Page 12 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Four

“Tell Jessie that’s bullshit,” she says through the unhinged tears.

Cal sighs.

“Tell her.”

I’m not sure where Stanley and Judy disappeared to, but they are noticeably absent, the fryer quiet, the grill cold.

“Sam,” Cal says.

“Tell her!”

“I can’t!” he shouts back. “I won’t.”

Sam clenches her teeth so hard I hear her molars grit together. She reaches across the counter and grabs a canister of sugar and lobs it at Cal.

“Sam!” I yell, but the sugar never lands.

Instead, it’s caught mid-air by someone’s outstretched hand.

Bran.

My heart thuds against the back of my tongue.

The diner goes eerily silent.

It’s Bran that breaks it.

“Violence is a tool,” he says in that cool, calm, detached tone of voice. “It should never be a reaction. That’s a lesson the Alpha’s mate needs to learn sooner rather than later.”

“I’m not his mate,” Sam argues, but some of the heat has left her voice.

“I’m quite sure the word ‘fated’ is not one you can fight,” Bran points out.

Sam huffs and then crosses her arms over her chest.

“I’m sorry, Sam,” I say. “I just found out. I thought you should know.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She narrows her eyes at Cal again. “I’ll never agree to it.”

Cal growls. Literally growls.

Bran edges closer to Sam and me and faces the Alpha. “You need to get control of that.”

“I am!” Cal says as his teeth sharpen, not unlike Bran’s fangs.

“Why don’t you return to the Pack,” Bran says. “I’ll make sure Sam gets to where she’s going.”

Cal’s nostrils flare as he looks over top of us to Sam. Pain etches itself into the fine lines around his golden eyes. Not physical pain. This is an ache that does not bleed.

He doesn’t want to let Sam out of his sight.

“Let me take you home,” he says to her, now with more control. His gaze is locked on Sam and only Sam. “Please.”

I watch several emotions pass over my best friend’s face. Regret. Heartbreak. Worry. Fear. Hunger.

I think Sam has been keeping some things from me, namely how she really feels about the Alpha.

I mean, I totally believe she believes she hates him and maybe in some ways she does, but the hate is not complete. There are cracks in that hardened exterior and they are starting to show.

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