Page 1 of Love Bites Extra Hard

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AVERY

My legs dangledoff the ledge of the Manor’s roof while the wind blew a few strands of hair around my face. There was a large, purple suitcase sitting on its side a few feet behind me, and my gaze was on the dragon soaring overhead.

His scales were reddish orange, and when moonlight glinted off of them, he looked like a living flame. He was up there almost every night, just like I was.

The roof was my happy place.

The sky seemed to be his.

Though I was sure he’d noticed me before, he’d never flown over or come close enough to make me worried.

I wasn’t sure if he knew who I was, but I had asked around until I figured out his identity.

He was the dragon king. Talon Reeves.

And after that night, I was going to be his mate.

Probably.

I assumed so, at least.

Anyway, I’d texted him earlier to let him know that I’d go with him willingly.

The last of my four sisters, Zora had mated with Bane, the monster king. I was the only unmated siren left hiding out in Vamp Manor.

And Talon had been trying to arrange a siren for himself ever since the first of my sisters, Blair, had mated with the vampire king, Hale. With Izzy mated to the wolf king, Porter, and Clementine mated to the fae king, Kai, the whole situation looked like some kind of nefarious plot by a bunch of wicked sirens who were trying to take over the world.

Considering that sirens were basically prey, it would’ve been quite the accomplishment if we had actually planned it.

The kings were smart enough to realize that wasn’t what was going on. Talon assumed Hale was just giving us away to his best buds, which was utterly ridiculous.

But I didn’t really blame him for thinking that way. We were weak, but we were valuable. Our magic made people feel alive in a way nothing else could, and after we took a mate, they were the only one who could experience it.

It wasn’t a plot, though. Blair had mated with Hale to buy us safety in Vamp Manor. Izzy had sealed her bond with Porter in exchange for him killing Curtis, the werewolf king who had been after us. Clementine had mated with Kai after she was dragged into the fae realm and forced to bond with a fae if she ever wanted to get back home. Zora had mated with Bane to save herself from a monster who tried to claim her as his mate.

So, it wasn’t planned.

But itdidlook like it, from the outside.

That didn’t give Talon the right to threaten to abduct me, of course. Which he had. My sisters and their mates had threatened war in exchange.

I wasn’t going to let it come to that, and I was tired of spending my life in hiding. So, I’d told my sisters I would let them protect me, and that I’d move wherever they wanted me to in the morning.

And then I’d texted Talon, to tell him I would go with him. I set up a meeting on the roof, too.

I didn’t have his number before… but he had filled out paperwork requesting a siren from Hale every single week since Blair became the vampire queen.

The paperwork was pointlessly long. Hale knew that. Talon knew that. Everyone else in Mistwood who had filled it out in an attempt to convince one of us to mate with them knew it. My sisters and I knew it, too.

But the dragon king filled it out anyway.

Over and over.

Given what I knew about his take-no-shit personality, that surprised me. But it did make it easier to contact him. Thanks to Blair and Hale’s assistants, I had access to all of the mating requests we’d received. Including Talon’s.

So, I pulled his number off it and used that to contact him. It had taken him a while to answer, but he finally had.

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