23
Ember
Blast From the Past
I never thought I’d be so excited to read about the end of the world. Ancient runes? A secret dragon language? This was the stuff of my dreams.
All that was missing was a huge library full of old texts I could study and some dusty novels on the side.
Okay, and a rolling ladder.
Then I could die a happy woman.
I’d never gotten to use my degree outside of school, so I was probably useless at doing anything more than admiring the runes. But I felt like a kid again, excited and nervous and bouncing on the balls of my feet as we hiked up the mountain.
Walking next to Kieran did nothing to ease my excitement. Every absentminded brush of his fingers against mine and his soft, goofy smile had my heart beating a mile a minute.
I’d had plenty of lovers—and mistakes—throughout my life, but I couldn’t think of a single one that’d made me feel like this. It was like the possibilities were endless and the future was wide open .
Ironic, because we were heading to read about the end of the world, but I was enjoying myself too much to care.
“You’re taking this surprisingly well.” Kieran stepped to the side so I could walk ahead as the path narrowed.
The trail was a bit more overgrown than I remembered. I used to be able to take Mule up this way, so maybe his hooves helped to keep the path maintained.
I glanced over my shoulder, curious to see if Kieran was checking out my backside.
He was.
Fighting a smile, I kept walking. “It’s not like we didn’t realize things were crashing and burning with the earthquakes and power outages and everything else. Honestly, it’s kind of a relief to know there is an actual plan for the end of the world. At least someone has their shit together. The rest of us are just scrambling to make the best of whatever time we have left with no clue what’s going on.”
Saying that out loud made me realize how truly dark our situation had become.
But a breeze blew through the sagebrush, cooling my skin, and the path opened back up again under the shade of the pinyon trees that led to the old caves tucked deep into the side of the mountain.
If nostalgia had a scent, it was this.
Kieran laced his hand through mine. His callused palm was cool despite the heat.
“I misjudged you,” he said softly, speaking more to the trees than to me.
“I did the same.” I gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “But I’m glad we started over, neighbor.”
“Neighbor?” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Is that all you want from me?”
My lady bits were screaming hell no, but I couldn’t help the tease, “Is that all you want to give?”
I shrieked as he spun me towards him, walking us a few short steps until my back touched the bark of a tree. “No, Ember. I want more. I want… everything you can give.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, breathless as I looked up at him. My heart was seriously getting a workout lately. “There’s a lot of me to take in.”
The way his hands roamed down my sides, reverently like I was something precious, and the hunger in his eyes had me holding my breath.
I didn’t think this was teasing anymore.
“It’s not…” Kieran shook his head as if he’d heard my inner thoughts. “You aren’t too much. Whoever made you feel that is a liar. You’re more than I ever thought to ask for. You’re mine.”
I smiled. “Yours, huh? Just like you tried to take my land?”
A growl rumbled in his chest as Kieran reached behind my neck, tangling his fingers in my sweaty hair and holding my head still so I couldn’t look away from his eyes that burned a redder auburn as his pupils merged to diamond slits.
“No.” He spoke to my soul, staring into my eyes. “I’ll give you whatever land you want. I give you my protection. My body. My heart. It’s all yours anyway. Fate decided it belonged to you, mate.”
I was dizzy from his proximity, drunk on the sound of his voice and sipping the sweetness of his words, so it took me a moment to understand.
And when I did, my face fell. “Mate?”
A look of horror flashed over his eyes. It was gone so quick I would’ve missed it if we weren’t sharing the same breath space. “It’s a—”
“Do you mean friend?” I cut him off, trying to understand.
Words were important. And I wasn’t normally this grammatically correct, but we weren’t in a friendzone position right now, not with his length pressed against me and my hands sliding up the rough fabric of his shirt, needing to feel the skin underneath.
The low rumble of his laugh had bumps raising on my skin as he closed the distance between us, speaking against my lips. “No. I mean mate as in mated partner. You’re mine. My lover. My future. My forever. The woman made for me. There’s no one else but you, and there never will be.”
Whoa. That was a lot.
I knew I should take a step back and process this, to think through what this really meant. My body was on board, but my heart was....
You know what?
Screw it.
Life was short and I didn’t want to waste whatever time I had left by not taking a second chance on love.
“So, what does that mean?” I asked, still staring into his beastly eyes. “What does forever look like for a dragon?”
“It means I claim you and bind us together. Then you’ll never be rid of me again. That I can never leave you because doing so would be to tear out my own heart and bleed to death.”
My mouth popped open in a silent O before his lips crashed into mine.
I was old enough to embrace this intensity, to meet it with a response of my own, so I kissed him back like I was dying and he’d be the last breath I took.
In a poetic way, that was our reality.
The earth trembled beneath us as we kissed. Really, it shook. We broke apart with a groan.
I was so tired of earthquakes.
Kieran let out a frustrated growl as he pressed his forehead against mine, breathing heavy. “We’ll make this work.”
“I sure hope so.” I winked at him, ready to accept whatever came next despite the worry he seemed to be feeling.
I blamed the economy for my point of view. When things were this bad, it didn’t pay to question something good. Whatever a dragon/human pairing looked like, I was down for the ride.
