The Dragon King and His Human Mate

7. Your Name

Anastasia 

I gathered all my courage to step out of the cave I had been standing for the past two or three days―I had even lost count of time at this point. Everything seemed vague, like a play of my imagination, and sometimes I even started to wonder if this was all real or if I was already dead.

If I wouldn't get out of here, I'd definitely go insane.

Walking around for hours, I ended up in a part of the island I had never been before. It was only some steps away from the ocean, the trees were much more rare than in the thick part of the forest, and strangely, it was peaceful and beautiful. Like a never ending surface of yellow grass where you could lay on and forget everything around you. If only it'd be that easy.

A little far away my eyes caught something similar to... a house?

As I approached it more, I realized it was exactly what I had imagined it to be. A beautiful small wooden house, the ground in front of it planted with different vegetables and fruits in a really symmetric, pleasing-to-see way.

Who could've had built a house here, in the middle of nowhere? The Dragon King? But he had only one hour of a day in his human form, would he choose to spend it building a house that was literally smaller than him in his dragon form? This was ridiculous.

Was the food in front of my cave every morning coming from here, as well?

I approached to the house more and I started gathering some red apples from the smallest tree I saw there. I was literally starving, I hadn't had a proper meal in days.

But my heart almost stopped beating when I felt a strong wind hitting my body, as I realized it was caused by his big wings. I gulped, trying to take my composition. Why was he literally everywhere I was?

I built the courage to turn around, my arms full of red apples I was starving to try, at least until my eyes laid on him, because surely I lost appetite after that. Some of them fell on the ground the first my eyes laid on his scary ones that I strangely didn't find that scary anymore.

"I wasn't stealing them," I tried to excuse myself when I realized his penetrating gaze wasn't about to soften, but realizing in the process that this was more than stupid. "I was... borrowing them," I added lamely, even though it didn't make any sense at all.

He gave me that impressed look he had been giving me all these days and that's when I realized I had been stupid all along, hoping there was someone else helping me with the food and the water. There was no one else in this damned island, no one but him and me.

"It's you, isn't it?" I said, catching him off guard as he let out a surprised low growl. "Why are you trying to keep me alive?!" I shouted this time, anger filling my judgment. "Am I entertaining you? Are you enjoying your time seeing me struggling like this?" And with that, I hit him with one of the apples and when it didn't hurt him at all, I continued with another and then another. "Did you do this to the other girls too? Or you killed them off the first you saw them?"

This time he growled at me loudly, but strangely I wasn't even fearing him anymore. Something inside was telling me he wouldn't kill me, just like the other times he hadn't, for some reason. Besides, I was so goddamn tired of being afraid all the time.

"I don't want your damn apples, you can keep them!" I told him firmly, even angrier than before. "I'm not a little doll to entertain your stupid pointless lonely life. I'm not scared of you, not at all! I'm tired of these stupid games, just kill me and get over this. I can't even imagine living a life like yours. Aren't you that big scary Dragon everyone fears even mentioning? Come on, why aren't you showing that to me yet?" 

I knew this was all madness, I just couldn't bring myself to stop shouting at him, getting all my anger off my chest. I wanted it, I needed to hate him with all my powers and my subconsciousness was afraid I wasn't doing a proper job at that. Why couldn't I hate him more? Why a really, really deep thing inside me was intrigued by him?

He stood there, frozen as I walked passed him with a kind of confidence I was surprised for having myself. Well, I never lacked confidence before, but I hadn't faced a dragon before either.

He let me go, however. He didn't move, didn't growl. He did absolutely nothing, just like I had thought. Something was keeping him from killing me, and I had absolutely no idea what.

*******

I woke up the next morning because of the coldness of the ground, and my arms unconsciously wrapped around my body to keep me warm. It was almost down, but for some reason I couldn't just go back to sleep anymore. I needed to walk. Breathe. Feel the air fill my lungs, feel that I was free, no matter that was the last thing I was.

