Page 12 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
She is everything.
Thankfully my decades of experience worked in my favor. I was far more in tune with my beast, and we closed the gap rapidly.
Ella banked around an outcropping, but she took it a little wide. I cut closer to the cliff face, powering through the winds as we ascended higher and higher into the mountain range, all the while drawing nearer to our mate.
“Land!”I roared in dragon form as we shot between two peaks nearly side by side. I infused the word with a blast of alpha power, but it didn’t seem to have any effect other than to spur Ella on faster.
I went with her, not slowing. I would never give up on my mate, but time was running out.
Wings beating frantically, I climbed higher until I was directly above her. It would be dangerous, but I could force her down this way by adding my weight to hers.
“Just land!”I called once more over the wind as Ella went up and over a sharp rise and soared out over the nothingness below as the cliff dropped away at a nearly vertical decline, thousands of feet gone.
I saw it happen. The stiffening of her wings. The panic at being so high all of a sudden with nothing below her.
“Shit.” Dropping my wings, I was immediately angling down to a point far below her. But I was going to be too late.
The air shimmered and the dragon was gone, replaced simply by a flailing Ella and a rocky death two thousand feet below.
I plunged after her naked body, trying to ignore the marks along her right side as I focused on saving her life.
The bright blue marks. Mate marks.Mymate marks.
Seven
Ella
The whistlingwasthe first thing I became aware of.
Blinking rapidly, I opened my eyes to see nothing but gray-brown rock far above me. The view changed, and then snow-covered rock was approaching rapidly. Then gray-brown. Repeat. All the while, the whistling of air in my ear was swiftly becoming a painful shriek.
Falling.
That was the next thing I experienced. Stomach in my throat weightlessness. Nausea. Hair whipped across my face, choking me and obscuring my vision. I tried to scream. The wind tore the noise away before I could hear it.
I’m going to die.
There was no calm, logical embracing of that knowledge as I hurtled toward the ground. A bone-deep fear wrapped itself around me like a wet blanket, robbing me of breath.
How had I gotten to that point? It was a chaotic blur. I recalled nothing after telling Dirk to kiss me. The bright-eyed lust that had filled his gaze was the end of my control. My dragon and I had been battling until that moment, but seeing my desireechoed in him had snapped the few remaining barriers I’d had against the strange entity trying to break free.
But that first kiss, oh, how I remembered that. The burn of his lips on mine, the press of his fingers on the back of my head and down my spine. Even as wind sliced across my bare skin and most sensitive spots with painful sharpness, I warmed at the memory of that moment.
Even with death imminent, I wanted him. That was how I knew it was wrong. That I wasn’t thinking straight. Nothing could be that single-minded.
That single-mindedness has gotten me killed. Thanks for nothing. Never there when I want you and leaving me right when I need you the most. Useless.
No response to the angry thoughts. It was like she had disappeared entirely. Something was wrong with my dragon. Not that it would matter in a few more seconds. Once I hit the ground below, I would either impale myself on one of the giant brellwoods or end up a splatter no thicker than a dragonscale.
The wind roared and buffeted, shaking me, and something slammed into me from behind, all sharp and hard surfaces wrapping themselves around my torso.
“I’ve got you,” a warm, soothing voice rumbled as giant wings of purest white curled inward, creating a ball around me so I could not see my death approaching.
I knew that voice, knew who it belonged to. But in the moment, I could not summon words to speak.
Ice filled the little globe inside of the wings, shooting from side to side in wild beams and pinning me in the middle. I struggled to move, but it was useless. They built and built, reinforcing one another and the hold on me while covering most of my body except my nose and ears. I was stuck fast.
“I’ll keep you safe,” the voice promised, thick with warmth and something deeper than that. “I’ll prot—”
