Page 17 of Love Bites Hard (Mated to the King #2)

seventeen

IZZY

The next two weeks passed quickly.

And strangely.

The sex war technically continued, but Porter didn’t fight back. He let me tease him, but didn’t really tease me. Didn’t try to touch me, either. Without him fueling the fire, my efforts grew half-hearted. I still wore my most revealing clothing and grinded my ass against him now and then, but he didn’t comment on it unless he was complimenting me.

He was exhausted when he got to our room every night, but open and playful when he braided my hair every morning.

I would’ve been concerned about his tiredness, but every time I peeked into his mind, I found him working with Evan. Sometimes, they were talking to or questioning pack members.

Once, I saw him kill someone who had been secretively communicating with one of Curtis’s allies outside Mistwood and the pack.

But most of the time, they were working through paperwork and other stuff like that.

Thanks to Blair, I knew that the king’s mates were typically expected to help run their kingdom. There was a lot to do, and two people could handle it a lot better than one.

But Porter hadn’t asked me to. Or offered me the role. Obviously, I wasn’t going to try to take it. So, I wasn’t involved.

I spent all of my time in the lake—and honestly started to get bored of it, for the first time in my life.

It was relaxing, but apparently there was such a thing as too much relaxation.

Maybe I needed to see if any of the women running businesses in Wolf Manor needed some help or something.

With my mind made up, I got out of the water and pulled my swimsuit on earlier than usual. Porter had picked me up from the lake every day, so I hadn’t done the walk back in a while. But I didn’t need that.

I walked over to my snack basket beneath the tree I always left it at, and grabbed my towel. I’d pulled it over my shoulders and wrapped it around my body before I realized it was slightly damp.

It must’ve rained while I was in the lake.

It wasn’t wet enough not to use it, so I dried my face as much as possible, and quickly did the same with the rest of my body too. I finally looked down at my skin when I pulled the towel off my legs, and horror struck me.

Glitter.

Streaky, uneven glitter.

I immediately lifted the towel to my nose and sniffed.

Chlorine.

Someone had dipped my towel in chlorinated water while I was swimming, and brought it back.

What the hell?

I grabbed my phone out of the basket and opened my camera, watching my eyes widen as I saw the glitter streaked across my face too.

Another look down showed the same over the rest of my body.

Fury rolled through me.

I hated glitter, and the streaks of it were even worse than the normal thin layer that would’ve appeared if I’d simply gone swimming in chlorine.

Was this Porter’s fault?

Did he think that was part of the sex war?

Because it wasn’t .

But if it was his idea… well, he’d definitely won the battle.

My fingers trembled as I pulled up Blair’s contact information and hit the button to call her. She answered after it rang a few times.

“Hey, Iz! How’s it going?”

“Bad. I need a favor.”

“I’m listening.”

“Can you chlorinate one of your pools?”

“Sure.” There was a pause before she asked, “What happened?”

“A chlorinated towel. I don’t know if it was Porter or someone else, but I’m all streaky. And chlorine would probably kill the fish in my lake, so that’s not an option.”

“I’ll add it to the water right now. Will Porter let you leave the pack’s land?”

Evan had set up a guard for me that first day, and though he stayed back, he was always there. The only times he left was when Porter ordered everyone to stay away from me.

I’d never tried to escape him, but given my speed, I could outrun him if I tried.

And I did remember Evan’s map. And his explanation about the path that circled the entire manor. It wasn’t that far from the vampire wing to where I was. “I won’t give him a choice.”

It would probably only work once… but maybe I wasn’t as trapped as I’d thought.

“Alright, I’m headed for the pool now. It’ll be ready whenever you get here.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course. This is what sisters are for.”

I ended the call and glanced into the forest. I could see the wolf in the trees, watching me. I could’ve told him what I was doing… but if Porter was responsible for the towel, that bastard could deal with a little worry until he figured out where I was going.

I lifted a hand to wave at the guard—then ran.

