Broken Gates

partially bonded to Bryn, I was right back to where I started with my body craving Khol’s again, just like when I had first met him. I found myself, much to my chagrin, suddenly very aware that I was wearing a towel . . . and nothing more. “Well until you do,” he said with a slight chuckle, “we will still need to work together on the task at hand.”

“Which one?” After all, there were so many with the Riders working overtime to take over our world.

“The task you have been charged with from your vision, of course,” he stated matter of factly.

“Oh, so what . . . I’m supposed to just find this Mori? Why is she so important?” Besides the fact that she seemed to have some kind of tumultuous relationship with my biological father. Hmmm . . . those must run in the family.

Khol’s face turned serious, his eyes blazing brighter. “This Mori is the queen to us all, and she has been lost to us for many years now. No one is exactly sure what happened to her. Some say she slumbers, some say she journeyed to another world . . . and some say she was killed by Dragos in a fit of jealous rage.”

“My father . . . I mean my biological father, could have killed the friggin’ Dragon Queen?” I felt all the color drain from my face. “But I thought there weren’t any dragon kings or queens? And if she’s dead, then how the hell am I supposed to find her?” I remembered asking Khol once why he thought I should be impressed that he was a Dragon Lord because a king would be better. He had then promptly informed me that there were no dragon kings. Didn’t it stand to reason that meant there weren’t any queens either?

Picking up on my emotions, or maybe my thoughts, because sometimes I still wondered if he could actually read my mind and he just wasn’t telling me, Khol answered, “There has ever only been one queen, and she ruled us all . . . the Red . . . the Black, the Gold, and the Silver. She was all seeing and all knowing, at least that’s what we all believed.” He turned away from me and bowed his head as if in mourning.

My gut twisted. “Did—did you love her?” Because he could have—if she had died, that would have freed him to love another one day—me.

“We all did in a sense, we all worshipped her,” Khol murmured. He turned back to face me and ran one of his long heated fingers down the side of my neck, eliciting a shiver from me. “But I’ve never loved another like I love you.” Flames erupted in the depths of his irises. “I never knew it was even possible to love someone the way that I do you.”

“Oh,” I whispered as his hand pushed up under my head to support my neck. A feeling of liquid desire ignited in my middle, and I found myself wondering what if would be like if I let him kiss me again after all this time. So much had happened since the last time his lips had touched mine—and we’d already slept together once. It could be nice . . . more than nice . . . to give myself over to Khol and the feelings of lust he was currently igniting inside me. I didn’t resist him when he brought his lips down to mine and swept his tongue in to take full possession of my mouth. I even wound my hands around the back of his neck to helpfully pull him closer to me.

Wait—what was I thinking? Or maybe that was the problem . . . I wasn’t thinking. The one time I had slept with him . . . or, more aptly, let him have sex with me to save Bryn’s life, I had felt like my heart had frozen inside of my chest. Even though my body seemed to be all right with being a free agent again, my heart would always belong to Bryn. But what if he never wants you again? my mind whispered. Khol would never walk away from you the way Bryn did. No . . . I couldn’t let Bryn’s temporary rejection spur me on to do something stupid and rash. Because when Bryn changed his mind— emphasis on the when and not if—I couldn’t have done something irreparable . . . like have sex with Khol and end up mated with him. Damn these dragon hormones! Now that I had fully tasted all the intimacies of being part of a mated dragon pair, the craving to have that again was almost irresistible. My body craved . . . and I wanted . . . but I couldn’t let myself give into it.

“No, stop,” I gasped into Khol’s mouth as I struggled to push him away.

He pulled away from me but only briefly so that he shifted and wrapped his arms around me, pressing his face into my hair. “But you’re right, my little Seer,” his breath tickled my neck and I yearned to tangle my hands in his hair to pull him closer, but I remained perfectly still instead. “A dragon’s love is eternal, and I would never— could never walk away from you—because I already would have by now. Maybe Bryn is too human to love you the way you desire . . . the way you deserve.”

