Page 37

Erik clears his throat. “Let’s focus on our own plates and get back to the matter at hand. This formula you mentioned, Maya—”

“They’ve nearly perfected it.” I turn my attention back to him. “It traps a shifter in their human form. Locks them there.”

Erik’s face hardens immediately, his entire posture going rigid. “That’s not possible.”

“It shouldn’t be.” I glance down at my hands, flexing my fingers as if doing so could shake off the cold knot forming in my stomach. “But they’re using both science and technology. Bioengineering. Nanotechnology. Things I don’t fully understand.”

Griffin sets a piece of bread on my plate. I blink at him, but he just gives me a look—eat—before he focuses on his own plate again.

“They’re also developing a new way to force a transformation,” I say. “They were using injections before. But now, they’re working on a collar. Something that will—”

Griffin straightens abruptly, tension radiating off him like a storm cloud. “A collar?” His voice is unrecognizable now.

I nod slowly. “To force the transformation whenever they want. From human to wolf. Maybe even to keep the shifter stuck.”

Erik’s expression turns grim. “That’s barbaric.”

Griffin’s gaze is distant now, focused somewhere beyond the room. His hand tightens into a fist on the table. “They put one on me,” he says suddenly.

My heart lurches. “What?” I whisper.

Griffin drags in a breath through his nose, like he’s pulling the memory up from a locked box he didn’t want to open.

“I don’t remember everything. It’s all rather hazy. But they collared me once. In my wolf form.” His voice is so calm that it terrifies me more than if he were shouting. “It’s not what made me stuck, though. Not in the way you’re describing. If anything, it made me even more aggressive. Stronger. Out of control. I broke it.”

Erik leans forward, every inch of him sharpened with focus. “Maybe the collar wasn’t meant only to trap you. It was meant to weaponize you.”

Griffin shrugs one shoulder stiffly, probably easier to do than admit what those bastards did to him.

I force myself to stay calm, to keep my voice steady. “I only saw the file for a few minutes. Cassian removed it before I could read more. But if Griffin remembers correctly, and given how dazed he was during captivity—” I glance at Griffin. His gaze is locked on mine, unreadable. A silent thread of connection hums between us. “They could be trying to control the wolf forms,” I finish. “Force shifters into a rage state. Turn them into weapons.”

Erik exhales sharply, rubbing a hand over his face. “Goddess! Why?”

I pick up my fork again just to have something to do with my hands. Griffin immediately shovels another piece of roast onto my plate like I’m about to wither away on the spot. I glare at him half-heartedly, and he nudges my knee under the table, daring me to fight him about it.

I take a bite, mostly because if I don’t, he’ll probably start feeding me himself.

“They’re organized. Strategic,” I say between bites. “They want control. Over everything, for some reason.”

Griffin’s expression darkens. His thumb brushes my leg again beneath the table, a subtle stroke that sends a shiver up my spine despite the grim conversation. I know he’s trying tocomfort me, but the reaction his touch elicits is the furthest thing from comfort.

“They could turn whole packs into weapons,” Erik mutters. “Send them after humans. Start a war.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I admit.

Erik pushes back in his chair slightly, arms folded, face stormy. “And if they control the wolf’s mind—”

“They control the person,” Griffin finishes ominously.

Silence falls over the table, heavy and suffocating.

I push my half-eaten plate away, my appetite gone. Griffin immediately pulls it back toward me and drops a buttered roll on it like that will fix everything.

I can’t help it—I laugh, a breathless, incredulous sound. Erik chuckles, too, the tension in the room breaking just slightly.

“She’s not going to waste away, Griffin,” Erik says, shaking his head.

Griffin grunts. “She might.”