Love Bites Harder (Mated to the King #3)

Chapter 1

one

CLEMENTINE

Sneaking out of a Manor full of vampires should’ve been challenging.

Maybe it would’ve been, if they were prepared for my magic.

But my mother taught me over and over again that the only way to get what you want as a siren is to make it happen with your magic. So, that was exactly what I did.

“What do you mean, you didn’t get the paperwork?” I asked, frowning as I wove my magic through both my words and the air. Just the right touch, at just the right time, would manipulate the guard’s emotions in just the right way.

Did I like manipulating people?

No.

But considering sirens were basically the bottom of the magical food chain, it had to be done sometimes.

We were basically vampires who drank emotions. And our bite , so to speak, made people feel good . Lusty, good. Which made us a big, red target.

Redder than my hair.

The feel of our magic made us little more than prey most of the time.

The best tactic to keep yourself safe as a siren was to lean into the prey thing and slyly manipulate people when necessary. Dressing in sexy clothes was part of it. Hence the leather-looking leggings I had on, and the strappy, piecey top with a ribbon around my back that was missing strategic chunks of fabric. It wasn’t really comfortable for me, but it made me safer, which was more important.

Anyway, I was tired of being trapped in the vampire wing of the Manor. The Manor was basically an indoor city, with a gigantic building that functioned as neutral territory in the middle. Five more, even larger, buildings connected to it. One for each of the kings. The vampire king, Hale, was mated to my sister, Blair. His people kept us safe and fed, if a little stifled.

They were fun, though.

The wolf king, Porter, was mated to my sister Izzy. The wolves were wild, and I’d never really spent any time with them before.

But Izzy had invited me to run with her pack. I debated for hours—it wasn’t *entirely* safe—but I’d decided just to go for it.

Hence sneaking out at 1:30 AM.

Blair, Hale, and the rest of my sisters would not be on board with me joining the werewolves on their wild, full moon run.

But they could suck it.

I wanted a mate, badly. I was tired of being alone. And werewolves took mates more frequently than most kinds of supernaturals, from what I knew. I’d slept with a handful of them over the years before we were under the vampires’ protection.

So, I was really hoping I’d find the perfect guy with Izzy’s pack.

“I can try to call Hale for last-minute approval,” the guy said, his argument weakening.

“I’m sure he’s sleeping. And Curtis is dead, Carlos. It’s perfectly safe out there for me. I’m just walking to the pack’s land, and meeting Izzy there. It’ll be fine,” I assured him, putting a hand on his arm and channeling the slightest bit more magic in.

“Alright,” he agreed reluctantly. “I’ll have to email him, though.”

“Go ahead. He already knows about this,” I said with a smile.

Before Carlos had a chance to change his mind, I released his arm and strode through the gates.

“Be careful,” he called after me.

“Always.” I waved over my shoulder, doing a victory dance in my head.

One point, sirens.

About a thousand points, everyone else.

Still, I’d take my one.

I slipped through the hallways at slightly-faster-than-human speed. That was the one vampire ability we had, which meant we could move really fast. But chase instincts were pretty dangerous when it came to magical beings, monsters in particular. So, it was usually not smart to use our skill.

Which really put a damper on the one thing we were actually good at besides seduction. And really, who wanted to be good at seduction ?

I made it to the pack’s land soon enough. There was no one at their security checkpoint, because of the full moon, so I slipped right through with a wave at the camera no one was watching.

If something happened to me, they’d definitely catch the motion. So at least they’d know where to look for me.

I strode out to the forest at human speed, which was quite slow. But, to my disappointment, I didn’t see a single wolf.

Not one.

I checked my phone again, to see if Izzy had texted me back. It had been hours since I got her invitation, and I hadn’t told her I was coming until like twenty minutes earlier, so… maybe I was on my own.

Oh well.

I’d needed to get out of Vamp Manor anyway. I loved it there, but you could have too much of a good thing.

I didn’t know my way through the wolves’ forests, so I headed down the path in the direction I did know:

Toward the lake.

Surely, the gorgeous werewolf man of my dreams would be moon-bathing by the lake, wouldn’t he? Sirens and water were like peanut butter and jelly. Inseparable, basically.

So, Izzy had commandeered her mate’s lake after she bonded with him. Now it was basically paradise. Crisp, clear water. Gorgeous rock formations. Beautiful underwater plants. Healthy schools of fish.

