Page 2 of Kidnapped Plus-Size Mate

Camilla Torres. A twenty-seven-year-old female who works as a tour guide in a local museum. Her only family is her grandmother, who lives in an old-age home. I have to contain my excitement and stifle the urge to smirk knowingly. All eyes are on me, but I can’t slip up now.

If the Council knew that I sneaked a preview of my mate long before my time, I’d be subjected to some form of punishment. I can’t afford another bout of punishment for my own wrongdoings.

Little do they know that I’ve already paid dearly thanks to Stryder’s mess in the mortal world.

Being away from Camilla for months was enough penance I needed to serve for sneaking a preview of my mate. I’ve suffered enough when I discovered her and had to stay away for months up until now.

When a photograph of Camilla Torres is printed, and I’m handed her picture, I don’t even need to inspect it. My heart does a silly flip in my chest when I glance at the photograph, her honey-golden eyes glimmering as if filled with stardust. It’s those eyes that I’d been drawn toward whenever I visited the States. I’d frequented the Fresno Museum so many times just to catch a glimpse of those eyes, that I’d become a part of the monuments displayed in the gallery.

Those eyes had me spellbound to the promises of the future where she’d be my mate, dancing with me under the stars that glitter the Aurora Island skies, where bliss and fortune await us just as they had found my brothers.

Tucking the picture in my pocket, I don’t dwell too much on the frozen frame when I’m allowed to see her in the flesh once more. For months, I’d been kept a prisoner on this island, bound by my twin’s recklessness and the secret I’d been keepingfor almost a year. Now that I’m free to explore my mating experience, I can’t wait to get to the mortal world and twirl Camilla into my arms.

I didn’t ever think that I’d be hypnotized by a human. We’d spent centuries going back and forth between the mortal world and the island, yet no one I’d ever met before was able to capture my attention the way she had.

I know it’s because she’s my fated mate, and destiny has a strange way of changing a dragon shifter. Though I never liked pointless pursuits of females in the mortal world, I didn’t ever think that I’d be disarmed by the way Camilla could hypnotize me.

She doesn’t even know who I am yet. I’ve not uttered a single word to her. Now that the time has come for me, I can do exactly as I’m told.

“As you already know, the Council has decided to make our existence known to the mortal world in due time…” Nova, the Fire Force Clan’s elder, addresses me when he says this. “... Because of this, you’ll be required to follow through with the plan we’d initially set out for Stryder.”

I nod slowly. “You want me to introduce myself to the human and make her fall in love with me before she agrees to come to the island,” I say, my words sounding as rehearsed as the plan had been drilled into my mind. That’s always been the plan, even if I’d been watching Camilla for months before today.

Nova concedes with a nod, seemingly proud of my dedication to the course, when his brows lift. “Gods speed, Stryker Vulkan,” he smiles. “Let’s hope that nothing deters your plan. Your mate is simply a tour guide. She doesn’t have a barrage of danger following her trail.”

I can’t help but chuckle bemusedly as the Council members and my brothers leave the boardroom on that parting note. When it’s just my twin and I left in the room, I turn to him, forcing the connection between us away, to the deepest recesses of my being.

When he brought Olivia to the island, he’d kept it a secret from me. I witnessed how that secret gnawed on his conscience until he had no choice but to tell me the truth. With the special connection we share, because we’re twins, he’d sense that I was hiding something. I have to maintain an oblivious smile when he asks,

“Are you alright, Stryker?”

I just don’t have it in me to tell him about the secret I’ve been keeping from him. Stryder thinks that I’m a lot like him, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint him with the truth that I’ve never been interested in baser pursuits the way he was before he fell in love with his mate.

Even without love to solidify the inevitable bond Camilla and I will share soon; I know that it’s only a matter of time before it happens. I want this to be perfect, the way the Council wants it to be. I’ll do as I’ve been told, and plant the seed from which love will naturally grow from Camilla. I might not feel love for her, but the threads of the fated mate bond have already been woven. For me, my seeds were planted months ago, but being kept away from the mortal world seems to have kept a veil over the sunlight it needed to grow.

“Yeah,” I shrug. “I’m just…” I cough to clear my throat, “... nervous,” I admit. It’s hardly a lie. Now that the time has come, a flicker of doubt rears its unwelcome head. Perhaps it’s because we’re alone now, and I’m reminded of our differences despitehow uncanny our resemblance is. We might look the same, but Stryder and I couldn’t be more different when it came to women.

Human women, to be exact.

He frowns, magnifying our differences. He doesn’t believe that I would be nervous. After all, he’s never had to worry about wooing a woman. With his long line of pursuits under his belt, Stryder never had trouble in that department. On the other hand, I wasn’t interested in being wild.

At least over the past couple of decades. I’d calmed down so much, that even I could not recognize myself. Perhaps I always knew, deep down, that one day, the Aurora Dragons would be allowed to have mates to quell their desire for reproduction.

“Nervous? What for?” my twin asks confusedly.

“What if…” I gulp as the unruly talons of anxiety creep to the top of my throat, leaving a bitter taste of reality on my tongue. The words I’ve been trying to put a lid on end up slipping out, betraying my valiant act of brevity. “What if she doesn’t like me?”

“Like you?” Stryder scoffs, placing a hand on my shoulder that makes me feel foolish instead of comfort. “She will notlikeyou, Brother. She willloveyou.”

Those are the words of encouragement I needed to hear, but somehow, they don’t have the desired effect. Perhaps it’s because I’d spent too much time becoming acquainted with Camilla’s presence from afar, that now I have to make the actual leap. I’m not sure if I have it in me. “Easy for you to say. You have a perfect relationship with Olivia.”

Internally, I grouch. Back when Aragon kidnapped his mate, Yazmine, my twin brother and I agreed that our olderbrother’s methods weren’t humane enough to earn him the love Yazmine freely gave him. Mistakes were made in the past, and Stryder and I wanted to do things differently.

Until he couldn’t and ended up kidnapping his mate to the island. It wasn’t his fault for going against his better judgment, but I can’t help but feel slightly regretful for the actions of my older brothers.

No human deserves to be snatched from their lives to fulfill the demands of a dragon clan they didn’t even know existed before their arrival on the island.

“Not without going through many trials before we got here,” Stryder admits with a sigh. “But if there’s one thing I know, it’s that our fated mates have no choice but to fall in love with us. Just as we fall in love with them.”

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