Page 21 of Unforgivable Fate

“And yet, here you are marking their location on a map for my brother and telling us all about them.” Nova raised an eyebrow.

“The Crescent Pack isn’t a threat to them.” Leo frowned at her.

“How does he know that?”

Griffin snorted, “Because any pack willing to give me a chance after what my brother did to them isn’t going to go hunting raccoon shifters for sport. Leo is giving me a chance to prove I’m trustworthy. Maybe I’m giving him that same opportunity.”

Nova ground her teeth together because one again, it was a good answer. It was the right answer. Of course he wouldn't just be giving their location out to anyone or everyone but for Leo, he’d passed along the story and probably even gotten a verbal confirmation that nobody in Crescent Pack would endanger them.

The damn man just kept saying and doing the right things and it was infuriating.

He seemed like a good guy. He really did. He was easy to talk to and she’d found herself opening up to him despite her reservations yesterday. Now he was here, helping her brother map out packs they could contact in the future about joining the alliance. She really wanted him to be as good as he seemed to be but some part of her also wanted him to slip up just so she could prove to everyone that she had been right not to trust him.

She was going to lose her mind if she didn’t get a handle on the back and forth between her brain and her heart.

“You said you’d give him a chance.” Leo spoke softly, though with their superior shifter hearing there was no way Griffin didn’t hear the reprimand in her brother’s voice.

She glared across the table at him, “You told him?”

“He asked if we’d had a chance to talk yet and I told him we spoke some yesterday.” Griffin shrugged a big shoulder and she groaned.

“Can nobody in this pack keep my private business private?”

“In his defense, it's his business too and I’m the Pack Alpha so he had to tell me once I’d asked.” Leo plastered on a smile and glanced at the clock on the microwave. “Look at the time. Darius should be back from his run soon. I’ll take his clothes out back to keep him from walking in naked and scarring your delicate eyes.”

Nova snorted, “Been there. Done that.”

“I’ll be back in a few minutes. Keep Griffin company for me.” Leo practically winked at her as he grabbed a pile of clothes off the counter and then went out the back door, letting the screen door slam shut behind him loudly.

The silence that followed was near deafening.

Her brother had just left her alone with Griffin. On purpose! Clearly with ulterior motives. She scowled at the door where he’d disappeared and contemplated turning right around and leaving through the front door. But when she turned back to Griffin he was smiling at her again, flashing those white teeth, and her heart skipped a beat without her permission.

“I’m glad you’re still here.” He spoke softly, as if he thought Leo might be listening from just outside the door, which, really, she wouldn’t put it past her brother to do.

“I told you I would be.”

“As much as I want to know you, I don’t yet, and trust is hard for me.”

“Yeah, well, clearly it’s hard for me too.” She snorted, pulling her gaze away from his and from the mounting heat that felt like it was swirling around them. She focused her attention on the map. There were a lot of circled areas on it that hadn’t been there when she looked at it last. The question came before she could convince herself that it didn’t matter. “You’ve really been to all these places?”

“Yep.”

“Why?” She glanced up in time to see Griffin fidget.

“When I left my pack, I didn’t have any idea where I was going. I just knew I was looking for somewhere that I fit in, that I could start over. I didn’t find it in the first place I stopped, or the second, so I just kept going. For a while I thought what I was looking for was a place where nobody had ever heard of Maddox or what he’d done to our family, to our pack, but once I came here I realized that wasn’t it at all.”

Nova watched him as he slowly moved around the table, “So what were you really looking for?”

Griffin’s smile was soft, “Come on Nova, you know the answer to that.”

She swallowed hard when he stepped close to her, “Said it anyway.”

“You.” He reached out slowly and gently touched her cheek, “I didn’t realize it at the time but no matter where I went, it didn’t feel like home because you weren’t there. I was looking for the place I belonged, but I wasn’t going to find it, not until I found my fated mate.”

Nova’s body felt like it was on fire from nothing but the simple touch of his palm on her cheek. Her breathing had turned ragged and when he darted a look at her lips she knew he’d noticed it too. She told herself to step back, to pull away, to stop the mating heat from taking over and letting this happen but her body refused to move away from him.

His warmth and scent wrapped around her and she felt the strangest mix of safe and scared all at the same time.

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