Page 38 of Kidnapped Plus-Size Mate

I know I’m being unreasonable, since it isn’t Kairo’s job to do the damage control after her brothers bring their mates to the island. I guess she was expecting me to do things differently, instead of kidnapping my mate and locking her in the guest bedroom in my quarters.

Though the circumstances were different with each of my four brothers, the outcome was the same.

Except, with Camilla’s hatred for me, there’s no light at the end of my dark tunnel. She believes I tricked her, and thinks that she’s my next meal.

“Why don’t you join me for a drink before dinner?” Stryder offers. “I just spoke to Olivia, and she promised that she’ll go check up on your mate as soon as Blair falls asleep.”

I’d been so lost in thought, that I didn’t realize he’d paused for a moment to send his mate a mind link. I wish that’s a bridge I could cross with Camilla. It would make life so much easier if she was already pregnant and able to receive the gift of immortality and connect to the mental mind link shared by the dragons and their mates.

“You have no idea how thankful I am, Bro,” I appreciate.

Stryder smiles thoughtfully. “I think I have an idea. I was in a similar position when I found Olivia being kidnapped in the mortal world.”

“How did you guys get over everything you went through?”

“A grand gesture, Stryker,” he consoles. “Any woman appreciates a grand gesture of romance. That does the trick.”

“What am I supposed to do?” I pout. “I paid so much attention to detail trying to woo her in the mortal world. All those months I spent watching her, making sure that I knew everything about him. Now it feels like I don’t know her at all…”

Stryder perks up a brow. “So that’s what you were hiding from me…” he chuckles. Heat crawls across my cheeks as I realize I’d just come clean about the secret I was hiding from my twin.

He doesn’t seem upset, to my relief.

“Well, you can tell me all about it over a drink,” he offers, patting my shoulder again before proceeding down the hall. “And you can decide what you’re gonna do about your human mate situation.”

Chapter 12 - Camilla

I see the tray being slid onto the pedestal beside the door, only Stryker’s arm visible for a fleeting moment before it disappears again. With bated breath, as I watch the door close with a soft thud, I only exhale when the sound of his footsteps becomes quiet.

He didn’t lock the door again, just as I discovered this morning when I yelled at him. The absence of the clinking of metal means I’m free to leave the bedroom. But it’s not something I plan on doing.

I have no idea what I might find out there once I cross the threshold of the world beyond this bedroom.

Prison cells?

A dungeon where the dragon man cooks his next meal?

I scoff under my breath, rolling my eyes at my worrisome thoughts.

This morning, he made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to eat me. What he left unclear is what he meant by the term “mate.”

The term implies something as fundamental as sexual intercourse between a male and female. What I can’t understand is why a dragon man with the ability to transform into a beast almost ten times his human size would want to mate with a human like me.

I mean… He might break me.

The foolishness of that thought has me gulping nervously as I slowly slip off the bed and pad across the room to the tray beside the door. A hesitant hand comes up to reach for the handle, but I quickly snatch it back. I don’t know what I mightfind out there, and I’m too afraid to see what lies outside that door.

I can’t shake off the feeling that he might care about me, bringing me food three times a day. Even after the fiasco this morning, he’d come by to slip a set of cotton underwear and a silk kaftan of bright colors on the pedestal. It seems he’s too angry to see my face, slipping essentials through the door without showing me his face.

I’m not ready to see it, anyway. His face is a reminder of his trickery, and how foolish I was for being roped into his scheme.

It doesn’t matter what he says. His actions proved that he had no consideration for me. A sliver of my fury skitters down my spine, even as I take the tray to the lounger beside the balcony door.

Curling my legs as I prop the tray on my lap, I blow out a forlorn sigh as I stare out at the navy-blue sky littered with bright constellations. Somewhere out there is the world I know, whereAbuelais probably worried sick about me.

I wish there was some way I could make contact with her, even if it was just to put her worries to rest and tell her that I was still alive. She’d warned me about the firebreather—and here I am, the firebreather’s prisoner.

I hate him for keeping me here against my will. But it seems that no matter what I throw at him, it’s not enough for him to change his mind. He’s convinced that out there, my life is in danger.

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