Twilight of Embers (Dragons of Ember Hollow, #1)

by Tessa Hale

There was a hole in her chest. Right over where her heart should’ve been. I placed my hands over it as if I could somehow will the blood she needed back into her body. As if I could save her. But I couldn’t. And I couldn’t save myself either.

A hint over five foot three on a good day. But this guy had to have a foot on me. His sandy brown hair was laced with natural gold highlights that spoke of lots of time in the sunshine. His green eyes were kissed with flecks of gold in a pattern that had me wanting to lean in a little closer to discover them all. And his angular jaw could’ve cut stone.

Your girl. I liked that too much. Something about it just sounded right.

“I—she—she crashed into me on campus. New freshman. I didn’t realize it at first, but then the wind shifted. I scented her. Mad, she smelled like one of us.”

Five men and one woman. What a hell of a lucky woman she would be.

Knox handed me the sweatshirt, his fingertips brushing mine. The second they touched, a zap of electricity coursed through me. My vision tunneled. And then I was falling.

“Even the worst things on the planet can still result in good. It doesn’t make the price worth it, but I think it helps to see those gifts, nonetheless.”

When our kind found their mate, they had a deeply ingrained need to make sure their mate was safe and cared for. To provide for them in every way imaginable. Food was just the tip of the iceberg.

“We have to tell Cáel. He’s going to lose it.” I winced. Cáel wasn’t altogether stable. He’d been too broken for that. And I wasn’t sure what a mate bond would do to him. He might gut every man that looked at Hayden. What a hell of a mess that would be to clean up.

“Cáel doesn’t usually touch…anyone,” Knox explained. “He can’t handle the contact.”

It wouldn’t matter if Hayden never shifted. She’d still be the most important being on the planet to me. But I didn’t think that would be a problem. “I sensed power in her. Immense strength.” Knox’s head jerked in my direction. “You did?” I nodded. “She’s an incredibly powerful dragon. She just doesn’t know it.”

“Nothing can happen to you, Little One.” Those words curled around me, comforting somehow. I hugged Cáel back, sensing he needed it. “Nothing’s going to happen to me.” “No,” he growled. “It’s not. Because I won’t let it.”

“Does he know that I’m going to take you to bed sometime soon and fuck you so hard you’ll feel me for days? Yes, Little Flame, he does. And he likes it.”

Maddox’s thumb stroked my face. “I’d take a blade for you a thousand times.” My eyes burned as my head swam. “Why?” “Because you matter.”

I’d just be locked in a house with two guys who’d made me come harder than I could’ve dreamed, one controlling alpha male I wanted to climb like a tree, my professor who could barely look at me, and my maybe-boyfriend’s twin brother who’d rather stab me than smile at me. What could go wrong?