Page 7 of Love Bites Hard

The vampires were still blocking my view. I didn’t know if that made my stress worse, or better.

I wouldn’t see my shiny new mate lose… but I also wouldn’t see if he won. And that felt like something I should be allowed to see, given our relationship.

But all things considered, it did seem safer to stay hidden. Especially if Porter was about to die.

The crowd roared and cheered.

I didn’t know who they were in favor of, but their excitement told me that he was winning.

Or maybe they just liked watching people fight, and didn’t care who won. That wouldn’t particularly surprise me. I didn’t know enough about wolf shifters to say that for sure, though.

Gasps went through the crowd, and I went up on my tiptoes, trying to see what was happening.

A brutal snapping noise made me flinch, but the crowd absolutely went crazy. They screamed and hollered.

Someone had just died.

I hadn’t felt anything, despite our mate bond, which made me think that it wasn’t Porter.

Sure enough, the vampires around me finally parted, and my gaze landed on my new mate.

He was naked.

Bloody and bleeding just about everywhere, too.

But he was alive, and that was more of a relief than I expected.

I spared a glance at Curtis’s body on the ground, making a noise of surprise when my attention jerked back to Porter.

He strode across the cage that separated the crowd from the fight, climbing over the wall and dropping to the ground smoothly, only a few feet from me.

My vampire guards cleared out as the gigantic wolf shifter turned me away from him and grabbed my hand. He pumped it into the air as he roared his victory with the crowd, his thick, strong chest against my back.

It was the most bizarre, surreal experience of my life.

But like I said, I didn’t know enough about wolves to be certain whether or not it was normal.

Before the crowd’s roaring died down, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder—and choked back a cry when I realized it was Porter’s teeth, biting into my skin.

Like a vampire.

It didn’t hurt nearly as much as I would’ve expected, and I was too stunned to shove him off me. His grip was too tight anyway.

He released my shoulder, and roared again with his feral crowd.

Then, without further ado, he tossed me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

I fought the urge to pound my fists into his back and demand he put me down. I wasn’t a toddler, and I was the moron who thought it was a good idea to mate with a wolf shifter.

Clearly, I should’ve asked more questions.

But the hole had been dug and my body was buried, because the mark on my neck wasn’t going anywhere. I was stuck with the wolfy bastard for life, and beyond.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

Porter carriedme out of the challenge room and down so many halls that I started to feel a bit dizzy.

The ache in my shoulder wasn’t helping with that any.

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