I barely suppressed the gasp in my
“He wasn’t satisfied,” Griffin said, and then he averted his eyes, “Pretty soon, he stopped blaming the dead healers and started blaming me. As soon as I was old enough to speak English, he made sure I knew I was the one who caused her death.”
I felt a pang of sympathy for Griffin deep in my chest. Regardless of anything else, nob*dy deserved to be told that. Especially not a child. For a brief moment, I was actually glad that the former Alpha King was dead. He’d never be able to spit vitriol like that at my mate ever again.
Wait, my mate?
Where did that come from?
“I’m sorry,” I told him, “You didn’t deserve to hear that to be blamed for something that was an accident.”
Griffin barely smiled it was almost too small for me to see but I could tell it was genuine. “It’s okay, little fox,” he said, “For as long as I’ve known him, my father has been a man full of hatred. He’s never been able to realize that most of that hatred is self-inflicted so he had to take it out on everyone else even his own son. Since my mother’s death, he’s been obsessed with snuffing out weakness. He thought making me aware of every harsh truth of the world or what he viewed as truth – would eliminate any weakness I had.”
He was gripping his fork so hard that his knuckles whitened and the metal fork actually began to bend.
I’m not sure what possessed me to do it, but I suddenly reached over, laying one of my hands on top of his. “No offense, but your dad sounds like a total dick.”
Griffin stopped for a moment, just staring at me with a look so intense that it left me practically shaking.
And then he started laughing. Q
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” @
Buddha
The rest of the dinner party didn’t last long.
Before I was even halfway through my duck, a burly man in a military uniform entered the room, looking frantic. He whispered something into Griffin’s ear and I noticed that he didn’t look at me once it was like I wasn’t even there.
I would’ve been offended but I had a feeling he wasn’t trying to be rude. After the wine glass incident, I was pretty sure that people were just afraid to interact with me if they didn’t first have Griffin’s explicit permission.
“You’ll have to forgive me, little fox,” Griffin said, “But there’s a situation I need to address immediately.”
“Is everything okay?” I asked. Griffin didn’t seem upset but the guy next to him.
looked freaked out.
“Yes,” Griffin said, “Word has begun spreading about my actions this afternoon. After all the witnesses this afternoon, most of the werewolf world has already learned that I’m King now…and the way that it happened has not sat well with everyone.”
Translation: not everyone is super happy you killed your dad in a room full of people.
Griffin stood up from his seat and closed the distance between us in one stride. “I wish I didn’t have to leave you,” he said, and he rested his large hand on my cheek, “But the sooner I ease the worries of our people, the sooner I can return to you. If nothing else, we’ll spend the day together tomorrow.”
Your people, I wanted to correct him but there was no point. (
“It’s okay,” I said instead, “You should just deal with whatever you need to deal with.”
Griffin gave me a soft smile and then leaned down to press a chaste k*ss on my forehead. I tried to pretend that his soft l*ps didn’t leave my entire face tingling. “I’ll see you soon, little fox. In the meantime, you should finish your meal here and then Esther will escort you back to our room at least, what is our room for the time being.”
I nodded and watched Griffin leave the room, the other man whispering beside him the entire time.
Griffin hadn’t given me the details maybe he didn’t even know himself – but I wondered how upset the rest of the werewolf world was about the change in the power. Surely, committing regicide wasn’t encouraged human mate.
especially not over a
The thought that my presence could put Griffin in danger left a sour taste in my mouth. I didn’t like it. I didn’t want Griffin in danger.
Before I let the thought unsettle me even more, I decided to finish off my duck. Just because the dinner got cut short didn’t mean the food had to go to waste.
As I finished up the last few bites, I heard a knock echo from the other side of the door.
“Your Majesty,” Esther called, “I’m here to escort you back to your rooms. May I come in?”
I swallowed the last piece of duck. “Yes, I’m ready.”
She entered the room moments later, looking as cheery and as nervous as she had when she dropped me off.
Does the lady ever do anything but not smile?
The walk back to my rooms. – Griffin’s rooms, I mean was short. Esther tried to make polite conversation about some of the artwork on the wall but I felt like I was zoning out. Was this my life now? Stuck waiting in a room for Griffin to return and being escorted everywhere?
Everything about the situation felt uncertain and the worst part? After spending most of the day in Griffin’s presence, I could no longer pretend to hate him. Whether it was the mate bond or not, I liked being around him. I never knew what he was going to say next and every touch, every forehead k*ss, every stroke of my cheek felt like a swarm of butterflies flapping in my stomach.
Nob*dy had ever made me feel like that before.
The longer I was around him, the more I worried that I wouldn’t be able to dig. myself out of the hole I was sinking in. I had dreams things I wanted to do with my life that I already knew Griffin wouldn’t let me pursue. He’d already told me that college was a no-go, and if he wasn’t going to let me walk back to my room by myself, I doubted he was going to be cool with a career.
What worried me the most is that sooner or later, I’d no longer care about those things. Every interaction with Griffin made it harder for me to dislike or detach. myself from him. Was I going to just wake up one day and not care about anything but him? Would the mate bond just take over one day? Would I end up like most female werewolves in a couple of years? Just a glorified housewife with a pregnant belly who took her mate’s word as law?
As Esther continued to ramble about some painting on the wall, all I could see was my dreams dissipating into smoke.
Just as I felt like I was on the verge of some nervous breakdown, I caught at glimpse of dark curly hair rounding the corner
Alessia!
“Now, this image is supposed to represent the moon goddess’ unconditional love for “
“Esther,” I cut her off, “As much as I love hearing about this, would it be okay if I walked the rest of the way alone? I can already see the door in the distance.”
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