The Dread King: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (The Harbinger Book 3)

by Candace Wondrak

“And here I thought we were becoming friends,” she deadpanned. She could do this. Just a fast one. No long, lingering touches, and like she said, definitely no tongue. Faith wanted to get this over with as fast and as smoothly as possible. She’d have to tell her guys about this too, and she hoped they’d mostly get mad at Finn for giving her an ultimatum like this.

  Faith readied herself, then she took her hands to his head and forced him to bend to her. She was already pressed against him like a shirt; he could afford to do a little more work here. She closed her eyes, wanting to mentally block out as much of this as she could. When he kissed her before, she was caught off-guard. She made sure to prepare herself this time. She wasn’t going to lose herself in this kiss.

  She brought her mouth to his.

  Just a quick peck.

  He let out a soft breath through his nose, tickling her cheeks. His grip around her waist tightened. Her stomach burned with heat, her thoughts flying out of the metaphorical window.

  Just a quick…

  Her hands on the sides of his head loosened, falling to his neck. Stubbly chin grazing hers, his lips were strong and dominant, refusing to let hers go. She didn’t try to escape, though she most definitely should’ve.

  Just a…

  The arms holding her against him glided to her face, cupping each cheek carefully, as if she might break, as if his mouth was not ravishing hers. This was supposed to be just a quick peck, but it was nothing like that. Not quick, and not a peck. This was as slow and as deep as a kiss could get. This was Finn wordlessly telling her he wanted her, needed her, and Faith was too lost in it to react.

  Time was a blur. Time didn’t matter.

  But it should.

  It was Faith who finally pulled back, her mouth hanging open just enough she could inhale the shock flowing outward from every pore. Her hands still clung to his neck, and his still gripped her face. When she breathed, she felt her chest push against his. Damn, this boy was a good kisser. He had to be, to make her lose herself like that.

  For a while, they simply stood and stared at each other. Neither one made any comments or remarks about the kiss; neither one made the first move to fully disentangle from the other. She knew the very second this moment ended, guilt would sweep through her like a flood, because Finn wasn’t hers and she wasn’t his. She wasn’t allowed to kiss him and enjoy it.

  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Finn asked quietly, damn well already knowing the answer. His thumbs traced circles on her cheekbones.

  Faith tried to scowl, for she was very upset he made her do it, but then she also knew no one could force her to do anything she didn’t want to do. Did that mean, somewhere amongst all her annoyance and irritation toward Finn, she liked him still? Suddenly it didn’t seem like such an impossible thing.

  In fact, it seemed an impossibility she didn’t like him.

  But it didn’t matter whether she enjoyed it or not. She was loyal to her guys; she’d have to tell them about this, too. Super. First she’d tell them about seeing the Dread King and keeping it a secret for days, and then she’d have to tell them about the deal she made with Finn, and the price for the deal was a kiss.

  A kiss she willingly agreed to. A kiss she ended up enjoying far too much. A stupid kiss that was only supposed to be a quick peck…

  Her gaze stared at his mouth as she recalled what he said about his tongue. If he was that good of a kisser, what else could the boy possibly do with his tongue? Bad, terrible thoughts of where he could travel with his tongue crept into her mind, and Faith did her best to push them away. Too late, though. The thoughts were already there, and the more she tried not to think about it, the more she pictured the feeling of his tongue running over her in a certain spot.

  “I hate you, Finn, you little shit,” she whispered back, averting her stare from his mouth after spending far too long stuck in her brain. “I seriously hate you.”

  He gave her a charming smile that nearly melted her. God. Was she suddenly back in high school? She didn’t grow weak at the knees just because some stupid boy smiled at her. She wasn’t Cara. It took a lot more for her legs to feel like jelly.

  Although, apparently not as much as she hoped. And not when it included Finn.

  Finn was a weakness of hers, apparently, one she just couldn’t shake.

  The dick.

  “I don’t think you’d be able to kiss someone you hated like that,” Finn murmured, bringing his face down to hers. His nose brushed against her cheek as he added, “Or look at them like you’re looking at me.”

