Page 1 of Love Bites Really Hard (Mated to the King #4)

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ZORA

I stared down at the message on my phone.

Oscar

I’m almost through their protections. I’ll have you out and in my arms soon.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

I thought I had more time.

Hale’s vampires had been fighting against Oscar as he tried to hack into their system for weeks, but they had finally admitted to me a few days earlier that they wouldn’t be able to keep him out much longer. The guy was some kind of tech genius.

Hale was the vampire king, mated to one of my sisters, Blair. He’d been protecting me for ages, but it seemed like we were finally past that.

And Oscar? Well, he was a monster that I flirted with at a party. A demon, to be specific. And apparently, monsters imprinted on women when it came time to choose a mate. One of their eyes changed colors to match the woman’s they were mated to, and obsession followed. That was all I really knew about it.

I let myself stare at the message for another minute.

Finally, I shook my head, let out a shaky breath, and hit the button to call Bane, the monster king.

He was my only real option when it came to getting away from Oscar.

I’d texted him a few times in the weeks since Oscar imprinted on me. Bane kept offering to protect me with the female monsters, but Oscar would find a way to get to them if I did that. He was convinced that I belonged to him.

I didn’t .

Not in any way that mattered. Even Bane had said that the imprint was one sided. It didn’t actually change me.

And I didn’t fucking want Oscar, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He just kept texting me. And calling me. And promising to break into Vamp Manor to “free” me.

The phone rang a few times, and Bane answered it just before it went to voicemail.

“Hello.” Bane’s deep, gravelly voice was as neutral as it had been the day I met him. That was the only time I’d seen him in person.

“Hi. This is Zora. The siren. My sisters are?—”

“I know who you are, Zora. Are you ready to accept my protection yet?”

“No. I need a favor.”

A moment of silence passed.

“I don’t do favors,” he finally said.

He was the monster king. The biggest, and arguably, the baddest, of all of the kings. My sisters Blair, Izzy, and Clementine were mated to three of the five, leaving just the monster king and the dragon king unmated. One of my sisters had told me that the men were all evenly matched in a fight, but it was hard to believe that when Bane and Talon were even bigger than the others.

Then again, I’d never spoken with Talon, and only briefly met Bane. Considering I’d seen the other kings with my sisters, and they were all stupidly in love, it made them seem a little weaker to me.

They would argue that love wasn’t a weakness, of course. But I wasn’t sold.

“This favor is a better idea. You said yourself that Oscar designed the system that keeps the unmated female monsters safe. If you try to hide me in there and he shuts the system down, you’ll risk all of them.”

There was another beat of silence.

Bane was known for protecting female monsters. They were somewhat rare, and male monsters would try to imprint on them to force them into sealing a mate bond. So, the women were all protected by being locked up.

It didn’t sound ideal, but I supposed anything was better than having some guy you didn’t like imprint on you.

I would know.

Bane finally grunted. “What is it?”

“I need a list of all of the unmated monsters who would be willing to consider mating with me temporarily to fix my problem. Only the ones who are strong enough to kill Oscar in a fight if it came to that. I know you think I should just mate with him, but we’re not compatible. He’s too… nice.”

“You want him to die challenging another man because he’s nice ?”

“No. I’m hoping this imprint thing will snap when I’m bonded to someone else, so no one has to die,” I shot back. “I’ve lived through the consequences of an unhappily mated pair, and it’s hell. I won’t do that to myself or anyone else. If you don’t help me, I’ll find someone else who will. I know the dragon king needs a siren for something.”

“I’m not suggesting sealing a mate bond you don’t want, Zora. I’m suggesting you take the time to get to know Oscar before you risk anyone’s life. Particularly yours. The people who love you will not react well if you’re accidentally killed by a monster, or a dragon for that matter,” Bane said. The neutrality in his voice was still there, but it was a little strained.

