Willow's Dragon: Dragon Mates: A BBW Paranormal Romance

by Serena Simpson

  She leaned down and placed her arms around his neck as they soared in the sky. Nothing compared to this…well hardly nothing. They soared over trees, and he dipped down making her stomach go in crazy patterns which might end up with her food all over him, but she was having too much fun to make him stop.

  Her laughter rang in the air behind her which made her laugh even louder. The days of being alone felt like a distant memory. The fear that crawled up her spine that all of this could end today was very real.

  He flew out over the beach, the pink sand glittering like jewels. They flew close to the barrier. It was much thinner than when she had been allowed through it. Angry waves beat against it like they were waiting for a chance to tear up the land that dared to be in their way.

  “Javon?”

  “I see it.”

  He could talk, she’d ask him about that later. Right now, she was concerned with what she was seeing. The sun was blocked out by the clouds that had been trying to roll in all day.

  “It’s time to go back.”

  She hugged him tighter and looked around at the scenes below her in case this was her last time to appreciate them. The mountain looked deserted when they got there, no one but Jillian was sitting outside.

  “Where is everyone?” She slid of Javon’s back and walked over to Jillian while he changed.

  “They went home to prepare. It looks like the fight will soon find us.”

  “How do we win?”

  Willow sank down next to her. She was sitting on a covered bench that was beside the entrance to their mountain.

  “We don’t win. We fight, we die.”

  “I don’t accept that, I won’t accept that.”

  “What do you think is going to happen? Syn and Alexa will come to the fight first. Then Maceo and Nadia, followed by Zeno and Skye. In all the confusion you and Javon will have a chance to slip away. To live another day, maybe even fight another day.”

  “No, we won’t leave them to die, they’re family.”

  “You can’t always help your family, but if you could you’d be the linchpin.” She stood up and walked away greeting Javon, before disappearing out of sight.

  “What was that about?”

  “She said we lose. All of our family dies, but we could get away. Live to fight another day.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I won’t go. I feel like I’ve run my whole life and now that I look back I can’t figure out why. Back then it felt like life or death. Now I feel like I was a coward.”

  “Willow from the minute I saw you in your powerhouse suit going toe to toe with a man who wanted to hurt one of your employees I knew you were brave. I never understood why you ran, but I never cared. You were then what you are now, my Brave Willow.”

  A smile curved her lips. “Come let me cook for you. We shouldn’t die before you’ve tasted my culinary skill.”

  “You know I can cook, right?”

  “Aww no, you don’t get out of this.” She made jokes about cooking as they went to the elevator.

  The kitchen was immaculate when they got up there. “I think we should hire Nadia to cook, so she will clean up after herself.”

  He shook his head at her. “I think together we can manage to clean up.”

  “You know when I first applied for a job in a restaurant I went for dishwasher, that didn’t last long. One day one of the waitresses called off sick. The owner put me in an apron and said wait tables. I went into the back to get a drink order, and he was on his knees thanking the Lord that I was no longer washing dishes.”

  “Honestly?”

  “True story.”

  “When this is over we’ll hire a housekeeper.”

  “I’m holding you to that. What kind of veggies do you like?”

  “It’s the end of the world. Why can’t I skip them this time?”

  “Because you need them to fight the bad male.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and put the steaks in the broiler. She stuck potatoes in the microwave and began to sauté vegetables.

  They sat down to eat both of them pushing the food around on their plates.

  “Maybe we’re wrong. We’ve read the signs all wrong.”

  “Maybe—.”

  Thunder rolled across the land loud peals of it making the Earth shake again. They ran to the elevator. The day had turned into an artificial night.

  “He doesn’t want us to use dragon shadow.” Javon went far enough away to be able to change forms before she ran to him and climbed up his back.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Syn’s mountain.”

  The flight was quick his brother’s mountains weren’t that far apart.

  Alexa was on Syn’s back fighting against Mutufa. There was a ground war happening also. They couldn’t get close to Syn and Mutufa, but they could help on the ground.

  “Set down we can help them.”

  “No, not yet. We need to be here.”

  She turned around to watch the battle unfold before her.

  *~*~*~*

  “Alexa, you should have come to me when I first asked now I don’t need you.”

  “You always did like to hear yourself talk.” She threw a ball of lightning at him as blue fire came from her eyes.

  Syn dipped down avoiding the bolt of black lightning he threw back. He circled around Mutufa coming at him from behind as he spewed fire at him.

  “I made sure this body was fire proof. Learned that little trick when I went after Skye. Where is she, I think she’ll get a kick out of it.”

  He threw a net at Syn that hit in the chest before it expanded. It tightened across his body making his wings useless. He went into a downward spiral as Alexa used her eyes to burn the net apart until he was able to spread his wings.

  “No wonder I wanted her on my team she is resourceful. He threw another ball of lightning at them. Hitting Syn in his chest, he dropped like a rock shrugging Alexa off before he hit the ground some feet away from her.

  She ran to him. “Syn!”

