Love Bites Extra Hard (Mated to the King #5)

Chapter 6

six

AVERY

Stella plopped down in one of the camping chairs as if she and her brother hadn’t been about to kill each other a minute earlier. She grabbed a bag of trail mix I hadn’t noticed off the floor between two of the chairs, and opened it.

“Well, that was fun,” she remarked.

I didn’t agree.

I still wasn’t sure what, exactly, had just happened.

She held the bag of trail mix out toward me, and my stomach growled.

I’d pushed myself way too hard if I was already hungry again.

Reluctantly, I crossed the hallway and took a handful of trail mix. Sitting down in the chair next to hers, I looked at the mixture in my hands.

It was all peanuts, almonds, granola, and small chunks of dried pineapple.

“Where did all the chocolate go?”

Stella made a face. “Redden picks it out when no one’s looking. He eats the raisins too, just so no one threatens to kill him for it.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Why do they even put raisins in trail mix? I’ve never met anyone who likes them.”

“It’s one of the world’s greatest mysteries.”

I bit back a snort.

We snacked in silence for a few minutes. The trail mix dulled my hunger a little.

“Do you want to explain what happened back there?” I finally asked.

She shrugged. “Talon’s protective.”

“He was so pissed, you had to stop him from going into the jail cell .”

“One of the girls Sylvester took was one of Talon’s closest friends. Jamie Vale. Everyone thought they were going to be fated mates when they were kids, but they weren’t. They screwed once, just to see how it was, and neither of them was interested in going back for seconds.”

My eyebrows lifted.

I had a hard time believing anyone could have sex with Talon and not be interested in going back for more. Maybe he hadn’t been as experienced back then. Or maybe he was only good at foreplay.

That actually made me kind of hopeful.

Maybe after I screwed him, the itch would be sufficiently scratched, and I could stop wanting him so much.

“Jamie was laid-back, but she was strong. If Sylvester could hurt her, he could eat you in one bite,” Stella said.

“That doesn’t explain why Talon flipped out. Between your magic and the door, I was perfectly fine.”

“But Sylvester knows you’re here. He’s not just feeling lust—he’s feeling lust for you .”

“That’s what siren magic does. Talon should know that.”

“There’s a difference between knowing it and feeling it. And seeing that fucker trying to reach the woman he’s sleeping with would piss off any male dragon.”

My face flushed. “We’re not together, though. It’s casual.”

“Dragons protect their treasure. If you’re screwing one of us, you’re our treasure.”

My face flushed hotter.

“Don’t be self-conscious about it. We all have a lot of sex. Fated mate bonds can happen to anyone, at any time. People think they can force it if they sleep with someone enough.”

“Does it work?”

“Once in a blue moon. Luckily, it didn’t happen for me and Sylvester.”

“How long were you sleeping together?”

Her humor faded. “A few years. We were friends for decades before that. What he did broke our friend group. A few of them thought he was just mentally ill. That they could’ve fixed him. But seventeen women?” She shook her head, her expression darkening. “It wasn’t illness. He knew exactly what he was doing. And we all saw the look in his eyes when we caught him. He was proud of the way he hurt them.”

“Fuck.”

She nodded, grabbing another handful of trail mix. When she held it out to me, I took some too.

“We should pick out the granola,” she said. “Redden always goes for that when he’s out of chocolate and raisins.”

“Redden doesn’t know how to share food, does he?”

“Nah. Only child and whatnot. He’s solid, though, so we keep him around.”

We were both quiet for a few more minutes. It wasn’t awkward. It was just… calm.

“Is there anything I can do to prevent a fated mate connection from forming between me and Talon?” I asked.

She snorted. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Fate does what she wants.”

“You believe fate’s a person?”

“No. But it’s obviously a romantic, considering it pairs people together like they’re soulmates, so it seems more like a woman. Not many men are into the cupid thing.”

I nodded. “How much time do you spend down here?”

She focused on the bag of trail mix she was picking granola out of. “Too much.”

I didn’t push.

If she wanted to tell me more, she would.

“He only took one woman a year, for the first few years,” she finally said. “It didn’t escalate until he and I were together. We lost five women, in five years—and twelve in the next five. I should’ve connected the dots. Realized where he was going when he said he was visiting his family in Mistwood. I should’ve put it together sooner.”

“How did you finally find out?”

She laughed humorlessly. “I tried to surprise him with lunch on his day off work, but he wasn’t home. When I went to Mistwood and asked his family where he was, they hadn’t seen him. They mentioned that he had a house on the outskirts of the city, though. None of them knew the address. I went home and searched our place for any record of it, but couldn’t find anything. I asked Talon to help me find it. I thought he was cheating on me—I never imagined the truth.”

Her voice hardened. “He talked to the other kings, and Bane managed to get into the city’s records. He found the address. Talon and I went there together, and found the bastard’s last victim’s body on a table. Her blood was everywhere. He was already on his way back to our Manor, so we flew after him like we were fucking possessed, and took him down as soon as we got here. He couldn’t even put up a fight against our magic. We’re too strong. But we couldn’t prevent him from shifting, or force him to shift back. He’s been down here ever since.”

“And you have, too?”

