10. Ella

I wascontent to bask in Keldor”s scorching embrace as he carried me from our bedchamber, my mind deliriously adrift in the breathtaking afterglow of our the last few hours. The lingering tendrils of bliss still lapped at my senses, each brush of his calloused palms against my scales igniting sparks of delicious friction. I nuzzled deeper into the reassuring heat radiating from his chiseled frame, inhaling the heady, smoky musk that was purely him - my mate.

When he spoke of fetching a feast to sate my ravenous appetites, I couldn”t resist the impish urge to tease and flirt, to revel in this newfound connection. Teasing Keldor, basking in the rich, melodious rumble of his laughter - it felt so natural, so right in a way that nothing from my former human existence could have prepared me for.

My contented reverie shattered the moment we stepped through the outer doors of the chamber. One minute, I was nestled in my dragon”s scorching embrace, the next, a tidal wave of memories came crashing over me with the force of a tsunami. Disjointed flashes and fragments, a kaleidoscope of half-remembered images and sensations that slammed into me with such staggering intensity, I went rigid in Keldor”s arms.

Faces, voices, places I had never truly forgotten but simply...misplaced among the tangled tapestry of my new existence. They all came roaring back in a torrential deluge, each one igniting like a flash of lightning in the darkest recesses of my consciousness. I gasped, every muscle locked in a rictus of stunned paralysis as the memories battered me from all sides in a relentless onslaught.

”What is it, my mate? What”s wrong?” Concern blazed like twin suns in his blazing amber eyes as he searched my face with an urgency that bordered on frantic.

I couldn”t formulate a response, couldn”t put words to the maelstrom of half-remembered images and sensations that continued to pummel me from all sides. Faces, so many faces that had once meant everything to me, were now reduced to ghosts.. There was a man with sandy hair and laughing blue eyes, a woman with smile lines crinkling at the corners as she gazed at me with such profound tenderness and...and...

Sutton.

The name exploded in my mind”s eye, igniting a series of memories so vivid and visceral I gasped aloud. Sutton, my best friend, my fellow artist whose disappearance had shattered me to the core and left me adrift long before I”d been swept up by the slavers. Her warm, infectious laughter as we joked about some silly project we were collaborating on. The fierce determination blazing in those emerald eyes as she pored over her sketchbook, her calloused fingers dancing across the pages with effortless grace.

And then...nothing. One day she was there, and the next, she had vanished without a trace. As if the universe itself had reached out and plucked her from existence without rhyme or reason. The anguish, the endless questioning of what I could have done differently, how I could have saved her from...whatever cruel fate had befallen her.

It was that soul-shattering anguish that came roaring back in full force, lancing through me with such profound visceral potency, I doubled over with a strangled cry of anguish. Keldor”s arms flew around me, cradling me against the scorching planes of his chest as I trembled and keened, overwhelmed by the deluge of memories that refused to be contained any longer.

”Ella.” The name tumbled from my lips in a breathless rasp laced with wonderment and a profound sense of loss for the life I could no longer reclaim, no matter how many pieces fell back into place. ”M-my name...is Ella.”

Keldor went still against me, the only sound his harsh, ragged breathing as I continued to shudder in the wake of my mind”s rebirth. When at last he spoke, his deep timbre resonated straight into my essence, steadying me like a tether in the relentless cyclone.

”Ella,” he rumbled, tasting the syllables with clear relish as he nuzzled the crown of my head. ”A beautiful name for an even more exquisite vision. It suits you, my daring mate. My eternal Ella.”

Despite the lingering ache gripping my psyche, I managed a tremulous smile at his words, at the undisguised adoration blazing in those molten depths. Drawing a fortifying breath, I allowed the deluge of memories to wash over me once more, no longer flinching from their visceral intensity but embracing them with open arms, like a long-lost friend returning home.

More faces, more names, began to emerge from the tangled recesses of my mind”s eye. My parents” smiling countenances as they embraced me, so proud yet bittersweet, their eyes shining with a profound melancholy I hadn”t understood at the time. Jobs and personal achievements, favorite hangouts and beloved places around the city that had once been as familiar as my own heartbeat, all came raining down in a torrential, suffocating flood.

I reeled beneath the onslaught, gasping for breath as the memories continued their relentless barrage. If not for Keldor”s steadying presence, his searing heat and endless devotion anchoring me to the present, I might have been swept away by the tempest entirely. But he was my truth, my destiny, and I clung to that certainty like a lifeline even as the remnants of my old life threatened to drag me under their crashing waves.

Keldor held me through it all, murmuring soothing endearments laced with reassurances and vows of eternal fealty. He brushed lingering kisses along my brow, my cheeks, the throbbing pulse at my throat as the memories at last began to ebb, the deluge reduced to a steady trickle. When I could draw an even breath at last, I gazed up at my mate with eyes that shimmered with unshed tears of pure wonderment and hard-won understanding.

”I was...I was an artist,” I rasped out in an awed murmur, my mind struggling to realign the pieces into some semblance of cohesion. ”A lettering artist, specializing in calligraphy and hand-drawn typography. It...it was my passion, my entire world before...”

