She always said she wanted adventure. Of course, she muttered it under her breath so that fool Murphy wouldn’t hear her and go, I got you, girl. Now she was on an adventure, and it wasn’t too bad as long as she didn’t die or drown and yeah drowning and dying were the same thing, but well it was two different types of death so she would continue to think of them as separate.
She shook her head and laughed at herself as she repacked the cooler. It was time to start walking again. The mountain loomed up tall in front of her but so very far away.
Why didn’t she just call for help? Oh right, her cell phone fell out of her pocket while she was making sure she’d die in the ocean. She could have asked the triplets. They had to be sisters looking like that. There was always Skye. She could have asked her. Those were the logical things to do, but something about this mountain called to her. She looked at it and felt she lost something important in there and she had to get to it.
So, she walked. Day two turned into day three which turned into day four and five. Her water kept replenishing and so did the food. Whatever was drawing her to this mountain got stronger. Tomorrow she would reach the base of the mountain. One more night.
She slumped down wearily against a tree. After all this walking, she could probably run a marathon, not that she ever intended to try. Her legs were shaking with exhaustion and burning with all the exercise she had given them over the last couple of days.
We’re fit.
She heard the voice in her head, but she still saw the men who didn’t choose her on the ship.
No one can accuse them of having good taste.
She laughed long and hard. It’s always nice when you were on your own side. She grabbed a sandwich and a bottle of water and ate. Last night she could have sworn she saw Javon watching over her. Wishful thinking but she hoped that tonight he would talk to her.
She laid down and waited to see if her mystery man would hover over her once again like a ghost protecting her.
He materialized beside her, transparent enough that she could see through him. Still, she could see him maybe the way she might see a ghost.
“I can see you.” She laid perfectly still as she spoke to him.
“But can you hear me?”
“I can.” Her lips quirked up into a reluctant smile.
He took a seat beside her. Was he floating? She didn’t care she felt like she’d been alone forever and she would take what she could get, even if he were floating.
“Talk to me, please.” She hadn’t meant to say please. It sounded needy, too much like she was begging, but she had been alone forever. There were her friends at the hotel she worked at but even then she felt alone. Like she was searching for something that was just out of reach. Sometimes she felt it was calling to her, but she didn’t know which way to turn.
“I’ve been searching for you for a long time.”
“Why?” She turned over on her side to face him getting as comfortable as she could on the ground.
“Do you really want our first real conversation to be deep?”
“Will it be any less deep when I reach the bottom of the mountain tomorrow?”
“No.”
“Then you should tell me now so I have time to think about it while I’m walking tomorrow.”
“I’m a dragon.”
She nodded her head. “It seems impossible to believe, but I saw three dragons several days ago with females on their backs.”
“Those are my brothers. The females are their mates.”
“I know Skye and Zeno.”
“Zeno is my youngest brother, and I’m looking forward to seeing him again. I’m looking forward to seeing them all again.”
“You were searching for me?”
“I was.” His hand came up and rested over her cheek.
She wished she could feel the heat on his hand on her. It was just a dream, this was a dream. Even if he was real, he was frozen. It didn’t matter, sometimes you had to enjoy the unexpected gifts life gave you while you had the chance.
“I was looking for my mate. To be honest, I didn’t know you were my mate when I first saw you. I should have moved on, but I couldn’t.”
“Why didn’t you move on if I wasn’t your mate?” She wasn’t going to get into the whole mate thing with a figment of her imagination. If he found a way to unfreeze himself and turn into a male well then, she’d think about it.
“Because you're beautiful.”
She choked for a minute on the laugh that tried to leave her lips. She didn’t know if she was laughing because she was flattered or laughing because she didn’t believe him.
“You are. Beautiful face, nice and thick in all the right places. I see you, and I want to touch, hug, squeeze, and love you. There is more to you than a beautiful body, your mind is sharp, and your heart and your soul are lovely. I watched as you helped others even when everyone around you thought you should destroy them. I saw how you went out of your way and I wanted you.”
“Thanks, I was a CEO for a very powerful company. My job was to get it done and make sure the company came out smelling like roses.”
“I know, but you always found a way to make sure the people didn’t get hurt.”
“I tried.”
“Since I am not in my body. I didn’t have my senses to go on. I couldn’t scent you or hear you with my physical ears. All things that would have let me know you were my mate.”
“How did you figure it out?” She stared at him, wanting him to say something that would ascend the physical. That made no sense of course because she was all about the physical at this point in her life, or she was. Something real was what she wanted, but she could look a lifetime and still not find it.
“Your soul, your spirit. That part of you that you can’t touch and sometimes wonder if it really exists. The more I watched you the closer I got to that part of you. It took time, but I realized that together we made one whole being. You were what I was looking for, and I was what you were looking for even if you didn’t know it.”
He was calling her his soulmate. Too bad she didn’t believe in them at least not for her. Still, she did want to get close to him, wished he was flesh and blood and human.
