Epilogue
Ella
The eggs hit the heated pan, cracking and sizzling with predictable familiarity. They were nothing like the eggs from chickens, but getting those in Hollow Earth was a fool’s errand, even for the ice tyrant.
The animals themselves survived in the literal sense, but they needed sunlight, not orblight. Without it, the eggs turned sour, and their meat lost its taste, becoming bland and rubbery no matter how it was cooked or seasoned.
So we made do. Eggs came from the underboar as well as a rather superior bacon.
Closer to Canadian bacon than strips, it crisped up nicely.
Bread was bread, and Hollow Earth had long ago stolen that recipe.
Cheese came from the subrahim, a cow-like facsimile, though the bony protrusions on its flanks made it a much tougher prey.
All in all, I thought, looking across the kitchen, it made for a reasonable cooking experience.
Not that I was used to preparing food from such a stocked larder. Rat on a stick with a sprinkle of wild herbs was much more my specialty. Or had been, until recently.
Until Anna went and got herself mated to the ice tyrant.
I still didn’t quite believe it.
A sharp spatter of oil from under the eggs brought me back to reality as I hissed in pain, rubbing the spot just above my wrist where it had landed.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, Mil. Thanks,” I said, waving her off. The last thing she needed was to get up. She was currently resting on her preferred couch in front of the giant wall of windows.
Her food was up first. She needed to eat and keep working on her recovery.
A few days had done wonders, but she was still rail-thin, and I hated seeing someone so strong and full of energy brought low like that.
Not to mention, I shuddered every time I saw the silver slave collar still locked around her throat.
Another week, I judged, estimating her progress compared to my own. Another week and she would be strong enough to deal with having the collar removed. I didn’t envy her that experience. It had been hell.
I returned my attention to the food preparation, already thinking ahead to setting the table.
The men looking after us, Kolar and Durion, would sit on the ends, as they always did.
Milly would hobble her way over to the chair closest to the window, where she could look out.
I think it made her feel safer, like an escape was near at any time, if she needed it.
Then I would sit at the other place across from her, watching to make sure she ate enough calories. It was important to regain her strength. I didn’t like how little Milly seemed to care. She wasn’t pushing herself. That wasn’t my Milly.
Something had broken in her during her time in Bryna’s “care.” I could only hope it would come back as she recovered.
“Hey, I think someone is coming,” Milly called.
There was a pause so strong I could all but hear her eyes squinting as she tried to focus her vision more. Her eyebrows were probably halfway down to her cheeks.
“Three dragons on approach!”
Durion was already there, appearing from upstairs with blinding speed as he went for the door. He shouted for Kolar as he pulled it open, and the other dragon appeared a heartbeat later, charging up from out back of the chalet, where he had likely been hanging by the miniature lake.
I flipped the eggs and tossed a fresh spread of bacon in the other pan, swapping toast out as well. I used a pair of plates to keep the ready food already warm in a makeshift porcelain sandwich.
Like clockwork. You’ve got this.
“It’s Caz,” Durion said, poking his head in the door to make the announcement. “He’s got Dirk with him.”
“Who’s the other?” Milly asked.
Durion shrugged. “No idea. I don’t recognize them. Never seen a dragon with scales like that before, though. That’s for sure.”
I rubbed at my head.
“You okay?” Milly asked again.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit of a headache. Probably our unexpected guests ruining my neat plan for breakfast.”
Milly eyed me but nodded. “Well, if they show up announced, they can feed themselves. You don’t need to worry about that. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
I flashed Milly a smile, which turned into a grimace as another spike of pain bored into my left temple.
What kind of scales?” I glanced at Durion, eager to change the subject.
I had thought the headaches a thing of the past, and I didn’t want to deal with a million Milly questions right now.
“White as snow, but with a sheer purple tinge to them in places,” Durion explained. “It’s quite pretty.”
I peered out the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the dragon he was talking about, but from where I stood near the stove, the angle was all wrong.
“Purple?” Milly sat up straight, looking from the window to me.
“What?” I asked, trying to shrug aside the pressure building in my head. The look on her face said she expected me to be on the same wavelength as her.
Milly lifted her eyebrows. Evidently, I wasn’t doing as good a job hiding my discomfort as I thought. “Anna has purple eyes, my normally observant best friend. Or did you forget that?”
“Our Anna? You think she’s magically decided she could shift? That this dragon is her?”
“Unusual purple scales. Unusual purple eyes. Is with Caz and Dirk.” Milly ticked her fingers up one by one. “You do the math, smarty-pants.”
I stuck my tongue out at her, just as a blinding flash of pain hit my head, causing me to bite it.
“What’s wrong with you, El?”
“Nothing, nothing. Just this stupid headache. A remnant of that thing,” I said, touching my neck. “One more thing for you to look forward to.”
“I thought you were recovered.”
“So did I,” I muttered, focusing on the food. If I lost my place now, it would screw up the order, and food would get cold while the rest cooked. “Why don’t you go find out? Some fresh air would be good for you.”
If Milly wasn’t here, she couldn’t see me squinting against the pain. My friend didn’t need another thing on her plate right now.
“All right.” It was obvious Milly knew something was up with me. “You finish what you’re cooking and come outside too.”
“Yeah, I will.” I slid the eggs out of the pan and cracked two more.
The yolk on one broke when I dropped it too hard.
Damn it. It’s all coming apart. Keep it together. You’re stronger than this.
Motion outside distracted me.
Caz had come in for a landing and shifted back, apart from his wings, which he oddly kept out and spread. I averted my eyes upward while he shucked on a pair of sweats. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen him or the others naked already, but he belonged to Anna now. Looking away was what friends did.
The purple dragon came in behind and to his left, and then I discovered why Caz hadn’t completed his shift. He stepped in front of them and spread his wings wide. Blocking them from sight.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, realization hitting as I witnessed the protective, possessive nature of the move. There was only one person Caz would do that for.
Anna.
Which meant Anna could shift. Which meant …
The third dragon landed and shifted. It all happened in one smooth motion that was as attractive as it was impressive.
A wall in my brain fell aside without warning. It came crashing down like a pane of glass as my dragon stood up without warning and took notice of the powerful male dragon outside. I inhaled deeply as the beast I had never truly felt spread her wings for the first time.
Then she preened.
She fucking preened for him. Like an animal in heat, strutting her stuff and putting it on display for all the available males to see. There was only one male we wanted to notice us though. The one outside, naked and impressive.
Our eyes traveled downward.
Very impressive.
We liked what we saw. All of it, from the thick cock, hard as a rock and pointing right at us, to the chiseled core and the eyes so bright and blue they were nearly silver.
We wanted it. Heat poured into my pussy, flooding it with need that echoed our desire for him.
We wanted him inside us. Now. Claiming. Taking.
We wanted a Caz to our Anna, and we wanted it now.
No. There is no we. Not in this. Not now, not for him. Not for any elite, not ever.
But my dragon had seen what she wanted, and it was him.
Dirk. The ice tyrant’s brother. Heir to the ice throne.
My plans came crashing down in a wave of uncertainty for the now unknown future. And I hated unknowns.
Mate.
The word hit me in the temple where the headache had been growing, and I fell to the floor as it exploded through my body, reaching to the very core of my being and shaking every foundation of who and what I was before discarding them one by one.
Somewhere around then, the screaming started.
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Thank you for reading The Ice Tyrant’s Fated Mate!