Chapter 4
Four
Ella
“Look what we have here, fresh meat!”
The Red sneered as he wrapped his clawed arm around me and hauled me in close, pressing his nostrils to my neck. “And a Clippy too. How delicious.”
He clamped his other hand over my mouth so I couldn’t scream for help. My heels scraped on the ground as I tried to worm myself free while reaching for anything nearby. My fingers closed on the edge of the door and clamped shut with a burst of foreign strength, stopping us both cold.
“Stupid Clippys,” the Red spat, letting go of my mouth to haul his fist back.
If he made contact, I was done for. I had to act, and I had to act now. Desperate, I jabbed my elbow at his jaw as hard as I could.
The blow hit his throat instead. The Red jerked back, dragging his claws across my left side as he reached for his throat, hacking and coughing frantically for air.
I screamed in pain as my skin was torn open by the razor-sharp tips, blood dripping down my side. The pain was incredible, white-hot and horrible, so unlike what had happened to my other side.
A cold, alien thought pressed itself into my head, taking over. Wordless yet instantly understandable, I felt the anger rise from deep within me.
How dare someone other than our mate touch us. Our body was for him and him alone.
Incandescent rage dropped over me as the Red caught his breath and stood up, a sneer twisting his lips. Moving with a speed and strength I’d never known, I acted to defend myself. That was as strange as the presence in my mind. I was a Clippy. I had no power to stop others.
That point had been driven home in far too much painful detail a long time ago …
This time, we fight.
The otherly thing in my head wasn’t about to let us back down. Twisting at the waist, I grabbed on to the solid brellwood door and heaved. The hinges gave way, and with a twitch of muscle, I ripped it free, guiding it right into the face of the fire dragon.
He went down in a heap. I stared in shock at what I’d done, still holding on to the door.
The power drained from my arms, matched by a rising surge in my head. I dropped the door and took off for the forest.
Privacy and open space. That was what I needed, what I craved. I had to find peace and calm, get control. Come up with a plan. I ran on through the trees, breathing heavily while trying to ignore the pounding of my wounded side and what had to be my dragon against the inside of my skull.
It was demanding to be let out. Why me? Why now?
An image of Dirk popped into my head—tall, strong, with the brilliant platinum-white hair of the ruling line and blue eyes that were simultaneously soft yet filled with an incredible intensity. Like he was hiding the weight of the world behind them.
Whatever was going on, it had everything to do with him. It had to. The moment we’d locked eyes, everything had gone completely wrong.
I ran on, my bare feet crashing through the undergrowth of the little forest. There was no path to follow. I ducked under thick boughs of pine trees and darted around thickets, making my way to the far side of the forest, where the sheer cliff face rose up high, blocking any further passage.
Or so I’d thought. As I burst through the edge of the forest, I saw a crack wide enough for me to walk through with a little room to spare.
I pressed on. The ground sloped upward rapidly, but my legs didn’t burn.
They were still filled with this newfound energy and strength, and I put it to good use.
A few hundred feet later, I burst from the crevice into exactly what I’d been searching for—an open, quiet mountain meadow. Tall grasses and multicolored wildflowers swayed in the breeze, the orblight bright and cheery, welcoming me out of the shadowy crack in the landscape.
I walked through the field in a daze, my fingers outstretched, brushing against the flowers and teasing the tips of the grassy stems until I came to a little pond of crystal-clear water.
The grasses near the edge were shorter, and I plopped myself down here, the weight of everything that had happened seeming to descend on me at once.
I melted into the ground, staring up at the glowing orb embedded in the rock high above Hollow Earth. The giant gemstone cast its light down on everything below it, and I basked in its rays. As I did, I focused on my breathing, bringing it under control and forcing myself to relax.
I had so much to think about, to understand, but it was important I did so calmly. Then I could process it and analyze things. That was how I did it. I was a planner, and this would be no different. It had to be. I was desperate for an anchor, to attach myself to something known.
But I didn’t have the chance. The air changed, and I gathered myself to a crouch, instantly on guard. Someone was approaching, and I didn’t know if it was another Red. I might have to fight again.
“Ella,” a familiar voice called. “It’s me.”
I sat heavily on my rear in relief. “I’m over here,” I said, calling to Anna.
She glided through the tall grasses but didn’t immediately come over when she emerged at the pond’s edge.
“Can I sit?” she asked, her unique violet eyes soft and concerned.
I nodded, and she joined me in staring into the clear water. We sat that way for a minute, Anna giving me time to be the first to speak. She had always been the best at reading people. She was going to be great as the Ice Tyrantess, I had no doubt.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked at last, guilt at fleeing the fight settling in.
“Yes. The Reds were … dealt with. No major injuries.”
I nodded, grateful to hear that. “And … Dirk?”
There was no stopping it. I had to know, to ask. About him. Despite everything.
