Page 9 of Love Bites Hard (Mated to the King #2)

nine

IZZY

After I showered, I had to go to the cafeteria to grab some food. Once again, I was met by a crowd of my new fans. And more slightly uncomfortable, sexual presents.

As bizarre as the situation was, I couldn’t say I truly minded the gifts. Who didn’t like opening presents?

Evan and Kim found me after about thirty minutes of inching away from my loving fans. Though I usually had no problem tapping into my bitchy side to get myself space, the wolves had been through hell. Curtis had hurt them—physically, a lot of the time. Mentally and emotionally, too.

I couldn’t be one more person who treated them poorly. I refused.

So, I accepted presents. And chatted. And thanked them when they complimented me. And told them I was glad to help when they thanked me.

But I was really, really glad when the couple intervened, because there were a lot more people there for dinner than had been there for breakfast. I would’ve been there all night.

Evan told everyone he needed me for some alpha business, and Kim towed me out of the room while Evan went back for my food. I told him what I wanted through the pack bond, and thanked him when he met us in the hallway with it.

They led me to the alpha’s office, which was only one door down from my new bedroom, and closed the door behind us.

I collapsed in the largest desk chair, digging into my food immediately.

“Where’s Porter?” Evan asked.

I let out a frustrated breath. “We got in another fight. I don’t know what to do with him. I don’t want to hurt him any more than he’s already hurting—but I can’t let my mate treat me like shit. I won’t. This whole situation is just a mess. I should’ve known better.”

“What are you fighting about?” Evan asked.

I took a frustrated bite of my food. “He won’t share a bed with me. Or apologize for ditching me after we screwed last night. He thinks he didn’t do anything wrong.”

“What was his reasoning?” Evan checked.

Kim didn’t seem entirely interested in the conversation, so I felt a little bad about dragging her in, but Evan was asking questions.

“He said he needed time to think.” I took another bite, and said with a full mouth, “I’m fucking done. How do I get off this train?”

“You don’t,” Kim said, entirely unempathetic. “You’re the one who decided to board it.”

“That was clearly a mistake.”

“Mistakes have consequences. This one is yours.” Kim leaned back in her seat.

She wasn’t wrong.

“It wasn’t a mistake,” Evan said, frowning at his fiancée. “Coming back from hell takes time, but we’ll get him back. Let me think of another way to make him jealous.”

“No. Not this time. If he wants to be a dick, you have to let him. Making him jealous won’t help. I’m not ready to deal with him like that right now.”

Evan sighed. “Alright, I’ll give it a few days. But if he doesn’t come back, we enact the plan.”

“That’s fine,” I agreed, then leaned toward him. “Has he really ordered his wolves not to let me leave Wolf Manor?”

Evan grimaced.

“Great.” I took another bite.

Evan’s eyes glazed over for a moment before he perked up. “Porter said he just got off the phone with the vampires. A group of them are coming with your sisters in a few days, to purify the lake with you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “He didn’t go back to the forest?”

“Apparently not.” His voice was upbeat.

I didn’t feel quite as cheerful as he seemed, so I just focused on my food. I finished quickly, and stood up. “I think I’m going to call it a night. Thanks for the rescue.”

“Any time,” Evan promised.

Kim murmured her agreement, and I slipped out of the office, padding down the hall.

As soon as I opened the door to my room and took a step inside, I froze.

Porter was sitting on the bed, his back to the pillows and his arms folded. His long, strong legs were sprawled out in front of him, and there was a dark look in his eyes.

They were on mine immediately.

I let out a slow breath, finally stepping inside and closing the door. “I didn’t think I’d see you for a few days.”

“I didn’t either.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“You said you were hungry.” He clenched his jaw for a moment, then slowly released it. “And I owe you an apology.”

My eyebrows lifted. “I’m listening.”

“You’re right. I haven’t treated you properly. I’ve been a shitty mate. You deserve better, but you have me, and there’s no going back.” Porter moved to the edge of the bed, setting his feet on the floor and standing up. “I shouldn’t have left you the way I did. I was afraid of what was going to happen, and uncertain how I should act, but I shouldn’t have left. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for apologizing.” I slipped my hands into my pockets.

His forehead creased, and I knew he was waiting for me to tell him that it was okay or something.

“I don’t forgive people immediately,” I said. “If you want me to forgive you, you have to prove that you mean it by changing your behavior. I can’t trust you right now. But I do appreciate your apology.”

His eyes darkened, but he stiffly dipped his head. “You want me to stay here while you fall asleep?”

“I want you to communicate where you are and what you’re doing if you’re not going to be in our room with me at night. Mated men aren’t supposed to be comfortable leaving their mates when they’re asleep. It makes me feel like you’re cheating on me.” The admission made me feel a little vulnerable, and I wrapped my arms around my middle.

