Page 43 of My Guardian Gryphon

Cigar smoke and the scent of a human man filled my lungs. The clothes she wore weren’t hers. They belonged to a man. A man who’d attempted to have sex with her? My beast roared and pressed against my psyche, stretching against the thin leash of control I possessed.

“What happened?”

“Don’t you want me? I came all this way so we could be together, and you only want to know what happened?”

I shook the cloud of confusion from my mind and blinked down at her. Not want her? “Of course I want you. By all the gods of the Veil, I want nothing more than you for the rest of eternity, but who let you out?”

“I escaped. I tricked a man, knocked him out, and then came here to be with you. As long as no one sees the rope, no one will even notice I’m gone until Mr. Cigar-man wakes up on the floor of my bedroom.”

I rubbed my hand over my mouth and tried not to cringe. I wanted to take Gretchen and run, but everything inside me screamed that I wouldn’t be able to protect her. Not with Xerxes and the Djinn pounding at the barrier outside every damn day for the last few weeks. Ever since the Mason lodge in Ada had burned and Charlie had come back with Travis and Garrett and the few Lycans left in her pack, Xerxes had closed ranks. We were his target—Sanctuary, the castle, Gretchen, any and all of the Sisters.

The smell of blood caught my attention. “You’re hurt.” I said, grabbing her bruised hand and holding it closer. Her skin smelled salty, and her palms were rubbed raw in several places, enough to bring blood to the surface. “What did you do?”

She yanked back her hand and glared, anger flashing in her bright blue-gray eyes. “I’ll be fine. I got out. You left me in there and I got out.”

Fire stabbed my heart. Left her? Rose had all but told me to get the fuck out of town. Didn’t she get that? “Was I supposed to take you right there in front of Rose and Miles? Would you rather I be dead? I would be if I’d tried to take you.”

“No,” she said, her tone rising.

“Shh.” I stepped forward and pulled her into an embrace. The neighbors would hear her if she raised her voice much louder, and I needed to feel her against me. Feel her heart beat. Feel that in this moment she was safe and removed from the greedy hands of the human male who had sought her body.

I breathed in and out, vaguely noticing my pulse syncing to hers. “Gretchen. I’m sorry. You don’t know what I went through today when that bus arrived. I wanted to murder all those men. I wanted to tear them apart, pluck their eyeballs from their skulls so they wouldn’t even be able to look at you.”

“Their eyeballs?” The question came out followed by a giggle and a half-sob.

“Yes. You are mine, Gretchen, but I also want you to be safe. Above everything else, above any claim I lay on you, I want you safe and protected. The castle is where you are safe. Xerxes and his soldiers cross the town boundary every other day. They wait just outside the barrier the Batemans have created. It’s not safe for you here.”

“One night, Alek, please.” Her pleading tone shredded the resolved I’d mustered. “No one will know tonight. Then we can discuss tomorrow.”

Discuss? Unless I left—ran like a traitor—we could never be together.

“Alek.” Her soft breath whispered across my chest, igniting an overwhelming hunger I’d never before experienced. Her skin sizzled with an energy that pulsed between us. “Please.”

“I want all of you, Gretchen.” My voice rumbled, deepening as more of my blood rushed south. “I don’t know what being with you means for my Gryphon, but I want you in a way I’ve never experienced before. You are special to me. To my beast.”

“You are special to me. You are mine, the beast and the man as one.” She ran her palm along my chest, up to my neck, and settled it against my cheek. Her fingers curled, beckoning me closer. The energy flitting between her skin and mine increased, flipping a switch deep inside me. We’d touched so many times before, but it’d always been in innocence. Not until I’d seen her for the woman she was…and then everything had changed.

I slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her from the floor, pressing her luscious body against my hard lines. She submitted, melting into the embrace. I covered her mouth with mine, and she moaned, setting off fireworks in my brain. She tasted like honey and candy and woman. All woman. All mine.

Our tongues tangled inside her mouth, and then she pushed back, moving the dance to my mouth. She tasted me and pressed and took what she desired. She was no meek little girl. If she’d been a paranormal, she’d have growled and dug her claws into my back, and I would’ve welcomed it. Her fingers kneaded and scraped my shoulders, and her teeth settled on my bottom lip, nipping ever so slightly.

“Hungry, aren’t you?” I mumbled and consumed her mouth again, covering it completely and driving my tongue deep inside, claiming what was mine and everything she was offering—giving to me.

“So hungry.” Her words spilled out in a gasp for air when I moved my lips to the curve of her neck. I bit gently, basking in the little moans and whimpers of pleasure coming from inside her. Her body was warm against mine, but I couldn’t feel her through the thick wool coat and men’s dress shirt she wore. The shapeless pants hung low on her slender waist.

I let my talons slide out on my right hand and slipped them inside the hem, shredding them with one downward slice. She made a tiny surprised gasp and took a step back, watching my hand—my claws.

“Do I frighten you?” I dragged the tips of my talons up her bare thigh, watching her shiver from the contact. Her pulse sped in her chest…she met my gaze, but there was no fear.

“No.” Her steel blue eyes had darkened to match the color of Texas storm clouds. Desire rumbled and lightning sizzled within us both. There was no fear, only a hunger that matched mine. “Never.”

I slid my hand beneath the hem of the dress shirt until I reached her collarbone, being careful to avoid scraping her breasts. Those would feel my mouth before I teased her with anything else. I turned my palm away from her, curling my razor-sharp talons against the fabric of the shirt and yanked down. The fabric barely made a sound as it fell open, allowing my eyes to feast upon the vision of her perfect, petite breasts.

I relaxed my hand, calling the talons back inside me, leaving human fingertips in their place. Stopping myself from reaching for her breasts, I knelt in front of her then slid my hands around her hips and up along the curve of her back, pulling her forward until her breasts swung just in front of my face.

Air puffed in and out of her lungs. She didn’t speak. She just waited, her gaze pleading for me to do more. I opened my mouth and latched onto her right breast. She was small enough that I could fit nearly the whole breast into my mouth. It was heaven. She was heaven. I suckled her breast like a man who’d reverently waited his whole life for a pleasure like this—like her.

Her head fell forward, and her knees quivered, straining to hold her upright. She dug her fingers into my shoulders, and I reveled in the slight pain her fingernails inflicted. My beast wanted her to mark me. I wanted it. Between her pants, whimpers slipped out. I lavished one breast and then the other. They pebbled under my tongue, perfect and rosy and pink. Her scent filled my lungs, and I drank it in until I was sure I’d never forget. I never wanted to forget.

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