Page 3 of His Curvy Mate

She’d thought about shimmering to avoid the ice and cold, but the shimmer was not always precise and lately the reapers had been far more active. The last thing she needed was to have to fight off a reaper, shimmer out of the In-Between to get to safety and find herself in completely inhospitable terrain.

As she neared the glacier, the landscape shifted, the ice taking on a peculiar hue. It gleamed with a metallic sheen, and the air grew colder, tinged with an unnatural stillness. The Copper Glacier was aptly named; veins of coppery ice snaked through the otherwise pristine blue, casting an eerie glow that seemed to pulse with a life of its own.

Caye paused, her breath catching as she surveyed the glacier. She shook her head, trying to displace the disorientation and nausea that had plagued her all day. Legends spoke of Pyr. A dragon of immense power, whose fiery spirit was encased in the heart of the glacier itself. To free him, or even to find him, would require more than just brute strength; it would demand intelligence, cunning, and a deep understanding of the ancient magics at play.

She moved forward, each step deliberate and measured. The glacier's surface was treacherous, and one misstep could mean a fatal plunge into its icy depths or start an avalanche that would consume her. As she ventured further up, it was as if she could feel the presence of the curse, a heavy, oppressive force that pressed down on her.

Caye's resolve hardened. She was not here for power or glory; she was here to hunt. She didn’t want the dragon’s secrets or his gold, she wanted to find him, destroy him, and ensure he couldn’t be used against shifters or mankind. Hunting dragons—and the myths that surrounded them—had become something of a hobbyhorse for her. Her brothers didn’t like it; nor did those in the Shadow Sisters, but as odd as a pastime as it might seem, Caye needed something dark and dangerous to counterbalance what she faced in her day job.

The dragon's curse intrigued her, but her primary goal was to find Andreas Pyr and determine the threat he posed. As she delved deeper into the glacier, she came across strange markings etched into the ice. She wondered how they had remained. Wouldn’t the icy wind have sheared them away, or wouldn’t they have melted and frozen again? She wasn’t sure it mattered; the runes were carved in a language long forgotten; their meanings obscured by time.

Drawing on her training with the Shadow Sisters, her knowledge of ancient and dead languages and her preparation of the hunt, Caye began to decipher the runes. They spoke of a pact, a betrayal, and a binding spell that had trapped Andreas Pyr within the glacier. The dragon's power had been too great, his wrath too fierce, and so he had been imprisoned, his fiery heart encased in ice to protect the world from his fury. Sounded good to her.

She wondered if she should just leave him where he lay—frozen in time—but reminded herself that with the death of Apophis, his acolytes had begun to search for a new dragon to lead their forces of evil in a never-ending battle to conquer the world and plunge it into eternal darkness. Caye snorted at her own melodramatic musings.

Caye's breath formed small clouds as she worked, the cold seeping into her bones despite her hellhound resilience. She knew she was close. The runes led her to a cavern within the glacier, its entrance marked by a faint, pulsing light. The air grew colder still as she stepped inside, the walls shimmering with an ethereal glow.

She entered the cave, laying down her pack and retrieving a torch she’d brought with her. With the torch in one hand and one of her ice axes in another, she made her way through the tunnel-like cavern. It was eerily silent, the only sound the crunch of her boots on the icy ground. Her torch cast flickering shadows on the walls, illuminating the crystalline formations that glittered like diamonds. Deeper and deeper she went, the cold growing more intense with each step.

At the cavern's heart, she found him. Andreas Pyr, a magnificent dragon of copper scales and immense size, lay encased in a block of crystalline ice. His eyes were closed, but his presence was overwhelming. The buzzing in her head and disorientation increased with each step she took toward the frozen dragon. Caye approached cautiously, her heart pounding. She could feel the power emanating from him, a palpable force that stirred something deep within her.

The curse that held him was a complex weave of magic, and Caye knew that breaking it would not be easy. She reached out, her hand hovering over the ice, feeling the thrum of energy beneath her fingertips. The runes she had deciphered provided some clues, but she needed more information, more knowledge of the ancient magics that bound him.

