Page 7 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
He lifted an eyebrow at my challenge. We both knew he was stronger. He was just making sure I remembered.
“I had to do this with Anna. I had to show her that I wasn’t like the others. You’ll have to do the same with Ella. That is not a threat or a challenge. It is a mere fact of the lives they have been forced to lead. Lives I will do my best to ensure are changed going forward for all other Grounded. But I cannot fix the past. We must work within it. So when you go to her, youwillgo easy. Her dragon might know you, but she might not. Am I clear?”
“As ice,” I grunted, his alpha power still in the air.
“Then get dressed. I remember what it was like being separated from my mate when the bond first awoke. It was hell.”
The hell, though, was just beginning …
Four
Ella
“Look whatwe have here, fresh meat!”
The Red sneered as he wrapped his clawed arm around me and hauled me in close, pressing his nostrils to my neck. “And a Clippy too. How delicious.”
He clamped his other hand over my mouth so I couldn’t scream for help. My heels scraped on the ground as I tried to worm myself free while reaching for anything nearby. My fingers closed on the edge of the door and clamped shut with a burst of foreign strength, stopping us both cold.
“Stupid Clippys,” the Red spat, letting go of my mouth to haul his fist back.
If he made contact, I was done for. I had to act, and I had to act now. Desperate, I jabbed my elbow at his jaw as hard as I could.
The blow hit his throat instead. The Red jerked back, dragging his claws across my left side as he reached for his throat, hacking and coughing frantically for air.
I screamed in pain as my skin was torn open by the razor-sharp tips, blood dripping down my side. The pain wasincredible, white-hot and horrible, so unlike what had happened to my other side.
A cold, alien thought pressed itself into my head, taking over. Wordless yet instantly understandable, I felt the anger rise from deep within me.
Howdaresomeone other than our mate touch us. Our body was for him and him alone.
Incandescent rage dropped over me as the Red caught his breath and stood up, a sneer twisting his lips. Moving with a speed and strength I’d never known, I acted to defend myself. That was as strange as the presence in my mind. I was a Clippy. I had no power to stop others.
That point had been driven home in far too much painful detail a long time ago …
This time, we fight.
The otherly thing in my head wasn’t about to let us back down. Twisting at the waist, I grabbed on to the solid brellwood door and heaved. The hinges gave way, and with a twitch of muscle, I ripped it free, guiding it right into the face of the fire dragon.
He went down in a heap. I stared in shock at what I’d done, still holding on to the door.
The power drained from my arms, matched by a rising surge in my head. I dropped the door and took off for the forest.
Privacy and open space. That was what I needed, what I craved. I had to find peace and calm, get control. Come up with a plan. I ran on through the trees, breathing heavily while trying to ignore the pounding of my wounded side and what had to be my dragon against the inside of my skull.
It was demanding to be let out.Why me? Why now?
An image of Dirk popped into my head—tall, strong, with the brilliant platinum-white hair of the ruling line and blue eyes that were simultaneously soft yet filled with an incredible intensity. Like he was hiding the weight of the world behind them.
Whatever was going on, it had everything to do with him. It had to. The moment we’d locked eyes, everything had gone completely wrong.
I ran on, my bare feet crashing through the undergrowth of the little forest. There was no path to follow. I ducked under thick boughs of pine trees and darted around thickets, making my way to the far side of the forest, where the sheer cliff face rose up high, blocking any further passage.
Or so I’d thought. As I burst through the edge of the forest, I saw a crack wide enough for me to walk through with a little room to spare. I pressed on. The ground sloped upward rapidly, but my legs didn’t burn. They were still filled with this newfound energy and strength, and I put it to good use.
A few hundred feet later, I burst from the crevice into exactly what I’d been searching for—an open, quiet mountain meadow. Tall grasses and multicolored wildflowers swayed in the breeze, the orblight bright and cheery, welcoming me out of the shadowy crack in the landscape.
I walked through the field in a daze, my fingers outstretched, brushing against the flowers and teasing the tips of the grassy stems until I came to a little pond of crystal-clear water. The grasses near the edge were shorter, and I plopped myself down here, the weight of everything that had happened seeming to descend on me at once.
