The Dragon's Embrace

Chapter 6

'No! Mateo, please don't do this!' He raised an eyebrow. 'It's my king or your magesty, not Mateo.' His smirk exasperated the life out of me. He threw me in a gigantic cell and locked one of my wrists up to a ponderous weight. 'If you do this, I will never stop trying to escape.' 'Even if i didn't, you wouldn't stop.'  He stormed off, leaving me trapped in a metel cell. The chains were too small for my chunky wrists, and they burned excruciatingly the more I moved. I can't believe he did this. He knows the devastating news with Father and salma, and he goes and locks me in a prison! That king will pay someway. A boisterous guard strutted over to my cell, and his eyes glided over me before continuing his stroll. 'Wait!' I called out for any hope of rescue. His silky blonde hair returned, and he gaped down at me, exspecting an elaboration. 'The king wants me to be let go as I'm his fiance, and this was a mistake.' It was the first thing that came to my mind, and I just begged that it would be enough, but the guard just laughed in my face and wondered off. Around three hours later, juana came to visit me. 'What did you do?' was her first words when she saw me sulking on the concrete flooring. 'Nothing bad. We went to see my father, and the king brought me back before I was finished. Then we had a chat, and he locked me up under suspicion of treason.' I wouldn't tell her the whole truth as she could be the intruder. 'The king always has his reasons, and that isn't good enough, so what really happened or do you want to stay in the cell?' I looked up at her bewildered. 'I'm telling the truth, jauna!' His face said it all. She didn't believe me. 'Goodbye Maria,' she called out before exiting the last floor. The final guest was the king himself. The one who had locked me up. He entered my cell like none of the others had, and he stood there towering over me. His broad shoulders and his dominant stance  made my breath quiver. 'Are you ready to help now, princess?' Are you kidding me? 'No chance ,MATEO.' I enthesised his name in order to aggrivate him, but he just grinned. He took a step close and loosened my chain. My wrist actually felt free for the first time in hours. However, it had a pitch  black dermographism, and it ached more now than it did when the chain was on. I gripped my wrist, instantly trying to reduce the pain. 'You will stay here till you learn to submit to your king.' 'I will stay here a lifetime then.' I snarled. He grabbed my arm and investigated my wrist.  I was trying to get rid of his intense grip. 'Stop struggling!' He insisted impatiently. 'It's fine. It may hurt for a few hours, but the pain will ease.' He dropped my arm like it weighted nothing and left while locking the cell again. A few hours later, my stomach was rumbling, so the arragont guard from earlier brought me someplop poo food. I refused to eat it and left it on the side. For all i know, it could be posioned. After all, mateo had locked me up in a cell, stopped me from seeing my father, and KIDNAPPED me! I went a few hours without eating, and then mateo stormed into my cell with a mix of vexation and dread on his smooth face. 'Eat,' He demanded. 'No.' I responded. 'I'll make you' 'And I'll stop you.' Our back and forth went back forth before he abruptly stopped, meaning I had triumphed. 'Eat.' His voice was low and gourgoes. My arms started to move against my will, but i moved the backwards away from the tray of freezing food. I closed my eyes shut and tried to block all thoughts from my bewildered mind. My feet moved back before I felt the world around me start to fade. The last thing I heard was mateo calling my name with a sense of distress before my sight went black, and I passed out.  When I woke up, I was on a suprisenly soft single bed with mateo by my side. 'Maria, you're awake.' My head span, and he rushed to me, placing his hand on my head and cradling me in his other arm. 'You need to eat!' I tried to nod, but my head was too sensitive, so instead, I gave a gentle thumbs up. He started feeding me, and I swatted him away like a fly. 'I can feed myself!' I announced. His dark bushy eyebrows raised at my answer. When I attempted to take the food of his, my arms failed in the process and fell back to my side. 'Now, are you going to let me help you?' I sighed heavily and submitted.  Not long after I devoured the food, me and mateo got into an argument that I should have been expecting. 'It's your fault that you're in that bed in his hospital.' It's weren't exactly a hospital. It was just a wing in the castle that you go to when you're hurt. 'My fault!? You were the one that used your 'family secret' on me!' He rolled his eyes, and the argument finished before it had even started. I'm pretty sure that was the quickest bicker we have ever had. 'Look. Maria, there are things that only dragons can understand, and you are merely a human.' My teeth tightened. 'A mere human?' His eyes squinted as he realised his choice of words. 'What I meant was..' I cut him off. 