Getting into Vamp Manor was a whole different beast. The guards at the doors weren’t thrilled about letting me in, so I had to call Blair back. She had to call them too, before they finally let me through.

Porter’s mind touched mine as I stepped through the doors.

“Why am I getting a call from your guard to tell me that you made a run for it?” He sounded strangely calm. I’d expected fury. Then again, he’d calmed down a lot since he promised to do better.

Plus, he could feel my location. He would know without asking that I was with the vampires.

“Probably because I made a run for it.”

“You can’t win our sex war from Vamp Manor.”

“I’ve already won the sex war. You just haven’t surrendered yet.”

“I tried to surrender. You refused. Why did you go to the vampires?”

That was true.

And a valid question, from his point of view. Unless he had chlorinated my towel.

I headed down the hallway, toward the elevator that would lead up to Blair’s gigantic pool. The thing was a masterpiece. It was at least ten stories high, made of gorgeous stone, with a handful of different tunnels and caves. It could star in any siren’s wet dream. Which was why Hale had built it in the first place.

A siren could lure anyone, but to lure a siren? A pool like that was your best bet.

“Did you put chlorine on my towel?” I asked him.

There was another pause. “Why would I put chlorine on your towel? I’m trying to convince you to give up the war, not piss you off.”

Another valid question.

“That wasn’t an answer, Porter.”

“No, I did not put chlorine on your towel. Who would do that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe someone heard it doesn’t react well with siren skin. Have you told anyone about it? And found everyone who wants me dead?”

“I don’t think I’ve mentioned it to anyone, but I’ll try to remember if I have. I’ve been working through the pack members to weed out anyone disloyal, but there are ways around exposing your thoughts and feelings to the alpha. It’ll take time, but I’ll find them. Especially if they tried to hurt you.”

I let out a slow breath and nodded even though he couldn’t see me. Stepping into the elevator, I leaned back against the wall.

It had only been a few weeks since I was there, but it felt like a lifetime.

“I asked Blair to chlorinate her pool. There’s no way to get the glitter off, and it’ll look a lot worse if it’s streaky than if I just take a dive. I would do it on our land, but the chlorine could hurt the fish.”

“I didn’t know you were that partial to the fish.”

My lips curved upward slightly. “I work hard to maintain a healthy eco system.”

“Your sex war has me so horny, even that somehow turns me on.”

I laughed aloud as the doors opened, and I faintly heard my sisters’ voices down the hall.

“I think that works in my favor.”

“Everything works in your favor if it gets us closer to you letting me surrender, baby.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“I’ll take that. And I’ll be headed your way as soon as I talk to Hale about it. I trust the vampires, but I don’t like knowing there are walls and security guards that don’t answer to me between us.”

“Alright. You’re going to want to go back to sleeping in the forest after you find me, though. The glitter will get everywhere.”

“I like glitter.”

“Liar. No one truly likes glitter when they can’t scrub it off their skin and out of their hair.”

He chuckled. “I’ll like glitter if it’s on you. And if it’s on both of us, it’s just another way to publicly claim you.”

“Good point. We should’ve tried that from the beginning. Glitter, instead of public sex.”

“It would be more fun to combine the two.”

I snorted as I reached the wide, open room that housed the pool.

My sisters all looked at me, gathered around the pool and wearing their swimsuits.

“Hey, Iz!” Clementine waved from the poolside.

“I guess we don’t need to ask how she is,” Zora remarked. “She’s grinning like a moron.”

“She can hear you,” I said.

“She’s probably too happy to care, though,” Blair said, winking at me before she leaned over the water and dipped her hand in the pool.

When she pulled it out, there was a thick layer of glitter on her skin.

“How much did you add?” Avery asked, eyeing the glitter.

“Too much,” Zora grumbled. “I’ve never seen it that thick.”

“It was a happy accident,” Clementine said cheerfully. “The fae will love it tonight.”

Blair’s eyes widened as Clem dove into the water, and she looked at me. “We have a problem, other than your streaky glitter.”

“Already?” I strode toward my sisters, hugging all three of them that were still dry.