My feet sent me straight to the ocean. Sunrises had always had that magic effect on me, and I wanted to feel it again. Just like I did from the balcony of my room, while the whole world was asleep but me.

But I didn't even reach the shore when I stopped midway, completely forgetting how to breathe. I couldn't believe it, I simply couldn't. It was... a man. It was literally a man.

Rubbing my eyes with my hands, I waited for the figure to disappear into the darkness, but instead he was still there. His back was facing me, and it seemed like he was lost in his thoughts, or in the beautiful view in front of him, but all I could see instead... was him.

My eyes drank him all in, from his long straight dirty blonde hair that reached down his shoulders as the wind played with them softly, to the big, muscular back that left me breathless, only to realize the perfect, God-like man in front of me was entirely naked, and I was admiring him like I had seen no man before.

And maybe I hadn't. Not like him at least, I hadn't.

The man's body was sculptured by God himself, and no one would be able to change my mind about that.

"Enjoying the view?" A deep voice filled the air, and I felt like it almost echoed in the silence, crawling dangerously under my skin.

"If you're talking about the sky and the moon, yes, I'm enjoying the view," I was somehow able to respond, and finally... finally he decided to turn and look at me. The ground under my feet disappeared when his light blue eyes met mine, and they were lighter than the bluest sky, exactly like the dragon's ones. The soft wind kept playing with his hair, and he ran one of his hands through them, his piercing gaze not letting me go even for a second. My eyes explored his attractive face, his thick brows, straight, defined nose, and plump lips, and I was already convinced he was the most good-looking man my eyes had ever laid on. 

Once more, my eyes lifted from his strong chest to meet his eyes, and this time I knew. Perhaps I haven't been so lost on him I would have known earlier, but it did not make any difference.

At least until he made a step towards me. Instinctively, I made one back, my heart racing a mile a minute. "You're him, aren't you? You're the Dragon King?" Despite myself, my act of being strong and fearless, my voice trembled, and so did my body. I didn't know what to expect from him. He could shift back to his dragon form, he could hurt me, he could breathe fire on me and roast me for dinner. The good looks did not change that fact, I had to remind myself this. "Do not come near me!" I warned, pointing my index finger at him, making some other steps back.

"Please, my Lady, I won't harm you in any way," he said, this time his voice a lot softer as he walked towards me, and for a second I almost saw hurt in his eyes, and honesty, but I shook that stupid thought out of my head.

Instead, I ran. I ran as if my life depended on it, I ran away from him, from my worst enemy; choosing to enter the thick, dark forest filled with dangerous creatures than facing him instead. Perhaps that made me a coward, perhaps courageous, I couldn't decide for sure, but what I knew was that there was no more dangerous creature than the man chasing me. A wild, mad dragon under the skin of a gorgeous man with some hypnotizing eyes.

I knew he had been following me, but at some point he had either stopped, or if I was lucky enough, I had lost him.

But right when I thought I was out of danger, I heard a sound coming from somewhere so close to me, behind a tree, and in the other second I felt my back hitting the ground roughly, and then a piercing pain hitting the back of my head. I opened my eyes widely, just to be welcomed by a literal tiger holding me on the ground, so ready to torn me into tiny little pieces.

A loud scream escaped my mouth, and I needed a long second to realize it belonged to me.

Its sharp sword-like teeth bared out to me, saliva almost dripping down to my face, and I felt simply, purely terrified to my bones. Maybe even more terrified than facing the Dragon King himself, and that made me realize a thing or two.

It was over. I knew it, I could feel it, I was going to become food for a wild creature...

Only that I didn't.

The big body went flying abruptly a few metres away, laying on the ground with a spear embedded through his body brutally, but for the life of me I couldn't stop staring at the big wounded wild cat, as it left out whines of pain and tried getting on all four again, aiming at a very blond naked men in front of me.

