Page 37 of Love Bites Hard

Me

Believe me, I know

Gotta go!

I dropped my phone back in the snack basket and set it up under a tree. My towels joined it. After a moment of hesitation, I let a wicked grin stretch across my face and stripped out of my bikini too.

Porter was going to be pissed, but I didn’t care. If he was allowed to walk around naked after shifting all the time, I was allowed to swim in the nude.

It was good to be free, even if it came with a few shitty consequences.

I was going to miss my sisters fiercely if they couldn’t leave Vamp Manor. Especially if my asshole of a mate wouldn’t let me leave the wolf wing. Sirens need each other.

Wading into the water, I sighed at the feel of it. Where I touched it, I could already see the water growing clearer.

Yeah, the wolves’ lake wasmine.

I couldn’t have beenunderwater for more than an hour when I heard from Porter again. I spent all of my time down there lost in the pack bond, trying to figure out exactly how many people wanted me dead.

I didn’t have a solid number, but there were at least a few. I wasn’t good enough at navigating it to figure out who they were, exactly, but I hoped I’d get there.

It was an imperfect process. And an imprecise one.

But hey, at least I knew there were people who wanted me dead. And I was getting a little better and working the pack’s link, which seemed like a success.

“Where are you, and why is your bikini by a tree?”Somehow, Porter sounded even angrier than he’d been before.

I would make sure to thank Evan for that.

I sent him a mental image of the dark, murky lake, with fish swimming around me.

“You’re alone?”he demanded.

“Do you have anyone else in your pack who can breathe underwater?”

His responding scoff made me snort.“You should be wearing your swimsuit.”

“You should be wearing your clothes every time you shift out of your wolf form, but you don’t see me commanding you to get dressed.”

“Your body is mine,”he snapped.

“And yours isn’t mine?”

I felt more than heard his huff of anger. “Did you warn Arthur that I was coming for him?”

“No. I don’t even remember what he looks like. I don’t think I could find him in the pack link if I tried.”

“Try.”

I focused on the vague memory I had of Arthur, but I genuinely didn’t remember anything about him except his dark hair. And even that had only reminded me of Avery’s, so it made me think of her, not him.“It didn’t work,”I said.

“So he knew I’d smell him on your hair, and hid from me,”Porter growled.

“I don’t know why you’re so mad about this. You’re keeping me away from my sisters, who usually braid my hair. He offered, and I took him up on it. It’s no different than accepting gifts from the rest of your pack.”

“Do you want any of my she-wolves running their hands through my hair?”he demanded.

My stomach clenched, even with the water easing my stress.“That’s beside the point. I’m not the one who abandoned you after fucking you while the whole pack listened in. Or left you to sleep alone, without knowing where I was or who I was with.”

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