Fast as lightning, Bane gathered his goggles, Valor’s sword and the shards that made up Malaki’s armor. Perhaps they could be used as spear tips. Faster, he swept Nola into his arms.

“What are we—” she began.

Keeping her close, Bane launched through the opening. Though he maintained his humanoid form, he experienced a partial transformation again, wings ripping past muscle and skin to spring from his back. A painful process, but highly effective. He wrapped the appendages around Nola to act as a shield and a cushion.

Tick, tick—boom!

The bomb detonated. A violent gust of fiery air blasted through the open portal, picked them up and tossed them across a great distance. They landed on the beach, flinging sand. Shrapnel pelted him, and debris rained over them both.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Decoding his inner dragon!

ONE MINUTE NOLA basked in sublime pleasure, the next she wallowed in anger and resentment as Bane accused her of unconsciously choosing him as a first lover and forever mate—and fear that he might be right. The next minute, she floundered as he picked her up and hurried through a portal, protecting her in the shelter of his wings as a bomb destroyed his home.

Nola landed first, impact jarring her lungs. Then two hundred and fifty pounds of beastly warrior slammed on top of her aroused, needy body. Stars sprinkled her line of sight, and her lungs emptied.

Bane grunted as flames licked over his back.

The portal closed, the flames vanishing. Keeping a tight grip on a bloodstained sword, he rolled to his side.

She blundered to an upright position, wincing as she looked him over. Gashes and blood everywhere. Soot-smeared skin and a broken wing, the lower half shredded. Injuries he’d gained by saving her life.

Heady warmth spread through her, only to cool as realization struck. They’d come close to dying. Just boom—gone forever.

To never again know his kiss or his touch. To never again hear his husky, sex-rich voice as they verbally sparred. To never ever see his smile. What I wouldn’t give to see his smile. Would his golden eyes sparkle?

Stop mooning over him! He didn’t matter. He couldn’t matter. To Bane, Nola was merely a sword. An extension of his hatred.

“Thank you for getting me to safety,” she said between panting breaths.

“Are you hurt?”

“Shockingly, I’m good.” But he wasn’t. While the sunlight merely heated her fair skin, it baked his. “You?”

“Good,” he echoed, his voice strained. He stood, cursing all the while, and limped to a shadowed area protected by a massive black tarp. Once the shadows enveloped him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

To tell him to heal or not?

Not. Definitely. No more orders.

With her heart banging against her ribs and adrenaline burning through her veins, she studied their new location. Beyond the tarp—