Page 15 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
Ella
Caz flapped his wingsone 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 shiftfailed, 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.
