The Dragon King and His Human Mate

8. Wait For Me

Anastasia 

I couldn't think about anything else other than what had just happened this morning. It had definitely turned everything upside down, everything I had believed in since I was a child. I had grown to believe that the Dragon King was the greatest evil in our supernatural world, and now he came out to be just the opposite.

It was clear as the brightest day now, King Ethan was responsible for every damn thing that had happened to my people. To the poor girls who had been supposedly send to free the Dragon King, and instead had been killed in the boat just like they tried to do with me.

My thoughts were a complete mess. I couldn't put my finger to the reasons he was doing all this, however. If I had thought he was sick in his head until now, he was more than this. The old wizard was a maniac.

Being lost in my thoughts, I hadn't realized how I had walked to a part of the island I hadn't seen before. I was mesmerized at what was standing right in front of me.

A tremendous, big waterfall tumbled down the mountain gracefully, looking like a wall of blue satin threaded with silver. At the bottom of it was created a miraculously beautiful serenity-pool, surrounded by willows that made everything even more magical.

I was speechless, that definitely must have been paradise.

I approached it more, and my eyes fell on the surface of water, filled by lotuses in a light pink color. 

Never had I thought I'd be able to witness such a beautiful place in my life.

I immediately wondered if Vladimir had ever found this place. But I scolded myself immediately at even wondering; of course he had. He had been living in here for more than a century.

I stiffened when I realized I had called him by his first name in my head. It had sounded so right that I hadn't even noticed I was even doing that. How did I go from calling him a madman to calling him Vladimir in only half a day? Why did he have such an effect on me that made me trust him immediately? He could be lying for all I knew and here I was, acting like I had known my entire life.

Without hesitating, I took off my dress and dove into the water. The coldness made my body shiver, but I was soon adjusted to it. I actually liked it, I had missed taking a bath like crazy.

I had no idea how much time I spent there inside the water, but by the the constant shivers though my body, I realized it was time to go back to the cave.

I made only some steps attempting to go out of the water when my whole body stopped midway all by itself. My breath got stuck on my throat, and my stomach clenched at the sight of the Dragon right in front of me.

His big bright eyes traveled from my face to my naked breasts, and that was enough to send a shiver down my spine. I could totally picture the amused look in the man's face as he shamelessly drank me in, his eyes resting on my exposed chest. By the time I was fully inside the water again, he had already peeked.

My cheeks were literally burning, and for a fact I knew I was red as a tomato. This was so damn embarrassing that I couldn't even look at the Dragon anymore.

He let out something that sounded like a satisfied low growl. Even his dragon was as arrogant as the man was.

"Do you have to be everywhere I am?" I shouted, still not able to look at him. "Turn around, I have to get dressed."

He stood there for some other seconds before turning around in his claws, and I could swear it was the cutest thing to see a terrifying gigantic being obey to a little human girl's orders. It was amusing, no doubt.

*******

Vladimir

She was there, sitting down on the wet sand while admiring the colorful sky that was about to change from dark to bright. She looked even more beautiful with the light wind playing with her long messy red hair, and I couldn't help it, I noticed her cute little freckles, that were even more obvious these days she had been more exposed to the sun.

Anastasia.

Such a beautiful name.

I couldn't stop thinking of what I had witnessed yesterday, her naked body, the blush in her face as she looked at me, and I clenched underneath the animal leather cloth that I had covered my lower half. I couldn't stop myself from desiring her, imagining taking her right there on the sand while she'd moan out my name and I'd take her again and again.

I tried to get these ideas out of my head. Something was definitely wrong with me, she was nothing to me.

Anastasia was nothing to me, and that's how it'd always be.

It looked like she felt my presence, because her sweet hazel eyes started searching for me and it felt like they relaxed when they fell on me. Like they came home.

I tried once again to stop myself from longing for her.

With only some steps I walked to her, and sat down besides her. She stiffened, but didn't move away, even though our bodies were only inches apart.

"You covered yourself this time," Anastasia said, before adding an, "almost."

I tried to contain myself from smirking at the idea of my nakedness affecting her in any way. I was so naturally drawn to her, to her voice, it was insane.

"I tried," I responded. "We don't have much time," I added, gaining her full serious attention. "My name's—"

"Vladimir," she cut me off. "I know."

I froze for a second. Trying my best to hold myself back and not give in my wildest imaginations I had had since I saw her half naked yesterday, I looked away from her. My name slipping her lips that softly was making that quite impossible.

"All right."

"I don't suppose I have to call you Your Highness or Your Majesty, I presume?" she questioned, a teasing smile playing on her lips. It was crystal clear to me now, the woman knew how to flirt. And this was messing with my head even more.

"It's not necessary," I said almost coldly, watching the way she tried not showing the hurt on her face. But it was the only way for me to contain myself. "Now can we start with who you are, who exactly sent you here, and why?"

