Unafraid Read online

  “Do you even care that I love you, Griffin? Does it matter to you that your little human toy would mourn that love?” She had no idea what she was saying. He didn’t think of her as less than himself, not anymore.

  “You don’t understand!” he bellowed.

  “What don’t I understand? Explain it to me because I desperately want to understand, Griffin!”

  “My family is difficult. My people need me to lead.” Shit, this was going from bad to worse. He didn’t know how to make her understand his position.

  “I see. I have a few simple questions that will help me clear this all up.” She looked at him and waited for his agreement before she continued.

  “Are you ashamed of me? To answer this you must ask yourself if you ever intended to take me home to meet your family.” She waited. He struggled to come up with the truth. He wanted to take her home but he didn’t want to risk her life if they found out she knew the Vampire Nation existed. He didn’t answer quickly enough.

  “I’ll take that as a ‘no.’ The next question is, did you purchase a second home during the week you stayed with me so you could hide me like a dirty little secret but still maintain the lifestyle you are accustomed to?” He couldn’t answer. It was hard to explain that he wanted them to live a comfortable life until he could figure out how to get around his bonding with Sarah. Yes, he had been keeping her a secret, but he hadn’t planned to toss her away.

  “Okay. That’s a ‘yes.’ Now, for the last and most important question, are you indeed engaged to be married?”

  “It’s an arranged marriage between my family and hers. I didn’t ask her to be my mate. I had no choice in the matter at all.” He wanted to tell her that he was trying to find a way out of the bonding, but she cut him off.

  “A simple ‘yes’ will do, Griffin.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Let me see if I have this all straight. You are ashamed of being with a human so you hide me away in a condo you bought solely for that purpose. You had no intention of ever introducing me to your family or friends. You are currently engaged to a woman that is acceptable to you and your family, not to mention the Nation of people you will help lead. Mason very helpfully explained that you will suffer a day’s pain over losing me after you bond to your mate and wash away any feelings you have for me. So, when you move on, I will be the one left lost and broken. Does that about cover it?”

  He stared slack-jawed at her grief stricken face. It sounded really bad when she put it that way. No matter what his original intentions had been everything was different now. He had no idea how he was going to fix this. He only knew he didn’t want to ever lose Tessa. He loved her and her alone.

  “Please give me a chance,” he pleaded.

  “What do you want a chance to do? What’s the plan?” she asked.

  Nothing. He had nothing. Not a clue about where to begin or how to make her understand the wall he was up against.

  “Just leave, Griffin. Leave, and never come back.” She stepped inside and shut the door in his face. Griffin listened to her slide down the door and begin sobbing her heart out onto the worn linoleum floor.

  SEVEN

  They say when you fall in love with someone that person becomes like a drug, an addiction you don’t want to live without. In Griffin’s opinion, being in love was more like being slowly poisoned. You suffer an unrelenting pain that can only be alleviated by completely purging the drug, or person, from your system. This process took much longer than the initial poisoning or addiction had taken. Though he did agree that no matter how sure a person was that they would be rejected, the idiot desperately wanted to return to the source of all of the pain and misery. Just like a junkie.

  After leaving Tessa to her misery the night she ended their relationship, Griffin was angry and hurting. There was only one person he could blame at the time. He went straight to Mason’s house and was greeted in the foyer by his ‘ex’-best friend. He was spoiling for a fight and Mason knew it. Griffin couldn’t even speak at first. The pain of his loss and the betrayal perpetrated by Mason lodged in his throat to block all sound.

  Sounding annoyed and unconcerned, Mason said, “Let’s take this outside. I’ll not have you trashing my mate’s home. She’s worked hard to get things just the way she likes them.”

  That statement sent Griffin over the edge. Mason had the nerve to discount the budding love between Griffin and Tessa and then rub his new blood bond in Griffin’s face. Griffin was suffering the loss of his only love and Mason was worried about not wrinkling his mate’s curtains or scuffing her polished floors?

