The King

by Jennifer Armentrout

  My head whipped to her in stunned disbelief. Did she really have to ask that? “Hunting rabbits?”

  Apparently, Ren didn’t even find that funny. His bright green eyes narrowed. “That’s what you’d better be doing. Or hunting crocodiles or whatever you locals do in your spare time.”

  “That would be alligators,” I corrected him with a frown.

  “Please tell me you’re not hunting fae,” Ivy said.

  “And why would it be a big deal if I am?”

  “Why? You’re not trained, Bri. You’re not—”

  “I am trained.” Irritation flushed my system. “I received the same training both of you did.”

  “But you’re not in the field,” Ren reasoned, shaking his head. “You have never been in the field, so all that training means shit.”

  “Listen to Ivy,” the King urged. “You cannot interact with Aric or Neal. The fact that they already know you’re involved is bad enough.”

  “I can handle myself,” I said. “Pretty sure I’ve proven that.”

  “All you’ve proven is that you’re incredibly lucky,” he fired back. “You’re not like them.” He gestured to the others. “You’re not a warrior with years of experience under your belt.”

  “I’m a member of the Order. I’m trained and—”

  “You are a member, but this is not your job,” Ivy stated.

  “If hunting and killing evil fae isn’t my job, then what is?”

  Silence greeted me, and damn if that wasn’t telling. I focused on Ivy. “I have been in the field. I have been for the last year and a half, and, hello, not once have I gotten myself killed.”

  “A year and a half?” Ivy screeched. “How? Wait. Was that what he was talking about with the costumes and shit?”

  “Yes. I disguise myself. Sometimes it’s…elaborate. Other times, not.” I folded my arms so I didn’t pick up something and throw it. “I make sure no one recognizes me, not even other Order members.”

  Ivy stared at me.

  “He recognized you.” Ren gestured at the door.

  I turned, realizing the jerk King had bailed, along with Tanner and Kalen. How like him. “Yeah, well, he’s special,” I muttered.

  “You’re out there, by yourself, without anyone knowing what you’re doing?” Ivy asked.

  “Obviously, the King of all douchebags knows.” Thank God the sleeves of my blouse hid the cuffs because I figured if they saw them on me, they’d both stop breathing.

  “He doesn’t count,” Ivy shot back. And, wow, that would’ve been funny if I weren’t so angry. “Wait. Does Tink know?” Her eyes widened. “He has to know, and he’s said nothing to me.” She went for her phone.

  “Don’t drag him into this!”

  “Oh, he’s been dragged—”

  “He didn’t tell you because it’s not your business!” I threw up my arms. “And I didn’t say anything to you because I knew you’d react this way. All of you forget that I’m an Order member. I’ve had the same training you have, and the only reason I’m not in the field is because I had to be home to take care of my mother.” Dragging in a deep breath, there was no stopping me now. I was on a roll. “I know you all think I’m not strong or skilled enough, but guess what, I’ve fought fae. I didn’t need backup or anyone to help me. I didn’t need the Order or any of you to tell me that I’m good enough to be out there. I did it all on my own.”

  Ivy drew back. “It’s not that we think you’re not good enough.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Wait a second,” Ren cut in. “You’ve been hunting for the last year and a half?” He came forward, stopping by the arm of the couch. “Basically, after you had enough time to get back on your feet following the attack.”

  Pressing my lips together, I said nothing.

  “You’re hunting the fae who attacked you,” he said. “Aren’t you?”

  “Oh, Bri,” whispered Ivy, looking away.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded. When Ivy just shook her head, I was a second away from picking up a chair and throwing it. “You know what? Yes, I have been hunting them. I know who they are, and I’ve killed four of them.”

  Ivy’s gaze shot to mine.

  “Yeah, I did, and I will keep doing it until I kill the fifth,” I told them. “And then, after that, I may keep hunting. The Order needs the additional bodies, and I’m good.” Swallowing hard, I lifted my chin. “Despite the fact that I wasn’t out in the field.”