“I forgot to check my schedule,” Blair said, as she hugged me back. “We’re supposed to host the fae tonight. Water helps ease the effects of their eclipses somehow. With our magic improving the water, they think it’ll make a huge difference”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not really sure how it works, but the fae realm has been eclipsed for a while. Apparently it makes it difficult for them to fight beastly tendencies. We were going to help them—but they need the water we purified. And I just poured chemicals in it.”

“Too many chemicals,” Zora added.

“Right.” Blair ran a hand over the top of her head. “Shit. I’ll have to ask Damian to call Kai’s guys.”

“We can probably have them use my lake,” I said. “I’ll need to make sure Porter’s okay with it, but I don’t see why he wouldn’t be.”

Her eyes brightened a little. “That would be perfect.”

I set my phone on the floor.

“What’s the problem?” Clementine asked, as she surfaced. She glittered more than anyone I’d ever seen, and I bit back a groan.

One more living disco ball, coming right up.

I dove in while they explained the situation to Clem, reaching back out to Porter.

He was just hanging up the phone after a conversation with Hale that had, expectedly, gone his way.

“Quick question,” I said. “How opposed are you to loaning my lake to the fae for the night?”

“My level of opposition would depend on the reasoning behind it. And your level of participation.”

I quickly told him about Blair forgetting to check the schedule, and how the water was supposed to help the fae.

“I’d prefer to be there to make sure they’re not doing anything to the water that I don’t want them to, but if you don’t think it’s safe, I can stay in our room. It’s my fault that Blair chlorinated her pool, though, so I think we should help her. And the fae,” I finished.

“I agree. I’ll call Hale back, and we’ll both talk to Kai. The fae would probably prefer the lake if it’s an option anyway, because of the plants.”

“Will they kill my fish?” I checked.

“Nah. They’ll improve the plants, which will probably make your ecosystem healthier.”

“Good to know.”

“I’m headed your way, so I’ll figure things out and see you soon.”

“Thanks, Porter.”

“You’re welcome, baby.”

I snorted underwater at the nickname, but finally gave up on telling him not to call me that. Protesting only seemed to encourage him anyway.

Swimming back to the water’s surface, I propped my overly-glittery arms on the edge of the pool. “Porter’s going to talk to Hale and Kai. They’ll get everything set up to host the fae on the pack’s land.”

Relief crossed Blair’s face. “Thank you.”

“This is what sisters are for, remember?” I teased.

She smiled. “How’s the water?”

I shimmied my shoulders a bit, so my glitter caught the light. “Sparkly.”

Blair laughed, pulling her t-shirt over her head so all she had on was her swimsuit. “Make room.”

Clementine and I both scooted over, and Blair dove in. A tiny bit of water splashed on Avery’s face, giving her a few glittery speckles, and she smiled.

“Guess I’m joining too.”

Her coverup followed Blair’s, and she followed our golden-haired sister in, leaving Zora as the lone non-glittery siren.

“Come on, the water’s nice,” Clementine sang.

Zora rolled her eyes—but took a few running steps before she did a cannonball in, spraying all of us. She swam toward the bottom of the pool with Blair and Avery.

Clem and I laughed as we wiped more water from our faces. “I’ve never seen this much glitter before,” I said, watching my hand catch the light. “It’s ridiculous.”

“But fun,” Clementine said with a smile.

“I guess.”

“Think your mate will like the glitter?”

“Probably. Our sex war is driving him crazy enough that I think he’ll like it by default.”

Her lips stretched in a smile. “Do you like being mated?”

The question caught me off guard. “I haven’t really thought about it.”

She pulled her long, red hair into a quick bun while I considered it. Clementine had a lot of energy, without a doubt, but she knew when to ease back.

“I’m not sure,” I finally said. “At first, it was miserable. He was avoiding me. That hurt, even if I didn’t really know him. But the last few weeks have been different. Now it feels like… having a partner. I don’t know that I like it, but I don’t dislike it.”

