The Lost King of Dragons

Chapter 6

I was not prepared for it when I woke up. I had a hell of a headache and neck. Opening my eyes wasn’t something I was prepared for. That was until I noticed there was a head on my chest. That woke me right up.

My heart rate increased. I thought my night with Vatra was a dream, right? This is just a really bad hallucination. It wasn’t real. We didn’t mark each other last night…right?

My hand flew up to my ear and there on my neck directly behind my ear was her mark. Panic set in. What the hell did I do?! I swore it was all a dream.

Then the embarrassment set in as I realized everything, I did to her and she did to me. Why did she mark me? Why did I mark her? My internal monologue was increasingly panicked. Then the final straw was when I realized that I had told her I loved her back. Then came another bout of internal turmoil.

I couldn’t move from my neck down, scared that I would wake her. My eyes roamed around the room and eventually made their way down to her. Her body was completely naked and on display for me. Seeing her sleep so soundly made my heart flutter.

I moved from her eye lids to her lips, then down. My member became erect again. Chastising this stupid appendage. When she was around, the damn thing had a mind of its own. I tried to carefully grab the blankets with my free arm to cover myself.

Vatra yawned and stretched. “Are we shy now?”

“Um, I was just getting a bit cold.” I lied.

“Yeah, sure. More like trying to hide that your read to go again.”

She sat up and was eyeing where I had placed the blanket.

“Um, Vatra, we need to talk.” I stuttered out. Her body was so close.

My member twitched and my body heated up. I mentally yelled at my body with frustration.

She startled me as I tried to say we needed to talk and explain what it was about.

Her lips met mine and I melted into her. My brain turned to mush and I couldn’t help myself. Hestia herself couldn’t help me at this point, nor could she stop me.

Once again, we went at it like animals. Her screaming my name and me roaring with pleasure each time I came.

It was like that the entire day. Me trying to get a grasp on reality and her pulling me back into the depths of her intoxication.

When we woke up the next morning, I put distance between us so I could think straight enough to figure out what the hell was happening.

“Um, Vatra… Why did you mark me?”

She looked very confused. “Dante, why are you asking?”

“Well, I don’t understand what is going on.”

Vatra got really quiet. I could see she was thinking.

“I mean it’s normal for mates to mark each other.”

That had me in shock. Mates? I thought I would know when I met my mate. I had heard stories about when dragon mates had met.

“Do you know how Dragon mates recognize one another?”

“I mean I had thought I did, but now I don’t know.” I responded.

“Dragons recognize their mates when they are in their natural form.”

This confused me. I didn’t recognize her when we were in form. Why didn’t I recognize her, but obviously something in me knew. Or I wouldn’t have let her mark me. I sat in silence for a while.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you as my mate.” This really bothered me. Why didn’t I recognize her?

Vatra got really upset and quietly asked me to leave. I obliged. Getting dressed quietly I left. I could hear Vatra crying in her room as I left. The sound broke my heart.

I had to figure out why I didn’t recognize her. This was going to require help. Beta Eros or Alpha Damascus might be able to help.

I headed straight for the pack house to find one of them. To my luck I was able to find the both of them in the Alpha’s office.

“I am sorry to interrupt, but I need to ask for help.”

“What’s up?” Asked Beta Eros.

“Well, I was just told by Vatra that she is my mate, but none of the signs are there. I believe that she is by the fact that she does affect me. I feel it, but not like I expected to.” I explained.

They were both frowning. It was quiet for a moment as we each analyzed the situation. It was quite unusual for any species not to be able to recognize their own mate.

“I think we need to go see the witch,” Alpha Damascus suggested.

Beta Eros nodded in agreement. They stood and we all left the pack house and headed west to the little cottage made for her.

The walk wasn’t long. We knocked on the door and a very old looking white-haired woman answered.

“Hello gentlemen. I foresee we are in need of assistance?”

We nodded in response.

“Come in, I will put on some coffee and tea.”

We filed in and took a seat on her couch. It was an old looking thing. We were surrounded by green and yellow eyes. I am not a huge fan of cats, but these cats seemed intelligent.

“Don’t look at them too long, dear. They may take that as a challenge. These babies are quite temperamental.”

I looked at her and avoided looking at them any further.

After the tea and coffee were ready, she prepared two cups of black coffee and two cups of tea. We each grabbed a drink. The tea was a regular green tea with a hint of something sweet.

“Now my dears, how can I be of assistance?” She was eyeing me closely.

“I found my mate. I feel that she is my mate, but the link is missing on my end. I don’t recognize her. What’s wrong with me?”

“Mhmmm,” was her reply as she got up and went rummaging in another room. We could hear her talking to herself.

“No not that…Nope….Closer….Ooo…ouch. I forgot about those. No…..AHA! There it is.”

She came back into the room with what looked like bones and black rocks. Along with several bottles of liquid. Setting them down carefully, she told us not to touch them and went into the kitchen. She came back with a small black cauldron.

The bones and rocks were placed into the cauldron along with very precise drops from the liquid. She said some strange words and black smoke came up from the cauldron.

