Page 9 of Love Bites Harder (Mated to the King #3)

nine

KAI

Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to go back to my mate, but I couldn’t be around her without pinning her to the wall and fucking her.

The eclipse’s effects were typically weaker Earthside, but with our new bond, the feel of it was like electricity moving constantly over my skin.

If that was what Orvin and Steve felt, I couldn’t blame them for sating their need.

The vine on my ankle seemed to have its own heartbeat, thrumming against me demandingly.

Go.

Go.

Go.

It didn’t take a genius to know who it wanted me to go to.

The woman I wanted more than I’d ever wanted anything.

Hell, the woman I needed more than I’d ever needed anything.

My cock throbbed painfully, my head ached something fierce, and my heart threatened to beat right out of my chest.

Dealing with the shitshow I’d stumbled upon when I transported earlier seemed like the best alternative to fucking her until she screamed, but the distance between us might kill me.

“Tell me you didn’t finally admit your feelings for her just to ditch her,” Austin grumbled, meeting me at the doors into our indoor forest.

It couldn’t have existed without our magic, but with our magic? It was thriving.

And full of fae assholes.

Part of me still wanted to kill that bastard for having my mate’s mouth on his, but I forced myself to rein it in. She was mine. Permanently. And I needed him to handle too many things in the Manor to let him die.

We stepped through the doors, headed for the clearing we both knew was in the middle of the monstrous room. It took a few minutes to get there, which gave me no choice but to talk to him

“It wasn’t planned,” I said. “I wasn’t going to mate with her. I didn’t know seeing her kiss you would set me off like that.”

“You didn’t kill her when she made you kneel for her. And you gave her a nickname. We all knew you weren’t going to be able to let her go.”

I grimaced.

The redheaded siren had complete control over me, and I fucking hated it.

Yet somehow, I ached for it too.

“I really hope you didn’t ditch your mate minutes after claiming her,” Austin added. “We all know her well enough to see how that would hurt her. The woman is ridiculously romantic.”

“My options were to walk away or fuck her until the eclipse ended, and she told me not to touch her,” I said, as we finally reached the clearing.

My eyes immediately narrowed in on the problem, even as my body continued to ache for my mate.

A large circle of fae surrounding what was obviously a fight in the center.

Someone was on the ground, clearly dead, while the crowd roared its approval.

Someone else’s fists were pounding into the body repetitively, with one vicious thud after another.

Further out, a few couples were fucking in public, in various states of undress. The vine on my ankle tightened painfully, cutting off my circulation as my gaze lingered on a male pounding into his female harder than he should’ve. She seemed to be enjoying it, but the eclipse would make it difficult for them to care about effects such as injuries.

“You take the couples,” I told Austin. “Pick the violent one first. I’ll handle the fight.”

“To the pool?”

“There’s nowhere else.”

“We could call the wolves.”

“I’ll have to make peace with them before that becomes an option again,” I said.

Logic told me my female’s sisters were furious with me, even though Clementine being yanked into the fae realm wasn’t technically my fault.

I hadn’t figured out how to stop the eclipses, which did make it my fault.

“The pool it is,” Austin said, and jogged toward the worst of the couples.

I headed straight into the center of the fight, ignoring the vine on my ankle. It would just have to wait.

Half an hour later, we had the couples and crowd in the pool. The fae who’d been in the fight was unconscious, off to the side, next to a few others who had come at me when I broke them up.

Much of the crowd had started screwing after they ended up in the water. Austin, Rocky, and Paul were all attempting to keep the pairs from growing violent, but all we could do was try to contain the out-of-control fae until the eclipse’s end.

Which likely wasn’t going to be soon.

Ideally, we would get everyone locked in their rooms, but we needed to make sure no one killed anyone else first. Which was far from simple.

I got my arm wrapped around one of my stronger male’s throats and dragged him beneath the water, when I felt a pulse through the vine connecting me to Clementine. I let myself focus on the magic between us for the first time since I walked away from her—and swore viciously when I spun around, finding her in the doorway of the room.

Her eyes were wide.

Her lips were parted.

She still wasn’t wearing anything but one of my shirts and a pair of my boxers.

And a handful of males were already staring at the pretty, fragile new female that had just joined the party .

My energy surged, and I had the bastard I was holding unconscious, on his back, and next to the pool a heartbeat later.

My hands were on my female’s hips a moment after that, driving her back through the doors and out of the room. I locked it behind me, snarling, “What are you doing?”

“You left me. I had no idea it was for this.” Her gaze was fixed on the door. “This is because of the eclipse?”

“Yes.” I forced myself to breathe through my nose, fighting waves of need and desire and desperation that swelled higher than ever with the eclipse’s effects.

“It wasn’t like this in Izzy’s lake.”

“The purified water eases the eclipse’s power more.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Water helps. Your magic makes the water better.” I wrestled with all of the fucking things I couldn’t stop myself from feeling.

Clementine was mine .

I’d never physically claimed her, with a bite or with my cock.

Every fae in the room wanted her.

Someone slammed against the locked door behind me, and I couldn’t stop myself from pulling my female against my chest.

