Page 89 of The Dragon's Mate

She nodded and he paced the room again. Shepicked up the passport and the envelope. “Bren, please, you must go. I knowit’s difficult but -”

“Difficult?” He snorted in anger. “Don’t,Kaida. If you think I’m going to leave Tyler, you’re insane. I am not packinga bag and leaving my job and my brother and my goddamn life. I’ll take mychances with your clan.”

“If you die, Tyler will be alone anyway,”she said.

“That’s your argument?” Bitter laughter shotfrom his mouth. “Look, say what you want, but I am not running away like ascared little kid.”

“Please, Bren.” She stood and took his handsagain, her face drawn, and sorrow written across it. “It’s the only way tosave you. I can’t watch you be burned to death by my clan. Do you understand?I can’t. This is all my fault and I’m so sorry, but I need you to do this. It’sthe only way.”

“It isn’t,” he said. “I’ll convince thecouncil to let me live.”

“And if you don’t?”

“Maybe Cadmus will overrule their decision.”

“We can’t count on that.” He could see herfear beginning to turn to anger. “I could make you leave.”

“Oh yeah? You gonna knock me out and thencarry me away in the night in your dragon form?”

She scowled at him. “This is not a joke.”

“Considering I’m the one who might be turnedinto a human torch by tonight, you can bet your ass I get that it isn’t a joke,”he said. “But I’m still not leaving Tyler. I will convince the council to letme live. Trust me, Kaida.”

“Bren…”

“Trust me,” he said. Even though she wasthe reason he might be burned alive in less than six hours, he still weirdlywanted to pull her into his arms and assure her everything would be fine.

“I can’t watch you die,” she whispered.

“You won’t,” he said. “Everything will befine.”

* * *

The confidence he’d had earlier at theprecinct was long gone. In fact, Bren didn’t think he’d ever been this fuckingscared in his life. He’d dealt with people who were high on PCP and crazy strong,he’d been involved in shoot outs, hell, he had a fucking gun pointed at hishead by a guy who could vanish into thin air, but it still didn’t compare tothe fear that was rolling through his guts right now.

He parked the SUV next to Kaida’s cabin andshut off the vehicle. His hands were shaking, and he took a few deep breathsbefore grabbing his phone and studying the text from Tyler.

Dude, thanks again for dinner. It was nice.Later, loser.

He stared blankly out the windshield. He’dleft work early and arrived at Tyler’s school as Tyler was done for the day.He’d taken him for dinner, doing his best to make things seem natural and normal.He must have done an okay job. Tyler hadn’t seemed to notice anything waswrong.

Instead of dropping Ty off like he normallydid, Bren went up to his father’s apartment with him. He had no respect forhis father and hadn’t for a very long time, but he still loved him. If he wasgoing to die tonight, he at least wanted to say goodbye to his father.

But, like so often, his father was in his officeand on the phone. He’d waved distractedly at Bren but wouldn’t finish thephone call so they could talk. Bren waited around for about half an hourbefore finally leaving.

He should have said goodbye to Elora, but,in the end, couldn’t do it. He might have fooled Tyler into thinking everythingwas fine, but he wouldn’t have fooled Elora. He’d been afraid she’d pull the truthfrom him and that fear had kept him away from her. Still, she would be pissedhe just up and died without notifying her first.

He stared at his phone again before quicklytexting Tyler.You’re welcome. I love you, kid.

The three little dots appeared immediately,and he waited even when Kaida’s cabin door opened and she stepped out on the porch.She was wearing a long blue cloak and the paleness of her face was illuminatedby the glow of the moon.

Love u 2.

He stared at the message for almost thirtyseconds before shoving his phone into his pocket and climbing out of the vehicle.He met Kaida at the bottom of the porch steps. He wasn’t sure how it waspossible, but she looked worse than he felt. Her eyes were red and puffy, andshe looked on the verge of throwing up.

“You okay?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I have never beenless okay in my life, Bren.”

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