Embracing The Lion (Gray Bears 6) by Natalie Kristen Page A

hair with the
big, satin ribbon that her mother had given her and ran downstairs.
    “Where are we going?”
    But her father didn't answer
her.
    He wants to surprise me! Beaming, she took his hand and walked out of the house for the
last time.
    They took the bus to a part
of town she had never been to before. Staring out the window at the
never-ending stretch of deserted road, Tara soon fell asleep. She
didn't know how long she slept, but by the time her father shook her
awake, it was full dark outside. The bus hissed and wheezed, and
spat them out in front of an isolated bus stop in the middle of
nowhere.
    “Where are we? Are we
lost?”
    Her father simply grunted and
told her to keep walking. He turned and went down a narrow side
road. Tara looked around in fear and trepidation and hurried after
him. Where were the shops and eateries and ice-cream parlors?
    But her father wasn't taking
her out for ice-cream. He was taking her to Lord Hugo.
    As he walked her up the front
steps of the forbidding, shadowy mansion, her father told her, “You
belong to Lord Hugo now. Be a good girl. Do as you're told.”
    “B-belong…?”
she stammered, not quite comprehending the meaning of his words.
    “Goodbye, Tara.”
    She stared at her father's
hunched back as he departed. The tall black gates closed behind him
and he kept walking away from her. Not once did he look back at her.
    “Daddy...” A sob
finally burst from her.
    “He's not your Daddy.
He's the man who sold you to me,” Lord Hugo said, not unkindly.
    She stared up at the rotund,
ruddy vampire and swallowed her pain and sorrow. Swiping away her
tears, she gave a sharp nod.
    “Yes, sir,” she
said without any inflection or quaver in her voice.
    With that, she squared her
shoulders and erased all her memories, hopes and dreams from her
heart. She had no family now, just a new master.
    She didn't expect kindness or
compassion from her master. She was just a slave, a nameless,
faceless servant girl. She was grateful as long as he treated her
fairly and didn't abuse her. She would work for her master, and earn
her freedom.
    Did she dare hope that her
father would come back for her?
    That small flickering hope
refused to die in her heart, and she hated that she still cried in
her sleep sometimes. The tears came unbidden, and they reminded her
of all that she had lost and hoped to find again.
    Hopefully someday, she would
be free again. And maybe, just maybe, she would love and be loved
again.

CHAPTER
TWO

    Roused from her reverie by
the guests' laughter, Tara saw Lord Hugo pick up his wine glass and
drain the contents in one gulp. Tara detached herself from the
shadows and hurried forward to pick up the bottle from the ice
bucket.
    As she stood at the corner of
the table and refilled Lord Hugo's glass, she heard the guest next to
Lord Hugo lean in and say, “So...how is Ryan Kline doing?”
    Tara recognized the guest.
His name was Phillip Lancastle, and she'd heard rumors about his
savagery and sexual proclivities from the other servants.
    Tara saw the slight quiver of
Lord Hugo's fork, and she was sure that Phillip Lancastle noticed it
too.
    Ryan Kline was Lord Hugo's
lover, but no one except the servants in Lord Hugo's mansion knew of
their relationship. Ryan Kline was the Alpha of the Kingston wolf
pack. He was betrothed to a she-wolf from another prominent wolf
pack. The marriage would cement their alliance and consolidate the
power and standing of the two packs. Hugo and Ryan managed to keep
their relationship secret all these years. The servants gossiped
among themselves, but they kept their heads down and their mouths
shut when there were guests and visitors around.
    Tara lowered her head as she
poured the wine, but she slanted a glance at Lord Hugo. The color
seemed to have drained from her master's usually ruddy cheeks.
    “Why do you ask,
Phillip? You have more dealings with the Kingston pack than I do. I
expect you would have seen Ryan recently,” Lord Hugo