Bound by Her Destiny

by Mara Leigh

  “So you quit?”

  He shrugs. “My boss talked me into an extended unpaid leave of absence, so I guess technically I’m still part of the police service, but I’m not going back.”

  “I’ll give the bar to Kev and Chelle,” Rock says. “O’Malley’s doesn’t matter to me. It was just something to do.”

  I turn to Rock. “But all your things. Your artwork.”

  He shrugs. “The only thing of value I have is you.”

  “I’ve got no ties.” Pike stands. “If Gray says run, I say we run.”

  “Me too.” Colton takes my hand and kisses it. “Keeping you safe is the priority, the only thing that matters. Just tell me how to protect you during the day. Where are your coffins?”

  Pike grunts out a sharp laugh.

  “You and I will figure out a way to safely transport the three vampires,” Rock tells Colton. “Coffins take too much paperwork.”

  “What about this house?” I ask Gray.

  I can’t believe the five of us are talking about leaving, leaving this house, this city, this country. But as long as we’re together…

  “House isn’t mine,” Gray says. “It belongs to the Order.” He glances to the side. “But I’m not going with you.”

  All the air rushes out of my chest. “What?”

  “I can’t go princess. I’m a knight of the Order of Sanguis. It’s a lifetime commitment.”

  Rock stands and paces to the fireplace and back. “Your mission was to find Selina. Right?”

  Gray shrugs.

  “What happens if anyone figures out you let her get away?”

  “They won’t find out,” Gray shifts from one leg to the other, like he’s uncomfortable. “If the four of you run, and I mean now—” he looks over his shoulder “—they’ll be none the wiser.”

  “Gray.” I grab his hand, and he smiles but won’t maintain eye contact. “You’re acting strange.” A terrifying thought flashes and widens my eyes. “Do they already know you found me? Is that why you told us to run?”

  He shakes his head, but it’s a stiff gesture.

  “Okay…” I pretend to believe him. “Hypothetically then. If they did know about me, and you let me run. What would happen to you?”

  “Hypothetically?” He shrugs, but again it’s stiff. “Oh nothing much. Treason charges. Life imprisonment. A death sentence. That kind of thing. Nothing to worry your pretty little head about.” He kisses my forehead, lingering like he wants to brand my skin with his lips, and when he pulls back I see profound sadness in his eyes, but it disappears in a flash.

  They already do know. I see it in Gray’s eyes, his posture, his grief.

  If we run, Gray will be in prison for the rest of his life. Or dead.

  I could be wrong, but if I am then Gray is lying about something else. But what? As close as we’ve become—especially after what happened between us yesterday—parts of Gray remain an enigma, and I hope that some day I’ll be able to peel back all his layers. And if he thinks I’m going anywhere without him, he has another think coming!

  “Hey,” he grins his typical boyish grin. “No worrying princess. I got out of jail for killing Zora, I’ll get off for this too. No worries.”

  “You won’t have to.” I shake my head. “You’re coming with us.”

  He tries to smile reassuringly at me, but while his mouth participates in the expression, his eyes do not.

  I turn to Rock. “Where should we go? Have any ideas?”

  “I’m not sure. Any place you’ve always wanted to go?”

  I shake my head. Surviving has been the main theme of my life so far—as a human and as a vampire—and the idea of traveling seemed like a fantasy, not something I ever dreamed of in any real way.

  Gray goes to the corner of the room and brings back a globe, mounted on an ornate wooden stand. “Close your eyes. I’ll spin it and let’s see where your finger lands.”

  “What if it’s in the middle of an ocean?” In spite of everything, I’m starting to feel excited.

  “Then we’ll spin again.”

  “Okay.” I glance around at the four men. “Where ever we go, it will be home as long as I’m with you.”

  One by one they stand around me and each lays a hand on my back, Gray’s hand on my arm.

  Gray spins the globe, and I close my eyes, leaving our collective fates to chance.

