The Protector (Fire's Edge)

by Abigail Owen

  He paused, searching her gaze.

  “Because?”

  “Because you so obviously didn’t feel the same. You could hardly stand to be in the same room with me. Everything I did was wrong in your eyes.”

  Her lips quivered, and she glanced away, but not before the guilt clouded her expression. “Self-preservation,” she murmured, so softly he wasn’t positive that’s what she’d said.

  “What?”

  She locked her gaze on him with a self-deprecating smile. “Self-preservation.”

  After so many years, he needed this spelled out. “What does that mean?”

  The little nod she gave was more to herself than to him, as if she were agreeing with a thought. “My dragon wanted you from day one.” She shrugged. “At first I was too angry about you flying away—what I took to be you shunning the female-born—to listen to her instincts. But eventually you won me over as well.”

  “I did?” When the hell had that happened?

  Her lips tipped in a watery grin. “Strong. Loyal. Would do anything for your men and for me, despite my bitchy attitude toward you, and eventually for my boys. I always knew that. And it scared the hell out of me.”

  “Why?”

  She sat back, her hands in her lap, and dropped her gaze to her fingers. “Because I knew if I let myself fall, I’d shatter when I hit the bottom.”

  “That will never happen—”

  She jerked her head, rejecting his words. “It will.” Her voice broke over the words, but she lifted her eyes, something in them now resolute. “One day, you’ll find your fated mate, and I’ll have to let you go.”

  “No—”

  She put a finger to his lips. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I know you think it’ll never happen, but…”

  Before he could try to protest again, she suddenly smiled, the sight stealing the darkness from inside him, filling him up with light. Hope in her eyes, like a watery fog suddenly lifting and the sun illuminating a brilliant sky.

  “I’ve realized that I’d rather have some kind of wonderful with you, even knowing it’ll end one day, than take another breath without you.”

  She let out a squeal as Levi rolled her beneath him. He grunted as the move tweaked the still healing wound, then stared down into her gorgeous face, alight with laughter. He smoothed her hair from her forehead, cupping her cheek. “I need you to be very clear. I told you I want you as a mate.”

  “And I’m saying yes.” No hesitation. No doubt. Just a delirious kind of happiness.

  The rest of the air punched from his lungs almost painfully. She’d said yes. Holy fuck. He had to still be asleep and dreaming of this.

  “Levi?” Her smile slid to a frown as she searched his face. “Are you okay—”

  Life and giddy relief shocked his system back online and he grinned. “Now. Mate me right now.”

  Her frown disappeared behind a giggle, a sound he hardly ever heard from her. “Females mate a little differently. There’s no need to turn me, I’m already a dragon. We have a ceremony, instead.”

  “Yeah. We can do that, too.”

  Already he was growing thick and hard in anticipation, his body vibrating with the need to claim his mate immediately, while she was still amenable to it.

  “Too?”

  “I’m putting my fire in you, change or no change. I’m claiming you, min eneste. For us. The ceremony can come later. Tonight, I plan to pledge myself to you, heart and soul, and gods willing you’ll do the same, so that we know.”

  The fear that flashed across her features was unmistakable, and he knew he was pushing her. If only she could see the future he saw and not an ending that would never happen.

  “Please say yes to me,” he whispered. “Yes to us. Before I have to leave you, so that I know we’re bound together while I’m gone.”

  The tip of her pink tongue peeked out, wetting her lips, then she shook her head, eyes wide, as though she’d surprised herself.

  “I need to hear you say it.”

  She swallowed. “I want to be your mate, and you mine, in every way that we can.”

  “In every single way.” No way was he letting her qualify this.

  A tiny smile lit her up, as though glowing from the inside out. “I want your fire in me, Levi Rowtag. Mate me. Right now.”

