Page 23 of The Dragon's Mate Proposal

I jumped to the side with a yelp as the bookcase I’d just moved broke and toppled forward. Although I was completely out of its path, the sudden movement still got the better of me, sending my heartrate skyrocketing.

“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath as the cloud of dust began to disperse. “Let’s try that again.”

Twisting the handle, I started to pull. It didn’t immediately come. It felt stuck along the top. Bracing myself, I pulled harder.

“Sam, wait!” Cade bellowed as the door came free with a mighty scrape of wood on wood.

But it was too late. The doorframe snapped at the top, and the wall crumpled inward as the support was removed. I jumped back, but the ceiling itself was coming down. I shrieked as a cascade of wood and plaster showered me.

Then a deeper groan as beams in the ceiling gave way.

“Cade!” I screamed.

A roar filled the room.

Then suddenly, Cade was there at my side, his arms around me, his wings sprouting from his back, wrapping tightly around us protectively, a dome between me and the danger.

“I’ve got you,” he said, then grunted in pain as something heavy hit him, driving us both to one knee.

I screamed.

“Shhh,” Cade said, obviously pained as his wings shook and rattled. “It’s okay. It’s all right. You’re safe now.”

I pressed harder into him, waiting for the entire roof to collapse on top of us, smashing us flat. But it never did. Cade was down on one knee while I huddled under his chest and his body shook as it was pummeled. But true to his word, none of it ever reached me. I was safe. He was protecting me.

Eventually, the noise stopped.

Slowly, carefully, we stood with Cade’s wings still hovering protectively around us.

“I think it’s done,” I said softly, staring up into his eyes.

He stared back at me, those coppery-brown eyes filled with unreadable emotion.

“Perhaps,” he suggested after a moment, “we should leave this room alone.”

“You know,” I said, a nervous laugh escaping me. “That might not be such a bad idea.”

With Cade hovering over me, we left the room. I carefully did not draw attention to the shattered door and furniture he’d flung from his path in his rush to get to me. His focus hadn’t been on the contents of the room. Only me.

It was an interesting feeling being the source of such intensity from a dragon. I wasn’t sure how to feel. I knew what I felt. It was impossible to ignore the tingling in my extremities and the slow warm burn that never quite went away when he was close.

But should I feel it? I didn’t know.

We kept searching the house.

“I don’t think we’re going to find a pot of gold anywhere,” I said an hour later, brushing dust off my hands. “We’ve been through most of the house, and the only valuable thing we’ve found is some old books and that jewelry.”

Cade nodded, pulling out the two emerald rings and matching necklace we’d found in a box in one of the sleeping chambers. “This will do for now, though. It’s no fortune, but it’ll get us started.”

“Started?”

“Food. Supplies to sleep and live and begin cleaning this place up,” he said. “We’ll go into town to see the local trader tomorrow.”

“It’s going to cost more than what that’s worth to fix this place up,” I said, looking around the front foyer as we returned to where we’d started. “Assuming it can be saved.”

“I will save it,” Cade vowed with unflinching conviction. “Or I will rebuild it exactly the way it is if I can’t.”

“Let’s hope we find that fortune, then.”

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