“I’m flattered, but I’m pretty sure I can’t be the soulmate to a frozen dragon.”
“Stranger things have happened, but maybe we should wait until we are in the same cave together.”
“Yeah, because that makes me feel better.”
“Go to sleep Willow. I’ll watch over you tonight, and if all goes well, you’ll see me tomorrow.”
She smiled at him and raised her hand until she was caressing the outline of his leg.
“Goodnight, Javon.”
*~*~*~*
He watched her close her eyes and wished for one split second that he could be detached, that his heart wasn’t already aching. What was he going to do when she reached his cave? He was frozen, he couldn’t reach out and touch her any more than he could at this moment.
The ground should have been hard, and he wished he could feel it as he laid down close to her. It was all he could do, the only pleasure he had was watching her breath in and out as she slept soundly. That should fill him with anger or make him depressed, but he got over those emotions long ago. Now all he wanted was his mate to be safe for the rest of her life. He was living a dream. None of them were safe, Mutufa his enemy, the enemy of the dragons was coming for them. There was no way to miss the ripples now that he was more spirit than anything else. He knew his brothers and their mates were fighting him. What he didn’t know was if they would be strong enough to defeat him on their own.
His eyes swept over his mate’s generous curves and once again he wished he was an unfrozen male. Then he would woo her with gentle kisses and moonlight walks on the beach. He shook his head. It was a good thing he wasn’t unfrozen, he would want to take her far away from the coming war. The world was about to end unless they fought, they didn’t have the luxury of keeping their mates s
afe.
He didn’t want to fight again. Hadn’t he already paid the price of freedom? Being frozen for year after unending year only to realize that if his mate were somehow able to reverse his frozen state, he would have to fight Mutufa, more importantly, he would have to let her fight.
That was it, the one thing he didn’t want to face the possibility of Willow going against his enemy and losing her life. Anger flared hot and heavy an emotion he swore that he felt with his body just for a second. He wouldn’t lose the mate he barely knew because his arch enemy was a megalomaniac who thought he should rule the world.
Deep breath. His hand hovered over her face as he wished he could touch her. Beautiful. Images of her laughing went through his mind. Her fiery spirit as she defended others.
“I want to spend time with you, Willow. I want you to discover that to me you’re beyond beautiful. Maybe one day you’ll understand that when you’ve been frozen that life means more than you could fathom now that you no longer have it.”
His eyes closed as his body relaxed. His spirit watched over his treasure. The only one worth having.
Chapter Five
The base of the mountain enthralled her. When she woke up, there was a pounding in the back of her head telling her she needed to make the mountain before sunrise. She ate, drank, and took care of her needs then she started walking. The walk was faster as that voice inside of her paired with all her others senses shouted that if she didn’t make it, it would be too late. When her voice of reason joined all the other voices, she was a goner.
Bending over she rubbed her calves, she had run the last hour. She still wasn’t sure how that happened, but she’d never been as scared as when the thought hit her that she would never get to see Javon in the frozen flesh. What now? She was here, she was tired, and all she wanted to do was drop and sleep a week.
One look up showed her a trail. It jumped out at her as if it were waiting for her to look in its direction. A glance at the horizon told her the sun would be rising soon. Really couldn’t she think of a better song? These boots were made for walking was rolling around her head along with the old video she had caught of it one day. Heck, she wasn’t even wearing boots, but she was walking one hurried step at a time as she climbed the mountain.
When she was queen, because yes, she dreamed about having her own empire. Didn’t everyone? When she was queen, mountains would be outlawed. She laughed out loud feeling better at her crazy thought. Why wasn’t she in shape? She just walked half way across the island and still she was panting as she walked up the side of the mountain. Her legs were cramping, and her feet were calling her names, not the names you shared with polite society. Hmmm, she needed a vacation.
She leaned against the side of the rock face and laughed. Her body doubled over, and tears came from her eyes. If she had another vacation like this, she might not make it. One foot in front of the other she murmured to herself as she kept waking. Her eyes were watching the sun like it was the enemy. Just as she was sure she wouldn’t make it, there was an opening in the face of the mountain.
Priming her body she jumped in just as the sun touched the mountain. An invisible force one she could feel with her body but not see with her eyes closed the mountain up good. Impossible. She rejected what she could feel but couldn’t see. Dusting herself off after she stood, she went back to the entrance and tried to walk through it. It was closed off. Her hands banged on it before she threw her body at it. There was no getting through that entrance.
The desire to sit down in defeat was banging at the back door of her brain, then she heard his voice.
“Come find me, my Brave Willow.”
Javon. She would never forget that voice. Did he know she wasn’t brave? How could she be brave? She was just trying to stay alive. Trying to do the things she felt were right. That’s what her life had become until he talked to her. When he spoke, he made her want to be more than she was. Was this a normal feeling? She didn’t know, but the more he spoke, the more she felt it, and she was starting to like the feeling.
