There’s a way, Mal insisted. He didn’t know what it was, yet, but he was used to solving insurmountable problems and they had time before the storms crept in.
“You don’t seem all that worried,” Scarlet observed skeptically.
“We’ve got days before the storms arrive,” Mal pointed out. “And your power is not to be discounted. I cannot believe that I will not be able to figure out a way to either protect your clearing from an underground battle, or fight the creature above. I’ll fix this,” he said confidently. “I will protect you, and I will fulfill my destiny.”
Scarlet shook her head at him. “I want you to try another word in that sentence.”
Mal was puzzled. “Fate?” he suggested, wondering if she had a problem with the word destiny.
“We,” Scarlet corrected. “We’ll fix it, we’ll figure it out. It’s my life at risk and I have no intention of sitting aside wringing my hands while you try to save me.”
Mal felt something in his chest shift unexpectedly.
He’d never had a partner. He’d always relied on his own cleverness, his dragon, and his power. He had clients, and business associates, and plenty of people who were desperate to claim him as a friend to their own advantage. But wealth and magic were better allies and he’d never acknowledged the empty place that lay like a cave in the stone of his heart, or the walls that he’d built to protect it after the last of his family had died.
Those walls had cracked at the first sight of Scarlet... or maybe even before, as he had investigated her and built an impression of who she was from her selfless actions. And now she was here, with him: his soulmate, his partner.
He traced the edge of her face in wonder. “Scarlet...”
“Mal,” she said warmly, and it was a thousand times more beautiful than Mr. Moore had ever been. Her arms were around his neck and her slim, strong body was against his. “Did I warn you about the lusty part?” she purred, her mouth near his. “We have a few hours before I can do anything about the evacuation... and I don’t need sleep.”
Mal could only growl in reply and catch her in his arms and kiss her. He laid her down in the mossy flowers of the clearing and the earth rose up to meet them. They were two of a kind, isolated by their strength, sharing powers of earth. He felt like every moment of loneliness was swept away at the touch of her mouth and the stroke of her fingers.
Show her, his dragon begged. Show her that she is our mate, that there is no room for doubt between us, that we are hers.
Mal could feel it, that bright, unbreakable bond, streaked with need and longing and joy. “I love you,” he murmured between kisses, knowing that it was pitiful compared to the strength and the beauty of what they shared. “I will love you to the end of the world and I give you everything that I am and everything I have and everything I will ever be.”
She gave a small wordless keen of pleasure and surrender and Mal set himself to satisfying the needs of her nature.
Chapter 16
Scarlet met Graham at the entrance to the courtyard, her phone with the text she’d just sent in her hand. Sunrise was staining the sky.
“Graham, thank you for coming so quickly. I need an emergency staff meeting. All the senior and secondary staff, please, within the hour. We’ll meet at the event hall; there isn’t space for everyone in our usual room.”
Graham cleared his throat. “Ah, Scarlet?” he asked, gesturing behind her.
Scarlet turned, to find that the courtyard behind her had erupted into bloom. Every plant that ever put out a flower had done so, and in many cases, glorious clusters of them. Some of the plants had changed colors, showing off their most flamboyant hues, regardless of the season.
“Oh, hmm,” Scarlet said, looking over the blossom-crowded room. Oops.
A swollen bud gave an audible little pop as it burst into flower and a vine unfurled a whole flurry of folded up leaves and fresh buds.
“This is new,” Graham observed.
Scarlet blushed.
Graham’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“I’ll keep it under control,” Scarlet promised. Another flower unfolded petals and the hedge leading down into the resort was rather suddenly peppered with white blossoms.
“This have to do with Beehag’s lawyer?” Graham guessed.
My mate, Scarlet thought, for a moment so giddy and full of tangled emotion that she almost forgot he had come to destroy her resort.
Graham was still looking at her dubiously and Scarlet realized that she was smiling foolishly at him. “It’s complicated,” she said, in vast understatement. “Please get everyone ready as quickly as you can.”
After he left, Scarlet closed her eyes and tried to center herself. It felt so unreal, to feel so happy, to know that so much was at risk.