I trailed off, unable to give voice to the life-altering events that had swept me into the cosmos” searing embrace and deposited me on this uncharted world until Keldor had found me. Recounting the harrowing tale of my abduction, of the hell I must have endured aboard that slavers” craft, seemed like desecrating the sanctity of our celestial bond at that moment.

Perhaps, one day, when the wounds didn”t feel so raw, so visceral in their intensity, I would share those memories with my mate. But not now, not when his searing devotion was the only truth keeping the tempest at bay.

”You were an artist of words, then?” Keldor rumbled, his smoldering gaze searching mine with a tenderness that made my heart constrict. ”One who shaped the universe”s silent poetry into something beautiful and profound for all to witness?”

I nodded, the lingering ache in my mind easing infinitesimally as I lost myself in the scorching certainty of his presence. ”Something like that, I suppose. Though it was hardly a cosmic endeavor, at least back then.”

A faint, wistful smile curved my lips as more fragmented recollections surfaced. ”I did love it, though. The way the words could blend and flow together into something greater than their individual parts. It was...an escape of sorts, I think. A way to lose myself in the artistry and find some semblance of peace amidst the chaos.”

Keldor regarded me with an inscrutable look, one that conveyed he understood the inherent desire to carve out one”s own sanctum from the relentless press of the world better than I could have fathomed. Of course he did - this mighty dragon warrior had been doing just that for longer than I could comprehend, forging his own dominion on this desolate, uncharted world light years from the home that had been brutally stripped away.

”And did you find that peace, my Ella?” he asked softly, brushing the backs of those wicked talons along my cheek in a scorching caress. ”In your artistry, in the shaping of words into something sublime?”

I leaned into his touch with a tremulous sigh, drawing strength from the primal heat that sempre to resonate from his very core. ”Sometimes,” I admitted with a faint, rueful chuckle. ”I think Sutton was better at that than I was.”

Sutton. My best friend, my kindred spirit in all things, art and life. The one person whose laughter and spirit could pull me from the darkest recesses of my melancholy and make the world seem just a little brighter, just for a little while. Until the day she had simply...vanished without a trace, as if the universe itself had reached out and plucked her from existence without rhyme or reason.

I could still recall the anguish that had gripped me in the aftermath of her disappearance, the endless questioning of what I could have done differently to save her. The guilt, so profound and suffocating, that perhaps I hadn”t been as good a friend as she deserved, that maybe if I”d been more attentive, more vigilant, I could have protected her from...whatever cruel fate had befallen her.

We had been sisters in every way but blood, united by our passions and our unbreakable bond of friendship. And then, she had been ripped away, leaving me unmoored and cast adrift in a reality that no longer made sense.

”Ella?” Keldor”s voice cut through the cyclone like a blazing beacon, his searing touch anchoring me to the present as he gathered me into his arms once more. ”What is it, my mate? What anguish grips you so? Tell me, let me ease your suffering in whatever way I can.”

”Sutton. Her name...was Sutton. She was my best friend.” My fingers dug almost painfully into the sinuous scales adorning his chest as the words continued to tumble forth in a torrential rush. ”One day she was there, so full of life and endless potential, and the next...nothing. As if she”d never existed at all. Just...gone without a whisper of reason or explanation.”

The anguish that gripped me in that moment was every bit as profound and suffocating as the day I had finally accepted that my dearest friend, my sister in all the ways that mattered, would never be returning to me. It was a loss so visceral, so devastating, that it had rented my world asunder and left me cast adrift.

”I searched for her for so long,” I confessed in a tremulous rasp, my words laced with a soul-shattering anguish that transcended the eons. ”Followed every lead, called in every favor from anyone who might have information, but it was as if she had ceased to exist. Kind of like I imagine people now think happened to me. You don”t suppose she could have been kidnapped by aliens even those few years earlier, do you?” I asked, giving voice to the harrowing notion that had taken root in the back of my mind.

If such nefarious forces were scouring the galaxy for human females to enslave and exploit, who was to say Sutton hadn”t suffered a similar fate to my own? The thought made my heart clench.

Keldor regarded me with an inscrutable look for a weighty pause before responding. When at last he spoke, his deep timbre resonated through me.

”Anything is possible, my Ella,” he said, cradling me closer.

His calloused palm cradled my cheek in a searing caress, his smoldering gaze searching the endless depths of my own with an intensity that resonated straight into me.

”I cannot say for certain whether this Sutton suffered a similar fate to the one that swept you into my embrace,” Keldor continued in a low rasp. ”But I can vow to you here and now that I will use every connection, every favor and resource at my disposal to unravel the truth. If there is even a whisper of your dearest friend”s presence on this side of the galaxy, I shall find it and pursue the lead.”

A tremulous exhalation escaped me as I absorbed the profound magnitude of his promise. Reaching up, I traced the sharp ridges of his jaw in a path of hushed reverence and sheer wonderment.

”Thank you, my Keldor,” I whispered fervently. ”You do not know what it would mean to me to discover what truly became of Sutton after all this time. Even if the truth is...unpleasant, at least I would have closure. A way to let go of the endless questioning that has haunted me for so long.”