The Dragon King and His Human Mate

1. Tomorrow

Anastasia

The dinner with the royal family of the witches was more exhausting than I thought it would be, and now all I wanted to do was to go in my room, take a deep sleep and wake up probably after a hundred years or so. I hadn't been able to sleep peacefully for two months now and I knew exactly the reason why.

As I opened the door of my bedroom, the first thing my eyes laid on was the most gorgeous wedding dress I had ever seen, laid on my queen-sized bed and covering all of it.

"I knew you'd like it." I heard a voice coming from the most distant corner of my room, a voice I knew exactly who it belonged to, although I had had no idea he was in my room until now.

"Can you kindly tell me why you're here, Felipe?" I asked, the blood already boiling in my veins and I had to tighten my teeth together to contain myself from kicking him out of the room.

He chuckled, and I rolled my eyes, annoyed. "I can't even be in my fiancée's room now?"

"No, you can't," I responded coldly. "And you won't even after our wedding so give up already and leave me alone."

"Come on, Ana, you know it's not me who decided for this," he excused himself for the hundredth time already.

I sighed desperately. "It's Anastasia for you. And yes, you didn't decide for this, but you could do something to change your grandfather's mind. But what you did is nothing and look where we are now."

Felipe looked away and for the first time I could swear I saw real hurt in his eyes, instead of that playful flirty smile and I almost felt bad for being that harsh to him. It wasn't entirely his fault after all, and I had to accept this.

"Is it that bad to marry me, Anastasia?" He asked, and I knew this time he was being serious.

I sighed again. "How many times do I have to explain to you that—"

"What is happening here? Why are you bothering my sister?" I heard my brother's voice interrupting us and I already knew he was mad. He was the number one objector of this arranged marriage, knowing how much I hated all of this.

"Harry, it's alright, we were just talking," I rushed to explain, not wanting him to cause a scene now that the royal family was here in our palace. It didn't matter how much we hated all of them, we couldn't disrespect them.

"He doesn't have to come in your room when you're alone to talk to you," Harry pointed out harshly, and Felipe narrowed his eyes at him. It was more than obvious they'd both go for each other's throats real soon if I wouldn't go in between them and stop this nonsense.

"We can continue this tomorrow, Felipe," I told him, meaning that it was already time for him to leave.

"We can continue this tomorrow too, while we're alone," he responded to my brother instead.

I rolled my eyes again, and sent a scolding look to both of them. "Stop it now, both of you!"

"Goodnight," Felipe hissed, the sarcasm obvious in his voice.

"Goodnight to you too," Harry answered with the same tone of voice. "And ah, the dress sucks by the way."

I ran my hands through my hair after I saw my fiancé leaving, imagining how I'd be able to live all of my life with someone I didn't love, with someone I couldn't even stand. Out of the sudden Harry gave me a hug, and I already felt a little bit better in my younger brother's arms. He was only two years younger than me, but he always felt like he had to be the one taking care of me, even though I didn't need that. But I needed him, of course, he was the closest person to me. He was my best friend.

"I'm so sorry, Ana. I'm so sorry," he mumbled while caressing my hair and I gave him a weak smile to reassure him I was okay. I wasn't though, and he knew this. "Do you want me to sleep with you tonight?" He asked, and my big sudden smile made him chuckle. We used to sleep together all the time when we were younger.

"The dress isn't that bad though," I teased. 

We both busted in laughter after reminding what he just told to Prince Felipe.

"I know, I just love it when I annoy him," Harry admitted and now I was laughing even more. "He doesn't deserve you, Ana. This should have never happened."

*******

"Ana, Harry, wake up!" I heard my mother's worried voice and I immediately opened my eyes wide, realization hitting me hard. The last time she had waken me up using this voice, I was told that King Ethan, Felipe's grandfather, had decided to marry us, and I didn't have any saying in this. That was the day that had basically destroyed my life, being followed by the day I met Prince Felipe for the first time and realized I would never be able to fall in love with him, that he was quite the opposite of the person I had imagined to spend the rest of my life with. I had heard that he didn't want this marriage either, but I don't know what changed after he met me. For whatever stupid reason I couldn't understand, he kept trying to make me want this wedding, while failing at the same time.

It wasn't only because of Felipe though, I knew this now. I wasn't the type of girl to back down and let the others decide for me, I was a fighter. This was one of the main reasons that my people loved me, because I was the only one speaking up for them, not even my parents. They were so scared of the witches and I honestly didn't blame them. The witches had us wrapped around their fingers for centuries now and there was absolutely nothing we could do about this. They were extremely powerful, even the other supernatural beings feared them, especially in the last century that their kingdom had been ruled by a merciless dictator as King Ethan.

We all hated them, but I did with a burning passion. I had sworn I'd fight them and free my kingdom, but I couldn't do that while being married to their heir of the throne. Every hope of mine of changing things had vanished that day, two months ago. I had betrayed my people, the poor innocent girls forced to do whatever the damn wizards wanted them to, I had disappointed them. It pained me, it broke my heart. And now, ironically, I'd be one of them... I would be their in-law.

"What is it, Mom?" I forced myself to bury the fear inside me and thing positively. Maybe it wasn't bad in the first place and I was just being paranoid.

But after I saw the worried look in Harry's face, I realized I wasn't the only one.

Mother was waiting for father to speak, but instead he looked away, obviously not finding the strength inside of him to say a word to us.

"The ritual..." Mother spoke instead, her voice cracking and tears filling up her eyes instantly, "It'll take place tomorrow."

I felt my vision blurry from tears, my body started shaking. Now everything made sense, why the royal family of the witches had visited us out of the sudden although only two days separated us from my wedding, why they looked so happy last night while we had to put up some fake smiles instead.

This simply couldn't be happening. Everyone knew it was too sudden, and much more earlier than usual. So why? 

The only thing I was looking forward to this marriage was convincing Felipe to do something, change things for us humans. As much as an annoying or maybe even self-centered of a person he seemed to be, I knew he wasn't bad. He didn't seem to love the idea of innocent human girls getting sacrificed because his grandfather wished so.

"No! This is a mistake," Harry shouted, but by the defeated look in my parents' eyes, I already knew that everything was decided and there were nothing we could do anymore. "How could you allow this, Dad?!" He demanded. It broke my heart even more when I saw the tears in hazel eyes, almost identical to mine. "Ana is twenty already, she'll be forced to take place in that damned ritual."

"You don't think we know this?" Father said in a little voice as mom kept wiping the tears from her cheeks, her hands shaking, her head down, probably thinking she had betrayed me.

I inhaled deeply, trying to stay calm and collected in front of them. I was always the strong one when it came to reassuring my family, I was about to do the same today as well. "We can do nothing now, Harry."

"What if you're chosen?" He snapped at me. "I won't let my sister get burned alive because that monster of a King wants us to." Getting up from the bed, he reached for the door. It was obvious what was going on in his mind; he was going to the guest room where King Ethan was sleeping peacefully and have a conversation with him, which would bring us into a bigger disaster.

"Harry, please stop," Mother begged, and her desperate voice was the only thing that could make him give up. 

Father, who was already crying, gave me a big hug. I rested my face in his chest and tried my best not to sob in there. Me being weak would destroy them even more. "There are hundred of other girls over twenty years old in our kingdom. There's no way Anastasia will be chosen, she's their in-law, King Ethan would never allow this," he pointed out to calm us down.

A selfish part of me relaxed because of his words, a part that didn't care that I was going to live the rest of my life married to a man I didn't love. At least, I would still be alive.