Page 26 of Kidnapped Plus-Size Mate

“Have I given you any reason not to trust me, Camilla?”

She gulps hard, hesitantly shaking her head. “Apart from what’s going on right now, no. But—”

“There’s no time,” I say sternly when Rakon’s lingering scent turns menacing in my airways. I grabbed her hand again and hastily pulled her to the back exit of the museum in the opposite direction from where I saw Rakon leave.

My senses are heightened, the threat looming with every step we take until we’re outside. I find the closest alley and shield her from the prying eyes of anyone who dares to block our path.

“You’re not really in finance, are you?” she murmurs as I take my jacket off and slide it over her shoulders.

The way she stares at me with wide, worried eyes disarms me momentarily. A wave of primal, animalistic need to protect this woman who is to be my mate washes over me. She seems so vulnerable, so small and terrified, that it squeezes my heart and turns me soft instantaneously.

“No,” I shake my head earnestly. “I’m not in finance, Camilla. I—”

Gulping, I contemplate if I should just go ahead and reveal my identity to her. In the privacy of the alley, she might shriek and bring attention toward us when she hears that I’m a dragon shifter.

She might not believe me, either. From what I’ve gathered, she doesn’t believe in the existence of dragons. Then again, she believes that dinosaurs existed…

“Fuck it!” I decide on the spot, stepping closer as she cranes her neck to stare into my eyes. “I’m not what you think I am, Camilla,” I say as I plant my hands on her shoulders, hoping it will make this easier. Her lips part with a gasp, and I’m about to tell her what I am when a blurred flash slices through the air and zaps her off her feet. It happens in a split second, and I don’t have time to grab her from the dragon who just flew past and picked her up.

“Sterling!” she cries out, her hand flapping in the air as she reaches out to me with horror written all over her face.

“Rakon!” I roar as blinding red rage simmers to the surface. My mate turns invisible, and there’s only one thing left to do when the Fire Force dragon flies out of the alley after abducting Camilla.

Chapter 8 - Camilla

“Sterling!” I cry out desperately when I’m lifted off my feet by something brutally coarse and strong, an outstretched arm flailing in the air. Like a vice grip around my waist, the clamp is scorchingly hot against my waist. A thunderous roar behind me is frightening, but I can’t see what just grabbed me.

All I can do is stare at Sterling as he sprints toward me.

“Rakon!” Sterling’s voice blares through my eardrums.

Close to throwing when the strong clamp forces bile to the top of my throat, my eyelids are about to close when what I see next widens my eyes.

Sterling, the impossibly handsome man who just referred to himself as my “boyfriend” after one incredible date, stops running. Instead, he closes his eyes and sticks out his arms on either side of him before thunder streaks of dancing white and green envelop his body, curling around his arms and head. Shock keeps my eyes glued to him, my body still as horror fills me up.

Through the clouds of swirling iridescent colors, a scaled face emerges that resembles one of the dinosaurs we showcase in the museum. Except this one is very much alive; its massive form is replacing Sterling with large webbed wings sprouting out from behind it. The unfolding of its wings is angelic-like; each pointed tip of its wings embellished with a translucent emerald gem that glimmers with energetic liveliness as if each one has its own heartbeat.

I’m mesmerized until I notice that the rest of its body is scaly and terrifying when sharp claws distend from its pincerlike, arched fingers. It peels back ivory lips on its snoutedmouth, flashing a set of razor-sharp teeth before it roars toward the sky.

The deafening sound snapped me out of the hypnotic daze I’d been in when I witnessed the creature coming to life.

That’s… That’s Sterling…?

How?

Though its eyes are slitted like a snake, I do not doubt that it’s Sterling’s eyes that stare at me with torment swirling around the deep green depths. The monstrous creature stares at me and whimpers before flapping its wings and lifting a cloud of dust all around it. The beast flies forward, a puff of red-hot flames licking at the tail in front of me.

That’s when I realized that another, equally as large creature is what carries me. Finally able to tear my gaze from the creature that gives chase from behind, I look down to find that the vice grip shackling my waist is a rigid arm at least five times the size of a human, one with gray granular scales making up its sleeve.

I can hardly breathe as I gaze further up to see the onyx crystals bejeweling the creature’s shoulders. It wheezes as the flick of its dark eye skeptically glances at me from the side with an eerie glint of menace evident enough to keep me from squirming.

It can’t be…

My worst nightmare has just come true in a matter of a split second. Except, my captor isn’t the dreadful creature I was afraid of in my dreams.

The one giving chase with determination, flapping its magnificent wings to bring it closer, is the dragon from my dream-turned-nightmare. It’s the one that appears like a valianthero to save me from harm’s way, breathing out a puff of fire that captures my captor’s tail and has it recklessly coasting to the side, spinning me in its brutally tight arms until I’m released from its grip.

I plunge to the ground, tumbling a few meters ahead until I finally roll to a stop. Bracing my palms on rough stones beneath me, I snap my head in the direction of a bleating roar that slices through the air.

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