In short, it was my dream.

Along with the perfect furry mate, of course.

Then again, he didn’t have to have fur.

He just had to want me. And not be a total asshole, like Curtis, the guy who had started a bond with me by force. Thankfully, Izzy’s mate had killed him.

…Yeah, that was a long story.

But whatever. It ended well. I was unmated to a jerk, and free to find Mr. Perfect.

By the lake, I hoped.

Because that was where I was headed.

It was an insanely long walk to get there, so I watched the forest around me closely as I went. I didn’t want to miss Mr. Perfect, after all.

But much to my misfortune, I didn’t see a single soul.

So far, my excursion was not looking like it would pan out.

But hey, there was still the lake.

I held out hope up until I was close enough to see it.

Then, I stopped.

My forehead creased.

There were… people. In the lake.

Werewolves?

I saw a blond guy who I recognized immediately as the fae king, Kai. He was frequently in Mistwood’s tabloids, though I’d never actually seen a picture to support any of the bullshit they wrote about him.

It would be a shame not to constantly share a face that pretty and a body that perfect, though. I’d drooled over the tabloids more than once.

Kai wasn’t as broody and dangerous as Talon, the dragon king, or as calm and deadly as Bane, the monster king, but he was really gorgeous anyway.

There was something raw and seductive about the fae that really did it for a siren. Seduction was, unfortunately, our middle names.

My gaze skimmed the others in the water, and I saw the way the ones by the shore were dancing.

The ones in the water were, too.

There was magic in the air. Powerful magic. I could feel it.

And if there was magic in the lake… well, I wasn’t about to miss it. Finding Mr. Perfect Werewolf had been a bust, but maybe there was a fae for me in the lake.

I should’ve taken a few minutes to remember that it was only safe for me, a highly desirable unmated siren, to run with the pack because of the full moon. The moon placed them firmly in their beastly mindsets, so they wouldn’t have a chance to realize what I was. And therefore, wouldn’t be able to capture me or force me to mate with them.

I didn’t take those few minutes, though.

Instead, like the stupid romantic I was, I strode right into the lake.

I was smart enough to dodge King Kai, at least.

The last thing I needed was for that fae asshole to drag me back to Vamp Manor and hand me over to Hale. He would’ve definitely seen a picture of me, because all of the kings knew about me and the rest of my sisters.

I thought I felt his gaze on me as I slipped into the group, but knew I was being ridiculous. Yes, I was a Seductive Siren (caps for emphasis), but in a crowd, I really wasn’t noticeable unless I turned my magic up. Despite the slutty clothes I favored for the sake of trying to protect myself, my short stature, super-pale skin, and red hair made me look more like the girl next door than an ultra-fuckable supermodel.

Then again, I didn’t have a problem finding people to hook up with.

I didn’t love sleeping around, and usually couldn’t even get off with a guy I didn’t know, but sharing a bed with someone did ease my loneliness a little.

One of the fae men grabbed me by the waist. I didn’t see what he looked like, but I didn’t care. He was griding up against my ass, with the water swaying around my calves, and it felt amazing.

Mostly because it was the opposite of lonely.

So, I danced.

There was no music, but none of the fae seemed to care.

Another guy’s ass ground against my front, which was different, but I tried to embrace it.

I was one with the fae. I was alive. It was magical .

Until the guy behind me kissed my neck.

Honestly, it scared the shit out of me.

I jumped, and my magic responded to my fear, like I’d trained it to. It pushed him away—but when siren magic tried to push someone away, it just pulled them closer.

“Sorry!” I apologized, meeting a pair of gorgeous green eyes over my shoulder with a sheepish smile.

“No need to apologize, gorgeous.” He slid his hands higher. “Want to get out of here?”

“Not yet. I’m dancing,” I said, gesturing to the dude in front of me with a smile.

The guy behind me tightened his grip.

Not good.

Magical beings, in general, were very possessive.

Sharing was a no go.

“I know a place,” he said.

Really not good.

He’d felt my magic.

Going somewhere with him just might mean getting myself trapped in another unwanted mate bond. And I really didn’t want to ask Hale or Porter to kill anyone else for me.

Maybe sneaking out of Vamp Manor was a bad call.

“No thanks,” I said, still smiling.

The smile needed to stay. As soon as I got angry or mean, the guy would realize I was on to him. In general, guys never wanted me when I wasn’t smiling, unless they just wanted my magic. Which happened more frequently than I cared to admit.

