The furniture and decor matched the style of everything else in the castle, and I had to admit it was beautiful. There was a gigantic bed with luxurious-looking sheets in the center of the space. Off to a corner, there was a large pool. On the wall near the closet, there was a door that I could see opened into a human-looking bathroom.

Triton led me to the bed and sat me down on the edge of the mattress. He remained standing, and I eyed his skirt.

He should’ve been hideous in it, but even the silk getup couldn’t conceal his sex appeal.

The color of it brought my attention to the lone scales scattered across his body, but that didn’t dull my attraction to him either.

“Sweetheart,” the king said, and my gaze snapped upward.

He’d totally caught me checking him out again.

Fantastic.

“Hmm? I’m just tired,” I said. “I spent almost 24 hours shivering on the beach, without food.”

His forehead creased. “That wasn’t intentional. No one told me humans ate so frequently. My people only need one meal every second or third day.”

My eyebrows shot upward.

“Regardless, the attraction you feel is normal. Our bond is incomplete, and the magic will push us to finish it,” he said.

“How do we seal it?” I asked.

“Sex.”

Oh.

Wow.

“What if we don’t?” I countered.

“The magic gets stronger.” He studied me for a moment. “It’s best not to leave it incomplete for long, but I think getting some sleep may help you come to terms with the changes faster.”

I nodded.

I was crazy attracted to the guy, but that didn’t mean I was ready to jump in bed with him and make our bond complete or whatever.

“If the bond isn’t sealed, can it still be broken?” I asked.

“Only through death. An unfinished bond can be twisted, but not broken. And twisted bonds are not something we will ever experience.”

“How does that happen?”

“A bonded mate fucks someone else without sealing their bond,” he said simply.

Geez.

Okay, then.

“So a lot of people died in your war?” I asked him.

His expression darkened. “We call it the Dragons’ War, but it was our entire world against a monster one of the dragons created. While the strong among us fought, the gentle stayed home. The monster created a plague that spread quickly between the helpless families of those who were fighting. We lost everyone who wasn’t a warrior, which was the vast majority in every society that fought.”

My eyes widened. “But the monster is gone?”

“Yes. We hoped our numbers could recover, but we had been at peace for so long before the war that even most of the female warriors remained home, and were lost. There are so few women left that after the demons discovered your compatibility, we eventually accepted that we need humans.”