Page 5 of Love Bites Hard

“You shouldn’t mate with a siren if you’re not ready to work through your emotions,” I said honestly. “I’m going to have to feed on you twice a week to stay strong.”

His lips twisted in a snarl, but it was halfhearted. And finally, he said the magic words that would start a mate bond between us. “You are mine.”

“You don’t even know my name,” I breathed, as the binding magic rolled through my body, warming and electrifying me all at once.

Shit, I hoped he pictured something pretty. The mate bond’s magic naturally resembled a thick bar around both parties’ necks unless they crafted something better in their mind. Call me shallow, but I wanted somethingnicearound my throat for all of eternity.

It was too late for that, though.

“I don’t need to know your name,” he said, not yet releasing his hold on me.

“You’re an asshole.” I grabbed him by the throat too, digging my nails in just enough to make his eyes narrow. “If you didn’t make the mark on my throat look nice, you’re in for a lifetime of blue balls.”

“This isn’t about sex.”

“I didn’t say it was. But you aremine,too.”

The magic of our shiny new mate bond becoming permanent sent tingles through my body.

I focused on giving him a mark that matched mine, whatever the hell it looked like, and watched closely as a delicate, looping band wrapped around his throat.

The tension in my shoulders eased as it did.

At least he wasn’t atotalbastard.

“And if you don’t want me screwing someone else, therewillbe sex,” I said, digging my nails in a little deeper before I finallyreleased him and stepped away from the door. My chest met his, and he growled at me again.

I opened the door behind me and walked back through, trying hard to fight whatever the intense emotions pounding through me were. “Now, we have an alpha challenge to get to.”

two

PORTER

My mate was goingto be the death of me.

I’d survived losing everyone and everything—yet the woman I’d just tied my life to could tear my mind apart with a single sentence.

“If you don’t want me screwing someone else, there will be sex.”

I didn’t have any idea who she could be picturing herself in bed with, but I was already vividly imagining myself tearing him apart limb by limb.

Wolves didn’t share.

She was mine.

She was fuckingmine.

Any other bastard who touched her would be dead before he had time to enjoy the feel of her perfect little body in his hands.

I snarled quietly, earning weird looks from nearly all of her sisters.

Hale was smirking.

I itched to break his nose with my fist, but he, at the very least, was no threat. A vampire wouldn’t even consider drinking from someone who wasn’t his blood mate after he’d met his, and sex rarely happened without blood drinking for them.

That I knew of, at least.

But I hadn’t been around vampires in so long that I couldn’t be sure.