Conciousness came back with scaly sparks.

I had fainted! I passed out after he... even in my dizzy state I blushed.

I could feel that I was on my back, or I would be if it weren't for the thick tail around me propping me up off it. Drops of what I hoped was water dripped all over my exposed skin. 

A massive, blurry figure loomed over me.

Blinking, my mouth parted as the fog siltered away from my head. A turquoise eye with a very thin pupil surrounded by a red ring stared back at me. Dragon.

Dragon! On the verge of a panic attack, I squeezed my eyes shut and choked on shallow breaths. A wave of hot air flooded me from above as a deep grumble followed.

Something changed. 

When sparks grazed my cheek, I peered one eye open. The scaly tail was still around my waist, still supporting me. This time, the handsome man was there, as naked as he had been created who knows how many centuries ago. The dragon was not where to be seen; the lump of anxiety was swallowed and I exhaled with difficulty.

His hungry gaze, coupled with his long tongue licking his lip, made me light-headed. 

¨Welcome back, mouse." 

I staggered back when his tail released me, still hoovering. He watched me, arms crossed over his chest. 

How dare he treat me like that? Use me like that? Who did he think he was to tell me how I feel about my boyfriend, about myself and, and....

A fire I didn't know I had in me rose to my chest. Magna. It was magna that turned into lava. 

I didn't know what he saw, but it seemed to me his silver eyebrows lifted ever so slightly. Was that a spark of surprise crossing those inhuman eyes? That gave me courage.

"I will always love my boyfriend, you lizard captor," I said between gritted teeth.

I threw my shoe at him and began to run. With a glance behind, the look in his eyes told me I was in trouble.

I ran faster, away from what - my childhood's biggest fear, a monster, a soulmate, I didn't know exactly. All I knew was...he could be all that, but mostly my biggest fear. 

My legs were becoming very sore from the previous runs and climbs. But run was my safety. I ran all my life. I prepared during all my free time. 

This time however was for nothing.

He didn't chase me. 

And that was... unsettling to say the least. 

Was he giving me a head start? Was he frozen with fury or shock and was he going to pounce on me at any moment? He looked like someone short-tempered... but maybe all lizards were.

He was from a different species compared to mine. Just because he could talk and understand me, that didn't mean we were the same. 

To my right, I spot a dark gaping mouth. Bingo!

With relief, I skidded on the wet grass and threw myself into it, expecting at any moment to be snatched from behind or, worse, from above. 

Ducking down, I barely made it in with my size. 

A smile curled my lips. His enormous size would never fit in. I was safe!

I crawled a little then slowly stood up, but I had to turn my shoulders sideways.

The walls were narrowed, ivory-coloured and streaked with iron-red; my fingers brushed one. Damp, as if I stood in the throat of a giant crocodile about to swallow me alive. I glanced toward the darkness to my right – it seemed to be breathing. 

I decided I could stop right there, where I could still peek at the outside world, scaly and toothy and a faint light still reached me. There was enough room to sit with my back on one wall and my knees on the other, there.

Time passed. The air there was damp and heavy, so even though I had calmed down, I kept panting as if I were still in the middle of a run. 

I began fiddling with my fingers and biting my cuticles; my bloody nails were tiny, ugly lines, chewed to the bone. The rush still did not leave my blood, snoozing was out of the question.

With boredom also came hunger but I would not leave the cave for anything. I could have, since the lizard beast never came looking for me.

I scoffed, glaring at some gemstones above my head. A soul mate he said. "What a great one you are," I muttered to myself, my finger capturing a drop of water slowly running down the crocodile's throat.

I glanced up, exhaling from my mouth. Stalactites hang up there like knives about to drop. Closing my eyes, head on the wall, I counted my breaths. Maybe, if I waited long enough, I could make it back to the carriges....

A shiver, invisible fingers, stroked the nape of my neck.

My eyes snapped open, my head turned toward the gaping mouth of my shelter.

A silhouette was coming closer.

It thickened out and got taller, taller than an average man by at least a head. With a small whimper I tried to scramble further into the cave but a voice stopped me.

"A lizard," I heard, "can you believe that?" he grumbled to himself. "The indicency!"

My knees rubbed as warmth pulsed in the apex of my legs; a reaction to his previous assault surely. Yes, he did force me into an orgasm, gave me no choice.

'No, he didn't.' My conscience told me.

'Shut up!'

'No, you shut it'

Yes, I had been talking to myself all my life. Growing up with a dad and a brother, barely any friend, it was necessity. Her name was Alice.

When that huge man that had assaulted me with indecent kisses walked closer, I could see him a little, but there was no way he could see me there, in the darkness of the cave.

"I can see you and smell you perfectly." The familiar voice said in a husky drawl. 

Although I could not see his face properly, I knew he was angry. With a swallow, I bit my lower lip.

"If you come out now, I will not hunt your human vermin you call boyfriend and eat him up later." He said with all the calm in the word.

Annoyance filled me up. "I knew lizards like to eat vermins!" I snapped then my mouth flew to my mouth when blue smoke rose from his nostrils. Uh-oh.

He strolled closer and knelt down, one hand holding the cave entrance, the other casually on his bent knee. Our eyes connected.

When I saw him there, I had to blink a few times. Not because he was inhumanly beautiful, not even because you needed time to get use to that feral beauty. Not even because he was naked.

No.

He was covered in blood. From his horned head to his clawed toe...

***

There he was. The dragon man, in all his blinding, bloody beauty. Something so unpredictable and inhuman. He looked both composed and wild, breathing heavily and ready to pounce.

"W-what...what d-did you do?" I stuttered, wide-eyed.

He shrugged. "I was starving."

Okay. His silver mane spluttered in red stains.

The scent was pungent, nauseating. My hand covered the lower half of my face. He may have as well walked under a waterfall, or bloodfall. 

"As you are now."

"How do you-" I shook my head, "What did you eat?"

A cold smile curled his lips, his tongue ran over the lower one, collecting blood there. "Not your vermin."

"Because he is too small for you?"

"Because I'm not a lizard," he snapped, smoked rising again from his vibrating nostrils. I watched, hypnotised. 

"That doesn't mean I can use him as an appetizer. Like a lonely chicken wing."

I didn't know if it were because 'chicken wing' was uttered by those bloody lips or because I was beginning to lose it, I laughed. 

"Nobody, mouse, had ever laughed at me," he said mildly after her patiently waited for my crazed laughter to die out.

"Gianni is my friend." I lied, at which he narrowed his eyes.

The intensity was too much for me.

I couldn't tell this ferocious dragon-man that Gianni had been my sweetheart.

"You know-" A growled made me shiver, his hand pushing into the cave wall, "I can read your thoughts as I told you. But-" small flames left his nostrils and almost reached me, "I can smell your lies too...mate. And they stink." 

I gulped as his knowing eyes bored into mine.

"Come out. Now." He said, again as if bored.

"Please," I said, "I need to make sure Gianni is okay."

He didn't answer. Blood dripped from his chin and fingers. 

"If you promise we will look for him and return him home, I leave the cave."

His stare was tenebrous, the beginning of a thunderstorm. 

"No."