Monstrous Love Bites Back - Short Story Anthology

HELP! I ACCIDENTALLY TRADED MYSELF TO THE FAE KING ...

written by BindingTies

watch/listen to the audiobook chapter on YouTube

*****MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY*****

Really, the title sums it up. I did it. I could argue he tricked me into doing it, but in the end, I agreed to give myself to him, happily, and all I got in return was a crummy internship with no salary.

If you want details of how it happened (ok, the sex was mind-blowing, but the rest was embarrassing), then I invite you to keep reading. However, let me preface the tale by saying, I'm supremely average—height, weight, grades, talent, hair, sports, everything. If there was one area where I'm slightly above average, it would be sewing and design, so my dream is getting my foot in the fashion industry.

Other than that, I'm nothing special.

Which is why, I think, it took me so long to believe something freakishly out of the ordinary was happening to me.

Back to the beginning, though, and I'll tell it like I lived it so you too can savor every excruciating moment.

The morning I traded myself, I went to my favorite coffee shop where my walking, talking dream-boat-barista worked. He'd been there for about a week, but already knew all the regulars' orders, and was a complete flirt. He was the flame, and all the customers, including me, were the helpless moths in his shining presence.

When I walked in, Lana Del Rey's Love started playing, as it had for the past several days. Plus, as I stepped to the counter, my barista lifted his gaze to stare right at me, a smile on his wide lips. He was poised with an animal grace—that's the only way to describe it. He was the wolf in the forest and I was the rabbit who stepped on a twig.

"Good morning, Hart," I said.

"Morning, Brenna, the usual? Large café latte, soy milk with hazelnut syrup?"

My heart. "You always know what I want."

Hart was probably in his early to mid-twenties, but had an ageless smoothness to him. Narrow, muscular build, a little over six feet tall, olive-toned skin, dark brown eyes and hair that fell in perfectly messy waves. Plus he had a dancer's agility as he moved behind the counter. Lana's golden voice strummed the word love, and all I could do was agree.

Since I had first seen him, sketches of him began filling my notebooks as I mentally dressed him my own designer creations...and mentally undressed him....

My coffee was ready.

"Do you have the time?" I asked. Yes, I was willing to stoop to any trick, including hiding my watch under my sweater sleeve. Anything to spend a few extra seconds with him.

His head lifted with a slow, strange grace. "I have all the time in the world."

I gasped.

For a split second, everything and everyone in the room froze, and for the barest, fastest glimpse, he changed. A great rack of antlers appeared on his head, growing from his head. Emerald moss sprang to life on the counter and vines hung from the walls. His brown curls were longer and more unruly than before, he bared his teeth—sharp and long, and his barista apron and black shirt fucking disappeared completely.

He was naked. A large carafe, strategically placed by cruel fate, hid the extent of his glory past the muscled V of his narrow waist. There might have been fur at his hips....