“So am I in a senseI’m not fortunate enough to die. Instead, I’ll forever be in a state of stasis unless someone destroys my body. I don’t know what will happen if they do that.”
“You're aware of the world around you, but you can’t interact with it?”
“That’s it.”
“Sounds like your screwed, no offense. Either way, you should show yourself because it’s probably too late for you.”
“Maybe, Willow, maybe not.”
She stood waiting for him to make up his mind. Why couldn’t her dream man or her dream voice be a little more agreeable? Her voice should be humoring her since she only had hours to live.
“This is your dream Willow, so it’s your choice of what to do. You can come a little closer and find me, but there’s a price to pay. You will see me for what I am and not what you wish I were. How brave are you, Little Willow?”
Well, I’m not little, but I am Willow, and nothing stops me. A flash of her high-powered job and the terror she was made to feel there crossed her mind before she shut it down. She refused to ever be scared again.
“Nothing scares me.” She straightened her shoulders and popped her chest out.
“Then you’re braver than I am. I’ve learned that there are several things to be scared of in this life. There are times that the only thing that keeps you alive and moving is fear. Come find me, my Brave Willow.”
I’m not your anything. She mouthed the words but never said them. Right now she wished she were back on her job smiling at the customers, most of who weren’t human. Instead, she was about to die but not before she met a monster. He had to be a monster, right? Why else would he say all those things?
Deep breath in and then let it out. Nice, sure steps. With a shake of her head, she stopped talking to herself and started walking.
“Where are you?”
“You’re getting close keep walking when you pass the fog you’ll see me.”
The fog around her was thinning out she was able to see further. Deep breath in, let it out slowly. Her body was trying to forget how to breathe, and she needed to help it. The stress of walking to meet him may kill her. What if he was evil and he was luring her into his cage? She would know. Right? Uh huh, just like you knew about John, and still he got close enough to toss you overboard. She wasn’t going to put any hope into her skills as a people reader.
She stopped. The fog was ending if she took another step, he would be there. Part of her wanted to see him the other part was scared she would be disappointed. This voice had been haunting her dreams for years, but the voice had grown louder, more audible over the last two years until she couldn’t ignore it anymore. This voice, his voice was the reason she went on this vacation and look where she ended up.
Enough stalling, she walked out of the fog to gasp at what she saw. She was staring at a dragon frozen in perfection. He was enormous. His head was up tilted at an angle that showed he was proud of who he was. His mouth was open as if he had been frozen mid-roar. He sat on his rear legs while the fronts were holding him up so you could see the beauty of his wide chest. His wings were magnificently tucked close to his body.
She got closer, she had to. He wasn’t real, he couldn’t be. His eyes were golden but shaped like the reptile that modern myth said he was. He was golden. A golden dragon, she should back up leave while she still had a chance but he drew her like he had a lasso around her waist.
“Dragons don’t exist.”
“Tell it to the one you’re looking at.”
“You’re a dragon.” The awe in her voice couldn’t be missed. It was a dream, but that didn’t matter. She had seen so many things, people, who weren’t human why was she so sure that dragons didn’t exist?
“I’m a dragon, but I’m a male too.”
“What?” She was so taken in by the dragon she never examined the space around her.
There was a man standing next to the dragon, perfectly frozen.
“You can only see the male because we are in your dream.”
He was tall, and she wasn’t short, but he easily had five inches on her. His hair was a deep brown she wanted to call chocolate, he was blessed with navy blue eyes that looked just as reptilian as the dragon. His face was a masterpiece. The strong chin, jaws that made her want to caress them. Thick eyebrows that screamed male without being bushy or unkempt. His lips looked like they knew how to deliver serious pleasure and his body, Lord help her. He was thick with muscle but lean enough to be swift and agile. Already her body was heating up looking at him.
“What’s your relationship to the dragon?”
“I am the dragon, and he is me. That’s why you can only see both of us in your dream.”
“Why am I here? Why did you bring me here?” She was shouting now losing it because this shouldn’t be happening. All she wanted to do was live a carefree life. Somehow, he was responsible for her having to run.
“I brought you here because you’re my mate.”
“No, no, no!”
“Come find me, Willow, I need you. My Brave Willow.”
She ran back the way she came as the world around her began to dissolve. She woke with a start to find the sun was blazing overhead of her. How long had she been out? Not knowing how wide her platform was she got to her knees and started carefully crawling along. It was wider than she thought. She could lay on her back and roll over twice before she feared rolling into the water and it was a few inches longer than her body. Rather cozy for a see-through platform in the middle of the ocean.
One look down showed her the fish that were swimming underneath of her. Come find me, Willow. Those words were already driving her crazy. She put her hand to her head to try and stop the echo of them between her ears.
