Page 22 of Love Bites Hard (Mated to the King #2)

twenty-two

IZZY

The sun was rising when we got back. Porter wanted to get me back to our room and take care of me before he dealt with the pack, but I refused. I would survive a few more hours, and the way we dealt with the situation would send a very loud message.

The moment we emerged from the truck, he transformed into the strong, powerful alpha male he always portrayed. Everyone was already gathered together, and he announced without flinching that we’d found the group who wanted me dead.

He warned anyone who might be working with them that we’d captured their leader, and would have the names of anyone else involved before the night was through.

I spent a few hours in a connected room while Porter interrogated Kim. He used his fists to get information out of people sometimes, but he didn’t need that with her. There was too much misery in her eyes and there were too many tears streaming down her cheeks.

He told her straight-up that Evan would know whether she gave us answers or not, and she spilled everything without hesitation. He used the pack’s link to make sure she was telling the truth, and had someone else taking note of everything she said.

Though I knew he wanted to kill her, Porter walked out when he was sure he had all of the information.

I stuck with him through the rest of the day as he tracked down a handful of traitors who’d tried to run, and killed them. It was gruesome, but necessary. Shifters weren’t like humans. They knew the consequences of working against their alpha. He was the leader of their pack family, but he was also their king. They didn’t have to like him, and they could leave at any point if they chose to. But helping with a plan to kill his mate was an automatic death sentence.

The sun was setting again when we finally returned to Wolf Manor, stopping in the cafeteria to grab full plates of food on our way.

I expected the pack to be afraid of us, or at least show us the cold shoulder after Porter had ended the lives of some of their packmates, but neither thing was true.

Somehow, everyone was even friendlier.

They thanked us for staying.

Apologized for the traitorous assholes.

Hell, they even gave us more gifts. None of which were edible, they assured us.

They were probably all sex toys, but I had my fingers crossed for more bath bombs. I’d been saving the few I had for a rainy day, and the next few days already felt like they’d be rainy ones.

There were tears in Nora’s eyes as she apologized about a hundred times, but it wasn’t her fault they’d used the chocolate to poison me. I still wouldn’t stop eating chocolate. And Kim had told us who was behind that, so we weren’t wondering if Nora was involved.

After I hugged her fiercely and assured her repeatedly that I knew she had nothing to do with it, we finally got our food and made our way out.

“When do you think they’ll stop giving me things?” I asked Porter mentally, as we made our way to our room. He was carrying four loaded plates, while my arms were full of gift bags and boxes.

“I don’t know. Hopefully never, if it’ll make you stay.”

I rolled my eyes at him, and he gave me a tired grin.

We were both exhausted.

Back in our room, we sat on the floor together and ate quickly. After we were done, he towed my tired ass to the bathroom, and started filling the tub.

When he dropped the peppermint bath bomb I’d been given during that first bonfire into the tub, I knew I’d found the perfect man.

He pulled me into the hot water with him, and we both relaxed. With his bare, strong body cradling mine, I didn’t think it was possible to get any more comfortable.

We soaked for a while before finally washing up and getting out. Neither of us bothered to grab clothes on our way to the mattress, and we fell asleep curled up in bed together.

It was intimate—but not in a sexual way.

It just made me feel really loved.

I woke up with Porter’s hand between my legs. It wasn’t moving, but his erection throbbed against my thigh in a way that told me he wanted to be touching me.

When I lifted my head to look at him with bleary eyes, I realized he was still sleeping.

Honestly, it didn’t surprise me in the least that his hand had migrated the way it had.

The man loved my body, whether asleep or awake. There was no way to deny that.

I knew I should let him rest… but a glance at the clock told me we’d already slept to the middle of the afternoon.

So, it would be fine to wake him up.

And he sure as hell wouldn’t complain. He loved it when I woke up horny. Or when I let him have his way with me in the morning.

I pressed his fingers against my clit a little harder, and moved them the way I wanted them. His breathing changed slightly.

I rocked my hips a little, moving against his cock enough to make him groan.

He pulled his hand free of my grasp and dragged me onto his face, making me suck in a breath.

He licked me slowly, and growled. “Fuck, you taste good. Hands on the bed frame, baby.”

I set my palms on the wood. My head had collided with the fabric of the canopy over us, but I didn’t care.

He licked me from my slit to my ass, and I nearly arched off his face as he brought his fingers to the party, working my clit roughly.

