. I was worried.”

“I’m fine . . . now.”

“So sex is the cure-all for you then?” I asked with a giggle.

“With you it is.” His voice went all dark and seductive on me.

I tried to ignore the things his voice alone did to my insides, and persisted with my line of questioning. “Are you sure? It just feels like something else is going on.”

“Like what?” I could hear the exasperation in his voice. He knew I was like a bulldog when I got something in my head. I’d learned from the best . . . Jenna.

“I don’t know. I just feel . . .” Very conspiracy theory is what I wanted to say. But about what? I guess it went back to when the Riders broke into the compound and shot me. How did they find me so quickly and without any resistance? I just couldn’t shake the underlying feeling that there was a traitor amongst us. But who? “ . . . I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”

“Who could blame you for being paranoid? With everything that’s been going on lately . . . how the hell did a Rider get into Jenna anyways?” Bryn added one more thing to my list that had me thinking conspiracy theory again. There was something else going on right under my nose, I knew it. If only I could get my powers to work the way I wanted them to, then I’d be able to figure it out.

“Let’s go,” I said, pushing myself up and out of bed. “We have a Rider to question.”

As I bent to pick up what was left of my clothes, I felt Bryn’s body heat behind me as he lifted my hair up off of my neck and kissed where I knew his mate mark had finally sunk all the way into my skin. “Mine,” he murmured as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against him.

“Bryn,” I chastised, even though I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in his embrace for just a little bit longer.

“Yes, my queen,” he said, and I could feel his smirk against my bare skin as his tongue darted out to lick the back of my neck this time.

“Bryn, I mean it. I—we have responsibilities. To our world.” My words sobered him up and he let go of me, leaving me to sigh over the loss of his warming touch.

Just as I finished pulling my shirt over my head, Bryn’s door slammed open to reveal, not Khol as I half expected, but his second in command . . . Drake. His face was contorted into a mask of rage as he looked back and forth between Bryn and me. “You just couldn’t stay away from him, could you?” he growled, his eyes flaring brighter. He then looked at me with bewilderment. “Why? Why would you choose him over my lord? You’re our queen, you deserve better than a baby dragon.” And before I had a chance to really process what he was saying, Drake was across the room, pinning Bryn against the wall. “My lord won’t kill you—but I will.”

“NO!” I screamed, moving with speed I didn’t even know I possessed. But before I could reach Bryn and Drake, Khol appeared.

“What the hell is going on?” he bellowed.

Drake immediately released Bryn and dropped to the ground in front of Khol. “I was protecting my lord’s interests,” Drake said, not sounding the least bit sorry. If anything he sounded proud of his actions.

Khol took in Bryn’s half-undressed state as he leaned against the wall gasping for air, and he met my wide eyes with question. “Tell me,” he whispered.

“I—I’ve chosen,” I stammered, my voice not sounding even half as confident as I wanted it to.

“I see,” he responded with absolutely no emotion whatsoever. A huge lump formed in my throat and my stomach knotted up as I waited to see what he would do. I wasn’t worried for Bryn’s safety, not with Khol anyways, because I knew Khol would never do that to me. He would never try to kill Bryn like he had once before, because ultimately it had resulted in my near death. “Drake,” Khol said between gritted teeth with menace, “Explain yourself.”

“I believe I already have,” Drake spoke with his head bowed and his eyes averted to face the ground. “I was protecting my lord’s interests.” His head then snapped up to meet Khol’s dark gaze head on. “Even when my lord wouldn’t do it himself.”

Khol took a step back as shock played across his features. “What have you done?”

“Khol?” I said with uncertainty. I knew I was missing something. What did Drake do besides just try to choke Bryn to death? I had to know. I moved quickly to Drake’s side before anyone could protest and reached out to touch him. I silently willed my powers to cooperate with me. I needed them to show me what I was missing—what Drake had done. I gasped, as I was thrown head long into a vision as soon as my skin made contact with his.

There was so much information, and one revelation after another played out in front of me in quick secession. I only really grasped the major points: Drake arranging for the Riders to kill Bryn. I wasn’t their target at all; Bryn was the one they were aiming for. It seemed Drake was enraged when I had almost lost my life in the process. He knew how it would affect Khol. The herbs Nala was giving me for my morning sickness had a little something extra added in, courtesy of none other than Drake. Before I left he had been putting that little extra something into my food. It was meant to strengthen the bond between Khol and I—Nala knew, of course. She hadn’t given up on having Bryn for herself at all. And Bryn was being . . . poisoned. Slowly . . . very slowly by Drake as a back-up plan. Not only that, but Drake had been giving Bryn herbs in an effort to foster some kind of connection between him and Nala. He had planned to stop the poison as soon as Nala could manage to bed him and gain him as a mate. Nala was not privy to that part of the plan. She never would have gone along with Bryn being poisoned. Bottom line . . . Drake was determined that Khol would have me for his mate. But nowhere did I see that Khol had anything to do with it, or any knowledge even hinting of what Drake was up to.

As the vision faded away, I let go of Drake and dropped to my knees. “We trusted you.”

Khol slid his arms around me and lifted me up before I crumpled fully to the ground. He turned me to face him, his eyes beseeching mine. “What did you see?”