“Hale has gotten a lot of offers from random magical beings since you left. They list out what they could give a siren mate, and how they could protect her. They’re trying to arrange a mating, like yours and Porter’s,” she explained. “The dragon king has sent a lot of them.”

My eyebrows lifted. “Seriously?”

Clem nodded, her usual cheerfulness fading a little. “Hale emails them to us. I’ve looked through them a bunch of times, and thought about it. The way Hale looks at Blair… I want that, you know?”

I nodded, biting my lip.

I’d never felt that way myself, but it didn’t surprise me that Clementine did. She had always been a romantic. And while she talked big about sleeping around, I knew she didn’t enjoy many of her one-night stands. She was just looking for someone she could stick with.

“I’ve been talking to Avery about it. If I mated with Talon, the dragon king, I’d be safe. Right? And Blair’s told us that he says he needs a siren for something. So I’d be safe, and wanted. Isn’t that enough?”

“If you can choose between safe and wanted, and loved, I don’t think it is,” I admitted.

She let out a long breath. “I know. But how am I supposed to find love when everyone wants something from us?”

“By waiting for the right person?” I suggested. “Other than that, I don’t really know.”

“That makes two of us.”

Blair and Zora surfaced with battle-cries as they hauled ass out of the water, lunging toward the other opening of the pool and diving back in.

“Damn, that’s a lot of glitter,” I remarked.

Clem laughed, though it was a little half-hearted. “We’re going to sparkle for weeks.”

“Every siren’s dream.”

She met my eyes with a smile, but it looked forced.

“What does Avery think about the dragon king?”

“She thinks Talon’s insistence that he needs a siren means I should stay as far away from him as possible. There aren’t many things a man needs a siren for, and he’s not struggling with moving on from his past the way Porter was. As far as we can see, the only reasoning would be problems with his man parts, or some kind of torture.”

I snorted. “Magical beings don’t get erectile dysfunction.”

But unmated sirens could be used as a part of a torture process. It hadn’t been done since young arranged matings had become a thing for us, but it had been done before.

“It’s the best possible reason though, isn’t it?” Clem teased.

“Honestly, yes.”

She laughed, turning around and leaning her head back against the edge of the pool. It didn’t look comfortable, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“I know an arranged mate bond doesn’t come with romance, but part of me wants to just jump in and hope for the best, you know? Hale basically forced Blair to seal the bond with him, and they’re so happy together. You should see how much she smiles now. It’s ridiculous, and I’m stupidly jealous. Avery keeps telling me that not all arranged bonds end up that way, and I know it’s true—but part of me wants to try it anyway.”

“My mate bond isn’t like that,” I said, studying the rock in front of me. “I’m in a sex war, remember?”

“But that’s your choice, isn’t it?”

“He wasn’t sleeping in my bed. It was the best way to force him into it. Much of the time, being mated just feels like one big power struggle.”

“But when the power struggle ends, there’s happiness, isn’t there?”

“I don’t know. Is there?” I looked at her, my emotions a bit raw.

Things were looking up for me and Porter, but there was no guarantee he wouldn’t step back as soon as I ended our war. There was no way to be sure he wouldn’t change his mind about redecorating when the furniture got there in a few days. There was no way to know that he wouldn’t get tired of leading the pack like he was, and disappear into the forest.

“I hope so,” Clementine said quietly.

“I do too.”

As the words slipped out, I realized they were true.

I did hope that there was happiness at the end of our power struggle. I did want to figure things out with Porter the way Blair and Hale had. I did want the kind of love that I’d realized existed.

The kind of love where I could feel safe.

Where I didn’t feel alone anymore.

I didn’t know how to create it… but I wanted it.

“I’m going to swim with the fae tonight,” Clementine said, lifting her voice as she forced cheer back into her tone. Clem was a professional at pretending to be okay until she actually felt okay. Or until she managed to convince herself that she did. “I’ve never been around them much, so I’m excited to see what they’re like.”

“While glittering like a disco ball? They’ll know exactly what you are, Clem. You might as well put a sign on your head that says, ‘MATE ME’.”