“Ah, my dear. You have a spell on you.”

“That’s not possible. You are the first witch I have ever met.”

She held her hand out and I looked at it confused.

“Your hand, I need your hand.”

I gave her my hand and before I could object, she stabbed me with the tip of a blade. She dropped 4 drops of my blood into the cauldron and the smoke began to swirl. I didn’t see anything, but she seemed to be seeing something.

“My dear, your memories have been tampered with. I am not the first witch you have met. There was one other before me. She is very old and wise.” She was quiet a moment as she continued to watch the smoke. “Oh my.” She clicked her tongue.

“What?” The anticipation was killing me.

“You, my dear, do not know whom you are. For your safety, your true identity was concealed and, therefore, so was your mate. By the looks of it, it was your parents.”

“Why would they do such a thing?”

“Great danger surrounds you. Your purpose is of great importance. There is a prophecy told, you will bring in an alliance this world has never seen before.”

“So, who am I, if you know everything?” My attitude was getting the best of me.

She eyed me and some of her cats hissed at me. We all sat in silence for a moment. The witch had turned her attention back to the swirling smoke.

“Oh, young one, you have not been totally honest.” She had a sly smile on her face.

My instincts began kicking in and I was getting ready for a fight.

“Do not worry. This pack will help you with fulfilling your prophecy. First, you, my dear, are the lost King of Dragons. And second, Ember is the last of her kind. She is a Phoenix Dragon.”

Hearing I am some long lost King was pushing it, but that Ember was a Phoenix Dragon was absolutely ridiculous. They had been long gone for centuries. This meant Ember would live eternally. She couldn’t be killed by anyone other than her mate. Her mate could take all of her powers once he took her life.

My eyes met the witches and she had a knowing glint in her eyes. It was like she knew what I was thinking. Kind of creepy if you ask me.

“I know you have many questions, but I cannot answer them all because I don’t know all of the answers. What I can say is you and Ember have a very important purpose in this world. Which means you will also have danger leaking at every corner. Take care young one.”

With that, we all stood to leave. The walk back was full of discussion about the information we had just learned. In the end, we decided it was best the fewer people that knew the better. We would tell Ember about herself, but it was to be kept minimal as to whom she knew. The information about me was not going to leave outside of the 4 of us. We couldn’t chance the wrong person finding out.

I decided to head off and find Ember so I could tell her. Which will lead me to my second trial of the day. Getting Vatra to forgive me. That one was going to take some work on my part.

I went in and asked the omegas if they knew where Ember might be.

Of course, my questioning was short-lived as I heard Dragon’s wings. She was in the back and, lucky for me, her and Vatra were landing.

I walked out with as much courage as I could muster. I remember what it was like when my mom was mad at my father. It was a terrifying sight.

“Hey Ember, Vatra, can you guys come sit with me in the forest? We have some things to discuss.”

“I am not going anywhere with you.” Vatra spat.

“Vatra, it is not for me. It is for Ember. We have learned some information that we need to discuss in absolute privacy.”

Something in my tone must have caught her attention, because she didn’t fight or argue.

The walk to a secluded section of the forest was quick. Once I was absolutely sure we were alone, I explained to Ember what we had learned about her. She was as shocked as I was. Vatra asked a whole mess of questions, which, of course, I couldn’t answer.

We came up with a plan. Each of us will work on tracking down more information to help us understand Ember more.

Once our conversation was over, we slowly walked back to the packhouse. I could tell Vatra was still angry, but I was going to have to push it if I was going to be able to work through this with her.

“Vatra, can we talk?”

She glared at me, but nodded. We walked off to the side and watched as Ember went inside.

“Vatra, I just want you to know I am very sorry. I went and saw the witch today and she said I have a spell on me. It keeps me from feeling like my mate. I don’t know why it’s there. It just is and we are going to try to figure out why.”

I was kind of verbally puking out these words. I was so nervous.

“So, do you want to be my mate or would you rather we rejected one another and moved on?” The words came out forcefully. I could hear the pain in her voice.

“I do not want to reject you. I am here to apologize and see what I can do to make this right.”

She seemed a bit shocked. I allowed her to think it through before I said anything further. It was a lot to process. I felt super guilty that I wasn’t being whole heartedly honest. I was worried it would over load her.

“Can we start over?” I asked her.

I could see her mood change. She was very excited. “Yes, but you do something else to piss me off and I will fight you.”

I smiled and nodded at her.

At this point, it was dinner and I was ready to eat.

Dinner was grand as always. Ember, myself, and Vatra were all starving as we all ate 3 plates each. The conversations were very light and enjoyable. Alpha Damascus was cracking jokes and it was keeping us all entertained.

I didn’t realize how much I missed this until now. It had been so long.

Our conversations led deep into the night. Of course, Alpha Damascus, Beta Eros, and Ember had to pick fun at me for getting lost in Vatra for nearly two days. It was quite embarrassing, but it was the first time in hundreds of years that I felt like I was part of a family.

This is home and my heart is full.