  Ivy opened her mouth, then closed it. “I think…it’s incredible that you are such a good fighter, and I don’t mean that in a patronizing way.”

  It sounded awfully patronizing to me.

  “But I remember what it was like to see you in a hospital bed, hooked up to tubes and fighting for your life. I remember what it was like to go to your mom’s funeral—to all of those funerals,” she said, and I flinched. “We almost lost you.”

  I softened. A little. “And you almost died too, Ivy. I didn’t think you were incapable of fighting afterward. I didn’t expect you to quit.”

  Her chin dipped, and I waited for her to say it was different. But common sense seemed to prevail, and if she thought it, she at least didn’t say it.

  Ivy’s shoulders rose and fell, and then she quieted. “You’re my friend, Bri. You’re my only friend, actually. I’m just… I’m worried about you.”

  “Wow,” Faye murmured, alerting us to the fact that she was, very much, still in the room. “I thought I was your friend.”

  “You are.” Ivy turned to her. Faye lounged on the couch, looking as if she were missing a bowl of popcorn. “I meant that Bri is my only human friend.”

  “Do you normally separate your friendships by species?” Faye asked.

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “I’m kidding.” Faye laughed. “You’re my only human friend, too.”

  I frowned. Did she not consider me a friend? Damn.

  “What about me?” Ren demanded. “I don’t count?”

  “You always count, Ren. Always.” Faye’s gaze shifted to me, her stare assessing. “They are just worried about you. You did almost die, but so has Ivy. So has Ren. And you want revenge for what was done to you and yours. That’s understandable.”

  “You’re not helping,” Ivy snapped.

  “And neither are you,” Faye replied calmly. “She knows how to fight, obviously. She’s killed.”

  “Thank you,” I said, feeling some of the tension ease out of my shoulders. Someone finally recognized that I wasn’t book-nerd Willow anymore, friend to Buffy. I was kickass Willow—though not evil, dark Willow.

  “But you being out there is a risk.” Faye’s cool eyes flicked to me. “It’s personal to you. Not in the same way it is to other Order members. That makes it dangerous.”

  I swallowed a truckload of curses, and then round two of why Brighton should just stay safe at home with her nose stuck in a book began. At some point, I plopped back down into the chair, and just…stopped arguing against all the various reasons I shouldn’t be hunting in general and let it all sink in. I allowed it to really sink in that even with them knowing that I was capable of killing and defending myself, they didn’t believe I was capable enough.

  And that didn’t just make me mad.

  It also hurt.

  * * * *

  I didn’t go to the offices of the Order, nor did I go home. After I’d managed to extricate myself from Ivy and Ren—and Faye—I caught an Uber and headed to an apartment in the Warehouse District. I’d run into Kalen while looking for the person who’d not only thrown me under the bus but then backed up over me. Kalen had said he was here, and if he weren’t, I would find him.

  The King and I needed to have a little chat.

  I stalked down the hall of the tenth floor, growing more furious than I even knew was possible. Stopping at his door, I banged my fist on it like I was the police.

  Only a few seconds passed before I heard the click of the lock and the handle tu
rning. The moment the door opened, I didn’t even give him a chance to shut me out. I barged right in, shouldering past the King as I clutched the strap of my purse.

  “Well, come on in,” he stated dryly. “And help yourself.”

  “Plan on it.” My gaze roamed over the exposed brick walls and rather bare space. Like the last time I was here, there was only the large sectional couch and the TV. It still didn’t look lived in. “Hope you don’t have company.” I spun, facing him. “If you do, I don’t…”

  I trailed off, thinking that I probably should’ve looked at him before I forced my way inside. He wasn’t exactly shirtless, but that white shirt of his was completely unbuttoned, giving me an eyeful of his toned chest and a tight, ripped lower stomach.

  God, he had the kind of body that wasn’t even human.

  Probably because he wasn’t human.

  The King arched a brow. “Do you see something you like, sunshine?”

  Cheeks heating, I snapped out of my stupor before I started drooling. “Did you forget how to button a shirt?”

