by D. Brumbley
Table of Contents
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
About the Author
The Heartborn Mate
The Ironborn Cycle, Book Two
By D. Brumbley
Also by D. Brumbley
The Jannah Cycle
The Initiative
The Rebels
The Fugitives
The New World
The Ironborn Cycle
The Ironborn Claim
The Heartborn Mate
The Lightborn Queen
The Elements of Moonlight
Rise with the Tide*
*forthcoming in 2021
Dedicated to
To those who always support us,
and most importantly,
to each other,
for never giving up.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors’ imaginations or used fictitiously.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 979-859758591-8
The Heartborn Mate. Copyright 2021 by D. Brumbley.
Published by Two in One Publishing.
Cover art by Diana Sousa.
All rights reserved.
Distributed by Kindle Direct Publishing.
I
Nick couldn’t think straight as he watched Orlando approaching Candra. All he could hear were Teresa’s words of warning rattling through his mind over and over again.
It’s not a choice when the two kinds come together, she had said to him, her words heavy with the caution of someone who knew firsthand what they were talking about, he won’t be able to resist.
He ran on instinct through the water that filled the hallway up to his ankles, sprinting as fast as he could for Aura.
When he got to her, he caught her around the waist and picked her straight out of the water, then leapt with her onto a part of the wall that had fallen when he shattered the bars on Aura’s cell. When they were up on the stone, he almost fell over her in a rush to cover her body with his, though he doubted it would do any good in keeping her safe.
The growl that rumbled through Orlando’s throat fought with the buzz of power running through him for dominance as both shook the room around them. The bars of every cell ignited with electricity, arcing with a web of power. Cascades of electricity laid themselves out between his body and the water like a descending cloud of power. He became, all at once, the center of a web that stretched out to every piece of conductive material in the room. In the chaos around them the only safe place seemed to be the stone barricade where Nick and Aura hunched down in terror.
Candra’s growls were just as loud and just as clear about the pleasure she felt at the proximity of Orlando, and the feel of him. The touch was beyond anything she’d ever imagined, and it was nothing that a book could have taught her. Her power was funneling directly into him, and though he was taking everything she gave him and pouring it back out in waves and waves of electricity, it seemed that she had an endless amount to give. As far as she was concerned, it was all his. Everything was his. The connection wasn’t only physical, it went deeper, and there was no denying the strength of the draw and the emotion behind it. They were meant to be together.
Orlando pulled her slowly into him, his fingers never leaving her skin, until she was almost crushed against him. She was a complete stranger whose name he couldn’t even remember, though he knew someone had shouted it a moment before. He was filled and complete at that moment, like a man who had been starving all his life after the first course of a buffet. His fingers wove through her hair once in a gentle caress, and he closed his eyes against her as the room around them began to shatter into pieces. He didn’t care. The world was right. It was all just too right.
Candra welcomed the embrace and the caresses. Even with her masters, she had never felt quite so welcomed and quite so at home as she did with Orlando’s arms around her. In the short time she had known Aura, she had learned things about Orlando, but she’d never imagined what it would be like to touch him. How could she ever have known? It felt unique and intimate, and she never wanted to let go of him or the feeling between them. Candra held tighter as she continued to pour her power into him, and her fingers dug into his skin.
Aura held tightly to Nick, though she could feel the room around them heating up with all the electricity. Even though they weren’t being electrocuted, there were still plenty of ways for them to die. Being crushed was still distinctly an option, though she didn’t know how much more crushing her body could handle. Between the moment she had temporarily witnessed with Orlando and Candra, the expression of complete hurt and betrayal of Nick’s face etched in her mind, and the fact that somewhere out there was still the Council and its fighters, she wondered if it would just be easier to stick a toe out and let Orlando do what he did best.
Up the hall, there was a sudden howl of pain from another cell as one of the other imprisoned wolves was met by the water flowing past Orlando’s feet and instantly electrocuted. Orlando didn’t let go of Candra, but his hold on her loosened a little as he opened his eyes again. The sound didn’t repeat itself, but he knew the wolf was dead, whoever it was. That fact broke him out of his trance. The lightning crashing through the room began to slow to a sizzle, localized around Orlando, and he seemed to be wake from a dream as he blinked and looked down at Candra. “Are you alright?”
Candra breathed heavily as he pulled her out of it, but she continued to hold tightly to the stranger she swore to herself she would never let go of again. Her body trembled as she felt the mixture of their power running between them, but she nodded. “Yes. I…are you?”
“Better than I’ve ever been in my life.” Orlando breathed quietly, resting his forehead against hers. The sudden intimacy should have seemed strange, but it was nothing compared to the power still passing between them. “I’m…Orlando.”
