Page 14 of Love Bites Hard (Mated to the King #2)

fourteen

IZZY

I paid close attention to the lake as I purified the water. If anyone put themselves in danger, I’d have to stop, of course. Clothing was the only acceptable casualty in a war of sex. Underwear in particular.

Thankfully, the wolves who were pulled in by my magic stayed close to the shore, just hanging out in the water without searching for me.

I heard Porter’s snarl through our mental bond, and my lips stretched in a wicked smile.

Served the bastard right.

“What did you do?” he demanded.

“I told you I didn’t want to sleep alone.”

“I’ll kill every fucking man whose scent is in our room.”

“MY room, you mean? You’ve never slept there. And good luck.”

He wasn’t going to get into Vamp Manor while he was raging, even if he lost control of himself enough to try. Which I didn’t really think would happen.

I was close enough to his mind to hear a hesitant female consciousness brush against Porter’s mind, distracting him from his fury. “Alpha? This probably isn’t the best time to tell you, but you said you wanted to be alerted…”

“What?” he asked sharply.

“Much of the pack is feeling your mate’s magic luring us toward the lake.”

He roared so loudly, it rang through the pack’s link.

I grinned widely.

This war was mine.

“Thanks for letting me know,” he forced out.

“Yeah.”

Their connection ended, and I pulled back. Porter followed me to my mind immediately. “What the fuck are you doing, Isabella?”

“You declared a sex war. It’s not my fault if you regret the outcome,” I drawled.

“I sure as hell didn’t declare a sex war. What does that even mean?”

“You threatened me not to get myself off after taking me to the edge, then walked away. What did you think it was going to accomplish? Pissing me off? I’m not the kind of woman you can walk all over, asshole. I’ve been nice because of the hell you’ve been through, but I’m done. You started the war—I just made it official.”

“End it,” he demanded.

I laughed humorlessly. “I’m having way too much fun for that, alpha.”

He snarled into my mind again, and I knew he was coming for me. “I’ll end it for you.”

Good fucking luck .

I made my way to the deepest part of the lake. In general, magical beings could hold their breath longer than humans, which meant there was a good chance he could reach me, even down there. It wasn’t any deeper than the pool in Vamp Manor, and I knew the vampires could swim to the bottom of that. Which meant Porter could probably reach me.

But the lake was a lot wider than the pool.

And though the water was clear, there were no lights to help him see to the bottom, which meant I’d be hidden.

Our mate bond did mean he could somehow feel my location at all times, but I wasn’t sure whether that would help him or not. Only time would tell. I’d never tapped into that particular part of our bond’s magic myself, so I didn’t know how it worked.

I heard Porter’s command ring through the pack’s link as I settled against the bottom of the lake. His magic had never felt so strong before. It cut through the half-assed hold of my magic’s lure like butter.

“Everyone will get away from and stay away from the lake until tonight,” he commanded, his voice ringing with authority. “If you feel my mate’s magic, shift and run into the forest until you’re free of it.”

I felt the pack’s agreement. Even those who didn’t like him much or wanted me dead respected his power, and fell into line.

Just in case he could locate me, I swam around slowly. I wasn’t giving him control over me while I was in the lake. Not even a little.

When I knew the people around me had been given enough time to get away, I strengthened the pull of my magic. Porter growled into my mind in response, and I smiled.

I paid close attention to the surface of the water above me, waiting for the inevitable feeling of the alpha diving in.

Sure enough, his smooth entry into the water caught my attention a few minutes later.

I waited until he had nearly reached me before shooting away in the opposite direction. The rapid motion would trigger his instinct to chase me, but considering our bond and the pull of my magic, that didn’t really matter.

He surfaced, and when he disappeared from the water, I focused on the top long enough to realize he’d gotten in the boat I’d seen tied to the dock so many times.

It either belonged to him, or he’d commandeered it. Both seemed equally possible.

“Do you realize the situation we’re in?” he growled into my mind. “We can spend the entire day here while I try to fish you out and haul you back to our room. Or you can just come up here and talk to me.”

“ When has that ever worked for me with you? Every time we talk, you end up basically telling me that what I feel and want doesn’t matter compared to what you feel and want. Why should I give in to you yet again, and give you even more power over me?”

“I have no fucking power over you,” he snarled back. “When have you ever done what I wanted?”

“You’re holding me captive in your pack. Forcing me to sleep in your room, despite my lack of comfort here and my repeated requests for you to share it. Only feeding me when you want to. You bound my mind to yours and your pack without asking me or warning me.” I paused for a moment, my body trembling slightly with my anger, before I went on.

“You’ve left me to deal with the pack’s link—hearing half of them despise me and half obsess over me, daily—on my own. I’ve tried to be patient and understanding, but the only thing you’ve ever done for me is ask my sisters to come for the day. You don’t even call me by the name I choose to go by. Everything is always about you. So don’t fucking try to tell me that you don’t have power over me. I agreed to be your mate, but I’ve been dragged into the rest of this shit unaware and without any semblance of a say in it.”

He snarled into my mind.

When I focused on him through the link, I could feel his chest heaving as he sat on the floor of the boat, his massive legs sprawled out in front of him. Even more than that, I could feel his intense shock at my words.

He genuinely hadn’t realized, or didn’t believe, what I’d said.

