Page 20 of My Guardian Gryphon

It is just a bit of fucking bread. Who really gives a shit? A pang of jealousy spun a web across my heart, tugging hard until I forced my gaze away from them. I didn’t really begrudge them bread. What really hurt was knowing that I’d never partake of the sacred gift they’d been given—fatherhood. That I’d never have a mate-bond like my parents had shared. That I didn’t even fully know what it meant to be a Gryphon.

My friendship with the Blackmoor Drakonae brothers spanned thousands of years, but since they’d recovered their mate Diana, Jared and I both had pulled away. At least Jared had a sliver of hope for a mate, since the Djinn woman from Savannah had lived through touching his flame.

I, Alek Melos, was the only Gryphon on Earth. No hope for me. There had been several dozen of us in the beginning when we’d first come through from Veil, but once we’d split up, that’d been it. I never saw any of them again. Not once throughout all the thousands of years I’d lived in this world.

For the longest time, I’d believed the Sisters of Lamidae were the key to getting back home, to finding out if any of my people had survived the fire of the Incanti. Maybe I would find a mate one day if ever I was able to return. Maybe someone there still knew what it meant to be a Gryphon.

But that dream had strangled itself a millennia ago. Four thousand years and only six Protectors had been found. Who knew how many more years would pass before the last two would be located and brought to Sanctuary? The Sisters said the seventh was out there—alive, but so far, none had been able to say where the seventh was. Whether it was a man or woman. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not to mention we still needed a fucking eighth.

Now I found myself attracted to a girl I’d spent nearly every afternoon with since she was a child, except she wasn’t a child anymore. She was a grown woman—a beautiful grown woman, one who I couldn’t trust myself to be around without betraying just how much I desired her.

I hadn’t been back to the Blackmoor’s library since last week. She probably hated me now for avoiding her. The companionship and camaraderie we’d build over the past fifteen years ruined because of my inability to control my lust.

It’d been like switch had flipped inside my mind. Instead of seeing the sweet innocent girl she had been, I saw a grown woman with curves that made me hard and lips that brought carnal thoughts to my mind. I wanted to taste her. Every fucking inch. I wanted her, wanted to claim her.

Hell, I didn’t even know what that meant, but a small voice deep inside kept whispering that she was meant for me.

Returning to the old routine now wasn’t an option. The thought of seeing Gretchen again and smelling her scent was like sunshine for my dark heart. No matter my mood. No matter what demons from my past clawed to the surface, seeing her made everything better, and I’d lost that.

Thrown it away.

“Hey, Earth to Alek,” Jared said, his tone annoyed and amused at the same time. “Stop thinking about her.”

“Shut up.”

“We’ve been brothers since Fate threw us through that portal together.”

I turned to face my friend and snarled under my breath. “Fate did nothing. My father sent us through. Fate stole our chance to help our families.”

Jared glanced at the table. “I have wished for a chance to take vengeance for a long time, but that wasn’t what Fate intended for us.”

“I know you believe that we were always meant to fight Rose Hilah’s righteous war, but I don’t. I stayed with you because you are my brother, the only family I have on this Earth, but don’t for one second think I believe any of Rose’s bullshit prophecy crap anymore.”

“Anymore? You’re just angry and horny and won’t take my advice about finding someone else to satisfy your dick,” he said, keeping his voice low. Not that it mattered. Everyone and everything in this fucking diner could’ve heard a needle drop at a rock concert if they focused hard enough.

Anger burned in my gut, bubbling and frothing at Jared’s mention of my taking relief in another woman’s bed. The idea made me ill, just as ill as the thought of Gretchen sharing her body with any other male.

Mine. My Gryphon screamed inside my head, and I winced.

But that was the problem; she wasn’t mine, and I couldn’t see a way around the rules laid out by Rose. I was the one that solved problems in this town, not created them, but this…if I wanted Gretchen, I had to take her and leave.

Run.

The Drakonae would kill me before I set foot over the castle threshold with one of their precious Sisters.

“Hey, Alek.” Raven, one of the pixies who helped run the café, sauntered up with a bright smile that should’ve chased away my anger. “Hey, Jared. How’s the town holding together?”

“Morning, Raven.” He smiled back at the purple-haired sprite, and I attempted to fake my way through being fine.

“Morning.”

“Man, you sound like you just drank spoiled milk. What’s got you all twisted up, honey?” She scooted closer to me and slipped an arm around my shoulder, giving me a squeeze meant to comfort. The hairs on my arm rose, and a light shiver ran up both of them.

“What did you do?” I jerked away, grabbed her by the waist, and removed her from the bench next to me. Standing, I rose to my full height of seven foot two.

“Nothing much.” Her voice came out in a husky breath laced with mischief.

Liar. All the pixies were meddlers, always had been.

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