Page 3 of Love Bites Really Hard (Mated to the King #4)

three

ZORA

I drummed my fingers on the table, still irritated after my conversation with Oscar.

He didn’t seem like a bad guy. He would make some sweet, sappy woman very happy.

But considering I was neither sweet nor sappy, that wasn’t going to happen. Literally anyone would be better for me than him, and vice versa. It wasn’t like he could actually be happy with me.

“If Bane doesn’t come back in the next ten minutes, I’m knocking on Talon’s door,” I warned the mated monsters guarding the conference room.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but Talon is not the answer,” Blair said, eyeing me warily.

We’d been waiting in his conference room for over an hour. Apparently, Bane had ditched my sisters and their mates after I told them I was done talking to Oscar.

He was probably giving the other guy a pep talk or something. I’d put twenty bucks on them walking back into the room together.

“Something was off when he left,” Izzy said. “He sounded different.”

“He acted weird,” Clementine agreed.

“I don’t know, but if he walks back in with Oscar, I’m going to kill one of them,” I said.

“He didn’t seem to think you belong together any more than the rest of us do,” Porter offered. “And the orc mentioned a backup plan.”

“Lex,” Hale clarified. “He’s Bane’s right-hand man these days.”

Unless he was offering to help me break Oscar’s imprint, I didn’t particularly care who he was.

The doors leading into the room finally swung open, and Bane and a blond guy walked in.

Guess that was Lex.

At least it wasn’t Oscar.

They sat down across the table from us, and my forehead creased when I saw Bane’s eyes.

They’d changed.

One was still dark brown. The other was hazel.

Like mine.

Shit.

“There’s been a development,” Bane said, his gaze on me. Just like it had been since the moment he entered the room.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I said flatly.

“What?” Clementine looked over at me.

I didn’t turn her way.

“Unfortunately, I’m not,” Bane said.

“What are we missing?” Blair asked.

“This fuckwit imprinted on me too!” I tossed a hand in the king’s direction.

Lex snorted, and didn’t bother trying to stifle it.

I pointed at him, snapping, “If you’re not mated, get out of this room before it happens again.”

He stood, lifting his hands. “Yes ma’am.”

The doors shut behind him, but my furious gaze was set on Bane.

“Everyone out,” he said, his voice still annoyingly neutral.

“Don’t even think about it,” I tossed back.

No one moved.

“Unlike Oscar, I can still control myself. We need to talk. Alone,” Bane said.

I glared back, but he didn’t flinch.

One tense minute passed.

Then another.

Hale cleared his throat. “We’ll wait right outside the door. Bane’s not going to lose his mind.”

My jaw tightened, but I didn’t protest again when they all slipped out. Clem’s hand brushed my shoulder as she passed me, and she whispered, “Good luck.”

When the doors shut behind them, I waited for the click of a lock.

It didn’t come.

Bane was still watching me intently.

I glared at him, waiting for an explanation. After a few minutes, he finally closed his eyes. He took a deep breath in, let another out, then finally looked at me again.

“I’ve spent time around unmated women before and never had this happen,” he said calmly. “I didn’t plan it, and I’m sorry it’s not what you want, but there’s no way to undo it now. You’re going to have to mate with me or Oscar, and if you choose him, you’re going to have to move somewhere I can’t find you. Otherwise, I’ll kill him.”

“That’s a terrible explanation for the fact that you permanently imprinted on me ,” I growled back.

“You’re beautiful. You’re fiery. You don’t pretend to be something you’re not. What else is there to say?”

I jerked backward a little.

That wasn’t what I expected to hear.

“I’m not mating with Oscar,” I finally said.

“You’re entirely incompatible,” he agreed.

“And me and you aren’t?”

“We can’t possibly be as bad together as you and him.”

I scoffed, but he was right.

It would be damn near impossible to find someone less suited to deal with my personality for the rest of their life. The guy was sensitive . Soft. Emotional.