She laughed. “One of Hale’s strongest guards agreed to pretend to be my mate for the night. He won’t let go of me, so I’ll be safe. We were going to draw mate marks on our necks with sharpies. Now, he’s the only one who will have to do it.” She gestured to the glitter covering her neck. “I can’t see your mark at all.”

“You’re insane,” I said, lifting my hand to my throat.

It was weird to think that my mark was completely hidden, but I didn’t think Porter would particularly care.

“We said the same thing about you.”

Avery broke the water and swam over to us. Her dark hair hung around her face, and she lifted herself up onto the side of the pool to pull it up in a bun on top of her head. “What are we talking about?”

“Clem’s dragon king,” I said.

Avery sighed. “Please tell me you talked her out of it.”

Clementine made a sound of protest, though she was grinning. “She didn’t have to. I’m not mating with the dragon king. I want a mate, but I’m not that desperate.”

“There are so many vampires you could mate with, Clem. If you keep going to the events and game nights, you’ll eventually hit it off with one of them,” Avery said.

“Theoretically,” she agreed.

“You don’t sound convinced,” I said.

“I’m not convinced. I’m tired of being alone.”

“Don’t we count for anything?” Avery asked.

“Of course you do. But at the end of the day, I don’t crawl into bed with you guys. I don’t get to have as much hot sex with you as I want—and that was not a suggestion that I want that, by the way. I love you, but having a mate would be different.”

She wasn’t wrong.

It was different.

Because I had a mate, I had a partner that I was stuck with for the rest of my life, for better or worse. It had been for worse, but it was getting better.

“If you keep going on dates and meeting new people, it’ll happen eventually,” Avery promised, taking her hand. “And if it happens with someone who isn’t a king, that will be better anyway. No offense, Izzy.”

“None taken. There would be much less of a power struggle if you mated with a normal person.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll keep dating vampires. But I am going to swim with the fae tonight. That’s not negotiable.”

Avery shot me a worried look.

“I’ll stay close to her,” I promised. “I’m sure Porter will be there, too.”

“See?” Clementine gestured to me. “ That’s what I want.”

Avery caught her hand and squeezed it. “You’ll find it when the time is right.”

Personally, I thought she was a little insane for wanting what I had in the moment. But it didn’t seem like anything was going to convince her of that, so I didn’t bother repeating myself.

Blair and Zora joined us at the surface just as the elevator dinged down the hallway.

Some part of me knew that Porter was inside it.

“If you guys are gossiping about us, we’ll be forced to drag you into our game,” Zora warned, throwing her arms around Clem’s shoulders and hanging off her back.

“We would never,” Clem said, feigning seriousness.

Zora snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“No gossip has occurred,” Avery promised, lifting a hand. “Siren’s honor.”

“We have no honor,” Blair said, lifting herself out of the water and plopping down on her ass next to Avery. “Only glitter.”

“The glitter is real,” I agreed, eyeing my arms reluctantly. It usually took two-ish weeks for all of the glitter to fall off, but I would put my bets on three or four for the insanely-thick layer of glitter we’d collected.

“Did you talk Clem out of going to the fae thing tonight?” Zora checked.

“Nope.” Clementine popped her lips on the ‘p’. “I’m going. There will be no talking me out of it.”

“She’s almost as insane as Izzy,” Zora grumbled.

“Look at me, I’m fine,” I protested.

All of them looked at me, and a few of them stifled laughs.

Maybe the glitter didn’t exactly look fine .

“I remember you asking us about clitoral hood piercings , so I’m thinking fine is relative,” Clem teased.

“You were asking about what ?” Porter’s voice had me jerking my head back, so I could meet his gaze way behind Blair and Avery.

“I’m out,” Zora said, disappearing beneath the water.

“Oops.” Clem winked at me before following Zora.

“Good luck,” Avery said, flashing me a smile before she dove in after them.

