Free Caleb's Tempting Mate (Saber Chronicles Book 3) by R. E. Butler Page A

with a supernatural guy in the first place.”
    Lia looked at her.  “Did you ever consider becoming a vampire?”
    “Caleb offered to turn me, but it was so soon after our parents died that he did it as a knee-jerk reaction to worrying about my safety.”  Aubrey had shared earlier that when her brother was turned, her dad, who hated vampires, had attacked and killed the female vampire who turned him.  That vampire’s kiss had retaliated by killing her parents.  Caleb protected Aubrey and that made him golden in Lia’s book.
     
    * * * * *
     
    After having dinner with her family in the hotel’s restaurant, Lia talked to Aubrey further about taking a job in the hotel.  There were positions for hostesses in the restaurant or concierge within the hotel.  She liked the idea of the concierge, and she’d get to work with Aubrey, who was the hotel manager, and Gretchen who was her assistant.
    “I’m going to take a shower and get ready,” Lia said as she pushed away from the table and stood.
    “We’ll meet you back here in an hour,” Alaric said.
    “Sounds good!”
    She took the elevator to the eighth floor and parted ways with Galen.  “See you in a little while,” she said.
    He nodded and opened his door.  She hoped he would find his mate soon and that she’d be a real sweetheart.  Her youngest brother had a tendency to be a pessimist, although he said he was just being realistic.
    “Something good will happen tonight,” she whispered as she shut her door.
    It was a hopeful promise.
     

 
     
     
    Chapter 2
     
    Caleb Night rolled to his back and stretched.  He could feel the sun setting, signaling the beginning of his day.  Or night, as it were.  Lifting his cell from the bedside table, he opened his calendar and scanned his evening.  It was going to be a busy night.  He’d never expected running a kiss to be so involved.  The Belle Terra kiss had been his for three years.  When he’d been turned, it hadn’t been his choice.  He’d gone home with a female, not realizing she was a vampire.  In the throes of sex, she’d ripped open his throat and as he lay dying on her bed, she’d slashed her wrist and fed him.
    If someone had asked him if he’d like to almost die and be reborn as an immortal, he would have said no.  He liked being human and living with his human family.  Turning cost him nearly everything, including his parents.  He wasn’t sorry the vampire who turned him was dead, or the members of her kiss who had killed his parents.  She’d turned him not because she cared for him, but because she liked the color of his eyes.  He’d vowed to never turn anyone based on anything as shallow as that.  If, when he met his mate, she was human or shifter, he’d turn her, but only after she agreed.
    The only person he would turn now would be his sister.  Aubrey would be safer as a vampire; plus, she’d live forever.  But she didn’t want to be a vampire, and now that she was mated to a saber-tooth tiger, he doubted she’d want to be changed ever.  There was something inherently depressing about knowing he’d outlive his sister, her kids, and their kids.
    Sitting up, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stretched.  Glancing down at his phone, he clicked the app to request a hot meal and then changed his mind.  He was going to the club later, so he’d eat then.  If he drank from a live donor now, it would delay him.
    As he showered, he thought about what Aubrey had said about his taste in donors.  He’d been feeding from a dwindling number of donors for the last few months, finding honey-bloods, females with sweet tasting blood, and keeping them close.  He hadn’t meant to encourage them into believing there was anything more than his enjoyment of their blood, but a few days earlier, Aubrey had pointed out that at least one of the females was starting to act like a jealous lover.
    He didn’t need that shit.
    After drying off, he went to the kitchenette and