  “Hello, Your Highness.” A softly accented voice breaks into my thoughts, and interrupts the sound of the spinning globe.

  “Commander.” Gray takes my hand and pulls me around to his side of the globe, away from the other three. He rests his hand firmly on my shoulder.

  “Selina, Your Highness I should say.” Gray’s voice is shaking. “This is Azad, one of the Ancients and Chief Commander of the Order of the Knights of Sanguis.”

  I twist my head to look up at Gray, but he’s staring straight ahead.

  “Princess.” Azad is a small man, but something about him makes him seem much larger as he steps toward me. He kneels and kisses my hand, then rises again. He hasn’t as much as acknowledged the other three men in the room.

  “I didn’t believe the rumors, but here you are. You are King Dunkan’s child. There is no doubt.” He glances up at Gray behind me. “Grayson, I cannot believe that you failed to recognize our princess at first glance, at first scent.”

  He leans forward and inhales. It’s creepy. I lean back into Gray.

  “My father…” My voice is muted by shock. “His name was Dunkan?” The name evokes a memory. A name on my mother’s tongue? I’m not certain. Perhaps it’s a false memory, wishful thinking to fill the hole left from never knowing my father.

  “Yes, Your Highness. And he was a great man. Misguided in the end, but brave and strong.”

  “I wish that I’d known him.”

  Azad nods. “At least now we can be thankful that you will fulfill his greatest wish.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That you will succeed him.”

  “Succeed him how?”

  Gray’s hold on my shoulder tightens.

  “On the throne of course.”

  I shake my head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t want that. At all. And I’m not even remotely qualified for the position.”

  “So modest.” He smiles the most patronizing smile I have ever seen. “But don’t worry, Your Highness. I will be there to guide you, to advise you.”

  “Along with the Council,” Gray adds from behind me.

  I stiffen.

  “Yes.” Azad looks annoyed for a split second. “That goes without saying. You have an entire Royal Council to guide you. I am but an advisor to that Council. But I will make it my personal mission to help you learn and become the wisest, most powerful monarch vampirekind has ever known.”

  My entire body is shaking inside. “That’s very kind of you, but unnecessary. I don’t want to be your monarch.”

  “I understand your fear.” Azad smiles.

  “It’s not fear.” I back away from him. “I’m simply not interested. Sorry.”

  “My dear princess.” Something in his stance changes—it’s subtle but there—and while my eyes can’t detect what it is, the change is so extreme I feel it inside me. The atmosphere in the room has changed too, as if every molecule was replaced with electrically charged ones.

  I try to step back, but Gray is like a wall behind me, holding my shoulders.

  He bends and whispers softly in my ear. “I’m so sorry.”

  “You must come with me,” Azad says. “I insist.”

  I shake my head.

  “You’re not taking her anywhere,” Pike takes a step toward Azad.

  Without even glancing at Pike, Azad raises his hand, and Pike freezes in place, mid-stride, one arm raised.

  Fear races through my veins.

  “Release him,” I say. If I’m his supposed monarch, doesn’t that mean he has to obey me?

  I turn toward Rock and Colton, and they’re frozen too.
<
br />   “What’s going on?” I shout. “What have you done to them. Gray?” I twist in his arms to face him.

  “I’m sorry princess.” Gray looks at the floor. “There’s no other way.”

  His betrayal sinks down inside me and freezes my heart.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” I spin back toward Azad. “Not without the men that I love. Release them—right now. I won’t have them harmed.”

  “Your Highness.” Azad nods his head slightly. “If you come with us now, then I assure you, your friends will remain unharmed. In fact…” He snaps his fingers and three other vampires enter the room—two female, one male. “They will forget being frozen. They will not remember my being here at all.”

  “No!” I step toward him. “I won’t let you do that!”

  He holds up his palm and I feel the force of it, feel every cell in my body start to shut down. I struggle to move against his power, but it’s like I’m encased in rapidly hardening cement.

  I break free of it.