  His dragon reared back and roared their combined triumph. With frantic hands, ignoring the twinges from his healing wound, he had them both stripped in record time. Then, the second Lyndi lay beneath him, gloriously naked, a feverish light to her eyes, he slowed it down. With careful deliberation, he ran his hands, his lips over every part of her body, worshipping her, memorizing her.

  Already he knew what made her moan, but now he craved her sighs, too.

  He set his mouth to the hollow at the base of her throat and her body trembled against his, so vulnerable. He moved up, nibbling the underside of her jaw, and another giggle escaped her.

  “That tickles.”

  “I could listen to the sound of your laugh forever, and that’s all I would need in this life.”

  The amusement left, leaving only tender wonderment looking back at him.

  He cupped the back of her head to stare into her eyes, and, after a long moment, a secret smile she only ever gave him had his heart clenching so hard he ached.

  “I love that smile. That’s my smile.”

  Her lips parted. “Your smile, huh?”

  He rolled to his side, letting his hand play over the soft skin of her belly. “Mm-hmm. My smile. I know all your smiles. When you’re annoyed. When you’re brave. When you’re trying not to laugh. When you’re really and truly amused.”

  He trailed his fingers into the curls at the junction of her thighs, finding her slick and hot and ready, but only brushed against her. She bucked her hips, chasing his touch. “That’s a lot of smiles.”

  “You have a hundred smiles and I love every single one.” He slipped a single finger inside her, and her legs parted for him, gaze going glassy.

  “Oh?”

  Slowly, he pumped that one finger in and out, then leaned over and sucked lightly on a dusky nipple, his rumble of satisfaction rising up to meet her groan of pleasure.

  Then he lifted his head, watching her intently. “That one is my smile. You only ever give it to me.”

  Her eyes widened as she stared back at him, hips still chasing the movement of his finger inside her, but her entire focus on his face. Her lips parted, and that smile, the one he’d staked a claim on, broke through. “I love you.”

  Levi grunted at the impact those three simple words had on him. A visceral, almost overwhelming combination of elation and possessiveness.

  He pulled his fingers from her to gather her close and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “Fuck, woman, I’ve loved you so long and I never thought I’d hear those words from your lips.”

  With her hands cupping his chin, she forced him to look at her. “I’m sorry I made you wait. That I made you doubt.”

  Levi shook his head. “I know why you did. Don’t ever apologize for trying to protect me, because you can damn sure bet I never will for protecting you.”

  His dragon was done with all the talking, going quietly wild inside Levi, needing to claim her even more than the human half of him.

  Rolling again, he settled between her legs. “I can’t wait a second longer.”

  Lyndi shook her head, her hair spilling across the pillow in a halo of black silk. “Me neither.”

  In one long, slow stroke he pushed into her, and her inner walls clamped down on him so hard his control almost snapped then and there.

  Instead, he held still, breathing hard and gathering himself. Lacing their fingers together, he drew her hands up beside her face on the bed. At the same time, she wrapped her legs around his hips, sinking him deepe
r inside her.

  “Don’t look away.” A command. A demand he needed her to obey.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  At those three words, he unleashed, dragon and man as one as they stared down into their mate’s eyes. He pounded his thick, hard cock into her, rutting like the animals they were. Every single move driving them gloriously, deliriously toward climax.

  A tingling set up at the base of his spine, and Levi kindled the fire inside his belly, stoking the flames until the inferno burned white hot inside of him. Sweat slicked down his back as the heat gathered.

  “Open your mouth for me, min eneste,” he ordered.

  She met his kiss with no hesitation, no inhibitions, and Levi’s gut clenched in a sensation of the purest happiness as he poured his fire into the woman he loved more than anything in the world.

  “Oh.” Her breathing hitched. “Oh, my. Oh.” Her body spasmed around his, then somehow started to glow, as though starlight had burst out from inside her.

  For a heartbeat, fear surged through him. What was happening to her? “Lyndi?”

  “Oh, fuck yes.” She tipped her head back, though she still kept her gaze on his. “I’m close.”