  “I’m looking at you like I hate you.” Faith’s reply was weak. She knew it, he knew it; if anyone else listened, they’d know it, too. “Not like I…like you.”

  “So you don’t like me, then?” Finn asked quietly. His hands fell to her lower back, gingerly grazing the skin between her shirt and her pants. “Your heart belongs to those other three and not me? Not even a little?”

  She lowered her gaze to his chest. The height difference between them wasn’t too terrible, but she did feel like a toothpick in his arms. Faith hated that she liked how he smelled, how he kissed, even how he currently gazed down at her like she held the answers to the universe. If only.

  “Why does it matter, Finn? Why do you care? Even if…” Faith couldn’t finish the sentence, so she started another one: “Once it’s over, you’ll go back to Earth and pretend like none of this happened.”

  In the darkness of the night, illuminated by the yellow and orange flowers around them, his green eyes were serious. “I’m past the point of pretending with you. And I don’t think I could just go back and forget all of this. Forget you? Faith, I can’t forget you even if you blow up another robo-dog in my face.”

  Robo-dog. He actually called it the right thing.

  For some reason, that startled her more than anything.

  But what did Finn expect her to say? She couldn’t promise him anything. It wasn’t just her alone in this; there were other guys to think about, other people’s feelings to consider. He knew it.

  “What do you want me to say?” she muttered, gazing to their side, at the flowers. She couldn’t look into his eyes any longer for fear she’d give in to whatever he wanted.

  “I want you to tell me the truth. If you don’t feel for me at all, I’ll stop. I’ll never make an inappropriate comment to you again, and I’ll leave your boy toys alone. But if there’s a part of you, even if it’s small, that wants me like I want you, I have the right to know.” After a pause, he spoke, “Plus…I need to know if I have to talk with the others when they get back.”

  Why the heck would he have to talk with the others?

  It came to her, and she started to say, “You mean—”

  Finn nodded once. “As much as I hate to say it, yeah, but only if you tell me now.”

  He’d talk to the others about joining their little harem, her harem. He’d become one of her boy toys. Faith didn’t know what to say, because she never thought Finn would ever agree to something like that. He always made fun of them, made fun of her for having multiple boyfriends at once. She opened her mouth to speak, to ask him to clarify just a tad bit more, but she was interrupted by growling.

  They weren’t alone. They were surrounded.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cam was not asleep when he heard Faith get up and go outside. His room did not have a window, so he could not see what she did while out there, but the air was thick with indecision and confusion. Cam knew he was not the one who should be with her right now, so he woke Finn and told him to go check on her.

  Groggily, Finn got up, stuffed his feet into his shoes, and wandered into the hall. Cam heard him do a quick search of the room Faith slept in—Cam’s Elven mother’s old room—and when she was not there, he heard his feet clunk outside.

  Finn would not make a good predator. He was not as silent as he should be. He could be quieter, if he tried, but that was the point. A true hunter never made a sound, even when they were not on the
hunt.

  Cam was a hunter. He slunk in the shadows, at home in the darkness. All this daylight took so much getting used to. After years and years in the Cove, after learning what it meant to be an Ulen, he wasn’t accustomed to such things. Sunlight, family, even love. He much preferred the darkness, the cold embrace of the unknown. He did his best to fit in with his brother and Jag and Finn, but he wasn’t like them. Not truly.

  Lying there in the darkness, Cam’s legs hung over the side of his bed. He laid on the top bunk, the same bed he had when he was younger. Why hadn’t his Elven mother gotten rid of it by now? With the mound of stones in the back a gravesite, she was missing a key component to having more kids. Why keep it all this time?

  Cam wondered if she hoped he would come back. He never once attempted to after he was turned. Going back to Springsweet was a mistake he swore to himself he would not make again. And, technically, he was exiled from Alyna; the hut was on the border between Alyna and the plains of G’alen. The Elven guards did not scout the area. Alyna was far too big for that. He supposed he could’ve come back and no one would’ve been the wiser, but what would it have gotten him? Back then, he probably would’ve killed Sellyn without hesitation. He wasn’t good at self-control.