  As soon as Mason opened the door to exit the house, Griffin tackled him. They rolled together down the few steps that led to the front lawn. He felt like a mad man rolling, wrestling and punching wildly. The hurt and anger combined to make him senseless. He wanted blood for Mason’s part in Tessa leaving him. Mason had not pulled any punches with Tessa when it came to how the Vampire Nation would view her humanity. He’d left her feeling worthless and used. For that, Mason deserved every crushing blow Griffin could land. They fought like wild beasts and Griffin was lost to the battle.

  Mason and he were evenly matched. They were roughly the same size, but Griffin was broader in the shoulders and chest. They’d trained and learned to fight together starting when they were kids. Griffin plowed his fist repeatedly into Mason’s torso and hoped to inflict a few broken ribs. They tumbled and fought for a time and it felt good. Griffin would have gone on until they beat each other into the ground but Mason leapt away from him suddenly and looked toward his huge new house.

  Blood trickled from Mason’s nose and mouth. One eye was swollen shut and his knuckles were worn and raw. “You son of a bitch!” he snarled at Griffin and ran into the house. A sick feeling washed over Griffin and he followed Mason who ran up the grand staircase and down the long hall to his bedroom. Griffin stopped at the door when Mason entered his bedroom. A moment later there was an anguished female howl from inside the room. Debbie had made that noise. He barged into their private space ready to fight off whoever had made his friend’s sweet mate make that agonizing sound.

  He found them huddle against the wall in the master bathroom. Mason cradled a fragile and terrified Debbie on his lap. Mason was apologizing to his pretty little mate while actual tears slid down his face. Griffin scanned the room but they were the only ones there. It took a minute for it all to sink in. It seemed Mason and Debbie had a very strong bond already. Debbie’s link to Mason was so strong that she could feel his pain. While him and Mason where beating each other to a pulp, Debbie would have been hurting along with Mason and she would've had no idea why she was in such pain. It must have terrified her.

  In that moment when he should’ve been feeling remorse, Griffin’s chest burned with jealousy. His friend had what he hadn’t known he wanted until Tessa. How could Mason know this kind of love and still want to deny Griffin the same connection? Griffin knew why though. Tessa was human and that was unacceptable. Even if he tried to bond himself to her, it might not work. He could be forever linked to a human who could leave him and never look back if the blood bond didn’t take. Even if the bond did take it was a huge risk that would end his life in the Vampire Nation, as well as leaving the House of Vaughn with no one to fill his seat on the Council if they refused to accept his human mate. It would be a disaster for his family.

  Griffin backed out of the room without a word. Watching the couple hold onto each other so tightly in wordless comfort made him feel like an interloper. He would apologize to Debbie another time. For now he would go home, to his real home in the vampire owned building he had occupied for the past five years and lick his wounds. He doubted he would ever return to the hastily bought condo he had invested in so he could be with Tessa. Whether she believed it or not, he loved her. The condo hadn’t been a place to hide her until he was finished with her. He’d bought it to keep her safe under his roof in the kind of home she deserved until he could find a way to get out of his bonding to
Sarah.

  His intentions didn’t matter anymore. The futility of the situation wore him out emotionally and mentally. He couldn’t find even one example of a couple successfully breaking a bond prearranged by their families. He had consulted lawyers and combed through every reference book pertaining to bonding law and the validity of arranged bonds he could find in the Council Hall’s vast library. Even if he found a way out, he would still lose everything for choosing a human. It was hopeless and Griffin was sick to death from thinking about it.

  * * *

  Griffin returned to the structure and flow that was his life. He had a business to run, employees to support and his duties as a fledgling Councilman to keep him busy during the day. His parents were pleased to see him return to his normal routine and the days went by slowly.

  He hunted when it was absolutely necessary, but he took no pleasure in the act. No one tasted like his Tessa. Her blood was sweet and satisfying while running down his throat. When he fed from Tessa it would sustain him for days longer than it should. He believed her supernatural sight somehow made her blood stronger, richer with the nutrients he needed to survive. He knew he would never again have the honor of burying himself between her legs while he suckled the slender column of her neck.

