Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Ella
Both Caz and Dirk were waiting for us outside my room as I pulled open the door and walked through. Easing past them, I turned and shot Anna a glare.
She hadn’t told me they were outside. With their dragon hearing, they would have heard everything.
My bestie just smiled back at me.
Dirk sniffed at the air, and I wanted to die. There was no way he couldn’t smell the “aroma” that still lingered in my room. Now it was in the hallway, and my mate knew I had been very thoroughly aroused at the thought of him earlier.
Great. That was just great. I was so not ready for this.
Anna fell in beside Caz as they led the way. I followed, Dirk walking at my side but keeping a respectable distance. I couldn’t blame him. This was the first time we’d seen each other since the tower incident. The real tower incident, not my dream.
Pushing that aside, I focused on the now. I was eager to see Holly. She had already been at Yarl’s estate when I was brought there and bound with one of his collars. When we had walked into a storage room to gather supplies, Caz, Dirk and the others had popped out of hiding and taken us both away.
It would be nice to see her. We hadn’t spent a lot of time together during my weeks there but enough that I hoped perhaps we could be friends. I loved Milly and Anna, but having more than two friends didn’t seem so horrible an idea.
“Are you well?” Dirk asked as we walked, his voice low.
“I’m fine. Thank you,” I replied, watching as Caz’s arm slid up under Anna’s shirt, resting casually against her lower back.
Skin on skin. Protective, touching. Close, always. Maybe Anna was going to enter her heat soon. Even for them, they were extra close.
I glanced over at Dirk as we walked. Could I do that? Get so intimate, so close with him? What would it be like, to spend days locked away together, mating, eating, occasionally sleeping and mating some more. Was that something I wanted?
As if sensing my thoughts were about him, Dirk chose that moment to look over.
“Uh,” I said, whipping my head away before our eyes could truly lock on.
The hallway spun and I missed a step, stumbling.
Dirk was there. His hand around my shoulder, the other around my waist steadying me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, his fingers holding tightly.
Too tight. My skin burned wherever he touched me, igniting a response I couldn’t ignore. This was real. Not a dream I could ignore.
I stood up straight, trying not to cringe when I saw both Anna and Caz watching me.
“Come on. Let’s go see Holly and the others,” I said, pointing.
Anna smiled at me and tugged Caz back around before he could ask any questions I definitely did not want to answer. Not right now. The way my body was on fire was an impossible sign to miss.
Things between Dirk and me were accelerating out of control.
Up ahead, Anna sighed and all but melted into Caz, who held her upright.
I frowned at the display, remembering Anna’s thoughts about her first heat. It seemed to be coming on fast. How long did she have?
We rounded the corner and nearly slammed into a pair of Elites deep in conference with one another. Given that we were using side hallways and not main passages, encountering them here meant they did not want to be seen.
“My lord,” they said as they recognized Casimir, backing out of the way so we could pass.
I didn’t see any respect in their body language, though, only deference to someone stronger than them.
As Casimir moved forward, the eyes of one of the Elites drifted onto Anna.
There was a blur, and the Elite was abruptly pinned to the wall with one thick arm holding him up.
“Look at her like that again,” Casimir growled, “and you will find yourself as a new statue out front of the gates. Got it?”
The Elite rasped something that sounded like he understood, and Casimir deposited him on the ground unceremoniously.
Neither of them looked my way as we walked by. Lesson learned.
“How do you live in a place like this?” I asked as we walked. “Where everyone is just scheming with each other, trying to get ahead of the rest? It’s depressing.”
“Caz is changing that,” Dirk replied defensively. “It is much better than under our father.”
“Things were very bad, from what I understand. I think I told you a bit about that,” Anna said over her shoulder.
“Where it didn’t used to be lit, other than a random torch.
Everyone skulked from room to room, looking over their shoulder.
Mysterious deaths happened frequently. It’s quite a bit different now. ”
“I guess.” Those Elites sure had seemed like they were skulking around in back corridors, plotting someone’s demise. Was it that different?