  The shock on Azad’s face is clear. Then his expression turns to admiration. “You’re very powerful. So much like your father. So much potential. And without any training or yet taking Mates.”

  I want to slap the smug smile off his face.

  “Release my friends. Now. And leave their memories alone!” I turn toward Gray. “How could you! How could you betray us like this?”

  “Your Highness.” Azad’s voice reveals a tinge of irritation. “You will come with me—now.”

  “You can’t force me to take the crown. Surely there’s an oath to swear or something like that.” I think back to the marriage ceremonies I went through in Xavier’s court. “Whatever vows you need me to say—I won’t say them.”

  He nods. “You are correct. I cannot force you to ascend to the throne, but I must insist that you come to Court, meet with the Council, learn what is at stake. I will not allow you to reject your destiny out of ignorance.”

  I turn to Gray, and he nods. “It’s the only way.”

  Gray makes eye contact for a brief moment, but I still can’t get a full read on him. It breaks my heart to see that Gray’s been right all along: we can never be together. Not ever.

  Because even after I get out of this royalty business, I’ll never forgive what he’s done.

  “Take their memories,” Azad says to the three vampires who came into the room. “Take at least a year. I do not want any of these men to remember meeting Princess Selina.”

  “No!” I step between the vampires and the men I love. “I will not let you do that. Never.”

  “Your Highness,” Azad uses a tone one might use on a toddler. “Taking their memories is the kind thing to do. My associates have the ability to stop any emotional pain these men might feel, having known and then lost you.”

  I shake my head, even though he might be right. Stealing their memories might shield them from pain, but I would never, ever, want to lose my memories of Rock or Pike or Colton, and I have to believe that they’d feel the same.

  Plus, I do not plan to take this throne. Some day, I hope soon, I will return to them.

  “I’ll come with you,” I tell Azad. “I’ll come willingly, and do my best to learn what you have to teach me.”

  “Yes you will.”

  I fight the urge to change my mind after his smug response. “But I will only come on one condition. That no harm will come to these three.” I gesture toward Colton, Rock and Pike. “And that no one will tamper with their memories.” I wonder whether they can hear what’s going on right now. Or if their last memory will be of Azad arriving in the room…

  “Fine. It is of no real consequence.” Azad shakes his head like he’s appeasing a child. “Now, quickly. Sunrise arrives in two hours, and we must be on the plane.”

  Continue reading Selina’s story in BOUND BY HER LOVE, coming March 2020. Order now.

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  Bad Stepbrother Sneak Peak

  Do you like contemporary romance?

  Take a sneak peak of my bestselling romance BAD STEPBROTHER.

  Good girl Harley goes way out of her comfort zone when she hooks up with Zach, the bad boy nude model from her life drawing class.

  But her world is shattered three months later when Zach shows up at her dad’s wedding—as the son of the bride.

  Forced together on a family vacation, can these opposites resist their passionate attraction? And can love heal the deep wounds from Zach’s past?

  Chapter 1

  Harley

  “O-M-G, Harley! Would you look at his—” My best friend Lara slapped her hand over her mouth, swallowing whatever word she was about to spit out. Knowing her, she would have chosen a medical term, or something childish like ‘pee pee’, rather than going for any of the words that were floating around in my mind to describe the long, thick organ hanging between the legs of the male model who was chatting with Chad, our life drawing instructor.

  The dark-haired stud was massively cut, covered in tattoos and could certainly crush me with just one of his strong hands.

  My mind didn’t usually jump to, “Sex! Sex! Sex!” but everything about the man seemed dirty and I couldn’t stop imagining other things he might do with those hands, not to mention his, um, pee pee.

  He was standing so casually, like he didn’t realize he was naked in front of twenty students, mostly female. In contrast, Lara and I took turns between gawking at him and staring at each other wide-eyed, not even pretending we were cool enough to take this in stride.

  “So fucking immature.” The art student poser on my other side made even less of an attempt to hide her scorn than we’d made to hide our lustful shock.

