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  Fire Brand, (Fated & Forbidden Series) Copyright 2016, Kristen Strassel.

  Cover Design: Jacqueline Sweet

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  FATED & FORBIDDEN

  11 authors. One PNR series.

  After lifetimes of watching her creations perpetuate misery and destruction, the creator Allendra has had enough. She’s given them a month to prove themselves capable of love… and to prove they should keep their supernatural powers.

  Some will fight, and some will fall, but all will feel the power of the Blood Moon… even Allendra herself…

  Download the short prologue to the series, The Challenge, for free at http://smarturl.it/FFChallenge

  FIRE BRAND

  Pirates have made an absolute fool out of me. After a violent invasion, I lost my crown and control of The Bay. My fellow sirens have vowed to take our invaders out one by one, luring them to their death with the one thing they can’t resist—sex. But I want to drive those bastards to their knees. I must form an alliance with the King of Chronopolis, the only man who can survive the night in my bed—phoenix shifter Asher MacKay.

  Asher insists he loses a little bit of his humanity every time he spends the night with me. I think ruthless looks good on him. And each night I set his ashes free, I feel something more for him. Damn it. Falling in love was not part of the plan.

  Now that the pirates have checked The Bay off their list of Things to Destroy, they’ve turned their sights to Chronopolis. Asher must choose a Queen that will strengthen his alliances in the region, and apparently, I’m not an option. I have a proven track record of failure.

  I’ve woken up with the hangover from hell and a fire tattoo on my wrist that tells me what I’ve known all along. Asher and I are meant to be together. The clock is ticking—if we have any chance of saving our cities, I must convince him I am his Queen before the Blood Moon.

  Chapter One

  “This is the last time we can be together, Avila.” Asher’s breath was hot against my neck. It was a sensation I’d come to crave. As a siren, I was a water creature through and through, but Asher made the chill of the damp night air go away; opened up a whole new realm of possibilities.

  I believed that I could love him.

  It was hard to protest as his lips skimmed my collarbone and dropped to my breast, working their magic. When he took my nipple in his mouth, I was willing to go along with anything he said. He scraped his teeth against the sensitive bud and nipped me.

  Now I could protest. “You always come back to me.” I ground my hips against his erection and he groaned. The vibration did unspeakable things to me in places only he could reach. I was just as guilty as he was. I couldn’t get him out of my head, or the taste of him off the tip of my tongue.

  I wanted Asher MacKay, even if it meant I destroyed him every time I was with him.

  He rolled off me and pushed his hair, long and unruly like wildfire, away from his damp face. His golden eyes were fixed on the ceiling of my houseboat. It was a moving target, and our power stirred the waves into an unnatural pattern. His jaw set in determination, and the corners of his lips quivered. I couldn’t tell if he was fighting a smile or a frown, but it was something.

  I drew the deepest breath I could, panicking when it caught in my lungs, turning to something solid. Stone. A siren’s death knell. No one had ever rejected me. If any man was strong enough to resist a siren, he’d turn her to stone. I’d never actually seen it happen, I’d only heard the legends. I refused to be the first in a generation to prove it to be true.

  “You always come back to me,” I repeated.

  “This time I have to mean it. The hardest thing I’ll ever do is resist you.”

  He wouldn’t look at me. The swaying light did nothing to disguise the emotion that flickered in his eyes. I knew as much as his head had convinced him this was the right thing, his heart didn’t believe a word of what he was about to say.

  “Every time I come back to life, I’m not the same as I was before. Now the concept of peace for the Kingdom seems unachievable. I’ve been King almost fifty years. I guaranteed I could bring peace to Chronopolis. It’s the only reason I have my title. I’m not sure if it makes me a liar or a fraud, but I know what it does make me. A failure. You’re the only thing that doesn’t change. Actually, that’s a lie, too. Every time I come back to life, I want you more. I crave the taste of your skin. I’ll die without you—for real. I don’t know how you do it to me. I think you dipped my heart in the ashes of all the other men you lured to the end.”

  “You rise from those ashes,” I reminded him. Asher was the only man I’d ever slept with who didn’t deserve to die. “Is it bad I consider that a compliment?”

  “No. I wouldn’t expect anything less.” He reached for my hand and kissed it. When he did little things like that, I could convince myself that he belonged to me. “The League no longer sees me as a peacekeeper.”

  “So what?” I rolled onto my stomach and wrapped a lock of his hair around my finger. I tugged and he closed his eyes, relishing the feeling. Asher loved it when I played with his hair. If I kept it up, I could make him come just like this. But I wanted that amazing cock of his inside me before he was totally spent, so I only gave it one more playful yank, and positioned myself so he had no choice but to meet my gaze when he opened his eyes. “Other kingdoms attacked Chronopolis. What were you supposed to do, roll out the welcome mat and throw a party? That’s not peace, that’s weakness. All of your actions have protected the people of the city from future attacks.”