That would make him perfect for some women, but not me.

“How did you convince him he wanted you at all?” Bane asked. There was something dangerous in his eyes.

“He claims he fell in love with me before I said a word. But I was channeling my inner-Clementine. Clearly, it was a mistake. Some of us aren’t meant to be charming.” I sat back in my chair, eyeing him.

He stayed where he was, giving me time to study him.

Honestly, he was hot as hell.

Massive, thick muscles.

Chiseled face and jaw.

Thick, wavy dark curls that were loose, almost reminding me of a surfer’s.

The jeans and t-shirt he had on were both black, and neither looked new or tailored. With muscles like that, they clung to him in all the right places anyway.

“What if I want to meet the other guys who would be willing to mate with me?” I finally asked.

He chuckled, but there was no humor in his voice. “Sweetheart, there’s not a man on this planet who could beat me in a fight I want to win. No one who knows me will consider you now, other than Oscar.”

Because Oscar had imprinted on me.

A tingle rolled down my spine, and I ignored the hell out of it when it went right between my thighs. “Talon might.”

“It’s unlikely. If he needed a siren enough to start a war, he would already have attacked the vampires.”

It was a valid point.

And the other kings seemed to like and trust Bane a lot more than they liked and trusted Talon. That counted for something, even if I didn’t want to admit it.

“What are you?” I asked.

I didn’t know much about monsters, but I knew the basics. There were demons, with horns and fire magic like Oscar’s. Orcs. Cyclopes. Tentacled creatures. Shadow beasts. Lots of others, too. All of them had human forms, and could shift into their monster forms. They shared some attributes with dragons and werewolves, but were different enough to have their own leadership, and kingdoms.

“It’s common knowledge. I assumed you knew,” Bane said.

“I only read tabloids when Clementine shoves them in my face.”

He nodded slowly. “I’m a gargoyle.”

I blinked.

He watched me.

I blinked again. “I thought gargoyles were extinct.”

“Not quite.”

Damn.

Gargoyles were… well, they were the strongest monsters. They could shift their entire body into stone. Other than that, I didn’t really know what they looked like or could do.

“Would you like me to shift before you agree?” he asked. He was still infuriatingly calm.

“I mean, I don’t want to be shallow, but yeah.”

“Wanting to be physically attracted to your mate isn’t shallow, Sweetheart.”

“I’m not your Sweetheart,” I warned.

He ignored the comment as he stood, stepping back from the table. He unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, and I got on my feet quickly.

Why was he stripping?

I could see black fabric beneath his zipper, and his erection was impossible not to notice.

“Easy.” He lifted his hands as if in surrender, and shifted.

His body swelled slowly, growing bigger and thicker as his sun-tanned skin went gray. I understood why he’d unbuttoned and unzipped when his cock grew too, straining against the fabric.

When my eyes finally left his crotch, they fixed on a pair of wide, gray wings hanging from his back

“Damn,” I said.

His gaze was intense as he watched me. Something told me he was waiting for me to say whether it was a good damn , or a bad one.

I didn’t particularly trust myself to get closer, but my feet carried me around the table anyway. “Do you mind if I…” I trailed off, reaching toward his arm before he said yes.

“Go ahead.”

I touched his skin lightly, and was surprised by the feel of him.

Hard, of course, but so smooth that he felt soft.

“Wow.” I lifted my fingers to his wing. He shuddered fiercely, jerking it away as soon as I touched it.

“Careful.” His voice was low and gravelly.

“Sorry. Sensitive there?”

“Extremely.”

Oops.

I kind of wanted to touch it again, but forced myself to hold back.

“So you can feel things, even when you’re in this form?”

“Yes. All sensations feel different, but nothing hurts.”

I poked him hard in the bicep, and winced at the pain it caused me.

Definitely made of stone.

I glanced down at his erection. It was way too obvious to ignore. “What about there?”