“I’d stay to help, but there’s a big, beefy vampire who wants to see my glitter,” Blair murmured. “You’ve got this.” She squeezed my shoulder, then used her speed to cross the room in the blink of an eye. She was undoubtedly headed for the elevator.

“It was an idea for the sex war,” I explained. “I couldn’t go through with it. I’m not quite that brave.”

Porter sat down where Avery had been sitting, his lips curving upward as he took in my glitter-crusted face. “Wow.”

“I know. It’s like someone attacked me with a bedazzler.”

“It’s cute.” He brushed the backs of his knuckles over my cheek, then pulled them away to see how much glitter was on them. There was a grand total of one tiny fleck. “And it doesn’t come off easily?”

“Not until it decides to. It’s not usually this thick, so it’s going to be on for a while. Maybe it will make it easier for you to resist me.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Is your entire body covered in glitter?”

“Every inch.”

“Then this will make it harder to resist you, not easier. I’ve never tasted your pleasure while you literally sparkle for me.”

“Not for you .”

“You’re my mate. Everything about you is for me , even if you refuse to let me have you at the moment.”

“I don’t think that’s?—”

He pulled me out of the water and set me on his lap, then kissed me, lightly.

Gently.

Sweetly.

And pulled away long before I was ready for him to. His forehead rested against mine, my eyes closing as our breaths mingled.

“Let me surrender, Izzy.”

“No,” I whispered, though the last thing I wanted to do was reject him.

There was a reason for my grudge.

I couldn’t let it go that easily.

“Why not?” he asked, his lips brushing mine lightly with the question.

“You still have all of the control.”

“Tell me how to give it to you, then.”

“Let me feed from you whenever I want, instead of according to your schedule.”

“Done.”

The ease with which he gave in surprised me. I’d never seen him go back on his word, so I didn’t have any reason to believe he would do that—but I still couldn’t believe he’d give me what I wanted that easily.

“Let me come to Vamp Manor whenever I want to. Don’t hold me captive anymore.”

He hesitated for a moment with that one.

I could tell he was thinking about it—and probably trying to figure out a way to tell me no.

But he surprised me again by saying, “Alright. But you need to let me know before you leave, and let me come with you.”

“That’s… fair.”

I couldn’t imagine Hale letting Blair come to our land without him, so it seemed like a reasonable request for a mated man.

“Warn me, before you claim me in public in any way,” I added.

He chuckled roughly. “I learned my lesson about that.”

“And don’t keep secrets from me, about wolves or about anything else. Mates are supposed to be a team.”

“I agree.” He lifted his hands to cup my face. “Is there anything else, or can I kiss you now?”

“I want to be able to touch myself without your threat hanging over my head.”

“Done. But not without asking if I want to do it myself,” he said.

“Is your answer going to be yes?”

“Always.” He lowered his mouth to mine. “No clit piercings. I don’t want to have to worry about it when I’m rough with you.”

My lower body warmed. “You’re always rough with me.”

“You like it that way.”

His lips met mine, and my fingers slid into his hair as he kissed me slowly.

Deeply.

Intimately.

“You taste so fucking good,” he said into my mind, tilting my head back to kiss me deeper. “I missed this.”

“So did I.”

He pulled me closer to his chest. “Tell me the war’s over.”

“It’s over.”

His chest rumbled against mine. The sound was satisfaction, mixed with need. “I’m taking you home.”

“Agreed.”

He kissed me for another minute before he finally released my mouth and stood up. One of his arms was against my back, the other was beneath my knees.

“I don’t want to be carried back like a princess,” I warned.

“You’re not a princess, Izzy. You’re a queen.” He grabbed my phone off the ground and strode away from the pool. I hadn’t said goodbye to my sisters, but I’d text them. They’d get it. The nosy bitches were probably watching quietly from behind a rock, anyway. It’s what I would’ve done if one of them was in my shoes.

“Still.”

“You’ll ride to the pack land on my back. Until we get out of Vamp Manor, you’ll survive being carried like this.”

I rolled my eyes at him—but honestly, the way he held me felt amazing.