The Dragon King and His Human Mate

12. Friends

| Anastasia |  

It hurt. It hurt like hell.

It wasn't supposed to, I wasn't supposed to feel like this for someone I barely knew. For someone I meant nothing to. Yet I hated myself for leaving my guard down and responding to his kiss. I was supposed to push him away. I was supposed to stop him before he'd be the one to push me away. That way it wouldn't hurt.

But mostly, I hated myself that I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss. I had never been kissed like that before. Heck, I had shared only one kiss, with Felipe, the day I left, but I was already sure I'd never in my life be kissed like that. Ever again.

Like I meant the world to him. Like he couldn't get enough of me.

Which was completely false because he didn't want me. At all.

I had been nothing but an idiotic fool. Of course the man would want to kiss me. I was the first girl he had met in a hundred and seven years. Whoever it'd be in my place, he'd like to have physical contact with.

I didn't know how much time I had spent without eating, or sleeping, but it felt like a lot.

I just wanted to get out of there. Go back to my family. See my parents once again. Meet Harry. Have my little Sophie in my arms. They were the ones I had to be worried about right now. Yet here I was crying over a damned dragon shifter who was head over heels about his mate that had been dead for a century already.

I sat down on the sand and observed the beautiful sky. The sun hadn't set yet.

"Anastasia." My full name leaving his lips never failed to cause things in my stomach I wanted so much to ignore right now.

He sat down beside me and I made an attempt to leave, but he stopped me by holding my hand softly. It was nothing demanding, more pleading.

"I remember saying something like stay away from me, Vladimir. What did you not understand about that sentence?"

He held some regret in his light blue breathtaking eyes. "Sorry, not gonna happen." He shrugged his shoulders. "You should let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain, Vladimir. You kissed me, I let you, you regretted it, you pushed me away like I was some sort of cloth. Nothing to talk about," I smiled and made another attempt to leave, which was still stopped by him.

"Please listen to me," he pleaded. Who could've thought this big bulky man could soften my heart? Why couldn't I hate him? "I'm really sorry Anastasia." His voice sounded softer than usual.

"About what? Kissing me or pushing me away?" I chuckled so I wouldn't show my pain.

"Both," he answered honestly, observing my face.

"Oh." Could I expect otherwise?

He sighed. "Can you like... forgive me? So we can start over as... friends, maybe?"

"Friends?!" I laughed. "Do people in your kingdom kiss their friends in their lips?"

He shook his head and looked far away at the horizon. "I don't know, I haven't been there in a century."

Suddenly, I felt bad. I knew I should've been mad at him, yet could I really blame him? I would go insane, living these many years by myself.

"I know I shouldn't have kissed you. It was a mistake." It seemed with every word he said, he kept hurting me. Maybe not even knowing he was doing so in the meantime. He looked sad too, though.

I sighed. "It doesn't matter," I lied. It did matter, but he didn't have to know that. "I can't be friends with you, Vladimir," I added in a serious tone. His eyes widened. "I don't know how yet, but I'll leave. I'll go back to my family. They think I'm dead already. Plus, I can't leave them on king Ethan's mercy. Everyone deserves to know the truth, the whole truth. That you're innocent, that you haven't killed the girls all these years. Someone needs to get him out of that throne and save my people."

He seemed like he wanted to object. Like he wanted to convince me for something I wasn't quite sure about. But in the last second, he gave up and looked away. "You can't be the one to bring him down, Anastasia. The man is dangerous, he'll hurt you." He looked worried. Was he really worried about me?

I shook my head however. "I won't let my people suffer anymore. There have been enough dead girls for a century. I have to change that."

"I think I'm getting used to you... around here," he chuckled sadly. Was he trying to say that he didn't want me to leave? Before I could even ask something about that, we both noticed that the sun was rising.

Shifting time.

"Don't look at me," he demanded.

"I've seen shifters shifting before." Even though not dragons, I wanted to add. "I'm not the fragile human princess you think I am, Vladimir."

A little smile crept on his face as his bones literally started cracking. I felt like I wanted to run to him and help him out. But what could I do?

Gradually, big wings took over his body, his skin slowly turned into bronze and a gigantic thing appeared in front of me. God that was wild. The strangest thing I had seen in my entire life.

*******  

"Stop following me around, Vladimir!" I shouted to the dragon. The big scary thing sure could be annoying sometimes.

By using the knife I had with me since the first day, I tried turning a wooden stick into some sort of spear to use to catch some fishes. That happened to seem amusing to the dragon, following my every move with his big reptile eyes.

"Is it alright?" I asked, gaining an approval growl by him. But as I got into the water and tried to catch any fish with it, I realized that was much harder than I had first thought.

Vladimir's dragon growled lowly and I figured that was some kind of laughter from him, that annoyed me even more. "You know I've lived my whole life in a castle, right?" I rolled my eyes. However, that whole thing was funny, I had to admit.

It took me a lot of time to finally catch some fishes and got out of water. 

"Do you want some?" I asked him after roasting them on the fire.

He nodded his big head and I giggled at how cute this all was. The fish was microscopic compared to his big mouth but he still let out a satisfied growl and now I couldn't stop giggling. I wrapped my arms around his big head and gave him a hug. I didn't know what took over me but it felt warm.

Suddenly, the dragon lowered his long neck.

"No no I don't know how to ride a dragon." But he growled and almost forced me to get in his back.

Then he opened his gigantic wings and scooped the air, but I kept my eyes shut, my heart pounding on my chest like crazy.

I could feel the dragon's big eyes on me however. Telling me to open mine and enjoy the view.

When I finally took the courage to do just that, I ended up speechless. The island was breathtaking from above, the most beautiful view I had seen in my whole life.

I smiled brightly and wrapped my arms around his neck more firmly. I knew he was enjoying this as much as I was, flying around with me in his back, showing me what his eyes could see. The feeling of freedom.

Or so I thought.

In some point, he stopped going further away from the island. "What is it?" I asked, and he flew a little bit more forward, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier. "Oh," I now remembered. "That's her spell, right?" 

He growled.

I imagined how hard it must've been for him all these years, all alone. I felt terrible even at the thought of it.

Vladimir didn't deserve it. He didn't. No matter the reason he had killed his mate. He was a good person, I just knew that now.

I thought he'd flew me to my cave, but surprisingly, he sent me to his house.

"Vladimir? Why here?" I asked. However, he didn't move, his bluest eyes on me. "I'm not thinking of entering there, if that's what you mean!" I tried getting passed him but his big body stopped me. "That's your house. I'll go to the cave." Still, determined, he stopped me and using his big face, softly pushed me to the door.

I sighed. He could be stubborn too most of the time.

The first thing I noticed when I entered was the fact that his mate's portrait wasn't there anymore. Had he thought of getting me to live there from now on? And even removed her portrait?

That only swallowed my heart with happiness.