AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Urging myself to keep going despite it not being my strongest skill, I recited the enchantment with my eyes closed while I held the bowl. My power seeped from my palms and into the water.
When I opened my eyes, small ripples ran across the surface—a sign that it was indeed enchanted.
That part was easy enough, but I pulled in a deep breath in anticipation for the second half.
Peering into the water, I tried to look for any sort of message. I imagined words appearing in black ink, solid enough to be seen through the liquid.
Colors began shimmering within the water, and I hoped, at the very least, it would show some sort of image to give away what Willow was sending out to us. Anything would be helpful at that point.
Squinting as if it would help me see better, I couldn’t decipher what the bowl was doing. Those faint colors swirled until they formed a general shape, and the shading and highlight came into focus.
It certainly wasn’t a sentence or even a word for that matter.
Furrowing my brows, I waited for that image to come through clear enough for me to understand it.
The moment I realized what it was, I froze in my place.
Griffin.
A portrait of him looked back at me as the water rippled carefully.
Like a premonition, I saw flashes of him. Of us.
Bickering from our front porches, sneaking looks at each other from across the Roadbar, and dancing while he asked me if I’d pretend to be his girlfriend. Us both naked as the day we were born, limbs tangled in bed. The flash of our happy smiles, both in memory, and future ones to look forward to.
Like a veil had been lifted, that instantaneous, suffocating realization made me stop in my tracks.
That connection we shared wasn’t a coincidence. I had been drawn to him for a reason, even if the intensity wasn’t what I had expected from something divine.
Griffin was my fated mate, and I had no doubt about it.
Everything made sense at once.
My reluctance to give him up was rooted in that bond, along with my feelings for him. I had never wanted anyone as badly as I wanted him, and I knew exactly why then.
My friends in relationships with their mates always described it as this surge of positive energy and power, and an undeniable attraction they couldn’t shake. They were so madly in love with the other person that they’d go nearly feral for them. They would use their life to protect them.
Blinking through my haze, it clicked why Griffin had been so over the top about his hatred for Noah.
His wolf knew to try and defend me for himself, whether Griffin knew it or not. He felt the bond had been threatened by someone else, and he meant to reserve me for himself.
He wasn’t just being a hot-headed shifter. He was looking out for our connection.
“And time! Anyone who didn’t see the message is unfortunately disqualified. You all put in great effort,” Willow announced, immediately shattering my focus.
With my blank piece of paper next to me, I lost the exercise. But it didn’t matter to me then, not while it was abundantly clear Griffin was my mate.
I once swore to myself I wouldn’t care about fated mates. I swore off dating and finding love because I had been heartbroken by it before.
But I knew those feelings I had for Griffin couldn’t be ignored any longer.
Chapter 26 - Griffin
The events were a breeze for me, and I almost started feeling sorry for the other guys. I was beginning to think Rowan knew I’d outmatch them and that he was preparing me for an easy win.
After midday, the smaller skill-testing events had wrapped, and the main show was about to start.
Many of the participants who had been disqualified from their events, along with the announced winners from the other categories, were gathered in the bleachers behind the main sparring ring.
