Page 4 of My Guardian Gryphon

He handed the book to me, then tilted his head, and kissed the top of mine. His lips were so soft and caring, perfection-embodied, but I didn’t want the you’re-a-sweet-child-who-I-like-to-tell-stories-to kiss. I wanted the kiss to be on my lips, and I wanted it to say you’re-mine-and-I-can’t-imagine-living-another-day-on-earth-without-you.

Alek was that for me already.

“I should go. The castle begins its rumbling for the start of the weekend’s festivities.” His tone had taken on the caretaker vibe, the one that dismissed me from his presence. But I wasn’t ready to leave. Not yet. And I didn’t give a flying fairy’s ass about the so-called festivities tonight.

“We have plenty of time. I don’t have to go.” I circled my arm around his and snuggled closer to his side, reveling in the heat and hardness of his body. Thoughts of running my hand along his chest to feel the strength beneath the soft jersey t-shirt he wore flickered across the stage of my imagination, along with the vision of our bodies, naked and entwined on a bed.

I wanted more from the life I’d been born into. And one day I was going to get it. Happiness waited for me each time I touched him. Eight seconds of bliss. Eight seconds of Alek and me lying in a bed together, smiling and laughing and in love. In the vision, he would kiss my stomach and whisper endearments to the child I was carrying. Our child.

We would have a child. That’s why I didn’t fear the sadness and depression that typically found the childless Sisters.

I would have a child. His child.

He was my beast—my Gryphon warrior.

He had always been mine. And I would be his.

Chapter 2

ALEK

“I don’t want to get you in trouble with the Oracle or your other sisters.” I cupped Gretchen’s face and stroked her porcelain white cheek with my thumb. Beautiful. Hair like a raven’s wing and bright blue eyes that would make a sapphire jealous. I dropped my hand and pulled it away. The emotions warring in my mind would only confuse the situation.

And right now what I had with Gretchen worked. I didn’t want to jeopardize the relationship we’d cultivated by making her uncomfortable in my presence. It wasn’t like I could act on my attraction, either.

It wasn’t allowed.

“You won’t get me in trouble. We have plenty of time,” Gretchen answered, squeezing my arm even tighter. “Keep reading.” She pushed the book back into my hands.

Such a stubborn young woman, always stretching the rules—or breaking them. I hated breaking the rules. Spending as much time with Gretchen as I did could be construed wrongly, but I’d returned to the Blackmoor’s library nearly every day for the past fifteen years. Nothing short of being on a mission outside of the town had kept me from finding refuge in a peaceful few hours in Gretchen’s company. Her bright blue eyes—so full of curiosity, a young mind eager to learn, full of joy and laughter. Her presence was like a bright flame in the dark cave of my self-imposed solitude, spreading warmth and light wherever she went. Warmth and light that I needed. Craved.

Besides my brother-in-arms, Jared, she was the only other person I considered a true friend in this town.

I opened the book again and started into act two. She deserved to be happy. If I could give her pleasure with a simple story, who was I to deny her joy?

Her heartbeat ebbed and flowed with the tension in the story, like the tide of the sea, pushing and pulling until the beach was smooth as satin. I kept reading, because she’d asked me to. It was all she ever asked of me, and I was grateful. Grateful that I always knew what to expect with Gretchen.

There were no surprises. No hidden agendas. Just peace and acceptance. It made keeping my emotions to myself that much easier.

She didn’t fear me like many in the town. Didn’t cringe every time I opened my mouth—scared that my Gryphon’s cry would punish them.

When I’d first joined Rose’s Sanctuary, I’d had a temper I didn’t know how to control well. Anger had fueled everything Jared and I did through our lives on Earth. Rose had helped. The pixies had helped. Everyone had helped until that one day when I’d lost control on a Lycan male mistreating a female, not that he didn’t deserve the punishment I’d doled out, but after that, everyone looked at me differently. Everyone except Jared and Rose. She still believed in me, and I owed her for that.

I read the Shakespeare through until the end of Act II and then closed the book. Gretchen’s over-enunciated sigh of exasperation brought a smile to my heart, but I was careful not to let it show on my face. Not to let on just how much her very presence gave me joy. With Gretchen, I forgot how desperately lonely it was to be the only Gryphon on the face of the Earth. How lonely it was to take care of a town that feared you.

The town appreciated my presence, but there were still many who remembered what I’d done. What I could do if provoked. Those stories got larger each year, although they were whispered more quietly.

“I have to go.” The clock on the wall chimed six o’clock.

“You’ll read more tomorrow? I hate leaving it there. It was getting really good.” Her tone carried a sharp slice of annoyance that I could only attribute to her not wanting to end our time together. I took the smallest bit of pleasure in knowing my presence was desired, but letting my mind wander past that assumption would be dangerous. Therefore, I didn’t let it happen.

Sometimes her moods changed so suddenly. I never knew what exactly triggered the changes, though they usually felt like my fault. That somehow I was disappointing her.

I hated that feeling.

“Of course,” I responded, adding a hint of promise to my voice to attempt to dissolve her sadness. I loathed leaving her in distress. Despised seeing and feeling the despair that washed over her every weekend. I’d asked her what made her sad, and she’d never answered. Just looked at me with this horrified expression that screamed you-should-know-without-asking. I didn’t. Sometimes I wished I could read minds like the Lycans, but honestly, it would feel too much like a personal invasion of privacy.

“We will pick up tomorrow exactly where I left off.”

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