“He’s been texting me nonstop in the week since he imprinted on me,” I gritted out. “ I need you, Zora. I miss you, Zora. I’m coming to get you away from the scary vampires, Zora. I’m almost through their security system. I’ll have you in my arms soon. You’ll never have to worry again when you’re mine. Do any of those messages—and those are only a fraction of them—make you think he’s prepared to be mated to an independent siren who has never wanted a mate, Bane?”

There was a moment of silence before he finally said, “Not particularly.”

“Exactly.”

“But this is why women remain in my wing of the Manor until they’re ready to seal a bond,” Bane added. “They get to know their potential mates safely. With walls separating them. If you agree to my protection, you can?—”

I interrupted him. “Are you going to help me with the list or not?”

“I’m not going to compile a list for you. Even if I did, there would only be a handful of names on it. I told you, he’s one of my strongest men.”

“I don’t care how strong he is, he’s fucking insane,” I snapped.

“All monsters are insane, Zora. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others.” I heard a door shut hard enough to make me think he was more frustrated than his voice let on. “How exactly do you see this situation going, even with a list?”

“I talk to a few guys. One of them doesn’t suck. He agrees to a temporary bond, and I try my best to sell the story to Oscar that I’m madly in love with him. Best case scenario, his imprint breaks immediately.”

“Breaking an imprint isn’t that simple. Even if it was, the odds of any male monster making it through a year temporarily mated to you are below zero. It only takes two things to create an imprint. Physical and mental attraction. Your magic immediately makes avoiding the first an impossibility.”

Right.

Siren magic was seductive. Literally, that was all there was to it. Attraction. Desire. Need.

A splash of control, too.

“So I’ll find someone strong who hates me,” I said.

“You’re not listening to a single word I say, are you?” Bane’s voice strained more. He was getting irritated. I kind of liked it, even though that was ridiculous. Maybe if he was irritated, he’d come up with a way to actually help me.

“Maybe you should volunteer. You clearly don’t like me,” I tossed back.

“Hate requires emotional attachment too. There is no way this could work with anyone . Even me. And I haven’t survived this long without imprinting by being stupid enough to spend any amount of time with an unmated siren, Zora.”

“Has anyone else lasted as long as you?”

“No. And before this goes any further, no, I am not volunteering for your experiment. I like Oscar. I don’t want to have to kill the bastard.”

“You like him because he’s nice , don’t you?”

Bane didn’t reply.

He was probably gritting his teeth, trying to keep himself from getting irritated with me, if his neutrality was anything to go off of.

“Called it.” I sagged against the headboard of my bed. “Please, just get me a list. I have money. A lot of it. My sisters and I don’t need it anymore. I can pay anyone who’s willing. If there’s no way around sealing a mate bond with someone, I’ll do it. But not with Oscar. I can’t handle a lifetime with him.”

“Finding a willing mate among a group of males who have spent their lives avoiding an imprint wouldn’t be easy. None of the men strong enough to take down Oscar will give away their freedom for your money or happiness.”

“Can’t you just ask them if they’ll meet with me and consider it?”

“They don’t meet with unmated females.”

“Come on, Bane. I’m a siren. Everyone knows our magic is desirable. Just asking them to consider it wouldn’t hurt.”

“Assuming I did, what do you expect me to do if one of them imprints on you, and Oscar dies?” he asked. “My people would be out for blood. My blood. Yours too.”

“I don’t know, okay? I just need a way out,” I hissed. “I can’t mate with him. I won’t.”

Bane let out a harsh breath, and the line went dead.

Something told me I’d just made everything worse by pissing off the monster king.

And I definitely wasn’t any closer to escaping Oscar’s attention, so I hadn’t made anything better .

As if to emphasize that, my phone dinged with another text.

Oscar

I love you

I groaned, putting my face in my hands.

Fucking Oscar.

Fucking Bane.

Fucking monsters.

Maybe I’d need to go to the dragons after all.