As she pondered her next move, a low rumble filled the cavern. Andreas Pyr's eyes flickered open, their molten depths locking onto hers. For a moment, time stood still, the hunter and the hunted connected by a silent understanding. The dragon's gaze was intense, filled with a mix of fury and desperation.

"You seek to free me, little hunter, or claim the glory of my death?"

His voice was a deep, resonant growl that echoed through her mind. For once, Caye was shocked into silence and immobility.

She had only one thought: Now what?

CHAPTER 3

CAYE

Caye's grip tightened on her weapons. How the hell was she supposed to communicate with this thing? And how the hell could she hear him when his mouth wasn’t moving, and he was encased in ice?

Her heart pounded in her chest as she approached, her fear mingling with awe. She found a hole in the rock wall and jammed the torch into it so that it provided a stable light within the cavern. Unslinging her other axe from her belt, the metal gleaming in the torchlight, she gripped the two well-balanced tools as she stared at the block of ice. Her plan was simple but dangerous: free the dragon from his icy prison. What happened after that depended on the dragon himself. She could either recruit him to their cause or kill him.

Figuring out which might have been easier had it not been for the way his words seemed to echo through her mind, combined with the buzzing and nausea which made her think the altitude was getting to her.

Setting one of the ice axes down on the ground, Caye gripped the other with both hands, lifted it back over her head and brought it down into the enormous block of ice, striking it with all her might. The sound echoed through the chamber, a sharp crack that seemed to reverberate in her bones. Again and again she struck, each blow sending shards of ice flying. As she worked, she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, the weight of Andreas’ presence pressing down on her.

Hours passed, her muscles burned with exertion. She had made considerable progress, the ice around Andreas’ head and shoulders was beginning to thin. But with each strike, her fear grew. What if the dragon woke and saw her as a threat? What if he unleashed his wrath upon her? She wasn’t overly concerned, as hellhounds were impervious to fire and could shimmer from one plane of existence to another in the blink of an eye. But she was not so fool hearted as to discount the lethal threat of a dragon—even one encased mostly in ice.

As she swung the axe a final time, the ice cracked and splintered, a large chunk falling away to reveal a portion of Andreas’ head, including his face and muzzle. His eyes were still closed, but she could see the intricate detail of his scales and the power that lay dormant beneath them. She reached out tentatively, her gloved hand brushing the frost away from his snout. The ice was cold and slick, but she could feel a faint warmth emanating from within.

A sudden shudder ran through the cave as the buzzing in her head seemed to explode. Caye stumbled back, her heart racing. The ice around Andreas began to glow, a soft, eerie light that pulsed in time with the beating of her heart. The dragon's eyes snapped open, revealing irises of molten gold. He took a deep, shuddering breath, and the ice around him began to melt more rapidly, steam rising in thick clouds.

Caye dropped her axes, her instincts screaming for her to shimmer off this plane of existence or at least into her hellhound form, but she seemed frozen to the ground on which she stood. Nothing seemed to want to work—her hellhound refused to come forward, the shimmer wouldn’t form, and her legs refused to move. She watched in frightened fascination as Andreas stretched, the ice falling away in chunks. His massive wings unfurled, and he shook his head, sending water droplets scattering.

The dragon's gaze fixed on her, and she felt the full weight of his ancient power and wisdom. She felt like a deer must feel when caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. She knew she was in danger, but there seemed little she could do about it.

Andreas stared at her; his look of confusion turning to anger before dissolving into lust. She could feel the enormity of the heat and need rolling off him, raising her own level of arousal from non-existent to something she’d never felt before.

"Who dares disturb my slumber?" His voice was a deep, rumbling growl that filled the chamber the same way it had filled her mind before she’d freed him—something she was already beginning to regret.

Caye’s heart skipped a beat and a surge of emotions flooded her senses. She could feel and sense what he needed as he shifted from dragon to man—a very large man with a very large and very erect cock. Caye was not a small woman by any means—tall and curvy—but Andreas dwarfed her. He was a towering figure of raw masculinity and undeniable charisma. His broad shoulders and chiseled chest seemed to have been formed from some ancient forge, each muscle perfectly sculpted and defined. His biceps bulged with power, while his forearms rippled with veins that hinted at his strength.

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