She laughed softly at the fact that they were introducing themselves to each other after that, but she smiled afterwards. “Candra. My name is Candra. And I’ve never been so happy to meet someone before.”
Nick started to get up, amazed that he was still alive, and he hesitantly looked around the broken remains of the hallway for any sign of Orlando’s continued storm before looking back down at Aura. “Are you alright?”
Aura nodded slowly and let go of him, since it was obvious by his movements that he wanted to get away from her, though he was concerned for her safety. She looked down at the rocks instead of up at him, since she couldn’t bear to meet his eyes. “Yes, I’m okay.” Her arms were scratched up and bleeding, as was the side of her face, but at least she was alive. “One of these days you’re going to ask yourself why you keep saving my ass.”
Just that statement hurt more than anything before that moment, but he stepped away from her and into the water, testing it to make sure it didn’t shock him. “Not today.” He stepped towards Orlando, who was still holding Candra like something was going to take her away from him. “Are you good? We need to go.”
Orlando glared at Nick for a moment with murder in his eyes. He had the power to kill the man right then and there, and a part of him wanted to, for what he did to get them into that cha
mber, but he just nodded instead. “I’m fine.” He looked past Nick at Aura, and his expression softened. His hold on Candra turned a little less insistent, but he didn’t let go of her altogether. “Lead the way. We’ll be right behind you.” He turned back to Candra. “Is there anyone else down here?”
Aura looked at Orlando for a moment but she turned away as her eyes filled with tears and she followed quickly after Nick. She wanted nothing more than to get out and away from the sight of Orlando holding Candra, even if it meant running right through the Council itself.
Candra nodded and then looked toward the other two cells where she knew there were other wolves like her, but the cells were dark. Normally they were always glowing, even when the lights were out. “There were two more. Like me.”
Orlando’s face fell as he looked at one of the dark cells, and he stepped away to look inside. He saw the dead body on the far side, lying where the water had taken longest to reach, but still dead nonetheless, his coat half-soaked where he was lying in the shallow water. “I…”
The sight of the dead wolf was not something that Candra was accustomed to, but she had lost many friends in the cells around her. People came and went, and whenever she asked, she was always told that they were dead, so she had always found reasons to come to terms with death. As childish and innocent as she otherwise seemed, Orlando was surprised to find a solemn kind of maturity in her golden eyes as she answered the rest of his unspoken apology.
“They were wild. They didn’t know any peace. Now they have it in the light.” She was a strong believer in the traditional ways and religion of wolves, of the Gods and the belief that when they died, their souls, their essence, whatever they were filled with, went to join the element that they drew power from in life. It was the only way of looking at the world that made sense to her and gave her peace.
Orlando wanted to stay and ask her more, but Nick and Aura were already hurrying out of the chamber. He took Candra’s hand and headed after them. “We have to go. The rest of the Council fighters will be here soon, and we need to be out in the open when that happens. We can’t stay here.”
Candra didn’t really understand the urgency in his voice. “They’d never hurt me.”
That statement from an obvious prisoner shook him, and he did a double-take as he looked back at her before he answered. “They’ve held you down here in captivity. They kidnapped Aura. They have an army outside this building that was waiting for her and Nick to arrive so that they could be assassinated. They tried to kill all of us on the road on the way home to Spain not two months ago. They’re going to try and kill us just for coming back here.” He looked at the door and then back at her cell. “Now, you can either come with me, out into the world, or you can wait for them to come back and lock you away again. Your choice.”
She followed him quietly, but she couldn’t really believe everything he said. She followed him because she wanted to get out and see the world, but she was terrified to do so. Candra had never been anywhere except down where the light couldn’t get her. “I don’t want to be locked away, but they kept me safe from the light.”
“Safe? I thought you lived on the light?”
“I do,” Candra said almost reverently as she continued to follow him. “But one burst of bright light can carry me for days. The sunlight keeps me in my wolf because it’s too much. I can’t…I can’t handle it.” She said with a shiver.
His mind reeled for a few moments at the implication of what she was describing. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for her to be terrified of her own element. He couldn’t get enough of his own, with the rare exception of a lightning strike, but even that was only able to sustain him for a month or so comfortably. “Well, it’s nighttime outside right now, not that you can tell down here, so you’ll be safe for the moment.”
Candra relaxed a little bit and she held tighter to his hand. “I feel like if you’re with me, though, maybe the sun wouldn’t be so awful.” It was strange to think that, but the way he drank in her power, she knew it had to be true.
“I guess we’ll find out if you can get a tan, then, huh?” Orlando teased as they ran, looking back at her with a playful grin. She was deathly pale, more like a vampire than the werewolf he knew she was.
