Page 91 of Griffin Undone
This was my future. This wasalone, without Arik. This would be my forever.
This was only ever going to be temporary, Kat.
Of course it was. And I really shouldn’t have expected anything different.
ChapterThirty-Nine
Kat
“Ishould’ve left you back at the lair,” Arik said for the third time as I followed him along the snow-dusted, darkened streets.
“You could’ve tried.” We both knew locks wouldn’t keep me in any longer. Of course, it didn’t hurt that I’d threatened to cut his balls off with a rusty knife if he left me at home. Apparently in the aftermath of the spectacular emotional breakdown I’d had in my bathroom, a new Kat had risen. One who was tired of taking everyone else’s crap. If my fate was going to be decided, I was going to be there. No one would make decisions for me anymore.
I’d spent my life being handed from one person to another, being passed off because I was too much of a burden, too unlovable. My own mother had committed suicide, not even bothering to make arrangements for her preschool child before leaving me to the cold, brutal world alone. I was done. No more. Would I go with Sun? I didn’t know. But if anyone was going to decide, it would be me—not Arik, not Sun, and not anyone else. I’d blast them all to hell if I had to.
“Don’t forget, stay behind me at all times.”
I rolled my eyes at his back. “Yes, Master. What’s next? Strip me down, change form, and pee on me before we go in?” I bet lions marked their territory every bit as thoroughly as a tomcat did.
Arik sent a concerned look over his shoulder. “Do you think I need to?”
I stumbled at the question. Arik cracked up. It was the first sign of levity I’d seen since he came home to the total devastation of my bathroom and the multitude of shallow scratches in my skin. Still, I was in no mood for it. His laughter turned abruptly to a snarl when I used a small push of power to shove him away from me.
“Watch it, Kitty Kat.”
“I am.” He was lucky I hadn’t used far more power. He ought to know that; he’d seen my job on the mirror. At least with no threats, walking on a quiet street on the way to meet Sun, the lack of danger allowed me some control.
At least when I didn’t think about where we were headed. I tried hard to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and breathing, but the truth was, beneath the sarcasm my gut churned, determination and fear vying for supremacy. Sun would be there. Would Grim come? Who else? I knew Sun wouldn’t be alone, and the thought of meeting other Archai for the first time scared me spitless. Would Sun bring any females, and were they anything like me? The questions jumbled and twisted and flipped in my mind until hyperventilating seemed like a great option. Except I wouldn’t give Arik the satisfaction of seeing that I was afraid.
The sudden lock of Arik’s fingers around my wrist, soft but secure enough that I couldn’t jerk away, forced me to halt—body and mind. Looking up into Arik’s eyes, I quirked a brow.
He didn’t respond in kind. Instead a hand came up, chilly in the cold air, to stroke along my cheek. His thumb traced a long, shallow cut slashing across my jaw. It was the first time he’d touched me intimately since the kiss in the office, and even knowing I shouldn’t respond, I soaked it in. Soaked him in.
It was too dark—and Arik was too good at closing himself off—to read his expression, but inch by inch, he bent to place his lips on mine. I could get away, turn my head to the side, anything but wait.
I didn’t move. His tongue parted my lips and swirled against mine, soothed me, gentled me to his leading. Would this be the last time he kissed me, the last time I felt his body against mine? I literally felt my heart fracturing at just the thought. What would it be like when it actually happened?
God, what was I doing? It took a moment, firming my will, but finally, reluctantly I pulled away.
Arik didn’t speak for a moment, just stared down at me with that indiscernible look on his shadowed face. Then, “You have nothing to prove, Kat. You’re a miracle in their eyes, not a castoff.”
Archai females were rare compared to males, Arik had said. Valuable. I didn’t fool myself thatfemales are valuablemeantKat is valuable. I didn’t want to be valuable because I’d been born with all the requisite rare parts; I wanted to be loved for myself. Arik had proved that wasn’t possible.
I didn’t say any of that. I couldn’t bare another piece of my soul to him; at this rate I wouldn’t have any pieces left. And I didn’t want sympathy, not from him. Not from anyone.“Let’s go.”
One edge of Arik’s full mouth quirked into a cocky grin.“Okay, Kitty Kat.”
We kept walking. The drive into town hadn’t taken that long, but Arik had insisted on approaching the meetup on foot. The better to use his shifter senses, he said. The icy winter air froze my lungs with each breath in, and by the time we reached the meeting place, I was shaking with cold. The moon was obscured by the clouds, giving the area a spooky feel as we approached. How was it I’d never noticed so many abandoned warehouses, storefronts, barns—heck, any kind of building— in and around Nashville before? Did they have an Archai registry or something, a realtor that kept them rolling in likely lair and meeting locations? This time it was an old Western clothing store that looked like it had spent the last twenty years empty, hidden away from the main roads by a couple of high-rise, low-income apartment buildings. The dark wood siding was broken and littered along the weed-infested parking lot, adding to the ghost-town air the empty building held. Light wisps of snow blowing in the wind resembled fog, making me feel like I was waiting for an Old West shootout to begin at midnight.
Wait, that might actually happen.
“Arik…”
“I promise not to draw a revolver if you’ll promise to stay quiet and behind me,”he answered before I could ask. This was the second time he’d read my thoughts. I seemed to be spilling far too much along the connection I wasn’t certain had completely closed between us.
The knowledge sharpened my tongue all over again.“This isn’t the Archai equivalent of the speak-only-when-spoken-to housewife, is it?”I had no idea what the rules were.
“I think that’s children, Kitty Kat. Housewives are supposed to be barefoot and pregnant, remember?”