“I would never—could never—want another woman. I haven’t been with anyone but you since I lost my family. I just have to run at night. It’s how I’m coping with being back. If I stay here, I won’t be able to sleep at all. Out there, I run until I collapse, and manage an hour or two of rest.”

I didn’t like the admission. It didn’t make me feel any better about spending my nights alone. But I couldn’t force him to do something else. “Do you run with anyone?”

“No. No one can keep up with me.”

At least he wasn’t secretly bonding with some bombshell shifter woman when he was away from me.

Probably.

I didn’t have a real argument anymore, so I agreed with him. “Fine. I need to install a canopy on my bed.”

His forehead creased. “A canopy?”

I nodded. “You know, like a coffin lid? I’m basically an emotional vampire.”

Understanding crossed his face. “You didn’t get much sleep last night?”

“No.”

“I’ll talk to Hale and get one sent over as soon as possible.”

“Thanks.”

He waved me closer. “You need to feed.”

Right.

He wasn’t going to be able to let me drink from him for long when he was already frustrated, but I couldn’t point that out.

Part of me wanted to tell him I wasn’t hungry, but he would’ve realized I was being a chicken.

So, I just kissed him.

I didn’t bother parting his lips with my tongue, and he didn’t either.

I managed a few pulls of his emotions before he pulled away from me with his jaw clenched, and left the room.

There had been no conversations about sex—and I almost wished there were. At least then, he’d show emotion.

The canopy was delivered half an hour later, while I was still lying in bed. The wolves who brought it to me left it at the door, saying they couldn’t enter the alpha’s rooms, which left me to figure out how to set it up on my own.

Zora and I were the ones who usually put things together, but the canopy’s wiring was far beyond my level of knowledge. I ended up just wrestling with it myself until I managed to slip under it on my own.

With the comforting darkness surrounding me, I fell asleep fast. Thankfully, I slept through the night.

The next morning, I heard the door open while I was still in bed with the canopy down. I had spent the last two hours buried in the pack link, even though my head ached with hunger.

I still needed to figure out who the people were who wanted me dead.

And how much danger I was in.

They seemed to have figured out how to keep their plans quieter, though, because I barely felt their whispers. I couldn’t find the consciousnesses behind the plots like I had before, and couldn’t track them back to the source.

It was endlessly frustrating, and made me feel like I was starving.

“That doesn’t look right,” Porter said, his voice low and gravelly. I heard him open what sounded like the cover over the wiring part I hadn’t even come close to figuring out.

I debated letting him know I was awake and getting out of bed, but didn’t want to fight with him again. So I stayed quiet, lingering in the pack’s bond.

My attention was split between the alpha and the pack as Porter quietly figured out the wiring and got it working properly. It had probably been an hour when he finally used the button outside to lift the canopy.

I opened my eyes slowly, feigning sleep, and couldn’t help but notice the way his gaze softened as it moved over me.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Morning,” I murmured.

Part of me waited for him to bring up what he’d done for me and use it against me or something.

Instead, he said, “I didn’t feed you long enough last night.”

I blinked.

Right.

That’s what he was there for.

I’d be glad to get free of my headache, but part of me was disappointed that he hadn’t just shown up because he wanted to see me or something.

That part of me was ridiculous, so I stuffed it down.

“Yeah,” I finally said.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and offered me his hand. “We shouldn’t have to kiss for you to feed now that we’re mated.”

“Right.”

I put my hand on his arm and tried to use my magic the way I usually did when I kissed people. It sprang to life immediately, and my eyes shut automatically as his intense, dark emotions hit me again.

The man was a drug, and I was his willing addict.

He pulled away when he couldn’t handle it anymore, and left the room before I could thank him.

I collapsed on the pillow, panting as I stared up at the ceiling.

What would it feel like to live in a mind that dark?

Would I be any kinder, more involved, or more enthusiastic than he was if I did?

My anger toward him faded a little as I considered it… because no. I wouldn’t be.

If I was barely clinging to my sanity the way he was, I would be just as bad as him.

And that meant I needed to start showing him a little more compassion, even though I still had to hold to my boundaries.

The next week passed quickly.

I only saw Porter in passing, other than the next time he fed me as briefly as possible. He spoke to me through the mate bond to let me know where he was and what he was doing from time to time. I told him I was swimming, and sent him mental images of myself in my swimsuit.

I hoped the images would push him to act again, but no dice.

Eight days had gone by when my sisters finally managed a visit. The lake was already a little less murky than it had been when I arrived, but after I spent all day swimming with my sisters, it would get much better.

I waited for them in the hallway where Wolf Manor met the neutral territory, leaning up against the wall. Porter joined me around the time I got Clementine’s text that they were on their way, and I couldn’t stop myself from tapping my foot as the minutes passed.