She sighed. "I'm Anastasia Everleigh—"

"Everleigh, as the humans' royal family?" I cut her off, surprised.

"I'm the Princess," she told me, shrugging her shoulders as if it was completely normal, a tiny small detail she had forgotten to tell me.

Dumbly, I stared at her in awe. Of course she was a Princess, this would explain the royal aura around her, the graceful way she moved, or talked, or smiled. There was this elegance about her that gave her away, I had just been too stupid not to realize earlier.

"So it's me who has to call you Your Grace, after all. Right, Princess?"

She chuckled softly. If until now I had thought her hazel eyes were the most breathtaking part of her, I was surely mistaken. Nothing could be compared to her smile, absolutely nothing. I was completely drawn to it now, there was no going back.

"Just Anastasia it's all right," she confirmed. "Now, as for your question, I told you yesterday, I'm here because of King Ethan and his barbaric Choosing Ritual."

"What ritual?" I asked, noticing the obvious disgust in her face. A lot of things must have happened all these years that I had been forced to stay here, and for only one I was sure; Ethan was still alive.

She sighed again, probably wondering from where to start. "There is a ritual that takes place in my Kingdom, once in two years," she started. "Every human girl over twenty years old is forced to participate or her family will be sentenced to death. In the end only one of the girls will be chosen as... your potential mate."

I froze, my mouth suddenly dry.

That was not possible. That did not make any sense. At all.

"W-why? This is sick," I murmured. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

"Obviously for you to get out of here. Or so I thought, at least." She was confused too. I was sure there were too many things we both didn't know.

"Are you...?"

"The chosen one this year? Yes," she confirmed. "Clearly, it was the best way for King Ethan to get rid of me. I was being a lot of trouble for him. I had started to ask for help from other kingdoms, and my people were trying to stand up for themselves. He couldn't have that."

I looked straight in her eyes, and I could tell she could read the admiration that was written in mines.

"How did you survive?" I asked, reminded of how I first found her.

"He had sent a guard with me so he could kill me, but I killed him instead," she explained, like it was the most normal thing for a human girl to kill a wizard guard, and if I thought I was attracted to her before, now it was definitely doubled.

I still couldn't process in my head everything that she was saying, however. There were so many missing holes in the equation that I couldn't figure. "I still don't understand," I honestly said. "Ethan knows I'd never bloody want this in the first place. Why is he going through all the trouble if the girls don't even come here?"

Anastasia looked surprised at me cursing. I had tried to be as human-like as possible until now, but my nerves were a wreck right now.

She shrugged. "I'm guessing it's the only way to keep your people under control, and also to dictate his power and will in my Kingdom and my people."

I stiffened. "My people? What do you mean?" I asked, mentally-slapping myself for not asking about them until now. Everything was becoming such a mess that I had forgotten about the most important thing there was for me.

"This is the reason King Ethan is going though all this in the first place," she explained, confused. "He claims he does this because he wants his best friend back, but I know that he fears the dragon shifters. Your people still blame him for losing you, and the only way for him to keep them under control is by promising he'll find your second-chance mate and bring you back." 

Oh f**k! Things were running much deeper than I first thought.

"You mean my people still... remember me? And want me back?" I hesitated as I asked this, but she nodded firmly, surprising me even more.

"Of course they do. They've never wanted King Edgar as their King."

"So, my half-brother, huh?" I hissed, even though it hadn't been hard to figure out he had been the one to take the throne after me, considering I had left no heir to the throne. I didn't want explanation to why my people didn't want him as King though, he was a stupid annoying piece of s**t.

"But everyone says he's only a toy in his mother's hands. Every decision is taken by her. I bet she works with King Ethan to keep your people from coming here to help. Most of them don't even know where this island is, but the few ones that do were never allowed to come," Anastasia explained in detail, and I could finally put the puzzles in their place one after the other. I had been really hurt the first few years that no one from my people came to check on me, not even Eva, my dear sister, or Rob, the man that was like a brother to me. But now everything made so much sense. "You know, that's what I've never been able to figure out. Why did your people want you back that desperately even after more than a century when you were just a madman who'd murdered everyone that had come in your way?"

I narrowed my eyes at her, actually hurt at her words. "A madman?!"

"Yes, everyone thinks you've gotten crazy since you..." but she stopped, leaving the impression she didn't want to hurt me like she had done the first time. I knew what she meant, I knew damn well what she meant. It had haunt me every single day of every single year I had spent here.

"The sun is up," I whispered as I got up, now not able to look her in her eyes. What did she think of me, knowing I had killed my own mate?

And why did it matter that much to me what she was thinking?

"Vladimir, wait..." she said softly, and once again, my name leaving her lips did some unexplainable things to my body I didn't know how to address. "Will you come at the waterfall... tomorrow? We have to talk about other things as well."

I nodded, containing myself from smiling. She went from fearing me to wanting to meet me in just a day and that mattered to me more than I was willing to admit.

"I will be there, Anastasia. Wait for me."