Chapter 57
Fifty-Seven
Ella
It was three days before we left for the mountain and the chalet.
“Did you want to talk at all?” Dirk asked as I climbed onto the back of his dragon, a pack strapped to my shoulders.
“No.” Not my story to tell,” I said, settling in at the base of his neck
My stomach twinged as I sat. I ran a hand over my lower abdomen. As far as anyone could tell I was fully healed after being impaled by Durion’s dragon claw, but the area sometimes still felt off. There was no better way to describe it.
“You’re a good friend,” Dirk rumbled in the melodic voice of his dragon, his wings spreading wide. “And, though I may be a bit biased, a perfect mate.”
“A bit biased, you say?” I laughed. “You’re just saying that because you got to see me naked in the shower this morning.”
“Not so.”
“Dirk …”
He coughed, bouncing me slightly in my seat as his sides flexed. “What I mean is, I’m not saying that only because I saw you naked in the shower. Or because I joined you in the shower.”
“You are insatiable,” I admonished, giving a scale a friendly whack.
“Me?” Dirk’s long neck curled around until his blue-white eyes could stare down his snout at me. “Mate of mine, let us not forget who invited who into said shower this morning.”
I sniffed. “My back needed washing.”
“And what happened after that?” Dirk asked, turning to face forward once more.
“Why, what happened after that was I was manhandled and ravished.” I tried to act indignant.
“I did not force you onto your knees or put my cock in your m—”
“Stop!” I said, laughing, well aware my cheeks were blushing.
Dirk joined in my laughter, and I leaned forward, resting my head on his neck as we flew onward toward the distant chain of mountains.
The orblight was bright and warm on my skin, and the air high above Hollow Earth was free of clouds.
I stared at the ground below as it passed in a slow rolling panorama.
“Ella.”
I lifted my head, blinking. We were on the ground, next to a familiar fallen tree. “Did I fall asleep?”
“You did,” Dirk said, his wing bouncing slightly with laughter as I climbed down it.
“Oops.” I touched down into the snow-covered ground, and immediately Dirk shifted.
He was facing away from me, and my eyes naturally wandered his body, admiring the powerful lines of his muscles. “Nice butt,” I called as he turned.
“Thanks,” he rumbled, walking over to me, completely naked, my eyes drinking in every curve, ripple, and bulge of his arms, pecs, and all of his abs before finally lingering on the thick shaft of his cock. Always hard when he neared me, as it was now.
Control yourself.
“So, what did you hope to have happen here?” he asked, gesturing around. “Remind me that my head is not actually harder than a brellwood tree?”
I chuckled as he dressed, putting on the pants I handed him from my pack. “There aren’t enough brellwoods for you to learn that lesson.”
He rolled his eyes. “Walk me through what happened again. Maybe that will jog your dragon.”
“Well, I bounced over here down the slope, into the snow. You would have probably found it funny if you weren’t on the edge of dying. I was stuck, upside down in the snow, naked with only my legs exposed.”
“That’s not funny,” he growled. “You could have died.”
“I was dying,” I told him. “Until you managed to melt the snow for me. I fell out of it. When I climbed back up to the clearing, you were over there in a pile of blood, barely breathing. I ran to you. I wanted to do something, but what was I going to do? Right?”
“So then what?”
“Then the tree started to collapse.” I shook my head, reliving the moments. “I tried to get you to wake up. Then I tried to pull you away, but I couldn’t. I was too weak.”
“Then?”
“Then …” I looked away.
“What? What is it?”
I was going to have to tell him. “Then … then I maybe flung myself on top of you to try to shield you. To save you.”
“Why on earth would you do that?” he gaped. “Ella, look at the size of this tree. It would have flattened me! What difference were you going to make?”
“I don’t know. Okay?” I shouted. “But maybe I didn’t want to lose you. Maybe … maybe it was the first sign of a love I didn’t understand.”
Dirk’s mouth clamped shut.
“What?” I asked as his lips twitched. He wanted to say something. “Out with it.”
“You do know it was stupid. Right?”
“Of course I do, Dirk. But in the moment …”
“In the moment, your dragon wanted to protect its mate.”
I thought about it and then nodded. “You’re right. I think that’s it. She knew from the start.”
“Knew what?”
I stepped closer to him. “That we were meant to be together, Dirk. That we’re mates. She’s known since this moment. The rest of me denied it for longer, but she knew it then. Knew better than I did.”
Something stirred inside me.
Dirk grinned. “See, now we’re—”
One moment he was there, and the next moment he was tossed across the clearing as my dragon burst forth without warning, filling the space he’d just occupied.
“Dirk!” I shouted, the word feeling strange coming from dragon lips, even as I reared up on my hind legs, my wings spreading wide in triumph. My dragon was back! We were finally united as one.
And all I’d had to do was acknowledge I was a stubborn idiot. The animal presence in my head snorted with laughter.
On the ground nearby, Dirk groaned and sat up.
“Ow. That is the second time you’ve done that to me.”
“Well,” I said, padding over to him in dragon form and grinning broadly as he looked over my dragon form admiringly. I didn’t stop myself from preening for him this time. “At least I know your head can take it better than the tree.”
Dirk looked over his shoulder to see that he was, indeed, at the base of the brellwood stump. And ten feet above him was a roundish indent in the bark courtesy of his head.
“Ella,” he growled, staring up at me.
“Yes, mate?”
“While I’m happy to see you in your dragon form, if you don’t get down here right now and let me finish what you started in the shower, we’re going to have a problem.”
I stiffened at the unbridled lust and desire in his voice.
“Coming,” I whimpered, focusing on my dragon to try to shift back.
“No, you aren’t,” he growled as I shrank into my human form and settled on top of him, my legs spread. “But you will be soon enough.”
He rolled me over and onto my back, and there was no more talking. There was only me, and him, and the closeness of our bodies.
Back where it all began, we started a new chapter of our lives together.