  Asher shook his head. He was so beautiful, even when he was being stubborn. He stretched his long, lean body, filling much of my bed. Every bit of him was sun-kissed and weathered in a way that made it easy to trust him. This man had experience. He’d come back from the dead more times than I could count, and he’d live forever. His reputation as a peaceful creature made him King, but in battle, he was absolutely magnificent. I’d only seen photos and heard the legends of him shifting to a phoenix to fight, red and gold wings as brilliant as the surface of the sun broke through his back. His fingers would become talons, and he obliterated any opponent that dared fight him with fire.

  “They’re afraid of you.” I sat up and used the only weapon that stood a chance against him—my body. Warmth tickled my skin as he took it all in. Fire and water, we’d turn each other to smoke. And if Asher made good on his promise to stop seeing me, he’d be the one to destroy me.

  Asher pulled me down on top of him, and my lips crashed against his. His power coursed through me. I tangled my hands in his hair again, doing absolutely anything I could to change his mind. But I couldn’t complete my mission. I squirmed in Asher’s grip, just above his cock.

  “Let me have you.” I could hardly break the kiss long enough to get the words out.

  His nails sharpened, piercing the skin on my shoulders. I held in my scream. Shit. It wasn’t the blood that scared me. So much of this man was still a mystery to me, even though I knew every inch of his body in its human form. This could be the beginning of his shift and if
he shifted, it was game over. He exhaled smoke.

  “I want you. More than I can ever explain. Each time I rise from the dead, you give me life.” He struggled to get the words out. “Never again after tonight. The League will never allow me to be King with you as my Queen. They already see you as a weakness. The city hasn’t been attacked, Avila.” He laid me down beside him, and his fingers looked normal as he ran them over my body, stopping between my legs and cupping my throbbing pussy. A couple of quick passes over my clit and the heat threatened to sear me. “I provoked those attacks. I threatened to invade other kingdoms’ land.”

  He didn’t fight fair with me, so it was no surprise he’d be cunning with his enemies. But when he broke me apart, he put me together better than I was before. Every time we were together, I took a little of his strength, and in turn, he received some of my madness. Soon we’d be so much a part of each other he never be able to resist me. I had what he needed.

  “Take their cities. If they can’t defend what they have, they don’t deserve to keep it.”

  He smirked. “True. But right now, I’m vulnerable. Everyone’s watching me. The League has declared me a security risk, and they insist that I show a strong line of unity with their ideals, or the people of the Kingdom will be quick to blame me for any attacks. They’ll see it as retaliation. They won’t be willing to fight for us.”

  “Same goes for them. You’re one man. Let the people see the real you, not what The League wants.” I’d never shake my disdain for the council that ruled Chronopolis. Asher was King, but it was a symbolic title. “They’ll fight for you. A real person. A title is too abstract. Everyday people can’t identify with King Asher. But Ash MacKay they’ll be willing to lay it on the line for. If not, you can’t save what no one is willing to defend.”

  Asher’s fingers quickened, swirling around my clit with purpose. No more lazy circles. My vision clouded. He was determined to win this argument by any means possible. He smiled in satisfaction as my climax rolled through me.

  “You can’t…blame this…on me.” I gasped the words as he plunged his fingers inside me. My inner walls throbbed, trying to trap him inside me. Our nights together always ended the same way, but this couldn’t be the last one. I refused to let it be.

  “I want to make good on my promise to the Kingdom. Rule Chronopolis the way I said I would.” He licked the taste of me from his fingers as I caught my breath. “By any means necessary.”

  “Tell me what that means.” I didn’t have to add for me.

  He chuckled. “That’s what I’m trying to do. You’re as stubborn as you are beautiful.”

  Exactly what I thought about him. I rolled my eyes. “Flattery will get you nowhere. Maybe that’s why your title is in jeopardy, Your Majesty.”

  “It means that I’ll choose a Queen that will restore the people’s faith in the stability of Chronopolis. I can’t please everyone. You know that as much as I do.”

  That stung. I’d been in his position, as Queen of The Bay, before his precious League stripped me of my crown. My legs were still jelly, but I didn’t have the luxury of time tonight, even as an immortal. The finality of his declaration scared me. I always got what I wanted.

  I straddled Asher once again. “Are you telling me you’re in love with another woman?”

  He shook his head, pursing his lips together like he might regret the words that would escape from them. “It’s duty, Avila. Nothing more.”

  “You have a choice,” I reminded him.

  “My choice is not to do it.” He sighed. “But for the good of Chronopolis, I’ll form a union with a neighboring Kingdom.”

  He didn’t say Queendom.

  “I have experience.” It pained me to bring it up.

  “You were overthrown.” There was no emotion in his voice. I’d been Queen of the Chronopolis Bay for centuries, until The League cut The Bay off from the city, leaving me vulnerable to attack. The sirens didn’t have the resources alone to fend off enemies. Now The Bay was full of pirates and anyone else who’d been cast away from their Kingdom. Full of trash, in our opinion. My fellow sirens couldn’t seduce them as a whole with our song, because it wasn’t an organized alliance. Instead we did what we could, taking them out one at a time.