She made a noise of agreement. “I was the one closest to him. I should’ve put it together. This is how I pay back my ignorance.”

I could understand why she thought that way. She reminded me of my sisters too much not to. And hadn’t I blamed myself for the shit in my past, too?

I couldn’t let her keep pinning everything on herself, though. Not without trying to help her realize that she wasn’t to blame, at least.

“His family knew about the house in Mistwood and never visited. Is it their fault?” I asked.

She frowned. “Of course not.”

“You were both a part of a friend group. Is it their fault for not connecting the dots? I’m sure he disappeared sometimes back then, too.”

Her frown deepened. “We always thought he just needed time alone. He was introverted.”

“And if he had been anyone else, that could’ve been entirely true. It’s not your fault for believing that someone you had known and been intimate with for so long was a good person. Or at least not this shitty.” I nodded toward the cell door. “If you had known sooner, you would’ve stopped him sooner. Don’t punish yourself by staying down here all the time.”

She was silent for a few minutes, still digging out granola. When she passed me a handful, I reluctantly started eating it.

I’d never really liked granola, but food was food, and I was hungry.

“We’re going to need a new plan,” Stella eventually said. “A better one. You can’t repeat that performance against the cell over and over, can you?”

“Not without feeding on someone over and over. I’m tapped out.”

She nodded. “Talon’s the only option for that, and you guys can’t just sit down here and screw. He’d probably keep losing his shit, too. So, new plan.”

“I could feed on anyone,” I countered.

“Right.” Her voice said she didn’t agree, but she didn’t start an argument about it. “I’m thinking we turn it into a long game. If we can keep him affected by your magic hour after hour, day after day, he’s going to feel like he’s losing his mind. No one would expect a siren to put forth that kind of effort.”

“So you’re calling me lazy, and you’re weirdly okay with your brother’s possessiveness,” I said, though I wasn’t genuinely offended. My sister Zora handled things similarly to the way Stella seemed to, though she didn’t have the guns to back it up like Stella did.

“No to the first one, but yes to the second.”

I frowned.

“Most sirens aren’t as strong as you. You said so yourself. It wouldn’t make sense to expect them to use their magic all day long every day if they needed to feed to keep it up. It’s not that you’re lazy, it’s that you’re powerful enough to deny expectations. So, no one would expect you to have that kind of power, even if they did know much about sirens. And most people don’t.”

I didn’t respond immediately.

She added more granola to the pile in my hand.

“How do you know that?” I finally asked.

She shrugged. “Talon’s been researching sirens since Hale mated with Blair. He keeps me informed.”

“What resources even exist for researching sirens?”

“I don’t know. I refused to be our representative for the sake of avoiding that shit.”

“What’s your role, then?”

“Oh, I run the guards. Make the schedules and stuff. Ensure that we’re safe and protected here, and that we have enough people at the Manor to make them think we live there. You’re not allowed to tell anyone otherwise, by the way. Though I think the other kings already know.”

My sisters would put it together when they realized they couldn’t text me. Especially if they stormed the dragons’ wing of the Manor and found the place pretty much empty.

But all of them did think Talon was going to force me to mate with him. So even their kings couldn’t have known him all that well. He was grumpy, and maybe a little violent, but I already knew him well enough to be sure that bastard wouldn’t try to force anyone to mate with him. Even if he wasn’t waiting for his fated mate.

“I’m going to need to message my sisters soon to let them know I’m okay,” I said. “They’re not going to stop obsessing and worrying about my absence until I show them that Talon isn’t forcing me to mate with him. We all thought he was going to try.”

“There’s no phone service here, but I’m sure he can fly you out to a place where there is sometime in the next few weeks.”

A few weeks was a long time to go without talking to my sisters, but I’d survive. Hopefully, they weren’t letting my absence affect their lives too much.

“Do you have any juice left to hit Sylvester with?” she checked. “Even just a little would work.”

“I’ll let you know after I choke down some more granola. It’s disgusting, but it’s helping.”

She laughed, and handed me a big, dented water bottle. It had definitely seen better days, but I didn’t care about the germs, so I opened the top and drank deeply.

“Talon will show up with more food eventually, and I’ll bring more snacks tomorrow. We can fill him in on the new plan after he has time to cool down.”

“We should probably ask him to stay away from me while we’re enacting the plan, if we’re going to avoid a repeat of what happened earlier. Unless you think he’ll get over his possessiveness.”

“He’s not going to go for that. We’ve got a better chance of convincing him to keep his distance if we don’t say anything at all. The representative stuff keeps him pretty busy.”

“Alright.” We ate granola together in silence for a few minutes.

“Do you like audiobooks?” she finally asked me.

“Sure.”

“We listen to a shit ton of them down here. We charge them to Talon’s account.” She lifted a finger to her lips, telling me to keep it quiet, and I smiled. Money was far from a problem for any of the kings, so I was positive he didn’t care. I didn’t say that, though.

She turned on a high fantasy audiobook, and we both relaxed as we listened.

When I’d recovered enough, I pushed a small amount of my magic through the air.

“Can you feel that?” I checked.

Stella confirmed, and we both went back to listening.

She peeked at Sylvester after a while, and her grin told me that he was feeling my power.

Good.

Maybe over time, I could actually make him lose control and shift.