The Dragon King and His Human Mate

4. Heaven

Vladimir

My senses were on high alert for awhile now. I couldn't understand what was going on, everything was silent just like these past torturing one hundred and seven years of my life, but something felt extremely off, like something big was happening, something I had no saying over... Something that was about to change my life forever.

I let these thoughts fly out of my head immediately. This was bloody stupid. Things had been the same for over a century, why would they change now? Who would change them for me, anyways? It's not like I deserved it. 

But this unsettling feeling down my stomach wasn't going away, no matter how much I kept repeating to myself that nothing could happen in this damned island that I was destined to live for the rest of my life in.

I opened my large wings and decided to take a fly around to calm my nerves, but the more I flew away from the island, the more in high alerts my senses were. Something was wrong, I was sure of it now.

Right when I was thinking of turning back because the invisible border that kept me imprisoned was now only some metres away, my eyes caught something disrupting the boring endless blue of the ocean. Or to be more exact, someone...

The knot in my stomach tightened when my eyes fell on her. It was a girl with long red hair, laid in her tummy above something that was probably supposed to be a boat, not moving an inch of her body.

Was she dead?

That thought only put me in an agony I never thought I was supposed to be feeling for someone I had never met before. I couldn't really understand what was wrong with me, but I felt like I wanted to rip my body apart and get rid of this agonizing pain at the thought of this woman being dead, of the thought I couldn't save her.

I found the power inside of me to fly nearer her, as her sweet floral scent filled my senses entirely. Suddenly, I found myself wanting to smell this for the rest of my life. 

It was official, after a century of living alone, I was finally going crazy.

As I wrapped my head around her scent again, it was clear as day that she was a human. In a beautiful royal red dress, and only then I started wondering if she was a member of the humans royal family. Her face was covered by her beautiful wavy red hair and once again I found myself wanting to see it, caress it.

However, all these thoughts left my head when she groaned, probably out of pain, and I realized she was alive and for a split of second I felt like I was reborn.

I didn't waste any more time, I wrapped my claws around her waist as delicately as I could and opened my wings to fly again. I flew towards the ocean shore as fast as I could. She weighted nothing and for whatever reason I couldn't understand, I was eager to see her get better, open her eyes and smile to me.

I placed her body down on the sand softly, my eyes falling lingering on her face now, and I froze. My whole body froze, she was... maybe the most beautiful woman my eyes had ever laid on. Well my eyes hadn't laid on a woman in more than a century, but I clearly remembered how they looked back then when I was living like a king, and no one compared to her. 

She was... irresistible. There was something peaceful and beautiful about her face I couldn't put my finger into. Probably her pale skin, her eyebrows, or her small perfectly shaped nose. Or maybe her plump lips, her cute little freckles, her thin elegant tall body.

I was completely, utterly mesmerized that I didn't notice for minutes her red dress was torn in her thighs, which were covered in blood. I had an urge to kill everybody who had done that to her, but I had found her alone, so whoever had done this to her was far away now.

She coughed, water coming out of her mouth. Instantly I realized I couldn't stand beside her anymore. She was waking up and I could scare her with my presence. I knew it wasn't the smartest idea to appear in my dragon form when she was in this condition, so I flew away, hiding myself in the mountains from the beautiful strange woman who was already playing with my mind.

*******

Anastasia

My eyelids felt heavy, and it took me awhile to find the strength inside me to open them. But when I did, I found myself in front of the most beautiful view I had seen in my entire life, an endless surface of blue, the sun shining above it looking like tiny diamonds and I couldn't even realize properly where the ocean surface ended in the horizon and the blue sky began.

My back was facing a green surface of trees and grass, and behind them, mountains. If I wouldn't be so scared, I'd enjoy the view for much longer. The pain coming from my thigh reminded me that no matter how beautiful this place was, I wasn't in heaven, however. 

I was actually in the Dragon King's island.

But how was I alive? This didn't make any sense. Last time I remembered, I was in a damaged boat, drowning inside the ocean.

So how had I survived? How hadn't the Dragon found me and killed me yet?

And most importantly, why did I feel a presence so near me before I was able to open my eyes? It felt like someone was watching me, but not in a creepy way. Like someone was watching over me, to make sure I was safe. I was definitely going insane, I was sure of it.

These questions kept torturing me, but I decided to put them on the back of my head for awhile as I cut a piece of my already torn dress with my hands and wrapped it around my wound, so it'd stop bleeding. Then, I started looking up in the sky for the Dragon to show himself, trying to prepare myself for the worst.

Nonetheless, there was no sight of him anywhere I looked at. It made me wonder if he was sleeping somewhere that I couldn't see, or if he was deep in the forest, waiting to burn me alive. Did he know it was the time for the other girl to come to the island, considering it had been two years since my cousin came? 

But I was a little early. What a beautiful surprise for him, was the first thing I thought. 

I rolled my eyes at my attempts to turn this into a sarcastic comment in my head when I was about to die.

It didn't take me long to realize that I probably should've start moving instead and not offer myself to the Dragon in free will. It was quite difficult to walk, but it didn't matter, I knew I had no other choice in that matter.

After about an hour or two walking through the forest, scared of any wild animal appearing to eat me alive before the Dragon would be able to — which would probably be better, at least I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of doing it himself — I was able to find a cave down the mountains, which seemed pretty hidden, giving me the idea I'd be able to hide for at least tonight. Not like I had any plan to escape from here, but as they say, hope dies last.

The sun was already setting and I allowed my mind to back to the torturing questions again. They wanted to kill me. Why? Wouldn't this mean they were killing a chance, however small it was, for the Dragon King to escape this place? 

Had King Ethan gone through all this only to kill me in the end, when he could have killed me in my own palace if he wanted to? Was he that scared of me going back there that he had to make sure I'd die and not risk the possibility of me surviving the Dragon? Was the man that evil?

And Felipe knew. Only the thought of him being part of these wicked schemes made my blood boil inside my veins in anger. There were things... things he knew and I didn't, things that could change a lot if only they didn't stay hidden anymore.

However, in the end he had gone out of his way to try and save me. It was clear as day that he had sent that guard secretly with me so he'd protect me from the other one, although things didn't go exactly as he first planned.

After hours of my mind wandering everywhere, from the things I couldn't understand to my people and my family, I was able to fall asleep. The night was much colder and I tried my best to wrap my long dress around my body in attempts to warm myself, scared of going out of the cave and finding some woods.

For a fact I was sure, though, there were many things playing behind our back, only that I'd never be able to find out about them. But maybe, one day, I was hoping that Harry would.