Aura wasn’t far behind Nick when she caught up to where he stopped, standing over the body of a woman who was still unconscious by a doorway. She didn’t know the area, and since the woman’s face was hidden, Aura didn’t recognize her. “Why are we stopping?” She asked in confusion, since it seemed as though he had frozen there, staring.
Nick knelt at Zara’s side, glancing up around the hallway to make sure they were still alone. Unconsciously, he moved his fingers and the pendant that Zara wore moved back into place below the hollow of her throat. Though her eyes were closed, the faceted purple gem in the center of the fragile gold filigree seemed to be an ever-open eye, watching on her behalf. He rested a hand on the unconscious woman’s arm before he picked her up. “She tried to tell me. To warn me.” Nick said vaguely, then lifted her easily in his arms and started across the council chambers, which were still empty, towards the main doors. “If this place is going down, she’s coming with us.”
When Aura saw the woman’s face, she gasped loudly. “The Heartborn? Warn you? She works for them!” Aura was bitter and disgusted that he wanted to help the wolf that raped her mind.
“She might have worked for them, but she’s still an outcast, just like we are. And she’s the only person that’s been honest with me about what matters.” Nick explained resolutely without glancing her way.
Aura didn’t even know how to respond, so she just stared at him for a moment longer before she started moving, hoping to get ahead of him. “I was going to tell you. But I got kidnapped on the way to your house. Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.” Aura hissed bitterly, tinged with her own hurt. She knew that it was going to hurt him when she had to tell him about Orlando, but she had planned on being honest with him before everything happened. Aura wanted to keep some kind of friendship with Nick, but now one Heartborn was all it had taken to destroy everything.
He let Aura have her distance, but he was glad she had the sense to wait before walking out the front doors. He set Zara down behind a table as they approached the entrance to the library. Candra and Orlando came up behind them, still hand in hand.
“I’ll look.” Orlando volunteered as Aura approached the doors, hoping she would still listen to him.
Aura stopped walking, but she didn’t look over at Orlando or Nick. She just waited for Candra and Orlando to pass her. Candra stood just behind the door as Orlando moved to look out.
Orlando opened the door just a crack and saw the backs of several of the Iron Guard still in place outside the building. He felt a swell of pride by proxy for Nick’s people that they were so obedient that they managed to hold their positions the entire time he and Nick had been below. “Lea, that you?”
He saw Lea nod in response to his voice, but she didn’t look away from the plaza in front of her as she spoke. “Good to see you’re alive. Did you get Aura?”
“Yes, and a couple more besides. How’s it looking out there?”
“It’s getting nasty. They’re trying to avoid us as a whole, but they’re making their way here.”
Once it was apparent that Orlando didn’t need to start blasting things right from the gate, Nick came up to the door and stepped out. “What about the other units on the perimeter of town?”
“They’re holding, but just barely. If we don’t leave soon, they’ve got us. We’re trapped here in the center if our other units fall, and they will. Quickly.”
“Give them the order to retreat to the rendezvous. We’ll join them shortly.” Nick nodded to one of the other men present. “Charo, see to the woman behind the desk. She’s coming with us. The rest of you, let’s move with a purpose. We need to draw as many of the Council’s units as we can on the way out of the city.”
&nbs
p; They went with his orders, but once they made it to the rendezvous on the edge of town, the units holding it had been severely weakened and there were far too many of their own dead and scattered around the area. Only a few minutes after they arrived and started gathering the bodies to take them home, the Council fighters that chased them through the city caught up with them, and they found themselves surrounded on three sides before they could blink.
Orlando had been near Candra the entire time, and had never let go of her hand as he led her through the confusion and all the rough-looking wolves around them. He pulled her in close to him and hugged her for a moment. “This isn’t going to be pretty. Stay close to me, but stay behind me.”
Candra was confused but she nodded against his side before she just slid around behind him. She kept her arms wrapped around him and buried her face into his back so that she wouldn’t see whatever was going to happen.
“Everybody down!” Nick yelled in a booming voice as he drew back closer to Aura instinctively. Everyone present that heard him fell to the ground. Some of them actually shifted into their wolf form just to be closer to the dirt when they saw Orlando raise his hands at the approaching mass of fighters. He could tell by the way they ran that some of them were Skyborn, but what they were wasn’t going to matter in a moment.
Lightning flared from Orlando’s fingertips to engulf the entire mass of fighters surrounding them like a cloud of white light. It lit up the entire area and sizzled through everything present, like a fallen live wire sparking some kind of localized electrical storm. No one even had a chance to scream. He cut down everything around them, barely missing some of those who were actually on his side. Even when his enemies were dead he didn’t stop, and the power rushed out from his fingertips to set fire to buildings and trees. It melted and twisted the blocks of the road and the street posts in horrible contortions, ranging further and further until it looked like the entire city would be engulfed by it.