Page 27 of Kidnapped Plus-Size Mate

I can only decipher that I’m on the top of a mountain somewhere far from the alley in the city where I’d last tasted blissful unawareness of my reality before now. The white dragon from my dreams faces off with the gray dragon, its snout pointed in warning as it stands on hindlegs strong enough to indent the ground below it.

I’ve never seen something as marvelously superior as the dragon who walked out of my dreams. Mightier than my imagination, in the flesh, it frightens me even more than those dreams I’d been having.

Only this time, I can’t close my eyes and try willing myself to wake up from those dreams. My eyes remain fixed on the dragon as a fight ensues between the two powerful creatures.

The white dragon with emerald gems speaking of its grandeur rushes forward, a wing curled like a fist that it throws in the gray one’s pointed face. The other wing is wound to throw another punch, but the gray dragon dodges nimbly and blows out fire in front of it. The white dragon’s wail of pain as its head snaps in my direction rushes through my being like a shockwave as if I’d taken the blow. I flinch from the residual impact, suddenly rooting for the white dragon as it regains its composure and fights back.

Punches are thrown between curled fists of arched claws and webbed wings. The two reptilian creatures of giant proportions spin and flutter around the edge of the cliff until a blow sends the gray one plummeting to the ground. The white dragon has the upper hand, towering over its competitor and crushing its chest with a powerful hindleg.

The gray dragon shuts its eyes as if to accept defeat, but in one swift motion, it swivels an arm and knocks the white dragon’s shin. The unsuspected impact is met with another wailing whimper, throwing the white dragon down. When it lands on the ground with an impactful crush, I shriek and shut my eyes, turning my face away when I’m unable to watch the horror unfold.

In one swift thrust, I’m back in the arms of my captor. However, its warmth soothes my being and prompts me to open my eyes, only to discover that it is not my captor.

It’s the white dragon, whose eyes are concerned as it stares down into my face.

The weight of everything I’ve just witnessed comes crashing into me like torrents of waves during high tide. My body grows limp in the arms of the white dragon, my vision blurring as I surrender to the tumultuous and sudden discovery that dragons exist.

***

A suffocating breath slithers up my throat, and my eyes fly open when I feel silk beneath my palms.

“Phew!” I breathe in relief, realizing that I was dreaming. The culmination of my dreams over the past few nights musthave slipped through the cracks of my imagination and had me believing that my real life was a part of the dream.

“You’re awake…” a familiar voice startles me, jolting me into the realization that the bed I’m lying on isn’t my own.

The ceiling from which the white organza is draped around the bedpost isn’t my own either.

This one screams “expensive” and “exotic” with its emboldened lines and velvety paint.

Turning my face cautiously in the direction of Sterling’s voice, I gasped when I realized that I wasn’t dreaming. He wears a wary smile as he saunters toward me, appearing less human when I recall how he’d transformed into a dragon in the alley.

The charred marks on the left side of his face prove that he was the one who fought the other dragon on the mountaintop. But I refuse to believe that anything I saw was real.

It just can’t be.

Scrambling to an upright position, my back hits a soft cushion as I curl my legs inward and hug them for protection. I stare at him through perplexed eyes as the memories of what happened before come crashing into me like a storm.

“Wh-where am I? Wh-what are you? Wh—”

“Shh…” Sterling cajoles as he approaches the bed, a hand held out to subdue my panic.

It doesn’t little to soothe my fears when an image of the dragon flashes into my mind. Frightened by the reality of what I encountered today, I hug my knees tighter as if to shield myself from him. A mountain of questions enters my mind as a driving force behind my panic.

What does he want with me?

Am I to be the dragon man’s next hearty meal?

That’s the only reason he approached me before. I was way in over my head to think he was interested in me.

Oh, God! I must have been crazy when I thought it was an attraction that pulled Sterling toward me!

“... I know you’re in shock, Camilla,” he says calmly, his voice mimicking the one he used to seduce me.

Not the one that screeched and cried in his dragon appearance.

“But I want you to know you’re safe here with me.”

Blinking fervently, I stare at the man in utter disbelief.

---