  Relief rode a surge of utter, primitive satisfaction and he increased his pace to the rhythm of the moans tumbling from her kiss-swollen lips. At the first grip of her orgasm around his cock, he let it all go, a new fire joining the other he’d filled her with and together, gazes locked, they both shouted through the explosion of pure sensation. Only this time, she was his. Forever.

  “I love you. Always.” He kissed her hard and long, easing as their bodies slowed until he was sipping at her lips. Replete and incandescently satisfied.

  With a soul-deep contentment he’d never known possible, Levi slid over to lie beside her, keeping her close, staring at the incredible woman who was now his mate.

  With a tender smile, he picked up her hand and placed a kiss to the inside of her wrist. Then grinned as she melted in his arms, gaze going languid.

  “I’m going to tattoo my family crest here.” He brushed his thumb over the spot. “So that you carry me with you always. So you remember me while I’m away.”

  “I’d like that.” She said the words almost shyly. “Not that I’m likely to forget you.”

  His Lyndi shy? He wasn’t having that. “I’ll tattoo yours on my wrist, too.”

  The shyness left her on a laugh. “Now that I’d really love to—”

  She paused, frowning, gaze suddenly not with him as though she had drawn into herself.

  “Lyndi?”

  “Something feels odd.”

  Odd? “What do you mean?”

  She shook her head, then her gaze jerked to his face, full of shock and fear as her lips parted and her face contorted in a silent scream. Her back bowed off the bed and she scrambled at her neck with her nails, as though trying to rip away her skin.

  Without another thought, Levi flipped her over and gathered her hair, lifting it away from her nape to reveal the sign of her clan glowing like metal in a kiln, almost too bright to stare directly at.

  “What’s happening?” she whimpered.

  “Your sign is—”

  Her scream shattered the next words that would have come from his mouth. The mark turned a pure, terrifying white, then disappeared, leaving her skin entirely bare.

  Lyndi crumpled, breath heaving in and out of her. Then she pulled herself into a ball, body shuddering with reaction. He hunkered down beside her, only she wouldn’t look at him, her hands covering her face.

  “Lyndi?”

  She started rocking.

  “Lyndi?” He took her by the wrists, pulling her hands away. “Min eneste, look at me. I can’t fix it if—”

  She opened her eyes and bile slammed up his throat in a burn of acid. Because her eyes were no longer the reddish-brown of a red dragon shifter. They were near black and entirely human.

  “Oh gods.” This couldn’t be happening. What have I done?

  Lyndi scrambled into his arms, clinging to him as she burrowed into his chest. “Levi…I can’t feel my dragon.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Levi stared at the satellite phone clutched in his hand and willed it to ring because all he’d been getting over three days of trying to reach his team was nothing. No answers. No one calling back to check in.

  No way was he leaving Lyndi in her defenseless state. The team needed to know. Informing the king…he’d figure that out later.

  “If you’d stared at me with the same intensity all these years, I might have given in sooner.”

  At Lyndi’s teasing he raised his head, sending her a quick smile even as he scanned her face. In the days since their mating, she’d turned wan, dark circles bruising the underside of her eyes. Just this morning, he’d woken to the sound of her retching in one of the chambers too small to use as a bedroom.

  Her eyes narrowed. “But if you keep looking at me like I might shatter into a thousand pieces before your eyes, I’ll snap your well-muscled arm off and beat you senseless with it.”

  Levi managed a chuckle. For her.

  But this was his fault. He’d just assumed that his fire wouldn’t do anything to her. A symbolic and instinctual need to claim her, and that was all. But for three days her dragon had remained silent inside her, her eyes still human, and no marking had returned to her neck or the back of her hand.

  He was the asshole who did that to her. Stole that from her.

  Pushing away from where she sat propped up against the rough wall of the cave in their shared bedroom, Lyndi crawled over to him and straddled his lap, taking his face in her hands. “I know you’re worried.”