I added, “My power over whether or not we have sex is the only control I have in this situation, and you took that away from me yesterday when you left me on our bed. So no, I’m not going to get out of the water and talk to you. I’m going to stay here as long as I want. Maybe I’ll even get myself off, because at least down here, you can’t try to take charge of my body. You started this war, but you won’t win it.”

My eyes were stinging when I stopped talking, but I ignored the feeling. I couldn’t cry underwater. I wouldn’t cry underwater.

Porter didn’t reply, not that I expected him to. What was he going to do, declare me his yet again and try to force me to the surface of the water?

It wouldn’t work.

A few minutes passed, and he didn’t get back in the water.

Instead, I felt the boat start to move.

It crossed the lake and stopped at the dock.

I wasn’t sure whether to cry or thank him when he didn’t get back in the water or demand anything else from me. So, I didn’t do either.

And when I tapped into his mind closely enough to see him sit down next to my bikini, beneath a tree, I finally let out a long breath.

He hadn’t won again.

I wasn’t going to let him win again.

After the sun set and the moon rose, I finally admitted to myself that I was starving, food-wise. And that I needed to feed emotion-wise too.

The second part was a predicament, because I was not going to drink from Porter until I had no other choice. I was used to keeping my magic under wraps when I was hungry, but the kind of hunger that accompanied spending a day and a half pushing my magic into the water around me was a different kind of beast.

My power was going to radiate, pulling everyone nearby toward me no matter how hard I tried to control it. There was no way around it. And Porter would probably think it was another battle in our war.

Maybe it was.

I didn’t know.

I was just exhausted, and I didn’t want to be the one to accept defeat by doing a walk of shame out of the water.

His mind brushed against mine so gently, I wondered if I’d imagined it for a moment.

“Izzy?” he finally asked. It was the first time he’d ever used my nickname. Maybe I should’ve found it big or important, but it just felt hollow.

“What?”

“I asked Evan to drop some food off at our room. Will you go back with me so we can talk? We clearly have things to figure out, and we need to eat.”

My anger tried to swell, but I was too tired to tap into it.

And too sad.

“I don’t want to talk,” I said. “But I’ll eat.”

“That’s fine.”

I made my way through the water. Though he’d been the one to ask me to come out, it still felt like accepting defeat.

There was no one around when I got out—and instead of immediately yanking his shirt over my head, Porter stood at the edge of the lake with my bikini in one hand and his shirt in the other. He offered me both, and I eyed him.

After a beat of uncertainty, I decided to lean into the ongoing sex war and took the bikini.

He didn’t look away as I pulled it on, but he was quiet, and gave me space.

He didn’t comment on my radiating magic as we started toward the Manor. And he didn’t try to convince me to end the war, either.

We walked in silence.

It would’ve been awkward if it wasn’t so insanely tense.

I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but Porter seemed strangely calm and laid-back. I had no idea what to think or feel about that.

“Do you want to shift and carry me back?” I asked him, a few minutes down the road. It was a long walk at human speed, and I wanted to get it over with quickly.

“Sure.” He stopped long enough to strip. Instead of handing me his clothes, like he had in the past, he left them on the ground. “I’ll come back for them,” he said, when he noticed me eyeing them.

He shifted, but I looked back at the clothes.

It seemed ridiculous for him to make another trip.

I grabbed the bundle before climbing onto his back and burying my hands in his fur. It was insanely soft. It took a lot of effort to resist running my fingers through it.

The warmth of his body felt ridiculously good against mine as I held on to him. And though I wouldn’t have admitted it, something about having him against me just felt right .

I slid off Porter’s back and picked the foil-wrapped plates up off the floor in front of our room. He plucked them from my hands before I’d fully straightened, so I grabbed the door and opened it, still holding his clothes against my torso. When he set the food down on the bench at the foot of the bed, I handed his clothes back before slipping into the closet to change.

Everything still reeked of random men, but I hadn’t heard another word about it from Porter yet.

My bikini went back in the drawer (it was clean enough), and I pulled on a pair of loose sleep shorts and a bralette. I would’ve been more comfortable braless and in a cropped tee, but sacrifices had to be made for the sex war to be won.

Boob sacrifices were among the acceptable kinds.

When I emerged, Porter was sitting on the floor with a covered plate of food on his lap. I realized he was waiting for me before he ate, and I sat down closer to him than I genuinely wanted to be.

Though I liked feeling him against me, I wasn’t stupid enough to let myself get used to the comfort. Or even really embrace it.

He was going to be a jerk again.

And he was going to walk away again.

I grabbed my plate and unwrapped it, though he still hadn’t touched his own, and dug into the food. Steak, potatoes, and steamed veggies were a favorite of the wolves—and a definite win in my book.

“I’m doing everything wrong,” Porter said.

The words caught me off guard, but I didn’t stop the forkful of potatoes headed straight for my mouth.

“If my mom and sisters were here, they’d kill me. I should be doing everything I can to make this easier for you.”

That one made me pause for a moment, but I caught myself quickly and continued eating.

Porter ran a hand through his hair. It was just as messy as usual, but maybe a little more tangled than it often was. “What you said when you were in the lake was right. I’m sorry I’ve hurt you, and I’m going to do better.”

I took another bite of potatoes.

Nope, wasn’t acknowledging that promise. I didn’t believe him. And even if I had believed him, I wasn’t going to act any different. He hadn’t earned that.

Finally, he unwrapped his plate and started eating too.

Guess we were done talking.

Finally.