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

Chapter 11

eleven

AVERY

It was a little past our usual dinnertime when Stella knocked on the door again. Talon still didn’t stir.

I left the movie playing to help him stay asleep as I pulled a hoodie on and slipped into the living room to answer. It seemed safe to assume she had more food for us.

She was out of breath, her arms were empty, and her eyes were bright when I pulled the door open.

“I need you,” she said.

“For…”

“Sylvester.” She peeked past me, to see if Talon was awake. He wasn’t.

She gestured for me to step into the hallway with her, and I did.

“He’s frazzled,” she whispered. “He has been all day. Not feeling your magic for the first time in so long has him feeling off. He just started pacing, and twitching. I think if you hit him with a heavy dose of it again, we might be able to get him to shift, so I can take him down.”

My eyebrows shot upward. “Really?”

She nodded quickly, and her gaze flicked to the door, then back to me. “Talon’s not going to be happy, but he’ll live.”

I nodded, biting my lip. “Let’s do it.”

If we could take him down, I could go back to the Manor. Get out of there, in case I really was Talon’s fated mate. He’d said he was going to take me back, so he couldn’t argue with it. Could he?

I didn’t think about putting pants or a bra on before we left.

We hurried down the hall. My mind went back to my conversation with my sisters while we went. As soon as there was a pause in Stella’s rapid-fire explanation of everything Sylvester had been doing, I interrupted.

“Why do dragons lose their scales?” I asked.

We weren’t far from the prison.

Stella could talk for an impressive amount of time.

Her gaze shot to me, her eyes widening in a way that made my heart sink. “Why do you want to know?”

“Talon lost his scales. He gave them to me,” I said. “But I think you know that.”

Her face was draining of its color, but she nodded. “I’ll tell you everything after we’re done with this.”

I bit back a demand that she tell me everything now . Before anything else happened.

But dealing with Sylvester would make my escape from Talon so much easier.

So, I nodded.

She looked relieved.

We reached the prison door, and she pulled it open so we could both slip through. When she jogged to Sylvester’s cell, I did the same, though I had to work harder than her to keep up. Stella’s legs were much longer than mine.

There were a handful of guards crowded around the cell, all of them talking animatedly. Most were men, but there was one other woman in the mix.

“She’s ready. You’re all going to have to go to the back of the hallway,” Stella announced, waving them all behind us.

A few of them grumbled, but they all moved away. Something told me they were all too afraid to risk Talon’s wrath by staying close. He’d nearly lost his mind the last time I used a big blast of my magic on Sylvester.

“You’ve got this,” Stella said, her gaze meeting mine. “I’m not going anywhere. If I do something weird, we’ll agree never to speak of it again.”

I nodded.

I was too nervous about the outcome of what was going to happen—and the conversation that followed it—to say anything else.

So, I stepped up to the cell door and wrapped my hands around the bars like I had those first days. Stella stepped up next to me and grabbed two other bars. She didn’t pin me to the door like Talon had, of course. Something told me she was using her grip on the cell to brace herself against my magic.

After a glance over my shoulder to make sure everyone else was out of the way, I focused on the bastard in the cell and pushed my magic forward.

It swelled smoothly but quickly, making Stella gasp as it overwhelmed her.

Sylvester shuddered in a way I’d never seen before. It seemed to tear through his whole body, despite his scales.

He sank to the floor, his hands to his head and his body trembling.

I ramped up my magic, pouring everything I had into it.

He made a sound of desperation and crawled over to the door, but didn’t shift.

I hit him harder.

He was panting.

Grabbing himself over the scales that covered his cock.

Mumbling words that sounded like gibberish.

I finally dropped my magic when I couldn’t hold it anymore. My heart pounded, my breathing heavy and ragged as I turned back to Stella and shook my head.

The hope in her eyes died slowly.

“If you put me in the cell, I can do it,” I said.

“I can’t, Avery.” Her gaze was pleading.

“You can.”

“He would kill me—and that’s not a joke.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“You’re his mate,” she whispered. “I wanted him to tell you from the beginning, but he was afraid you wouldn’t give him a chance. You’re it for him. If I let you in there, he will literally kill me.”

My throat swelled.

My emotions were so thick and tangled, I wasn’t ready to pry them apart to find the bottom.

“Sylvester has never been like this before, has he?” I asked.

She shook her head, fear in her eyes.

She knew what I was going to say.

And she knew I was right.

“If we go in there, I can break him, and you can kill him. Someone else can lock us in, to make sure he doesn’t get out. Even if something goes wrong, your magic is too strong for him to get through it. I’ll be fine.”

The words felt wrong.

I didn’t want to break anyone.

But the alternative was letting him live, and I’d proven to myself long ago that I would rather watch someone die than let them hurt anyone else.

“He’s strong too, Avery. That’s what the cell is for.”

“I trust you,” I said, squeezing her hand.

It wasn’t true. Not entirely.

I didn’t trust her. I couldn’t. She’d kept the truth from me, even if she’d done so for her brother.

But I wasn’t going to tell her that.

Not when I needed her on my side. Hell, probably not ever. Somethings just didn’t need to be said.

She took in a steadying breath, and I saw it in her eyes before she admitted her decision. “Alright, fine. We go in together, with the door locked behind us. You seduce him. When he shifts, I kill him. It’ll be easy.”