  A faint grin appeared. “Actually, I was going to change it. However, I was interrupted by someone banging on my door like a madwoman.”

  “Oh, I am definitely a madwoman.” I glared up at him. “How could you do that?”

  “Do what?” he asked, leaning against the wall.

  “Don’t pretend like you have no idea why I’m here.”

  “Is it because I outed you?” He crossed his arms, which made his pecs do amazing, interesting—stop it! “For your own safety.”

  Dumbfounded, I was momentarily speechless. “My own safety?”

  “There seems to be an echo in here.”

  “There’s about to be an ass-kicking in here,” I shot back, hands balling into fists. “I don’t need you looking out for my safety.”

  He tilted his head, the grin increasing. “You need someone. Anyone. But a person who is responsible.”

  “Oh my God.” I took a breath. “Do you think this is amusing?”

  “How mad would you be if I said yes?”

  My nostrils flared.

  “Very mad, I see. I can’t help it.” A full smile appeared. “You’re…adorable when you’re mad.”

  “Adorable?” I stomped my foot.

  “See. Just there. It’s cute.”

  “I am going to physically harm you.”

  “Versus mentally?” he queried.

  The fact that he was teasing me, that he wasn’t taking this seriously at all, infuriated me even more. “You had no right to do what you did.” I took a step toward him. “Do you know I spent the last hour or so listening to Ivy and Ren and Faye talk to me as if I’ve never held an iron dagger before? Do you know that if this gets back to Miles, I could be removed from the Order?”

  His gaze sharpened. “Ivy nor Ren would inform on you.”

  He was right. Ivy would never do that. At least, I hoped not. “That doesn’t mean someone like Tanner or Kalen or Faye won’t say something to someone that eventually gets back to Miles,” I pointed out. “What you did was wrong.”

  The King pushed off the wall, unfolding his arms. The shirt parted, attempting to distract me. “You left me no choice. You would not stop. I thought maybe they could talk some sense into you.”

  “Guess what? They didn’t.” I smirked when his jaw tightened. “And I’m going to repeat this for, hopefully, the last time. You do not get to tell me what I can and cannot do. Even if you and I were a thing, which we’re not, you still would not get to tell me what to do. I don’t know who you think you are—”

  “The King?” he suggested.

  “—but you have no say over what I do. Stay out of my way and out of my life,” I told him. “I mean it. There is no reason for you to interfere.”

  The King looked away, a muscle thrumming in his temple.

  Having said my piece, I started toward the door.

  “Has it ever occurred to you that I am trying to protect you? That I’m trying to keep you safe?”

  Slowly, I turned to him. “No. It hasn’t. For a multitude of obvious reasons. And besides that, I don’t need you to keep me safe or to protect me.”

  “Everyone needs someone to protect them.” He tipped back his head, his eyes closing.

  “Even you?” I scoffed.

  “Even me.”

  My brow smoothed out. I’d seen what he was capable of, so the fact that he’d admitted that was rather shocking.

  “I do not want to see harm come to you.” His voice was quiet. “I do not have to be with you to want that.”

  I flushed to the roots of my hair. “I know that.”

  “Then why are you being so difficult about this?” he asked.

  “Because…” I toyed with the strap of my purse. “Because I need to do this. I can’t sit by, not when Aric is still alive. You have to understand that.”

  The King was quiet for several moments, and then he looked at me. “If you knew that someone you…you looked fondly upon was doing something that would surely lead to their demise, would you not try to stop them?”

  “Are you saying you look fondly upon me, King?”

  His head tilted, and then he looked away.

  I laughed, but the sound lacked any real humor. “Yeah, okay. But to answer your question, I wouldn’t stop you, even if I knew it was dangerous.”

  The King’s gaze cut back to mine. “But you’d still look fondly upon me.”

  I gave him a tight-lipped smile. “No. Because it would get you out of my hair.”

  “Now, Brighton, you and I both know that’s a lie.” His chin dipped. “If something were to happen to me, you’d be devastated.”

  I didn’t even want to think about that. I didn’t want to acknowledge how thinking about that made me feel and what it meant. “You value yourself a little too highly.”