  That was putting it fucking mildly.

  “But I need to ask you something…difficult.”

  He couldn’t help the way his hands clenched her hips tighter but forced himself to loosen up at her wince. “What?”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  Disappointed? Levi searched her gaze for why she’d use that word and got nothing back. Those darn walls could go up at will with her. Which meant this question was serious. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “That I’m not… I can’t…” She shook her head, hardly able to get the words out.

  Fuck. That’s what this was about? Her being human now? Levi wrapped his arms around her, getting right in her face. “Never,” he growled. “I love you, dammit. Nothing about you could ever, ever be a disappointment.”

  If he hadn’t been holding her so tightly, he would’ve missed the way her muscles relaxed ever so slightly. “Okay then.” She planted a soft kiss on his lips. “In that case, stop watching me like I’m broken. Got it?”

  “But I’m the one who broke you—”

  She kissed him again, harder, longer, then pulled back. “Don’t,” she whispered. “I need you to let this go, or I’m not going to be able to deal with it.”

  Levi dropped his forehead to hers. “Anything you need from me, you’ve got it.” Although he had no idea how he was going to live up to that promise.

  “I need you to go to your king. I can’t be worrying about you turning rogue or him putting a hit out on you for disobedience. Not on top of everything else.”

  “I—”

  A massive boom reverberated through the halls and caverns, followed by a long roll of crashing sound, seeming to shake the mountain itself. Immediately, he and Lyndi were up on their feet.

  “Levi!” The shout didn’t come from any of the boys on patrol but from inside the caves. “We’re under attack.”

  He whipped his head to stare at Lyndi. His now vulnerably human mate.

  “Go,” she said with a shove. “I’ll stay with Vilsinn.”

  Unable to voice any of the thoughts swarming his mind, drowning out everything but her dark eyes, Levi lea
ned down to plant a hard kiss on her lips. “Stay safe, mate. That’s an order.”

  Her derisive snort followed him as he sprinted out the door and to the main chamber leading outside.

  The second he entered the room, he discovered Marin crouched beside a pile of boulders now blocking the entrance. He sat at the head of a dark green dragon crushed by the fall of rock and already turning the gray color of ash as his body consumed itself with flame from the inside out.

  Marin lifted his head, face wet with tears but trying to be brave even as his chin wobbled. “Levi, Elijah is dead.”

  “No!” Lyndi’s scream came from directly behind him.

  She sprinted past him to drop down beside Marin, next to Elijah’s body. Levi could still remember the day she’d taken the kid in.

  “He saved me.” Marin’s voice trembled. “The big dragons hit at once and he tried to blast them with fire, but they hit higher and started the rockslide. The entrance to the cave started falling, and he jumped over me until they crushed him. He pushed me out from under him.”

  Lyndi’s head dropped forward, her eyes closed. “He was supposed to go live with his colony. They said yes. He could’ve gone but wanted to help keep his brothers safe.”

  “It’s my fault—”

  She wrapped an arm around Marin. “No. He died knowing he saved you and tried to protect the rest of us. He loved you.”

  Levi dropped to a knee beside them both and squeezed Marin’s bony shoulder. “Honor his sacrifice. Live for him.”

  Marin turned his head to frown up at him, confusion written in his white-blue eyes, and Levi jerked his chin toward Lyndi. “Protect her,” he mouthed.

  After a lingering glance at Elijah, his brother by action if not by blood, Marin drew his shoulders back, suddenly looking older. “Come on, Lyndi. You shouldn’t be here.”

  Slowly Lyndi turned dazed eyes to the child, blinked once, then choked back a sob even as she nodded. She leaned forward and whispered something to Elijah, then got to her feet and allowed Marin to pull her out of the room.

  Levi, still kneeling beside the body, put a hand to Elijah’s snout, sending a quick plea to the gods to grant his soul a warrior’s welcome, a place of honor.