Page 15

“I’m glad to see you back, Little Miss.” His voice is deep as his eyes crease with his smile.

Little Miss. It’s a nickname he came up with. He always called me that, and I never questioned it. Next to him, I look positively tiny.

“Thanks, Havier.”

“Lunch is served in the dining room.” Havier looks between Griffin and Erik before bowing deeply to the former, wordlessly.

Griffin nods at him lightly, but I don’t see any recognition in his eyes.

Erik stands up. “Let us talk over our meal, in that case.”

He leads us down a wide corridor toward the dining room, his shoes clicking softly against the gleaming marble floor. The hallways are so familiar to me, yet at the same time, I feel like an interloper.

When Erik opens the tall double doors to the dining room, I stop short.

The long oak table is covered in food. Roasted meats, platters of vegetables, baskets of warm bread, bowls of steaming soup. It smells like heaven, rich and buttery and so comforting that my knees nearly buckle.

“Come. Sit. Eat.” I catch Erik looking at his older brother, the corner of his mouth tensing, and I wonder if it’s because of how thin Griffin looks.

Griffin’s hand, warm and steady, finds the small of my back and nudges me gently forward. I let him guide me, too dazed by the sheer amount of food to speak.

We sit near the center of the table. Before I can even reach for a spoon, Griffin plucks one up and starts serving me.

“Griffin—” I protest weakly as he heaps a thick slice of roast onto my plate, then piles potatoes next to it like he’s been appointed my personal caretaker.

“You’re too thin,” he mutters, not looking at me.

Heat creeps up my neck. I catch Erik watching us with a spark of amusement in his sharp, gray eyes, but he says nothing—just raises a brow slightly.

I pick up my fork, feeling oddly self-conscious under Griffin’s quiet scrutiny. His knee brushes mine beneath the table. Not an accident this time.

Trying to focus, I spear a piece of potato and lift it to my mouth. It’s buttery, rich, and practically melts on my tongue. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now.

Erik leans back in his chair, eyeing me more seriously. “You said you wanted to talk to me.”

I swallow, the bite turning heavy in my throat.

“Yes.” I set my fork down carefully. “About the Silver Ring Organization. They’ve been working on something. A formula.”

Griffin’s hand stops in midair, a piece of bread halfway to my plate.

Before I continue, I grab his wrist, forcing the bread down to his own plate and glaring at him. “You need to serve yourself, too. You weren’t exactly being wined and dined there, either. Eat.”

“But you—”

“Eat,” I order, and he sighs, reluctantly picking a piece of roasted ham and putting it on his plate. I add a few slices of turkey bacon and catch him watching me.

“What?” I glower at him. “Only you are allowed to put food on my plate?”

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 to comfort 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.”

My heart does a funny little twist in my chest. I meet Griffin’s eyes—and the warmth there nearly knocks the air out of me. Protective. Stubborn. Possessive.

I glance down, feeling the heat in my face, but I don’t miss the way his foot slides along mine under the table, a slow, deliberate brush that leaves my skin buzzing.

Erik clears his throat pointedly, but there’s a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Alright,” he says, leaning forward again, serious once more. “We need to find out everything we can. Plans, prototypes, weaknesses. Before they finish whatever they’re building.”

I nod, feeling the weight of this settle on my shoulders. “We will,” I say.

Beside me, Griffin reaches up and gently tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers grazing my cheek in the softest, most possessive touch imaginable.

I go still.

“Your hair was getting in the way,” he says quietly.

If it were anyone else touching me, I would explode. I don’t like people touching me. Not so casually. But when Griffin does it, I feel grounded.

When did that start happening? When did I go from finding him untrustworthy and slightly dangerous to being a source of comfort?

Erik sits up in his chair, a thoughtful look shadowing his features as he cuts into a piece of rare meat. “Can either of you describe the place?”

Griffin wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, his plate nearly empty. He glances at me hesitantly before answering. “My memories are cloudy,” he says slowly. “There are pieces missing. Things they did to me—drugs, restraints. I don’t remember much about the facility itself.”

My heart breaks. I hate how easily he says it, like he has already buried the worst parts in order to be able to keep breathing.

“But I do,” I say quietly, setting my fork down.

Griffin’s gaze flicks to me, some of the weight lifting from his shoulders.

I shift in my seat, picking at the edge of my napkin.

“Not the exact layout, except for the parts of the building they had me working in, and the way from our cell to the exit. But the land surrounding it. The area.”

Erik’s attention sharpens, the whole room seeming to narrow down to just the three of us.

“It was private property. Definitely,” I continue, racking my brain.