  After exchanging an eye roll with Lara, I turned back to my easel and fiddled with the sticks of charcoal resting on the tray, all the while surreptitiously peeking at the model I’d be drawing in moments. Turned mostly away from me now, his physique seemed sculpted from the perfect combination of muscle and ink, strands of tatted muscle knotted and twisted to meet at joints, forming shapes that personified words like power and beauty and sex. Especially sex. Dirty, dirty sex.

  I felt like I’d been caught watching porn in public. Or what I imagined that would feel like.

  My face was undeniably heating. I needed to grow up, and quickly, or I’d make a complete ass of myself, so I tried to focus on the things our teacher had told us to study when preparing to sketch a subject: the lines, the planes, the areas of shadow and light—like the concave indentation where his ass intersected with the side of his thigh, the ridges of back muscle that stretched out from the valley of his spine to meet up with their six-pack of opposition reaching around from the front. And smaller details like the raised ridge of vein that stretched down his bicep, thrusting out from under his smooth skin for lack of space.

  How would I ever draw the dark hairs on his forearms or hint at the intricacies of the tats? A snake tattoo wound across his back, its head on his chest I presumed, and it had hundreds of intricate scales. And I couldn’t be sure, but under the ink, his back looked scarred.

  Those kinds of details lay miles outside my limited artistic skill set. This entire class was outside my wheelhouse—which had kind of been the point in taking it in the first place—but I didn’t like looking the fool.

  “Ready?” Our instructor’s voice startled me, and I broke the charcoal I’d been rolling between my thumb and forefinger.

  Picking up the pieces from the paint-spattered floor, I bumped into my easel and it clattered, almost falling.

  Crouching as I set it right, I glanced up and caught the model staring at me, his pale blue eyes in stark contrast to his dark wavy hair and his stubble-covered skin. While his mouth remained on a neutral setting, his eyes smiled, mocking me, as if he knew he’d caused my embarrassment and wanted to double down.

  My blush
chose that moment to triple down and I could only imagine the shade of scarlet I turned as I tucked the hairs that had fallen over my face to their rightful place behind my ear. And still he stared, like he wanted to cause me discomfort or was daring me to look away first.

  He gestured with his hand to the side of his face, and it took me a while to realize he was trying to tell me something, but what?

  Remembering the charcoal coating my fingers, I got the message and tried to wipe the soot off my face with the back of my hand, and by the time I gave up, he was staring off into the distance, or at least no longer directly at me.

  “Do I have charcoal on my face?” I asked Lara.

  She laughed while handing me a small mirror and a wet wipe from her oversized purse, and I wiped the smudge from my heated face.

  “Okay, class,” Chad, the class instructor, said. “Let’s start with ten one-minute gestures to warm up. Zach, whenever you’re ready?”

  Adrenaline pumped through my body as the model, Zach, struck his first pose, his back still to me, one arm up and bent, the other hanging down, and although there was nothing overtly sexual about his stance, my entire body ignited. I couldn’t even imagine what was happening to my poor panties that wouldn’t survive ten short poses in a row, not to mention the longer pose that would follow.

  My shaking hand drew a line, a feeble attempt at the strong curve of his spine that flowed into the crack of his fantastic hard ass, but it wasn’t right. One line and I’d utterly failed to capture the strength and grace of the Greek god crossed with motorcycle gang member before me.

  What did he do for a living? I wondered, besides modeling that is, which couldn’t possibly provide enough for rent. Especially not here in San Francisco where Lara and I had struggled to find a tiny, short-term rental on Airbnb within the generous monthly budget our parents had granted us for this trip.

  What was his story? His facial scruff, his shaggy haircut, his tattooed muscles hinted at some kind of criminal for sure, but there was something about the tension in his hand, the braided leather around one wrist, the near grace of his stance that suggested athleticism or even an artistic side—maybe a hint of some level of sophistication.