“This is going to take more than the rest of today,” I told Caz. “We’re going to be gone for a few.”
“I know.”
We had told the women we would be back the next day. That was wrong now. I could see that. I wondered if Ella would understand that, though I longed to be back with her, exploring our mate bond, that I had to be here. I had to stay.
It was my duty.
Twenty-Four
Ella
I shoved thestack of cards under the pillow of the couch as Anna came bursting through the door unexpectedly.
“What’s going on?” I asked, hoping she hadn’t noticed my cover-up.
She hadn’t. “They’re coming back.”
I sat up straight at the news and then forced myself to stay sitting and calm the sudden racing of my heart. “They are?”
“Yeah,” Anna said, drawing the word out with a sly smile while playfully twisting her reddish-brown hair around a finger. “I just thought, maybe, you might want to know.”
Then she sauntered from the room. “By the way, I saw you hide those cards. Now get out here. Let’s go see them.”
I sighed.
She was impossible. They all were. I’d done my best to hide the mounting distress with each day Dirk had been gone. I was sure they hadn’t noticed the longing I felt in every breath, every step. It hadn’t beenthatbad. Not on the outside. Had it?
If it was anything like the churning maelstrom of my innards, maybe I hadn’t been as sneaky as I thought.
Getting up, I left the common area. I purposefully did not retrieve the cards, just in case she was bluffing.
Anna was waiting right outside the door, a huge I-knew-it grin on her face.
“Oh, shut up,” I said, unable to stop myself from smiling. “I’m just coming to make sure he’s okay.”
If anything, Anna’s grin stretched her round face even broader, and her eyes glowed with violet energy. She dropped her head back and gave it a little whip, shaking her pin-straight hair. “Oh, Dirk. It is good to see that you have nary a scratch on you. I was not worried, yet here I am anyway. I simply had to see visual evidence that you have returned unmaimed and with all limbs intact. A shame about the brain though, but I suppose that was a lost cause before I met you.”
I cackled, giving her a friendly shove. She didn’t budge.
“Damn your dragon strength,” I cursed, still smiling. “I’m serious about just making sure he’s okay.”
“Of course.”
I rolled my eyes and followed her down the hall. She paused after several steps and shook herself.
“What was that?”
“Caught a shiver, I guess. I’m good now,” she said with a reassuring smile.
“You sure?”
“As good as you will be when you see Dirk.”
“All right,” I groaned, caving. “Sure. I did miss seeing him around. Maybe his smile too. I won’t deny that. Okay? But I also have to wake up every morning and go to bed every night wearing his marks. Questioning it all.”
“What questions?” Anna said, losing the humor. “Whether you want to move forward right now or not, it’s pretty obvious what fate has intended for you two.”
“Not to me,” I said, earning a questioning glance. “There are so many unknowns. First off, and the biggest question I have, is why did it take so long for anything to happen? You and Caz knew immediately. Before you even saw each other. You said you smelled him and knew right then, in the cage with us.”