“He’s fine,” Anna confirmed. “What about you though, El? You’re bleeding.”
I looked at my left side, where the shirt was torn and stained with blood. “I’m healing. So I’m okay, I guess.”
Some fury bled into my answer, despite my best efforts. How could it not? Now was the time my dragon chose to make her appearance? When there had been so many other times I could have made use of her strength to defend myself, but more importantly, my friends?
But she had been absent all my life when I had needed her. Now she stirred to life because of a man, and I was just supposed to accept that?
No, I don’t think I will.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Anna asked, broaching the subject at last.
I shook my head. “Can we talk about you instead?”
“Sure?” Anna sounded confused.
“You flew here.” I had noticed that much before the world went insane around me. “You can shift now.”
“Yes.”
“Tell me about that. What is it like?”
Anna shook her head. “Maybe later. Now isn’t the time for that, El. I need to know if you’re okay. Really okay.”
I knew she wasn’t referring to the claw marks from the Red. She was talking about the before. About the pain and the screaming … and the pleasure that had followed.
One of which I knew far too much about and the other, which had been stolen from me a long time ago.
“What happened?” she pushed. “Was it Dirk?”
Her tone said she already knew the answer, but it didn’t stop me from flinching at his name.
“What happened to you in the kitchen, El? Why did you run away?” Her voice grew taut. “Did he hurt you somehow?”
“How could he?” I whispered. “He never came near me.”
“But there was pain anyway. Wasn’t there?” Anna asked softly, guessing.
Anna and Milly both knew I hadn’t cared to be with a man in the decades we’d known each other. It wasn’t common for either of them, but neither had they shied away entirely like I had. So they had become overprotective of me anytime a male had directed interest my way.
I looked away, which was answer enough to her question.
“Where?” she asked.
I gestured at my right side. Anna reached for the hem of my shirt gently, even though it didn’t hurt now. It hadn’t hurt since I’d had an orgasm after the pain.
My cheeks burned at the memory. Who did such a thing?
“I heard the party was over here,” a third voice chimed in, startling both of us and causing Anna to jerk and lift my shirt higher than intended as Milly entered the area around the pond. “Do you—”
Her voice ended in a hiss of surprise while Anna stayed entirely silent.
“What?” I asked, alarmed, looking back and forth between them.
“You didn’t mention you two were mated,” Milly said, gesturing at me.
I sat up straight. “I didn’t say that.” Had they been able to read my mind back at the chalet? Hear the thoughts of my dragon as she showed off for Dirk?
“You didn’t have to,” Anna said quietly, the gravity of her tone forcing me to finally follow her gaze down and look at my right side.
Starting just above my hip bone, a series of marks had been etched into my skin.
They swirled and rose along my ribcage, all sharp points and soft curves that disappeared under my shirt.
I pulled my collar out, and sure enough, the marks continued over my right breast and shoulder.
They even covered a bit of my upper arm.
And they were all bright blue. The exact color of Dirk’s eyes.
“What the hell?” I hissed, jumping to my feet and brushing my side as if I could somehow erase the marks like they were a toddler’s wall drawing that didn’t belong.
Anna looked up at me, her face twisted in confusion. “Why are you mad? This is a good thing, El. It means you have a mate. A dragon. You’ll be able to shift one day too!”
“That is not what this means,” I said, shaking my head and working hard to keep my breathing under control. She didn’t understand. She couldn’t. Neither of them could.
“Then what does it mean?” Milly asked, looking back and forth between Anna and me.
“It means,” I said through gritted teeth, trying not to lose my composure, “that he put these here. On my body. Without asking me. Without my permission.”
“Ella,” Anna started to say, but I cut her off, unable to handle both my friends and the rise of my dragon as she stirred to life once more, elated about the mate marks.
Of course she would be. She wasn’t there when I needed her. How could she, or any of them, understand why I needed those marks gone.
The agitation of the lizard-beast was blending with old, long buried but never dealt with emotions from that time, mixing together in a cauldron of pressure and chaos that pounded against my temples. My dragon was confused and wary of the walls I’d erected to hold back the horrors of my past.
I walked away from the pond, back among the wildflowers and grasses, trying to let their serenity wash over me once more. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. I …
Teakwood and freshly washed flannel. That’s all I could smell. The scent was so particular and delicious as it flooded my body that there was no mistaking it. A part of me knew it was meant to be calming, to soothe my stresses and help me relax. A scent just for me.
But my dragon had the opposite reaction. She got a whiff of it and lost her damn mind, breaking through my hold on her and rushing for the surface.
“Ella?”
I spun to look at Anna wide-eyed as she came up behind me. “Get back,” I whispered in horror, assuming the beast was about to come exploding out of me.
But instead of shifting, my legs began to churn, guiding me back through the field, back to the crack in the landscape, back to the source of the smell.
Mate! My dragon roared as she sent us hurtling toward him.