I closed my eyes before responding, knowing what I was about to tell him would only cause him more pain. “Drake is the traitor. He arranged for the Riders to kill Bryn. He’s been putting poison into his food, and he’s been giving me herbs to strengthen the bond between us—so I would choose you.” I thought back to the visions I’d had about Khol after my attempted suicide and when he had been with Shannon. How could I have been so stupid? Those visions were showing me Drake’s reaction to those events. They were a foreshadowing of events to come. “Nala helped.”

I opened my eyes to see Khol’s face constricted into hard lines with the force of his agony. I had just informed him that his most trusted dragon—his second in command—had betrayed him—and to top it all off—my feelings for him had been helped along—pushed by magic. That’s why when I had donned the bracelet from my birth mother cutting off my connection with Khol, my feelings for Bryn had pushed back to the forefront of my heart.

Khol let me go and I crumpled to the ground, my eyes tracking his every move as he stalked toward Drake with deadly intent. Drake raised his chin defiantly at Khol as he came to stand in front of him. “I did it all out of love,” Drake said softly, his voice the only indication of his true fear.

“I know,” Khol said as he reached out with lightening speed and snapped Drake’s neck. I screamed as I watched Drake’s lifeless body fall to the floor in what seemed to be slow motion. And before I could even blink, Khol had ignited his fire magic to burn the remains of Drake. “Macon,” Khol called out as he stood watching Drake burn. Almost instantly, Macon appeared beside Khol, his face showing shock of his own as he looked down to see Drake’s burning body. He dropped down on one knee and bowed deeply before Khol. “You are my second now, Macon. Don’t disappoint me as Drake did.” Khol then turned to me. “I’m sorry.” Pain played across his face briefly before he disappeared before my eyes.

As soon as he was gone, I started to sob. I hadn’t betrayed Bryn willingly; magic had been used on me. How could I have not known? And Bryn . . . he hadn’t so much as touched Nala despite the magic that had been used on him. He had been stronger than I’d been able to be with Khol. I had come close . . . very close to letting Khol have me before I was sent away on my mission in Tennessee. And then it would have been too late. I would have never have had another chance with Bryn again. I looked up to meet Bryn’s burning blue eyes and he came to me and swept me up in his comforting embrace. My Bryn . . . my mate . . . my home. “Bryn,” I murmured. “I’m—”

“Shhh . . .” He rumbled. “I know.” I wanted to ask him if all was forgiven. I knew we had finally mated but that wouldn’t change the fact that he might continue to be bitter about my seeming eagerness to hook up with Khol. And okay, I had definitely been eager, but as it turned out, it hadn’t been entirely my fault.

“Why didn’t you sleep with Nala? How did you resist?” Another topic probably best left for another time, but I had to know.

Bryn tilted my head back toward him with the aid of his long index finger. “Because I love you. Not her.” It was both the most perfect and worst thing he could have responded with. The most perfect because him telling me he loved me so unconditionally was something I was worried I’d never hear, and it was the worst because I hadn’t treated him the same in kind. I hadn’t loved him unconditionally at all.

I slipped my chin off of his finger and crushed the side of my face to his chest. “I don’t deserve you.” And in that moment I knew that I didn’t, that Bryn was more than I ever deserved to have.

“No, you don’t. But I guess we’re stuck with each other from now on.” I could hear the smile in his voice as he teased me like he used to. God, I’d missed him. I clutched him even harder and pushed my nose into his chest so the only thing I could smell was him, and not the lingering smell of burnt flesh. “Let’s get out of here,” Bryn murmured as he tightened his arms around me in response. “I don’t want a reminder of what just happened.” And with that, a familiar feeling of weightlessness surrounded me and I knew Bryn had transported us with his dragon powers out of his room. Not that he needed that room anymore, I thought smugly, because he was mine and he would be back in our room, with me . . . where he belonged.

“Peej,” Bryn rumbled, and I could feel his words more than hear them. “I’ll never leave you again—I swear—I’m here—always.” Tears began to freefall down my face. I couldn’t believe I’d almost lost him . . . again. And in some way, even though Drake had manipulated me, I’d willingly participated in the destruction of our relationship. “Hey,” Bryn tried to console me as he continued to hold me tightly to his chest and tenderly stroked my hair. “Don’t. Don’t think about what could have happened.”

I pulled away from Bryn reluctantly and looked up into the face of the man I loved, the face of a fallen angel—my fallen angel. “We thought everything had been settled before, both in the dragon realm and after. Who’s to say something won’t rip us apart again?” Another huge sob escaped from my constricted chest as I allowed myself to say my worst fears out loud. Who was to say if Bryn was really and truly mine? I’d dared to believe it before and look where that had gotten me. I had been shattered into a billion pieces.

“We’ll be more careful. Trust no one but each other. It’s the only way to survive this apparently.” He reached out and pulled me back into his arms. “I don’t care if that baby is mine or not, I’ll love it like it was.” I didn’t think it was possible but I started to cry harder. I’d wanted to hear those words from Bryn from the beginning, to hear him say he’d never really walk away from me, that it had all been one huge mistake—and it had been. Thanks to Drake. “I love you Peej.”

“I love you too,” I croaked. He then tilted my head back and claimed my lips with a tenderness that spoke of a forever kind of love . . . our kind of love . . .
always
.