“My cock works the same in both forms. Sex feels different for both participants, but it’s equally enjoyable.”

I studied the bulge.

It would be weird to ask to see, wouldn’t it?

Probably, yes.

I couldn’t stop the words from coming out anyway.

“Would you ever want to have sex in this form, if we were mated? My magic makes sex pretty much unavoidable for mated pairs.”

His cock throbbed.

“If you were comfortable with it, yes.”

It was a good answer.

“I’m going to need to see the goods, then. Just in case the stone dick is a no-go for me.”

“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

“Nope.”

He tugged his shirt over his head, revealing a literally chiseled abdomen, then pushed his pants down his thighs and left them on the floor.

My gaze was glued to his erection when his boxer-briefs followed, and shit , it was a masterpiece.

Thick and heavy.

Literally rock hard.

“You won’t mind if I…”

He grunted when I wrapped my fingers around his length.

Wow, he felt good.

“Don’t ask if you’re going to do it anyway,” he said, his voice slightly strained.

“Asking seemed more polite.”

“Because giving my cock a test run isn’t polite enough?” There was a roughness to his voice that made me suppress a shiver as I slowly dragged my hand down his length.

“I wouldn’t call it polite. But I won’t know if I can handle having a massive rock inside me if I don’t know how it feels,” I said, unable to stop myself from giving the head of his cock a little twist.

When his hips jerked a little, I had to bite back a grin.

Yeah, he would do.

“I don’t even know if this is going to fit inside me,” I warned.

“If you want to figure that out before you agree, I certainly won’t stop you.”

Something in his eyes made it feel like a challenge—and I didn’t ever back down from a challenge.

“Alright. Sit down,” I said, reaching for the waistband of my jeans.

Bane went still for a moment.

I pushed my jeans down, daring him to change his mind.

He made it back to his chair in two large steps, and spun it to face me when he was seated.

What was I doing?

I was freaking insane.

But I wasn’t going to turn back now.

I peeled my jeans all the way off and abandoned them on the floor, stepping out of my panties before I sat down on his lap.

His fingers were curled around the chair’s armrests, so I pulled his hands to my ass as I lined his cock up with my slit. The stone didn’t feel like skin, but it was still warm and smooth. I liked it.

His grip was so tight and his gaze so hot that I half expected him to slam into me without waiting.

But he didn’t.

Considering the imprint that had to be riding him hard, his control impressed me. Oscar was insane because of the same magic.

“I don’t back down,” I warned, my entire body hot as the head of his erection throbbed against my skin. He was leaking precum, making me even slicker than I already was.

“I can see that.” His voice was strained, but neutral.

So stupidly neutral.

It irritated me, but not in the way Oscar did. It just made me want to piss him off, to see him lose his cool.

“Do you back down, Bane?” I held his gaze, leaning in close so our noses almost touched.

“Never.” His lips nearly brushed mine.

“Prove it.”

He finally growled, using his grip on my ass to pull me down over him. Not roughly, or violently, but not gently either.

My lips parted with a gasp as the head of his cock entered me, so much bigger and harder than anything I’d ever felt.

Before I had time to wrap my head around the feel of him, or even adjust, the conference room’s door opened behind us.

Bane roared, and I was on my ass on the chair a heartbeat later, my legs together and my body reeling.

All I could do was watch as the no-longer-neutral king launched over the table, stone wings spreading and claws appearing at their tips. His fist slammed into our intruder’s face, and I realized it was Oscar.

Crap.

The thud of stone meeting skin made my stomach twist.

The other kings poured in behind him, shoving themselves between both men who had imprinted on me. I grabbed my pants off the ground and yanked them back on, even though it was way too late. Oscar had definitely seen me on top of Bane.

“You fucked my mate,” Oscar tried to snarl, but he was on the ground and there was blood pouring from his very-broken nose. Flames danced along his skin, and his horns had appeared. But he didn’t look strong enough to get back on his feet at the moment.

