Page 9 of Love Bites Hard

I wanted to snap at him—but was too busy puking my guts out.

A door opened somewhere in the room, and I vaguely heard footsteps.

“I’ve got Powerade, crackers, and a few other things,” a feminine voice said. “Evan left to get her bags from the vampires.”

“Thank you.”

I stopped puking for long enough to rest my head on the toilet seat, panting as I tried to catch my breath.

The nausea hadn’t faded any, so I knew the break would be a short one. I was vomiting bile, so I wasn’t sure how much longer it could go on before I just straight-up passed out.

Thick fingers combed my hair back lightly, then tugged on the strands for a moment before I felt all the hair being tied back in a low bun.

Porter stepped away from me, the warmth of his hand leaving my shoulder. “The nausea should be fading any minute now. Stay with her. Let me know immediately when the bond progresses.”

“Will do. It’s good to have you back.”

There was something beneath the words. An undercurrent of emotion that made me wonder if they’d been together at some point.

And that pissed me off, even though I’d never had a real claim to him. I was the one who’d told him I would find someone else to screw if he wasn’t willing, after all.

In hindsight, that was probably a bad way to start a mate bond.

Then again, he was the asshole who didn’t even want my name. He was definitely planning on sleeping with the woman he’d left me with. I was just going to be the token siren he used for?—

I groaned, lifting my head and vomiting again.

The dizziness was only getting worse.

“It should subside soon,” my mate’s lover promised.

I wanted to claw her eyes out… but I didn’t have claws.

Just obnoxious magic that would make her feelbetterif I used it on her.

The world spun around me violently as my nausea finally started to fade. “What’s happening to me?”

“The pack’s mental bond is a bitch. It’s a massive, complex network. As the alpha’s mate, you’re at the head of it, right alongside Porter,” she explained gently.

“He didn’t warn me.”

Not about the bite, and not about the mental bond. Not about the lover, either.

What else hadn’t he said?

I missed whatever her response was, but snapped myself out of my thoughts in time to hear, “We need to get some fluids in you. The Powerade will help.”

“I just need water,” I said.

“I don’t think you?—”

“And peppermint.”

“Peppermint? Why would that help?”

I ignored her question.

Apparently Porter hadn’t bothered telling his lover what I was before he ditched me with her.

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