I came hard and fast, rocking against him and crying out loudly. He held me where I was as he gave me one last lick before sliding out from beneath me and rising up at my back. Tilting my hips, he pulled me down hard over his cock until he filled me, making me swear and move against him.

He pinned my hands to the wall as he fucked me from behind, driving into me again and again until I climaxed on his cock, then neared the edge once more. When I unraveled for the third time, his knot finally swelled inside me, making me scream my pleasure as we came together.

Releasing my hands, he pulled my hair to the side of my throat and licked the bite mark he’d left there.

“I need you,” he said, one of his hands teasing my breast.

“I’m all yours,” I panted.

His chest rumbled, and he bit down on my shoulder slowly.

Carefully.

Gently, even.

It hurt for a moment—and then I was screaming again as another climax hit me, harder than the last.

Porter was mine, and I was his.

And maybe I liked the biting thing more than I realized.

Eventually, Porter’s knot softened and our pleasure faded. He lowered us both to the bed, holding me in his arms as his cock remained inside me, blissfully thick and hard.

We caught our breath together, both of us sweating.

“I’m glad you’re a wolf,” I mumbled. “Can’t beat the knotting thing.”

He chuckled against my back. “Good, because I’m all you’re going to get, for the rest of your life.”

“Sounds fair to me.”

“Glad you’re so enthusiastic about it.”

I laughed.

He chuckled again, kissing my cheek. “You haven’t been holding your magic back from me as much as you used to. I love feeling it.”

My chest warmed. “Guess I realized I don’t need to.”

“What made you think you did?”

He wanted to know about my parents, but he wanted to give me an out. We both knew I could just say that sirens were always in danger, and it wouldn’t have been a lie.

But I let out a long breath, instead. “My parents were cruel. They weren’t abusive, necessarily. They just… didn’t like me. Or each other. Or themselves. It wasn’t a healthy situation. Maybe they were a little abusive—I don’t really know. I’ve never been able to look at the situation neutrally.”

Porter stroked my breasts slowly, the touch more comforting than arousing at the moment.

I went on. “Basically, they just scared and threatened me into keeping my magic under wraps. My dad was a vampire, so they told everyone I was one too. If I ever let my magic free, I was going to be in danger, so they terrified me until I learned to control it. It never felt good, but I was good at it, and they left me alone for the most part when I did. I was grateful for it.”

“You shouldn’t have had to deal with that,” Porter said in a low voice.

“Maybe not, but it could’ve been worse. Zora… well, she had it worse. My parents were mean, but they didn’t hurt me. Not physically, at least.”

“No one’s going to hurt you now, in any way.” Porter kissed my cheek again.

“Except your giant cock.”

He snorted. “Except that.”

My lips curved upward, and I turned to meet his lips before he could kiss my cheek again. Porter slipped his tongue into my mouth, and I pulled my lower half away from his long enough to roll to my back beneath him.

He slid back inside me, and made slow, sweet love to me once again.

Having a mate was so fucking good.

Two days later, the full moon was set to arrive again.

We were getting ready to spend it together—screwing—when we both got texts calling an emergency meeting for all of the kings.

Ahem, leaders .

Some of them still pretended they weren’t really royalty.

But apparently Kai had finally emerged from the fae realm, which made it the first time since Porter took over that a full meeting could happen.

We still had a few hours until the moon would officially rise, so we made our way to the neutral territory.

“Have you ever been to one of these meetings before?” I murmured, as we made it through our pack’s security doors.

“Nope. It’s a first for both of us.” He squeezed my hand lightly.

“You know all of the guys pretty well though, right?”

“Hale and Bane, yes. I’ve met Kai a few times, and we get along fine. Talon, I don’t know well.”

“He’s the one who keeps saying he needs a siren. Apparently, Clementine is thinking about mating with him,” I murmured.

Porter’s eyebrows lifted. “That would be a terrible idea. The bastard would break her.”

“I know. It seems like something must be going on with his dragons that he doesn’t want to admit. I think my other sisters talked her out of mating with him, but she’s looking for something sexy and exciting.”

“If she wants sexy and exciting, she should join the pack for the full moon. She’d have as many partners as she wanted, and none of them would be in their right mind enough to try to claim her because of her magic.”

“I’ll offer, but I don’t think she’ll take me up on it. I told them how rough full moon sex is supposed to be.”

