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 . . .
19
I had Bryn back, that was something that only in my wildest dreams had I dared to hope for. And we had the answers to what had happened between us. Despite everything that had happened . . . me becoming the next Dragon Queen, Jenna getting possessed by a Rider, me going to Tennessee on a solo mission, me hooking up with Khol, me finding out I was pregnant . . . well, Bryn and my relationship felt stronger than ever. We had weathered the storm and come out on the other side. He was my true mate now, our marks wouldn’t be disappearing anytime soon, unless one of us died, and I was just too happy to allow myself to think about that grim reality. With Bryn by my side, I could make everything else right again. Because I had also learned that the person I needed to depend on the most was me. Bryn was my partner—my mate—but it wasn’t his job to take care of me, even though he certainly seemed to want to.
“Do you feel okay?” Bryn tried to hide the worry in his voice. “You still don’t have morning sickness, do you?”
I laughed into his chest, where I was currently splayed across. We decided to have just a little bit more alone time before facing the real world again. Both of us had been dealing with a little too much of that lately. “No, I’m fine.”
“God, Peej, you have no idea how much it was tearing me up to knowing you were pregnant and me not being there for you. At least not in the way that I wanted to be.”
It was almost weird how easily I was moving on from everything now that I had Bryn back. He made me feel anchored to reality in a way that no one else probably ever could. Sometimes it felt like if I didn’t share things with Bryn, they really didn’t happen, or didn’t mean anything. I guess that’s because he’d been the most important person in my life since I was five years old. “I don’t wanna think about any of it, Bryn. Let’s just pretend none of it happened.”
“Peej—that’s just not realistic.”
“Fine. If you can’t pretend, then lets at least not talk about it.” I frowned into his chest. Why rehash all the unpleasant things that had happened between us lately when we could simply be enjoying what was between us now?
Bryn didn’t say anything for a few minutes, and I knew he was thinking about if he should just go along or argue with me. He heaved a huge sigh, causing my head to move up and down with his chest. “Alright. You might have a point.”
“I always have a point.” I sat up and grinned at him.
“Yeah, but I didn’t say it was a good one.” Bryn gave me his patented lop sided grin complete with dimples, his eyes glinting at me with mischief.
My insides melted for him. I’d dreamt about that smile, combined with that gleam in his eyes . . . quite literally. I was suddenly hit with an overwhelming desire to have my unborn child wear that exact same smile. “I want the baby to be yours. So badly, Bryn,” I said around the huge lump that had formed in my throat.
Bryn’s face clouded over. “Yeah, me too.” He then guffawed. “Us parents . . . at nineteen . . . who would have thunk it?”
“Certainly not me. I always thought if anyone, Jenna would be the one to get pregnant this young.”
“Yeah, you and me both, Peej.”
Not wanting to let our conversation turn anywhere darker, I knew it was time for us to get back to reality. I always hated this part. “We have a Rider to question.” I pulled myself up and out of his embrace with reluctance and began getting dressed.
“You mean
I bit my lip with worry. “Are you sure you feel okay? I mean Drake was poisoning you. I think that maybe we should have Khol use his healing powers on you or something.” Would Khol have to touch Bryn, kiss him? That would be veeerry interesting, I smirked to myself.
