Embracing The Lion (Gray Bears 6) Read Free Page A

master.
    Still, Lord Hugo had unlocked
the store house door and the front gate for her.
    Lord Hugo was the only one in
the mansion who could unlock the gate, and he could do it with just a
twist of his ring.
    Tara forced herself to keep
moving through the woods, even though what she really wanted to do
was just lie down and sleep forever. She couldn't let Phillip find
her. She had to get as far away from him as possible before the sun
came up.
    As long as it was still
night, Phillip could travel freely. He could still capture her and
turn her. Her torture would never end if she landed in Phillip's
clutches.
    Tara hoped that the sun would
destroy her but she wasn't sure. She had only taken a single drop of
vampire blood. She wasn't fully vampire yet.
    And if she could help it, she
would never become a vampire.
    She would die a human.
    Looking over her shoulder,
muttering deliriously and fumbling blindly between the trees, Tara
kept moving, following the pools of moonlight on the forest floor.
    But her strength was ebbing
away. She could hardly feel her legs. She picked herself up when
she fell and stared at her bleeding hands. She had cut her palms
open on stones and thorns but she felt no pain.
    She tried to keep running,
but the trees didn't look like trees anymore. They kept changing
shape and position, and honestly, she wasn't even sure which way was
up any more.
    Tara tripped and crashed to
the ground. And she didn't get up. She couldn't. Her body felt
numb and stiff, and her mind was fast shutting down. Her thoughts,
when she was aware of them, were jumbled and abstract.
    As she stared at a blade of
grass swaying in the wind just inches from her face, she let out a
strange laugh that sounded more like a sob.
    I've never known true
love , she mused.
    “I miss you, Mom,”
she whispered. “I wish...I can remember what it feels like to
be loved.”
    She smiled a little. “But
it's too late now, isn't it? How I wish...for a happily-ever-after,”
she whispered with her last breath.
    She could feel her heart
slowing down as she closed her eyes.
    Tara tried to smile. Death,
true death, was good.
    She would die a human, and
she would die with a smile on her face.

CHAPTER
FIVE

    Gareth Knight locked up the
pub and waved to his sister-in-law Kaylee, and Olivia, a vivacious,
flirtatious vampire who had been working part-time at his pub for
many years now.
    “Want a lift? Winston
is coming to fetch me,” Kaylee called out. “We're giving
Olivia a ride home. Oh, here he is!”
    Gareth turned and saw
Winston's sheriff cruiser pull up at the side of the curb. His big
brother hopped out of the car and jogged round to open the car door
for Kaylee and Olivia.
    Gareth quirked a lopsided
smile. Winston was the Sheriff of Shadow Point and a perfect
gentleman. Before Winston met Kaylee, many bachelorettes in town had
been eyeing the eligible, charismatic Sheriff.
    Winston beckoned to him.
“Come on, kiddo! Let's go home!”
    Gareth lived just next door
to Winston and Kaylee. The two semi-detached houses were mirror
images of each other.
    Gareth shook his head. “Nah.
I don't feel like going home yet. I want to take a walk around
town, or...perhaps a run in the woods.”
    Winston frowned. “Okay.
Just be careful, little brother. Don't stay out too late, and don't
wander too far from the town.”
    “I know, I know,”
Gareth huffed. Winston still spoke to him like he was five. He had
gotten lost in the woods surrounding the small town when he was a
cub. Winston had found him just in time. A huge snake was
slithering silently towards Gareth, preparing to swallow the lion cub
whole. With a mighty roar and one swipe of his razor-sharp claws,
Winston separated the snake's head from its body and snatched his
baby brother from the jaws of death.
    It seemed the incident had
affected Winston more than Gareth. Gareth was now a full grown lion
shifter, much too large to be devoured alive by snakes, but his big
brother was such a