“I don’t care if you force feed me cream-of-pickled-herring-and-peanut-butter,” Griff snapped, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the sea dragon. “I am not calling Hayley. For a start, I don’t even know her number.”
His forbidding expression never changing, John handed him a scrap of paper. “Now you do.”
Griff’s lion and eagle stirred, hackles rising with suspicious jealousy. He thrust them back down again. “Why do you have Hayley’s number?”
“Because I asked her for it, last night.” John shrugged one massive shoulder, his stern face softening a little. “I know you, my oath-brother. I knew that you would choose to tear out your heart rather than risk causing your mate future pain. But there is some pain that can only be embraced. Your sacrifice is noble, but misguided. You are being too honorable.”
Griff let out a short, ironic huff of breath. “Says the literal Knight?”
“Honor is not a shield to hide behind.” John nudged the phone closer to him. “It is a sword, to give you the strength to face your demons. You must face what frightens you, oath-brother. You must not flee from it.”
Griff slammed his fist down onto the table, making his empty plate jump. “For God’s sake, I’m not frightened of Reiner! It’s just that he’s Danny’s father. He’s the one that Danny wants, the one he needs. Not me. I can’t get in the way.”
“I did not mean Reiner. I meant what truly frightens you.” John met his eyes, his own deep and dark. “Living.”
Griff was saved from having to try to unravel that one by his phone ringing. He caught it as it vibrated off the table. Unknown Caller, read the display, followed by a number. He glanced from the screen to the note. It was the same number.
Hayley’s number.
“Your mate cries out for you,” John said, as Griff’s thumb hesitated over the End Call button. “Will you truly ignore her plea?”
His
eagle and lion both leaned against his mind, from opposite directions, until Griff felt like he would be crushed flat between them. A warning, prickling energy ran over his skin. Griff clenched his jaw, but had no choice but to submit to his animals’ desires. He didn’t have the strength to resist another uncontrolled shift.
He put the phone to his ear, silently cursing his own weakness. “Hayley?”
“Griff!” Adrenaline surged through Griff’s blood at the sheer panic in his mate’s voice. “Reiner took Danny. They’re gone.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hayley
Hayley clung to Chase’s long black mane, the wind whipping her own hair across her face. At any other time, soaring through the sky on the back of a pegasus would have been a magical experience. But right now, she was too sick with dread to think of anything other than her missing son.
“Reiner hasn’t taken him to the airport, at least,” Griff shouted into her ear. His powerful body pressed reassuringly against her back, his strong arms holding her steady. “He can’t be more than a few miles away. Chase says that he can sense Danny clearly.”
At least that means he’s alive. Hayley held onto that thought as tightly as she gripped the pegasus. It was cold comfort. Alive wasn’t the same as unharmed.
“Hayley.” Griff’s arm tightened around her waist. “I’m Danny’s alpha. I’d sense if he was in trouble.”
Please let that be true, Hayley prayed.
Chase curved his neck, looking back at Griff with one black, intelligent eye. Hayley felt Griff nod as if in response to something the pegasus shifter had said. “Chase says they’re down there, in those woods up ahead. Hang on.”
Despite the warning, Hayley still lurched as Chase banked hard. Only Griff’s grip kept her from sliding off the pegasus’s slick back as they spiraled down.
Griff leaned over, his intent eyes scanning the trees below. “There, Chase! I saw them. Put us down in that clearing over there.”
Chase obligingly swooped down to the clearing, beating his wings hard to settle gracefully to the ground. Griff slid off his back first, with a brief grimace as he landed on his bad leg. Nonetheless, he lifted Hayley down easily, setting her on her feet.
“They saw us landing,” he said, pointing into the woods. “They’re coming to meet us.”
“Danny!” Hayley cried out, unable to keep the shrill note of panic out of her voice. She stumbled across the clearing, tufts of dry brown grass catching at her feet. “Danny!”
An excited mrrrr-row! answered her. Hayley fell to her knees, sobbing in relief as Danny bounded out from between the trees. He was in lion form, his spotted, tawny coat perfectly blending with the autumn leaves. There was something more confident, bolder, about his movements as he bounced toward her. He no longer tripped over his own paws, or let his tail trail forgotten behind him. He had the fluid, beautiful grace of an animal. A real animal.
He’s not a little boy dressed up as a lion, Hayley realized, properly, for the first time. He is a lion.