  Now he was a master at it. Now he could stare at a pool of blood and not want to bury his face in it. He could hear the rapid beat of Faith’s heart, see the flush in her skin and not want to sink his teeth into her.

  Yes, there was that night in Springsweet with the assassin, but it was a one-time lapse in his otherwise perfect control.

  No one knew what being an Ulen was like. No one knew what it felt like to have their entire world torn from them, taken. It was true Cam was the one who turned himself, that he was his own captor, the one who sentenced himself to such a fate, but wasn’t it better than the alternative of dying? At the time, Cam thought so. Now…after learning what it meant to be an Ulen, he wasn’t as certain.

  Some fates were worse than death.

  Faith would understand the concept, for it was more than obvious she did not want to be the Harbinger, she did not want the huge responsibility that came with it. She would do her best, but it did not mean she wanted it. If she could, she’d gladly give the title up to someone else. She wasn’t prepared to make the hard choices Harbingers often had to make. She wasn’t like Reed at all. The man could easily make the difficult decisions no one else wanted to make. There were many decisions he made the world still didn’t know about. Cam would not be the one to tattle on him.

  Even after his Elven death, Cam would never betray the Harbinger, even if he was long gone.

  Still, he respected Faith for what she tried to do, and she did the best she could with the circumstance she was given. With the Elves suspecting her of murder, she wouldn’t be able to form an army to take the Dread King head-on. Elves were the most numerous; Malus were too scattered; Ulen kept to themselves and refused to deal in outside matters; Dracon would only follow their reborn high king. Without the Elves backing her up, Faith had no one. No one but her small fellowship.

  Cam inhaled. His heightened senses smelled something that wasn’t there a minute before. Sniffing again, he sat up, leaping off the bed soundlessly, landing on the pads of his feet. He dressed himself quickly, slid on his leather boots and grabbed his knapsack, slinging it across his back. He could not lose the cloak. The Count would not be happy.

  He left the hut through the front door, his eyes adjusting to the darkness immediately. The Ulen were used to darkness. In the pits, there was no light at all, and it was where every Ulen learned to control the beast within. Running as swiftly as he could, he put more distance between himself and the home of his childhood, circling around the back, where the field of glowing flowers began.

  Faith and Finn were in each other’s arms. Their hands were on each other’s necks and faces, their lips together.

  Cam crouched, watching for a moment. He was also not surprised at the sight of them together. In fact, they each held off longer than he imagined they would. Anyone with eyes could see their attraction to each other. If Jag and Light were surprised at this outcome, well, they shouldn’t be. This was a long time coming, even after Finn’s failed attempt before Springstone.

  Finally, after moments of silent embracing, Finn and Faith withdrew their lips from each other, having a muffled conversation Cam did his best not to pay attention to. Even though he watched the area, even though he tried not to listen, he heard every word they said. It sounded like Finn wanted to be with her, that he wished to speak with Cam and the others. How the proud and mighty fell.

  But Cam’s attention on the two in the field wavered when he saw movement near the backside of the hut. Four figures, as crouched as he was, though nowhere near as silent. Beneath all their fur, their skin was tan; they did not blend in with the night as well as Cam did, but it didn’t seem to matter. Both Finn and Faith were oblivious to the group approaching.

  Malus.

  No, he quickly corrected his assessment as he noted the fourth member of the group was not as hairy. Ears as long and pointed as a hand, yellow hair tied back away from her face, dirty clothes Malus would not be caught dead wearing…Sellyn. Cam’s Elven mother. His first mother.

  She was here, with a small pack of Malus, going after Faith and Finn, a knife in her hand. The Malus around her needed no weapons, for their claws were sharp enough. Their faces were scrunched in confusion—and Cam knew precisely why. They wondered if the two before them were Humans, and if so, what were two Humans doing in Sellyn’s old hut? How did they get here? Why were they here?