Focus on yourself. Her tongue came out to try and moisten her bottom lip, but she was dry. Had the sun done that to her in a day? Or had she been out several days? She wanted to say the landscape looked different but surely the sea looked the same no matter where you were in the middle of it. Her eyes went to the water surrounding her. She knew better, but she was so thirsty. How many days did it take to die of thirst? She read somewhere it took seventy-two hours to die when there was no water. Would that time be shorter in the direct sunlight? She bet it would. Why wonder about sharks and piranha? Were Piranha even in the sea? The better question was where was she? She could still be on the ocean, or maybe she had entered the sea that surrounded Jamaica.
It didn’t matter she was going to die, it wasn’t like anyone would spot her body. She laid down and looked at the mirage of rocks in the distance.
Chapter Three
Her tongue came out and licked her lips once again not that it helped. Her tongue was dry, her mouth was dry, and her lips were chapped. She would have mourned her state but whatever was keeping her afloat chose that minute to disappear and dump her under the heavy ocean water.
Her arms flailed along with her feet until her body told her she was lying on something. She made her way to her feet falling a couple of times only to realize she was in waist-deep water.
She turned to look out at the ocean only to see a hazy barrier separating her from it. Was this a dream? Was she floating along about to die? She bit her bottom lip and made her way to land. Dream or not she was getting out of the water and taking the second chance at life she had received.
The beach was long with beautiful pink sand, it was also empty. Not knowing what else to do she fell to her knees and kissed the sand thankful for something solid under her feet that wasn’t see through.
“Come find me, my Brave Willow.”
She looked up to see a mountain shrouded in clouds and she knew that was where he was. It looked like it was halfway across the island. How was she supposed to get there without food and water? Closing her eyes, she ignored the mountain and wondered how she would survive.
What she couldn’t ignore was the itchiness of her skin and how her limbs were twitching. Her body was demanding that she get up. Lying s
till would do nothing but kill them besides she had a dragon to find.
This is crazy, he isn’t real. She dragged her body up and started to move. She stopped when she realized she was swaying from side to side much like she was still on the ocean. Oh, come on can’t I catch a break? She started walking again this time she slowed her steps and made a consciousness effort to walk in a straight line. There was a deep laughter in her mind that brought an unwanted smile to her face. She would tell him off the minute she saw him.
Stop, your starting to sound crazy. Even if he were real, he was frozen. How did you tell a frozen dragon off? The beach gave way to a tropical island that was filled with flowers she had never seen before. Her hand came out and touched the bird of paradise before another flower caught her attention. She needed to touch, it looked so pretty. The deep orange-red petals reminded her of a blood orange. Her hand hovered over it.
“Don’t. It bites and with that bite comes a poison. It can’t always be treated.”
So, this island may be pretty, but it could be dangerous she needed to remember that. She walked on not responding to the voice in her head. She was striving for sanity.
How long had she walked? It felt like hours, but she had no way of telling the time. The sun was high in the sky, it may have been rising when she found this island. She broke through the trees and flowers to find a town stretched out before her.
A town. She could ask for help. Her heart started racing, and her feet were moving backward. She dropped into a position that would hide her but allow her to watch who was coming and going.
She nodded off for a few hours unable to help herself. The lack of water and food was taking a toll on her body. There was no way she would ever make it to that mountain like this.
The sound of voices that seemed to be screaming caught her attention making her rise from her hiding spot just enough to look. There were three women who looked alike from where she was hiding and all had red hair. Were they were waving at her?
She blinked and rubbed her eyes. They certainly looked like they were waving. Then they turned to the open Jeep and pointed to the cooler sitting on the back seat and waved her over to it before they went into the building in front of them.
This had to be a hallucination, she read once that people in deserts have them when they run out of water. Someone was going to find her body and wonder why she died of thirst. She turned to look at the cooler. She wanted it. Don’t be crazy Willow stay here, protect yourself.
Go get the cooler.
There was that voice in her head again. Not the sexy male voice, but the one that dragged her half away around the world to keep her safe. Her fingers came up to make air quotes.
Add thief to her resume, but she had to find out what was in that cooler. She walked out of the trees big and bold hoping that if anyone saw her, they wouldn’t question her. Did everyone on this island know everyone else?
A sigh of relief came out of her mouth as she stood beside the Jeep. Casually like the cooler was hers she picked it up and retraced her steps. Once she was hidden, she took another look at it. It was bigger than a lunch box but small enough that she could carry it with her.
She lifted the top to find three twenty-four ounce bottles of water at the bottom. Without stopping to think, she grabbed one and drained it. When she was done, she fell back on her bottom, and that’s when she noticed there was a thick sandwich and a bag of chips in the cooler. Placing the bottle back in she grabbed the food and made herself take her time eating.
Was someone calling her name? She looked up to see the same three females waving goodbye to her. They got into the Jeep and drove away like the cooler wasn’t with her. With a sigh, she laid down, she was feeling much better.”
It was the roar of a large animal that woke her up. Her body moved into a crouching position as she looked around. There was a shadow that flew over her, it had her looking towards the sky. What the…? Her hands came up and rubbed her eyes as she looked at three dragons flying across the sky with feminine laughter trailing behind them.