Turing around she explored the portion of the mountain she was in. There were two openings. The first looked like it went up. Would he be at the top of the mountain? He was a dragon it did make a certain kind of sense. She walked to the other opening it went down. It was dark and tight. Why would a dragon go down there?
Shaking her head, she entered into the small dark crevice. He would come down here because this is the last place anyone would look for him. They would go up thinking that a bulky dragon would never go down but he was also a male, a rather devious one if she read him right. She turned to her side squeezing through the small space, even as she went downward. The space seemed to be getting tighter, and her breathing was now officially coming out in tight bursts of air that left her gasping for more, and if it got much tighter, she would be hyperventilating.
Just what she needed, to pass out in the crevice of a mountain. No one would ever find her. You can do this Willow. She kept talking to herself. What did it matter, no one was around to hear her, and if they were they should be helping her. She moved until she got stuck. Nowhere to go but back the way she came.
Her eyes closed as she fought back the tears of frustration. To come so close and not be able to finish the journey. This wasn’t about living not any longer. When the entrance to the cave shut, she knew it was a death sentence. This was all about finishing what she started out to do. Her head leaned back aginst the cold stone wall before she finally straightened her shoulders as far as they could go in the tight space. She was getting through if she had to claw the earth away to make room for her.
Her shoulders moved forward, and her body followed compressing as she went through the tight space. There was no way she was going to go back through here, so it was probably a good thing there was no way of escape. Her cheek was scratched up, and her clothes were torn and dirty, but she was making it through.
You can do it.
The voice in her head encouraged her even as her body screamed in pain. She was too big for this. That’s what kept her going her belief that she could do anything. Well, almost anything. She couldn’t cook a meal like a chef, and there was no way she could do surgery, and who said anything about rocket science.
She was laughing by the time she managed to fall on the ground having made it through the crevice. No, she couldn’t do those other things, but she could get one step closer to Javon, and that was all she wanted to do. She opened her magical cooler because that’s what she was beginning to call it and took out a bottle of water.
Where do I go from here? She scouted until her back was against the wall and waited until her breathing slowed and the fear that made the palms of her hand's sweat receded. There was fear, but she overcame it. One point for team Willow.
The chamber of the mountain she was in was small. It acted as a receiving room. If you were smart enough, brave enough to get through that crevice, it brought you here, but you weren’t meant to stay here. Standing she placed her hand against the wall she had leaned back on and said a silent thank you before she took the right corridor. She never even looked at the left.
“Javon,” she whispered as she walked. His name was carried through the cavernous spaces of the mountain. How big could the base of the mountain be?
He was close, she could feel it in her bones. She sounded like her grandparents, God rest their souls. They would sit on the porch and tell her that certain things could be felt. You’ll know when your path is right because it will give you this feeling of joy. She didn’t have that feeling of joy when she worked as a CEO, but she ignored that. Her grandma would say. ‘Your paths gonna catch up with you Baby Girl, mark my words.’
Was this her path? If it wasn’t her grandma was going to have a lot of explaining to do when she finally joined her.
There was a sound. She stopped to listen, it sounded like laughter and sent a shiver down her back.
Turning around she noticed a shadow against the wall.
<
br /> “You made it, after all I did to stop you from coming. You were never meant to get on that ship.”
Well, that explained all the trouble she had boarding, but nothing and no one was going to keep her from her vacation or so she thought. Right now she should be poolside sipping a drink and watching the men in tight pants serve her.
“You know what they say, nothing stops the vacation.” Was she really taking to a shadow? An evil shadow since he tried to stop her vacay.
“Mutufa’s the name.”
“Umm, your mother must not have liked you. You should probably have it legally changed to Larry, Bob or maybe Tony. Anything will be better than Mutufa, it will also increase your chances of picking up women although most of us don’t go for the shadows. We like substance if you get my drift.”
He roared, the cave shook, and she backed up. The cardinal rule was to hold your ground, but she changed the rule to come out alive.
“I’m going to kill you.”
“Let me check my calendar to see when would be a good day.” She reached behind her and pulled out her calendar. Licking her finger, she thumbed through the pages.
“Well, this is the only day I have free. It says it’s the Tuesday after the end of forever. Come back then, and we can talk about this again.”
“You won’t find it funny in a minute.”
“Don’t come any closer I know Kung Fu and Ginsu. Wait that’s a knife. That’s right I’m an expert at throwing knives. You better leave before I hurt you.”
He laughed at her, and why wouldn’t he? He thought she was funny. Heck, she would think she was funny if she wasn’t so scared. She backed up taking small steps hoping he wouldn’t notice until she had room to run. His hand was glowing, she would wonder later how that happened. Turning she fled.
Willow's Dragon: Dragon Mates: A BBW Paranormal Romance Page 3