  There had been several social events he’d been required to attend but Griffin just couldn’t dig up the interest he used to have for rubbing elbows with his peers or admiring the lovely ladies in attendance. He’d escorted Delphina to the gatherings because his mother insisted he come with a date. Delphina was angry that he didn’t pay her the attention he always had in the past. He wasn’t sure how he’d missed her aspiration to be his mate in the past. She’d hid it well. Now she’d convinced herself that he was only trying to protect her from heartbreak when his inevitable bonding arrived. It seemed he wasn’t the only one trying to find a way to release him from his obligation.

  Griffin hadn’t taken another woman to his bed and he simply couldn’t imagine a time that anyone but Tessa would feel right in his arms. He dreaded the nights. He tried going back to his home but every night he ended up in the space he’d shared with Tessa. The place still smelled faintly of vanilla and woman, particularly in the bedroom. It was torture being there without Tessa but he couldn’t make himself leave. It was his last link to her and he was not looking forward to the day her scent completely faded away.

  He’d lay in the bed he’d shared with Tessa; replaying all the ways they had loved each other in his mind. He couldn’t understand how a person who had been in his life for such a short time could rip him apart this way. His thoughts drifted from lovemaking to quiet moments shared in front of the fire while she read a book and he worked. When he came home in the evenings, she would be waiting with a hot meal and tons of pent up energy after being home alone all day. There was way more to the time they’d spent together than hot sex. It was a real relationship and he missed her deeply. He loved her more than he could ever imagine loving another being, human or vampire.

  He kept coming back to a conversation he’d had with Delphina and a tempting thought took root in his mind, refusing to be plucked. Delphina suggested they be bonded without telling their families first. You can only be bonded to one person at a time. Once it’s done it’s done. If he made her his mate, Sarah and her family would be shit out of luck. Delphina acted as if it would be a sacrifice for her to forgo a big bonding ceremony, but Griffin knew her family would be overjoyed. His family, on the other hand, would be disgraced and likely owe a great deal of money to Sarah’s parents for breach of contract.

  Griffin tried to remind himself that once he was bonded to Sarah this pain would end. He should call his parents and ask to be bonded to Sarah immediately. The thought of spending the rest of his life without Tessa burned a hole through his chest.

  Tessa was out there tonight alone. Griffin knew she’d gone back to work at the restaurant because he’d driven by a time or two and seen her working inside. That Italian asshole who owned the joint wanted her badly. Sebastian couldn’t have Tessa because she was Griffin’s future mate. He was going to get her back and keep her this time.

  You could only be bonded to one person at a time. Griffin had a lot of money to pay for whatever fine would be handed down by the Council for his breach of contract. He smiled to himself and crawled out of bed. Sarah deserved better than a vampire who only wanted another woman. Griffin deserved to live his life and love who he wished, even if she was human.

  * * *

  Tessa left Bella Notte at the end of her shift and was surprised to find Mason waiting outside. She did not want to deal with his holier-than-thou vampire ass. The agony of losing Griffin was still too fresh in her heart and mind. She walked past as if he wasn’t there, but he followed. A terrifying thought came to her and her heart started to pound. What if Mason had changed his mind about keeping her a secret to protect his friend’s reputation? What if he had come to take her to the Council? She picked up the pace. It was stupid because she would never be able to out run a vampire, but the fight or flight instinct made her do crazy shit.

  A hand reached to grasp her shoulder and she struggled out of his hold and began to run. Mason quickly caught her and spun her around. He looked confused and annoyed until he saw the stark fear on her face.

  “Tessa, why you are you frightened? I would never hurt you.” He pulled her to his chest and held her tight until she stopped struggling. “I’m sorry I scared you. I only came to see how you’re doing,” he whispered against her hair. He set her back on her feet but held onto her shoulders.

