Mate to a Dragon King

Dark Memories

And once, there lived a Princess named Bella- The Ice Queen

"Hello" I mumbled out, my knees quivering.

"Hey sweet cheeks" the voice on the phone said, sounding chirpy.

God, did he know he had ruined my trust in men before I even met Alpha Nathaniel ?

Did he realize he was the reason why I haven't been intimate with any man?

"Hi Dante" I gulped.

Dante, the twisted devil's spawn.

The man that could give me a heart attack when I was only but a young adult.

"Why do you sound so nervous? Are you with a guy?" He said, his voice taking a darker and dangerous tone at the end.

"No no I'm not. I've just been running and I'm tired" I lied, eyeing Ian and telling him to shut up and not try to mess things up.

Dante was only human.

But the things he'd done to me....

"Alright. Well I am in London for some doctor's conference and since we don't have any program for the next few hours I thought I could grab coffee with you. You're still my sister you know, I care about you" he whispered.

Fucking Breathe Ret.....

I squeezed my eyes shut, my chest tightening with pain and mind clouding with fear.

"I'm not in London presently, Dante" I sighed, trying to sound sad.

"There's been a problem with the shipping of Apryl's wedding dress so I volunteered to check it out." I continued to lie.

"Wow. You're always busy when I call Retplang" he said, his voice dejected.

"My writing career chews up my time a lot. I'm sorry. Maybe some other time"

"You're always busy!" He snapped loudly, making me take the phone away from my ear.

"You've been busy for the past four years right? You don't have one second alone? Yet you say you care about me"

Dante was bellowing, letting that violence out. Letting out the demon that has scarred me for life.

"No no it's not like that" I whispered, my heart thumping loudly in my chest.

"Okay Princess. It's fine. I just wanted you to know I still care and you should stop running away from me" he said, his voice going calm.

It was insane, the way he could be hot and then cold after two seconds.

"I love you Ret, now say it back" he said, making me cringe in disgust.

You don't love me.

You want me to suck your d**k.

"I love..you, Dante" I choked out.

"Good girl. You're only mine you hear that? Because I won't share you with anyone" he commanded.

"I understand that Dante. Goodbye"

After a little hesitation then,

"Bye"

I exhaled in relief and Ian hugged me soothingly, telling me to calm down.

I don't even feel comfortable elaborating about the things Dante has done or what history we've had.

No one knows about it, not even Apryl or Ian.

I just lied to Ian and told him Dante was a mentally ill fan of mine.

Dante is my little secret, and I feel that just thinking about him will let someone find out..

You'd be asking me why I haven't blocked his number yet.

The last time I did, he went on rampage.

"God I've never heard of any human so obsessive in my life. Are you sure he's just a fan?" Ian asked as I drove back to my apartment.

"Yeah" I breathed out.

Ian narrowed his eyes at me and I feigned confusion, making him turn and look ahead.

I could tell he was deep in thought and wasn't going to forget about it this easily.

We said our goodbyes and I entered my apartment, trying to forget about my not so good start of a day.

I showered and threw on some white floral highwaist palazzo trousers and a black lacey crop top with a black bra underneath.

I had an obsession for pants so my normal dress code was pantsuits and Palazzo pants.

I didn't like dresses much because one mistake and boom! Some random pycho dude is winking at you.

Not to mention the wrinkly old bald men.

Shaking my head, I heard some tiny scraping sounds on my door and I scowled, going to open it.

This terrible stray animal.

I have tried to throw it away but it still comes back no matter how hard I try to make it disappear.

I want to name it Lucifer but that only means I'm definitely not going to throw it out.

You'd think that every witch needs her pet cat but me? NO.

"Miaow" the kitten looked up, purring softly as she so rudely entered my apartment, rubbing her fur on my leg.

"What?" I snapped, retracting my leg and glaring at the cat.

I would have adopted it a long time ago but because of how unorganized my life is, I don't think I'll remember to feed it.

The cat mewled at me and padded softly to my kitchen, her tail raised high.

If it wasn't such a pain in the ass then I would have thought it was cute.

She hopped on my island and I rolled my eyes before grabbing my new carton of milk, searching for a bowl and pouring some into it.

It was already sticking it's nose in the bowl before I was even done pouring the milk.

"You thrash my apartment with your stray cats but yet you still come back to take my food." I said begrudgingly.

It looked up at me, licked it's mouth before dipping it's head back into the bowl.

"When are you going to adopt the cat?" A voice asked, voice laced with amusement.

I turned around and found Apryl my twin sister by the open door of my apartment, her lips tipping up with a smile.

She was wearing something almost identical to mine, except she made it look better, more sophisticated.

Apryl hadn't noticed it yet but being a Duchess was changing her slowly.

Her shoulders were staight and square, those crazy hats with feathers always donned on her head.

She stopped cussing like a sailor and was thinking of ending her singing career because it wasn't everyday you'd hear of a princess becoming a singer.

Critics had complained and said dad was letting her do things she shouldn't be doing but we all believed it was because dad was trying not to be too hard on her after ignoring her existence for years.

