Inhaling sharply, I yanked back on the beastly part of me, hauling it back. The monster resisted. Putting our mate in harm’s way was absolutely unacceptable. It wasn’t willing to entertain the idea. Period. Its fury lashed through me as it fought for control.
I knew this sensation. Knew I was in danger of snapping. There was no calming the berserker rage it was working up. Not when it was this determined. I could only hope to redirect it.
With a roar, I flung my fist out, unleashing everything that had been building from the moment I locked eyes with Anna for the first time. All my rage, all my frustration. I let go of all the stress I had been fighting back. I let go of all the fear. Fear for Anna and what it had to be like living in my world.
And fear that you’re going to screw it up with her. Fear you’re going to lose her.
I let it all go.
The icy power shot from my hand, hitting the calm surface of the lake behind the women. The cold washed over everything else in a wave of frost. When it cleared, the entire lake was ice. The entire thing had frozen solid under my outburst.
Deep, stressful rumbles and groans followed as it settled and shifted on the soft ground underneath.
“Wow,” Ella whispered, both women staring, stunned.
I fell to one knee, panting. “I’m sorry. But the idea of sending you back there. Of putting you in danger, where I can’t protect you? I can’t do that. I can’t let it happen.”
Anna stepped off the rock and carefully picked her way across the ice field to where I was crouched.
“Caz,” she whispered, taking my chin in her perfect little hand and lifting it skyward to force me to look at her. “You need to find their market.”
“But …”
“Milly is out there. I need to find her. You need to find your elite.” She pulled me to my feet and worked herself into my arms, pressing tightly against me. “It has to be this way.”
I didn’t want it to be. I hated the entire idea. Tearing Kylma apart building by building to find them would be less painful. There had to be another way.So why haven’t you come up with one?
Time was running out for me to do so. By now, people would be asking questions about Milly, why she was so important, and just who was looking forher after all.
We had to try a different method. Mine had failed. Maybe Anna’s would succeed?
My dragon thrashed and tore at the ground in my mind, wild with protective fury and fear.
No. We can’t. We protect her. Keep her safe. We can’t let her go back. Not now. Not ever.
“It won’t work anyway.”
We both looked over at Ella. She shied away from my gaze but met Anna’s.
“What do you mean?” my mate asked.
“Oh, sure, you could get captured and taken in,” she said, her eyes slightly unfocused as she followed her chain of thought. “But you’re missing the next part, Anna. The one where he finds you. He can’t do that.”
I held my breath. There was a way. But I wasn’t going to suggest it. I didn’t want to endorse this wild plan in any way. We would do it the same way I’d tracked Ella down. Piece by piece.
Anna sighed. “Damn. That is a problem. He would need to be able to find his way to me from far away.”
“Yes, he would.” Ella said thoughtfully.
“I’ve been feeling him lately,” Anna said quietly, looking up at me. “When you’re approaching. I knew you were coming back a minute or so before I looked outside and saw your dragon. Is there some way to increase that? Can you give it some extra juice or whatever?”
“Maybe.” Ella looked at me now. She could see that I knew but wasn’t going to volunteer the information. I tried to compel her to be silent, but the only way to do that was to use an alpha command.
Something I couldn’t bring myself to do. Not after the way she had suffered at the hands of one of the elite already. It would break her.
“What is?” Anna asked, clenching me tightly.
After a week without any contact, having my mate in my arms should have been reassuring. It should have settled my dragon down. Instead, it was only making it more agitated, working it up into a frenzy of protective desires.