“You’re excited,” Porter said, watching me closely.

“Of course I’m excited. This is the longest I’ve been away from all of my sisters in more than a decade. They’re all I have at this point.”

“You have me.”

“Do I?” I lifted an eyebrow.

His expression changed, but the security doors opened before I could decide what he might’ve felt in response to the question.

My attention snapped back to them in time to see two large vampire guards come through. Clementine stepped around them, her whole face lighting up when she saw me.

I couldn’t help but grin as I caught her, hugging her fiercely.

“Vamp Manor isn’t the same without you,” she said into my hair. “Can we break you out of here?”

I laughed, though I heard Porter’s mostly suppressed growl. “No, but I miss you too.”

I wouldn’t offer to let my sisters move to the wolves’ land unless they asked. And in that case, I’d have to talk to Porter to make sure there was a way to keep them safe. But honestly, Vamp Manor seemed like the safest place for them, and I wanted them safe more than I wanted to keep them with me.

Plus, Blair would be alone if they left.

Granted, she did have friends in Vamp Manor. And Hale. She was ridiculously in love with him, and he was even crazier about her.

So maybe she’d be fine just seeing our sisters when we all met up.

But Wolf Manor still wasn’t safe for an unmated siren. Which meant it didn’t particularly matter where they wanted to be. The vampires were the only real option.

“Did she turn down the break-out?” Zora asked Clem, as she threw her arms around me next.

“She did,” I confirmed.

Zora gave a dramatic sigh. “Bitch.”

“I know. You love me anyway.”

“You know I do.”

Avery stepped into my arms after Zora moved, hugging me just as tightly as the others had. “The roof misses you,” she murmured.

“You should not be up there alone.”

“Blair’s turning it into a mini-golf course, so the construction stuff keeps me hidden.”

“It does not.”

She pulled away, a little mischief on her face as she lifted her finger to her lips in the universal sign for “ shh ”.

“We’ll keep her off the roof,” Zora said, eyeing Avery suspiciously.

“She’s fine. We have cameras there,” Blair countered, replacing Avery as she hugged me last. “I expect more phone calls soon.”

“I didn’t get a phone call,” Clementine protested.

“You’re not mated. You don’t know the secrets,” Blair teased.

Clem feigned offence, lifting her hand to her chest. “I’d better find myself a mate.”

“You’d better not. I will not survive the vampires without you,” Zora warned.

“Let’s get moving,” Avery suggested. “We can have this talk while we clean out Izzy’s lake.”

“Is there a bunch of junk in it?” Clementine asked.

“No. I’ve pulled out a few random things. A shoe here, a pair of underwear there. A few glass bottles, too. But it’s so murky, it’s really hard to say for sure.”

“Would you be able to keep your wolves away from the lake if we tapped into our magic more than usual?” Blair asked, and it took me a minute to realize she was talking to Porter. “It would pull anyone nearby to us, but we could clean the lake much faster.”

I looked sideways at him, waiting for him to stonewall her, but he just nodded. “That wouldn’t be a problem.”

His easy agreement surprised me.

“Awesome,” Blair said.

A glance in their direction showed that her and Hale were holding hands again.

I was happy for her, even if my own mate was more like an acquaintance who had screwed me really, really well on one occasion.

“How many hours do you think it’ll take if you turn your magic up?” Hale asked.

Blair shrugged and looked at me.

Everyone else did too. I could feel their eyes, even though we were still moving.

“All day, probably,” I admitted. “It’s pretty bad.”

“We should’ve brought chlorine, to make it a real party,” Clem said.

Hale and Zora snorted.

Blair and Avery grinned.

I made a face.

“Why would chlorine affect anything?” Porter asked, still looking at me.

When no one else rushed to explain it to him, I shrugged. “It reacts strangely with our magic. When we swim in chlorinated water, we end up covered everywhere in glitter that can’t be scrubbed off. It takes like two weeks for all of it to fall off. It’s a pain in the ass.”

Suddenly, there was interest in his eyes.

Too much interest.

The look reminded me of Hale saying that Porter used to be wild and rebellious, which made me narrow my eyes at him.

He went back to being neutral a moment later, but I’d noticed the change.

And while I was suddenly a little suspicious, part of me was proud. Because finally, I’d seen another glimpse of the real Porter.

We had to walk to the lake like humans, because tapping into our speed could still set off the chase instinct in any wolf who saw us moving fast. It was kind of a long walk, but it was so good to talk to my sisters again that I enjoyed every minute of it.

When we reached the water, my sisters were all just as excited as I’d been the first day. Porter cleared out the area nearby, and we dove in, turning our magic up as high as we could.

We’d all need to feed when we finally left the water—but it would be worth it.