Chapter 8
Eight
Ella
Caz flapped his wings one final time to shed the last bit of momentum, and we touched down outside the chalet with the tiniest of bumps. I got up from the spot behind his neck where a human could sit and hold on and made my way down his spine to the outstretched wing.
Using the taut material as a makeshift ramp, I half-slid, half-scampered down to the ground, grimacing slightly at the use of abused muscles. I kept my mouth clamped shut. I was not going to cry out and draw attention to myself. Not when this was all my fault.
“Thank you,” I said to him as Milly hurried over from within the chalet, carrying a set of pants and shirt for me to put on.
“You’re welcome,” the huge ice dragon rumbled just as quietly, his attention focused on his other cargo.
“Are you okay?” Milly asked, eyes wide as she handed over the thick sweatpants.
I was sure I was quite the sight, but I nodded, looking over at Caz as he gingerly opened the talons of one of his forelegs. Dirk slid slowly to the ground, and Milly gasped openly when she saw the blood-soaked form lying still.
“By the orb,” she whispered as I put the shirt on and made my way over to him. “Is he …”
“He’s alive,” Caz said, his voice rock-solid and devoid of any emotion, though I knew he had to be worried about his brother.
“Is he going to be okay?” I hadn’t asked the question that had been at the front of my mind the entire trip back because I didn’t want to be more of a burden. But now that it slipped out, I had to know.
“Eventually,” Caz said, his dragon head high above us. “He’s hurt badly.”
I swallowed hard as the big green-eyed dragon snout curled around so he could look me directly in the eye.
“What happened?” he growled.
I wanted to be anywhere but under that heavy gaze.
The weight of the Ice Tyrant settled over my shoulders as the ruler of all ice dragons demanded to know how his brother had been so badly hurt.
I wanted to run away, to shrink into nothingness, or if my dragon hadn’t gone silent, spread my wings and fly away.
None of those were options. This was my responsibility. I had to own it, and I could do that much. Hopefully, the punishment for harming his family wouldn’t be too bad.
“It was all my fault,” I said, unable to meet his eyes as I said it.
It was just too much. Instead, I scanned the area around the chalet, noting that there were no bodies from the attack, and much of the larger debris had already been deposited in a pile.
The others had been busy while I was off losing my mind.
“Explain,” Caz ordered, the dragon head tilting slightly as it lowered to hover protectively over Dirk.
I told him about how my dragon emerged in the forest, and I couldn’t control it. That we took to the skies to run away, and Dirk came after us. I explained how he’d saved me when the shift failed, and I fell from the sky. I explained how I’d been too weak to drag him out of the way.
“As I said, it was my fault,” I reiterated at the end.
Milly clung to my arm, holding me tightly. I didn’t shake her off, but neither did I lean into it.
“No,” Caz said, shaking his mighty head as he eyed his brother’s limp form. “He was only doing what any dragon would do for their mate—protect them at all cost. And it looks like he succeeded.”
“He’s not my mate.”
The words came out in a rush, propelled by the automatic denial etched deeply into me where any male was concerned.
“What?” Milly looked at me in confusion, then at Caz, and then back to me. “But …”
Caz sighed, looking orbward as the flanks of his dragon shrank under the huge expulsion of air. “I saw the marks on your side, Ella. Those are mate marks. In Dirk’s color, no less,” he finished with a coldness that surprised me.
I looked down at the ground and then slowly upward until my eyes landed on Dirk, drawn to his body like some kind of magnet. But I couldn’t let it change my mind. “Are you going to punish me for denying him?”
“What?” There was a sharp hiss from the dragon. “No, of course not, Ella. But I did just see my mate and my brother both get hurt by you, and now you’re denying the very obvious reason why. So perhaps I’m not overly full of patience for you either.”
My head snapped up, away from Dirk and onto the dragon. “What? Anna is hurt?”
“She didn’t mean to hurt me.”
I whirled at the voice of the third member of my friend group. Anna had emerged from the chalet and was holding a pair of pants in her hand that were Caz sized.