  “And you don’t value your life enough.”

  My hand tightened around my purse strap. “I value my life. And I don’t think of myself poorly.” I took a step toward him. “Aric and those fae took more than just my mom that night.” Something in my chest cracked open as I spoke. “They took…”

  “What did they take?”

  I bit my lip. “They took my feeling of security, my belief that I could protect myself and my mom—that I was capable of taking care of her. They took my purpose.”

  “Your purpose?” He faced me fully.

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I shook my head. I was not getting into this with him. “I’ve said what I needed to say. You don’t have to like that I’m out there, but you can’t stop me. If it ends with me getting myself killed, then so be it. And I don’t say that because I don’t value my life. I say that because at least I would die taking back what they stole from me.”

  “I can… I can respect that,” he said, his gaze meeting mine. His eyes were pools of golden fire. “But I won’t.”

  For a second, I didn’t think I’d heard him right. “You won’t?”

  He shook his head as he approached me. “I will watch you. I will have others watching you. Every time you step foot on that street in some silly disguise or near any location where Neal has been sighted, I will intervene.”

  My lips parted as disbelief swirled through me.

  “I will become your shadow, always present. That is what I’ll do.”

  “You…you are…”

  “Determined to keep you alive? Yes.”

  “You are out of your mind!” I didn’t stop to think. I cocked back my arm and swung my fist—

  He caught my wrist with shocking speed. “See how easy that was? I didn’t even blink.”

  Fury erupted in me like a volcano. I swung my purse around like a bat toward his big, egotistical head—

  It never made contact.

  The purse flew off my arm and from my grip as if an invisible hand had grasped it.

  “And now?” he asked, his grip on my arm firm but not painful.

  I twisted, angling my body to
his as I jerked up my knee, aiming for his groin.

  The King shifted, using his thigh to block my strike. The impact caused him to grunt. “And how about now? What else are you going to do?” He flipped me so my back was to his front. An arm clamped around my waist, yanking me back against him.

  The heat of his skin seeped through the thin material of my blouse, scorching my flesh as his other hand curved around the underside of my jaw. He forced my head back against his chest, causing my back to arch as I met his gaze. “Do you know how easy it would be for me to snap your neck? Just like that?” His thumb slipped over my thrumming pulse. I reached both arms up, one hand fisting the soft strands of his hair. “Are you going to pull my hair, sunshine? Is that your—?”

  The soft click of my blade sliding out of the cuff silenced him. His eyes widened slightly.

  I kept the edge of the blade a scant centimeter from pressing into his jugular as I smiled at him. “What are you going to do, King? I can’t decapitate you from this angle, but I can make a hell of a mess out of your throat.”

  His eyes flared with heat as he stared down at me. I felt his chest rise and fall against my back. I saw his gaze move to where my breasts were straining against the delicate strip of buttons along the front of my blouse.

  It happened so fast.

  One second, we were fighting. The next moment, it all changed. I didn’t protest as he lowered his mouth to mine, utterly unfazed by the iron at his throat. I didn’t say a word or pull away. Anger and frustration crashed into something far stronger, something rawer, and the moment his lips touched mine, I was lost.

  He was no longer the King.

  He was Caden.

  Chapter 5

  The kiss…

  Caden’s mouth moved against mine with lust-soaked intensity. He kissed—God, he kissed like a man starving. He kissed as if he were going to devour me, and I wanted that. I needed it. It was all I could think about. Or maybe I wasn’t thinking at all. Instead, I was feeling. I was just letting myself feel.

  “You drive me insane,” he growled, sliding his hand down my throat. “And even worse, I think I like it.”

  “There is something wrong with you.” I gasped as his hand cupped my breast. “There’s nothing wrong with this.” He squeezed gently, causing a hot shiver to curl its way down my spine. His arm loosened around my waist, and I felt his fingers at the buttons of my blouse. There was a light tugging motion, and then the sound of buttons hitting the floor. “I hope you didn’t like this shirt.”