“Probably ten acres, maybe more. There was an electric fence surrounding it. Remember? We jumped over it. It wasn’t a wild forest, either—it was.

..organized. Like someone designed it to look natural while hiding the security measures. ”

Griffin lets out a low hum, rubbing the back of his neck. “When we were running, I didn’t pay much attention. I was just focused on getting us out of there.”

“You ran fast,” I say with a small smile. “Really fast. I had to hide my face in your fur because I thought I would get whiplash.”

He gives me a serious look, impressed. “Because of you,” he says, putting a piece of bread on my plate. Again.

I shake my head in amusement and start picking at it.

“I gave him something,” I explain to Erik, who is watching us with the faintest hint of a smile.

“A vial of a liquid I created. It was designed to boost a shifter’s strength and speed for a short time.

I had been developing it here, and the formula was still in my head. ”

Griffin shakes his head. “It worked a little too well. I barely remember half the escape. Just moving. Fast.”

Erik taps his fork against his plate thoughtfully. “So, you’re estimating the facility was several days’ journey from here?”

Griffin shrugs. “Maybe. In human form, driving? Definitely a couple of days. In wolf form...Well, we pushed ourselves hard.”

Erik leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “But Griffin, you’re not exactly a baseline shifter.”

Griffin blinks at him, frowning slightly.

“You’re the heir to the throne. More than that—you’re the true king.” Erik’s voice is low, deliberate. “Your strength, stamina, and speed are naturally beyond those of any other wolf.”

Griffin sits back, silent. I feel the change in him—the discomfort, the weight of what Erik is saying.

“So what was two days to you”—Erik pauses, shrugging—“might actually be much farther away.”

The realization hangs heavy in the air.

I push the food around on my plate, my appetite fading. “Which means finding that place is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Erik’s jaw tightens. “Not impossible. Just harder.”

I try to picture the route we took. “There were landmarks. Hills, rivers...The air smelled different. Like wet iron.”

Griffin leans closer, interest sparking in his eyes. “You remember that?”

I nod, my heartbeat kicking up a notch. “Yeah. I remember thinking it didn’t smell like a forest near a city. It was rawer. Wilder. And silent. No traffic, no planes. Nothing.”

Erik’s lips press into a thin line. “That narrows it down. Somewhat.”

Griffin glances at him, a flicker of hope lighting up his expression. “You know places like that?”

Erik nods. “Old properties. Private estates abandoned after the last human war. Miles and miles of nothing. Some even off the official maps. But they’re all human-owned.”

I take a small bite of the bread Griffin piled onto my plate earlier, barely tasting it. “They chose it deliberately,” I say. “They didn’t want anyone stumbling onto their experiments.”

Griffin’s hand brushes mine again under the table, grounding me. I hold onto it like a lifeline.

“They didn’t want witnesses,” he says severely.

A shiver runs down my spine. I remember the way the chains holding him down looked, the way he was held prisoner, like he was nothing to them. The way his wolf snarled and thrashed, mindless with rage.

“We have to find it,” I say. “Before they finish the collar.”

Erik nods. “We will. Did you see any of the other kidnapped victims?”

I knew that many shifters had been kidnapped over the course of several years, Erik’s kingdom only having noticed these disappearances relatively recently, after one of the victims showed up. He was at death’s door.

“I was only allowed in two parts of the facility: the cell where I stayed with Griffin, and the lab. The lab had an attached bathroom I was allowed to use. I saw no sign of anybody else, but the facility looked huge when I finally saw it from the outside. If the kidnapped shifters are alive, they could very well be in there.”

“If you want to send people to look for the place, I’ll go with them,” Griffin offers.

“No!”

The word is out of my mouth before I can stop myself.

The two sets of eyes that land on me have me wilting in my chair. “I mean, you’ve barely recovered, and they were able to capture you once. What’s to stop them from doing it again?”

He looks insulted. “I wouldn’t be so foolish as to—”

“That’s not what I’m saying.” I don’t know why I’m still talking. “The palace is safe. Stay here. Recover.”

Before Griffin can reply, his brother intervenes. “I have to agree with Maya. But not for the same reasons. You’ve just returned. You need to take back the kingdom. I’ll go. Or, once you’re in better health, we can go together with a few squadrons. However, right now, you’re needed here.”

Griffin doesn’t look too pleased with the idea, but I am relieved. I can’t explain the feeling, but the idea of him going back there makes me sick to my stomach. Something about Cassian doesn’t sit right with me, and I don’t think Griffin should go head-to-head with him.

Not yet, at least. He’s not ready yet.