Page 2 of When Roses Burn

I sensed she felt the same way I did about her family; she didn’t live up to their expectations. I was very different from my father… much to his utter disappointment.

I didn’t consider myself a beta shifter, but I didn’t want to rule anything, let alone all the shifters in the kingdom of Wildwood, if something happened to my father. And while Briar didn’t often speak of her mother, I sensed her sadness when she did.

We kept things simple and fun, but as the years passed, I learned everything about her. I knew what made her laugh, how her body moved with fluid grace when she ran and jumped, and most importantly, I basked in how she made me feel.

Those feelings intensified with every passing hour, day, and year. Despite my growing love for her, I didn’t work up the courage to kiss her until I was sixteen.

We were running through the tunnels we’d traversed a hundred times before when it happened. Her brunette hair trailed behind her like a banner in the wind, her laughter… that sweet, beautiful cadence… bounced off the stone surrounding us. She was so happy that it made my heart swell with joy.

I laughed with her; I couldn’t help it. And when she spun toward me, her hair billowing out and her blue dress flaring around her legs, I caught her around the waist as I’d done a hundred times before.

Her sea green eyes shone as our laughter rebounded around us. But instead of lifting her and spinning her through the air like I usually did, a different impulse gripped me this time.

I had to go on instinct because I couldn’t think about it. When I thought about doing it, I feared losing our friendship. But on that day, nothing could have stopped me from kissing her.

I was an idiot, a fool, and hopelessly in love with the girl with sea green eyes and rose-colored lips. When our mouths touched, I braced myself while I waited for her to shove me away.

Instead, she went rigid and then, to my joy, she melted into me. Her slender arms wrapped around my neck as the sweet aroma of strawberries filled my nose.

She felt better than I’d imagined as her lush body melded to mine and her mouth opened. The dark sorceresses were evil, devious eternals and nothing to mess with; everyone in the kingdoms knew that, but she wasn’t like them, and I wasn’t like the other shifters.

We were us, and the only time we could truly be ourselves was with each other. When I kissed her, I didn’t expect it to lead to anything more, but when Briar pulled back, she smiled as she played with the hair on my nape.

“What took you so long?” she asked.

I grinned before kissing her again.

And from that day forth, she was more than my best friend. She was my everything. It was so natural to go from kissing her to making love to her.

Everything between us was easy within these walls. Outside of them, we battled the complexities and demands of our lives.

When I was eighteen and she was seventeen, we lay in our tunnel together. We’d turned one of the many underground aqueducts into our space. We’d brought in blankets, lanterns, books, sketch pads, clothes, food, and drinks. It was our nest, our hiding spot, our joy.

She lay against my chest, warm and smelling of me, while I played with her hair. My animal had yet to emerge, I still had no idea what I would shift into when the time came, but I knew what she was to me; even if I’d been too young to recognize it at the time, I’d known what she was from the second I first saw her in the tunnel.

It was rare for a mate not to be another shifter, but a shifter always recognized their mate when they met.

I studied her neck as I played with her hair. I’d yet to brand her as mine.

My animal was getting stronger as I aged, but it wasn’t time for me to shift; that would come when I stopped aging and fully came into my powers, but I sensed how much it sought to break free and claim her. When my animal finally surfaced, it would be for her. I was certain of that. It might even come earlier than the other shifters because of her.

When I did shift, I’d finally learn if I was a canine, feline, or the rarest of all, a dragon shifter. My future creature sometimes stirred within me, and I was excited to meet it.

As we lay together, Briar read to me from her favorite book, one about pirates, a hidden treasure, and a girl who’d stolen it from them. Her voice, so sweet and fluid, made me smile as a new desire stirred. I wanted her again, but she was lost in her story, and I wouldn’t take that from her.

When she shut the book, closed her eyes, and leaned against my chest, I stroked her cheek with my thumb. “Run away with me.”

Her eyes flew open, and her head lifted as her gaze flicked over my face. The years had thinned out her cheeks and formed her into a beautiful woman. She hadn’t finished changing and maturing, but she was endlessly amazing to me.

“And go where?” she whispered.

“To the sea. We can find a boat and sail away.”

“What about the dragons?”

“We’ll avoid them.”

“We don’t know where their island is.”