  Cam did not move a single muscle as he watched the group pad quietly around Finn and Faith, giving them enough space so the two did not notice until it was too late. Once they were surrounded, Finn and Faith spun so their backs were together. With a flourish of her wrists, Faith’s magical daggers formed in her hands. Finn reached to his neck when he hesitated as he saw Sellyn. Faith couldn’t see her; she only saw the two Malus closest to her. Could Finn know who she was just by inference?

  Sellyn did look like Light. Blond, blue eyes, white skin. She also looked like Cam did, beneath his gray paint. But no one had seen Cam without his paint on, so they wouldn’t know that. And if Cam had anything to say about it, no one ever would. His pale skin, his yellow hair, he left behind when he became an Ulen. His eyes, though, had never been blue like his brother and his mother.

  He was a little envious of that, though their blue depths would’ve become just as cloudy as his amber ones did after the turn.

  Before Faith could lunge at the nearest Malus, Finn muttered, “Hold on.”

  Faith shot a look over her shoulder, as if she thought he was crazy. “What? Why? They’re…”

  If Finn believed Sellyn to be the Elf they searched for, he kept it to himself. Instead, he said, “They’re not attacking us.” A pause as he glanced at the small dagger in Sellyn’s hand. “Not yet, anyway.”

  Cam could imagine Faith rolling her eyes to that and muttering something smart about letting their enemies attack them first, but Sellyn spoke, her voice as loud and strong and authoritative as he remembered, “What are you doing here? You do not belong here, Humans.”

  “We’re waiting for someone,” Finn replied, holding himself firm. “Who are you?” He needed confirmation of who she was before he would feel truly relaxed. But, judging from the way the Malus kicked at the ground, how antsy they acted, this would not end like Finn hoped it would.

  “I ask the questions here,” Sellyn said, glancing at the Malus closest to her. “Julep. There should be rope in the hut, provided these Humans haven’t ransacked it completely. Fetch it for me, will you?”

  Julep was a rather small and unimpressive Malus, her fur markings a plain brown, her ears and tail stubby. She nodded once and went for the back door of the hut.

  Faith did not like it. She stormed between Finn and Sellyn, raising her daggers. “He might be willing to go with you, but I’m not. I…�
�� Her tough words trailed off, and even from a distance, Cam saw her eyes widen as she studied the Elf before her. “Are you…” As she began to ask the question, her daggers faded into nothing, which Sellyn took advantage of.

  Had his Elven mother always been so prone to violence? Cam wondered as he watched her grab Faith. Sellyn held her arms back with one of her own, pressing her dagger against her throat. “Fight us,” Sellyn spoke to Finn, “and the girl dies.”

  Finn gave Faith an annoyed look. His fingers curled into fists like he was ready to take on each of the Malus and Sellyn, but Faith shook her head slightly. “Don’t. We’re going with them, I guess.” Her voice was unsure, and Finn let out a groan.

  Cam knew he did have intense strength; Finn’s muscles weren’t as well-hidden as Cam’s were. In all honesty, he could probably take the Malus down without a problem. The problem was the dagger Sellyn held to Faith’s neck.

  Cam let it all play out. He wouldn’t step in unless he had to, for he knew that, without Light, if Sellyn saw him, she wouldn’t recognize him. She’d hate him. She’d want to kill him. No, Cam couldn’t show himself yet.

  The one called Julep eventually returned with rope slung over her shoulders. Soon both Faith and Finn were restrained, their hands tied behind their backs. And, after Faith made a comment about the welcome party needing better manners, their mouths were muffled with a line of rope, too.

  Cam would have to apologize to Faith after it was over, for that was no way to treat a woman, unless she asked for it.

  Sellyn disappeared into the hut, soon emerging with a full satchel. She still held onto her dagger, pointing it at Faith and Finn and she gestured for them to start walking. With any luck, they’d run into Jag and Light somewhere along the way.

  Of course he felt bad he didn’t help them, but Cam didn’t want to reveal himself. And he didn’t want to kill his first mother, which he knew he would have to if she saw him like this. Sellyn was his mother no longer. His current mother, his second and final mother, was death.