The first dragon landed and a female climbed off and went to stand in the doorway. The dragon's body shimmered as if surrounded by a magical field and he became a male. The second dragon landed when the first couple were both in the doorway. Once again, a female climbed down, and the dragon became a male when the female was far enough away.
Finally, the third dragon landed, but the female on his back looked like Skye. This had to be a hallucination. She left Skye back home, and she had just gotten engaged. The last dragon transformed into Zeno.
Zeno was a dragon? The hot male Skye was engaged to was really a dragon? No. She shook her head as she lowered back into her hiding spot. There was no way he was a dragon, and sensible Skye would never fall for someone not human. She wasn’t going to believe anything like that. She lay back down closing her eyes soon she would have to come out of hiding but not while there was so much activity close to her.
Her name being called woke her up. The same three women with the red hair were standing in front of the Jeep waving. Why hadn’t they turned her in yet? She didn’t know, but the same tingling of her skin was happening. Her body was telling her she needed to move soon.
She kept watch until she saw the three-dragon couples come out and take off one by one. Skye turned and looked directly at where she was hiding. Her eyes narrowed before she shook her head and climbed on Zeno’s back. Now they were gone, and she needed to follow their example and leave.
The three red-heads came out and went to their Jeep. They stopped and waved goodbye to her before turning around and pointing to the mountain that seemed to have a shine hanging over it even though dusk had arrived. They got into the Jeep and took off. Not knowing what to do she stood and crossed the large road that separated the woods from what looked like the center of town.
Any minute now someone would stop her or realize she was an outsider and call the authorities on her. She sighed refusing to hunch her shoulders or act like a stalking victim. The country was free she had a right to walk across the street even if she didn’t know where her wallet or credit cards were.
That stopped her. John probably tried to kill her so he could rob her. It wasn’t like she was rich, but she was well off. How would he know she had any money? No, that didn’t make sense. There were people on the cruise that were better off than her. Then there was the fact that no one seemed to remember her. There was more going on than she understood.
She was across the street walking behind the buildings. They all seemed to be more business than residences. When she cleared the last building, she was again facing trees. Her trek was beginning. There was no way of figuring out how far she walked in the darkness with nothing to guide her but the mountain in front of her that seemed to glow.
Her eyes kept looking at the cooler in her hands. She was thirsty and hungry, but there was only two bottles of water in there, and she wanted to save them. She walked until the sun crested the horizon before she sat. Lions, tigers, and bears…oh my went through her head, but nothing could have made her take another step.
She flipped over the cooler to pull out another bottle of water which she drowned. When she went to put it back, there was another thick sandwich and a bag of chips. They had not been there when she grabbed the water. This was impossible. She did a quick check on her list of impossible occurrences. Someone threw her overboard. Check. A clear platform appeared under her so she wouldn’t drown. Check. When she was sure she was going to die, she found land. Check. The females with red hair communicated with her. Check. They gave her a magical cooler that makes sandwiches. Check. Well, everything seemed normal when she looked at it that way. Closing her eyes, she drifted off to sleep.
*~*~*~*
He sent his spirit soaring. Finally, something to rejoice about. As a dragon, he could leave his body. When he froze, it was the only thing he could do to escape the eternal boredom of being frozen. For years, he searched for his mate. It was futile, and h
e knew it, but he searched anyway. Now he found her. His spirit settled beside her sleeping form sending out a warning to any animal that tried to come near. Touch her, and you will die.
They understood. He knelt over her allowing his hand to caress the air above her face. She had gone through a lot. When he first found her she was working in a city he never heard of, as the CEO of some major corporation. How could he take her away from that? All he did was watch. It was when Mutufa found her that he began to panic.
It was one thing to think that he would watch his mate grow old and die without ever knowing him. It was another to think Mutufa would hurt her or use her in their war.
He tried and tried to communicate with his brothers. He wanted them to save her, but they couldn’t hear him. That’s when someone started hunting her and eventually she fled. She didn’t know why but her power was saving her life.
He sat down beside her. He would protect her until she woke up and could protect herself.
Chapter four
Willow opened her eyes as the sun was descending making way for the evening. She sat surprised to be unharmed. There probably weren’t any large animals on this island, she assured herself even though she wasn’t buying it. Off in the distance, she heard plenty of roars and growls. Then there was the fact that there were three dragons on this island. There was no way they ate little things like squirrels and rabbits. Lions and tigers and…stop that.
She stood and found a nice tree to take care of her business and then wished for hand sanitizer. If she made it through this alive, she would carry hand sanitizer with her everywhere. An insane laugh came out of her even as she tried to pull it back in. This wasn’t supposed to happen to her. Her life was meant to be normal. She’d pull out a mirror and confirm it, but of course, she didn’t have a purse.
She reached for the cooler not knowing if she should pray that it was full or hope that it was empty, just to prove to herself that she wasn’t crazy. All three bottle of water were full, and she decided to live dangerously as she downed one bottle and reached for a second. There was another sandwich and bag of chips which had her saying a quiet thank you as she pulled them out and munched contentedly.
Willow's Dragon: Dragon Mates: A BBW Paranormal Romance Page 2