“Zora is mine .” Bane surged toward the demon again.

Hale and Kai held him back while Porter stood between him and the other man, his hands out in front of him.

“Get him out of here before Bane kills him,” Izzy called out from the hallway.

Bane snarled, and Hale flashed me a look that all but yelled, “INTERVENE, ZORA.”

Right.

This was my mess.

Bane was the only real threat at the moment, and I was the only one who could calm him thanks to his imprint.

So, I rushed over to him and grabbed one of his arms. Kai stepped back to give me a bunch of space, so the gargoyle wouldn’t think he was trying to challenge him or anything.

“I need a shower, Bane. Do you have one in your room?” I asked, wrapping my hand around his arm.

He was still in his gargoyle form, and hot damn, that was a nice bicep.

He looked down at me, his anger fading slightly with my presence. That only lasted a moment though—then he was snarling, refocused on Oscar.

Hale still held one of his arms, and I pulled on the one I had.

I had no doubt that he was remembering the way the demon had barged in on us literally having sex .

Not full-on sex, but the penis had definitely been in the vagina. The tip of it, at least.

And for a possessive monster, letting someone else see that was the human equivalent of murder.

My only real chance at distracting him was—dreadfully—to channel my inner Clementine again.

I had to use my magic.

Not in my voice the way Clem always did, though. I needed to feed on him.

And we weren’t mated yet, so there was only one way to do that.

I went up on my tiptoes, pulling him toward me with a hand on his face, and kissed him.

His mouth was hard at first.

It was made of stone, after all.

But his lips parted as I grabbed his emotions. There was some risk that my magic would only make him more out of control—but considering his erection was still hanging out, I was pretty sure it would just make him horny for me again.

He yanked me closer as I finally tasted what he was feeling.

Desperate possessiveness.

Raging fury.

Molten need.

I’d never felt anything anywhere near as strong, and I immediately drank more. Harder. Deeper.

Some part of me heard the kings dragging Oscar out of the room.

And the door, as it slammed behind him.

But all I could feel and taste was Bane.

Aching loneliness.

Blazing hope.

Awful fear.

His hands were on my hips.

On my breasts.

On my ass.

Squeezing, gripping, and stroking.

My legs wrapped around his waist when he hauled me off the ground, and I gasped into his mouth as his tongue went deeper.

Demanding more.

Taking more.

I had always liked kissing, but kissing Bane? It was an entirely new experience.

He took a few steps and pinned me to a wall. My fingers dug into the soft strands of his hair. Unlike the rest of him, it hadn’t turned to stone.

His cock fit against my center perfectly. I couldn’t help but grind against it as I drank more. I was so full of him that my belly felt swollen. Though I didn’t want it to, my body forced the flow to end.

Our mouths and bodies didn’t falter, though.

My lips already felt hot and swollen, my tongue a little raw, but I didn’t give a fuck. Not when he felt and tasted that good.

Eventually, the door opened behind us. We didn’t stop. We didn’t even slow down.

“Zora,” a familiar voice said from the doorway.

It barely registered.

“Zora,” they repeated.

Vaguely, I realized it was Clementine.

“Zora, someone’s going to die. They can’t stop his fire any longer. You have to get out of here. Oscar’s losing his mind,” Clem urged.

Oscar.

The imprint.

I didn’t want anyone to die.

It took longer than it should’ve, but I finally pulled my mouth away from Bane’s.

He snarled at me, and I saw in his eyes how gone he was to the imprint. I didn’t know how to reduce its power over him… but I had an idea.

I lifted my hand to his throat.

My fingers trembled, but I forced myself to ignore it.

What I was about to do went against every instinct I had. It would give him control over me. Over the situation. Over everything .

But it was the best way to make sure everyone survived the mess I’d landed myself in.

And there was no way out, so I might as well go all in.

I pictured a marking I thought would suit both of us and said with far more confidence than I felt, “You are mine, Bane.”

