M/F ~ Age Gap ~ Paranormal/Fantasy Romance ~ Dragon Shifter

In his tight grasp

I’m trying to get away… I think. Am I escaping a handsome dragon holding me captive in his castle… or running to him?

Becca

I can’t believe this older guy has me locked in a room of his castle!

Sure, he’s super hot, but how dare he try to keep me captive?!

Those were the thoughts running through my mind as I stared at the closed door in front of me for some time. I was waiting for my best friend Dora to come barging in and complaining. But several minutes passed, and I was still alone in this rather large room with all its extravagant bits and pieces.

I could fit three of my dorm rooms in here, and I had already thought that it was a bit large, for on-campus accomodations, anyway. I had a small living room and a kitchenette, and those were extravagances for me, as I hadn’t expected to have them, and some dorm rooms didn’t. But this room was on an extremely different level.

There was a huge, faded rug in the middle and an inviting king-sized bed. I went for the rug and sat in the middle, facing the door.

The magnificent stranger was like a man pulled out of my erotic dreams. But it didn’t mean that we would be safe with him. He lived in a castle in the middle of nowhere, doing all those secret proceedings with the other strange men.

And the worst part of it all was that weird thing that had happened while they were doing the ritual. I knew they had changed shapes.

I mean, they must have, right?

Otherwise, I was going crazy, and that option didn’t seem like the best one to be happening to me right now.

I wondered whether Dora saw the same thing or whether was she just trying to pacify me when she said that maybe we were hallucinating from hunger.

‘Like a mirage,’ she had said. So clearly she saw something, too, right?

But I still thought that the weird dragon shapes had been real, because a part of me was telling me that they were.

But then, even our handsome host could be one.

Was I ready to accept that fact?

I realized that I wasn’t, so the next best explanation was that this castle was haunted.

It wasn’t a huge jump from my initial idea that they were monsters. Monsters and ghosts existed in the same realm of highly improbable entities and…

“No,” I whispered to the room.

Whether they were real monsters, or ghosts, or simply hallucinations was not the issue. The only thing that I should have been thinking about just then was how we could get away from the situation. Because the longer that I stayed here not moving, the less of a chance there would be that Dora and I would survive.

For the first time, I might need to be the one doing the talking and the saving, especially since my best friend seemed lost to the world for the moment.

I scanned the room, looking for a way to break the door or escape.

Shit.

I quickly realized that I could never lift any of the furniture in here because all of it looked like to be made of some seriously heavy wood. And even the door seemed to be so thick that I would not have enough time to break it, even if I had the tools to do so.

So, the door was now out of the equation, too. A glint of light shone through the window, though, hitting the mirrors.

Yes! Windows!

This place had windows, and we only climbed one set of stairs, right?

So, it was safe to assume that we were only on the second floor. If I were to jump out of the window, I wouldn’t die.

Break a few bones, maybe, but not die, I thought.

And if I were lucky, I would find a ledge that could maybe lead me to Dora’s room, and maybe we could plan how we could escape if there was a way. But first, I had to find an open window.

I quickly stood up and headed towards the windows. Only one side of the room had them, so it was a bit easy to check them all. I decided to start opening the ones closest to Dora’s bedroom first. But none of them were opened, and I was beginning to panic.

If I had to walk that long ledge, I might just faint and fall down. I shook my head at the thought. There was no time to entertain such grimness.

I continued pushing all the panels until I found a loose one. Even these huge windows were heavy.

Once the window opened, a cool breeze immediately greeted me. And I shivered. The good thing about these big windows was that they were lower to the ground, which meant that I could easily step into them.

I did, and at first, a simple glee filled me. But then, a gust of wind surprised me, making me lose my footing. I knew there was a possibility that this could happen, since I was never the type of person to take chances. And I was never a lucky person.

I had had a bad life at home with parents who never checked in on me. I had never been kissed because the boys that I’d dated always lost interest in me on the first date. They never understood the idea of introverts and didn’t like waiting for me to get used to talking with them.

And now, I would also die a virgin at nineteen.

I closed my eyes and waited for my body to hit the ground. But it never did; it was like I was just suspended in mid-air.

Was this what death felt like?

I opened my eyes and saw that I was, in fact, in mid-air. And wrapped around me were these shiny black scales. Fear and relief flooded me, and then I blacked out.

I was in and out of consciousness, and the whole time, I was… flying. And every time I opened my eyes, both fear and relief washed over me. Then I would faint again.

I didn’t know how long I was out, but when I opened my eyes again, I was in the arms of the man who had welcomed us into his castle. And they were both as soft and hard — in all the appropriate places — as I’d imagined they’d be.

If this was what death looked like, I’d be happy to stay here forever.

But then I vaguely registered people surrounding me. They were all men, but I couldn’t exactly focus on their features. Someone chuckled and called the man carrying me Maddox.

Was that what his name was?

I couldn’t even remember anymore, even though I was pretty sure he had told us.

“So, who’s that girl? I thought you had everything under your control?” another of the men asked him.

“My new pet,” Maddox said, in a carefree voice. “She was merely asking for some attention.”

Everyone chuckled at that, as if it were something that regularly happened in their lives. Before I could react, someone flashed a light in my eyes.

I squinted and closed my eyes, but he pried them open, continuously pointing the light at me.

“She looks fine. She’s just shocked, that’s all.”

Oh. That person must have been a doctor. So, I wasn’t dead. But then, where the hell was I?

Now my thoughts shifted to disbelief.

Did I really just fly around the castle?

Was that even possible?

What the hell is going on?

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