Chapter 43
Forty-Three
Ella
I touched the marks just above my collarbone once more. They were still there after the shower, still showing in the mirror now. Two small dots that represented so much.
The smile bursting forth turned into a cheek-hurting grin.
“I have a mate,” I said to my reflection. “I. Have. A. Mate.”
Then I shrieked in glee before just as quickly stifling it. I was not a child. I would not act like it.
But I flashed the mirror another smile. Something I never thought I would be able to experience was now a permanent part of my life.
In my head, the lizard-brain rumbled its happiness right alongside me as she curled into a ball.
I stared at my face in shock. She curled into a ball. I didn’t know how I knew that’s what she was doing, but I did. I could feel it.
“So you’ve been there all along?” I asked my mirror-self. “Why haven’t you wanted to come out? Why are you hiding?”
Silence.
I conjured up an image of Dirk. A little stir. I erased Dirk’s imaginary clothes. My dragon perked up.
“Really? So Dirk will wake you up, but not me. Rude.”
I received a quick snort of disdain before more silence. I smiled anyway. So the beast was in there somewhere. I just had to find a way to fully unlock her. Somehow.
Maybe Dirk could help me, but he’d said he had some things to attend to, and he would see me that night. The look in his eyes when he’d said it made it very clear what he had in mind, which had very little to do with just his eyes.
I bounced out of the room, got dressed and hurried two doors down to Milly’s quarters, where I knocked and opened it before Milly had even responded.
“Guess what!” I cried, too eager to keep the news to myself.
Milly sat back from where she had started to rise from a couch and looked me over from head to toe.
“You got laid.”
Heat exploded out onto my cheeks, down my neck and across my chest at the frank assessment. It was Milly, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.
“That is not what I meant.”
She smiled broadly, her chocolatey brown eyes dancing with evil bestie delight at making me uncomfortable. “But you totally did.”
The laughter that followed was loud, loving, and totally Milly. It was also a boisterousness I hadn’t seen much of from her since she’d been rescued from Bryna’s dungeon—a surefire sign she was getting healthy again.
“Okay, fine,” I admitted, “if you must know the truth, yes, we had sex. But for your information, it wasn’t even the first time.”
Now it was my turn to enjoy the bombshell shock.
“It’s not?” Milly yelped, slamming a hand on the seat cushion next to her. “Details. When? How?”
The fierce burning in my cheeks increased as I realized I had to tell her about the hidey-hole sex session and live through her commentary.
“We may have, you know, when we were out doing surveillance.” I fake-coughed into a hand. “Anyway, us having sex isn’t why I came here.”
“It should be,” Milly said, shaking her head. “That’s a darn good move on your part. And I’m glad at least one of us is having fun like that.”
“You don’t need to take that off to have fun,” I said, pointing at the slave collar.
“I know.” She smiled. “I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe I’ll flirt a bit with Kolar. He’s been looking cuter the stronger I get.”
“See. There’s the Milly I know. Maybe you should take it off, though. You may end up being claimed like I did.”
Milly shot to her feet in excitement. “Officially like? You let him?”
“Let him?” I shook my head. “I told him to do it. And he did.”
“Show me. Now.”
I pulled my hair back to reveal the dots. “They look just like the ones I left him on his chest.”
“That’s amazing!” Milly said, sitting down and hugging me tightly. “I’m so happy for you. Dirk really is a good guy.”
“I know.”
I knew it now.
I should have listened at the start. But if I had, it might not have worked out this way. So who knows.
Milly reached up and played with the shiny silver band. “Maybe it is time I sucked it up and got this thing off.”
I nodded. “It would be good for you, but also for the others in the dungeon. Who knows what might happen if all the Elites in the citadel are suddenly exposed to us desirable Grounded. They might start being nice.”
We laughed.
“Maybe when Anna finishes her heat, I’ll ask Caz to remove it,” Milly said, a lick of her lips the only sign of any nerves.
“You don’t have to rush into it,” I reassured her. “But I hope you do. Everything else is looking up, after all. So why not add to it?”