Page 48 of Twilight of Embers
“Ryan’s wife was murdered, and he fell apart. Kept devolving until he wasn’t our brother anymore. He was a stranger.” Knox’s fingers flexed around mine. “He killed our entire family and burned the house down around them. East and I barely made it out alive. Ryan let himself burn with them.”
My throat was on fire, agony ripping through it. I could feel Knox’s pain as if it were my own. And maybe it was. Our stories were different but far too similar.
So, I did the only thing I could. I unbuckled my seat belt and climbed into his lap.
I wrapped my arms around Knox as if I could take all his pain. “I’m so sorry.” I nuzzled his neck. “You aren’t alone.”
It was the only thing I wanted to know when I was in the depths of my grief, that someone was with me.
Knox pulled back a fraction so that his eyes locked with mine. “I’m not, am I?”
“No,” I whispered.
His head dipped, so slowly, giving me all the time I’d need to move. But I didn’t.
The moment Knox’s mouth connected with mine, fire burst free in my veins. An inferno of heat and need and sensation. I pressed closer to him, needing more, needing everything.
Knox took and took, teasing a moan free from my lips as his tongue stroked mine.
My fingers twisted in his shirt, pulling him harder against me. My core tightened in desperate need. And it felt like invisible wings beat against my rib cage.
Knox tore his mouth away from mine, his breathing ragged and eyes burning gold.
My fingers flew to my lips. They still burned.
And some part of me knew that nothing would ever be the same.
24
EASTON
The whiskey burned as I shot it down my throat. The fiery pain was exactly what I needed. Anything to distract me from the agony that was her.
My twin just had to invite her here, into our sanctuary. And now her scent was everywhere. That dewy jasmine. So pure. So naïve.
It had seeped into everything. The furniture. The carpets. The fucking walls.
There was no getting Hayden out now. She was all around me.
The call of her was so strong. As if my beast could already feel her just because my brothers had touched her, because they had begun the mating process.
It was a long way from being cemented. That would take the actual bite to complete. Something I’d never do. But I didn’t know where that would lead me. Possibly going out of my mind with want and need.
I grabbed the bottle of whiskey to refill my shot glass, but a hand wrapped around it, pulling it from my grasp.
Cillian glared at me with those dark green alpha eyes. We were the only ones in our small horde that could meet his stare, but there was still a pressure to his gaze.
“You think this is going to solve your problems?” he growled.
I shrugged, releasing my hold on the bottle as Maddox and Cáel filed into the room. “It’s better than pretending everything is all sunshine and fucking rainbows.”
Cáel’s expression darkened. “She’s our mate. It’s a gift. You know how rare this is.”
Rare was an understatement. The number of female dragons had dropped to an alarming number. Finding a true mate bond was practically impossible. Most dragon males ended up mating another type of shifter or even a human.
I reached for a different bottle of whiskey behind the bar. This was Cillian’s good shit. I poured it into the glass and shot it back. “You guys have at it.”
Cillian set his bottle on the bar. “You know it doesn’t work that way.”