“Easy,” I agreed, looking down at my outfit.

Shit.

Talon’s hoodie was definitely the wrong choice, and I wasn’t wearing anything but panties beneath it.

“I’m going to need to borrow your bra. I’ll have to try to make him think he’s dreaming.”

She nodded, and after some maneuvering, pulled it out through the sleeve of her tank top. She blocked the hallway behind me while I pulled Talon’s hoodie off, shivering violently as cold air hit my almost-bare body.

A pair of panties was far from enough to keep me warm.

And Stella’s bra wasn’t going to help.

I put it on anyway. It didn’t fit perfectly, but it was good enough for the purpose we were trying to achieve.

“He’s going to kill me,” she murmured, shaking her head as she took me in. But she didn’t tell me to put anything else on, simply yelling over her shoulder for one of the guards.

The woman came jogging down the hall, eyeing me with concern.

“She’s going to seduce him,” Stella said. “From inside the cell. I’m going in with her. I need you to lock the cell behind us before I cut off the magic hiding us from him.”

The guard’s eyes widened, her gaze flicking to me before going back to Stella. “Are you serious? Talon is…”

“Going to be furious? Yeah, I know. But this might be our only chance.”

“If you keep a steady stream of siren magic going, he could get worse,” she pointed out.

“But if we take him down today, it’s over ,” I said.

I could go back to Vamp Manor.

Stella could finally leave the castle and get some time to clear her head.

We had to do it.

“We have other options,” the guard said.

“We’re going with this one.” Stella gestured toward the cell, and I felt the magic shift slightly.

The guard stepped up to the door, her expression wary. “Be careful. I can’t open this to save your lives if he overpowers you. We can’t let him go free.”

“He won’t,” Stella said firmly.

There was something in her eyes that I liked tremendously—and worried about almost as much.

Something dark.

Something vicious.

Sylvester deserved it, of course, but we needed our focus to remain on the goal.

Seducing him, then taking him down.

“He’s going to touch me,” I said. “No one breathes a word about it to Talon.”

Both women nodded.

None of us wanted to piss him off that much.

Finally, the guard pulled the door open.

There were goosebumps on my skin. My nipples were hard as stone. My toes were ice. Hell, my entire body felt like ice.

I slipped into the cell after Stella anyway.

She was tense, her entire being on alert. She knew what Sylvester was capable of, better than just about anyone else.

He was staring in the direction of the cell’s door as if he’d felt the room change, even though Stella’s magic kept him from seeing anything. His body was still trembling.

After a moment, his eyes closed again.

I looked at Stella, and she nodded.

Mussing my already-wild hair, I slowly stepped around her, holding my hands out like I wasn’t sure where I was going.

I ramped up my magic, moving forward and looking around in panic.

I felt my magic wash over him, the same way I felt his immediate attention.

His gaze was transfixed.

Completely, and utterly.

“Please help me,” I whispered. “The dragons are holding me captive.”

I stepped closer.

His hands were already reaching toward me, his scaled knees hitting the floor as he leaned closer.

“Please, I’m so cold,” I breathed.

He didn’t respond.

Did he even know who he was anymore?

Ten years of solitary confinement was so many. Enough for anyone to lose their mind.

He shuffled forward, still on his knees, and I whimpered. “What are you? Please don’t hurt me.”

If he was still in there, the words would satisfy whatever fucked-up, perverted part of him wanted to prey on the weak.

And I was the weak, but Stella wasn’t.

I pushed my magic to its fullest, and Stella grunted.

She was distracted, just for that split second…

But it was the only opening he needed.

His eyes dilated, and his hands were on my throat a heartbeat later.

His teeth tore into my shoulder, in the same place Talon had marked me. His body pinned mine to the floor as claws raked down the center of my chest, tearing and shredding.

I was too shocked to scream.

And by the time the shock had worn off, all that remained was agony.

I barely heard Stella’s snarl of fury. Barely felt her magic take hold of the bastard and force him off of me. Barely noticed her grabbing me as her power pinned him to the wall by his throat.

Everything spun.

I was losing blood. So much blood.

Too much blood.

The door must’ve opened, because a moment later, Stella was sprinting down the hall with me in her arms. There was fear in her eyes—true terror.

She was screaming for someone to get Talon.

Demanding someone else to come with her, to help with the scales.

My breathing was shallow.

Too shallow.

I passed out for a few minutes, only waking when someone placed me on a mattress and something warm pressed against my arm.

It was so warm.

So right.

Vaguely, I saw Stella dumping baskets of Talon’s scales over my body. Over the bed.

Someone else was scooping them off my shelves and other furniture.

I tried to voice my protest, but no sound came out.

My eyes started to close again.

I heard a roar—the roar of a dragon.

My dragon.

The sound was full of fury. And terror.

The door slammed open, and his face was over mine a breath later, his skin ashen as he saw me.

His hands were on my cheeks. On my arms. On my body.

My eyes closed.

The scales pressing against me were warm. So warm. He shoved some of them aside and was beneath the sheets with me a heartbeat later. He was careful, but not gentle. His body pressed down on mine, pushing me into the mattress, putting pressure on mine.

It hurt, but felt right too.

More scales joined us in the bed.

And finally, my eyes closed.