“But what if I am dragon enough to love Bryn forever?” I hadn’t thought about that before. What if Bryn wasn’t dragon enough to love me forever? And what if I am? Was I doomed to love Bryn for the rest of my life and to maybe have him move on to love someone else? Maybe more than one someone else?

“I’ve explained this before,” Khol massaged my back slowly, which felt much more sensual than relaxing, but maybe that’s what he was going for. “It’s different for female dragons, that part of you isn’t triggered until you’ve mated.”

“But I was mated!” I exclaimed.

“To both myself and Bryn. Even if some part of your prior matings linger . . . it still . . .” His voice trailed off as he pulled away far enough to look into my eyes again from mere inches away. I gulped nervously at the intensity in his green depths. “It still means I have a chance with you too. And I’m not going to miss any opportunity I might be presented by Bryn’s stupidity.” He brought his lips back down to mine and kissed away any retort I may have had at the time. I moaned into his mouth as he pressed himself down into me on the bed. I felt him tugging at the towel that offered me little protection from his roving hands. I had absolutely no idea what to do. Thoughts of doubt about Bryn kept circling in my head, and yet they looped back around to the fact that I couldn’t give myself to Khol for fear of losing Bryn forever . . . But what if I already had?

A sharp intake of breath acted as a small dose of sanity for me and I pushed Khol away—only to meet the dark blue eyes of none other than Bryn. It was as if my thoughts alone had conjured him up to witness my betrayal of him. You can’t betray someone if they left you at the curb like yesterday’s trash, my mind offered in my defense. A split second before Bryn’s face clouded over into an unreadable mask, I saw the hurt that my actions had placed in his eyes. “Bryn!” I gasped. Khol stood and walked out of the room without another word, but I didn’t miss the smug look on his face, and I’m sure Bryn didn’t either.

Bryn’s cool assessing gaze met mine, and my face heated with shame as he spoke. “I see that it’s not going to take you long before you’re mated with him then. Good.”

He might as well have slapped me. “Good? You can’t mean that!” I struggled to breathe. “He kissed me, I want you—I love you! You know that! Bryn please!” I began to feel lightheaded from lack of oxygen, if only I could manage a couple normal deep breaths.

“We’re not going to have this discussion. I want you to move on, just like I’m going to . . . with Nala.”

I opened and closed my mouth, unable to find my voice, the shock of what he was saying almost too much for me to handle. “Bryn, no,” I rasped when I finally found my voice. “Don’t do this. I’ve known you since we were both five years old. I know you think by pushing my buttons, by using Nala, I’ll get angry and mate with Khol . . . Just please . . . stop.”

“So maybe I don’t have any real feelings for her, and maybe what I said to you before was true.” When he finally met my eyes again, there were so many dark emotions swimming in his sea storm eyes that I couldn’t see the old Bryn—my Bryn—in them at all. “But I want you to mate with him, and if giving myself to Nala is the only way I can make that happen”—he bared his teeth at me in a mock smile—“then I’ll do it. Make no mistake about that.”

“Bryn.” His name rolled over my tongue and out of my mouth in a hushed whisper, carrying with it a silent plea that I could somehow make him see what a huge mistake he was making.

“I was born to be your Guardian, and I swore to myself once that I would do whatever it took to protect you, even if it meant protecting you from myself.” He turned and took a step toward the door. “I’m just not strong enough—not powerful enough—not good enough to be with you. I just wish I had accepted that from day one. It would have saved us both a lot of pain.” Khol chose that moment to return and he stepped into my room, pausing near Bryn. The two of them shared a very male look before Bryn left without so much as another word to me. I stared after him, hating Khol freshly in that moment.

“We must make plans for your journey,” he said coolly, in an all business tone. He was a very wise dragon to not push me any more in that moment. He knew I’d talk to him about the task I was assigned by the missing