I was just about to tell him that when the sound of a man yelling from the caves stopped the words on my tongue.
That voice messed with my nervous system, making my muscles clench and teeth grind.
“Tony is here.”
Kieran smiled as he let go of my hand, taking a step back and offering his arm like a perfect gentleman. “Surprise.”
∞
The coolness of the cave washed away the afternoon heat. Shadows danced before us, chased off by the beam of my flashlight.
Kieran’s hand in mine was an anchor through the darkness until we entered the open cavern on the right where he lit a lantern.
My stomach bottomed out at the sight.
“Ember!” Tony croaked my name with cracked lips.
His sheriff’s uniform was ripped open. Filth and blood coated his exposed skin. His belly was much larger than it’d been when we were together and more facial hair covered his dirty face.
“Get me out of here,” he begged.
Eyes wide, I took a step back, letting go of Kieran’s hand. Chains held Tony against the wall. He struggled against them weakly.
And the smell.
I was going to be sick.
I took another step back, turning to Kieran. “What did you do?”
Kieran seemed a little confused at my response to seeing my ex-husband tied up in a cave. “He deserved to suffer for hurting you.”
Oh fuck.
Hillary and half the town showed up last night. They were right to be worried. Kieran had taken Tony. He’d brought him here, and from the looks of things, he’d been here for a while.
“You aren’t happy.” Kieran frowned.
I swallowed hard, forcing a smile. “While I appreciate the gesture, we don’t normally go around kidnapping and torturing people in caves. ”
Did I ever think I’d speak that sentence in my life? No. But here we were.
“He deserves worse,” Kieran growled as he headed to the back corner, leaving the lantern behind.
“Listen to me, Emmie.” Tony rattled the chains as he tugged on them. “You need to find the keys and get me out of here. That freak will kill us both. You don’t know how sick he is or what he’s capable of.”
Ugh. I hated that nickname.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Seems to me like you’re the only one who needs to be worried. Kieran and I get along.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tony cried out. “Emmie, he’s dangerous. He turns into a mutant beast thing. Let me go. I’ll get us help. We can move him off your ranch.”
“Now you want to help?” I rolled my eyes, pissed off that I was even having this conversation.
Kieran came back with a ledger book and handed it to me. “I wanted to be sure I knew what was happening before I brought you here. It seems he had his wife, a Mrs. Hillary Roberts, deposit the yearly tax checks you sent into the county, but they were transferred to his own personal bank account.”
“Emmie, please! Don’t believe him. He’s not even human,” Tony shouted as he struggled against the binds. “I don’t have your money.”
“Will you shut up for once in your life?” I said, moving to the lantern light to see the evidence for myself.
I figured as much after last night, but it still hurt to know he was capable of this. Knowing how easily he got us in debt, I doubted he had any of my money left .
It really sucked having to continue to pay for past mistakes.
“Did you spend it all?” I had to ask.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied. “I’ve never taken a dime of your money. Even when we got divorced.”
I hated how he twisted the truth. “That’s because I didn’t have a dime for you to take. I blew through everything I earned to pay for you to sit on your ass and play videogames for a year.”
“My knee was healing!” He jerked on his restraints, gritting his teeth. I could see it in his eyes. The words he really wanted to call me.
Cold-hearted bitch went right up there with the nickname Emmie that he knew I despised.
But I didn’t have the energy to continue to fight.
“It was all Hillary,” Tony said. “Help me out and we’ll ask her together. I’ll figure out why she’d do that to you. I’ll find a way to pay you back.”
“You’re such a liar.” I closed the book.
“Emmie, I—”
“That is not my name,” I spoke quietly, but we were in a cave so it echoed anyway.
“Fine,” Tony hissed, losing the mask I’d known was there. “If you don’t get me out of here, Ember , I’ll make sure this whole damn town knows just how pathetic you are. You’re sleeping with this mutant thing? They’ll make your life a living hell.”
“Can’t you be more creative? You’ve already done that once.” I handed Kieran back the ledger. The taste of bile was bitter on my tongue.
“Don’t leave me here!” Tony shouted as I turned to walk away .
Kieran fell in step beside me. “Can I end his life or do you want the honor?”
I looked up at him, seeing the absolute seriousness on his face. He was ready to kill to defend me.
A deranged giggle slipped from my lips. This was a fairy tale all right. A dark and twisted one where the monster was better than some of the humans I knew.
“Just let him go.” I breathed out a heavy sigh, trying to get my anger back under control.
He didn’t deserve any of my emotions. I preferred to save them for someone who really mattered.
“If that’s what you want.” Kieran touched the side of my face, smiling down at me with a warmth that melted the ice trying to claw at my heart.
Everything about him wrapped me in a cocoon of safety and I wanted to burrow into it.
But not here.
“You always were such a bitch!” Tony screamed again.
I tore my eyes from Kieran’s intense gaze, sparing a glance at my ex-husband. “I was going to ask him to release you, but maybe you can hang out there for a few more minutes.”
And with that, I walked away.
The sound of a fist making contact with bone and the rattle of chains bounced off the cavern walls.
Then blissful silence, followed by a predator’s roar, followed me as I went deeper into the darkened depths of the earth.