  “I’m fine.” His voice was weak. “Move back.”

  He changed when she was far enough away. Mutufa allowed the body he had to touch the ground.

  “Not as good as my original body, but it does seem to be useful. I hope you’re not hurt Syn because I want the pleasure of killing you.”

  He raised his hand again. Alexa murmured something low and fired a beam at him that caused him to stumble back.

  “I hate dragon mates. Not this time Alexa, I’m never going back so join your mate in a frozen eternity.”

  He sent out two balls of ice that hit them at the same time. Syn froze trying to put himself in front of her, his hand holding her arm. She froze with power coming from her eyes, a bolt of lightning in her hands.

  “I forgot to tell you about my new trick. You both look good like that.”

  “Maceo and Nadia what are you going to do, throw food at me?”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Willow tried to break out of Javon’s arms.

  “We have to help them,” she whispered furiously to him.

  Why was she whispering there was so much noise no one would hear except Javon?

  “We need to figure out what is happening. They are coming at him as couples and not a group, and no one asked us to join in. That doesn’t make sense.”

  “The fight happened too fast they didn’t have time organize.”

  “Love, Syn organizes in his sleep. We all knew this was coming. Every time I tried to speak privately with my brothers about our strategy, they always had something to do, or it wasn’t the time.”

  She stopped struggling and let him pull her further away. “Jillian said they would die like this, first Syn and Alexa, then Maceo and Nadia. How do we stop it? I can’t let them all die.”

  “There may be nothing you can do.”

  She turned to look at the ground behind Mutufa, it was littered with bodies. The people from the island were fighting, but the army he b
rought with him was also fighting. Too many people dying and there was nothing she could do. Her heart broke even as she looked for a way to save them.

  *~*~*~*

  “Nadia, so good of you to come to the fight. I think you should know I was concerned about you. I no longer am, but surviving the fire I set and taking your dragon and his brother to an alternate plane without leaving bodies behind, that was impressive.”

  She threw a lightning bolt at him that singed the hair on his arms.

  “Dangerous. I do like that in a female.” He came back with a black bolt of lightning that encased her in a shield. “Maybe not that dangerous.”

  She concentrated on the power within. “It’s you and me.”

  It’s always been you and me.

  “Can you get us out of here?”

  As long as you can stand the heat.

  Her body began to heat up. First, it felt like she had a fever then she got warmer until she felt like she was lying in Maceo’s arm. Then her body went nuclear hot, just when she thought she was going to die flames shot from her body and cracked the shield around her.

  “Bravo. I was right you were the one to look out for.”

  With a twist of her hand, she pulled Maceo and Mutufa off the island onto another plane.

  He shot her in the stomach making her fly backward into Maceo.

  “I’ll never stay here again.” He sent out a bolt of energy that hit Maceo in the middle of his change.

  His laughter covered them both in darkness as Maceo’s body struggled to find one form. He sent another shot at Maceo, Nadia jumped in front of it taking the full blast. Dark power coursed through her body before she fell.

  “Down but not out, my respect grows for you every minute. We would have made a good team.”

  “You wanted to kill me.”

  He waved his hand through the air like it was a little thing.

  “You were too honest. Betraying a friend is nothing to be concerned about.”

  “Like the way you betrayed the female you said you loved?”

  She dragged her body over to Maceo who was finally in his human shape.

  “Hi,” she ran her hand down the side of his face.

  “Hi.” He took her hand and kissed it keeping an eye on Mutifa who seemed content to watch them. “What do you need to take him down?”

  “Power, raw, unmitigated power.”

  Mutufa laughed. “Good luck with finding that.”

  He flicked his fingers together throwing a mini bolt of lightning at Maceo just enough to keep Nadia occupied.

  “This was home. Nothing beautiful.”

  The place was dreary, it was trying to leach any joy she felt from her soul. There were no furnishings except what he must use in his formulas and experiments.

  “You brought this on yourself when you wouldn’t leave the different races alone.”

  “Humans.” He spat the word like it tasted dirty in his mouth. “You can always see someone else’s blame, but you can never see your part in the matter.”

  A picture formed before her of a tall male, a proud male that stood close to eight feet. There was intelligence in his eyes, maybe even a zest for life. No one would ever see the intelligence or his joy in life. Instead, they would see the blue/green horns wrapped around his head and the pointed nail at the end of each finger. His feet looked more like hooves, but he stood on two of them, and he was laughing with a female.

  He was laughing with Selena because she saw something good in him.

  “I still remember the first day a human saw me.” The disgust in his voice was real, and she didn’t need to hear the story because she knew what happened.

  Cries of monster rang through the area.

  “Tell me where are my people now? I called to them, summoned them, but they were no more. I fight to destroy the very people who destroyed me.”

  “The dragons only wanted you to leave them alone.”

  “We welcomed your people when we built Dragon’s Cove. They refused to come to seek sanctuary like so many others were doing. If they are no longer with us, it’s a decision they made. We stopped you because you were championing the genocide of our race. We would have never turned around and condoned the genocide of another race.”

