Page 93 of Griffin Undone
“Stand down!” I heard Sun yell. “Back away.”
I thought the command was directed at me until the four warriors lowered their weapons and moved, two to each side, backing up step by step. Unable to focus on anything but Arik, I hastened forward. Grasping the chains buckled around his chest, I tugged futilely, tears pouring from my eyes. Arik’s hands settled over mine, cupping them to his chest, stilling their trembling efforts to free him. His lowered head tucked next to mine, his clasping knees at my hips, surrounding me as best he could.
Nerves and fear and confusion spilled over. I could hear shouting and noise, people and things moving somewhere behind me, but Arik was my sole concern. This close I could feel the violent rage gripping him, trembling through his body—his animal just beneath his skin. He lifted his head and stared over my shoulder, a promise of death in his glowing eyes. “Open it, Kat,” he demanded without looking at me.
The words were harsh, but his touch on my body was gentle, helping me calm enough to do as he asked. I placed my hands on the chains and focused, drawing my skill from my core down to my palms, and spoke one word: “Open.”
The chains fell away, and I found myself in Arik’s arms, being swept across the room in an instant.
Sun blocked the way out the door.
ChapterForty
Arik
“Move,” I snarled. A whisper in the back of my brain reminded me that sending Kat to the clan was what I’d intended, but everything in me revolted, desperate to fight the outcome I’d sought all along. I hadn’t wanted Kat taken from me by force. I would protect her with everything I had in me, for as long as I could. My heart pumped furiously, my griffin clawing to get out, my gaze never stopping as I watched the small group of shifters approach from all sides. “Move!”
“We had to know, Arik.” Sun’s mouth tightened into a firm line, his hands out in a calming gesture he could take straight with him to hell, which was exactly where he was going if he didn’t get away from that door in the next ten seconds.
The shifter Sun had called Azrael approached on my other side. I refused to answer Sun, my gaze on the deadly blond male approaching. There was something off about him, familiar, but I couldn’t figure out what, not with Kat in my arms, her belly to mine, her racing heart a distinct thud against my ribs. I could feel her small hands gripping big handfuls of the back of my shirt. Instinctively I turned toward the wall, uncaring that I exposed my back as long as the move provided some small measure of safety for Kat. With dozen-to-one odds, facing the threat wouldn’t help much anyway.
I inched us closer to the door, to Sun. “We’re leaving.”
“No, you’re not.” Sun nodded to the shifters now surrounding us, every one with a hand on a weapon. “You need us to fight Maddox. If not for you, then for your mate’s safety.”
My eyes narrowed, and I jerked around to face the prince.Mate.Of course they’d sensed it. I’d hoped to keep that secret hidden deep inside me, but the attack on Kat, the threat to her had brought my instincts straight to the fore.
I couldn’t keep myself from protesting. “No.”
I wasn’t protesting the fact that I needed the warriors’ help, and Sun knew it. So did everyone else in the room.
“Yes,” Azrael said behind me, and my breath froze in my aching chest. “You mated her. It was sensed the minute you came through that door. We had to know if it was true.”
A strange, almost wistful smile curved Sun’s lips. “And it is. She fights for you as hard as you fight for her. Your she-cat is aptly named.” The prince’s gaze flicked to Kat, a hint of pain swirling in their depths, then back to me. “Why? Why risk her?”
I love her, you bastard. Why do you think I’m trying to fix my damn mistake?“I have no intention of risking her. That’s why I’m here.” At one time, when I’d seen her as nothing but a weapon, I’d been more than happy to risk her. Now…
“But you don’t intend to keep her.” Basile this time. I really wished all these asshole busybodies would disappear.
Kat stirred in my arms. I pressed closer, surrounding her with my scent, my presence, my essence. Protecting her from harm—and from the truth, if only for a few minutes more.
Ignoring Basile’s accusation, I kept my focus on Sun. “You endangered my mate. How can I trust you at my back?” Even now I felt the hate-filled gazes of the warriors behind me.
“We were trying to protect her, to see what kind of damage had been done. We did not endanger her, not like you intend to.”
Kat stiffened in my arms; her head lifted from my chest. She’d definitely registered that sentence. “What?”
“I will not put my mate in danger!”
The words had no sooner exploded from my mouth than a choked sound from Kat dragged my attention to her. The pale skin of her face had gone sheet-white beneath the scratches and bruises. “‘My mate’?”
All I could do was stare down at her helplessly. Explanations wouldn’t help. Besides, there were plenty of shifters here eager to do it for me.
“Didn’t he tell you?” Sun asked.
But Kat didn’t look at the prince. Caught in her wide eyes, I couldn’t look away either. “I’m…I’m your mate?” Her voice quivered on the uprise.
The room held its breath, the silence unbroken until the sound of a booted foot scraping concrete echoed through the room. I turned toward the threat on instinct.
