Unafraid (10 page)

She sobbed great hiccupping sobs in the
darkness of her one room home and mourned the loss of a love that
had never been real, at least not for Griffin. It was very real for
Tessa. Useless tears soaked her pillow. The pain in her chest was
like a living thing clawing at her heart. It burned her like acid
and froze her like the bitter winter wind rattling her old windows.
Nothing had ever hurt her so deeply. Not even the loss of her
parents or the rejection of her family had made Tessa want to curl
up and die.

She wished she would die. Then she wouldn’t
have to figure out how to live without the heart that would forever
belong to Griffin. He was right. She did belong to him and she
would never belong to anyone else. Eventually exhaustion took hold
and Tessa drifted into a restless sleep.

* * *

Griffin’s urgent call from his best friend,
Mason, warning of his mother’s insane missing person call to the
Enclave had turned out to be nothing. He didn’t know where Mason
was getting his information, but his parent’s home was calm and
peaceful until he arrived early that morning. His unexpected
presence gave his mother, the impeccable even at 6:30am Adele
Vaughn, an excuse to ride him about shirking his responsibilities.
Sarah’s parents were beginning to pressure her and his father to
get a time frame for their bonding. It was a less than exemplary
way to start his day and he hadn’t been able to reach Mason all day
to explain the frantic early morning call.

After a full morning of Council duties, his
own business needed Griffin’s attention. When he got home he was
frustrated and ready to work off some steam with his little love.
Tessa had become the center of his universe. On the elevator ride
up to his condo Griffin fondled the long jewelry box in his breast
pocket. On his way home from the Council Hall where the leaders of
the vampire Nation met, Griffin stopped to pick out a gift for
Tessa. He couldn’t wait to see her wearing it and nothing else.

As soon as the door to his condo opened, he
breathed in deeply, needing to fill himself with the delicious
scent that soothed him and brought out the beast in him all at
once. It was there but it wasn’t right. It was faint as if she
hadn’t been there for a long time. He called her name while
shrugging out of his coat but got no answer. The beast that needed
to possess her body and soul roared in his head. He searched every
room but she was gone, along with her old clothes, coat and
purse.

Griffin was pissed. She dared to disobey him
after he instructed her to stay home. She only had one place to go.
What reason could she possibly have to return to that shit hole of
an apartment? The beast in him hated her being in a place that was
provided by another male. He still wanted to kill that bastard
Sebastian for trying to win over his female. He jerked his coat
back on and headed across town.

He fumed the whole way to her place. Didn’t
she understand who she was dealing with? He was Griffin Vaughn for
God’s sake! Nobody openly disobeyed him, ever! Then he remembered.
No, she didn’t know who she was dealing with, because never told
her. Maybe it was time to instruct her on the proper conduct when
dealing with a high member of the House of Vaughn.

When he reached her door, Griffin knew she
was home. Her vanilla aroma crept from under the door and he tried
to calm his ire. He wanted to kick the door in and throw her over
his shoulder. He wanted to spank that lusciously round ass all the
way back to his place, but he would play it cool until he got her
home. There was no need to cause a scene. He would punish her
later. He would punish her and she would love every minute of it.
Griffin grinned. Maybe that was her game. Maybe she had disobeyed
him just to get a spanking.

He pounded on the door but she didn’t answer.
He could hear her moving around inside but she didn’t answer the
door. He waited a long frustrating moment before pounding on the
damn door. The place was as big as a shoe box! It wasn’t like she
didn’t hear him the first time he knocked. The door was yanked open
and a frazzled, tear-stained Tessa stood blocking the door. She was
refusing him entrance. The primitive nut-job in his head growled
and sniffed for the presence of another male. She’d stood that way
when she refused Sebastian entrance as well.

“What do you want, Griffin?” she asked
tonelessly.

“What do I want?” he snapped. “I want to find
you in the place I left you! I told you to stay at home.”

She shook her head and took a shaky breath.
“That isn’t my home and I am not a member of the mighty Vampire
Nation. I am not your subject to command, your highness. Is that
what they call your Council members or do you prefer ‘your
majesty?’” she asked. Griffin struggled to keep his mouth from
falling open. His astonishment must have shown because she
continued.

“Oh, I know you didn’t intend for me to ever
have such intimate knowledge of your people, but your buddy, Mason,
felt only a complete picture would help me understand what an
absolute fool I’ve been.” Her voice shook and her eyes filled.

“Mason?” How had she found Mason? Then the
day all came together with a grinding crash in his head. Mason must
have figured him out and lured him away to investigate. He honestly
thought of killing his best friend. “What did Mason have to
say?”

“Nothing until after he attempted to erase my
memory of everything to do with you and your people. It didn’t
work. His only course of action was to either tell me everything in
hopes I would just go away, sparing your family the shame of
watching you be executed for the crime of lowering yourself to my
level, or he could turn you in for endangering your Nation and
watch us both die.”

Griffin’s heart banged around in his chest.
His Tessa was not the woman standing before him. She was completely
absent. This Tessa spoke calmly and without emotion as if she were
reading from the newspaper. She spoke as if she completely believed
she were beneath him. He reached out needing to touch her, but she
flinched away from his hand.

“Mason told me about Sarah. He explained that
I was likely just a diversion for you. He also theorized that you
were keeping me in your secret ivory tower because you were trying
to find a way to crack my memory without getting me killed by the
Council. I tend to believe that scenario. I mean, why kill the cow
while it’s still giving milk, right?” Griffin was going to beat
Mason within an inch of his life and wait for him to heal so he
could beat him again.

“Mason has no idea what is between us, baby.
He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Let’s go home and talk
this out.” He reached for her again but she backed away. Griffin
was dangerously close to fulfilling his need to act like a caveman
and drag Tessa off over his shoulder.

“It was only a game for you, Griffin. I was
just your little vacation away from the responsibility of leading
your people until the day of your bonding. Were you even going to
tell me when it was over, or did you plan to sell the condo and
walk away?” She sobbed now. The pain in her voice was echoed in her
beautiful pale eyes.

“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.