My widened eyes were glued to him as if he was a piece of magnet, irresistible, and hot, and that was the last of things I should have thought about in that right moment, yet it was the first one on my mind.

The tiger let out some other painful groans, and finally gave up, closing its eyes for good this time.

Getting up, I felt my body had started to become numb. I was in shock, I realized with a start. And adrenaline was washing away, making me feel extremely tired, and lost, and... scared.

I was scared. No, I was more than scared, I was afraid I would have a heart attack pretty soon.

What was I doing here, in a dark forest, being chased by tigers and crazy dragons in human forms? I was a Princess. All I had grown up to learn were manners, and music, and waltzing, and politics. I couldn't do this, I wasn't made for this, I couldn't survive a life like this―

Some arms wrapped around me, cutting off my thoughts, and immediately, instinctively, as if I belonged there in the first place, I found my face buried in a warm naked chest. One strong arm was around my waist, not strong but strong enough to make me feel comfortable, and the other was soothing my hair as if it knew that was what always calmed me down. Made me feel safe.

Why did he make me feel safe when he was the one I should have been running from? The irony of that was almost laughable.

Coming in my senses, I pulled away from his arms and put a safe distance between us, for a few seconds not allowing myself to stare into his eyes. Maybe out of embarrassment, maybe shame, maybe a million reasons more. But not fear. Not anymore.

"Why did you save me?" I asked in disbelief.

"Don't they have thank you in their dictionary where you come from?" A sarcastic remark from him was the least I expected, but somehow that made him sound even more normal. Like he wasn't the terrifying dragon that had murdered plenty of human girls before.

The last thought made my walls climb up again, thankfully. "Are you kidding me right now? I'm here because of you in the first place, and now I have to thank you?" I demanded.

He gave me a strange look, as if I was the one who had gone mad and not him. "Because of me?!" he questioned. "I have done nothing but save you since the first day you came here, and for a stupid reason I don't understand you keep accusing me of wanting to bloody kill you!" His outburst caught me completely off guard, along with his words.

"First of all, put something on," I said, looking away, only to gain a smirk by him standing there completely naked in the biggest confidence I had seen in a person. "And secondly, do you take me for a fool? You know damn well why I accuse you. You've been doing this for more than a century, so tell me, Dragon, what is different with me?"

He narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "Mind explaining what I have done for more than a century except being a prisoner in this living hell?"

Ugh! I held my head between the palms of my hands frustrated. He was literally driving me insane! "The girls! You've killed them all, that's what you have done!" I shouted, even more upset, and that made him furrow his brows and give me the most shocked expression there is.

"Which girls?" the man asked, making some steps towards me, but I made some back instinctively, again.

"Don't you dare touch me," I hissed, ready to throw myself at him and take my sweet revenge. I just wanted this game to be over and him to admit what he had done, and why he wasn't doing the same to me yet, but it didn't look like this would happen anytime soon.

Not even minding what I said, he gripped my wrist tightly, with one move only pulling me closer to his body. His eyes never left mine, and my traitorous body shivered at his touch and his blue, icy gaze.

I gasped when he grabbed my chin softly with his other hand, forcing me to look at his breathtaking eyes. Yet still, I stubbornly refused to give him the satisfaction of surrendering. 

"Look at me," he ordered, his voice low, not more than a hiss. But he seemed to grow more irritated a my stubbornness. A low, sexy growl told me that. "I swear to any God you believe in that I have no idea what you're talking about, woman," he hissed. "No girl has come here, at least not alive. You're the first to ever step foot in here after more than a century that I've been forced to live in here, alone."

I blinked several times, confused, my mind not agreeing to wrap around all this information. His eyes looked so honest that for a second they made me believe he was saying the truth.

"Why do I have to believe you?" I asked, confused. "Everyone knows what you've done to them. Haven't you killed your own mate, too?"