  “I came to talk to you about Griffin.” He licked his lips and took a deep breath, looking embarrassed. “I know it doesn’t really matter and won’t change the situation, but I know now that I was wrong about Griffin’s motives where you were concerned.”

  “You’re right, Mason, his motives don’t matter. The end result would have been the same. Griffin will have a mate and she won’t be me.” Tessa tried to pull away but he held on.

  She knew she should be grateful to him for telling her the truth about Griffin. She should also thank her lucky human stars that he hadn’t reported her to the almighty vampire Council. As irrational as she knew it was, Tessa blamed Mason for ruining the little piece of heaven she had with Griffin. It wasn’t perfect, but she loved him and the time they spent together was the best time of her life.

  “I don’t blame you for disliking me. Will it make you feel better to know that Griffin kicked my ass for interfering with his relationship with you?” Actually that did make her feel a bit better. “He isn’t the same vamp, Tessa. Losing you has changed him for the worse. He’s hurting too. I just wanted you to know that he hadn’t lied to you. Whether you can be together or not, he does love you and you were the only female in his life when he was with you.” He sighed. “I’ll let you go now.”

  A roar that sounded more animal that man sounded from behind Mason. She peered around him to see Griffin in a full rage, black eyes and fangs on a public street, bearing down on them.

  “Get your hands off my female.” Griffin grabbed Mason and slammed him against a brick storefront. “Haven’t you hurt her enough?” He snarled in Mason’s face.

  Tessa turned and ran. She couldn’t handle seeing Griffin again. The memory of his voice kept her up at night. When she slept, she always dreamt of his face. He would lean over her and kiss her tenderly. He would tell her she was his only love, his mate for all time. Then she would wake up. Seeing him now opened the festering wound in her heart even wider. She ran down the alley where she’d met him what felt like so long ago. She just needed to get home and hide from the madness that had descended on her already screwed up life.

  She reached the other end of the alley before she stopped in her tracks. A tall, lean, murderous looking woman stood blocking Tessa’s exit at the mouth of the alley. Only she wasn’t just a woman. She was a vampire. Her long, dark auburn hair fell in waves around a face that currently sported unnatural looking obsi
dian eyes and long, pearly white fangs. She stepped forward and Tessa stepped back.

  “I can’t believe it!” she hissed and sniffed the air. “I knew if I followed him long enough I’d figure out what or who was holding Griffin’s attention. I just can’t believe it’s a human!” She stalked forward and Tessa continued to back away. Turning her back on the livid vampire was a bad idea.

  “What do you want?” Tessa asked. She was sure the vampire hadn’t stopped her to compare notes on Griffin. This had to be Griffin’s future mate, Sarah. Who else would be following him?

  “What do I want?” She stopped and tapped her chin contemplatively. “You see, I want a lot of things. That’s why I need Griffin. I’ve waited a long ass time and put up with his alley catting ways to get to where I am now. I’ll be damned if some filthy little human tramp is going to ruin it all now!”

  “Are you Sarah?” Tessa asked. If this was the woman Griffin would be forced to wed she could understand his desperation to get out of the arrangement. The woman cackled and the sound sent a chill down her spine.

  “Sarah is a weak little girl. She is a pathetic female who is tucked safely away until the day she becomes Griffin’s mate. Her parents sold her to the House of Vaughn as soon as she was born. You see, they wanted to solidify an alliance with the Council. Her parents were smarter than mine. My fool parents thought they had time to approach Adele and Lloyd Vaughn. They didn’t. Now it’s up to me secure our family’s position by drawing Griffin away from his soon-to-be mate. That has been taken care of, but you’re in my way, little human trash.” She reached out and grabbed Tessa by the throat.

  Tessa struggled. The vampire’s grip was like steel. “You will stay away from Griffin Vaughn. You don’t want him anymore. You will tell him to leave you alone.” Tessa felt the mental push of compulsion the vampire tried to exert on her, but it didn’t work.