Why Did Atticus Mitchell Leave My Babysitter'S A Vampire?

Vampires only ever took one mate in their lifetime. And yet, my vampire husband refused to acknowledge me—his human wife, bound to him through an arranged marriage. On the night of our tenth wedding anniversary, Jason brought another woman into my bed. She was wearing my nightgown. She was carrying his child. And in my hand, I held a pregnancy test I'd just had confirmed. "Be reasonable, Elena. Jessica just conceived my child. She needs me." "Go sleep in the guest room. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." My husband shielded the other woman, his smile polished and gentlemanly, though his eyes held the same icy indifference they always did. When he saw me frozen in the doorway, Jason assumed I was going to do what I always did. Scream. Cry. Demand to know why he kept doing this to me. But he didn't know—this time was different. The ten-year contract had come due, and I was finally leaving him for good.

Love For The Wicked Book Four. Hot. Gorgeous. Feisty. Those were my first thoughts when I saw Benny Martinelli. Mine. The word flashed in my brain like a neon sign. That body, those piercing green eyes - even clouded with tears - drove me wild. Her mere presence sent my mind on a tailspin of indecent musing. If we were under normal circumstances, I would’ve owned her right then and there. But we were not. She was the Big boss’s long-lost daughter and Bossman’s kid sister. She was off limits, a demilitarized zone. Problem is, Bossman assigned me to protect her from her psycho ex-fiance. And the even bigger problem is, the more time I spend with her, the drive to make her mine grows deeper, overshadowing the mission given to me. I knew not to give in to my desire to touch her; I was smarter than that. Or I thought I was.

We were supposed to be in love for eternity. But my vampire fiancé, Caius, has stood me up at our blood-bonding ceremony thirty-three times. The first time, the girl he’d sired, Evangeline, lost control during a hunt. He raced to her side, leaving me alone in the church under the blood moon. The second time, he vanished mid-ceremony because Evangeline was being bullied by another clan. He left me to face the elders’ mockery alone. After that, his little fledgling always had some fresh disaster for him to avert. And he always had an excuse: “I sired her. She’s like a child to me.” Then I saw the fresh bite marks on their necks. They had shared blood—the ultimate intimacy between mates. My heart turned to ash. It was time to burn our betrothal to the ground. The day I finally disappeared, he went mad, tearing our world apart to find me.

When I was three years old, my twin brothers, Silas and Julian, nearly died in an explosion while trying to save me. The Vampire King happened to pass by and turned them into high-ranking vampires. He had wanted to turn me too, so our family could stay together forever, but they refused. The King's power was too overwhelming, they said-the transformation would be agonizing. So they promised to turn me themselves when I turned eighteen. They spent every last penny they had on an impossibly rare serum-a blood-calming agent that would ensure I survived the transformation safely. But six months ago, they brought home a fifteen-year-old human orphan named Elena. Silas snatched my serum and handed it to Elena, his voice cold as ice. "You're strong enough to endure the transformation on your own. Elena is far more fragile than you-she needs this more." Julian's face twisted with undisguised contempt. He pointed at the door and snarled, "Get out! Don't come back until you learn to share!" I didn't say a word. I picked up the suitcase I'd already packed and disappeared into the rainy night. They assumed I was just throwing a tantrum. They figured I'd come crawling back in a few days. To celebrate ridding themselves of their "burden," they took the orphan on a vacation to the Caribbean coast-the trip I'd been dreaming about for years. But when they returned to the castle two weeks later, they were stunned to discover that I had undergone the Vampire King's transformation personally. Not only that-I had voluntarily signed a hundred-year agreement to join a classified isolation research project studying resistance to holy silver and crucifixes. A century of solitary confinement. I was never coming back. That day, they completely fell apart.

Adrian and I grew up together. We were the match every old vampire family swore was meant to be. Then he saved a human girl who had wandered into our territory while hunters were closing in. After that, he became someone else. Cold. Distant. A stranger to me. Then he knelt before the Elders and asked them to dissolve our engagement. "The one I love is Clara. I can't marry Elena." The Council was furious. They forced Clara back into the human world and warned her never to set foot in vampire territory again. To keep her safe, Adrian married me anyway, and never saw her again. After the wedding, I gave him everything I had. I miscarried again and again. I nearly died bringing his heir into the world, his heart never turned to me. Three years later, hunters came for us. I fought tooth and nail to save him, yet I still failed. As he died, he held my hand, his voice barely there. "If there's a next life, I hope I never meet you." "All I ever wanted was to let everything go and be with Clara." He died first. My own wounds took me soon after. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day of the family council. Adrian was kneeling before the Elders, begging them to let him be with the human girl. Everyone expected me to fall apart. But this time, I only slid the engagement ring off my finger and set it down in front of him. "Adrian. You can have her."

I'd been married to my vampire husband for three years, and he had always cherished me like a treasure. He held me close every night before I went to sleep. He never let go of my hand when we went out. He worried, always, that I might get hurt. A common cold was enough to make him cancel everything and stay up all night beside me. James told me no one in the world mattered more to him than I did. Everyone said he loved me to pieces. I believed it too. Until the day of the ceremony — the night he was supposed to turn me into a vampire. A woman who should have been dead walked back into his life. She had my face, tear-streaked, calling his name in a small voice. That was when I understood. I'd only ever been the stand-in for the woman he couldn't let go of. My stubbornness, my refusal to give up — all of it broke under the disappointment that kept piling up. So I gave up on him for good. I decided to keep our child to myself, and disappear from his world without a word. But later, he came back. Down on his knees, again and again, begging me to come home.