'I know exactly what you meant. You think humans are weak. And you know what, maybe we are, but at least we have emotions.' He bit his tongue and lowered to place his head in front of mine. 'We have emotions. It's just that with humans, it is written all over their face. Whereas we protect ourselves from our many enemies, with humans, the enemies can pounce on your soft spot in less than a minute.' Oh my god, this man is insurable. It's like he came from the 1500s. 'If it's so clear, what am I thinking about now?' His supercilious grin beamed. 'Are you sure you want me to find out?' I chuckled. 'You have no idea what I'm thinking , do you?' Emerald eyes stared into mine, and my head started pounding. 'Ahhh,' I let out a scream as he barked at me, 'Stop fighting it!' The pain increased as his eyes grew a brighter sage green. 'The more you fight, the longer it will take and the weaker you will become.' I let out another ear curdling scream. 'I'm not doing anything! I'm not fighting!' Suddenly, the pain surrendered. 'Maria.' His face turned pale like he had seen a ghost. 'What, what's wrong?' Even with all his faults, I still cared about him. I don't know how, but I did. He took a step away from me cautiously. 'Mateo, what wrong? You're scaring me.' Without another word, he sprinted from the room, and I dared to chase after him, but I was too weak to move. Ugh. I hate his mysterious,  exasperating moods. I took a drink and placed all my strength in getting up and going after my fiancé. I saw him strolling through the corridors, and I chased him covertly. When he reached two gigantic oak doors, he took a deep breath and headed in. I snuck up behind the door and placed my ear there to try and listen in. they had a formal introduction to one another before mateo announced,'Mother, you were right. Maria is Luna's daughter.' Why are they wanting to know about my mother? When the room went deadly silent, my heart pulped in my chest. Had they sensed me? I dashed back to the hospital bed and lied in my original position, hoping that they didn't know i was there. I couldn't find a way where they couldn't sense me, though. They are dragons who have an incredible range of senses , especially smell. As soon as I perched on the bed, the door slammed open. Mateos face was red with fury, and he would have had smoke blowing out his ears if that was real. 'Why, Maria?' Those two words caught me off guard. I thought he was gonna have an absolute scream at me, but he didn't. I tried my hardest to pull off a  convincing 'What so you mean?' But by the expression on his face, I could tell it didn't work. Two booming guards came storming on and gripped me by my shoulders. 'What are you doing!' I screamed and tried to get out of their clutch. It didn't work, so i bit them and spirnted across to the empty part of the room. 'Answer me, mateo!' His jade eyes drifted to the ground. 'Mateo!' The guards came at me, and I slipped under one of their legs. I rushed over and pushed mateo. 'Tell me!' His gaze lifted from the floor into my eyes, and for a second, I saw a hint of sorry in his eyes, but it was quickly covered by his shield. His strong arms envoloped me and called the guards over. 'You are mean to be palace guards, do better. Now come collect her.' I tried to escape him like I did the guard, but his embrace was too tight. 'Mateo! Stop this!' I pounced on his chisled chest before the guards dragged me away, screaming. Their hands blocked my sight but recognised the scent straight away. We were back in the dungeons. Again! They locked me in a similar cell and chained me back up. Mateo had followed them, and his stance and clothing made him stand out from the rest. I tried to rise up to the cell door, but the weight of the chin boulder kept me down. 'Tell me what is going on, mateo.' He waved his guards away and entered my cell like he had once before. 'Tell me why you eavesdropping.' His voice was booming and infuriating. Usually, that would make anyone cowar in fear, but im not anyone. 'I was not eavesdropping!' I tried to control the emotion in my voice. His ne t words vibrated through his chest like they pained him to say. 'Goodbye, Maria.' All these random, petrifying thoughts came with those two words. If he means that, what are they going to do with me? 'Wait! Mateo, wait!' I screamed before he managed to leave my cell. His eyes pleaded with mine as a warning. I had you be careful with my next words. 'I did .' Before I could finish my sentence, I had what felt like a painless bullet shouting through my head. Then I heard mateos wisper in my head without him moving his mouth. 'Don't admit it, they are listening. Keep your strong act up until I say otherwise, or I can't guarantee your safety.' My heart leapt in my chest and fear of what would happen if I didn't listen pained in my head. If somebody was listening, I couldn't make them suspicious, so I changed my sentence slightly. '-not eavesdrop, and I can't believe you would chuck me in a prison when I didn't even do anything ,you, my king, have something coming! The king swivelled on his feet and left without another word. I need to get out of here, even if it’s the last thing I do.