Secret Unleashed

Chapter Ten

Some girls probably got off on hearing they were the love of someone’s life. I was not one of those girls.

Yes, I did feel a flutter at his words, and yes I did love him back, but goddamn these men were not making things easy on me. Between Desmond thinking I was his soul-bonded mate, Lucas thinking I was his werewolf queen, and Holden proclaiming me the love of his life? Well, it was too much lovey- dovey stuff for me to handle.

“Why would you loving me make Maxime more trustworthy?” I asked, dodging his sentiment and pulling my hands free.

If he was upset by my retreat, he didn’t show it.

“Because it means you’re mine. And in vampire cultures, we protect that which belongs to us, and to our family.” He got to his feet, putting his crotch level with my face, and my cheeks warmed to recall what lay just beyond the barrier of his zipper.

Bad Secret.

Mustn’t think of blowjobs while having a serious discussion.

He stepped away in the next instant, confirming he hadn’t been offering himself up to me.

“When you say mine…” I let the question drift. I knew how the claiming policy worked when it came to humans, now that I was unintentionally in possession of a few, but I didn’t know what it meant when applied to another vampire.

“It means exactly what it sounds like. I told him I’m here as your consort.”

At first I thought of the phrase in a literal way, that Holden was here to assist me and be a part of my entourage. But as I let the deeper meaning of the word sink in, my eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“Holden.”

“Trust me, it’s for the best. If you were seen as being unattached, the council might attempt to use that. I’ve seen a lot of weird shit go down, and you don’t want an unfamiliar Tribunal trying to shack you up with a Council Elder in order to strengthen the bonds between the two communities. They tried it with Daria, and she was so appalled with who they saddled her with she ended up killing the guy.” Daria had been my predecessor in the Tribunal, and I believed she’d been more than capable of murdering an unsuitable mate.

Holden was right, it would be a disaster if the West Coast council tried to force a vampiric lover on me. For starters, even a midlevel vampire would be stronger than me, and the second they realized that, I’d be dealing with an attempted assassination. My new lover could then claim a seat on the East Coast Tribunal, and that would be a disaster.

If I let Holden act as my consort, it would be out of the question for the other vampires to play matchmaker.

I hated to admit it, but it had been a genius move on his part.

“Did you tell Sig you planned to do this?”

Holden snorted. “Sig told me to do this.”

Of course. Of course.

“Might have been nice to know ahead of time. You were going to come with me regardless. What if someone had asked me and I was like, ‘Oh, Holden? We fooled around once, and he has a habit of kissing me at inappropriate times, but I don’t know if I’d call him my consort.’”

“Fooled around?” Now he looked offended.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, you know what I mean.”

“Well, blessedly that wasn’t an issue. But I do have a suggestion to make.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“It would help sell the story if you behaved as though I was your consort. Meaning it would look good if one of the beds in our suite went unused.”

This time, the meaning of his words didn’t get by me. “You’re using this as an excuse to get in my pants while I’m away from Desmond, aren’t you?”

He tried—and failed—to hide his smirk. “I’m merely making suggestions to help us convince others of our story. Of course, the vocal sounds of lovemaking would be hard to overlook and would make our union appear more legitimate.”

“I’m not going to fuck you so some strange vampires believe we’re an item.”

“I wasn’t saying that would be the only reason.”

“You devious prick.” I got to my feet, kicking back the ottoman a few inches and trying to stand tall enough I might appear imposing to him. It was a lost cause since Holden rarely respected my authority over him. Probably because two years earlier he had outranked me. It was hard to blame him when we both knew he could physically dominate me.

“How am I devious? The plan wasn’t mine.”

“I’m sure Sig didn’t tell you to sleep with me.”

“He told me to do whatever it took to keep you safe.”

I snorted. “Way to twist his words around to serve your own purposes. Well done.”

“Secret, I’m going to be frank here.” The smirk vanished, and a new seriousness replaced it. “I won’t ever ask you to do anything you don’t want to do, and you know that. But I am serious when I tell you people need to be convinced. It doesn’t need to be sex, and I haven’t forced that issue with you since we came back from Aubrey’s kingdom, but please don’t do anything to make them question us. I know you think this is a ploy, but it’s not. I’m trying to protect you, and this is the only way I can do it. But you need to help.”

All the snippy retorts I’d been building up in anticipation of what he might say vanished. When Holden got serious he got really serious, and I took what he said to heart.

I knew he would protect me at all costs, but I also figured he wasn’t above taking advantage. Now I felt guilty for assuming he was creating a lie solely to bed me. He was better than that.

“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “But if you get handsy without permission, the only sounds people will hear through the walls will be you begging for mercy.”

“Baby…if you do give me permission, I can say the same thing to you.”

Chapter Eleven

Ingrid arrived with two other daytime servants—a man and woman who both appeared to be in their early twenties—and put an end to any further smirking innuendo from Holden.

“Tribunal Leader Secret.” Ingrid bowed, and the other two followed suit. Upon a longer inspection I started to think the new arrivals must be twins. They were each ginger-haired and fair-skinned, with similar facial features. Their close ages indicated that if they were not twins, they were definitely related. “I’d like to introduce Barton and Camille, the daytime servants of Tribunal Leaders Eyelee and Galen.”

“You’re related?” I stated the obvious as if it was a question.

“A brother and sister for a brother and sister,” Camille replied with a soft smile.

I gave a quizzical look to Ingrid, who added, “Two of the West Coast Tribunal Leaders are siblings. Galen was first to the Tribunal, followed by his sister Eyelee.”

“Eye-lee?” I repeated the name back slowly. “Does that have some batty Gaelic spelling?” Judging by the glower I got from Barton, he was Eyelee’s servant. It also confirmed my suspicion about her name.

“E-i-l-i-d-h,” he said with a huff.

“Christ. I thought Siobhan was bad.” I wouldn’t have been so sassy to the Tribunal Leaders themselves, but I could get away with murder when it came to their human minions. I had gotten into the habit of being cheeky with Ingrid, and that apparently transferred over to these new arrivals by some sort of snark osmosis.

Barton wrinkled his nose, but Camille’s smile was patient. They struck me as being two sides of the same