“It is,” Dirk said. “Things had sunk very low before Caz took over. That’s why I left.”
I looked up at him. “Where did you go?”
Dirk faced forward, shook his head, but didn’t answer.
Whatever it was, it was clearly a sore spot. Why didn’t he want to tell me?
“It will take time,” Caz rumbled, speaking at last. “I cannot do it overnight.”
“You also aren’t alone anymore,” Anna said, squeezing his arm. “We’ll do it together.”
Dirk agreed.
“Thank you,” Caz said, uncomfortable at the support.
We made it to the old dungeons without further incident. The sounds of talking could be heard from up ahead.
“We’ll wait here,” Dirk said at my questioning glance when he and Caz stopped and leaned against the wall. “Take your time.”
“You’re not coming?”
“Many of the Grounded in there find our presence as Elites uncomfortable,” Caz said. “Especially mine.”
“You’re just a big softy,” Anna said, leaning heavily against her mate and staring at him slightly glassy-eyed. “They’ll learn soon.”
Caz’s dragon rumbled in his throat at the display. “I’m not sure this is a good idea, mate.”
“Ella will protect me,” Anna said, pulling herself together and kissing him on the cheek. “I’ll be fine, and you won’t be far. They’re still skittish of you. Remember how long it took me to stop seeing everything you did as purposefully Elitist and horrible? And I was mated to you.”
“Maybe.” Caz wasn’t convinced.
“It’s impossible to overcome decades and centuries of ingrained knowledge in just a month or two, love.
Especially when you’re the embodiment of every fear and nightmare they’ve had for that time.
Even my mate bond with you took time to convince me you were different.
It will take longer for them, but they’ll come around too. Be patient.”
I walked over to my friend, who smiled at me, but her eyes were slightly unfocused.
“Anna, are you sure this is smart? You aren’t acting like yourself. Caz is right.”
My best friend steadied herself and looked at me.
“I’m about to go into heat. I can feel it coming over me.
Caz knows. But I have to go see them first. It’s been too long, and they need to know I’m still looking out for them.
I have responsibilities now, El, and sometimes they have to come before myself. ”
The hallway echoed with Caz’s denial, but she shot him a look that dared him to argue more. “I am the Ice Tyrantess, and I take that seriously. So will you.”
“Yes, dear,” Caz said promptly.
We walked into the dungeons, where forty or so shifters were lounging, all of whom had to be Grounded. I’d never been around so many of my kind before, except in the slave market.
“Ella!”
I searched for the voice, and a moment later, Holly came through the crowd, tall and willowy, her black hair braided down the center of her back. I started to smile at her as her green eyes lit up with excitement, but the look died when I saw the band of silver still around her throat.
“Hey,” she said. “I’m going to take it off. Just waiting for the right moment. Don’t look so disappointed.”
I smiled and wrapped her in a hug. “It’s good to see you.”
“Is it? You looked pretty distraught there,” she said as we parted and moved to find seats in one of the cells now serving as rooms for the group.
“Call it innate guilt,” I said. “That I wasn’t strong enough when mine was removed, and now it’s scared everyone else into keeping those filthy things on. Even Milly still has hers.”
“Milly?” Silt clouded the seafoam of her iris. “Wait. You mentioned her, I think. Your other friend?”
“Yes.” I brought Holly up to date on everything that had transpired since Kolar had brought her to the citadel not long after the rescue.
“Wow.” Holly shook her head. “That’s something.”
“I know,” I said, reaching my left hand around to scratch my back awkwardly.
Holly’s eyes lowered to my side. “I think you forgot a part of the story.”
I glanced down to see that I had inadvertently exposed my side with Dirk’s marks.
“That one is still complicated. Not at all like Anna’s,” I said, gesturing at my friend and hoping to leave it at that.
But when I looked at Anna, I noticed her staring at me from out in the hall. Her face was slack, and her eyes were clouded over with something else, something that made Anna not “Anna.” It was like a foreign entity had taken over my friend.
“Caz,” she mouthed. “Now.”
And started to topple over.