Page 3 of Love Bites Hard

His skin was tan, his wavy reddish-brown hair an utter catastrophe. It was shaved on the sides, which I liked, but I could see the point of a leaf sticking out of the top part. His hair was so thick, I could imagine he hadn’t even realized the leaf was there.

He was stunning, but in a completely different way than Hale was.

Where Hale was put-together, Porter was wild.

Untamed.

Absolutely, entirely unpolished.

His black sweats and gray t-shirt were wrinkled, and I could see a streak of dirt on one of his shoulders.

Even without talking to him, I could tell the man was nothing like the vampires.

And that alone made me want to walk right into his stupidly gigantic arms.

“We should’ve split up so he didn’t see all of us,” Avery murmured.

“Whoops,” Clementine whispered back.

“If he’s mating with me, he’s going to be around you guys sometimes,” I said to them, still unable to look away from the giant in the doorway of Hale’s office.

Maybe it was my pride, but I wanted him to know he was mating withme. I didn’t want him checking out one of my sisters, or wishing he’d gotten paired with someone else.

“He’ll keep the secret,” Hale agreed.

“It’s not a secret. Curtis has told everyone how many sirens you’re hiding, even if you refuse to admit it to the other kings,” Porter said, his voice deeper and much more gravelly than I could remember from the phone call I’d listened to between him and Hale.

“He’ll play along,” Blair corrected.

Porter’s eyes didn’t leave me, but he nodded once.

“Should we make this into a ceremony or something?” Clementine joked, as we finally stopped in front of him.

“No,” Porter said flatly. “I’m going to talk to my mate alone.”

With that, he grabbed me by the waist and tugged me into the office, shutting and locking the door behind me.

My back was pinned to it a moment later, with who-knew-how-many pounds of delicious male muscle less than a breath away from me. The man towered over me, and my toes curled immediately.

The rough and tumble thing?

It worked for me.

Really, really worked for me.

“Let me feel your magic,” he said.

It wasn’t a command, exactly, but he didn’t make it sound optional.

“You can’t order me around. You’re notmyalpha,” I shot back, irritated by his immediate need to take control.

“If you want me to challenge the alpha of Mistwood, you’re going to have to let me feel your magic to prove what you are before I mate with you,” he growled.

I huffed… but it was a fair point.

And though I could’ve just pushed my magic out at him, I didn’t want to give him exactly what he wanted.

I wanted to prove that I wasn’t going to be a pushover.

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