Page 72 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
I touched my chest again, where fresh marks had come in tonight. At first I had despaired about having none, but not so much anymore. Now I saw them as marks of progress. Each time they came in, I knew Ella and I had reached a new compatibility level.
They were a sign that maybe I could do this after all. Maybe I could be good enough for someone like her.
The hours passed with happy thoughts like that while I also worked through planning for the surveillance we were going to undertake on Mirko’s estate here in Kylma. After my threat, he would undoubtedly be on guard, so anything we did would have to be carried out with utmost care.
Which meant, for starters, finding a way to avoid the spotters he would have set up around his neighborhood. I didn’t doubt for a moment that, via a cutout man, Mirko would have bribed the various store owners in the area, all of whom would report to him. He would probably have others too who patrolled the streets, both visible and in disguise.
A treason this deep would require extreme security. Somehow, I would have to overcome it and …
I stiffened at a noise from the other side of Ella’s door. It had sounded like a cry. Pacing over and pressing an ear where door and frame met, I waited and listened.
Was she playing with herself? I started to smile at the thought she might be touching herself to the thought of me.
There was another cry. This one wiped the grin away. It wasn’t pleasure. It was pain, and one I had heard from her before.
She was having another nightmare.
Grinding my teeth, I stood there at the door, listening to Ella. It was ten times worse now than it had been at the chalet. Even then it had bothered me, which I should have taken as a sign that something was different about Ella, but the slave collar that had caused the nightmares must have also messed up her dragon.
I’d thought she was past these by now.
Unless someone caused them to return. Was that why she needed time and space? Was our mate bond causing the nightmares?
I lingered at the door, each cry driving a knife into my stomach and twisting.
Mate. Protect. Mate. Protect.
Over and over the thoughts battered my head, my dragon thrashing and circling, upset that we were still in the hallway.
A particularly loud and agonizing cry bordering on a scream pierced the door, and before I could think about it, my dragon sank its claws deep and pushed me inside her quarters. The imperative to be at her side was overwhelming, crushing any thought of resistance.
I was across the open area in a flash and into her bedroom, where I found Ella thrashing under the covers in the grips of a horrific nightmare.
Sliding to a stop next to her, I hesitated, unsure what to do, staring down at my mate, white as ice in her sleep.
“No,” she moaned, twisting left and right, pleading with some demon from her mind. “Please. Why? Don’t take that from me. I want to be a moth—”
She thrashed hard, making noises that made me want to find whoever had done this to her and rip them limb from limb while they were still alive, so they might know the pain she did.
Ella screamed louder.
Touch her.
I pressed a hand to her shoulder, unsure of what would happen.
In seconds, Ella calmed, slumping into the bed with a tiny whimper that became a sigh. Her chest rose and fell swiftly, and then it too slowed as she returned to peaceful sleep, color filling her cheeks once more.
I clenched my other hand in success as our mate bond brought her comfort. I wasn’t the problem after all.
Now I was left with the problem of what to do next. Spending all night leaning over her was out of the question. If she woke up and saw me looming up at the side of her bed, that would be a nightmare in itself.
So I sank to the floor, careful to keep my hand on her shoulder. It slid off once, and her face tightened almost immediately. But once my fingers pressed against her skin, she relaxed.
My dragon was rumbling quietly in my head, full of happiness and more than a little gloat. It thought this was how it should be. What a mate was supposed to do.
However, a new problem was rapidly presenting itself. The mate bond worked both directions. I was rapidly losing the battle with sleep, as peace and tranquility wrapped itself around me like a soft blanket, lulling me down.
At one point I even found myself starting to ease up onto the bed, to snuggle in behind Ella.
