Page 6 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
I grabbed the Red’s arm and plunged the spike through his palm. He screamed in pain as the ice blade emerged from theother side. I moved swiftly before he could recover, slamming the weapon through both legs and then right through the elbow of his other arm.
“Where is she?” I rasped, lost in a host of memories I’d tried to forget, a past version of self now at the fore.
I’d sworn to never become that past again. But that wasbeforehe’d hurt Ella.
The Red sneered through pain as he looked up at me from his back. “Once we’re done with you and your idiot brother, I’ll find that bitch, and this time she won’t surprise me.”
My eyes darted to the door. Had Ella been the one to clock him in the nose with it? Pride swelled at my mate’s strength even as darkness sullied everything else.
“So you don’t know where she is,” I observed so calmly the Red blanched in fear. “Too bad. For you.”
I fell on him with a fury, my hands around his neck, hoisting him from the ground. The Red struggled, but he was too weak to resist my alpha power. Ice flowed from my hands as he tried to fight it with fire, but it was too late. I could see it in his eyes. I watched them go wide as the realization of death arrived.
Then they simply stopped moving entirely, frozen wide in terror.
“Don’t. Touch. My. Mate.” I growled and twisted my hands.
His neck shattered, head falling one way, body the other, leaving me free to find Ella.
“Dirk!” The shout slowed my footsteps but didn’t stop them. I could scent her again, the lure of jasmine calling me forward. I followed it.
“Where is she? Where’s Ella?” a feminine voice charged with power barked as Anna caught up to me, looking around wildly for her friend before her eyes landed on me. “Why was shescreaming? Why can I smell her blood? Did you do something to her?”
The idea that I might doanythingto hurt my mate was beyond fury-inducing. Rage billowed out from me in a cloud of power as the darkness inside me sank in deeper. Consuming. Driving.
I took a step toward Anna, the promise of violence in the air.
A step was as far as I made it before an absolute hurricane of ice and alpha command interposed itself between us with a snarl that drove me back one step and then another.
“Control yourself,” Casimir rumbled, his eyes wide and bright, filled with his dragon’s protectiveness for its mate. “We will find her, but you mustcontrolyourself. The Reds are dealt with, and there is not enough blood for her to be in danger.”
The snarl that exploded from my throat at the worry Ella could be seriously hurt was enough to surprise even Casimir.
“Be calm,” he repeated, each word laced with enough alpha power to drive any other dragon but his brother to their knees.
“Can’t,” I grunted from under the hammer blows of power washing over me like sheets of rain. “They hurt my mate.”
The alpha power evaporated. Caz’s shock was complete and thorough. Behind him, Anna gasped.
“You’re sure?” Caz said into the stunned silence that followed, looking over his shoulders at the trees through which Ella had disappeared.
I didn’t bother responding with words to such a question. I only stared past him at the forest where I should even now be looking for her. There was never a question about who Ella was to me. There should never have been, and going forward, there neverwouldbe.
“You can’t go after her like this,” Caz said, gesturing at my naked and engorged form. “You need to be dressed, and you need to becalm. If something went wrong now, she’s going to need you to come to her calmly and relaxed. Not in full battle fury.”
I bared my teeth in silent, wordless protest. The merethoughtof not being at my mate’s side, protecting her, sheltering her, succoring her, giving her whatever she needed was too much.
Anna slid past Caz and headed to the forest. “I’m going after her right now, Dirk. I’m her friend, not a threat. To her, or you. You can trust me. Ella already does. When you’re ready, come find us. But not before. Understood? Ella is more fragile than she lets on, and if you hurt her, not even Caz will be able to hold me back.”
Caz stepped closer to me, speaking softly for only me to hear. “Come back, brother. I know what you’re fighting. You’ve done so well for so long. Your mate is counting on you to control yourself once more. She needs it from you.”
I stepped back with a shudder, his words striking home. He was right. I was putting her in danger. Every second I spent not controlling myself was a second she wasn’t at my side.
With a snarl directed at myself, I spun away from the forest and back into the battered chalet. The need to get to Ella was still all-powerful, but I tampered it now with the knowledge that I could not scare her. She needed a thoughtful and calm protector, not a feral guard dog.
“Remember,” Caz said, following me in. “They aren’t Elites, brother. In moments of vulnerability, they’re going to do what our world has forced them to do. Run and hide from those more powerful. Until we can prove otherwise, we’re a danger to them as far as they know.”
I glared at him. I wasnodanger to Ella!