  I’d originally started hooking up with Asher in hopes of getting back in the good graces of The League. That’s all it was supposed to be. Until we realized we had much more in common than a carnal need for each other. He came to me more frustrated each time, needing release and more importantly, to feel powerful. The League punished him for being a product of what they made him—an ineffective leader.

  He needed me as much as I needed him. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Sirens didn’t fall in love. And before tonight, I thought the feeling was mutual.

  I pinned him down by his shoulders, moving my lips over his skin but refusing to touch him with more than a whisper of my breath. “Your only hope is if you choose a woman more ruthless than me—”

  “She doesn’t exist.”

  “Exactly.” I cradled his face in my hands. “Any other woman will be a sign of weakness. She won’t be able to give you what you want. I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about respect. And the madness manifesting inside you—the thing you’re so afraid of—she’ll feed it. Your plan will backfire.”

  He needed a Queen who gave zero fucks about what The League wanted, or he’d find himself without a job.

  The light in his eyes extinguished. “I became a part of something bigger than myself when I accepted this title. I have to think of the city first. My concerns come second.”

  “They’ve brainwashed you. I promise if you don’t break away from The League, you’ll destroy everything you love,” I whispered. The truth rendered Asher powerless. I rose to my knees, positioning my still shaky legs to take his cock. I relished the feel of him inside me. The power that coursed through his body into mine.

  He didn’t need anyone by his side. But he’d chosen me.

  It had to mean something to him. I never thought I was capable of this kind of emotion for any other being.

  “I worked my whole life for this.” He struggled to speak as he moved me up and down his shaft.

  “But you can’t live without me.” That hard to speak thing was contagious.

  “I can’t destroy you.” He stilled, with the tip of his cock still inside me. My body went crazy with the intense need for more. “I’m stronger every time I come back to life. You make me stronger.”

  I burst out laughing. He totally contradicted himself. “You’re the mother fucking King. You don’t need anyone.”

  “They’ll rebel. The people of the village will follow. Without The League, I have no military, no money, and no support.”

  Asher wanted his title more than he wanted me. What he didn’t understand was his title would destroy him. Chronopolis wouldn’t come back to life so easily. At least with me, he had a chance to rise from the ashes. And his title and I had something in common. Whether he wanted me or not—I was a siren. I lured men to their deaths, no matter how powerful, no matter what army they had behind them. No one had ever resisted my song. The countless bodies of my former lovers on the ocean floor was all the proof I needed.

  “I’ll come to the castle.” I sunk down on his dick, taking advantage of his shock. “I’ll lure you away from your Queen or you can watch me turn to stone. It’s your choice.”

  “You can’t do that,” he said through gritted teeth. “That’s why this is the last time I can see you. You have to stay away.”

  The heavy feeling faded. Strange. No matter what King Asher of Chronopolis said, he couldn’t resist me. His cock swelled, and we were running out of time together. “Never,” I gasped.

  I scrambled off him, taking him in my mouth without wasting a drop of cum. I relished the sweet taste of him, even more when the flavor turned smoky. His body burned and crumbled, turning to embers every time I brought him to climax.

  Gathering
the ashes carefully, I scooped them into the ceramic dish I kept on my nightstand for this purpose. The sea was violent tonight, a storm rumbled in the distance. I held the rail of my boat, once again blowing the remains of Asher toward his beloved Chronopolis. Away from me, back to those who ruled him, no matter what his title was. That was our tradition, so he could find his way home. The walls that shielded the city had been compromised, and the lights from the buildings inside twinkled in response, welcoming their King back to where he insisted he belonged.

  I could only wait for him to rise and pray he came to his senses.

  Chapter Two

  “He dumped me!” I didn’t wait for my bandmates to ask how I was. I made my announcement as soon as I met them backstage at the club we played every weekend. It had been our gig ever since we relinquished our Bay to the pirate invaders.

  My bandmates were also my roommates, but I’d spent the day in my bedroom, not ready to talk about last night.

  My best friend, Teal, stilled her cymbals. She smirked as I flung myself on the couch in front of her drum set. “Asher MacKay is nothing more than a booty call. I know that, he knows that, and everyone besides you knows that. Don’t question it. There’s something to be said for that kind of relationship.”

  “You kill him every time you fuck him.” Penelope, our bassist, joined me on the couch and flipped her inky hair over her shoulder. “It’s not a relationship, it’s a challenge for both of you to see who can destroy the other one first.”

  Teal shook her head. “That makes it sound like a relationship.”

  “Like you guys know anything about relationships.” My bandmates were sirens, too, and one-night stands were a necessity for all of us. We killed every man we lured into our grasp. We had no problem packing the small club we played just outside the walls of Chronopolis, with the waves lapping against the back deck, but not everyone in our audience made it home after the show. “Asher’s our best chance at getting The Bay back.”