The Dragon King and His Human Mate

6. Grateful

Anastasia

I was able to sleep only around the morning, images of the dragon king never leaving my head, along with the questions that weren't getting any answer. But the thing that surprised me the most was that, deep down I wasn't that scared of him. I was scared of death no doubt, but everyone else in my place would get terrified at just looking at him, at the way he looked, but I was more excited than scared. Excited to see his next move, to understand what he was thinking. Could he even think? His expressions looked thoughtful though, like he wanted to see my next move too. Like he was curious of me.

I shook my head, getting these stupid thoughts out of it. He was a murderer and here I was thinking about what he was thinking. Harry would probably make fun of me for always having stupid thoughts that I shouldn't have in situations that I needed to be focused on what was important. And important was for me to survive, even though that might've not been possible.

I needed to find a way out of here and the only way of doing this was to see how the island looked like from above. Maybe like that I'd discover something that would help me. Maybe the island weren't that far away from another land or another kingdom and a boat would be enough to get me out of here, this always if the dragon would let me live for at least the next few days. But first thing first, I had to climb the mountain. It was dangerous, there was no doubt about it, especially considering the fact that it was the dragon's home, but did I have another chance?

Besides, something was telling me that he'd spend the days mostly flying around. Perhaps, if I was lucky enough, he wouldn't notice me.

At least I had to try.

*******

Vladimir

I had no idea what to think. To say that the woman was pulling me to her like the strongest magnet there could be would be the understatement of the century. She was extremely beautiful.

But not only that though. There was something attractive about her, something that would make me think about her all the time and this didn't have to do with the fact that we were the only living beings in this hell of an island, not at all. I mean, of course I would be curious for anyone that would be in her place, but not to this extent. She was simply driving me insane, I couldn't stay away from her. I would take every opportunity to watch her from afar when she wasn't looking, to run at her and get her food once I was be able to shift in my human form. Nothing else mattered now but her. And I didn't even know her name.

But it wasn't in my intentions to appear in front of her in my dragon form and ruin it all for me. It just happened, because my intoxicated from her mind didn't want to function properly and let me hide on the mountains just like I was doing the first day. I had just wanted to see how she was doing, to take in her sweet scent.

She was scared of me, yet somehow she had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me to kill her. Why was she that determined for me to kill her, like she knew I'd do just that? Everyone in their right mind would think a dragon would kill them if they were in front of one, but no one would shout at the dragon to kill them and get over it. It was like the woman had wrapped her mind around the fact that she'd soon be dead because of me and all she was doing was wait for it to happen.

Why would I bloody kill her? How could I even kill her, did she look at herself? She was the most breathtaking thing my eyes had ever laid on.

Not that if she wouldn't be breathtaking I would kill her though, even after all these years I was still in my right mind. Well, as much as someone can be in his right mind after living more than a century alone, imprisoned.

I was rudely interrupted from my thoughts of this woman because of her scent itself. My eyes instinctively started looking around until they found her, walking up the mountains.

What was she doing, could this woman be more insane? That was so f*****g dangerous!

*******

Anastasia

Climbing the mountain was more exhausting than I had first thought it'd be, also considering I hadn't eaten properly in days. I'd stop from time to time to look around for any sign of the Dragon, and also to look to look for a better view of the island, but I had to climb a bit more to get the best of it. I was becoming hopeless though, I was in the middle of nowhere. No sign of other land, no hope in the horizon. Only an endless surface of blue separating me from my family.

Out of nowhere, something blocked the sunshine all around me and for the first few seconds, I thought it was a cloud. But as the shade kept following me, I closed my eyes as the realization hit hard. Somewhere deep inside me I found the strength to turn my head and look at the cloud in the air in the form of a dragon, looking at me with some scary eyes that screamed mad.

I left out a scream as I fell back, being able to stop it only by placing my hand in my mouth. He was so near me that all I could see was him and nothing else.

He growled and my whole body trembled as I got up and started running for my life. The air pressure behind me was enough to tell me that he wasn't too far behind, but I still didn't stop, adrenaline kicking through my body in big waves. I could feel the blood pumping in my ears too and I didn't know how I was still able to breathe while fear had kicked all my senses.

But before I could stop myself, I found myself falling down a cliff. I had ran so fast that I hadn't noticed I had to stop before I'd bring myself my own death.

I felt happy memories filling my head as I felt my body getting drowned by the air, the speed of falling hitting all my senses. I was really dying. At least my back was facing the ground, so I had to just close my eyes and not think of the pain that would come in a few short seconds.

However, what happened next left me completely, utterly speechless.

The dragon willingly fell off the cliff after me, in a speed I never thought it could exist in a living being. He looked determined to reach me, like his life depended on it.

Before my head could form any coherent thought, I saw the gigantic dragon so close to me, one of his wings wrapping around my tiny body as he did something that left me even more speechless. He faced his back with the ground instead and that's when I realized we were too close with the ground for him to be able to stop the speed of his falling and fly away with me in his claws. So instead, he had chosen to protect me with his large wing as his body hit the ground roughly, a loud painful growl escaping his big mouth and for a moment I though the ground collapsed underneath us.

But I didn't feel any pain. On the contrary, his gigantic wing was wrapped around my body so protectively that he didn't let go of me even now that he was in pain, breathing for air, his eyes half closed.

It took me a few long seconds to wrap my head around all that happened, before I was able to move from the smooth surface of his wings. I turned my back at him and made some steps away, thinking of running away as fast as I could. But in the last moment I stopped myself. 

I was being an ungrateful coward and I wasn't like this. Whatever reason there was I couldn't understand, he had just saved my life, and I simply couldn't leave him like that. I'd never be able to live with that and I knew it.

Besides, I didn't know why my heart was aching hearing his painful growls. It didn't have only to do with the fact that he was in that condition because of me, but more of the fact that I didn't want him to feel any kind of pain. I knew it was strange to feel like this, but for now he deserved for me to at least go back and face him.

The Dragon was still in the ground when I hesitantly approached him and rested the palm of my hand in his big face, causing an immediate reaction by him as he opened his eyes wide, drowning me in them. Could a simple touch of mine cause him to react like that?

His big teeth wide in the open were still terrifying me though, but I tried not to think of them.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" I asked softly, gaining a surprised reaction by him and a low noise coming from his mouth. "What can I do for you?" I said, knowing I wouldn't get an answer, except from his full of surprise eyes.

I sat down beside him, wrapping my arms around my legs. "Why did you do it? Wouldn't it be easier for you if I just ended up killing myself? Or you went through all this just to gain the satisfaction of doing it yourself?" Even though I didn't sound mad at all, and I wasn't, I gained a mad low roar from the Dragon that shook me to the core. I couldn't understand what he was trying to say, why he was mad, I only knew I couldn't stay there anymore. I didn't want to find out. Something inside me wanted for him to have saved me because he didn't want to kill me, but was that possible?

I started running away, before stopping one more time. He was now standing in his claws, which made me realize his body would heal itself properly in just some hours. "For whatever reason you did it, I'm still grateful to you. You just saved my life."