I sent her a quick text, but she didn’t answer before I had to put my phone away as we reached the room the meeting would take place in.

Porter nodded at the vampire and dragon guards at the doors, and we stepped through.

My gaze moved quickly over the room. It was big and open, with five couches spread apart but forming a wide circle. There were bookshelves and armchairs on the outsides of the room, so it wasn’t bare, but the couches were obviously the most important part.

One of them held a gorgeous man with light skin and blond hair that looked wildly overgrown. He was draped out across the length of it, his chest rising and falling slowly.

Apparently, he was sleeping.

The vines growing around his arms and the couch while he was unconscious told me that he was Kai, the fae king.

Another chair held a big, angry-looking bastard with light brown skin and black hair that fell to his cheekbones. He was sitting up, his arms folded and his position tense.

Definitely Talon.

His eyes tracked me closely, but the mark on my throat ensured my safety.

Porter wouldn’t have let him take me even without the mate mark, so I was safe either way.

Another set of doors opened across from us, and Porter relaxed slightly as the biggest man I’d ever seen came striding into the room.

His lips curved upward when he saw my mate, and Porter led me into the middle of the space so he could give the other guy a bro hug.

Obviously, this was Bane.

He had tan skin and shaggy, wavy hair that looked like it had a hand run through it far too many times.

“Good to have you back,” Bane said, as he released Porter.

“It’s good to be back,” Porter admitted. “This is my mate, Izzy. Izzy, this is Bane.”

I gave him a quick smile, but the doors behind us opened again before I had to come up with a conversation.

“I told you we were late,” Blair murmured, barely loud enough for me to hear. Her cheeks were red and her lips were swollen, but she looked ridiculously happy.

“He’s always late,” Talon said flatly.

“It’s a tradition,” Hale drawled, leading his mate to one of the couches. They both sat down, and we walked with Bane to the others. When he moved toward one of the last two, it was clear which one belonged to us, so we went that way.

Blair mouthed, “Damn, you look happy,” to me, and I rolled my eyes at her even though I couldn’t suppress a smile.

Her smile widened too.

“We don’t have much time before the full moon,” Porter said, setting his hand on my thigh.

“I think we have plenty of time to talk about how Hale gave you one of his sirens but won’t give me one,” Talon said, setting his glare on Porter.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “I heard that the vampire king had a siren mate and assumed he would keep me safe while I was unmated. When they told me I could mate with the next wolf king to guarantee my safety, I agreed readily. You know sirens believe in arranged marriage.”

Talon scoffed and opened his mouth.

“We’re not here to talk about sirens,” Bane said, cutting Talon off. “If you’re ready to ask for help, we’ll help you. Until then, we need to focus on the fae. Kai?” He looked at the sleeping king.

The rest of us did too.

Bane repeated his name, louder, and the man finally jerked into a sitting position, his eyes bleary.

Fuck, he was pretty.

I wasn’t interested in pretty—but there could be no denying the appeal he would have for some women.

He snapped a vine as he tugged his arm free and ran a hand over his face. “Sorry. Haven’t slept in a while. We’re going through our worst eclipse yet, and there’s no end in sight. I think I can push it to wrap up, but I’d need to tap into the rest of my fae’s magic to push the eclipse toward its end.”

I had no idea what to say to that.

The silence throughout the room told me no one else did, either.

“I need them sane for that,” he explained. “And the eclipse keeps them from sanity.”

“So you need them sane to stop the eclipse, but because of it, you can’t get them sane?” Hale summarized.

“Yes.” He looked at me and Porter.

Something told me we weren’t going to like what was coming next.

“I need your lake.”

“No,” Porter said, without consideration.

Kai’s eyes narrowed.

“Permanently?” Blair checked. “You can’t take a siren’s water source permanently. That’s never going to fly with one of us, or our mate.”

“And the pack isn’t going to give up any part of our territory for good,” Porter said.

Kai shook his head. “Just for tonight. Your water eases the effects almost completely for the fae who swim there. If I can get enough of them into your lake, I think I can end the eclipse for now.”

I relaxed a little.

“Are you good with that?” Porter asked me.

“Yeah, we should help them if we can. As long as they’re not going to hurt the pack.”

“If anything, the pack will have more fun with fae running around while the moon’s up. But it’s your lake, so you set the rules.”