  “It no longer matters. Everyone will pay for what was done, and I will sit on the highest throne of the land.” He blasted both of them before they could raise a shield and they were back on the island fighting.

  Nadia pulled a lightning bolt of power and Maceo placed his hand on her to give her a boost. Mutufa froze them.

  “Any more takers before I go to rule the world?”

  “Me.” Selena stood there alone a huge knife in her hand.

  “What is she doing there?”

  “Fighting, no one wants to let him win. What would you be doing? Cowering in the bottom of a mountain?”

  His words hit her, they almost stopped her before she realized he was telling her that Selena was as much of a warrior as she was.

  “Of course not, but what about her family.”

  “What about any of the families of the fallen warriors?”

  He was right. They were going to fight and die, and nothing was going to change that. She watched the humans fight using deadly dark magic and wondered if their souls could feel the curse that each dead body was to them.

  “Your right she has a right to fight. We all have that right, that honor. Javon, if we don’t make it to the other side of this battle, I love you.”

  “I love you,” he whispered in her ear as they watched Selena throw her knife at him.

  It was more than a knife it kept regenerating in her hand, and she kept throwing until she hit him in his leg. That one hit shocked him, it dropped him for a few moments giving her a chance to get closer, and she threw another one that whistled by the side of his ear.

  “I should have known there was darkness in you.”

  “You hurt me Mutufa, you hurt my family. We were friends.” The knives kept coming at him.

  He stopped just for a moment, a flicker of pain ran through his eyes before he shoved it out of sight.

  “That was a different lifetime. Things changed Selena. I didn’t.” He stopped unwilling to go on.

  “I believed in you and the changes you could bring to the world for better.” Her knife sliced him in the leg a second time, and he roared.

  “The world didn’t want better they wanted me in a cage. Me! Who had done nothing to the world. The world you talk about is what made me like I am today. I despise that world, your world.”

  He blasted her knocking her down. She clutched at her stomach, pain ripping through her as she tried to stand to her feet.

  “Stay down Selena, pretend that you're not there and maybe I won’t notice you and you’ll live because you were once my best friend.”

  “That’s why I can’t stay down because once I was your best friend.” She stood a knife hurtled from her hand only to be stopped mid throw as he froze her and the knife.

  “Sometimes friendship doesn’t mean anything in the end.” His eyes flashed as if he were experiencing pain before he laughed.

  “Did you really think that memories of a better time meant anything to me. Whoever thought I was something different than what you see, got it wrong. I have a new body, a body that will be accepted by the world and I’m going to use it to make the people of the world chokes on everything they ever held up as socially acceptable.”

  He twisted to the side to watch Zeno and Skye approach.

  “Skye welcome to the party, I see you dragged your favorite animal cracker along. You thought you defeated me when I was unable to cross the barrier using your blood. You were wrong. I had many who were willing to die so that I could live.”

  “You stole a body that’s nothing to brag about.”

  “Who say’s? I’m still here because I was waiting for you to show up. I thought this would be over fast, but you chose to fight in waves, I will never understand the minds of m
ortals.”

  “Right now, all we want is you dead.” She flicked her wrist at him, a cage formed around him.

  His hands went to the bar, they burned him. “You’re a fast learner, but I expect no less from you.”

  He waved his hand over the cage a burst of magic came out touching the bars before it blasted back at him. He looked at her and raised a brow before he went to work on the cage that was holding him.

  “There was a time we could have been friends.”

  “No there wasn’t, you wanted too much that didn’t belong to you. I’ve always wondered why you wanted the dragon's treasure. Why did you start this war?”

  Bolts of electricity went through his body as he pushed his new spell at the cage, it didn’t break.

  “The dragons thought I was greedy and who knows maybe they were right. Back then I felt I was justified. I was going to make the world a better place and all I needed was the jewels they kept amassed and never used. I’m still going to change the world, but it will only be better for me.

  “What’s ironic is that now I will have access to all of the jewels I could ever want but no longer need.”

  He moved back until he was almost touching the other side of the cave and let out a dose of red magic. It went around the cage neutralizing the bars until they fell apart becoming dust at his feet.

  “Brilliant, I think I’m going to miss our encounters. There is no telling what you could have done if you had another fifty or one hundred years to build a defense against me.”

  Skye raised her hand clutched her fist in the air and pulled her arm down. He fell to the ground a gasping sound coming from his mouth as a trickle of blood ran over his lips.

  “On second thought,” he rasped as he stumbled to his feet. “I’ve decided I’ll like you better if you're frozen.”

  She drew a spear of lightning aiming it at him when he froze her. The last thing she felt was Zeno giving her all of his power.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  It was over. There was no movement. Syn, and Alexa, Maceo, and Nadia, Selena, Zeno, and Skye were all frozen. Still, there should be noise. The battlefield behind them contained statues of people caught in epic combat. A thousand years from now it will look the same, even the birds in the sky were caught in midflight. Everything she was coming to know was gone in a flash.