He let go of me abruptly, and my body instantly cried for his touch. The look in his face was now a pained one, like I had said the most painful sentence someone could ever say to him. And suddenly, I had so many questions. Did he regret killing her? Did he miss her?

"I have," he mumbled, for the first time not looking directly into my eyes. "But this doesn't mean I have killed any other girl like you claim me to."

I furrowed my brows together. "Then where are they? What have you done to them?" I accused him, and he groaned out in frustration.

"I told you, no other girl has ever set foot in here. I don't know why you keep accusing me of such thing!" He sounded mad. "In these one hundred and seven years only two girls have come it in this island, and they were both dead by the time they were here. I don't know who killed them, or why, I have just found two dead bodies at the ocean shore."

My mouth opened and closed like a fish out of the water. "When? When did you find them?" I mumbled.

"I found the first girl around fifty years ago and the second only two years ago, I think, if I have kept count correctly," he answered, and I was sure now I had forgotten how to breathe at the last part of the sentence.

"You mean... Farah... you found Farah?!" My voice sounded foreign to my own ears when I heard myself saying my cousin's name.

He shrugged his shoulders, approaching me and trying to comfort me. "It was a tall girl with chestnut hair, and I think... a blue dress. I'm not sure."

The images of her filled my head one after the other. It was her, yes, two years ago she had left to come here wearing a beautiful blue dress, and that was the last time we had ever seen her.

Tears blurred my vision. "I don't believe you," I whispered, this time my voice much weaker. "You killed her, it doesn't have any other explanation."

He sighed, sounding disappointed that I didn't trust him even after this.

"Come with me," he ordered softly, not leaving me a choice as he pulled me towards a direction I had no idea about. I felt tingles coming from his touch, but I tried ignoring them with everything in me.

We stood in front of two things that were supposed to be somewhat like graves, two wooden crosses standing there, without names written on them.

"This is the girl from fifty years ago, and this is Farah, as you say," he said in a soft tone, letting go of my hand so I could reach Farah's grave. Tears filled up my eyes, but I took one stone from the ground and scratched the wooden cross with it, until I left her name on it. At least she deserved to be recognized. As did the other girls that had died the same way as her.

"You were unconscious the first day too, so I guess whoever did this to them tried to kill you too," the man behind me pointed out while images of that day filled my head immediately. How had I been that stupid to not connect everything earlier?

"How... do you know?" I mumbled, realizing the truth in the process. "You did it... Right? You saved me."

He looked away, and I realized it hadn't been in his intentions to tell me anytime soon. How many times had he saved me in just a few days? I had lost count. And all I had done was try to hate him and accuse him of things he had never done.

"I guess you believe me now..." he murmured.

I nodded, brushing my hair behind my ear nervously. "This doesn't make any sense. Why would King Ethan destroy the only opportunity of saving you by killing the girls when he's the one going through the trouble of bringing them here in the first place?"

For a second, it looked like someone had hit him hard in the back of his head. "King Ethan?! You mean king Ethan as the Wizard King, my best friend?!" the Dragon King asked in disbelief, opening his eyes more widely when I nodded. "Isn't he supposed to be dead by now? Witches have the same lifespan as humans."

I shrugged almost casually. "Tell that to the dark magic the King uses to stay alive."

It looked like he wanted to say something; actually, he wanted to make a million other questions, and I did as well, but that wasn't possible when I heard him saying, "The sun is up. Don't look at me," and I gave him a questioning look. "I'm going to shift in my dragon form right now, and it isn't a very pleasant view, so turn back, please."

I did as he said even though I was more than curious to watch him shift.

"Can I know your name, my Lady?" He watched me intently, as if he could look right through me.

"Anastasia," I whispered, a small smile finding its way in my face.

"Beautiful. Just like you."

My heart started beating faster after I heard that, and when I finally turned back, the wild dragon was standing right in front of me. But this time, I didn't cower back.

This time I allowed myself to really look at him.