Page 10 of Griffen's Mate

Chapter 4

Griffen

Kirby had given birth to a big, ten and a half pound boy, and they’d named him Ryland. She’d been induced as the baby didn’t want to leave his mum. Rane was so proud of Kirby, and he boasted to everyone about how big his boy was and how cute he was too. Everyone was so happy about the birth of a child in the pack; any child born was a huge celebration of new life. Griffen had weaned off the wolfsbane and was now feeling the pack again.

He and Pet were taking it slow, building the trust again. This time, though, Griffen knew she wasn’t a child and she could protect herself, if she chose to. Pet didn’t stay in the house all the time, but she didn’t venture far. Until these last few weeks he hadn’t realized that Pet had pretty much gone from one prison to another, being cooped up in the house. At first, they started out slow, strolling up and down their street. After a week of doing that and no one attacking her, they started exploring the forest. They didn’t talk much, just enjoyed each other’s company. Griffen never let her go out on her own until the other week, and that was to the bush where he knew she could camouflage herself if she was in danger.

Today was their first walk on the beach. He held her hand at the entrance of the wooden planks down to the open beach. His heart raced, and his palms were sweaty. The beach was a central place for everyone. His pack loved the water, and he knew that the beach was usually the place where you’d run into most of the pack and some humans.

He squeezed Pet’s hand in his own and focused on the pack and felt a bunch of them close by. This would be the real test. Today it was just him and Pet. He didn’t have his family to help if any trouble came their way. The beach was different from the forest, because there wasn’t much for Pet to camouflage herself to and hide if she needed to. He had no idea if she could swim, but he doubted it, because he hadn’t taught her and she hadn’t been to the beach that he knew of.

Frowning, he narrowed his gaze as he looked down at Pet. “Can you swim?” He should know things like this, but the water and needing to swim had never come up before.

She shook her head. “No. I’ve had no need to.” She closed her eyes and her lips turned up, and her face seemed to glow for a moment before her eyes opened and their golden color flashed bright. “I’ve seen people swimming. You...” She went an array of colors before she took a deep breath and slowly let it out, settling back on the skin color closest to his. “...naked,” she whispered.

Huffing out a chuckle at her embarrassment, Griffen reminded himself that she was over two centuries old and ‘seeing’ him naked in a vision shouldn’t have her blushing. He was sure that quick loss of control was her form of blushing, or maybe it was ‘need’ when she remembered ‘seeing’ his naked form. Now that he knew she was an alien he had to work out all her meanings...er, tells; she wasn’t human and he was sure she would react differently.

“Did you like what you saw?”

There was no mistaking her meaning when she looked him up and down. “Yes. It is a vision I was happy to see over and over.”

She tugged on his hand and he knew she was done with his stalling, so they walked down to the beach. When they made it to the end of the wooden plank path she let out what could only be described as a contented sigh.

“It’s beautiful. I’ve seen beaches and oceans before, but I’ve never seen them, felt the sand, dirt, shells, and other forms of earth beneath my feet.” She turned to face him and beamed up at him. Her smile was so bright you’d have to be blind to miss it. “I want to learn to swim.” She sighed longingly.

“I’ll teach you.” Her bright smile had his heart soaring.

“I’d like that.” She nudged him. “Did you know that most of the worlds I’ve seen have had an ocean?”

She looked down for a moment, then turned back to watch the waves crash to the shore.

“Demons hate water. That’s one of the reasons why they left this world alone for so long. It has so much of it. Their planet has no water. Well, almost none, like ten percent. Demons don’t need water. They can stand small amounts though. They have to, because it’s how most of them travel, when the lightning hits the earth and creates the rips. There was a world that was advanced well beyond this one in science. They had figured out how to travel like what the demons were doing and built a device.” She started walking, but her gaze stayed locked on the ocean. “The demon king has their device.” She huffed and a big, fat tear slid down her cheek. “I was punished. It was the worst punishment.” She shook her head and started sobbing. “The demon king wanted the beings alive to make more of those machines so he could travel through the worlds. I was supposed to help.”

She covered her face, stopped walking, and dropped to the ground, her fingers sifting through the sand.

“I gave the wrong information and made sure the lower demons destroyed the world, killing all the beings that could make another device.” She gazed up at him through puffy eyes. “The demons aren’t smart enough to replicate the machine, but the demon king knew this world meant something to me, so he ordered us to come here. The beings...er, I mean humans and shifters...are smart, and I don’t know how long, but it will be soon, that he realizes that humans, shifters, and even beings like Bengie—half-breed demons—are smart enough, with the right tools, to replicate the machine to travel. I am the destroyer of worlds, but what you and the demons don’t know is that there are thousands upon thousands of worlds. With more machines the demons could reach them.”

She smiled, but it was a sad smile, and she stared out at the ocean.

“At the moment the demon king is only going to the worlds that the portals have previously opened. Your world, Earth, has four worlds that—when a storm hits and the rips occur—opens to it. But the worlds connected to you might not connect with the other three your world can. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Griffen nodded. His mind right now felt like it was about to explode. Holy shit. He knew demons came from another realm, or world, and that Pet had too, but to learn that there were thousands of worlds and how they connected was mind-blowing.

As he let it sink in he realized what this could mean. He needed to get this information out to all the leading members of the world. Governments needed to be notified, and scientist and potential people needed to be watched. It was important that the demons didn’t get people to build more of the machines.

Pet stood and patted his arm. “I can see the wheels turning in your brain. I think you, we, have time. You see, you—well, not you personally, but shifters—are something that the demons didn’t expect on this world. Demons are hard to kill, and the people on most planets don’t know how to do it.” She wrapped her arms around him. “You’re not from this world. Well, you are, but originally your species, shifters, came from a different world, one of the only ones I know of to defeat the demons. You’re a tough lot and hard to kill.”

With his mind about to explode, Griffen plonked down on the sand, speechless. “We’re aliens too?”

“Yes. I guess you originally were, but a long time has passed since the first shifter group came here.” Pet’s husky laugh reached his overflowing thoughts, and Griffen knew everything would be okay. It was his favorite sound, and it had soothing calmness flowing over him.

He knew in that moment that Pet needed to tell what he’d just learnt to all the shifter leaders around the world, and they all needed to work together. But for now, as Pet sat beside him and snuggled against him while they watched the waves crash to the shore, he needed time to think. Time to be at peace. Time with his amazing mate. Time that he was sure, thanks to his mate, they would have, because she’d given them information that no one else was aware of.

* * * *

The beach had been a success. Sure, some pack members had been on the beach, but they’d kept away and he hadn’t felt any hostility sent Pet’s way. They’d spent the afternoon on the beach, soaking in the sun, and he’d promised he would teach Pet how to swim, setting aside an hour or so a day. The excitement she’d showed at something he took for granted, like knowing how to swim, was contagious.

He’d been on a happy buzz ever since, even when he got home and called his brother to organize a meeting of the world alphas together to discuss all the new information he’d learned. Technology was great; Pet may not like it, but it came in handy when you needed to get a whole group together but they were scattered all around the world.

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