“It’s the full moon tonight,” I said, looking back at Kai. “You’re welcome to use it, as long as you’re not going to hurt any of our wolves or have a problem with them running wild.”

“That’s not a problem. We’re basically dealing with the same situation, so the fae will be more interested in gathering during your full moon anyway. I’ll make the call.”

“Izzy and I won’t be out in the forest, so if anything goes wrong, it’s on you,” Porter added. “And don’t kill the fish.”

“I’ll take the blame, and the fish will be fine,” Kai agreed. “Thank you.”

There was genuine gratitude in his eyes that made me glad we could help, even if just by loaning out my lake. We’d be locked in our bedroom, so it wasn’t like we would be using it anyway.

“Any other problems?” Bane asked, looking around the group.

“I still need a siren,” Talon grumbled.

“And it’s still not happening unless you actually tell us what’s going on,” Bane said firmly.

Talon clenched his fists, standing and striding out of the room.

“He didn’t used to be that much of an asshole,” Hale remarked, after the door was shut behind him.

“Something is obviously happening, but he’s going to have to swallow his pride and talk to us if he wants help,” Bane said, standing too. “Good luck with the eclipses, and the full moon.”

He strode out of the door he’d come through.

Porter shuddered, and I looked over as he let out a slow breath.

Full moon incoming.

“We have to go,” I said, looking back at Kai. “There are no guards on duty when the moon is up, just keep your distance from any mean-looking wolves. No killing.”

“Got it.” He rose to his feet. “I’ll be in and out before the moon’s effects wane.”

“Perfect.” I flashed him a smile, mouthed, “Talk soon,” to Blair, and towed my mate out of the room before he lost control of his instincts and started screwing me against the nearest wall or something.

We wove through the hallways quickly, but Porter shuddered again, harder, before we reached the room.

He halted abruptly, a few halls away from our space.

Shit.

I watched his eyes change as the moon’s effects settled on him, and an idea struck me.

Wolves had major chase instincts. Even with the moon weighing him down, I could use that.

“Porter,” I said, taking a few steps backward.

He stepped with me immediately.

I flashed him a grin. “I’ll meet you in our room.”

I turned, and ran .

With my vampire speed, he didn’t stand a chance at keeping pace with me, but he reached our bedroom less than twenty seconds after I did. I made a show of trying to close the door to our room, as if I was going to lock him out, but he muscled it open and smashed his way in.

Heady male pride shone through his wolfy eyes as he locked the door behind us.

I couldn’t stop my lips from curving upward as his gaze moved down my body predatorily.

He stalked me through the room, and I stepped backward until my ass met the wall.

There would be no real running from him.

Not while the moon was up.

“You’re mine,” Porter said, his voice all wolf.

“Am I?”

His eyes flashed with warning as he reached me. “Don’t push me, mate.”

“Or what?”

His gaze darkened, and he pressed me into the wall. His nails were sharpened to claws, but I didn’t think he’d noticed. “Or you’ll wear my release on those pretty little lips.”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a threat, Porter.”

He lifted a hand to my shirt and slowly tore through the fabric, cutting both it and my bra down the middle. He pushed the fabric open, and dragged a claw lightly over one of my nipples, making me shiver.

“I’m in charge tonight. Understand?”

“What if I don’t?”

His eyes flashed.

In a heartbeat, he had my pants and thong down my thighs and was thrusting inside me, hard.

My lips parted with a gasp, my hands landing on his shoulders as he fucked me roughly, dragging me to the edge fast. Before I could come, he pulled out.

And pushed me slowly to my knees.

I was panting when he pressed his cock to my lips, the length of it wet with my own slickness.

“Open,” Porter said.

I did.

He thrust into my mouth slowly, stopping before it grew uncomfortable for me. He worked himself in and out, letting me suck him and touch him until his cock was throbbing as he fought back his release.

“Tell me what I want to hear, mate,” he commanded, still fully possessed by his beastly instincts as he pulled out of my mouth enough to let me speak.

“I’m yours,” I said, desire making me drenched.

The game was over.

I just wanted him to screw me.

“And.”

“And you’re in charge tonight.”

Victory glittered in his eyes.

“You knew that even without me saying it, tho—oh!” I shrieked as he yanked me off the floor. I was pinned to the wall again a moment later as he fucked me harder than before.

All thoughts died as he pushed me into the first of many climaxes.

Maybe I loved the full moon.