“Come on, siren.” His voice was playful, but there was something in his eyes that unsettled me.

I felt eyes on me again, and looked over my shoulder.

My gaze collided with the king’s.

He actually was looking at me.

Really, really not good.

I tried to pull away from the guy behind me, but he yanked me back against his chest—and the world seemed to shift around me.

Suddenly, we were in a small clearing. Leaves and vines so bright they were nearly neon encircled us. There was only one gap in the plants—a path made of the same cream-colored stone under our feet.

I’d officially gone from really, really not good to very, very screwed .

Because I wasn’t on Earth anymore.

I was in the fae realm.

And the only people who could ever leave their realm were fae—or someone permanently mated to one.

Far above the trees, I could see both of their moons in the sky. And they were eclipsed by deep red… planets? Stars? I had no idea. It didn’t really matter, though. Not in the moment.

“What the fuck?” I hissed at the guy, elbowing him in the gut.

He didn’t release me.

In fact, I watched as the whites of his eyes took on a red tinge, like the planets above us.

Was he taller, too?

He seemed taller.

Suddenly, his grin grew feral.

He tried to bite me, but I slammed my knee into his balls and took off at vampire speed. He’d feel a little bit of the chase instincts—or a lot—but I couldn’t let him catch me.

I didn’t know anything about how fae treated their mates.

And I really didn’t know anything about the guy who’d abducted me, other than that he wanted to force me to be his mate so badly that he literally stole me from Earth.

I disappeared into the trees at my top speed, weaving around their massive trunks before I finally saw one I thought I could climb.

My heart pounded rapidly as I threw myself at the trunk, forcing myself upward even when the branches, leaves, and bark cut me.

Fae couldn’t smell as well as any of the other magical beings.

Hopefully, that would work in my favor.

I climbed high enough that he wouldn’t be able to reach me, and set myself up so I could kick the bastard in the face if he came back.

I was close enough to the stone path that I could hear him calling out for me.

“You’ll have to come out eventually, siren.”

Like hell I would.

I pressed my face to the nearest branch, forcing myself to breathe steadily.

It was fine.

I’d be fine.

Somehow.

I heard a strange noise, and then the sound of the guy struggling for air.

My forehead creased.

“Where is she?” a silky voice demanded.

“She ran,” the first bastard choked out.

“If you just started a war, I will personally feed you to the fucking fish,” the silky voice said.

Something told me the fish in this world were meaner than the ones in mine.

I didn’t hear his footsteps as he moved, but he lifted his voice and called out, “Siren, my name is Kai. I’m the leader of the fae. I know your sisters Blair and Izzy. I don’t know if you’ve realized where you are, but you’ve been taken to Shorin. The fae realm. If you don’t come with me, you won’t survive, and I’ll be forced to go to war with your sisters when they come for retribution.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Shit, shit, shit.

The king was right.

I wasn’t going to survive the fae realm alone. I definitely wasn’t going to escape it alone.

I needed him.

Even if letting him help me was a really, really bad decision for numerous reasons. Number one being the risk it could put Avery and Zora, my two unmated sisters, in.

Blair, Izzy, and their mates had been denying that there were any unmated sirens hiding at Vamp Manor. If I mated with Kai, we probably wouldn’t be able to sell that bullshit anymore.

But what was my other option?

Let the fae realm kill me?

“I won’t hurt you,” Kai called out, sounding a little further away. “I’m… a gemini. A… vegetarian. I barely sleep these days, so the smallest brush of your magic would affect me very strongly. With the moons eclipsed, all of my fae are struggling to maintain a hold on their sanity, and I’m not immune to it. Please just tell me where you are so we can get out of the jungle. It’s not safe for you, or any other living being, really. There are large bugs that…”

I tuned his gorgeous voice out when I saw something big.

And green.

And crawling toward me.

It was a centipede. On crack. Or heroine. Or some other kind of drug—I knew nothing about drugs, but the thing?

It was the size of a small dog.

I screamed bloody murder when it lifted its creepy little head, showing me a round mouth full of sharp teeth that looked like needles.

Without even looking down, I threw myself out of the tree.

My feet hit the ground, and I landed hard on my hands and knees.

My head jerked upward, and my gaze collided with the crack-centipede’s face.

I scrambled to my feet, and ran all of three steps—straight into Kai’s gorgeous, chiseled chest.