“Your pool isn’t that big. I can purify the water in a few hours,” she whispered. “Maybe less.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No, Five.”

“Yes, Seven.” She set her hands on my chest. Her mind seemed to be made up, and I wasn’t going to be able to talk her out of it. I shouldn’t, either. Not if she could prevent more deaths. “My magic will pull everyone nearby toward me while I do it. Can you clear the space first?”

“Fine,” I gritted out.

She nodded against my shoulder. “You’ll have to let go of me. My magic will affect you.”

It always affected me.

But there wasn’t a chance in hell I could leave her in a room while her magic was pulling people in. If someone found a way through, and touched her…

I shuddered as a wave of violence crashed into me.

No.

That wasn’t happening.

I lifted her off her feet, clenching my jaw when she gave a noise of surprise that made my cock throb harder. Her legs wrapped around my waist to hold herself up as I stepped back into the pool room, headed for Rocky.

“We need everyone out. My mate can purify the pool to ease the eclipse’s magic, but her power will pull everyone toward her when she does,” I growled.

Rocky glanced back at the pool, surveying the situation. “There are a lot of them. Can you help?”

My grip tightened on Clementine as a snarl tore through me.

I wasn’t letting go.

“Alright. Give us a few minutes,” Rocky said.

“I have a name,” she grumbled, as I pulled her to the side of the room and put her back to the wall, hiding her from anyone else’s sight.

My fingers dug deeper into her waist. “I don’t want them to know it.”

“You’re almost as bad now as when I kissed you on your throne.”

“If you start talking about that, there’s going to be a repeat here and now.”

She laughed softly, and the sound went straight to my cock.

“Next time, don’t just abandon me in our room,” she said.

“You told me not to touch you.”

“That didn’t stop you from kissing me.”

“My control is all but gone right now.”

“Clearly.” She rocked her hips a little, and I swore into her hair as the motion moved her core against me. “Did you apologize to Rocky already?”

“No. Apparently, all three of the assholes knew I wasn’t going to let you mate with anyone else. Something about a nickname, and not killing you after you made me kneel,” I gritted out.

“You wouldn’t have killed someone else for that.”

“Yes, I would’ve.”

“Not if war was on the line.”

She moved her hips again, and I snarled into her hair. “If you don’t want me to spend the rest of the eclipse fucking you, you have to stop that.”

“It wasn’t me, Seven. Your vines are all over me.”

I lifted my head from her hair, and saw the thick, vibrant vines surrounding her. Moving her hips. Opening her for me.

Shit.

I concentrated on forcing them to release her. Behind me, I could hear the fae being removed from the pool, but I couldn’t look away from my mate.

Slowly, the grip of the vines eased, though they didn’t retreat entirely.

“You’re not doing this on purpose?” she asked me, eyeing them with interest.

I would’ve expected her to dislike them, but the look in her eyes certainly wasn’t hatred.

“No. I told you my magic will respond to our emotions. Given that I’m more powerful than any other fae, my vines will be more obnoxious.”

“They weren’t obnoxious when we were in bed.”

My eyes slammed shut, and I nearly came in my fucking pants with the reminder of the way my female had writhed in my bed as I pulled my vines free of that sweet little body.

I needed to make her climax again.

Needed to watch her climax.

Needed to taste her climax.

“The vine on my ankle is throbbing with your erection,” she murmured, her voice too soft for anyone else in the room to hear as my vines pulled her closer.

“I can’t control myself.” My voice was strained, and I forced my eyes open again.

“Would touching you take the edge off?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Could make it worse.”

“That’s a solid maybe, Seven.” She tilted her head to look past me, and I captured her face in my hands, pulling her back.

“I don’t want them looking at you,” I ground out.

“There’s only a few of them left, and they didn’t see me. We need to get in the water when they’re gone.”

I jerked my head.

She lifted her hands around mine, pressing her palms to my cheeks the same way I’d taken hers. Those gorgeous blue eyes were soft as they held mine. “Kai,” she said, “You’re going to have to let go of me and leave the room when I turn my magic on, or you’re going to lose control entirely because of it.”

“Then I’m going to lose control.”

She stroked her thumb lightly over my cheekbone.

I couldn’t remember ever being touched that way.

Softly.

Sweetly.

Fuck, I wanted her.

“We have to meet up with my family later. You can’t lose yourself entirely. Will I be able to pull you back?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

She nodded. “I’ll figure it out. Can you see if everyone’s gone, now?”

I looked over my shoulder long enough to see that the pool was clear and the doors were closed.

For the sake of everyone’s safety, I hoped my men were guarding those doors. I would kill anyone who came looking for my mate.

“It’s just us,” I said.

“Perfect. Take me to the pool?”

I let out a long breath before releasing her face. Her legs were still wrapped around my back, so I held her ass in my hands as I carried her away from the wall, scanning the room for threats on my way to the water.

Her hands left my cheeks and slid down my neck in a way that nearly made me come. Her fingers teased my hair, tugging lightly, and my erection throbbed against her core.

I was gone.

I was hers .