“How did I hurt you?” I didn’t remember doing that. I didn’t want to believe I could.
Anna smiled at me. “I ran after you and got caught at the edge of your shift. Knocked the wind out of me mostly, nothing more.” She gave the last two words a flourish and mixed in a hard stare at Caz.
“I worry about you, mate,” Caz said without relenting.
“Well, I’m fine, and it was an accident. So be nice to her. Dirk will recover, and everything will be okay.”
Caz looked ready to argue, his long, scaled neck lifting the head into the air, eyelids coming together slightly. Then he paused and sighed. “You’re right.”
Anna patted his foreleg. “I know,” she said, just loftily enough for the both of them to smile at each other. “Now get changed so you can take proper care of Dirk.”
I watched the back and forth, the little smiles meant only for one another, and the long looks, and I tried to push down the spike of emotion that came with such a display. I would not feel jealous of their obvious care for each other or the fact that someone other than me would be caring for Dirk.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked quietly as Anna came over to me after handing off the sweatpants to her mate. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Anna smiled. I knew she was trying to brush it off. We’d known one another too long for her to slip that past me. “Tell us what’s going on, and we’ll consider it even?” she suggested, glancing at Milly.
I let the pair of them escort me back to the chalet, but not before I looked back at Dirk as Caz bent down and gently scooped his broken brother into his arms.
“Are you sure you don’t need to help?” I asked Anna. “He has some bones that need setting.”
“Kolar and Durion will be far better suited to that than me,” Anna reassured me. “I’m here for my friend. And stop worrying about me. A couple of bumps and bruises, nothing more. I promise. Caz is just being an overprotective mate.”
“No such thing,” the big male called after us.
Anna giggled and glanced over at her mate as he caught up to us with long, easy strides.
I once again fought down the spike of envy at the depth of the looks they shared, all the unspoken communication I was sure was going on between their minds, courtesy of their mate bond.
You didn’t want this. You don’t want this. You don’t want to be claimed by someone you barely know and have never thought of in that way before. So why are you getting jealous? Stop it.
“All right. Time to spill,” Anna said as we walked through the broken door, skirting the pile of shattered glass and heading for the kitchen.
Kolar and Durion were busy picking up the tree trunk that had come through one of the huge panes and crushed a sofa as well.
I frowned at the mess of food scattered across the kitchen, half of it old and stale, the rest still sitting there, waiting for me to finish.
“Don’t even think about it,” Milly said, steering me to the stairs instead.
“What?” Anna was confused.
“She’s upset about the food.”
“I had it all ready to go,” I protested, still staring.
“Only you would care about that right now, El,” Anna said with a laugh. “As if you and Dirk being mated isn’t a bigger deal.”
I noticed neither of the other men looked up as they hoisted the trunk and sofa in one move.
“Does everyone know?”
“Yes,” Anna said with a simplicity that implied I should know better.
“And we at least have seen your side,” Milly added, gesturing at Anna. “Those marks look badass.”
I had a flashback to the kitchen where they’d come in. “They hurt like hell, actually. Like hooks ripping through my skin.”
Anna glanced down, her face reddening slightly. I clenched my teeth as burning spread across my cheeks. I’d left off what happened after the pain, but of course she would know.
This just keeps getting more awkward.
“So you two are mated. Congrats!” Kolar said as he stepped back in through the window frame. He flashed a thumbs up, and Durion motioned giving me a high-five.
It was all too much, happening too fast.
“No,” I said to everyone. “No, it’s not that easy. It’s not that simple.”
Caz, who was setting Dirk down on the kitchen table so his bones could be properly set, looked over at me while I stared at his brother. He was covered in blood, but I knew what he looked like under it all.
And he didn’t look like my mate. I’d seen him plenty of times before, and while he was definitely very handsome, there was nothing there. There could be nothing there. I wouldn’t allow it.
“I’m not anyone’s mate,” I said with what I hoped was quiet finality, and left the room.