His white button-up shirt was untucked and undone at the top, exposing a bit of gorgeous, tanned skin. The bottom hems of his jeans were wet, like he’d been standing in the tiniest bit of lake water. His hair was blond, and longer than I’d ever seen it in the tabloid pictures. Wilder, too.

I lifted my gaze to his, and found a pair of bright blue eyes staring into my soul.

“There’s a thing,” I said, my heart pounding as I gestured into the tree with one bleeding hand.

Kai lifted his gaze. “It’s just a centipede.”

“On crack. And you’re…” I looked up at him, finding him even taller and stronger than I expected. “Bigger.”

“Everything is bigger in the fae realm. Including the fae.”

“So everything’s on crack.”

“Does crack usually make things grow?”

“I don’t know.” I tugged my arm free of the king, and he released me. “I have to find a mate so I can get back home.”

“I’m aware. First, I have to get you to my castle, so you’re safe while I find someone who won’t eat you alive.”

I scoffed at him. “I’m a siren. No one’s going to eat me alive .”

Unless we were talking sexually. But I wasn’t about to bring that up with the gigantic, gorgeous, terrifying king.

“You’re like four feet tall,” he said.

“Five,” I bit out. “ Exactly five.”

“ Five ,” he drawled. “And you’re less scary than the centipede. It will be a miracle if I can find a single fae who couldn’t eat you alive.”

He was looking for a wimp to pair me with?

Bad call.

Very bad call.

Siren 101 included a very important lesson about mating with the strongest bitch or bastard you could convince to pair up with you.

“You can’t pair me with the weakest fae. I’ll get eaten alive on Earth if you do that. I just need to get back there. I don’t need to survive here,” I argued.

“Mated fae don’t traverse realms without their mates, Five . The risk of being separated is too high. Like it or not, you’re going to be spending a lot of time here.”

“If you’re using my height as a nickname, there’s going to be a war after all,” I shot back, starting off toward the path I’d run away from. “And I’m sure the loser you’re about to pair me with will be delighted to spend all of his time on Earth if it comes with siren magic. We’re something of a hot commodity.”

“Not here.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it.”

Kai fell into place beside me. “Do you see the moons? They’re red, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious, asshole.”

“Well, they’re red because of our eclipse. Do you know what an eclipse does to the fae?”

“How would I know that?”

“It turns us into beasts, like the full moon does with the wolves. But do you know how long this eclipse has lasted?”

“I can’t read your fucking mind, Kai.”

“A month.”

My forehead creased. “A month ? The full moon is only one night.”

“Exactly. We’re more beast than human right now. Have been for the last few years, because the fucking eclipses rarely stop. I was about to put an end to one, when you waltzed in and forced me back here.”

“You could’ve left me to figure out my own shit,” I tossed back.

“And cause a war? While my people are doing nothing but screwing and killing? That would be brilliant,” he scoffed.

“Obviously, I didn’t intend for this to happen. I was looking for the wolves—and I didn’t think one of your people would steal me away to your realm, or I obviously wouldn’t have started dancing.”

“Your intentions don’t matter, Five. You’re about to mate with a stranger in what seems like a very natural consequence, so truly, the joke’s on you.”

“I noticed, Seven .”

“Do you know what happens when you pump liquid energy into a beastly fae?”

“Nothing good, probably.”

“Exactly. Your magic is basically poison right now.”

The ground rumbled behind us, and something akin to worry flashed across Kai’s face. He eyed me. “How fast can you move?”

“Faster than you.”

“See the castle up there?” He pointed to a tall, shimmering white tower.

“Obviously.”

“I’ll race you there.”

“What are you afraid of?” I looked behind us, and he put a hand to my back, picking up the pace a little.

“I mentioned the bugs in the forest, if you recall.”

“Yeah. I saw the centipede.”

“That’s not the one I was talking about. And believe me, you don’t want to meet this one during an eclipse. Run to the castle. Follow the path. Don’t look back. And don’t go anywhere near the destroyed city behind it.”

Fear swelled in my chest. “Is it going to kill you?”

“I’m not five feet tall, so no.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Go, Five.”

“It’s Clementine.”

“Move, fast.” He pushed me toward the castle, and I didn’t waste any more time. I took off toward the glimmering building as fast as I could, only looking back once.

Kai wasn’t behind me.

But for some idiotic reason, I hoped he was still alive.