Page 34 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Three

My heart is racing and my body is numb with panic.

“Mouse.”

I meet his eyes.

“Your sister is under the protection of Duval House.” His face hardens. “I will protect her. Do you hear me?”

I swallow and nod.

“And Damien would sooner light himself on fire than let something happen to Kelly.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Bran says. “You have me and you have my brother and nothing is going to happen to you or your sister.”

That helps calm me down a little. I know that when it comes down to it, Bran and Damien are the ones you’d want at your back.

I know that, but I can’t shake the bad feeling in my stomach.

My Pledge is an impending doomsday, apparently. I no longer want to leave Midnight, but I suddenly don’t want tomorrow to come either.

“Come on.” Bran takes my hand and pulls me down the hall. Sky is already gone. She dropped the bomb and quickly dodged its destruction.

Bran leads me through the maze of Duval House. We don’t return to the party. Instead we cross through the foyer, go down another hallway, then another, and enter a large office. It’s rich and masculine and smells like tobacco and liquor and dark forests.

Damien is at the bar pouring bourbon.

And the Alpha of the Midnight Pack is sitting in one of the leather club chairs looking sorely out of place.

I’ve rarely crossed paths with Cal and now I’ve been in the same room with him twice in a month.

He stands when we come in. He’s the tallest in the room and that’s saying something because Bran and Damien are tall on their own.

Cal is all muscle and raw power. If the Duvals are a hurricane, then Cal is a landslide.

He could easily bury you before you could take a full breath.

Dark jeans, ripped at the knees, cover his muscular thighs and a black t-shirt skims his body in all of the right ways.

The dark Scandinavian tattoos on the side of his scalp somehow look more menacing in this lighting and without an overshirt, his full sleeve tattoo on his left arm is on display.

I chose Bran and I love Bran, but goddamn, Cal is hot.

I swallow hard and Bran wraps his hand around the back of my neck and brings me close, his mouth at my ear. “Careful, little mouse. I will lock you in a room if I must.”

Taking a deep breath, I try to drive away any dirty thoughts of what that might entail and focus on the task at hand. Cal is here for business, not to overwhelm me with his raw sexiness.

I pity the girl that gets his heart. She’s going to be in so much trouble.

“Jessie,” Cal says. “Are you well?”

His question is clearly an interrogation of the Duvals.

Damien comes over with a glass of bourbon and hands it to the Alpha and says, “You are in my house. Disrespect me and we’ll have a problem.”

Cal takes the glass, not at all put out by the threat. “Jessie is just a girl caught in the predator’s snare. You’ll have to excuse me for caring about her well-being.”

They both look at me.