Intense, powerful magic washed over me, binding me to the massive gargoyle as the mark I’d envisioned appeared around his throat. The dark blue band was thin and simple, with what looked like thorns protruding from it.

I released him, and he shifted back to his human form, lifting his fingers to his throat. They moved slowly over the mark I’d given him, though his chest rose and fell rapidly.

“Are you with us again?” I asked.

I could hear fighting in the hall, and could smell something burning.

That wasn’t good, but if Bane wasn’t sane, there wasn’t anything either of us could do to help.

“Yeah.” Finally, he let go of me. “Stay here. I’ll handle Oscar.”

“You’re not going to kill him, right?”

“Not unless I have to.”

With that, he left.

Clementine slipped inside as he shut the door. He didn’t slam it, which seemed like a good sign.

Her eyes were wide, her chin-length hair was a mess, and there were multiple vines wrapped around her. The way they were positioned made me think it was Kai’s attempt to keep her safe.

“Wow,” she said, laughing a little as she plopped down in one of the chairs. “That was intense.”

“No kidding.” I dropped into a chair of my own, a little dazed from the intensity of the sort-of sex, the kiss, and the mate bond.

“The mark you gave him is pretty.” She gestured over her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” I dragged my hand over the top of my hair. Yeah, it was wild. Probably super big and frizzy, too.

“I can’t believe you had sex with him in here while we were on the other side of the door,” she said, her smile stretching into a small grin. “You barely like sex, remember?”

“He challenged me,” I admitted. “And it ended before it even started, so I don’t think it counted.”

“Was it good, though?”

“I don’t know. Did you see the size of that thing? I didn’t think it would even fit, but damn.”

Clem’s grin grew wicked. “I saw. Don’t tell Kai, though.”

“He knows. We all saw,” Izzy said, slipping into the room with Blair behind her. “Kai seems confident enough not to care.”

Clementine’s wickedness faded to a pure, happy smile. “Good.”

“I can’t believe any of this just happened.” Blair gestured to the table and the room around us. “Like, what the hell? Are you possessed, Zora? Did the imprinting thing change your personality entirely? Is gargoyle cock truly that good?”

I sputtered out a laugh along with the rest of my sisters. “I’m trying to go with the flow. Obviously I’m shitty at it.”

“You’re doing fine,” Izzy said with a frown. “I don’t think any of us would handle it better.”

“I can’t believe Avery’s missing this,” Blair admitted.

“She’ll be relieved she did,” Clem teased.

“I wish I missed it.” Izzy leaned back in her chair. “Some images can never be burned from your mind. Zora being impaled on an oversized stone cock is one of them.”

“Let’s not talk about anyone’s sex life while things are this tense, baby,” Porter said, striding in with Hale and Kai.

“Probably a good call,” Hale agreed.

“We’ll talk about it later, then.” Clementine winked playfully at me as Kai scooped her up out of her chair. “What do we do next?”

“We’re leaving. Bane is sane again, and taking Oscar to cool off in our pool,” Kai explained. “Theoretically, the magic in the water will help him process what’s happened until he can cope a little more.”

I grimaced.

Even though I had no idea him imprinting on me was even a possibility, I did feel bad for flirting with him at the party. It hadn’t felt right to me when I did. I was just trying to have a new experience.

That wasn’t going to happen again. And not just because I was probably going to spend my life stuck with the monster king.

“You should ask him to seal the bond sooner rather than later,” Hale told me, and Blair smacked him on the arm. He didn’t flinch, so I didn’t think it could’ve possibly hurt.

“They’re not sealing anything until they’re ready,” Blair warned him. “You would never have forced me.”

But she’d done it pretty quickly. Because she realized there was no alternative.

And there was no alternative for us, either. It was in Bane’s hands anyway, and something told me those gigantic stone palms weren’t going to hesitate before wrapping around my throat and marking me too.