My family was still striving to become a stable family after all the drama we've had going on for years.

It wasn't everyday that your mum would die, you'd find out your supposedly dead sister was still alive and certainly not everyday you'd hear that your step mother was behind the plot of a massive heist on your family and others.

It's been years since these incidents but we were still healing.

And I was still trying to forget about the pain of missing out on my real family that has latched itself unto me like a leech for years.

"I'm not going to adopt the goddamn cat" I pouted, glaring at it.

Said cat raised it's head and bared it's fangs at me, it's green eyes flashing dangerously before it resumed feeding.

"Yet I find you using your favorite bowl for her" she shook her head, striding graciously towards me.

"Lucifer is a total b***h" I glared at the annoying cat.

"Retplang you're a goner. You just named the cat" Apryl laughed, taking off her hat.

"Oh please" I rolled my eyes.

"We have a wedding to plan. Let's go make sure Valerian doesn't sneak and change the order from white rose petals to red ones" I laughed.

"He wouldn't" she narrowed her eyes playfully.

I stared at Apryl, unable to not notice how royalty changed and suited her.

I didn't want to be changed like that.

This was one of the reasons I left Nigeria.

When I was birthed, another family was also in the hospital that period. They had a still born baby and being unable to handle the grief, they took me away from my real family.

And they couldn't even treat me right.

Nevertheless, I found my real family and they were royalty.

I am and have always been reckless, independent and I prefer to have a small circle of friends.

I couldn't adjust to being royalty all of a sudden and so that was why I left, that and being unable to bear the sympathy on everybody's faces when they found out I was coming from abuse.

Apryl had loosened up after moving to Norway for her studies but because she was getting married to a King of Nightbloods who is also a Duke in human society, she was now expected to become a role model and good example to her people.

I couldn't do that.

I couldn't let a man come from nowhere and because of his title, I'd have to change who I was.

I was born royalty but I didn't live royally.

That's why I wanted to work my butt off to become a renowned author not wait on my dad to ring a publisher.

I didn't want to use the perks of royalty for my own good.

So if my dad finally decides to set up a match for me like he has been threatening to do so(playfully), I will make sure I don't marry into the royal circle.

"Earth to Ret!" Apryl waved her hand in my face.

"Yeah we're running late" I muttered, taking her hand as we left the apartment.

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Erik knocked on the door repeatedly, somewhat annoyed he was about to meet the last person he wanted to see on the surface of the earth.

With a gentle come in, Erik pushed open the door and immediately wrinkled his poor nose from the smell of herbs and other potions in the room.

"I thought you said you were never going to ask for my help King Erik"

That was the Oracle for you.

The old woman never wasted time with greetings and she always went straight to the point, not caring about who you may be.

Erik liked those kind of people.

They made life easier for him.

"Yet here I am, crawling on my knees and begging you wise one" Erik added wryly.

"Take a seat"

And he did, exactly opposite the blind Oracle who was chanting something in some ancient language, rotating her hand around a marble ball on the table.

Erik glared at her impatiently before he rolled his eyes and demanded what he wanted.

"I want to know where my mate is"

"That's exactly what I'm doing your highness." The old woman replied, a small smirk on her lips.

"You have a treaty with witches right?" The Oracle said.

"Yes, why?" Erik asked.

"One of our pet/ dragon shifters disappeared years ago to find a witch"

That was how the Dragon Kingdom was.

They made treaties with other supernatural races and offered them dragon shifters in form of normal animals as a sign of their allegiance.

They only sent those special dragons to the Royal ones for protection. So races like night bloods, Werewolves and Witches had dragons except for one witch type which was the darkness witch.

"What type of witch?" Erik pressed on.

"A witch of the light, though there's something different about her" The Oracle said.

"But the witches of light have two dragons. That's our maximum and why did you waste our dragon shifters?" Eril hissed at the annoying old woman.

"The witch needs protection. She's your mate"

Erik gritted his teeth and glared at the annoying Oracle, trying to hold back his dragon before he destroyed the Oracle.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He roared at the old woman.

"It wasn't time yet. She needed to harness her powers before meeting you. On the contrary, we were all busy trying to get into Oslo where the Night bloods were facing serious war." The Oracle replied coolly.

"I still wanted to meet her no matter what. You know what the elders are saying, I need a queen"

"Those same elders would have thrown her out if you met her years ago. She's very strong now and she's fit for the throne now. You're going to meet her in less than 24 hours"

Erik's dragon stirred inside of him, obviously excited to find his mate.

"If I'd known I was going to find her then I wouldn't have been here" Erik snorted, half smiling.

"Patience Dragon King. This witch has become so strong and fierce. She has a mind of her own and is very much independent. You better not try to flaunt money in her face because she comes from your circle. She doesn't believe in mates and you are going to work hard for her. She's something else and one wrong move would cause serious problems. If you can't handle her you know what will happen" The Oracle said knowingly.

"Yes I know that. Tell me Oracle, where am I going to see her?" Erik asked.

"I'm afraid you have a wedding to attend good sir. Why don't you go enjoy it before you lose your peace of mind for good?"