Sirenfae Rena Fil’aire was in deep shit on several levels.

Not only had her whereabouts been found by her parents because of a protection spell around the wolf alpha’s house, but she’d had to show Luke her true self and that meant he one hundred percent knew she was his truemate.

She’d told him not to come find her, but she knew he was going to ignore her request.

He was just that kind of male.

In fact, she could kind of feel him right now, and that told her that he was in the Fae Realm somewhere and hunting for her.

She had no idea if he’d be able to find her. They were truemates but they weren’t mated, so their connection wasn’t very strong. If they were mated, he could find her in a blizzard. But like this? She didn’t think he’d be able to.

It wasn’t like she needed rescuing. She was the badass heroine of her own story, thank you very much. Except in her current story, she was in the part where she was totally fucked and had no clue how to get out of her predicament. She’d been locked in her room for the last few hours and was no closer to getting out of the situation now than she was when she’d been shoved in here by her parents.

Sirenfae were rare in the Fae Realm. Her clan was one of two in the realm, the fourteen members mostly made up of her family with her parents as the leaders. As was the sirenfae custom with females, she was arranged to be mated to a powerful warrior from another clan. The clans agreed to join together, her future mate’s clan acting as protectors for the sirenfae and reaping the benefits of their powers.

They didn’t share their powers with anyone outside of matings because they were often viewed as quite dangerous. Like her parents, she could use her power to access the powers of others, but unlike her parents or any other sirenfae, she could transfer her power—or the power of others—to anyone she chose. It made her extremely valuable to her clan. So when she’d taken off a few years ago and gone into hiding in the human realm, she’d cloaked herself so no fae could find her. It had changed her hair and eye color, which was something she hadn’t expected.

She wrapped a lock of her snow-white hair around her finger and rubbed the silky strands. It felt good to have it back, actually. She wondered if Luke liked it.

Ack! Do not think about that wolf.

What she needed to be figuring out was how to get the hell out of her childhood bedroom—locked—and her parents’ castle—locked and guarded.

There was a crackling sound and the door opened. She turned from where she’d been looking out the iron-coated bars of her bedroom window and found her parents—Zieg and Lu’ahn.

Just behind them came a male she didn’t recognize.

What she did realize quickly, however, was that her parents looked scared.

And then she saw the sword digging into her mother’s back.

Immediately her wings broke free, the silky silver stretching behind her like shields.

“Who are you and what are you doing to my parents?”

She reached out with her siren powers and the male snapped his fingers. She stumbled back under the wave of power he threw her way.

Shit he was powerful.

“My name is Berolith. I’m your arranged mate.”

Rena looked at her parents in confusion. “No. His name is Ra’Dnay.”

“He’s dead. Hope you didn’t have feelings for him.” Berolith shrugged casually. He nudged her mom with the sword, and she whimpered and stumbled forward.

Rena pushed away all the hurt feelings from her parents’ treatment and met them in the center of her room. Her mom’s back was bleeding from the sword.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Rena said.

“Simple,” Berolith said. He put his sword in a sheath between his wings and whistled sharply. Several males with white-feathered wings marched into the room. One of them held biceps cuffs and she could tell by the dark color that they were made of iron. The bicep cuffs locked around both upper arms with a bar that stretched across the back to prevent the wings from coming out.

Holy shit she was in trouble.

Her father took a step in front of her and her mom. “You promised us no one else would get hurt.”

“Eh.” Another casual shrug. He was so arrogant that Rena wanted to poke his eyes out. “Now, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to mate me and take me into the human realm to find four young fae who eluded my capture. One of them is a dragonfae. Once they’re captured, you will stand by my side as I slaughter my enemies.”

He moved swiftly to them, knocking her parents away and putting his hand on her throat. He squeezed just enough to show her he could snuff out her life. Her wings trembled as fear tried to inch its way down her spine.

“I don’t know any dragonfae, they’re myths.”

“I think you do. I’ve been watching the comings and goings of fae from our realm to the humans, and wouldn’t you know—you’ve got ties here. And,” he said, leaning forward and inhaling, “you smell like wolves. You will do as I command or everyone you love will suffer.”

He jerked his head toward the male with the cuffs, who put them on her parents, starting with her dad.

“No! It’ll kill them!” she said, feeling helpless with his hand wrapped around her throat.

“Eventually. You’ve got some time before they’re too far gone because they’re not one hundred percent iron.

“Honey don’t!” her mom said. “Don’t do anything he says, he’s crazy!”

The male smacked her mom across the face so hard that the sound echoed in the room like a gunshot.

“I will never mate you. I will never help you locate a dragonfae. And I will never—ever—help you slaughter innocent fae,” Rena said, spitting the words out.

The male with the cuffs appeared next to Berolith.

Rena struggled, but Berolith slammed her against the stone wall and knocked her senseless for a moment.

The cuffs were locked onto her biceps, causing her wings to retract.

She could feel the iron in the cuffs slowly seep into her skin. Iron was deadly to fae and because of that, it was outlawed in the realm except for use in punishments such as the cuffs. Fae reacted to iron like an allergy on steroids, the metal leeching their life force and powers.

“I think you’ll do everything I tell you to and more. And,” he said, leaning in again, his hot breath skirting over her cheek, “you’re going to like being on your knees for me.”

She grimaced and tried to use her siren power to pull his own power from him, but it didn’t work. He was too powerful, and the cuffs were already weakening her.

“I’ll give you some time to think,” he said, slowly licking her cheek. “But make no mistake, you will be mine and you will do as I say.”

He swept away from her, his cloak billowing behind him.

She sagged to the floor and gasped for breath, then scrubbed her hand over her cheek where he’d licked her like some gross animal. Her parents were at her side a moment later as the bedroom door clanged shut and the crackling glass sounded, alerting them to the door being magically locked.

She’d been estranged from her parents for years, but as they enveloped her in their arms and she heard her mom’s sobs, she knew that none of that mattered. All of their lives were on the line right now unless she could figure out how to get the hell away from Berolith and get some help.

“They killed the guards,” her mom said shakily as she leaned away and wiped at her wet cheeks. “He came in with an army and took over, slaughtering anyone who stood up to him. He also brought Ra’Dnay’s head to show us what he’d done. He’s crazy. I’ve heard whispers of what he was up to in the laboratory under his castle.”

“Damn it.” Rena leaned her head back against the wall. It was tempting to blame her parents. If they hadn’t been searching for her, they wouldn’t have felt her spell break and opened a portal to the human realm, and then Berolith wouldn’t have found out about her being in the human realm. And she knew exactly who the young dragonfae was—the adorable Juniper who Zoey had gushed over.

No way in hell was she going to betray the young female, her sisters, or anyone else. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to mate Berolith and help him in his crazy quest. The iron cuffs were a problem. She couldn’t draw anyone’s power with them on, and eventually all three of them would succumb to the iron poisoning.

What she needed was a miracle.

She needed Luke.