Page 11 of Griffen's Mate

He’d just learned, after a meeting with all the alphas, that Kane had placed Pet ‘under his protection’, and Faith had also added that if they messed with Pet, they messed with her. And no one messed with Faith, or wanted her angry with them. This protection explained why they hadn’t been attacked while they were out and why the pack’s hostility toward Pet wasn’t as bad as it had previously been.

Braydon was in Faith’s arms, and she was walking back and forth across the room, rocking him to sleep. She’d been at the meeting. All the alphas trusted Faith and knew she was a vital part in the war against the demons. All the screens in the large room were off now, and Faith was chatting with Pet.

The two had become close since Pet had done whatever she’d done to help Faith. And Pet had helped her. Faith had been crazy; she’d been in her head over ninety percent of the time, visions bombarding her, and not wanting to miss anything important, she had let them control her. Faith seemed to be back to normal now...well, normal for her.

“One thing that I can’t stop thinking about…” Faith’s words caught Griffen’s attention, and he stopped helping pack away equipment with Kane to listen. “Why did I see a vision where the demon king says he didn’t have a soothsayer?”

Pet didn’t say anything for a while. She sat eerily still, her eyes didn’t even blink, then she cocked her head to the side, blinked, and straightened. “I see options, or I did when I got visions, many different paths. Where you, Faith, are only given one or two, at a maximum four. When I see a vision, I am usually given at least four different outcomes, never one.”

Faith shook her head. “No. I used to only get one. But as my visions came more frequently and I used my sight instead of shying away from it, I then started to get more than one option that fate could go.”

“Yes.” Pet nodded. “Because you were using your gift more than you should. The more you used it, the more you saw. You kept changing that outcome. What you saw was probably a version of what happened if you didn’t change it.”

Faith sighed, leaned down, and kissed Braydon’s forehead. “The big demon said he didn’t have someone like me, but he had you?”

“The possible future must have changed, because he did have me, but having said that, I am...was nothing as powerful as you.” Pet caught Griffen’s gaze, and her eyes flashed a bright gold. “Kane changed fate. You two being together started the changes of fate. I’m alive, when I shouldn’t be. How old were you in that vision?”

Faith narrowed her brows and pursed her lips. She then sat on one of the seats. “I wasn’t much older than I am now, but I wasn’t with Kane either. So yeah, I did change it, but only by a few years.”

“Ahh.” Pet moved closer to Faith. She sat next to her, smiling. “I was not always on this world. I may be over two centuries old, but time doesn’t pass the same on every world. The demons’ home world is very slow. One day on theirs is a year on this one. My own home world, from what I’ve seen, is different to here. What is time?” Pet shrugged.

Griffen studied his mate, and in that moment he realized he was beyond lucky. His mate wasn’t just smart, she was special and a crucial part in understanding the demons and the world around them.

“You surprise me.” Griffen gathered her up in his embrace and kissed both her cheeks before pecking her lips and sitting down with her on his lap. “When I first met you, I thought that you were this scared, young thing that knew nothing and I’d have to teach you how to do things. Then you go and blow my mind with all the knowledge you hold. And I start teaching you swimming and reading, and what I think will take years to teach you, you learn in weeks. Amazing.”

“Damn straight,” Faith muttered.

Pet snuggled into his embrace, and Griffen held on tight. Today had been an eventful, and emotionally draining, day. Pet had revealed what she told him on the beach to all the alphas, and they’d spent the day talking.

The pack was going to exchange more people. The new mixed teams had been working out well, and as Pet had said, they had all come from another world. Today he had learned that shifters were all mixed up in the beginning. It was the humans and their need to separate and fight over what race was better that changed how they were and split them up. They had learnt that the world wars that had happened weren’t started by humans, it was the demons doing it, but the humans were quick to point the blame at other countries.

Information had poured out of Pet today, and Griffen expected her to be tired, emotionally at least, with everything she’d had to tell and explain. She’d stayed to the very end, and before she sat down she had been helping to clean up.

Bengie had laid low because he knew people weren’t comfortable around him. He and the other half-children were still a sore subject with some of the alphas. Griffen had kept Pet away from them too. He wasn’t sure how she would react to him, because she’d been held prisoner by demons all her life and he was half-demon.

Bengie barged in. “I’ll put Braydon in his bed. I know it’s his nap time.”

At the sight of him, Pet stilled against Griffen, her body becoming frozen. Her skin changed, and she camouflaged against him.

Bengie didn’t seem to notice her as he bounded into the room and straight for Faith. He took Braydon out of her arms, and Faith kissed Braydon’s forehead and then Bengie’s.

Pet didn’t move the whole time Bengie was in the room. She stayed camouflage against him. For a moment Griffen worried, because he couldn’t even hear or feel her heart beating. Once Bengie was out of sight she changed back to the skin color closest to his.

“That is so cool,” Faith muttered, breaking the silence.

Pet didn’t look at Faith, she stayed against Griffen for a while before he heard and felt her heart beating again. It was then that he wondered… “Can you stop your heart? I didn’t hear it then, and I swear I couldn’t feel it.”

Slowly, she eased back and looked from him to Faith and Kane. “Yes. It is a safety...no, maybe more like a survival thing for my people. Like how we can be a chameleon. It helped me to live long enough so I could meet you.”

“You’re amazing.” It was things like that that reminded him she was an alien and she was special, and he was damn lucky to have her.

As he thought of everything he’d learnt today, he knew that with Pet’s help they could win the war against the demons. He couldn’t believe that months ago he’d been so unsure of everything and how he felt about his mate. He never said it out loud, but for a while there, he’d regretted saving her. He’d had a major pity party. Now he knew how truly lucky he was.

“Do you know another reason why, even though there is so much water here, the demons want this world?” Pet said. “It’s because humans are adaptable. They can mate with almost all the species of the worlds I have been on. At least I’m sure they can with most of the worlds, from the glimpses in my visions. Think of the possibilities. The demons have. That’s why they tried it themselves. I know the demons have tried to mate with at least one other species, and it didn’t work.”

“What!” Faith screeched.

Pet went an array of colors before she set back again to human skin. “I never lost control of myself before, but you make me reveal myself. Since giving some of my powers to you, I’m finding it harder to control my reactions and stay in one form.” She groaned and then stood. “I’m ready to go now.”

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