Page 30 of Love Bites Hard

Despite my remark, I couldn’t hide my smile. It was good to hear her happy. She’d struggled with feeding our entire lives, so I was glad she was finally healthy, happy, and safe.

“Sorry! Love you. Call me soon, okay?”

“Alright. Love you too. Bye.”

I hung up, dropping my phone on my bed and forming a plan in my mind.

I gave myself two more minutes to stay in bed before I forced myself to get up and moving.

There was shit to do.

An hour later,I’d grabbed a plate of food from the buffet-style cafeteria the pack ran, accepted a few more presents (many of which were sex toys), retrieved the gifts from the night before, dropped all of said presents back in my room, and finally headed out on my way to the lake.

Despite my uncertainty about my mating situation, the people in the pack who did seem to like mereallyliked me. Which was nice. I definitely couldn’t complain.

Thanks to them, I had a hand-drawn map to the lake. And a basket of snacks to leave next to the water, in case I decided to make my swim a long one. And a stack of towels. And a brush, plus a bunch of hair ties.

All of that, on top of a dozen vibrators and dildos. Porter would’ve been pissed, but he would’ve had to actually be there to care.

A guy I’d met in the cafeteria had even offered to French-braid my hair. I usually had to ask Zora or Clem to do it when I wanted it done, so I accepted without hesitation. It was a little uncomfortable to have some random man’s hands in my hair, but absolutely worth making my day easier by getting my hair out of my face.

I headed out and walked down the paved path like I’d been instructed. My basket of snacks was hanging from my elbow, and my towel was draped over my shoulder. My hair was tied back in two surprisingly-perfect French braids, and all I had on was the same black, sporty bikini I’d been wearing the day before.

When I reached a branch in the road, I paused and squinted down at the napkin that held my map, trying to decide which way to go.

Considering I’d spent most of my life hiding from magical beings who’d want to use me for my magic, I was a shitty navigator.

A shadow caught my attention as it stretched over me a minute later, and I looked over to see who it belonged to.

When I saw a tall, blond guy who looked kind of like Curtis had, my stomach clenched. There was a band around his throat that marked him as mated, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t part of the group that wanted me dead.

He grinned. “Hey, I’m Evan.”

Oh.

It was Kim’s fiancé. One of Porter’s closest friends.

On second glance, the mark on his neck was the dark blue of an unsealed bond.

“Hi,” I said. There was no point in keeping my name a secret anymore, since Porter clearly knew it. “I’m Izzy.”

He sniffed the air. “Why do you smell like Arthur Long?”

“Some guy braided my hair for me. His name might’ve been Arthur. There were a so many people, their names went in one ear and out the other.”

“Porter’s not going to like that,” Evan warned, stepping up closer to me and sniffing the air above me. His lips twisted in a grimace. “Definitelynot going to like that.”

“Porter’s been out all night doing who knows what with who knows who, so he doesn’t get a say.”

Evan snagged the napkin from my fingers, and I bit back a huff. “Trying to find the lake?”

“Yeah. I’m shit with maps.”

“Whoever drew this forgot to include this intersection. Left takes you toward the other entrance into Wolf Manor. Right takes you toward the sidewalk that wraps around the other wings too. Straight takes you deeper into the forest, so it’s the default choice for a wolf.”

“Maybe I’m not as bad with maps as I thought.”

“Only time will tell. Do you have a pen?”

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